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Here are the much-heralded pics.These are some views from the air that Brian took on our way to Cali.
This is Kelly's pad.
His address actually has a one-forth in it!!!
This is a cool shot of the Kel's alley that Brian took!
This one's blurry, but I love the colors! This is just us hanging out in front of Kel's appartment. (He doesn't smoke inside. Wise, but inconvenient.)
More of us hanging out.
This is The Core in the morning. Pretty, huh? This is Kelly NOT getting up...
Here's Brian, sans coffee.
This is Kelly coming out of the shower, and Tommy's ass. (That boy works out!)
And who's THIS cheeky monkey?
I LOVE this one!!! This is us as we're leaving the expo on the first day!
And this is Spooky The Thing What Squeaks on the Los Angeles subway with Brian and Tommy...
Then here's Spooky on the New York subway, back in 2002!!!
Brian and Tommy actually ON the subway. They're probably discussing something cool, but I'm too busy playing tourist.
This is inside the big hall, where all the featured screenwriters are interviewed and and Q&A-ed. (Can I make that a verb?) This is 2:00 pm on Saturday. I've included helpful notes and demarcations.
I call this one "A Genius In Profile"...
I call this one "Someone Please Save That Guy In The Guinness Shirt From The Critter Beside Him!" That's me and Kal.
Lunch break before seeing Paul Haggis.
Kelly and Tommy.
The Edwards Boys.
The Staples Center -- right next to the Los Angeles Convention Center -- looks SO COOL lit up at night! That's Kel, Kal, T-Bone and Brian.
This is me, Brian and Kelly out behind the Convention Center.
And Brian, Kelly and Tommy here...
And our evening routine: Hang out outside Kelly's apartment and smoke and chat. (I'm reading an article in ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY there.)
And Spooky's out there with us...
I feel this pics are self-explainatory...
Santa Monica Pier.
This pic is at the end of the pier, looking BACK at the beach! Plus, check it out: The symbol for Santa Monica (as seen embeded into the trash can) is apparently a psycho Pac-Man with sideburns! (Ya gotta look close...)
This is Brian and me taking a smoke break in the only place it's allowed on the Santa Monica Pier...
Kelly had to wait for one of us to finish before he could smoke...
I think this picture is perfectly self-explainatiory, too...
DUDE!!! And I just stumble upon this!!! One of the greatest writers TV has EVER known!!! The guy who shapped our imaginations in ways we'll never fully know!!!
And, of course, I gotta touch it...
This is another under-rated genius!!! Seriously! We didn't see HOW responsible he was for the genius and fun of The Muppets until after he was gone. One of the funniest cats that has ever walked this planet!!!
A couple of filmmaking GODS...
Speaking of Comedy geniuses... This is the Marx brothers!!! Their handprints and footprints are kind of all over the place there. (Go rent HORSE FEATHERS immediately!!!)
This is Griffith park! You can see the Hollywood sign between Brian and me... if you kinda squint a little...
And walking is a GREAT way to take in the view here in griffith Park, but another great way...
...is a fly-by.
You can barely see one of the domes of the famous Griffith Observatory between Kelly and Brian...
OOH!!! Brian caught these! Sunset from above the clouds!!!
And this one's just purdy! (Another Brian Edwards exclusive photo.) I don't even know what city it is. It's just pretty!!!
We had to get Tommy to the airport by 10:20 am.
Then Kelly took us to the Santa Monica Pier.
Brian has seen the Gulf of Mexico from a beach in Florida. This was his first time to see the Pacific Ocean.
We took pictures -- which will be posted soon.
Then we went to Hollywood Blvd to check out Mann's Chinese Theatre and the Hollywood Wlak of Fame. We saw the footprints and handprints of some of our all-time favorite stars. We spotted the stars of some of our heroes.
Then Kel took us to Grifith Park -- not the observatory imoritlized in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, though, as it was under construction.
Then Kelly got us to the airport in time to walk in, board the plane and take off. (I felt like a rock star!)
And now you're up to date!
Today we have only two items on our agenda: William Goldman at 10:00 pm and William Goldman & David Koepp at 2:00 pm.
If you're not a screenwriter -- or aspiring screenwriter -- then you know Wiliam Goldman as the guy who wrote both the novel and the screenplay for THE PRINCESS BRIDE. He also wrote the screenplays for BUTH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID and MISERY.
