We'll Carry On

There it is. Do you feel it? Yes. A new year is coming upon us. About damn time, if you ask me. I know I'm not alone in saying 2014 has overstayed its welcome, but nobody ever really seems to explain their reasoning behind hating the latest year. In fact, isn't it every year we say how much the year sucked and how we can't wait for the next one, which, if we're following the pattern here, will also suck? That's a lot of sucking going on, and not the kind I usually prefer.

You guessed it.

Honestly though, 2014 was a giant suck cake filled with suck filling. It was a year defined by losing planes, well-liked celebrity deaths, and gender and race inequality just to add some flavor. Hell, even without personal problems that's already a bad year. But I'm not that lucky, and neither were you probably.

It certainly wasn't an easy one, what with losing a family member, a close friend being diagnosed with an illness, myself being diagnosed with depression and losing an important friendship, the losses seem to outweigh the gains.

Not that there wasn't good, too. I moved to Brooklyn and am having the time of my life. Getting acting jobs is tough but not impossible. Besides, it feels better to be rejected because you weren't right for the part rather than because of some bullshit community theatre drama. Also, you should all keep an ear open for the release date of the upcoming The Lennon Report and keep an eye out for a familiar-looking reporter in one or two scenes.

I'm not saying I'm the reporter or anything...

It's alright I guess. I mean in the past two months I've chilled with Richard Kind and David Zayas, hugged Neil Gaiman and did crew work on a show starring Kal Penn, like typical adult stuff. In all seriousness though I'm not saying all of that didn't require a lot of work. I mean, I had to wait in line for Neil Gaiman, guys, and it was cold out. Like so cold he wouldn't stop tweeting about it. Pussy.

You'd think he'd prefer the cold.

So though the rest of this year sucked eggs, I see it as a good thing I made my move near the end of it. Because now I'm relatively settled in my new home with a bit of a handle on how I want to proceed in life. So when I'm back in the city come 2015 I'll be ready to hit the ground running with Tyler's Life 2.0.

Now featuring more D&D.

So while a world of hurt hit me as well this year, there was enough good near the end of it to be able to say "fuck it" and look forward, and come this time next year we'll all be anxiously waiting for 2016 because 2015 was a load of crap. That's how we do it every year, and that's why we're still here, because no matter how bad things can get, at the end of the day we're looking forward, anxious to see what's next.

Keeping it short this time,

Tyler


P.S. "Showtime" is no longer my favorite time

Over the Hills and Far Away

Hellu all!

There has been a slight change in my life as of my last posting, and that change is that I now live in Brooklyn, NY.

                                                                            Here.

If you don't count me moving into a dorm in Buffalo -- and why the fuck would you? -- this is also my first time living on my own in a new city. Like really living. Paying rent, not having a dining hall option, actually NEEDING a job, which I only sorta-kinda do right now. It's freelance. And it hasn't started yet. But it WILL be an income. Someday.

Alack, I digress, loyal readers. I have only been a Brooklynite for nearly two weeks, but honestly it feels like it's been longer, in the best possible way. I'm sure that has something to do with the fact I'm not living in Manhattan and that I don't have shitty roommates (give yourselves a pat on the back for not sucking, Garrett and Steph). The only drawback so far is that...well, I don't want to sound intolerant, but there's a certain type of...person...that makes up a large part of the local population that I just can't help but feel a little uncomfortable around. I'm sure you guys have figured out what kind of person I'm referring to.

                                                                                       In their natural state.

Brooklyn feels like home already, though, and I am very happy with my decision to move. I even feel that perhaps I'm moving too fast into this new chapter of my life. I mean, I've already accomplished the following:

• Killed my first roach
• Attended multiple show auditions
• Possibly ruined a friendship from back home
• And gave money to a subway performer

So I've hit the ground running, as it were, especially in the auditions area. I've been going to at least two a week so far, which is a lot more tiring than you'd imagine. However, it is also a lot less soul crushing than you'd imagine as well. Back home if I didn't get cast in something it was like, "Shit, what am I supposed to do for the next two months?" Here it's more, "Meh, I've got another shot tomorrow." Also, people at auditions are a lot nicer here than in community theatre, both the people auditioning and the casting directors. Go figure, huh?

                                                                                      "Thank you for trying."

But that's all big city business, I try and avoid Manhattan unless I have a specific destination in mind. In Brooklyn I have pretty much everything I could need within walking distance. And by that I mean there are lots of pubs and cafes, and these cafes love to play Sigur Rós and David Bowie on their radios. And by radios I mean it's probably just a Spotify playlist. That's just how they roll here, I guess.

However, all of this wonder and awe cannot come without it's drawbacks, but they are few and far between, aka "white people problems." For instance, we have noisy upstairs neighbors whose kid runs back and forth all day long. We can't control whether the heat comes on in our apartment or not, and when it does it tends to go for hours and when it's not needed. Another upstairs neighbor owns a washer and floods our kitchen sink with detergent water occasionally. Every once in a while someone will blare music from somewhere in the building. The hot water knob in the shower gets hot when it runs and gives you a Joe Pesci in "Home Alone" moment if you grab it.

I know what you're thinking: "Tyler, how can you take it?"

*Shrugs* It could be worse in like 1,000 other ways.

Oh, and there's no dishwasher.

Oh grow up.

So since those problems barely associate as problems, my only concern is with how many people still ride skateboards around here. But I've had to put up with worse.

