the opposite is true

i find that the more i write this is hardcore, the more i end up deciding against the obvious. what i mean by that is, in the thriller/suspense genre these days, everything seems too obvious. for example, you know that by the end of the story, you're gonna have some sort of showdown with the main character and the big bad. usually in movies this tends to end up as a really loud, crash/bang finale where the hero gets the snot kicked out of him by the bad guy but manages to win in the end. i find myself shunning that sort of obvious decision, which i think is great, but i do admit, it steals some of the thunder away from the climax. that's okay though. i've never written anything that was "typical," so why start now?

i will state this: there will not be anything obvious in this is hardcore. at least i hope not. i'm not intending on shocking anyone, despite what the title suggests. rather, the response i'm going for is, hopefully, the kind where the reader ends up smiling at every twist and turn. i am 90 percent done the first draft, but i know that i need to do some massive rewrites to the book, so it'll be at least a good six months before i get it published. plus, i still need to reshoot the cover. six months. tops. maybe. everytime i make a prediction as to how long the book will take, it usually ends up taking longer.

fuck you and the horse you rode in on...

george bush is stupid. this is far from the truth. george bush is not stupid. he's a man of conviction, whether one agrees with that conviction or not. he believes he's doing the right thing, whether it's delusional or not. the thing is, he has conviction, and he just does not care. he doesn't give a shit about what you think about his foreign policy, or lack there of; he doesn't give a shit about what yout think about his oil connections. he will not apologize for how he speaks, or the way he grew up, for how he got into power, or what he will do with that power.

don't get me wrong; i do not like the man, but sometimes i do wish that some of our own leaders up in canada had even half the amount of guts bush has. some may say that bush does not have guts, but rather, is out of touch with the realities of the world, which is why he does and says the things he does. that might be the case. but i don't think he's stupid. i think he knows exactly what he's doing, and he believes in every single aspect of it, even if it may be a lie.

okay, so perhaps being beligerant and closed-minded isn't the best thing, but there is something to be said for the man's conviction. perhaps if some good politician (if those even exist any more) had a similar amount of conviction, the world can be changed for the better. but alas, to paraphrase something noel gallagher of oasis once said: politicians have the power to change the world, but they rarely do.

eulogy (open fire)

here's something from the last chapter/segment of this is hardcore. it is totally out of context, and i can't really provide a context for fear of giving away stuff. but here it is anyway...

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The car drives down the lonely road, followed by Tony Bennett’s iconic voice. His music, his voice, will live on long after his body is ash and dust. That a part of a man could exist beyond his solid, corporeal self is a mind-fuck in itself. Rock god legacies are sealed in little silver discs. A life time of experience and lessons and choices summed up on one best-of compact disc. Ten dollars at most at your local used CD store. One would have thought that a man’s life would be worth more than that. But then, how many people get to leave a legacy behind, even if it is in the form of a soon to be obsolete audio format? Those that do are either murderers or rock stars. Sometimes both. Not even a presidency can assure immortality unless of course you get lucky and fuck a dame they call Monroe. And who knows of immortality? The CEO of General Electric? The guy that donates to sperm banks or the mother that window shops there? The girl next door that discovers her own sexuality for the first time? Can you freeze existence and call it immortal? Because everything eventually dies. And what of our two anti-heroes that stare solemnly out their windows as the passing trees wash over the reflective glass and over their faces? Can they taste immortality? They can see it in each other’s eyes. The fear, the doubt, the broken lines of the word status quo all shattered… it’s all their in their eyes. Immortal. Only one of them will taste immortality. It’s a vision so clear, that only time will show the way. A life less ordinary than the last, it goes from a “just add water” kind of life to one where a soul can colour outside the lines. And Tony Bennett, of course, sings the goddamned soundtrack…

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the three chapters/segments, by the way, are called the following: i heart you, infamous, and eulogy (open fire).