Scott Bowen

I’ve been to Canada a couple times, have numerous Canadian friends, and my experience with the nation of Canada lived up entirely to what might be the “stereotype”: friendly, easy-going, direct, thrifty-yet-generous. I’ve even been amused by those Canadians I met abroad who went out of their way to make sure everyone in the host country knew that they were not Americans. Every piece of luggage and clothing they had was festooned with the maple-leaf flag, as much out of pride as a form of cultural security.

But Canada is taking a hard right turn. This started nearly a year ago when Canadians shocked the world, and probably themselves, by electing a majority Conservative government and Conservative Party Prime Minister, in an election that body-slammed the Liberal party.

That development might give American right-wingers hope for 2012. Our GOP teeth-gnashers might also be excited to learn that Canadian conservatives–citizens and elected officials–are taking a very tough stance on certain foreigners. In fact, the Canadian reaction to these outsiders is so aggressive that this June 1 might be the first time in history that all such aliens are tossed from the country and banned from entry for 90 days.

The plan is called “American-Free Canada,” and no one but the Canucks themselves appear to be paying any attention to this.

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Late last year, scientists operating the Kepler Space Telescope discovered a planet, the newly named Keppler-22b, with a surface and atmosphere similar to that of Earth. At least that’s what the initial assessments suggest, although this planet is much larger than ours.

Trout Unlimited has smartly taken up an effort to begin studying the potential fly-fishing opportunities of this planet, despite its distance from Earth. A number of fly-fishing writers have posted intelligent, insightful articles about the various aspects of this effort, and what might be required to create outstanding fisheries and angling opportunities on Keppler-22b.

Check out the discussion at my friend Marshall Cutchin’s excellent fly-fishing site, MidCurrent.

Parkour (Photo credit: Nick-K (Nikos Koutoulas))

Over the past month I have listened to and been appalled by the ignorant and generally vicious right-wing, arch-religious reaction to the idea that women would appreciate employer-issued health insurance that provided for their reproductive care, including birth control. This political bloc utterly disregards important health decisions our mothers, sisters, girlfriends, wives, and friends must make. Somehow, health matters related directly to our continuation as a species don’t rate sufficiently in the world view of various Republicans and religious “leaders” to qualify as part of health insurance.

John Stewart of the Daily Show aside, the most incisive reactions to this unAmerican process have come from women, including Joan Walsh at Salon.com and my friend Caitlin Kelly at her blog, Broadside. For the record, however, let me say:

1. If Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) had a uterus, Bayer would send him a Midol PM fruit basket every three weeks, delivered by big-pharma lobbyists who also hand him wads of cash to sponsor legislation for research into pain-free menstruation. NASA might get involved.

2. Those really stupid self-inflicted injuries that 99-percent of the time belong to men? COVERAGE DENIED.

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Last night I had one of the usual flashbacks: A fleeting mental glimpse of a monster movie I watched as a kid, yet I could not recall the movie title or any actors’ names. I could see a large, lumbering, shaggy dragon-like creature underneath a darkened sky, while some men watched the beast from cover. The monster seemed in memory to be as much mammal as reptile.

I recalled that I had watched the movie on TV at a friend’s house on a cloudy late-autumn day, after we had spent an enjoyably gloomy afternoon searching for monster tracks in the woods. The gloominess of the scene with the monster in the movie matched my personal impressions of the afternoon.

One other thing I also recalled: The men in the film were in search of the Golden Fleece. read more »

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Of the magazines to which I still subscribe, Outside is usually the only one that I start reading immediately. The inspiration factor gets me. The investigative reporting is also pretty damn fine, and the editors are not afraid to mix things up, content wise.

As I started ripping through the March 2012 issue, however, I came to a laughing halt on page 92, a single-page “Style” section, for here I faced a daunting purchase: $14,239 worth of wristwatches, six of them.

If I let myself, I could be a bit of a wristwatch junkie. I have three now — two not worth the mention, and a $400 Swiss Army chronograph that was a gift and has features I’ve never used, but I wear it all the time.

I’ve seen a $500 black Bulova that I very much would like. Once I explain to myself, however, that I have three functional watches and as much as I really like the black Bulova I don’t need it, the desire subsides.

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My extended absence from blogging has been due mainly to one thing: Finishing a second revision of a novel, The Summer That Wasn’t, a work detailed in an earlier post. Between that and the editorial day job, my writing energies were regularly tapped through late fall into early winter.