Don't get me wrong, friends and family and cats (so friends, again) from back home, I still love you all and miss you, but this move for me is one of the best things I could've done for myself and just about the ONLY life decision I've made that I've been happy with. Now don't become strangers to me when I come back to visit so you all have my number and Facebook. If you'd like to mail me something message or text me for my address. I've already received one excellent piece of mail which included a heartwarming message and this lovely photo from my past:

I hope to be able to post a little more frequently now but when have I ever come through on that promise? So I'll post when I post and I hope you all read when you read. You're all what keeps me writing, so thank you for that.

Until the next post, loyal readers!

To the end of time,

Tyler

P.S. "Showtime" on the subway is one of my favorite times.

I'd Say Your Worst Side's Your Best Side

Hello all again! It's been a while, but then again I have a life. That life includes seeing an amazing concert over the weekend performed by Within Temptation and a fantastic opening act called Amaranthe.

Not to mention I just purchased VIP tickets for a meet-and-greet with Nightwish before their next show in New York, with Delain (also awesome) opening for them my god this is gonna be a great year!

No no no don't worry, I'm not suddenly gonna start dropping happy bombs on you all just because these cool things are happening. Have you forgotten what kind of blog you're reading? Because we're about to delve into some serious, serious shit.

Let me start with myself as an example for this topic. Yeah, that concert kicked ass, and meeting my favorite band of all time which also features my favorite singer of all time will probably be the best night of my life, but that's not gonna just make me suddenly drop all of my bitterness and cynicism and end my recurring depression (actually diagnosed this time, don't you fret). You know why? Because that's not the person my own personal world has formed me into. I'm like a golem of loneliness and neglect. However, I have a good side as well, and people tend to like that good side. More importantly though, my closest friends can tolerate and understand when my less good side shows its only-slightly-less-handsome face. So as long as I have those people around me I don't have to worry about keeping old bitter pants locked in the cellar and can let him out when I need to without judgment.

So why don't more people realize this? I'm not saying to allow your worst side to take over, I'm just saying there's a way to let it out for a breath or two while still keeping your better self in control. Repressing is probably the worst exercise anyone can practice because, to use a metaphor, you're going to have to change the garbage bag sometime. Pick up your phone and call or text a close friend and just let yourself be a sad, angry and pathetic piece of shit, just for a bit. Because the longer you hold that part of you in, the faker your outward appearance starts to appear. Cracks show, and your friends are the first to see them.

Let's take another example, a TV example. In season 4 of The Walking Dead Philip Blake (aka The Governor) had just had another one of his murderous blackouts and ended up annihilating his entire group, and the ones who survived wisely abandoned him in the middle of the night. Philip puts on a sad face and grows an even sadder beard and wanders the countryside for a while before he meets a family with a little girl who makes his heart grow ten sizes bigger. He changes his name to Brian and sets about becoming a new man. It seems to work for a while and we all thought the Governor had changed after all.

                                                            One step closer to full pirate. 


Psych, his return to evil surprised no one. They join a larger group and Brian begins to murder his way to the position of leader in order to better protect his new surrogate family before organizing a strike to take the good guys' prison fortress. Brian's efforts to protect his loved ones might seem genuine in the beginning, but him rediscovering his taste for murder also reignites his buried hatred for the show's heroes, and in the end the prison attack is more about personal vengeance than to help others. This is evident when Brian witnesses the death of his surrogate daughter and utters the chilling line "Kill 'em all" before launching a full on siege of the prison. You see, Philip couldn't just become Brian, he only repressed the man that Philip was. Brian was a lie, a well-intentioned lie, but false nonetheless.

Now I'm not saying the Governor shouldn't have even tried to change, I'm saying he went about it the wrong way. He tried to ignore Philip, but like most people when they know they're being ignored, Philip continued to egg him on internally. The crazy, murderous and power-hungry man inside him was waiting to come back out, and the minute that Brian had a moment of uncertainty, Philip struck hard. With a golf club. You can't just forget the worst part of yourself, you have to acknowledge that it's there and accept that it may always be there, and only then can you control it. If Philip had approached his new friends with "Hi my name is Philip, I killed a bunch of innocent people but I wanna be good now," who knows what would've happened? For the show's sake though, I'm glad everything happened how it did because that was fucking awesome.

Another case of buried identity comes from another favorite television show, Boardwalk Empire. Nelson Van Alden (played by Michael Shannon) began the series as an agent working for the Bureau of Prohibition and a deeply religious man. By the end of season 1 he was a murderer, and at the second season's end he was on the run for said murder and shooting another agent to escape. He changes his name to George Mueller, marries his illegitimate daughter's nanny, and relocates to Cicero, NY, where to make ends meet he resorts to selling vodka, the very crime he formerly worked to stop. Through various bumbling happenstances Van Alden winds up in the employ of Al Capone himself and about as far from his former self as one can possibly get. While at times hilarious, seeing the meek and impotent clown the once stern detective had become was quite tragic. Van Alden hated every day of his new life with an antagonistic wife at home, children who simply annoyed him, and a boss who he despised and wished to shoot in the back. He suppressed his frustration and his values, though, in order to survive in his new environment. Hell, for three seasons us viewers even began referring to him as "Mueller," almost forgetting his real name. This all came to a head in a recent episode though where, when caught in the act of trying to inform on Capone and with no conceivable way out, Mueller attacks his boss and grabs him around the throat, exclaiming his birth name and swearing heavenly justice upon the crime boss before a bullet to the head silences him forever.

                                  HBO realized there were too many "Michaels" in the cast and cleaned house.

Van Alden turned to crime in order to keep himself alive, but in the end it was his inner calling to stop crime that lead to his death. Because that's who he was, what he was good at. Frankly he made a terrible gangster, but when he revealed his real name and who he was to Capone he was back on top, however momentarily.

