My favorite was day 13, the prompt for which was Flimsy.
Calligraphy nibs, also called stub nibs, are the kind of nibs that most people commonly associate with fountain pens. All of my pens so far have ended in a small metal bead. This creates a uniform line no matter the angle and direction of the pen. In the case of the Prera, the stub is so small, despite being called a medium, that the calligraphic effect is barely noticeable in the result.
There are wider stubs available in other pens, thus creating a more notably ornate look. Pilot even makes a series called the Parallels in sizes up to 6mm in width. On the whole, I don’t really have much use for them in my drawings besides a slightly above-averagely elegant version of my signature. In fact, I can achieve a similar look using a chisel-tipped Sharpie. That’s not the fairest comparison, but I’m only talking in terms of my own work. I’ve great respect for calligraphy as it seems to be a dying art in a world of keyboards that fit in your pocket.
Speaking of small things with big impacts, I got the idea of the nitroglycerin molecule from the William Friedkin film Sorcerer. It’s a unique film that was an unfortunate victim of timing, releasing within weeks of the first Star Wars film in 1977, and thereby dooming it to obscurity. Following a lawsuit between Friedkin and Paramount in 2012 over the rights to the film and also Friedkin’s passing in 2023, the film has been rescued from the depths and reevaluated. It’s even received a place in the Criterion Collection.
The film is hard to describe in terms of genre. Some might call it a thriller, but that term is a little vague, even if we graft something more accessible like “action” onto it. I mean, aren’t all action movies thrilling to one extent or another? In any case, it’s a different kind of thriller, one whose thrills are rooted in tension more than spectacle. There is suspense, but not in a whodunnit sense. There’s no real mystery to anything, except maybe what the title means.
Friedkin supposedly came up with the title first, as this was following his 1973 masterpiece The Exorcist. Sorcerer isn’t as literal, with the title having several possible references in the plot and setting. The film is loosely based on a novel entitled The Wages of Fear by Georges Aurnaud. The book had been adapted before, but Friedkin wanted to put his own special twist on it, and it was also meant to serve as a stepping stone to his next and far more ambitious film, The Devil’s Triangle. That film would never get made for a number of reasons, Sorcerer’s lack of success at the box office being but a small spark that set off the larger explosion.
Speaking of explosions, the plot concerns four fugitives from the law all hiding out in an unnamed South American country. This quartet of ne’er-do-wells includes a terrorist, an assassin, a getaway driver, and a banker. This latter character is paradoxically the most cliched and the most unique, starting us off with murky exposition as to whether or not he even did anything wrong, or if he’s at best some kind of fall guy for a grander conspiracy. Furthermore, despite being the most sympathetic, he gets little screen time compared to his compatriots. The getaway driver, played by Roy Scheider, is meanwhile the starring role, the one we spend the most quality time with. Dealing with survivor’s guilt from a job gone wrong involving a money laundering scheme at a church, he begins to make plans to leave the abject poverty of his exile, and this is where the central plot of the movie takes shape.
An oilfield suffers a terror attack resulting in a devastating explosion and an out-of-control fire at the site. The oil company decides to use dynamite to contain the fire, but there’s a problem. The only dynamite they have any ready access to was not properly stored and was already past its prime. It’s become highly unstable as it sweats its main ingredient, nitroglycerin. This makes transporting the dynamite exceptionally dangerous. Helicopters are out of the question due to the vibrations of the engine and the risk of turbulence, and there’s no rail system, leaving some old trucks as the only remaining option. Our four “heroes” agree to take on the well-paying job of manning these trucks in teams of two to transport four small cases of the dynamite across 218 miles of jungle.
The journey is fraught with dangers, with old bridges and fallen trees that dwarf the trucks themselves being the least of their worries.
Okay, you may ask, where’s the sorcerer? Firstly, it’s the name of one of the trucks, though I’m not going to tell you if that’s the one that survives the journey. Secondly is the dynamite itself, the notion of being able to conjure flame from a seemingly small and harmless-looking package. Thirdly is the journey itself, which starts off with a local man harassing the two trucks as they pass by, climbing around and poking his head in and out of view like an especially annoying cartoon character. From there, the very jungle itself seems to conspire to stop the journey, as if doing the local man’s bidding. If we strip away the modern trappings, the whole journey wouldn’t be too out of place in a fantasy setting, a band of heroes overcoming terrible odds and the machinations of an evil wizard who tries to stop them in their quest to restore peace and balance to a troubled land. I don’t know if that’s what William Friedkin envisioned, a sardonic deconstruction of high fantasy tropes, but it’s an amusing thought.