He also wrote the non-fiction book MY ADVENTURES IN THE SCREEN TRADE which, in the '80s, was the BIBLE for aspiring scrneewriters!!! Before the Writer-Guru Boom of the '90s there was Syd Field and there was William Goldman!
He gave us THE INSIDE SCOOP of what it was to be a working screenwriter in Hollywood. He told us the good and the bad, his triumphs and his mistakes. And he always amused as well as informed us.
ADVENTURES IN THE SCREENTRADE recounted Goldman's adventures from the early 1960s to the late 1970s. He fell off the Hollywood radar for about half a decade, then he returned. So as we're reading SCREEN TRADE we're hearing about all his PAST adventures, and desperately wondering about his CURRENT adventures!
Then in the mid-90s he writes WHICH LIE DID I TELL which picks up where SCREEN TRADE left off. (Talking about THE PRINCESS BRIDE, MISERY, MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN, CHAPLAIN, MAVERICK, ABSOLUTE POWER, THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER and more, as well as talking about NOT having written GOOD WILL HUNTING for Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.)
This guy sculpted more of our cinematic experience between 1965 and 1999 than we even realize, as he has been a credited and uncredited script doctor, in addition to the scripts that ONLY have his name on them.
I had gotten to see him last year with Aaron Sorkin. This year, though, I got to see him by himself.
He's this great New Yorker guy who has seen it all and has NO PROBLEM telling you EXACTLY what he thinks about any given subject. (He still RAILS when asked about the allegations that he co-wrote GOOD WILL HUNTING. But in a cool way.) Even though his tastes lean Old-School, his perspective is still invaluable. He has seen The Big Picture about how movies are made. He's been there, he's DONE IT. The cat KNOWS!
And then, seeing him on stage with David Koepp...!!!
Koepp is, argueable, a younger Goldman.
Koepp's IMDb.com list reads like this:
-ZATHURA (2005)
-WAR OF THE WORLDS (2005)
-SECRET WINDOW (2004) (writer/director)
-SPIDER-MAN (2002)
-PANIC ROOM (2002)
-STIR OF ECHOES (1999) (writer/director)
-SNAKE EYES (1999)
-THE LOST WORLD: JUASSIC PARK (1997)
-MISSION IMPOSSIBLE (1996)
-THE SHADOW (1994)
-THE PAPER (1994)
-CARLITO'S WAY (1993)
-JURASSIC PARK (1993)
-DEATH BECOMES HER (1992)
-TOY SOLDIERS (1992)
-BAD INFLUENCE (1991)
And that's just the highlights.
The man gets jobs.
Often more than one a year!
But more than that, he writes QUALITY!
I read a draft of SPIDER-MAN before the movie came out. It was a draft that had Doc Ock as a secondary villain (in addition to Green Goblin), and the READ was as good as the movie was!!!
So hearing these two cats talk about the craft... PROFOUND, DUDE!!!
And fun!
Plus, it was always amusing to see their differences. Goldman is Old School and believes Hollywood's best movies are in its past. He believes the corporate system is going to be the death of studio movies. (I'm certain he's not wrong.) But Koepp has to work within that system, and so he sees some silver lining, and the glass is sort of half full.
Plus, Goldman is a living legend, and therefore has no problem biting chuncks out of the hand that feeds him. Koepp is not yet QUITE a living legend yet -- he SHOULD be considered one, but not many people (even movie geeks) know his name -- and always tries to employ a more diplomatic approach.
There was one point when the moderator asked both men about their daily routine and Goldman, not finished with a rant about current-day celebrities misbehaving for talk shows and in interviews, drawing attention away from their projects and onto themselves (a certain world-famous Scientologist, in particular) continues on about how he doesn't believe an audience can buy these stars in their roles when we are so bombarded with their off-screen personaes. Goldman's not worried about offending anyone, and is rather candid with his opinions.
Then Koepp points out the opening-weekend box office for that particular star's latest movie and respectfully postulates that perhaps this new breed of star is simply marketing to a new breed of audience, then without missing a beat Koepp turns back to the moderator and says "I find mornings to be my most creative times of day..."
I think that even non-writers would have enjoyed the show!
The 2p Goldman/Koepp session was the last of the expo.