So there you have it. Repress those negative feelings too well and they will come exploding out of you at exactly the wrong moment. Both of those characters got shot in the head, and so will you if you don't cut that shit out. If you need an example of this done right, look no further than the character Susannah Dean in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Susannah started out the series with dual personalities; sweet and kind Odetta Holmes and crude and nasty Detta Walker. The character Eddie falls in love with Odetta, however, Detta comes out and nearly kills him and ruins his and Roland's entire quest to find the Tower. In a last ditch effort to stop her, Roland the gunslinger, possessing another man in another world, tricks Detta into looking through the doorway portal just as Roland is looking at an alternate version of Odetta. When Detta lays eyes upon her other self, it has an effect where the two personalities merge, the newly formed person attaining the strongest traits of both of them. The new and improved "Susannah" (donning the middle name of both personalities) is now kind and caring while also brave and vicious in battle. Sounds like a pretty great end result, doesn't it? Well that can be you if you just stop ignoring what's there inside you and find a way to work with it and not so much against it.

                                     Even in a wheelchair she's the Hermione of the group (aka most useful).

Again, I'm not saying to let yourself be a dick, but acknowledge that there's a dick inside you (phrasing?) that needs to breathe once in a while. Let the asshole vent for a little at a time and it'll be willing to go back into hiding for a while and let you get on with your life. If you're friends and loved ones can't bear to see you like that once in a while, well, jesus, what a bunch of assholes. Get new friends. I'll be your friend. Do you like symphonic metal music?

Whoops I'm out of time. So I hope you all learned something today and hope you keep coming back for more.

Have a good 'n,

Tyler

P.S. I'll have an announcement soon enough, stay tuned.

I Will See You Again...But Not Yet

I caught the last hour of one of my favorite films -- Cloud Atlas -- on TV the other night, and dammit if I didn't get emotional again like I do every time I watch it. There's no explaining it and I couldn't describe to you why this movie affects me in mere words. Or even song. It's just something that you feel and you know it's there, like somebody opening their arms to embrace you and telling you it's okay to let it all go.

                                                While I have you, you should all watch The Leftovers on HBO.

One scene in particular gets to me from the film, the part near the end where Sonmi~451 is explaining to an Archivist that she envisions heaven as a door opening and her dead lover Hae-Joo walking through it, and as she narrates this the film cuts to the character Adam Ewing opening a door and seeing his lover Tilda, both of whom are Sonmi and Hae-Joo in former lives. And I just lose it.

The entire film is about people crossing each others' paths in one way or another over and over again through different lives and in different worlds. It paints a rather beautiful picture that everybody we come across in our life is bound to us and us to them for eternity, and at the end of each life we will meet again in the next. That girl you were too nervous to ask out? You may be married to her in another life. That friend who you've lost touch with? The two of you will battle aliens together side by side in a future lifetime. You know, probably.

It's neat to imagine that there's more to it after we die, like how some people believe in a heaven or a torturous afterlife of haunting houses. I like the idea that the end of every life starts a "do-over" in a later time. After all I think we can all agree that one lifetime just doesn't seem like enough to tap the full potential we all have inside of us, even though they somehow expect us to do that in four years of college.

Even if there isn't an eternity of reincarnation like that, it's still a comfort to know that our lives mean something in the grand scheme of things. I like watching movies and reading books where every single character has a purpose, and by "purpose" I don't mean comic relief or the fat one. A great writer, for film or for books, brings in other characters as they are needed to fulfill something the main character can't do alone. Once that something is complete, the character can either walk away or get horribly and unfairly killed (the latter seems the most popular these days). Still, that person did something before disappearing forever. No one else could come in and do that instead, it was a purpose designed solely for him or her. That's what I like to believe we are to this world.

                                                            Agent Smith gets it.

Because author David Mitchell isn't a prophet from the heavens as far as I know, I'm open to the idea that the Cloud Atlas thing isn't the end all explanation of the mysteries of life. Still, we as a species like to believe that our lives are being carefully planned by someone far more patient and with much better decision-making skills up above. Every bad thing that happens to us is a lesson, every wound makes us tougher, every Andrea means we won't get another Andrea.

                                             I'm glad you're dead. We're all glad you're dead.

However, with hope also comes the possibility of no hope. Maybe this is it, these 80 or so years, and that's only if you don't get bumped off between then and now. What if there is no purpose or plan for us? That job interview you blew? You might blow the next one and the next one too without getting any better at it. That relationship that didn't work out? What if it's just the first of many more to come? Every failure could just be another failure with nothing to take away from it. When a tree falls in a forest without anyone to hear it, it makes a sound whether you're there or not. Maybe shit just happens and doesn't stop to think about what will happen next.

Of course that's all bullshit because we live in a world where this happened:

                                    It's like a Doctor Who/Walking Dead/musical theatre fan fiction.

Someone had that idea, and someone else agreed to pay that person to film it, and now it's ours. So no matter what life throws at you or how big your eyes get for that bottle of sleeping pills, take solace in knowing that the entertainment industry will be there when God isn't.

Which brings me back to the beginning...somehow. This worked out nicely for this blog post. Gives it a nice circular fee--anyways, that brings us back to Cloud Atlas. One of the many, MANY themes of that movie is that our lives are not just for ourselves and that we affect others and they affect us, and this cycle does not stop at death but continues on into another life. I mean, Ben Whishaw's character (well, one of his characters) kills himself with the comfort that he will meet his lover again in "another world...a better world." That or he was quoting Morrissey.

