Creative Screenwriting Expo 4: Day 1

(See how I did that? The day before was "-1" (minus one) and today is "1". You like that? You like how I did that?)

Okay, first order of business when we all woke up was COFFEE!!!

See, my brother and I are addicted to the stuff, and Tommy's been working long hours at his job -- in addition to being a daddy -- and so he has rather gotten used to that special caffeine in the am...

...and our buddy Kelly IS A FREAK OF NATURE!!!

Even when Tommy didn't drink coffee, he still had the good sense to own a coffee maker! Kelly? OH, NO! HE'S TOO WIERD TO OWN A COFFEE MAKER!!!

And poor Brian was completely unable to even function without his coffee.

"You going to get into the shower soon, or can I go?"
"...coffee..."
"Okay. You want anything to eat, or you want to wait until later?"
"...coffee..."
"Yeah, right. So you..."
"...coffee..."

So Tommy and I took it upon ourselves to make up for our host's shortcomings. (Never mind that he took us ALL in, picked us up from the airport, even paid our tickets INTO the conference... No coffe is INEXCUSEABLE!)

Kel said there was a Seatle's Best down the street a a few blocks, on Vermount. So Tommy and I hiked down to Vermont... and looked... and looked... and looked...

Finally, we found a coffee house called The Library... but it WAS CLOSED!!! At 10 o'clock in the morning, this coffee house WAS CLOSED!!!

But all was not lost.

Apparently, since Tommy and I moved back to Texas, Los Angeles has become OBSESSED with donuts. Donut shops are EVERYWHERE in LA. There are more donut shops in LA than there are McDonalds!

So Tommy grabbed himself a Large Mocha Cappaccinno and a bottled water and I grabbed a couple of Large Black from Brian and myself.

When we get to the Los Angeles Convention Center and get our badges, we have a little over an hour to get breakfast/lunch. So we cruise to a near-by Holiday Inn that has this upstairs, indoor/outdoor sports bar/restaurant and chow on some TASTY Swiss Mushroom Burgers! (DELICIOUS!!!)

Then we catch John August (CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTOR, BIG FISH, THE CORPSE BRIDE) at 2p. He was cool and insightful... and just a warm-up, it turns out, to the SHEER GENIUS we were going to be exposed to over the course of this weekend!!!

After August we buy tickets to catch my homeboy KARL IGLESIAS!!! He's doing a class that's an overview of his whole Writing For Emotional Impact approach. So I get to turn Brian and Kelly and Tommy onto Karl's wisdom and insight, AND I get to get my copy of Iglesias's book AUTOGRAPHED!!!

Also, HE REMEMBERED ME!

If you buy his book, he has this free gift that he'll email you if you email him (a) a receipt for the book or (b) email him a picture of yourself with his book. I tend to not keep receipts (a bad habbit, I realize) so I emailed him a pic. AND HE REMEMBERED ME!!!

HOW COOL IS THAT?!!

So we all leave the conference buzzing about the knowlege we've stuffed into our noggin's, and on the way home we rent ALL ABOUT EVE and SIN CITY for homework. (John August recommended ALL ABOUT EVE... and SIN CITY is, you know, just a NATURAL to follow up ALL ABOUT EVE, right?)

Saturday was going to be a big day, and an early day, so the 4 of us stayed up WAY too late.

Of course.