Greetings family, friends and fans:
Monday, Aug. 31 at 9 pm will be the first airing of HISTORY DETECTIVES episode STALAG 17 PORTRAIT, wherein I am interviewed about my own artwork and that of my late father, Harold Rhoden. The show will rerun on Sept. 5 at 4pm. It's already being called the highlight of the episode (which featured two other twenty-minute segments) and is featured on many affiliate websites. There is even a preview video up at the PBS.org site on their HISTORY DETECTIVES page. To celebrate, my paintings and fans are being made available for sale DIRECTLY FROM THE HOME SITE (www.fletcherrhoden.com) with a handy and safe PayPal transaction. Get them while they're hot, collectors -- values are sure to go up after the episode airs!
In other news, I am recording a new pop song as previously mentioned, but have decided to hold it back from release as it may well become part of a larger, new project. I can't discuss details, but if the project comes together as planned it will be my first stage musical. A planned new cd release, unrelated to this project, will likely be delayed (but not scrubbed) so I can focus on the musical which, if I don't have any complicated legal issues, should be one of my highest-profile projects ever. Unlike my last play, the successful LAST TANGO WITH MARLON, which went into production only a few months after the writing began, this new project will develop more slowly, so fans shouldn't expect any kind of production before the end of this year. A staged reading is a possibility, however, with some type of production also possible in the first half of 2010. But there will be plenty of good stuff from Fletcher Rhoden.com between now and year's end, so stay tuned!
If you miss the scheduled airings of HISTORY DETECTIVES, my understanding is that it can be seen anytime at the HISTORY DETECTIVES page of the PBS.org website on or after September 1st.
See you on the tube!
FR
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
WIZARD OF OZ 70th Anniversary
Greetings, folks:
As many of you know, I recently created a graphic novel called THE REBELS OF OZ, based on the original works of L. Frank Baum and following an adult Dorothy Gale's return to Oz to overthrow the tyrannical regime of her former allies Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion. And as such, somebody asked me recently what my thoughts were on this 70th anniversary of the well-loved musical motion picture starring Judy Garland.
It's an interesting question. I was never a fan of the movie, to be honest. I was attracted to the graphic novel project I did for a number of reasons: I was interested in returning to that medium, I wanted to exploit the new softwares that made creating such a project so easy. And I liked the story of Dorothy going back to face down her now-corrupted allies. I thought it was a nice story about the drawbacks of intelligence, bravery and sensitivity, and the need to face and accept your past.
But the movie never really grabbed me. I find the sets and costumes kind of cheap. Honestly, I know this film was shot on a sound stage, with painted backgrounds and wooden sets. But when the film was refurbished and digitized (which I think it has been a few times) couldn't they have blurred out that obnoxious line between the edge of the set and the bottom of the painted background? When they're trotting "Off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz..." I keep wincing, half-expecting them to skip face-on into that backdrop. And while the music is good and the acting overall is pretty solid, the script is very, very weak. Now I know this will rankle a lot of people. I'm just a largely unknown writer, after all, and this film is considered a classic. It is often used in screenwriting books as one of the great screen examples of the Hero's Journey and of the basic three-act structure (I've even mentioned it myself in my writing seminar WRITE MAKES MIGHT: Stronger Structure in Storytelling, now on DVD from my site, Fletcher Rhoden.com). But throughout most of the movie Dorothy pouts and whines, she runs away from home, rides a bicycle and talks to her pet in a voice that sounds almost cartoonishly meek and childlike. She's carried from one place to another by a force of nature, helpless in the hands of a virtual God in the Machine. She is then sent on a fool's errand and does just what she's told without question, without countering. Later Dorothy is plucked out of the action near the midpoint and spends much of the rest of the act sitting in a tower sobbing, waiting for death. Once rescued, she spends the rest of the time running away from the witch until accidentally killing her. Then she pleads and pouts some more to the Wizard. By today's standards, this behavior is considered much too passive. Today's heros do the rescuing, they don't sit around needing to be rescued -- especially today's female heroes. While I realize it can be considered less than fair to hold one work up to the standards of another era, I would say that the best works in any era do hold up to the standards of another. Even by today's standards, for example, the Mona Lisa is still a great painting, the great pyramids are still great engineering feats. Charlie Chaplin's City Lights still holds up. Which is why it's not a matter of holding TWOZ up to the standards of its own time and not our own; even back then lead characters were more dynamic. These elements of story are consistent all the way back to the first stories ever told; those of the hunts to kill the mammoth and the cave bear, told by the hunters to their Neanderthal and Cro Magnon women and children over 15,000 years ago.