If you've watched Lost, remember that scene in season 4 where we first see Daniel Faraday and he's watching that news report about Oceanic 815 and he starts crying? When his caretaker asks what's wrong, he replies, "I don't know." Daniel really doesn't know at the time but in his heart he's still sad. He just can't remember why because his mind has been fucked up by his many time travel experiments. Sometimes you hear a song that just gets to you even though the lyrics may not be relative, but for some reason it means something to you. Sometimes we meet people we either feel like we've met before or feel already connected to. Some people abuse that belief by using it as a pickup line but nevertheless it is a feeling I know you've had too.

That's Cloud Atlas in a nutshell, that whole feeling I just described. It's like deja vu but stronger. I think the reason I feel such a connection to this movie is because it gives me comfort that maybe that deja vu is more than just a feeling. If this means that I'll get to see the people I love again in future lifetimes and meet them all over again, that's quite a comforting feeling.

See you then,

Tyler


P.S. Who wants to see Guardians of the Galaxy with me?

Get Off My Plane!

In movies, television, and literature, there are great and complex villains who are every bit as interesting and sympathetic as the story's hero. Then there are the ones who are just plain shitty people, and when they get their comeuppance it gets a big "HELL YEAH" from we, the people.

Here are my five favorite instances of this:

5. Mrs. Carmody (The Mist)

The Mist, based on Stephen King's long-short story, concerns a group of townspeople trapped in a grocery store when a mysterious mist envelopes the town and brings deadly, flesh-eating monsters with it. One of these people is Mrs. Carmody, a heavily religious woman who immediately sees the catastrophe as the beginning of the apocalypse and that only the righteous will be saved while the evil are devoured by giant squids and spiders. You know, just like the bible says. Mrs. Carmody is instantly insufferable as she spouts religious warnings and begins to form an ever-growing group of followers who see her as a savior and bend to her will, no matter how crazy. Just how crazy, you ask? BATSHIT. Every time someone is injured doing something brave and heroic, she claims it's god's will. When a soldier explains the possible origin of the mist, she has her followers beat him and stab him and throw him outside to the monsters as a sacrifice. Her next sacrifice she decides will be the hero's 8 year-old son and when she sics her mob on them she is suddenly shot in the torso. Then a second time, in the MOTHERFUCKING HEAD!!! By none other than Dobbie the house elf!

                                                                   The face of heroism. 

People in the theater cheered and applauded when Carmody bit it and her killer suddenly became the audience's favorite character. At least, until he eats it too within the next two minutes. But TAKE THAT YOU OLD BAG!!! HELL YEAH!!!

4. Zachariah (Supernatural)

Seasons 4-5 of Supernatural involved the Winchester brothers trying to do more important stuff while the angels of heaven were just being dicks, and none of them was a bigger dick than Zachariah. I mean, just look at him. Look at that face. First he allows Lucifer to be set free so that the apocalypse can actually happen just so heaven can say they stopped the devil. Then he tortures Sam to get Dean to let the angel Michael possess his body - and by torture I mean he makes Sam's lungs disappear and gives Dean cancer. When the brothers are killed (temporarily) and sent to heaven, the asshole chases them around there too, not even letting them rest in peace. Every time the brothers tried to get something done Zachariah's dick face popped up to taunt them and make sarcastic remarks. Then finally in one episode, THIS HAPPENED:

                                                                   FUCK YEAH!!!

Dean stabbed an angel blade RIGHT THROUGH HIS MOTHERFUCKING HEAD!!! Aw yeah dawg! Right up through the mouth! We had to put up with 2 WHOLE SEASONS of this douchebag! Granted, Zachariah was, in all senses, a neat villain. But DAMN did it feel good to see him go! HELL YEAH!!!
                          
3. Karl Tanner (Game of Thrones)

Now I know there was a certain other death in Season 4 we all enjoyed, but as far as overall satisfaction with said demise this one just moreso met my needs.
The most recent of these deaths - occurring just this past Sunday - was that of Karl Tanner, the self-titled "Legend of Gin Alley." We first saw him in Season 3 when he led the Night's Watch into mutiny by murdering their host Craster and inciting a brawl that left their Lord Commander dead. Karl stepped into the leader role of his fellow mutineers and took over Craster's Keep, claiming the food, shelter, and the dead man's many wives/daughters (yes, they were the same. I know, ew) for his and his men's own vile purposes. Yeah, THAT. Karl was a braggart and an awful excuse for a human being. The first time we see him in Season 4 he is drinking wine out of the skull of his former commander, who we all liked. Then he captures other people we like and implies he's going to rape poor Meera, and he comes close to doing so when Jon Snow shows up with the not-so-mutinous members of the Night's Watch to take these assholes out. Karl proves he wasn't full of shit regarding his fighting abilities when Jon takes him on alone and is about to be done in by the evil skull-drinker when STAB! One of the women Karl had been abusing sinks a knife into the rapist's back. Karl turns on her to do something knife-related when suddenly:

                                                               AW SHEEIT!!!

Jon puts his sword Longclaw RIGHT through the back of Karl's head and OUT his GODDAMN MOUTH!!! Take that, Karl! HELL YEAH!!!

2. Cheese Wagstaff (The Wire)

Yeah, Method Man played Cheese. It's weird but it was good, too. So Cheese was never a tolerable guy in the least bit since his introduction in Season 2, but it was always fun to watch him fuck up. Of course, he was Proposition Joe's nephew so he was essentially untouchable by other dealers on the street. If not for that, Cheese would've gotten got a long time ago. Despite his uncle protecting him for all those years, Cheese didn't hesitate when given the opportunity to betray his uncle to Marlo Stanfield and move up in the drug dealing hierarchy. Joe is executed and Cheese gets promoted, and he doesn't feel a smidge of regret doing it. I mean, jesus man, Joe was FAMILY! That's just cold! Then in the show's series finale, an episode where so much bad happens, something wonderful takes place near the end. In a meeting about finding a new distributor, Cheese continues with his dickish ways by threatening one of his associates with a gun to the face when the man merely mentions his late uncle. Cheese goes off into a rant against that "back in the day shit" and makes a possible Goonies reference about how it's their time now when he is interrupted by a FUCKING BULLET TO THE HEAD!!! AW DAYUM!!!

