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Jack Mangans Deadpan #186: A Thousand Scraps of Paper

A Thousand Show Notes.

Jack Mangans Deadpan #186: A Thousand Scraps of Paper

Sly B’s live mariachi performance

Get well soon to Jack’s little one

There is no (Greasy) Spoon…
Ed From Texas
Vanamonde
Lo Pan
Used Hair
The Energizer Bunny
Ed From Texas
Vanamonde (first of the week)

More from Sly B

Political D & D with Rush

Promo – TuacaCon (http://tuacacon.squarespace.com/)

More from the D & D session

Sly B’s Mariachi performance continued

Ode to a Walrus

D & D continues

Nine Inch Smurf still going strong

More from Sly B

Send in content: 206-350-Tomi (8664) or e-mail: sphericaljackmatgmaildotcom

Closing music

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756 thoughts on “Jack Mangans Deadpan #186: A Thousand Scraps of Paper”

  8. Morning, DP! It’s a winter wonderland here.

    Ed, I’m just about 100 pages into Towers – so far digging it, but the messianic bit at the beginning was a bit heavy-handed. Still, LOVE these books. Glad it hit #1 on the NYT list.

  10. Good Morning Pan! Between birthdays (friends and friends kids), games, practice for game, visiting friends, driving to and from all said events, I’ve been home (except for sleep) about 3 hours in the past week. UGH! I need a nap!

    GOOD MORNING PAN! WOO WOO!

  17. A long time ago, Neil Gaiman pointed out something that made me realize why there are certain quest stories that I don’t care for. He was referring to an old essay by Nick Lowe regarding plot coupons. I hadn’t heard the term before, but both Neil’s post and the essay were very enlightening.

    Here’s Neil’s post:
    http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2002/10/several-people-asking-what-i-meant-by.asp
    Nick Lowe’s article is here:
    http://news.ansible.co.uk/plotdev.html

    If you don’t want to read all that, the idea is that plot coupons are items that the hero has to obtain on his/her/its way to completing the quest.

    What I’ve found is that plot coupon stories tend to be action-oriented. The hero runs runs runs, grabs item, runs to next one, and so on until the culmination of the quest. Either one item leads to the next one or all of them need to be obtained to reveal something–mega coupon time! The problem for me is that with all this running around there often is little character development. I like character-driven stories so this is why these stories often don’t work for me.

    This is a huge lead in to this point: I was disappointed when I watched the recent “Sucker Punch” trailer. It still looks like an awesome visual fest, but the trailer reveals that the core story revolves around plot coupons. Sigh.

    I think one of the reasons why I enjoy the first Matrix movie so much is that it doesn’t use plot coupons. Anderson evolves into Neo through his choices. Unfortunately, the sequels don’t work for many reasons, including the use of plot coupons.

    The first “Sucker Punch” trailer reminded me a lot of “The Matrix” so I was hoping that the story would be good. But the plot coupons make me sad. I’m not saying these kinds of stories are bad, there are plenty of good ones, but more often than not they are a sign that the focus isn’t on what makes a good story for me: characters.

    Anyway, that’s my rant for the week.

    We’ll return you to your regularly scheduled commenting.

  25. This here is my land, not your land
    Cuz I got a shotgun an’ you ain’t got one
    So you better get an’ run ‘fore you get some
    This land was made for me not you
    😉

  32. I’ve always liked the Plot Coupons concept, as a positive and a negative for beginning writers.

    Although it should probably be updated to “Plot Rollback”, for the future generations who will have no idea what a coupon is.

  93. d is for the many beers he Drinkies
    i is for Intolerance (not him)
    t is for the Toronto team he roots for
    t is for the Today cause its his b-day
    o is for what he gives the girls…

  104. UH: Awesome! Consider yourself counted in! 🙂 I’ll make the Secret Santa matchups sometime around the end of November/beginning of December. Please send an e-mail to bowen1138 –AT– yahoo DOT com with your e-mail address. Also, let me know if you’d like to opt out of international shipping, and I’ll make sure you don’t get an international gift recipient.

    ditto: Happy birthday!

  121. 11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day

    ^This!

  132. Today’s movie: The Children
    The DVR writeup: A New Year’s gathering in the British countryside turns into a terrifying battle for survival when the youngsters become infected with a virus that causes them to attack the adults in a fit of homicidal rage

    Sounds like 85 minutes of goodness.