After that Kelly drove us all around downtown LA, then we took back EVE and CITY and rented REBECCA and MILLION DOLLAR BABY (and DID NOT rent THE GRUDGE) and found our way back to his pad and order some delivery Chinese food.
The food was good.
We didn't finish REBECCA.
But we did watch the shorts "Some Folks Call It A Sling Blade" -- the Billy Bob Thorton short that got hims the writer/director/star gig of SLING BLADE -- and "Multi-Facial" -- the short written/directed/starring Vin Desil, that got Spielberg to write him a role into SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, thus launching his career.
We didn't stay up obsenely late this night, as we were all pretty exhausted from the weekend.
Kel has business, so Tommy and Brian and I are on our own. WE GET TO RIDE THE SUBWAY THIS MORNING!!!
But first: Coffee.
I'm up and at 'em before the other guys, so I hike down to the donut place Tommy and I discovered. This time I try a Mocha Cappiccinno, get one for Tommy and the normal Black for Brian, as well as 3 super-huge bottles of water for each of us (which will end up lasting us all weekend long).
On the trip down to the donut shop and back I listen to a Rolling Stone podcast with Bono. It's GENIUS! I read the interview in Rolling Stone, and it's really pretty much the same thing, but hearing the tone of voice adds another dimension to the conversation! Plus, I'm strolling Downtown LA, I feel kind of Bono-y. Ya know?
You don't, do you? You think I'm insane. Don't you. DON'T YOU!!!
So anyway, after some reviving coffee, we hike down to Vermont to find a subway station.
Did you KNOW there's a subway in LA?!! I mean, we see one in SPEED, (rewritten by Joss Whedon, by the way, despite the fact that the Writers Guild West arbitrated him out of the credits) but you just don't think of LA when you hear the word "subway". It's 'cause most people own cars or hire cars. But there IS a subway system in Los Angeles!
It's more of a hike than we expected, but we find a station at Vermont and Beverly. We're headed for Pico St. (or Ln. or Blvd. or whatever).
I just dig the concept of riding the subway -- since Austin doesn't have one, thus making the experience somewhat "exotic" for me -- but I also have an ulterior motive: When I was in New York 2 or 3 years ago I got a shot of Spooky The Thing What Squeaks in several locations, one of which was a subway! So while we're waiting for our train, I get to take a pic of Spooky (and Brian and Tommy) in an LA subway! I've got Spooky on both coasts!!!
We end up at the Holiday Inn restaurant again for breakfast/lunch. Just before we order Kelly calls Tommy to see what we're up to, and he joins us for brunch.
I'm feeling all experimental today, so I try the Crabcake Sandwich.
I don't recomend it. It didn't suck, but it's no Swiss Mushroom Burger.
We missed Ehren Kruger (writer of both the American RING movies) at 10:00 am, but what we're REALLY waiting for is JOSS WHEDON at 2:00 pm!!!
And Joss DOES NOT disappoint!!!
First of all, this weekend, many of the featured guests have been presented with an award for their achievements this year. The awards have been handed out by Creative Screenwriting Magazine staff. But not Joss.
Okay, so we sit down as close to the front as we can get. I'm on the isle -- 'cause my friends are THE BEST. There are suddenly several people approaching the front of the hall, and I smell an entourage! I look behind us down the isle AND SEE THE MAN, WALKING THIS WAY!!!
I lean over to Brian, but all Brian sees is Joss's side as he walks past us.
Then, someone pops up to the mike and introduces...
NATHON FILLION!!! Star of FIREFLY and SERENITY, and a really, really evil and misogynistic preacher guy in the last season of BUFFY! HE'S HERE, TOO!!! He's not even announced to be here! He just showed up with Joss!
Nathon Fillion RULES! If you've seen SERENITY or FIREFLY you know that this guy can play the darkest of dark, then turn around and be charming or noble or just straight-up FUNNY!!!
He intros Joss, then presents him with the CSM Sci-Fi/Fantasy award for this year.
Then he disappears and Joss does the interview thing, and then the Q&A thing.
Here's the thing: Joss Whedon is the reason we're all here this weekend. After last year's expo, I had resolved not to read any more writing books or spend any more money learning how to write and just get to the writing! (This turned out to be premature, anyway, as I hadn't yet discovered Karl Iglesias and the brilliance he has to shed on the craft!)