That was Slim Charles who took the dick out. Charles has always just sort of been there on the sidelines, doing this and that for his superiors, and he always knew when to speak up and when to keep his mouth shut. When his boss Joe was killed, he knew it was Cheese, but still he kept quiet in order to survive. However, as that clip shows, every man has his breaking point. God bless you, Slim Charles. HELL YEAH!!!

1. The Yellow Bastard (Sin City)

Now my most satisfying end to a disgusting villain is one I'm sure few would argue against, as it was also one of the most talked about points in the movie. Long story short: handsome pedophile gets blown apart by Bruce Willis and is assumed dead. 8 years later he comes back after some weird-ass surgery that left him looking like a cross between a Simpsons and a Peanuts character to get revenge on Bruce Willis and the young girl he tried to rape back then, who now looks like Jessica Alba. Do I really need to say more than the words "pedophile" and "rapist" to make you hate this guy? Didn't think so. After some car chases and disgustingly stellar acting from Nick Stahl, the final showdown between Bruce Willis (did his character even have a name?) and the Yellow Bastard ends in perhaps the most satisfactory way possible: Bruce Willis pulls the Bastard's junk off with his BARE HANDS and then punches his head into mush. It's all pretty awesome. So HELL YEAH!!!

Verily,

Tyler


P.S. I'm 25 now.

When I Come Around

Whether it's television, film, or literature, everybody keeps track of their favorite characters. It's strange when you really think about it; it's like when we rank our favorite friends (oh you know you do that, don't act so self-righteous). What do we base our favoritisms on, though? What makes these specific people stand out as our favorites in the fictional adventure we're taken on? Well, I'm not here to answer that question.

When it comes to books our favorite characters may be judged by their actions throughout the story, or by their narration if told through their POV. Maybe we just relate to the characters more than some of the others. Even a minor character in a book can seem like an important one if his or her name is mentioned enough times in the text. They may physically only appear in a single chapter but if written well it can feel like they were present throughout the entire novel. Likewise in film and television, only in those cases it is mainly dependent on the skill of the actor cast in the role. Many fans' favorite characters are only recurring roles and sometimes they become so popular they get promoted to series regulars.

The following is a list of my favorite characters that fit this description: barely present but always there.

5. Walter O' Dim (Stephen King's The Dark Tower)

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

And with that simple sentence began the epic 8 book series written by Stephen King (and somewhat controversially, ended it as well). The man in question was Walter O' Dim, a man of many faces and identities who traveled across time and dimensions to cause chaos and destruction. He was a master manipulator and and a master of disguise. While he appeared in Stephen King's The Stand as the central villain under the guise of Randall Flagg, I'm only considering him based on his appearances in The Dark Tower where he played a central role but appeared for only brief moments at a time. His appearances can be broken down like this:

The Gunslinger - present in flashbacks as "Marten Broadcloak," but only appears in two actual scenes.
The Drawing of the Three - mentioned in passing as "Flagg."
The Waste Lands - appears in chapter near end as "Richard Fannin."
Wizard and Glass - meets briefly with Eldred Jonas; confronts Roland briefly in final chapters.
The Wind Through the Keyhole - appears to Tim as the Covenant Man briefly.
Wolves of the Calla - revealed to have met with Callahan in a flashback.
Song of Susannah - mentioned as having made bargain with Mia to birth Mordred.
The Dark Tower - appears in only a single chapter.

While Walter has appeared in each book in some form or another, it doesn't seem like enough to consider him a prominent character. Particularly in the final book with his undoing occurring very early on, in which King reveals to us that the role we perceived O' Dim to play in the grand finale was never very important at all, and that he was never more than another underling of the ultimate villain the Crimson King. In another clever twist, it is the King's newest servant who disposes of Walter, effectively replacing him to accomplish what the former had failed to do.

Still, as little as Walter appeared, it was the mystery about the man that intrigued me and other readers I'm sure. He had so many aliases and disguises, the question we all had until his unpredictably-tragic end was: who was he, really? As was revealed in his final thoughts before death, for a time Walter had forgotten his real name too.

4. Badger (Firefly)

Badger appeared in only two episodes of the cancelled-too-soon Firefly as a criminal businessman who could be trusted as far as you could throw him. He appeared in an early scene of the series' pilot and again in the memorable episode "Shindig," both times hiring the Serenity crew for a job. While he is a minuscule man who seems more adept at delivering clever one-liners than attacking you, he is considered by the characters to be a very dangerous man.
As the series was cancelled after only 14 episodes, there was a lot of potential for the character left up in the air. Fans, however, took to the villain anyways and he is considered a fan favorite. This is largely due in part to actor Mark Sheppard's memorable portrayal of him and for how good he looked in a bowler hat. In the episodes he appeared in he wasn't even present for more than ten minutes total, yet the character came away from it all as if he had been in every episode.