Now, with the manuscript of STW out for a reading, I’ve wondered about a significant aspect of the creation and revision of this story: The killing of main characters.

Just about any author you can think of has done this, in one tale or another. Entire novels hinge on a character’s death. Or, as I was once told in graduate school, “If you can’t think of a way to start the plot, kill someone.”

Does this god-like act require any kind of ethics? At the very least, shouldn’t it always be well done?  read more »

Last week, I was fortunate enough to do an interview on The Deadliest Podcast, with the namesakes Jay and Kirby of JayandKirbyProductions.

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

We talked of all things vampire, zombie, and Deadliest Warrior.

At one point in the show, we were talking about “monster match-ups,” after I had raised the point that some fans on The Deadliest Warrior web page had suggested a vampire-versus-werewolf contest for the show. This led my referencing various programs on different networks that feature predator-versus-predator pairings, or dinosaur-versus-dinosaur match-ups.

“That all goes back to King Kong versus Godzilla,” I said while talking to Jay and Kirby.

To clarify, I meant that in relation to the dino match-ups (Godzilla being an atomic-powered dinosaur). The vampire-versus-werewolf-versus. . .ghoul, zombie, whatever — that goes back a little farther than 1962, the year of KKvG.

The “monster rally “started in film in 1943 with Universal’s Frankenstein meets the Wolfman. Want the vampire connection? Bela Lugosi played Frankenstein’s monster in that one.

The sequel to this is the 1944 film House of Frankenstein, in which the “mad doctor,” played by Boris Karloff, brings back to life Count Dracula (David Carradine), Frankenstein’s monster (Glenn Strange), and the wolfman (Lon Chaney Jr.). In 1945 comes the third installment, House of Dracula, again featuring the vampire, wolfman, and “the monster.” (What do you properly call Frankenstein’s monster? A revenant?)

This film series and also horror comics are where the monster match-up originates in general American media. Think of all the servicemen and servicewomen who saw these films while in uniform during and just after WW2.

Contests between any marque horror or action names — Superman and Batman v. Aliens and Predator, for example — come of a narrative lineage going back to these films and the pre-Code comics. These days, you can’t swing a dead zombie without hitting a mash-up narrative.

It’s a monster-rally world.

# # #

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Fighting off vampires and zombies can quickly turn into full-time work — just look at I Am Legend or World War Z. Among your accoutrement you will surely need a shotgun, because you must have a weapon that makes big holes, does a lot of damage, and is truly applicable to close-range shooting.

Many people, however, don’t have any experience with shotguns at all. And rushing to Wal-Mart to pick-through what’s left in the gun department in the hours before the zombie onslaught or the vampire invasion is just poor planning, because how long will you have to practice with that thing before you use it ineptly?

Thus, I have called upon my friend, Phil Bourjaily, for a scatter-gun primer.

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Some glimpses behind the scenes (no spoilers) before we tune in Wednesday night at 9 on Spike TV to watch the “Deadliest Warrior” season finale: VAMPIRES v. ZOMBIES.

1. WE SERIOUSLY DEBATED THE MATH

The trouble with vampires is that they are myriad in form and ability. So the powers that vampires have in one particular tale or history can be outpaced by vampires in some other history, novel, or film. The “Deadliest Warrior” writers, producers, director, hosts, and Steven Niles and I agreed on an “apex predator” concept of vampires, much akin to those of Steve’s 30 Days of Night comic book series, and went with that. But we enjoyed any number of animated discussions until we nailed down workable concepts about vampire (and zombie) strength and speed.

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The refrain of 9/11 is “Never Forget.” A lot about this day depends on memory.

Memory, however, can be faulty.

One item of all my memories of that day sticks out, and I offer up the topic for reader assistance, because I wonder if my memory is faulty on this particular detail — a detail that has long been crucial to me, but in the decade since has come under my own scrutiny.

Around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, I left my office job in #2 Park Avenue, at 33 Street, and walked through the revolving door of the great lobby and into the sun. The cops had halted all traffic, and people were walking in the street. As I stepped off the curb, I looked up.

Streaking south to north, straight up Park Ave, came a single fighter jet, flying so low I could see clearly black lettering on its left fin. It had two fins (“vertical stabilizers”), so I identified it as an F-15 (pictured above). The aircraft was a dusty gray.

As this jet shot overhead, I thought to myself, and possibly said aloud to no one, “We’re at war, and it is going to be a really weird one.”

Now, these years later, I wonder: Did I really see that jet?

Did you?

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