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In my capacity as copy editor for Blast Magazine, one of the issues I come across on a regular basis is the poorly written, spoiler-filled movie review. Now, Blast has put out some decent material, but as a start-up with pretty strong roots in university talent (read: people who are writing for the clips, not the paycheck), some of the writers are new to writing for a publication, or even sometimes writing at all.

While this creates all kinds of fun for me (like teaching new writers about why they should learn AP style, why we use just a single space after periods, etc.), it also sets me up for some unplanned exposure to information that can really make a movie (or TV show) not as enjoyable as it should be when I finally make it to the theater. Sometimes it’s a writer’s first time crafting a review, and one of the most common traps that new writers fall into, especially those without much to actually say about the film, is to just write a synopsis of the plot, which is a real downer for the people reading it who want to be surprised by all the twists and turns.

So, it raises a bit of a conundrum, especially considering I’m Blast’s only copy editor. If I have to edit a piece that will unintentionally spoil a movie, TV show, book, etc., what recourse do I have, especially in the age of digital media and a news cycle that doesn’t sleep? Waiting until after I’ve seen it doesn’t always work, as I’m usually the last person to catch a film in theater before it goes into that waiting period to appear on DVD. Personally, I just bite the bullet, edit it, and try to teach the writer to be a little less revealing next time around — with an ever-changing staff, it doesn’t always last, but that’s just the nature of the job, I suppose.

So, what do you do when you have to copy edit spoiler-filled material? Do you grit your teeth and plow through? Do you make a colleague who doesn’t care, or who you don’t care for, edit it instead? Do you wait until you’ve seen it for yourself and let the glaring typos and grammatical errors sit there for all to see until you get around to it?

To say I’ve fallen off an update schedule would be a gross understatement at this point: the last time I posted I was sitting at Espresso Love in Edgartown, on Martha’s Vineyard, home for the summer to work and save money for my last year of college. Now, it’s something like 11 months later, and some things are changing, and others are way too much the same for my tastes. I’ve been starting my mornings at Espresso Love again, which is a great way to start them, after driving Ivona to work, and I have my first shift driving a cab tomorrow morning. And while some of these things are painfully too familiar, it feels like one era has ended and another is beginning.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve spent a good deal of time now at Espresso Love, a coffee shop in my home town of Edgartown, pretending to work on writing and editing. The reality is that I got all my copyediting for Blast out of the way this morning at Mocha Motts in Vineyard Haven, and I’ve spent the majority of my time here feeding the birds with crumbs from my muffin. The ice in my coffee has melted, and the pool of water that condensated on the plastic cup is almost all evaporated, and I’m writing this in hopes it’ll kickstart my brain into writing what I need to write about.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do once I finally graduate, and Ivona and I discussed it yesterday. We’re both feeling like this past winter, during which we got into such boring routines, is not how we envisioned these years of our lives and the first years of our marriage. Yes, we’re intensely happy together, but there’s more to life that we feel we’re missing out on.

So, with that in mind, I’m considering renewing my plans of spending a summer riding a bike around the country, camping out along the way. The plan is to go hashing as many places as we can along the way, and I can’t think of anything better to do to make me feel like I’m alive again. I think the last time I really felt that way was in France.

Anyway, whatever I decide to do next, I know it has to be a big change. Any suggestions?

So after two years of wanting one, I finally broke down and bought the iPhone, and I chose a good time for it. My 3G S preorder arrived yesterday and I’ve probably changed my pants three times already in about 12 hours.

I’ve been spending most of my time acquainting myself with the various apps (all the free ones so far), like this excellent WordPress app, and I’m having a blast. The 3G S is noticeably faster than it’s predecessor and the video camera rocks. I’ve heard complaints about the voice control, and it’s definitely not flawless, but I found that if I try to think and speak like a machine it does a pretty good job of coming up with the right person, even with fairly complicated names.

Anyway, I’m psyched to have this for the cab this summer, as I can get some work done without dragging around my laptop.

Anyone have any app recommendations?

So it’s no surprise that I haven’t been keeping up with this blog, and the truth is that I’ve been in a pretty major slump lately, in just about all aspects of my life. My cousin Isabelle put it nicely when she called it “transition depression” over lunch a few weeks ago. I’m “graduating” in 9 days, though I have to be back here in the fall to finish up the last of my courses. I had tried to take 27 credits this semester and it turned into a train wreck; I have a habit of taking off more than I can chew and then being all surprised when it doesn’t exactly pan out the way I want it to. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again, thanks to BoingBoing:

According to an email from the University of Massachusetts Chancellor’s Office, Amherst may be the latest area hit by the H1N1 swine flu.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has identified two probable cases at Amherst College that have not yet been confirmed by the Center for Disease Control. Amherst College is taking precautions, including cancelling social gatherings and treating four other recent cases of flu as if they were also swine flu. Those students are being isolated, treated, and expected to make a full recovery.

