It was inspired by a visit Frank Herbert made to my tiny little home town on the Oregon Coast. Not NEAR my hometown, my tiny hometown specially, which has some of the tallest sand dunes in the world.
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Frank Herbertβs daughter lives here currently, and kindly donated her fatherβs research materials to our relatively small, but still awesome public library, the Siuslaw Public Library, where itβs currently on display.
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One of the reasons I love it here is the bizarre strata of natural landscapes..
It goes immediately from the ocean, with volcanic rock formations, to the tallest sand dunes in the world, then forests and lakes, all within just a couple miles, a bit further and itβs mountains. 3/
Herbertβs daughter hooked up our library and theater with Frank Herbertβs grandson, who consulted on the new movie. The theater (which is awesome) is CityLightsCinema, and they are having a Dune/Herbert celebration until November 4th.
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Itβs a wonderful little theatre run by genuine lovers of cinema.
If you are a big Herbert fan, or Dune fan, some of this stuff canβt be seen anywhere else.
You might consider a day out here, come take a look at the dunes, they really are awe-inspiring.
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Itβs very strange that this tiny town inspired both DUNE and STAR WARS, making it possibly the most important place in SF history.
I was born here.
We have three stoplights. We have no Indian food.
But we changed SF forever.
:)
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Population 9,000, inspirational birthplace of Paul Atreides AND Luke Skywalker.
Not too shabby.
:)
Have a great day, everyone.
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P.S. The very dunes that inspired Frank Herbert�
Literally across the street from my house.
I used to pretend they were Arrakis or Tatooine.
A lot of people feel their home town is magical, but for me, IT REALLY WAS.
I have a short little story of a thing that happened yesterday. I don't know what the message is, but it gave me a lot of feelings.
As many of you know, we live in a small town on the Oregon coast. There are a couple grocery stores and one variety store called Bi-Mart.
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So we went to Bi-Mart, which is a local chain that is very casual and friendly and less corporate than a lot of national chains. We went to buy key fob batteries and some planters for my garden.
While shopping, there was this older couple there, in their seventies, I'd say.
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The man was oldschool in all ways, crew cut, quite fit with big muscles and a tan from working outside. Wife was pretty and petite and soft-spoken.
He was NOT soft-spoken.
He was quite loud, and got mildly annoyed at seemingly everything.
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Every year on his birthday (which is today), I write a little letter to @JoeQuesada, wishing him health and happiness for him and his family. We have not spoken in person in years.
In that note, every time, I thank him for asking me, out of nowhere, to pitch for Deadpool.
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Because I had a comics comedy column on CBR and I made him laugh. He used to read the column on the phone to friends. Garth Ennis didn't have email, so he called him long distance to read one about Garth TO Garth.
Even when I made fun of JOE HIMSELF, he would laugh about it.
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So every year, I say something to the effect of, "Thank you for taking a chance on me, and for opening the door that had made my life's dream come true over and over."
And he always says something humble and sweet, that I make it happen myself.
I have been thinking this forever but this morning it really hit me.
@stephenking is a badass.
Just a combustion engine. Love that guy.
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There have been a dozen times where the thing getting me through a tough time was simply having a Stephen King novel or anthology or movie adaptation to enjoy.
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When I was a kid, the very first novel I ever read (I was probably a little young for it) where the cast was all female and took all roles from villain to tragic hero and everywhere in-between was Carrie. To this DAY, I still haven't read many novels that can make that claim.
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I hear all the time, and have thought it myself, why does the world fear and hate mutants, but love the scary-looking oddballs in, say, the Fantastic Four?
Here is a thought about that.
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The Fantastic Four comes to save you.
You look out, and you see standing around you;
A woman who disappears
A man on fire
A rock-like golen creature
and the ultimate stretchy body horror.
OR.
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You look out and see
A great-looking guy with sunglasses
A beautiful woman with a cool fire bird effect
A goddess controlling a storm
A slightly hairy Canadian.
Why are citizens afraid of THIS four, and not the others?