Because this might be my only chance to see Joss live, I HAD TO go the moment I discovered he would be here this year -- which would be sometime in early-summer. I told Brian and he was on board, too. Kel hadn't discovered FIREFLY yet, but he was down for putting up a couple of his dearest friends for the weekend. In fact, he went a step further: He said that if we got ourselves down there, he'd buy tickets for any and all who wanted to come.
Then the fact that Brian and Kelly and I were going to be in LA was all it took to get Tommy down there.
So now, HERE WE WERE. For an hour or more we got to listen to Joss Whedon telling us about how he does what he does.
These are PEARLS, here! This guy is OUR Rod Serling (creator of the original THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and writer of, like, 92 of the original 156 episodes)!!! Seriously, Gene Roddenbury -- all due respect -- was not as prolific and straight-up brilliant as Whedon. There hasn't been a writer, in my opinion, as skilled at merging art and entertainment since Serling.
And here he is, just spilling his writing secrets like we're a room full of close friends!
I've read enough interviews to know that Joss is a clever and insightful speaker, but ACTUALLY BEING THERE when he's talking...!!!
Okay, if you've followed my blof for any amount of time you know I have a man-crush on Mr. Whedon. But Tommy hasn't experienced FIREFLY or SERENITY yet (or BUFFY or ANGEL), and he was impressed!
After the very, very cool experience I, and a small band of approximately one-eigth of the audience head for the front for autographs.
It was so cool, Tommy and Brian and Kel totally had my back! Brian's trying to get pics, and Tommy is right behind me, looking for openings I might be able to slip into. (I was less agressive than some, but I didn't want to be THAT guy. You know?)
After a while of signing and answering questions, this big dude comes up behind Joss with a cell phone to his ear, then whispers something into Joss's. Joss says "Honestly, I would rather do THIS that that, because these people are HERE." HE'D RATHER TAKE CARE OF OUR AUTOGRAPH-HUNGRY SELVES!!! Then the big dude tells him that "they need to clear this hall". So Joss says we'll reconvene out in the hall. But first, he has to go to the rest room. "And I'm going ALONE," he says, then resumes "Except for you, and you... and you."
When he comes out of the rest room he's INSTANTLY surrounded, though he's still on the move to get to a spot that can accommodate the crowd.
I loose my place when a guy behind me says "Hey, Guy-With-Camera, (I had the camera at that moment, snapping a pic of Joss's profile) I think you dropped your pen back there." I started to look closer, but remember I have SEVERAL pens and more than one Sharpie in my bag. So I keep walking, though Helpful-Guy has taken my place. But then a second later Brian is next to me with a pen, asking if the pen that was dropped was mine. I get a look at it, and it wasn't, so then Brian re-disappears (probably to return the pen so that whoever lost it could find it). But I'm ASTOUNDED how Brian had JUST APPEARED beside me to help me out!!!
We finally get a spot, and I'M RIGHT NEXT TO JOSS!!! I'm just on the outter edges of his personal space! I get his autograph on THE VISUAL COMPANION TO SERENITY, and get a couple more on notebook paper. (I had hoped to get one for Brian, Tommy and Kelly, as well as a co-worker of Brian's who is a legitimate Joss fan; but because of the volume, I was only able to get the 3. One for me -- 'cause I'm a selfish whore -- one for Brian's friend, and Brian and Tommy elected that Kel could have the last.)
Afterward, it was DEFINITELY Smoke-Time!!! We're all out front, giddy as school-girls. Well... I was, anyway. I think the other guys were excited, too.
Then I get a call from my friend Kal. I didn't even know he was going to be here this year! It turns out that Kel had gotten seperated and spotted Kal, so he has Kal call me to find out where we were.
A moment later, Kelly and Kal are out front with us, and I get to catch up with Kal.
We -- Kelly, Tommy, Brian and I -- finally figure out that the next thing we want to do is see Paul Haggis (writer of MILLION DOLLAR BABY, writer/director of CRASH, co-creator of DUE SOUTH... and tons more stuff, too) at 6:00 pm. This gives us plenty of time to just hang a recoup from the excitement. (Again, maybe that's just me. I'm not sure.)
As we're hanging a little later, Joss Whedon and Nathon Fillion exit just next to where we're all standing. We wave and smile and they wave and smile back -- like, a GENUINE smile! -- and Kel says "Thanks, guys! That was great!" in that cool manner that Kelly can.