  194. I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents, I hate these parents,

  233. My thoughts on this movie:

    It actually had a lot of potential. The main thing that really, really, really pissed me off was the horrid parenting skills of the adults. I felt no sympathy for them and, in some cases, felt they deserved to die. I think that took a lot away from the move.

  255. Lejon is a ninja! He appears and disappears at a whim!

    CD: Dupont’s Moinette Brune (the belgian brewery, not the chemical company) Very yummy and delicious

    CE: Pork chop and greenbeans – yummy, but the beer is better

  258. No, no, we wouldn’t want to upset him. Finding out he’s spent his Friday evening crashing Audacity instead of going out and having fun?

    No way I’m letting that slip out.

  259. The wife and I just finished watching the Bruce Willis flick, “Surrogates”.

    I think this one might be palooza worthy some day. Definitely a well executed and thought provoking film.

    We watched Repo Men a few months ago. While it explores some of the same issues, it did not execute nearly as well as this did.

    Thumbs up from the from Texas household.

  262. And, in a bonus bit of good news, it looks like my refrigerator has not died. I really did not want to have to deal with buying a new one right now.

  265. Hmmm, I might have to watch Surrogates now after your comments Ed, and Lo Pan.

    Good news about the fridge Ed.

    >.> It has always been saturday <.<

  269. I saw a commercial for it during Top Gear. Seems intriguing. But, that’s been the limit. I don’t manage to watch as much TV anymore. Chuck, Castle, and Top Gear on my do no miss. I manage some Discovery and History channel stuff as I can.

    Speaking of which, this is one I’ve started recording and need to get caught up on:

    http://science.discovery.com/tv/sci-fi-science/

    First episode we watched was about trying to create the Star Trek TNG Holodeck in real life….and they were talking about some amazingly plausible stuff.

  272. I quite enjoyed Surrogates when I saw it at the flicks, one of BW’s better films. I haven’t read the graphic novel it’s based on though.

    I suspect Essbee is talking about the BBC series, if so, the psycho bitch villainess was so over the top that it put me off the series.

    CCW: Latest ‘The Mentalist’ episode.

  280. Morning, blush

    CW: Avs/Jackets Highlights

    Ed/Van: Id be happy to give Surrogates another try. It just felt super rushed and forced at only 80minutes long. I also felt the ending too quickly and neatly wrapped things up. But being such a short film it would be easy to give it a second chance.

  287. Thanks EssBee.

    Lo: Honestly I haven’t listened to it. I really liked “Brave New World” when it came out and I enjoyed but didn’t love “Dances with Death.” And then got really bored with their new stuff. In my opinion, the two solo albums that Bruce Dickinson did “Accident of Birth” and “The Chemical Wedding” tower over everything that Maiden has done since “Powerslave.” Which is a shame, since Maiden sounded great live a couple of years ago.

  291. Well shift over, and now I have two weeks off.

    Travel plans appear to have fallen through, so the next couple of weeks will be an exercise in doing very little.

  293. Watched the first ep of TWD. It was pretty good, especially since I’ve never seen the comics. So far, he seems a little too dumb to survive, but we’ll see where it goes from here.

  294. CW/L: TuacaCon feed, been really entertaining so far with some very “interesting” stories. Course I forgot ot get some Tuaca so I’ve been drinking homebrew and some commercial beers

    CD: Three Philosophers, I’d planned to save this until I’d had the time, and been sober enough to really enjoy it. But the bottle I had in the fridge was too tempting :D.

  296. Nobilis wated copies for his podcast, that kind of interesting.

    I know I’m missing lots of good studd including one lady who was an excellent singer. Hopefully in the morning after PG has finished posting videos to the website, and Ik’ve sobered up i’ll be able to give credit where it’s due.

  297. Sheesh! So Voltron always has trouble battling one Ro-Beast. You would think King Zarkon would wisen up and send 2 or 3 at a time. Honestly, Hagar seems to be able to mass produce these things. Thats just bad tactics to only send one at a time to Planet Aris. No wonder a girlie lame princess, a midget, a fat man, and 2 metrosexuals were able to defeat all of Planet Doom. Bah I say. Bah.

  298. ditto I really enjoyed Episode 1 of TWD. I hear 2 isnt great but we’ll see. Thought it added a few really fresh things to an otherwise over saturated zombie genre.

  304. Lo: I plan to see episode 2 & 3 tonight. I like how the focus is on his character, which I’m guessing, is much like the comic book. We’ll see if he start to learn to be smarter. 🙂

  311. Does anyone wanna do a Deadpan bumper with me? I have a couple ideas but I need help. Email me at mr.david.lo.pan at geeeeeemail if interested.

