Adios, Cowboy – Arc 1 – Day 17

I’m told the definition of insanity is doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting different results. However, I’m also told that replication is the backbone of science. This week I am the intersection of that particular Venn diagram.

Despite secretly feeling like shit about my productivity this week, I kept putting off writing until after doing the routine bullshit of adulting. It took four days before I thought I might write better and faster if it was the first thing I did when I got home from work, rather than the last thing I did before going to bed. What do you know, it worked.

The first draft of the “interlude” review is now done. It turned out better than I thought it would, to boot. Huzzah for writing when one isn’t exhausted and half-asleep.

For the benefit of anybody new to this production diary, let me recap what is happening here.

Ages ago, I wrote an episode-by-episode long-form review of Space Battleship Yamato 2199. It was simultaneously one of my favourite writing projects and one of the least-read things I’ve ever written. The low point occurred after publishing twelve reviews in that series. Someone asked what I was doing. They were not asking in a philosophical context, either. It was not a question on why I would choose to review a show in such a fashion. No. This was a much more direct, much more soul crushing, and probably cockney, “Oi, what’s dis all about, mate?”

This time, as I write a long-form review of Cowboy Bebop (splitting the 26 episode series into two arcs *points below to the progression wheels*), I’m documenting the production. Granted, this risks hyping things into a real Snakes on the Plane, but I’m willing to roll the dice.

On a related note, I had initially thought about doing these production diaries as a newsletter. The only sticking point with that approach is  it demands the negotiation of Canadian Anti-Spam Laws. To ignore them risks literally, not figuratively, millions of dollars in fines for a single complaint. It seemed easier to create a second blog on my website.

And now you know, and knowing is how you know things.