BRAINPAN LEAKAGE

So, it’s no secret that this time of year is my writing time. Between January and July is when I toss words at the page as fast as I can, in order to meet manuscript deadlines and all that jazz…All you have to do is look at my tour schedule and see that it is blocked out and labeled as such. There was actually a time in my life when I used a Day Planner and knew where I was supposed to be and when. These days it’s a webpage and Outlook, and I  have no idea what’s going on. How times have changed…

But I digress, as usual…

Obviously, the “job” of tossing words at the page cuts into my “fun” of tossing words at the page, i.e. blogging time.

Well… That is kind of what I am here to warn you about.

By now, most of you should be well aware of the major move Brainpan Leakage made from Myspace to its current local WordPress platform. As I said in an earlier blog, I am pretty much having an illicit affair with this software because of its flexibility (different kind of flexible, kids… Minds up here out of the gutter please…)

Since I am able to write offline blog entries pretty much anywhere now, import them into the software, then schedule them to appear at some point in the future… Well, let’s just say I’m kind of oogly all over because of that. Therefore, I am taking advantage of the feature in spades.

Over the next days and weeks, you are going to be subjected to a blog “mini series”. Basically, a whole raft of consecutive blog entries entitled Mahwage, (yeah, Marriage but with the Princess Bride twist to it)… Each has its own subtitle that will hopefully make some manner of sense as you read along.

Basically, this mini series is the tale of how I came to be married to my lovely bride of 21+ years. I will forego further explanation at this point, because the first entry goes into more detail as to the why’s and wherefore’s of this story being told.

At any rate, it is my sincere hope that it will entertain you to some degree. I am more than willing to admit that not all of it is “laugh out loud” funny. Some of it is serious, some of it is sappy and sentimental.  Well, probably a lot of it is sappy and sentimental… But, yes, some of it is  definitely amusing… hopefully in not too much of a “had to be there” fashion if I have translated the events to the page correctly…

I’ve endeavored to leave out the drudgery, and definitely the stuff too personal for public consumption at all.

So, hopefully it will be worth the read…

Hey, it worked for Nicholas Sparks, so why shouldn’t I give it a try? With my own particular style, and a good bit of humor, of course…

More to come…

Murv

Whoever has it, stick the damn thing in and let’s get this holiday stuff over with…

Yeah, I’m obviously a bit of a curmudgeon about this whole festive holiday season thing. Those of you who know me, or have been following my blogs for several years know that I haven’t always been this way. But, without going into a  long explanation, losing your parents near the holidays – too early in life and at separate times – doesn’t really endear you to Christmas, et. al.

It actually has a bit of a damping effect. But, like I said, I’m not going to go into that realm of loss, S.A.D., and all that other stuff. I’ve had my joyous and warm fun with friends and family for this season.

It’s time to move on, so I’m still looking for the gorram fork.

Of course, I am sure you are wondering what prompted me to look for the sharp tined instrument at this particular moment… Well, you see, it’s like this – I have been wracking my brain to figure out why it is we, as a society, find “comfort” in watching back to back sappy, horribly written and acted, Hallmark™  movies during the holidays…

You see, they all pretty much start out the same way. Someone is DEAD. Usually, it is a parent – mom or dad, flip a coin – but on rare occasion it is an offspring who went off to fight in Desert Storm or whatever conflict is happening at the time of the writing  – Speaking of writing, given the poor dialogue offered up in these flicks, I am thinking that writing might be too kind a word for it. But, describing it as writing sounds better than the more accurate “vomiting”.

At any rate, we always start with someone being dead. They either died last week, or 5 years ago. Span of time isn’t really important, because no matter when it was they croaked the holidays have arrived and the pain of loss has resurfaced. (I will make a concession here – This is probably the only accurate part of the movies because I can certainly relate to it)… However, from this point the rest of the overused formula kicks in, and it ain’t E=mc²…

It susses out more like this (please excuse the lack of proper notation… this blog interface is severely lacking in symbols):

Person(dead) / grief (x * y)² {[runaway] – (ghost) – {hospital} – (prison/jail)} / (love at first sight + implied sex / argument) * make up kiss / k(k²) + [food] = z

Solve for z, where x and y equal assorted male and female characters in unrequited love, self-imposed celibacy of mourning scenarios and k equals children, usually on one side of the impending relationship, but sometimes on both (hence k²)…

Well, I won’t make you get out a pencil and paper. Z always equals a happy ending. The male and female characters end up in an instant relationship – one which it is implied will stand the test of time because obviously they were meant to be together even though they had sworn an oath that they would dry up and blow away since their respective significant others met their demise via A) a car wreck B) cancer C) plane crash D) war E) all of the above.

On top of that we always have the fact that someone miraculously survives something (disease, accident, mishap), is miraculously cleared of charges for something they didn’t do, a runaway is found, or in some events the dead person comes back as a ghost for a short period of time to provide closure. Along with this the children involved are all about the new significant others, and in most cases were working behind the scenes to bring them together in the first place.

And, in the end, there is money to pay the mortgage that could never be paid, a turkey/ham on the table, gifts under the tree, implied sex, candy canes, lingerie, trips to Cancun, toys, more kids on the way, a new lease for the orphanage, a job offer, marriage, general happiness, the “bad guy” grows a heart ala “A Christmas Carol” and all manner of  sickly sweet, sugar infused woodja, woodja, woodja ad nauseum…

But, the best part is…wait for it… wait for it…It all comes together on Christmas Eve/Day…

I won’t even begin to go into the lack of research which creates glaring continuity errors, procedural errors, suspension of disbelief errors ( I mean, if you are going to ask me to suspend disbelief – which ALL of these flicks do – then make me believe enough of it that when you jump the shark I can say, “Okay, self, I’m willing to buy that in the context of this movie…)

But, you know, even though I have rambled on about the sheer stupidity of these formulaic wastes of celluloid/airwaves/cable bandwidth, we have to return to the original question – Why do we take comfort in watching these things back to back during the holidays? Yes, they show non-holiday versions at other times of the year, but when the Christmas season arrives they become constant… And, we sit in front of the tube, sipping Bailey’s ™, and watching this drivel like some kind of emotionally bankrupt zombies looking for a charge of said emotions…

Well… I have a theory.

These are the equivalent of a 50 cent roller coaster ride. We start out on a downer, climb to a high point, fear for the cardboard characters, then end in a crescendo of euphoria. Why? Because the cardboard cutouts started out in worse shape than us, then dealt with even more crap, but in the end, it all came together. Magically. Without the aid of epoxy, duct tape, or staples. It just all worked out, and after all, isn’t that what we each want? It’s not the greatest roller coaster around, but it fits in our living room and we can ride it over and over again for effect…

So, what do you think? Decent enough theory?

Of course, my other working hypothesis is that they are all just a big conspiracy by the facial/nose tissue conglomerates to make us buy more Kleenex.

More to come…

Murv