  314. Would love to, but I think I’ve just transitioned from the

    “Yeah! I’m going to Disneyworld!”

    to

    “Holy Crap! I’m going to Disneyworld this week. Dammit I gotta pack!”

    phase.

  318. I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb:

  320. I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb: I hate :ftb:

  325. Ed: Have fun! 🙂

    I’m currently posting from Wagon Wheel Country Music Festival here at the local minor league baseball stadium. I don’t know who around here set up a Linksys wireless access point, but here I am, posting to the Deadpan from it. :biggrin: I’m guessing it was probably one of the RVers; I don’t think any of the houses around here are close enough to the stadium for wi-fi to reach in here.

  340. Singing in the Pan
    Just singing in the Pan
    What a glorious feeling
    I’m Panning again
    I’m laughing out lout
    At the comments above
    The Pan’s in my eyes
    And I’m ready for Love

  363. What! Ok, why does WP not want me to join in the conversation live? Why do I have to always wait for approval to join in?

    *sigh*

  368. Really? Can’t sign in with my current e-mail any more. Why not? I refuse to use an old e-mail. Jack, return me to the present

  377. Jack asked me to use my old e-mail until it’s fixed. I decided to be magnanimous and go along with that. But only temporarily 😉

  380. He started doing it for his computer communications class and he didn’t want to do it alone. However he has two twitter accounts now. One personal and one for school.

  394. It’s a tacky decision on the part of the liquor co., but I’d defend their right to open a store in that real estate space.

    If they have any class at all, they’ll try to find some way to work with the rehab center. Or centre. Or centaur.

  396. I agree with you, Jack. They can open whatever kind of store they want – or should be able to. Sobriety has very little to do with the vicinity of neon beer signs.

  397. the Liquor Co. would seem to be expanding the bounds of douchbaggery.
    While I would not join a mob that was trying to shut them down … I would certainly not spend any of my time trying to stop them.

  472. Well holiday booked, if all goes according to plan I should be Canada bound in October next years.

    I’ll try not to piss off the polar bears.

  478. Fracking Hell. Let’s repost that under the “old” e-mail…

    *sigh* Well, since it’s your sister…

    *mutters under breath* Stupid word press. Ruining the impact of my message. If I choose to jump between systems, that’s your problem, not mine *mutter, mutter, mutter*

  498. That’s one of the perks of being a rebel, I can avoid all the royal pairing news. Now I can get back to watching CNN. There’s a special about how Miley Cyrus is coping with her parents divorce.

  512. So we hired the same propel to clear snow that relandscaped our yard. I look out and it’s the cute young version of Vin Diesel out there. Too bad it’s too cold for him to take his shirt off

  547. Tim Curry was fantastic in all of that evil red rubber, but otherwise, the movie was kind of a fail.
    Is Mia Sara insane? She did make the movie more bearable.

    Is this palooza bait?

    Goodnight :mum:

  550. Interesting. I could only get through a couple of paragraphs. The one thing I’ll agree with is that Dushku wasn’t the strongest choice to carry that series.

  551. Well, it is Friday, at least for me. Tomorrow begins the eight day visit to Disneyworld with the family. I should be able to get the new DP before I go in the morning, but I will probably be invisible here for the next week or so.

    Take care, all.

  562. It’s been two weeks since my tests and I haven’t heard anything from my doctor yet. I think I’ll have to give him a poke later today.

    Telling you, not feeling the medical love.

  569. Ed: Have a safe and fun Trip!

    Van: Brutal Woman can be a hard blog to take, but I do enjoy reading her from time-to-time; mostly because she has a very different perspective and she is (usually) well-reasoned. I can understand many of her criticisms of Dollhouse even if I don’t agree with all of them.

  576. Oh, ditto. You know you can touch this…

    I havnet seen Dollhouse so I cant comment. But I will say I think Im the only dork that doesnt want to suck the cock of Whedon. I find him extremely underwhelming, like most of his endeavors. He struck gold with Firefly and I enjoyed Dr. Horrible. Everything else Ive not cared for in the least.

  578. Lo: You aren’t the only one. I have much the same feeling. I never could get into Buffy, even though I admit the dialog was pretty snappy. Dollhouse, while it was interesting, never wow’ed me–except for Sierra *swoooon*. I also don’t agree with Whedon’s insistence on killing/mangling happy couples.