3. The Man in Black (LOST)

While this character was the central villain of the entire season 6 of LOST, and while Terry O' Quinn did a damn fine job of playing him, I can't help but feel that the true Man in Black was portrayed by Titus Welliver. As was established in the episode "Across the Sea" the body we first see the Man in Black in was his actual human body before his soul was exiled from his physical form into what we came to know as the Smoke Monster. The Monster then simply possessed his former body but was no longer the same person.
We first see the Man in Black in the season 5 finale where he casually threatens his brother Jacob with murder (which he delivers on by the episode's end) and I must say that entire scene absolutely blew my mind. The audience had never seen these two before. We had heard Jacob mentioned by the Others and such as a leader-type figure, but the Man in Black was completely new to us (we didn't yet know he was the Smoke Monster we had been seeing all this time). Titus Welliver came into us Losties' lives with a vile charismatic swagger that seduced us into wanting to see more of him. Unfortunately, this was not to be, as the Man in Black assumed the form of the character John Locke for the remainder of the series. We were treated to only three total appearances of Welliver as the villain, all in flashbacks, but boy did they deliver. Welliver had a manner of speaking as the character that just made everything he said sound reasonable. You believe him when he speaks and you don't judge Richard Alpert for briefly aiding him or even when he tries to rejoin his side of the conflict years after the fact. In his origin story you feel pity for the Man as it becomes clear that all he wants is to be able to leave the island and to see what else the world has to offer while his mother and brother keep him there to rot. The Man in Black is obviously evil in how he uses others to get what he wants and kills those he has no use for, but in the end his justification does make sense. I think we as fans owe it to Welliver for making the villain's madness sound so reasonable in mere three episode presence.


2. Meg Masters (Supernatural)

Countless characters come and go throughout Supernatural, but there was always one in particular I always couldn't wait to see again until her eventual death, and that was Meg Masters. Meg was a girl possessed by a demon in the show's first season who acted as a sort of secondary antagonist to the bigger villain, the yellow-eyed demon Azazel. It seemed like she was done in for good when the Winchesters exorcised her from Meg's body but she returned in the second season to possess Sam for one episode. The brothers still referred to her as Meg and continued to do so when she reappeared in season 5 in a new body played by Rachel Miner, and this was where the character really started to take off. Maybe I'm just a sucker for brunettes, and we all know I'm a sucker for leather jackets, but this incarnation of Meg really caught my attention. It helped that she kicked the brothers' ass in the season's first episode, then returned halfway through the season in a memorable and tragic hellhound assault on the good guys. After that episode she wasn't seen again until the next season, after Lucifer's defeat and the years I like to call the "Supernatural Expanded Universe" (sorry y'all, I'm just a Kripke loyalist). Rachel Miner continued to play the flirtatious and vicious Meg to my delight and throughout the next couple of seasons the character slowly began to become an ally to the Winchester team, despite the obvious bad blood between them. Meg's story ends tragically (as all female characters on Supernatural do) when she is captured by demons during a mission and subsequently tortured for the majority of the next season, and just when we finally get to see her again she gets killed helping the brothers escape. Needless to say I was upset, as were many a fan of the show.
Now that all makes Meg seem like a pretty prominent player in the Supernatural universe, and she was, and Rachel Miner did such a phenomenal job reinterpreting the character that we just associate her with the character now, and she only appeared in 7 episodes. That's 7 episodes out of the whole 8 seasons the character was alive. I know! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??? It may just be that she's my number 1 fandom crush, but when I think of Supernatural, she immediately comes to mind.

1. Brother Mouzone (The Wire)

When I ask fellow Wire viewers who their favorite characters were (and I do a LOT) Brother Mouzone always comes up on their lists. This character appeared only in four episodes of the second season (a season everybody but me forgets even happened) and three in the third, his final appearance. He wasn't even a native of Baltimore where the story takes place, he was a drug enforcer and hitman hired out of NYC by Avon Barksdale to ward off the Eastside dealers coming into the Westside territory. And boy did he. For a while. He got totally screwed when Stringer Bell, who wanted the Eastsiders to share in the West's territory (it's very complicated), went around his boss's back and deceived stick-up man Omar to take Mouzone out, claiming that he killed Omar's former boyfriend. Mouzone is nearly killed but Omar realizes he had been used and lets the man live. Mouzone returns the following season after leaving Baltimore for a time and forms an alliance with Omar to get revenge on Stringer for betraying both of them. And boy, do they get it.
That's it. That's all Mouzone does in the entire series. Still, we have Michael Potts to thank for playing him in such a mysterious and intriguing way. The man had beliefs that didn't falter for a second, he had traditions he followed to a T, and he wore a fucking bow tie. When he had his favorite Walther PPK in his hand you never knew what was about to happen.

So those are my five prime examples on how a character doesn't have to be seen too much for them to make an impact on a reader or viewer. Sometimes it just comes down to good writing and acting.

Thankee sai,

Tyler

P.S. Don't be afraid to like these when I post them on Facebook. Jeez, guys, you're making me feel unwanted.

Is This the Real Life, Is This Just Fantasy?

For those of you who have followed my writings from Day 1 - and even those who are just tuning in - you've probably been wondering as much as I have just what the hell this blog is supposed to be about. Well, if I may quote what a wise man from my childhood once said:

Fortunately I still have a lot of time left in my life to figure that out, and you really shouldn't care that much anyway. But if you do care, well, gee thanks! I think I like you. And because of people like you, I think I have found a topic to maybe stick with when writing these blog posts: WRITING.

If you're all true fans (okay let's face it, the only ones reading this are my friends) or remember previous posts such as this one or that one then you know how much I like to write fictional stories. It's a sickness, really. I spend more time thinking about characters and plot developments during the day than I do anything. If I brainstormed that stuff any harder I might even forget I'm supposed to breathe. Especially when it comes to the characters. See, I like reading books where the characters seem like real people to me. I don't mean I have to know their entire backstory or whether their carpet matches the drapes, I just need to spend enough time with the people so that eventually everything they do feels natural and right.