Then we tittered like schoolgirls some more!
Paul Haggis was really insightful. But it was a 90-minute session and all 4 of us, at different times, nodded off throughout. We all still got tons out of the interview/Q&A, but we decided we couldn't make the David Koepp session at 8:00 pm.
(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.
Brian and I got to the airport just before noon. Our flight was supposed to leave around 1:30 pm, but the flight was delayed and we didn't end up taking off until around 2:45 pm. Our flight was so late that we saw Tommy -- whose flight was an hour and a half AFTER ours! -- as we were boarding.
Luckily I was able to get a message to Kel before he showed up to the airport.
We landed a couple hours late, Kel got us, and we grabbed a bite to eat at In-And-Out Burgers, as Tommy's flight was delayed by an hour, as well.
What's UP with that?! We flew American and Tom flew Southwest.
Anyway, we all got together and spent the rest of the night catching up, acting up and just generally being nuicances to Kelly's neighbors.
I'm out front of the station having a smoke when two trucks filled with college dudes drives up, unloads a love seat in front of one of the news vans, gathers round it and invites me to sit down and have my picture taken with them. Okay. Why not? They take the pic, load the love seat back into one of the trucks and they're gone. That's it. That's the thing that happened. Just thought I'd share.
Sorry I haven't been blogging much lately, but I've been gearing up for THIS WEEKEND!!!
CREATIVE SCREENWRITING EXPO 4 IS NIGH!!!
Brian and I are hopping on a plane tomorrow and will be in LA with Kelly and Tommy this time tomorrow!
And it's Brian's first trip to LA!
And I don't know if Tommy's seen Kel's place, either. (The "Family Thang" has kept him pretty much Austin-bound. ...pretty much...)
I'm hoping to see Joss Whedon (creator of BUFFY, ANGEL, FIREFLY, writer/director of SERINITY), Ehren Kruger (writer of THE RING, THE SKELETON KEY, THE BROTHERS GRIMM) David Koepp (writer of WAR OF THE WORLDS, SPIDER-MAN, PANIC ROOM, JURASSIC PARK; writer/director of STIR OF ECHOS, SECRET WINDOW) and William Goldman (wrote the book and the screenplay of THE PRINCESS BRIDE and screenwriter of MAVERICK, MISERY, MARATHON MAN, BUTCH CASIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, the original STEPFORD WIVES). And I'm hoping to catch a couple of lectures by my new hero Karl Iglesias, author of WRITING FOR EMOTIONAL IMPACT!!!
It would also be cool if I could catch CHICKEN LITTLE in 3-D at El Capitan Theatre -- it doesn't look like any Austin theaters are equipped -- but we'll have to play that one by ear.
DUDE!!! This is gonna be SO BADASS!!!
It'll probably be a while before I blog again, but I should have some stories to tell when I do! (Maybe pictures, too...)
Can you guess what I did today?
It involved some groaning...
And A LOT of sweating...
And it took ALL...
DAY...
LONG!
I helped my friend Tommy move.
Ew! No!
Brian and I helped him and his family move houses! (The beginning part was just a joke, a mislead.)
So I set my alarm for 8:00 am. Let me explain this so you can fully grasp my dedication to those I love: I wake up at 1:00 pm. And that's when I HAVE TO get up on-schedule.
And the previous night, I got off work at 2:00 am, did my grocery shopping until after 3:00 am, and crawled into bed just after 4:00 am.
So waking up -- well, to be more acurate "becoming conscious enough to dress and consume a venti Pumpkin Spice Latte" -- at 8a is a HUGE personal sacrifice.
HOWEVER... Doing this for Tommy THIS weekend helped ensure that he would be able to make the Creative Screenwriting Expo 4 in LA NEXT weekend!
So my motives are ultimately EXTREMELY selfish.
Still...
Brian and I rolled up around 10a -- Tommy always has to live on the very outskirts of civilization; no idea what that's about -- and worked until about 7p. And today WAS NOT a breezy, crips November day!
Although, to be honest, the majority of the boxes I carried JUST HAPPENED to be filled with pillows or summer clothing. But that was just CHANCE.