There's another glaring weakness with this film that is centered around the depiction of Dorothy Gale. In the first book, Dorothy is 8-years-old. In the movie based on that book, she's supposed to be 12, but is portrayed by an actress of about 15 (Garland was born in 1922.) So what we wind up with is a 15-year-old, fast becoming a woman, who is dressed like a 12-year-old and acts like an 8-year-old. Then she runs off and travels across a country she doesn't know in the company of three single middle-aged men. And these men, all outcasts and without significant social ties, can only find wholeness in the company of this woman/child. The psychosexual undercurrents of these relationships are not new ground, but in this day of child predation I think they deserve a second look. Strippers and hookers (whose business it is to be sexual) dress up as Judy Garland's Dorothy, so it's not hard to find the contemporary manifestations of this troubling dynamic. A brief surf on the internet will reveal even more frightening echoes of MGM's Dorothy Gale. Seventy years on, the legacy of THE WIZARD OF OZ continues to evolve along these strange lines. As long as Hollywood continues to hypersexualize young women, I expect the Oz legacy to continue on its twisted course.
www.fletcherrhoden.com/therebelsofoz.htm
As many of you know, I recently created a graphic novel called THE REBELS OF OZ, based on the original works of L. Frank Baum and following an adult Dorothy Gale's return to Oz to overthrow the tyrannical regime of her former allies Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion. And as such, somebody asked me recently what my thoughts were on this 70th anniversary of the well-loved musical motion picture starring Judy Garland.
It's an interesting question. I was never a fan of the movie, to be honest. I was attracted to the graphic novel project I did for a number of reasons: I was interested in returning to that medium, I wanted to exploit the new softwares that made creating such a project so easy. And I liked the story of Dorothy going back to face down her now-corrupted allies. I thought it was a nice story about the drawbacks of intelligence, bravery and sensitivity, and the need to face and accept your past.
But the movie never really grabbed me. I find the sets and costumes kind of cheap. Honestly, I know this film was shot on a sound stage, with painted backgrounds and wooden sets. But when the film was refurbished and digitized (which I think it has been a few times) couldn't they have blurred out that obnoxious line between the edge of the set and the bottom of the painted background? When they're trotting "Off to see the Wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz..." I keep wincing, half-expecting them to skip face-on into that backdrop. And while the music is good and the acting overall is pretty solid, the script is very, very weak. Now I know this will rankle a lot of people. I'm just a largely unknown writer, after all, and this film is considered a classic. It is often used in screenwriting books as one of the great screen examples of the Hero's Journey and of the basic three-act structure (I've even mentioned it myself in my writing seminar WRITE MAKES MIGHT: Stronger Structure in Storytelling, now on DVD from my site, Fletcher Rhoden.com). But throughout most of the movie Dorothy pouts and whines, she runs away from home, rides a bicycle and talks to her pet in a voice that sounds almost cartoonishly meek and childlike. She's carried from one place to another by a force of nature, helpless in the hands of a virtual God in the Machine. She is then sent on a fool's errand and does just what she's told without question, without countering. Later Dorothy is plucked out of the action near the midpoint and spends much of the rest of the act sitting in a tower sobbing, waiting for death. Once rescued, she spends the rest of the time running away from the witch until accidentally killing her. Then she pleads and pouts some more to the Wizard. By today's standards, this behavior is considered much too passive. Today's heros do the rescuing, they don't sit around needing to be rescued -- especially today's female heroes. While I realize it can be considered less than fair to hold one work up to the standards of another era, I would say that the best works in any era do hold up to the standards of another. Even by today's standards, for example, the Mona Lisa is still a great painting, the great pyramids are still great engineering feats. Charlie Chaplin's City Lights still holds up. Which is why it's not a matter of holding TWOZ up to the standards of its own time and not our own; even back then lead characters were more dynamic. These elements of story are consistent all the way back to the first stories ever told; those of the hunts to kill the mammoth and the cave bear, told by the hunters to their Neanderthal and Cro Magnon women and children over 15,000 years ago.