J.K. Rowling has been the most successful in this area in my opinion, particularly when it came to my favorite book in the Harry Potter series: The Order of the Phoenix. A lot of people like to knock this book but it was my favorite. Why? Because it's where things really begin to unfold. Harry starts the book off pissed at his friends because he feels they'd abandoned him. On top of that is the knowledge that there's an evil wizard overlord (I do NOT get to type that phrase enough in my life) out to wear him as a coat and he's got wizard SATs to study for and distracting him from all of that important stuff is his hots for the Asian chick in his class. While I personally would've gone for the Patil twins myself, Harry's dilemmas for the first time in the whole series felt real. You know before the wand battles.

                                              I mean, who's reading the books for those?

Not only that, but the characters around Harry begin to act more real and natural, maybe as a result of Harry's sudden maturing portrayal. Anytime Luna Lovegood has a line of dialogue I'm like, "Oh Luna, you would say that!"or anytime Neville's being a doofus I find it endearing, whereas I used to be more like, "Neville you stupid motherfucker!" This isn't only limited to the younger characters either. Every character in the series, whether you know a lot or a little about them, it's the time you spend with them and you getting used to them being around that makes it hurt so much when Rowling just rips them away from you with her death powers. Yeah sure you cried when you killed Lupin and Tonks. Just keep telling us that you heartless quim.

That got heated near the end. Also I apologize for the use of the word "quim," and for stealing that joke from The Curious Case of Phineas Gage. Funny play, btw.

So yes, as I perhaps too-lengthily explained I appreciate a good character who I can identify with and feel like I know personally. And I like creating characters like that so that I too can murder them in unfair and brutal ways with nothing you can do to save them. The problem is, doing that is hard. Not the killing, that's easy. It's just typing. I mean inventing these people and then writing them in a way that it feels like they're existing through you rather than you just pulling their strings. Unfortunately no amount of outlining your character will prepare you to do this properly. In fact, avoid outlining anything if you can help it. Notes are for people who aren't in it. If you're truly gonna commit to a story, you shouldn't need reminders on what happens next.

I don't think there's anything wrong with using so-called "stock characters." You can have "ringleader," "samurai," and "archer" in your group of heroes if you want. If you want them to act and talk like normal people, though, you need to surround them with non-stock characters. These "more real" characters, by interacting with the stockers, will help them grow and evolve realistically by default. Now how do you come up with real, original characters in a time where originality is almost nonexistent? It's, like, SO hard, man. So what I like to do sometimes is choose from my pool of real life acquaintances.

I know many interesting and unique people, and if they have characteristics or personality traits that I really like then I plop them down into the world of my story. I often change their names, but sometimes a person is so distinct that I just can't separate them from their real names. In these cases I ask that person if it's alright to base a character on them and they pretty much always say yes. I mean, who doesn't want a character based on them, assuming that character doesn't turn out to be an asshole?

Now if I ever decide to write a character based on any of you I know, here are some answers to your potential FAQ:

--------

Would you use my real name?

I may want to use your first name, but never your last name. And if I do want to use your name I will always ask beforehand for your consent.

So this is gonna be me running around in this story?

Not exactly. When I say the person's based on you it could mean I just needed a name and a face as a starting point for the character's development. I may use some personality traits of yours but you should never assume that this character is a representation of what I really think of you or how you would act in certain situations. In fact in most cases by the end the character hardly even resembles the person I originally based him or her on anymore. All things serve the story and none of it should be taken personally. And don't hate me if I kill you off.

Yeah, I don't think I want you to use my name.

That's not really a question, but okay, that's no problem. I'll give them a different name.

I don't want them to be anything like me either.

Well I can't help that they're a little like you anymore. I already changed the name so what more do you want, blood?

Yes.

See, now this is why the character comes off as an asshole.

--------

And you get the idea. Characters are the driving force in a story and often what makes the story feel as real as it should. Life is full of people and characters who affect you day to day, and the world of fiction operates similarly. If you can introduce a little reality into fiction, then it'll become real to the reader.

I will also be accepting applications for people to base my next characters off of so all interested should apply.

Pura vida,

Tyler

P.S. Maybe someday I'll be published and actually be qualified to say the shit I'm saying.

SNAPE KILLS TYRION!!!

Nah he doesn't, that was just to reel you in. But he does kill Daryl.

I bet you all thought (hoped) I was done blogging! Again! But alas I get bored and twiddling my thumbs and mastur...I mean reading can only make the days go by so fast. I don't even really remember when it was I last posted but I've been itching to get back in the game. Since we last spoke I completed some more shows, my favorite of which was Dog Sees God in which I played a teenage germophobe version of Pigpen of the Peanuts gang. It was great, I got to act like a douchebag, perform various forms of pelvic thrusting, and beat up a gay kid. You know, smalltime stuff.

                                                                        This happened at some point too.

Since then I've been taking a theatre break and have been attempting to rediscover what my life was like before I filled my plate with a marathon of shows. Turns out I have little to no life, so I've been trying to read and write more, which brings us to this blog post. I tried and failed to complete a 50,000 word novel for last fall's NaNoWriMo (that's "National Novel Writing Month" for the squares out there), coming up about 30,000 words short. Doing a show and changing story ideas halfway through the month kind of slowed me down. But now I'm trying to finish what I started by completing that novel and then shopping it to some publishers before inevitably self-publishing it, which will likely require a Kickstarter so all of you should remember all of the nice things I've done for you and how I always write on your Facebooks for your birthdays for when that time comes.

