It's been kind of a rough week

There's very little more depressing than discovering that one's heroes are mortal after all.

Two people I've admired for years, and who are at the heart of many a good memory in a long and dark time for me, have died this week.

One is Christopher Lee. Seeing his movies when I was a kid made quite an impression on me, and led me down the path I've been following ever since. He awakened a love of horror in me, one that is still strong and healthy to this day. I didn't know until years later about the incredible life the man lived. Look it up, if you're unaware. You wouldn't believe me if I went into it here and if you hadn't heard already.

The other is Dusty Rhoades. Yes, that Dusty Rhoades, the pro wrestler, real name Virgil Runnels. Yes, there was a time when I was a devoted wrestling fan, and Dusty--aka The American Dream--was at the heart of a lot of fun memories I have from that time. I know people disparage wrestlers, but I have a lot of respect for the ones who reach the top of that game and stay there for a prolonged period. That requires a strange mixture of charisma, verbal skills, and athletic ability.

Granted, the Dream wasn't an impressive athlete, but he was a master at manipulating crowds. Give him a microphone and an audience and he'll have that audience doing whatever he wants them to do. If he'd ever gone into politics he'd be a force to be reckoned with. He had a way of connecting with ordinary people, a way of communicating that he understood the struggles the common people have to go through to live their lives.

And he was all too aware of how people perceived him, and used that for some of the funniest moments I've ever seen on TV.

Anyway, one of those men dying, followed quickly by the other, was a one-two punch that I wasn't ready for this week, and I've been kind of down in the dumps for a few days. Of course, there are other factors at play, too, but you don't care about those.

I've managed to keep banging away on the first draft of this novel, too. I may be onto something with it--there are aspects that I find very interesting. At this rate I should be done with the first draft by the end of the year. Maybe even sooner, if I get on a roll.

Yeah, I'm digging Netflix now

I've been binge watching a new show on Netflix--Sense8. From the minds of J. Michael Stryznski, and the Wachowskis--and if you don't know who those people are, search IMDB.com and come back afterwards.

It's a fairly new phenomenon--it's a show that's designed to be binge watched. There's no way something like this would work in a one-episode-a-week format. I'm not saying you need to sit and watch the entire thing in one sitting, but I do advise you do three or four episodes per session.

For a long time I resisted getting Netflix. I didn't think I'd ever watch it, and, to be honest, I don't as much as other people I know. But there are shows there that aren't available anywhere else, and there are vast wastelands of nothing on regular cable TV, so it helps.

Anyways, should you feel intrigued, one caveat--you need to watch this show. You can't just have it on and sort of check in on it every so often while you do something else. If you do that you'll be completely confused.

Also, there is this moment in episode four that is the epitome of excellence in scriptwriting. All I'll say is it involves the Four Non-Blondes song, "What's Going On?" It was perfection. It literally and figuratively hit all the right notes. If you haven't been paying attention you won't Get It.

I'm sorry, but stuff like that, artistic perfection, makes me giddy.

As far as my own work is concerned, I've decided to adapt a screenplay I wrote a while back into novel form. This was the very first screenplay I ever wrote and it never quite worked--now that it's sort of laid there in my subconscious for a while, marinating in my life experiences and hopes and nightmares, I'm hoping it now has aged into a certain piquancy. We shall see. I just started it so it'll be awhile before enough of it emerges so I can decide if I'm just wasting my time with it (again) or if I have something this time.

So, that's what's going on with me. You?