And is it my fault that my mom's vet called me with a pressing chihuahua emergency exactly 45 minutes into the move? And that my dentist had an emergency Saturday cleaning scheduled exactly 3 hours into the move? And that my car broke down on my way back from my dentist's office and it took me exactly 2 hours and 15 minutes to fix it?
I think not!
I mean, okay: So I took the $50 Tommy was very graciously giving each of us to help him move, even though I wasn't technically "working" the whole time. Does that REALLY make me an "Opportunistic, slacker, ass"?
I think not.
Seriously, though, all those feaher-light boxes I ended up carrying WAS just a coincidence.
I'm watching Disc 2 of Season 1 of VERONIC MARS right now, and I have to say that Kevin Smith and Joss Whedon ARE RIGHT!!! (Big surprise though, that those 2 guys are right about what a good TV show is...) If you get to Episode 5, "You Think You Know Somebody", you will fall in love with this show!!! It's so very engaging and genuinely charming, and SMART!!!
I'm watching episode 6 and something happens and I'm like "Don't try to tell me HE'S the victim here!" Then I think about it for half a second -- drawing upon a decent amount of study in human psychology as well as PLENTY of EXPERIENCE in human psychology, and I'm like "OF COURSE he's the victim here!"
That wasn't a spoiler. I don't think I gave away any plot points that anyone could tag me for unless you've SEEN the first season of the show.
Anyway...
THE SHOW RULES!!!
And this is how I'm winding down from 11 hours -- with approximately an hour break for lunch -- of MOVING in what can only be described as AUSTIN HEAT!
And I was all sweaty!
And there were babes there!
And I wasn't dressed in a necessarily slimming manner, due to the nature fo the work to be done!
So just back off, and allow me my Veronica Mars time!
I actually finished the 6th Harry Potter book Tuesday night, but I never got around to blogging about it.DUDE! The series is so great! I wish I had these when I was growing up!The series starts getting surprisingly dark in GOBLET OF FIRE (in theaters this month!), leaving you to wonder if these are still meant to be children's books. (The Brits don't feel it's necessary to hide the darkness of real life from kids like Americans -- inexplicably -- do.) Then ORDER OF THE PHOENIX almost wallows in the darkness, and then HALF-BLOOD PRINCE... It's a good book!The scary thing for me is how the movies are going to turn out.SORCER'S STONE and CHAMBER OF SECRETS are the shortest -- meaning most-easily-adaptable -- of the series, and they had to leave out tons of stuff.PRISONER OF AZKABAN turned out to be a great movie, but it's kind of like reading a Crichton novel,.then seeing the movie: No matter how great the movie is, you just don't get the full, overwhelming emotional response.GOBLET OF FIRE looks like it's going to RULE, but I really wonder how much they're going to have to trim. ORDER OF THE PHOENIX should probably make a better movie than a book -- in my opinion, AND comparing it to the other books of the series -- and then I really wonder how they're going to do HALF-BLOOD PRINCE!Anyway, blah. I'm all excited. I'm seeing how much GOBLET OF FIRE I can re-read before I see the movie.OH!!! And I think I've just about got Kelly talked into scheduling some time for all of us to see CHICKEN LITTLE IN 3-D at El Capitan while we're in LA!!! (It doesn't look like it's going to be playing in 3-D here in Austin...)
I just reworked Amy Darren!!!
...sorry...
...guess that sounds a little... naughty.
What I mean is this: I've been using my writing blog to work out a new process, a new step-by-step proceedure for myself to take a story idea and turn it into a story. And Step 3 is fleshing out my main character.
In "Ezekiel Hollow" my main character is Amy Darren.
In a previous incarnation she was just kind of this bitch who argued with people a lot. But tonight I was able to follow the steps I laid out to create a woman that has good and bad qualities (more complex ones than she's trying to save her brother -- as the good -- and she is impatient -- as the bad), and more than that I know a little bit more about my story than I did!!!
Just reworking her character told me more about her boyfriend's character, more about their relationship, and gave me a couple of GOOD scenes that have to happen somewhere in there!!!
PLUS, I was able to write from Truth, from personal experience, and it made my story more thematically interesting!!!
I don't know if this is the IT I've been searching for for 12+ years, or if it's just another promising-looking dead-end, but it SURE FEELS NICE TO BE CREATING STUFF THAT FEELS LIKE IT'S GOOD!!!
It's ALWAYS nice to be creating!!!
That is all.
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