http://chained.blogsome.com This blog belongs to Xander Bennett, writer of words for film, TV and comics Mon, 23 Jul 2007 03:12:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I regret to inform you that this blog is dead. Please point your browser to my new blog over at http://xanderbennett.blogspot.com/ Thankyou. http://chained.blogsome.com/2007/07/23/dead-dead-dead/ I’m happy to report that Superman Returns is a wondrous piece of cinema. It swings giddily between moments of reverence — nay, fetishisation — of Richard Donner’s film, and moments of staggering beauty and emotional resonance. The critics are fairly united behind it (although poor, old Ebert seems to have missed ... http://chained.blogsome.com/2006/06/29/returns/ I’ve been back from Viet Nam for three whole weeks, and I haven’t gotten around to blogging until now. I wish I could say it’s because I’m swamped with work, but really I just have very little to say. This will change. Some wondrous and magical things are happening in the ... http://chained.blogsome.com/2006/06/15/what-the-hells-a-blog/ There are some places that you are absolutely certain you’ll get around to visiting in your lifetime. Vietnam was never one of mine. I’m going to be living in a country with a political system completely antithetical to anything I’ve ever known; a place which, when I thought about it ... http://chained.blogsome.com/2006/04/28/a-change-of-heart-and-mind/ Some pictures of our journey so far. I know, I know; when did this turn into a travel blog, right? My apologies to all of you who are utterly bored by this, but I promise I’ll get back to writing about writing soon. First off, here’s a photo of the pagoda ceremony, ... http://chained.blogsome.com/2006/03/29/photographic-evidence/ In this place, nothing is certain. It’s not just the language barrier, although that certainly creates its own set of problems. It’s the people themselves. Ask any ex-pat Westerner in Saigon and they’ll tell you: The Vietnamese are an unpredictable and confusing lot. They say one thing when they mean another; they ... http://chained.blogsome.com/2006/03/15/ambiguity/ I have found myself in a very strange place. In the past few days, I have seen inconceivable things. This culture is so alien, this history so opaque, that I am just now beginning to understand how little I understand. The traffic here flows like water. Step into it and it ... http://chained.blogsome.com/2006/03/04/from-my-notebook/ That title is funny because it’s the name of our hotel (for the moment), and it’s pronounced ’sin’. Okay, it’s not that funny. But I haven’t slept for a very long time. Let me try to describe Saigon. Imagine Paris gets hit by a nuclear warhead. Most of the beautiful buildings fall ... http://chained.blogsome.com/2006/02/26/living-in-xinh/ I’m going to Vietnam in less than two weeks. I’m not even sure how this happened. It probably has something to do with my girlfriend undergoing a one-third-life crisis and deciding she was going to travel and see the world No Matter What. I got swept up in her jetstream, and ... http://chained.blogsome.com/2006/02/11/leaving-on-a-jetplane/ I just wrote — FADE TO BLACK THE END — on my 1950s superhero adventure script. Second draft is done. Came in at 116 pages, which I’m very happy about. It’s just one good, thorough rewrite away from finished. So you’ll all be getting my blog updates back very soon. I miss you guys, I ... http://chained.blogsome.com/2006/01/31/the-sweetest-feeling/