  580. Sacrilege!

    Kidding, Lo, but I am what you might call a Buffy fanatic, down to one of my tattoos. I also love Angel and Dr. Horrible and am passionate about Firefly and Serenity. Dollhouse was definitely his weakest attempt (I have Season 1 on DVD if you wanna borrow it).

    I think Whedon is sharp but think that lots of other people, specifically Jane Espenson and Tim Minear, are responsible for lots of the things I love about his great shows. Whedon for all of his brilliance falls pretty short on transgressing gender/racial/sexual orientation stereotypes, and does a lot of resting on laurels and geek fu, I think.

    That being said, Joss is Boss, and I would throw my panties at him if I saw him.

  588. But as an aside, Whedon is a human being and capable of failure. There are a lot of directors I admire, but I can’t think of a single one that didn’t stumble somewhere along their career, except for maybe Kubrick. And he made up for that by being a collosal douche a lot of time. LOL

  589. Well I agree, Rhett. I’m not saying he stumbled along the way. I think he’s over-hyped to begin with. But thats just me and my tastes and me not enjoying most of his work. Which, granted, isnt a whole lot of work to start with.

  590. I almost abandon Dollhouse after the first 2 episodes. I will have to say it finished very VERY strong.

    I found that the majority of the bloggers dislike of Dollhouse, seemed to stem from her dislike of guys.

    “But the fact is that 1) The Madam isn’t actually in charge. She answers to a guy (snip) 2) Alpha, who plays around with folks and also wipes folks, is a guy 3) And Topher, of course, (snip) 4) Echo’s protector/body guard is a guy 5) the “good guy” trying to save Echo from all these bad people is, of course, a guy. ”

    Not liking things because of the gender involved would seem to cut down on your entertainment choices in a big way.

    I am a little surprised though … since all the baddies are GUYS, that would seem to give support to her hate of them and therefore you’d think she’d actually LIKE Dollhouse.

  594. Heh, JOe, I see your point, but I think she was specifically reacting to Whedon’s assertion that Dollhouse was about women’s agency, which comes off kinda weak in Season 1.

    Sly B doesn’t dislike Dollhouse because she hates men. Just for the record.

  600. I’ve read most of his comics and I’ve been underwhelmed there too. They aren’t bad, they just don’t quite work for me and I’m not certain why.

    EssBee: I never assumed that was why Sly B didn’t like Dollhouse.

  601. As for Whedon – He is BIG in the Sci-Fi/geek circles because he makes films/video aimed at that audience. If you think he is over-hyped just step out of the circle and you’ll find the rest of Hollywood asking “Who”?

    It is also my understanding that what seems to be “resting on his laurels” is actually “He hasn’t done much lately because he can’t get mainstream Hollywood to fund/produce his projects because they don’t fit the formula and don’t play for the Twilight masses and … Who did you say you are again? Whedon???.”

    I know him for three things. That makes him a pretty small fish in the Entertainment world’s ocean.

  603. “I’ve read most of his comics and I’ve been underwhelmed there too. They aren’t bad, they just don’t quite work for me and I’m not certain why.”

    You know ditto, I hadn’t really thought about it but I agree. I liked but wasn’t blown away by his comic work. I never got into Buffy, but eventually I’ll give the first season a test drive.

  606. EssBee: LOL

    I was going to say that I had the opposite reaction of Sly B. That is to say I loved Dollhouse because I hate men too. Who wants to look at ugly dudes when you can watch the lovely ladies of Dollhouse? 😀

  607. Oh yeh … somehow I forgot all about “Buffy”.
    I guess I know Whedon for 4 things then.

    Somehow a zillion seasons of “Buffy” still didn’t manage to get Whedon the kind of recognition that Steven Bochco, J.J. Abrams, or even Sid and Marty Krofft have.

  609. LOL, Rhettro! I see your point, sir. I feel the need to call you a P.I.G. on behalf of Brutal Woman, though I think we all know she & I both secretly agree with you.

  626. Once upon a time there was a tavern
    Where we used to raise a glass or two
    Remember how we laughed away the hours
    And dreamed of all the great things we would do

  630. I purchased something on Monday that may or may not suck. I picked up the latest box set edition of Gamma World. Looks kind of like a mash up of the older version with Killer Bunnies. One point that kind of miffs me, no gaming dice. You would think that for $40 they would include a set. Not a big deal as I have plenty of dice, but a starter set should include everything one would need to play a game. I don’t know when I’ll find time to play it though. 🙁