Sorcerer was not terribly well received upon its debut, some critics noting a confusion over the title, especially since this was the same director as the notably supernatural Exorcist. Modern reassessments are far more kind, with the biggest complaint being in the film’s pacing, spending well past the first third of the runtime introducing us to our leads before anything approaching a central plot emerges. If the film were made today, these introductions might have been presented in a nonlinear fashion, revealing our characters’ backstories amid the current and more pressing goings-on. For my money, I don’t think this older and more conventional approach to narrative structure hurts the film. It’s not as if it’s overly long in the first place and therefore our character exposition adds insult to injury. There’s a lot of talk about attention spans in our modern age of streaming and on-demand services, and I’d argue this film stands in righteous defiance against it. It challenges you to stick with it, to trust that it’s not going to waste your time, that every detail is important and that the plot can wait because it will be worth it.
Speaking of small things with big impacts, I got the idea of the nitroglycerin molecule from the William Friedkin film Sorcerer. It’s a unique film that was an unfortunate victim of timing, releasing within weeks of the first Star Wars film in 1977, and thereby dooming it to obscurity. Following a lawsuit between Friedkin and Paramount in 2012 over the rights to the film and also Friedkin’s passing in 2023, the film has been rescued from the depths and reevaluated. It’s even received a place in the Criterion Collection.
The film is hard to describe in terms of genre. Some might call it a thriller, but that term is a little vague, even if we graft something more accessible like “action” onto it. I mean, aren’t all action movies thrilling to one extent or another? In any case, it’s a different kind of thriller, one whose thrills are rooted in tension more than spectacle. There is suspense, but not in a whodunnit sense. There’s no real mystery to anything, except maybe what the title means.
Friedkin supposedly came up with the title first, as this was following his 1973 masterpiece The Exorcist. Sorcerer isn’t as literal, with the title having several possible references in the plot and setting. The film is loosely based on a novel entitled The Wages of Fear by Georges Aurnaud. The book had been adapted before, but Friedkin wanted to put his own special twist on it, and it was also meant to serve as a stepping stone to his next and far more ambitious film, The Devil’s Triangle. That film would never get made for a number of reasons, Sorcerer’s lack of success at the box office being but a small spark that set off the larger explosion.
Speaking of explosions, the plot concerns four fugitives from the law all hiding out in an unnamed South American country. This quartet of ne’er-do-wells includes a terrorist, an assassin, a getaway driver, and a banker. This latter character is paradoxically the most cliched and the most unique, starting us off with murky exposition as to whether or not he even did anything wrong, or if he’s at best some kind of fall guy for a grander conspiracy. Furthermore, despite being the most sympathetic, he gets little screen time compared to his compatriots. The getaway driver, played by Roy Scheider, is meanwhile the starring role, the one we spend the most quality time with. Dealing with survivor’s guilt from a job gone wrong involving a money laundering scheme at a church, he begins to make plans to leave the abject poverty of his exile, and this is where the central plot of the movie takes shape.
An oilfield suffers a terror attack resulting in a devastating explosion and an out-of-control fire at the site. The oil company decides to use dynamite to contain the fire, but there’s a problem. The only dynamite they have any ready access to was not properly stored and was already past its prime. It’s become highly unstable as it sweats its main ingredient, nitroglycerin. This makes transporting the dynamite exceptionally dangerous. Helicopters are out of the question due to the vibrations of the engine and the risk of turbulence, and there’s no rail system, leaving some old trucks as the only remaining option. Our four “heroes” agree to take on the well-paying job of manning these trucks in teams of two to transport four small cases of the dynamite across 218 miles of jungle.
The journey is fraught with dangers, with old bridges and fallen trees that dwarf the trucks themselves being the least of their worries.
Okay, you may ask, where’s the sorcerer? Firstly, it’s the name of one of the trucks, though I’m not going to tell you if that’s the one that survives the journey. Secondly is the dynamite itself, the notion of being able to conjure flame from a seemingly small and harmless-looking package. Thirdly is the journey itself, which starts off with a local man harassing the two trucks as they pass by, climbing around and poking his head in and out of view like an especially annoying cartoon character. From there, the very jungle itself seems to conspire to stop the journey, as if doing the local man’s bidding. If we strip away the modern trappings, the whole journey wouldn’t be too out of place in a fantasy setting, a band of heroes overcoming terrible odds and the machinations of an evil wizard who tries to stop them in their quest to restore peace and balance to a troubled land. I don’t know if that’s what William Friedkin envisioned, a sardonic deconstruction of high fantasy tropes, but it’s an amusing thought.
Sorcerer was not terribly well received upon its debut, some critics noting a confusion over the title, especially since this was the same director as the notably supernatural Exorcist. Modern reassessments are far more kind, with the biggest complaint being in the film’s pacing, spending well past the first third of the runtime introducing us to our leads before anything approaching a central plot emerges. If the film were made today, these introductions might have been presented in a nonlinear fashion, revealing our characters’ backstories amid the current and more pressing goings-on. For my money, I don’t think this older and more conventional approach to narrative structure hurts the film. It’s not as if it’s overly long in the first place and therefore our character exposition adds insult to injury. There’s a lot of talk about attention spans in our modern age of streaming and on-demand services, and I’d argue this film stands in righteous defiance against it. It challenges you to stick with it, to trust that it’s not going to waste your time, that every detail is important and that the plot can wait because it will be worth it.
