Saturday morning doing laundry randomocity

The plan for the weekend:

• Laundry (in progress)
• rewrite The Sorcerer's Daughter (pending)
• write The Sorcerer's Daughter (pending)
• reread a screenplay I wrote a while back in preparation for notes for a rewrite

I may work in some drawing and painting, too. Right now I'm having problems getting interested in that for some reason. I'm constantly looking for subjects for a picture but haven't had much luck. Fortunately, it's spring, which means there are about to be tons of flowers and trees blooming all over the place.

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for flowers and blossoms and all that. There's a magnolia tree right behind my apartment--as soon as it blooms I'm gonna sneak out there and snip off a couple of limbs to photograph and paint. If I get motivated enough I'll do the same thing to some dogwoods if I can find any close by and convenient.

Or I may just do something abstract with paint. I have an idea for something that's more of an exercise but may produce an interesting painting when it's done. I really enjoy the process of painting, so I'm sure I'll find something to put down on that canvas board I've got primed and ready.

I watched the pilot episode of "Hannibal" on NBC, finally, and thought I'd share my thoughts on it. Please bear in mind when you read the below that I've read and love the books by Thomas Harris, and enjoyed the movies, too--which would be Manhunter, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Red Dragon, and Hannibal Rising. So, I'm familiar with the characters, both in their cinematic and their literary contexts.

• I'm sort of iffy of their interpretation of the Will Graham character. I'm sure it's because I really liked Will Peterson's interpretation of the same character in the film Manhunter--I always thought he nailed it--but still, it was kind of interesting. I'm willing to go along with it, at least for now.
• I love Anthony Hopkins's performance as Lecter in the movies but the accent always bothered me. Lecter was Lithuanian, not British, and they didn't forget that in the TV show for once.
• A serious effort was made to get the technical dialog correct, and that goes a very long way with me. It looks like the writers still don't have a clear understanding as to how a serial killer's mind works, but they appear to be trying. That also goes a very long way with me.
• The writing was very good--there was humor, some of it very dark, but none of the wink, wink, nudge, nudge kind that makes me crazy. They took the material very seriously, instead of treating it as exploitation.
• The production--lighting, editing, etc.--was first rate. It's very easy to watch, visually, and flows naturally. It's easy to get drawn into the world in the show.

This was a pilot episode--it's very hard to judge the quality of a show from the very first episode. Chances are good that the writers, producers, directors, and actors don't know each other very well, and don't know what their strengths and weaknesses are yet. It's when they all start figuring that sort of thing out when the really good stuff starts happening.

Though this was good enough to keep me watching, at least for a few more episodes. Probably even more.

Did you watch Hannibal? What did you think?