There's another glaring weakness with this film that is centered around the depiction of Dorothy Gale. In the first book, Dorothy is 8-years-old. In the movie based on that book, she's supposed to be 12, but is portrayed by an actress of about 15 (Garland was born in 1922.) So what we wind up with is a 15-year-old, fast becoming a woman, who is dressed like a 12-year-old and acts like an 8-year-old. Then she runs off and travels across a country she doesn't know in the company of three single middle-aged men. And these men, all outcasts and without significant social ties, can only find wholeness in the company of this woman/child. The psychosexual undercurrents of these relationships are not new ground, but in this day of child predation I think they deserve a second look. Strippers and hookers (whose business it is to be sexual) dress up as Judy Garland's Dorothy, so it's not hard to find the contemporary manifestations of this troubling dynamic. A brief surf on the internet will reveal even more frightening echoes of MGM's Dorothy Gale. Seventy years on, the legacy of THE WIZARD OF OZ continues to evolve along these strange lines. As long as Hollywood continues to hypersexualize young women, I expect the Oz legacy to continue on its twisted course.
www.fletcherrhoden.com/therebelsofoz.htm
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Fletcher Rhoden's new ebook / read-along video now available!
Greetings from Fletcher Rhoden.com! The namesake here, happy to announce that FR.c has released IMAGINE NATHAN ON SUPERMARKET SAFARI as an ebook and in read-along video format. Over 40 fully illustrated pages -- all full-color, hand painted and digitally reproduced -- this first "Imagine Nathan" story turns a boring chore into a wild adventure into the deepest jungles! Go face-to-face with charging rhinos, deadly sea creatures and more as Imagine Nathan makes the everyday extraordinary. This is a great book for any imaginative child, homeschooler, busy parent or concerned teacher. The ebook is a handy pdf that downloads in a snap and is designed to be read on any computer or similar device. The read-along video will help your kids with any reading difficulties they may have, and downloads as a safe and convenient m4v file, perfect for iTunes. IMAGINE NATHAN ON SUPERMARKET SAFARI is my 3rd ebook for kids, after THAT'S RUDE, JUDE! and BALLOONZEE: LET'S GO FLOATIN'. There are several more Imagine Nathan adventures for possible sequels, in case any publishers are out there and are interested. Anybody can buy the book and video, as well as enjoying free ebook and video clips, at the new IMAGINENATHAN page of our home site, Fletcher Rhoden.com (www.fletcherrhoden.com/imaginenathan.htm). Publishers can request free pdfs when considering acquiring various rights by emailing me. The address is on the page.
To celebrate the release of IMAGINE NATHAN ON SUPERMARKET SAFARI, we've spruced up Fletcher Rhoden.com -- many of our videos are now embedded right on the page, so you don't have to link over to Youtube or Yahoo! Video and then back to the site. Also, the new CHILDREN'S STORE has been completely revamped for easy use. Check out the NEWS page to see what else has been added since you've been there last, and what you can expect when you go there to buy IMAGINE NATHAN ON SUPERMARKET SAFARI.