                                                    You're welcome for this rare pic of Mustache Tyler as well.

I was saying something...

So I'm trying really hard to finish this story which I think is really good, but we'll know for sure when my test reader gets finished with the first 60 pages I gave her. Now that I'm back in a writing groove though, I'm beginning to pick back up all of the tricks and strategies I used to use in order to keep myself committed. I'll gladly share some of these tips that work for me and may help any of you fellow aspiring writers. Here's the list:

1. Anna Kendrick
2. Katy Perry
3

Whoops, wrong list! Here's the right one, in no particular order.

1. Make a playlist

I use music for a lot of my inspiration, so one of the first things I do, and sometimes during the process, is compile a playlist of songs on iTunes that make me think of certain characters or events in the story I'm writing. This way these things are always on my mind if I'm driving or somewhere I'm unable to write.

2. Have something to drink

This doesn't necessarily mean alcohol, although a cold beer certainly isn't a bad choice. I just like to have something else to do while I'm focusing, and reaching for a bottle or a mug also keeps your hand doing a different motion other than typing. It's like a very brief break, and refilling gives you something to do for when you get stuck.

3. Listen to instrumental music 

Film scores are my usual go-to for background music, but video game scores as well as classical music have also been very helpful. I can't work in silence but I also get distracted by lyrics, so this music is the most ideal.

4. Careful how often you read while working on something

Look, we all love reading. It's second nature to most of us. But if you find yourself too into a book while you yourself are trying to write one, you may find yourself copying that author's style, and in some cases, entire plot points. Always remember that every author is different and you'll gain nothing by doing what they did before.

5. Explain to your friends and family to leave you be

I'm still working on this one. Writing is work that requires great concentration, and once you fall out of a groove it's a slippery slope to get back on it. When somebody walks into your room while you're in the middle of writing, you may as well have your dick in your hand because you feel like your entire universe of privacy was just upended. Writing is basically masturbation of the mind and should be treated as such by those who interrupt you in the middle of it.

6. Become your characters

This was easier when I had more time to myself during the day, but it's a trick I came up with myself - a way to use my acting skills to boost my writing. Writing your characters, especially in POV situations, requires you to get inside their heads and think like them. Success in this results in better dialogue and natural character and plot development. I simply take 5 to 10 minutes - or more - and improvise a scene to myself as my character, acting out a conversation or an inner monologue, sometimes performing an action. Afterwards I can sit down and write practically a whole novel about that one character. And speaking of characters...

7. Plan major deaths in advance 

If I really like a character in my story, I usually find ways around letting them die in certain perilous events, even if their purpose to the story has been served and they've become just bodies that talk sometimes. But the death that stung me the most in my writings came from a character whose entire purpose in the story was to die. I had a scene planned where two characters would be talking and mention that this one guy had been killed off-page. So I introduce this character for the sole intent of having him die later. I realize the main character needs a best friend for those scenes and so soon-to-be-dead guy gets promoted to "best friend." When I rewrote that whole story a few years later I intentionally gave the soon-to-be-dead a little more page time, but then somewhere along the way I gave him a love interest. It wasn't long before this character had entire chapters devoted to him and his personal life. He had now become a main character. However, his death scene still lingered on the horizon, and with my ending to the story already planned and unchangeable, he just could not be wedged into the grand finale. There was just no room for him. So I stuck to my guns and killed him when the time came. And it HURT.

8. Before having a writer look it over, have a reader do it

If you think you've got a good amount of a rough draft finished, or even just a few chapters, your natural instinct may be to send it to one of your writer friends so they can tell you how much it sucks. While you may get constructive criticism in return, it can sometimes seem like your writer friends are only telling you how they would have done it. I'm just saying there's a reason Stephen King and J.K. Rowling don't swap rough drafts, or Harry Potter would have a lot of unnecessary sex and King's stories might actually have happy endings. I'm trying something new this time around and sending what I have to 1 or 2 friends who are simply avid readers. This way I can know if my story is worth a damn before I send it off to my writing kin to work out the more technical bugs.

9. Make lists. Lots and lots of lists 

This one is a bit vague but it's been extremely helpful for keeping me in my story universe. I make lists of characters in the story, list major events, list orders of character deaths (I kill people a lot), and my favorite is usually a dream cast list for what actors would play certain characters in the inevitable film adaptation.

10. Outlines are not Commandments

I don't often like writing outlines but sometimes I need to in order to keep my more epic undertakings straight. However I try not to have too many specifics in mind when drawing it up. I may write things like: "Chapter 1 - they walk in the woods/ character development occurs" or "Chapter 30 - John dies." Just small descriptions about what HAS to happen, but leaving plenty of room for improvisation. For example I had a chapter where two characters are just chased, and they had to escape somehow but unfortunately I wrote their pursuers as too good at their job and found myself stuck with them. After a lot of thinking and pacing around the kitchen, I stuck in some giant crabs and WHAMMY they were saved! It'll make more sense if you read the story. But the lesson is that if you just make yourself an outline that details every little thing, what fun are you going to have writing it? You'll basically just be reporting events and you will be bored, and bored writing = boring reading.

I think 10 is a good number to stop on, but lord knows I could give out tips all day. It just felt good to write another post again. I wouldn't be expecting these too frequently though, if you happen to be a fan/good friend who just reads out of pity. If I think of something that I just need to write down in longwinded and vulgar-filled essays, you'll see another post soon. But until then,

Say auf wiedersehen to your Nazi balls,

Tyler

P.S. And happy writing to my fellow writers out there!