“None of the students’ cases are considered serious and all are responding well to treatment,” said Amherst College president Anthony Marx. “The College is, however, taking a series of steps… to contain the virus and to protect our community.”

No cases have been reported at UMass so far, though they are preparing for potential illnesses. Anyone experiencing fever greater than 100 degrees F, sore throat, cough, stuffy nose, chills, headache, body aches and/or fatigue is asked to seek medical attention immediately.

Edit: For the lolz (thanks BoingBoing)

I haven’t been carrying my moleskines around lately, which is unfortunate; keeping them with me at all times was a habit I should have done more to encourage. I use them for such random, varied purposes, from jotting little ideas I have, or a single line of dialogue I think up, or using it as a journal for a few weeks and then abandoning it, only to return to it and decide to write about something else instead. They’ve been organizers, where I keep every little bit of important information at the time, to being address books.

Going through a couple of my old ones right now, I stumbled upon a couple of those little snippets of thought that I love finding in these things. Sometimes they transport me to the time I wrote them, or at least give me some vague sense of nostalgia, but at the very least I either think “Oh, hey, that’s great, I should use that for something,” or “man, that was fucking terrible, what was I thinking?” There’s even one page where I had written some stupid, out-of-context thought and apparently went back to it months later, crossed it out and put an arrow pointing towards it and a note that said “Thought it was a good idea at the time.” I guess being my own worst critic can be a good thing, but sometimes I feel like it paralyzes me when it comes to writing. Hopefully this blog can help me get over some of those fears. I’ve never feared the criticisms of anyone else, but the most disappointing feeling I’ve had as a writer is when I write something and look back at it and say “Man, that was terrible.” It’s more embarassing than being caught masturbating (especially when you’re masturbating to the writing of yours that you like).

So, for tonight, here are a couple little nuggets from the archives that I liked. There is no context, just loose ideas that I might use for something someday.

1:

I fantasize about yelling at my boss in jobs I don’t even have. Do you know what it’s like to be turned down or overlooked for a raise or promotion in your daydreams? It sucks, man, it really does.

2:

He was the kind of guy that wrote nice poetry to his girlfriend about putting rocks in his shoes so he would remember each step he took towards her and ruined it by later describing in detail the pus-filled blisters and blood-soaked socks at the end of the day.

3:

“If the world were black and white, would color cameras have been invented first?”

4 (from a journal entry when I was driving the buses on the Vineyard. I would write some of these down in the two or three minutes I had at a bus stop during my shift.):

Small, obnoxious kid goes into a frenzy, forcing everyone on the bus to listen to a rant about the entire story of the new Harry Potter, despite pleas from the other passengers not to ruin it. [It had just come out.] Continues anyway, visibly angering a teenaged girl with the book in her hands and a bookmark in the middle. Boy reveals that he is about to be shipped off to camp for a month. Passengers all cheer and applaud the missing parents and sympathize.”

—

Man uses the last two dollars on a $16 change card. I go to throw it away but he wants to keep it. For a scrap book. His used up, wrinkled bus change card.

—

Morbidly obese couple only passengers between Edgartown and Oak Bluffs, arguably the more scenic, if not the most, of the down-island routes. The husband asks, “so a lot of people come here, right? From all over?” When I say yes, the wife snorts and shouts, “WHY?” Their grunts, sweating, moaning and complaining about the heat, and the numerous stains on their shirts, combined with their utter ignorance will make me question my next piece of bacon.

Posting resumes tomorrow. Sorry.

We looked at the wrong camera

On account of posting three times yesterday and that it’s almost midnight on Sunday and I have a crazy day tomorrow, I’m going to do a real short post just to throw up a picture I found while looking around on Facebook today. I haven’t posted a single picture before now, which is sort of sad, and in the coming days I’ll post more. Ultimately, I want to get a really nice camera (I know, mom, you bought me one a couple years ago but it has a problem with the lens that might be more expensive than it’s worth to fix) and start teaching myself a bit more about being a good photographer. Then I’ll do a daily photo or something.

Anyway, this is a picture from a New Year’s Eve party a few years ago… maybe sophomore year of college? I guess it’s fitting to post this since I’m posting writing from around that time. It also happens to be a picture of me that I like, which is pretty hard to find. These are all people I went to high school with, most notably my friend David Linfield, who I later visited in Scotland and who remains a good friend. The best part is that there were two people taking pictures and we looked at the wrong camera, but I think it turned out better that way. I’m the guy on the right, for those who don’t know, wearing the black fleece with the Heineken in my hand.