Musings from the basement...

Saving Private Ryan on the 70th Anniversary of D-Day

June 7, 2014 1 Comment

Watched Saving Private Ryan in honor of the 70th anniversary of D-Day yesterday. I still remember when I first saw this in the theater. I live in a retirement area with a huge senior population.When we went to see this the theater was full, and it was a sea of white heads in every aisle. My wife and I were some of the only young people there. It was harrowing. That opening sequence, no one had ever done anything like it before. For 20 minutes you’re assaulted with graphic violence and noise and fury that relentlessly pounded your senses. By the end of the sequence, you were out of breath and tired of being battered and just wishing for a break from the sensory overload. The result was that for the rest of the movie,…
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Films, Random Musings

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m2 – we finally made it (2014)

June 2, 2014 0 Comments

I have a big backlog of music right now. Just haven’t had the time or inspiration or whatever to “release” it. Not because I don’t feel like it’s worthy. Hell, I’ve been dying to get some of this out there! I’ve just had stuff going on. Managed to muster up the energy for one here, though. This one is unofficially dedicated to my buddy Cary, a great writer you haven’t heard of yet but will soon enough. Recorded this by accident, listened, liked, refined, and the end result is the longest single piece I’ve ever done. For me, at least, it’s a little bit of audio bliss. Enjoy.   m2 we finally made it 1) We Finally Made It (109:29) all songs (c) Eric San…
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Music, Works by Eric

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Why Nirvana Was Important (To Me)

April 14, 2014 1 Comment

There is a segment of music fandom that say Nirvana is overrated. They’re probably not wrong. The band got catapulted into sainthood on the strength of a small catalog, albeit a pretty great one, and a metric ton of media hype. Their status as deities is perhaps overblown, even if they were briefly great. Still, some among the naysayers also say they don’t get why people connected with Cobain. They say his lyrics were mostly strung together nonsense (true) and his songs were simple rips on Pixies and Beatles melodies (also true). So why the hell did anyone connect with this junkie? For me, I can point to two small music moments that exemplify what it was that bored under my skin. The first was…
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Music, Random Musings

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The Trick to Writing Great Conversations

March 28, 2014 0 Comments

The trick to writing great conversations is dear god how the hell am I supposed to know? Who COULD know? Seriously, do you understand how hard it is to pen dialogue that sounds real and natural but that also gets across the information you need to get across? ‘Cause that’s the thing, really. In a book or a short story or comic or whatever, dialogue isn’t merely people talking. It has to get across information. That information may be characterization or character history or plot details or exposition or mood or a million other things, but the point is that dialogue should be there for a reason. Yet at the same time, it should feel perfectly natural. Perfectly real. Perfectly alive. Otherwise readers will cry…
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Writing

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This book about Breaking Bad is out.

November 18, 2013 0 Comments

Breaking Down Breaking Bad

So hey, check it out. Breaking Down Breaking Bad: Unpeeling the Layers of Television’s Greatest Drama is available for purchase and stuff. It’s from me, so that’s kind of cool. It’s available for Kindle and Kindle-friendly devices such as iPads and iPhones, as well as in a print edition. It’s totally affordable, too. Impulse buy! This book began as a germ of an idea about a year or so ago, but it wasn’t an idea I took very seriously at first. Too much on my plate at the time, dealing with too many other things, juggling too many other projects. But in the run up to the show’s final eight episodes, my fever for all things Breaking Bad reached ridiculous proportions. I spent an absurd…
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Television, Works by Eric, Writing

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