Positive opinions

It’s easy to criticise.

But who am I? How do we know I'm not an idiot?

Well, frankly, we don't. And neither do I, no matter how many times I ask.

And I’ll admit my blogs so far have been about picking things apart, questioning perceptions, finding things that frustrate or repel me and wagging my finger at them. So I thought I’d start today by talking about a bunch of arty things I've enjoyed recently.

Misfits. If you haven’t seen this UK TV show at all, do check it out. A bunch of reject community service teens are granted superpowers by circumstance and feel compelled to try to do the right thing. They rarely DO do the right thing, but that’s the whole fun of the show. It’s just finished its final season (five total) and I’ve loved almost every minute of it. From clever horror to ridiculous conversations about pick n’ mix and shagging a tortoise, this is one of my favourite TV series ever.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I joined Twitter recently (I’m a man of the times) and my first pearl of wisdom was: Captain America: The Winter Soldier is like being punched in the face by fun over and over again. And that pretty much sums it up. So much better than the first movie, which I felt lost a lot of its oomph after the first act, it consistently surprises and entertains in all the ways an action adventure should. It makes Cap as interesting as I’ve ever found him as he battles with the idea of grey morality and bounds from fight to fight with a good balance of humour and pathos.

Chuck Wendig’s blog. http://terribleminds.com/ramble/blog/

This guy is a swearing, imagery-slinging novelist who’s blog I recently stumbled across in search for inspiration for my own. He has a number of his own short stories up on the site, along with loads of articles and interviews about writing and creativity. He is eloquent in a violent sort of way and his views are sharp and refreshing. Plus he’s written quite a few successful books so he’s obviously doing something right.

Peter Clines. http://thoth-amon.blogspot.com.au/

This guy is one of my two favourite novelists of this century and is definitely one of my all-time favourite writers. His series Ex-Heroes is nothing short of kick-arse, and his blog is full of inspiring, no-nonsense, funny insights into the creative process of prose and screenwriters. He is one of only a handful of novelists who has never written a sentence I found boring.

The Lego Movie. Movies so awesome don’t come along very often, but this one was cool and slick and knew exactly what it was doing the whole way through. It never missed an opportunity or dropped the story ball, and I laughed like a broken record. Two hearty claw-hands up.

The West Wing. I once went to a Q & A with one of the ex-writing staff on this show. He said that although it was a fantastic show to work on, Aaron Sorkin, the show’s creator, was a terrorising dictator with a rock star ego. He apparently assumed all credit for all episodes, rewrote the other writers constantly and basically saw himself as a word-god. For many years I avoided all Sorkin shows based on this character profile. Then I saw The Newsroom accidentally and became enamoured. Such a brilliant show, seriously. And you can see where West Wing is a big step in that direction. I’m currently into season four and still enjoying the cyclical conversations and wily idealism Sorkin is so good at. Still not sure if he’s a dick. Good writer, though.

So that’s my praise for stuff. And there is a lot more where that came from. I just wanted to give the positive stuff some air time. Because it is easy to criticise. Much too easy for some. Even easier because of the internet. Its like we all think that a voice you can hear is a voice worth listening to. But at the risk of being negative, I think that's stupid. Because all opinions are not created equal.

But I'll leave that for next time because this week is all about being positive. Now go like some art.