HIGH LEVEL CRIME DESERVES TOP SHELF NOIR

My little contribution to bright prospects in the genre for 2010.

I just dig Anthony Zuiker's Level 26 and his approach towards his series of digi-novels that combine print, web and videos in full multi-media interactivity. Am sure there'll be a platform game of this soon, as well.

"Level 26," from Anthony E. Zuiker, the creator of CSI. Level 26.com and the Level 26 books combine to form a "digi-novel," a multi-platform experience that moves the reader from passages in the books to videos and interactive content right here on the Level 26 website.

The first installment in the series, "Level 26: Dark Origins" tells the story of Steve Dark, a former FBI agent pulled out of retirement to hunt down a serial killer unlike anything the world has seen before.

Hope I can score a copy of the book soon/somewhere locally.


Here's the official trailer:

More details here. In the Year of the Tiger I hope we all find the strength to roar and growl. Happy New Year ghoulies!

HOT HEEB VS THE WALKING DEAD

I kid you not. But I would actually go out and see this movie : D I mean it's Padme for chrissakes!

The world needs another Pride and Prejudice adaptation like Tiger Woods needs another media-hungry mistress but with a title like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies we're assuming this incarnation will be delightfully skewed...and feature the decapitation of Mr. Darcy. . . .

Interestingly Natalie Portman will produce and star in the project while David O Russell of Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees fame will adapt and direct.

More details on this weirdness here and here.

GIFT FROM THE VOID

In 2004, August Highland of the Muse Apprentice Guild (sadly defunct) urged me to write about my experiences as a child who grew up with parents who worked as agents of the Philippine communist movement for an issue of the net-based mag he ran.

This issue would feature artists and writers who have "experienced reprisal , human right violations or condemnation because of their works; or whose works are a product of, or greatly influenced by, their political experiences or background."

There was an added note of hesitation at the end of the letter that, while polite, was still insistent: "this would be invaluable for readers to read first-hand experience -- please consider this karl -- i understand if it's not something you want to remember and write about."

Oh, fuck it. I wrote an essay in a feverish three days, barely spell-checking it and, almost with eyes closed, sent the thing to Mr. Highland. Which he published almost verite, to my chagrin at all the errors and typos I only noticed after wards. That essay used to be here under a different title.

Fast forward to 2009 and Dr. Jing Hidalgo is telling me they liked the essay and are putting it out in the UP Institute of Creative Writing's Journal or Likhaan 3. Since it's an institutional journal it also apparently counts as a sort of, kind of academic award. That's a first for me right there. And the darn thing is now in print format! Yey!



Thanks UP ICW and Mr. Highland. Hooray for the fairly long history behind "Report from the Abyss." : D