I was very happy with the way IMAGINE NATHAN ON SUPERMARKET SAFARI came out. Visually, it's a combination of a cartoonish style I sometimes use for face and body painting, but I used acrylics (my usual paint medium) instead of Indian ink (the norm). Kids' books are also often done in crayon, oil pastel and colored pencil. But the first two were hard to use and the colored pencils weren't going to give me the depth of color I wanted. In any case I think it's just the right balance -- it looks like most kids books in the stores. As for the writing, this book is smart, funny, never talking down to kids but appealing to the very things they love; imagination, whimsey, and constant entertainment.
Next up for me are some possible musical projects (including a new pop single I wrote on a fishing boat off the Malibu Pier last month.) I still plan to release several of my novels through CreateSpace, likewise the Eva James Band Live DVD (which could be the next official release from Fletcher Rhoden.com) and a few other things I hope to get in by the end of the year. There is also a possibility that I may return to theater directing, working with my LAST TANGO WITH MARLON star Frank Cavestani, who played Marlon Brando. I have also appeared recently with my TANGO star Raf (Wally Cox) Mauro in his for-kids improv show THE MAGIC MIRROR. We hope to continue that, but have no plans to do so until early 2010.
In other news, I continue to work as a medical ghostwriter with Jeanell Suggs. We are also finishing a non-fiction book proposal which I'm sure we'll have done by the end of the summer. Add this to the stream of dvd rereleases, the graphic novel (THE REBELS OF OZ) and the two cds I put out early in the year, and 2009 is bound to go down as one of my hottest yet. And there could still be even more great news, putting the year way way over the top, but (like me) you'll just have to stay tuned and wait for the news to roll in.
Steady on,
FR
To celebrate the release of IMAGINE NATHAN ON SUPERMARKET SAFARI, we've spruced up Fletcher Rhoden.com -- many of our videos are now embedded right on the page, so you don't have to link over to Youtube or Yahoo! Video and then back to the site. Also, the new CHILDREN'S STORE has been completely revamped for easy use. Check out the NEWS page to see what else has been added since you've been there last, and what you can expect when you go there to buy IMAGINE NATHAN ON SUPERMARKET SAFARI.
I was very happy with the way IMAGINE NATHAN ON SUPERMARKET SAFARI came out. Visually, it's a combination of a cartoonish style I sometimes use for face and body painting, but I used acrylics (my usual paint medium) instead of Indian ink (the norm). Kids' books are also often done in crayon, oil pastel and colored pencil. But the first two were hard to use and the colored pencils weren't going to give me the depth of color I wanted. In any case I think it's just the right balance -- it looks like most kids books in the stores. As for the writing, this book is smart, funny, never talking down to kids but appealing to the very things they love; imagination, whimsey, and constant entertainment.
Next up for me are some possible musical projects (including a new pop single I wrote on a fishing boat off the Malibu Pier last month.) I still plan to release several of my novels through CreateSpace, likewise the Eva James Band Live DVD (which could be the next official release from Fletcher Rhoden.com) and a few other things I hope to get in by the end of the year. There is also a possibility that I may return to theater directing, working with my LAST TANGO WITH MARLON star Frank Cavestani, who played Marlon Brando. I have also appeared recently with my TANGO star Raf (Wally Cox) Mauro in his for-kids improv show THE MAGIC MIRROR. We hope to continue that, but have no plans to do so until early 2010.
In other news, I continue to work as a medical ghostwriter with Jeanell Suggs. We are also finishing a non-fiction book proposal which I'm sure we'll have done by the end of the summer. Add this to the stream of dvd rereleases, the graphic novel (THE REBELS OF OZ) and the two cds I put out early in the year, and 2009 is bound to go down as one of my hottest yet. And there could still be even more great news, putting the year way way over the top, but (like me) you'll just have to stay tuned and wait for the news to roll in.
Steady on,
FR
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