There is Still Sand in my Suitcase

OPENING MONOLOGUE

Hello there from Poland where the price of eggs isn’t an existential threat.

I don’t mean to make light of the egg situation in the US (I just read an article saying that Waffle House was adding surcharges to any order with eggs — yikes!) but it’s bizarre to see my home country falling apart while it’s business as usual here. Remember when Poland used to be the butt of all jokes?

This week I’m looking at one of the stupidest things I ever did in my pursuit of journalism, the magic of Amblin energy, and more. Let’s go!

Today's reading

• Growing Storms and Bad Decisions

• Amblin Energy

• “I'm there for you any day”

• More Argonauts

• All we got

Growing Storms and Bad Decisions

Not long after “MegaPorn 2003” was published, I got an email from someone in the AFA (American Family Association) of Michigan asking if I’d like to interview its president, Gary Glenn. The email said that the AFA had some of the same concerns I had about comic book conventions, and an interview with Glenn would help get the word out.

Most of you are already seeing the red flags here, but all I saw was an opportunity to do some “proper” comic book journalism. The AFA was already making headlines by attacking the Pittsburgh Comicon for having “porn stars [and] illustrators of erotica,” as well as “…witchcraft, Satanism, and spiritualism intermixed with ‘legitimate’ comic book characters.” A few weeks later, the AFA of Michigan set its sights on the Motor City Comics Convention for having “pornographic video and internet personalities” attending the show.

There was clearly something happening that was worth looking at. And despite all the stories about AFA’s war against comic cons on different websites, no one had given anyone at the AFA a proper interview to explain its position.

Sadly, I didn’t know who Glenn was or his agenda (though, in hindsight, I should have known better):

“Comics in the New Millennium: The Growing Storm” was published on Slush Factory in May of 2003. It detailed all of the AFA’s efforts in combatting pornography at comic book conventions while allowing Glenn to express his views, unfortunately, completely unchallenged.

On the one hand, “Comics in the New Millennium: The Growing Storm” is probably the closest thing I did to proper journalism for Slush instead of my usual gonzo bullshit. On the other hand, my inability to push back or challenge Glenn made me look like a rube. At best, people thought I was an idiot. At worst, people thought I was an accomplice.

Unfortunately, enough people read the article. One message board thread on Newsarama tore the article and me to shreds. In their eyes, I was no different than Glenn. Like the old saying, “If there are nine Nazis at a table and you sit with them, you have ten Nazis.” I realized my mistake immediately, and all I could do was take the hits.

Here’s what I know now and that I didn’t know then: you don’t have to give everyone a platform. Even if I had approached the article as a balanced two-sided argument, there was no need to give Glenn any real estate to share his views. Even if parts of his argument seemed sensible, hate was still driving it.

It would be easy to say that Glenn and the AFA were using me, but that diminishes my responsibility in the whole matter. Like I said, I really should have known better.

We talked about taking the article down (this time, my request), but Jacks, Slush’s editor, thought it was worth keeping up. I never wrote for Slush again. Not because I was annoyed or making a statement. Jacks was great to work with. But by this point, I was getting ready to move to Poland and it was clear that I was moving in a different direction (both literally and figuratively).

Amblin Energy

I recently re-read Stephen King’s The Dark Half and, like many re-reads of late, it’s not the book I remember.

(As I slowly rebuild my Stephen King hardcover library, I’ve come to realize that I prefer having the US editions of King’s books between 1983 and 2003. This has slowed down my hunt somewhat, but I’ve also found some gems. For instance, the first edition hardcover you see in the photo above is in such good condition it almost looks new, and I bought it from a private seller in Gdańsk for $3. I had a copy just like it back in the day, and it was a joy to hold and read again.)

I remember The Dark Half as one of King’s lesser — and gnarlier — works, so I was pleasantly surprised that the book was not only fun but was overflowing with Amblin energy.

Amblin energy is a thing. Amblin, of course, is what we associate with Steven Spielberg. Amblin is the name of his first completed short film shot on 35mm, and it’s the name of his production company. But Amblin is also a specific feel, an aesthetic that movie-goers in the 80s understood in their DNA.

When we talk about how pop culture was shaped in the 80s, I think Spielberg and King are two sides of the same coin.

(It’s interesting to note that Spielberg’s first theatrical US movie, Sugarland Express, came out in 1974 — six days before King’s first published novel, Carrie. In 1975, Spielberg would change movies with the premiere of Jaws, and a few months later, King dropped Salem’s Lot. One told you to get out of the water, and the other told you to get out of your neighborhood.)

Amblin energy usually involves families, especially kids, who live normal lives until they experience something supernatural or out of this world. Bright night skies. Small towns. Sprawling neighborhoods. Bikes on front lawns. Misty backyards. Postered bedrooms full of everything from the Sears catalog. Monsters in closets. You either know the feeling, or you don’t.

The Duffer Brothers have done an excellent job recreating it for Stranger Things, which blends Spielberg and King in fun ways, and the recent Star Wars: Skeleton Crew played around with it.

Spielberg channeled Amblin energy in small doses in Jaws, distilled it perfectly in E.T., and then unleashed it in his production credits, including Poltergeist, The Goonies, Gremlins, and Harry and the Hendersons.

I’d argue that King’s first exposure to Amblin energy was in Different Seasons (specifically, “The Body”). He then dipped his toes in his collaboration with Peter Straub (The Talisman), but he didn’t fully embrace the energy until he dropped It. After that, it comes and goes with varying results, like Needful Things. 

Amblin energy is the perfect distillation of the 80s. I’d argue that 80s nostalgia — even by those who weren’t there — is a longing for Amblin energy, not the 80s itself. As much as I love Amblin energy, I recognize that it warps our nostalgia. Sure, it’s glossy, but it’s also a layer of paint covering up the things people want to forget about, like the persistent fear of nuclear war, Reaganomics, AIDS, casual racism and sexism, Xanadu, etc.

Anyway, that’s a long way of saying that I can now add The Dark Half to the list of King books with Amblin energy.

“I'm there for you any day”

How would you like to make $200K for doing nothing?

Actor Bob Hoskins met with director Brian De Palma to play Al Capone in The Untouchables. De Palma admitted to Hoskins that Robert De Niro was his first choice to play the part, but the actor was playing hard to get.

“If Robert doesn’t commit, would you be willing to take the role?” De Palma asked.

Hoskins replied, “Yeah, if I'm free, yeah.”

If you've seen The Untouchables, you already know De Niro eventually agreed to play the part.

Weeks later, Hoskins is home, and his wife brings in the mail. She opens an envelope. “Oh, what’s this?” she asks. Inside is a check for $200,000, with a note that reads: “Thanks for your time. Love, Brian.”

Hoskins immediately called up De Palma.

He said, “Brian, listen, you got any films you don't want me to be in, babe, I'm there for you any day!”

More Argonauts

Nicholas Pendleton has just released the ebook version of his fantastic More Argonauts.

You can read my review, but here’s a snippet.

All we got

Hey, it’s February. You made it.

There’s a lot of evidence suggesting that 2025 might be [Larry David voice] pretty, pretty, pretty crazy. So try not to think about what’s already happened, and don’t worry about what might happen; instead, focus on this moment — because it’s all we got.

See you next week.