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INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL RULES!!! :D

Brian and I FINALLY saw it last night, and it was AMAZING!!!

I've read a couple of glowing reviews, and I read a couple of hum-drum reviews of the movie, and Brian & I agree that this was A MAGNIFICENT MOVIE!!! (I almost said "a magnificent film", but there's a certain connotation that goes along with the word "film"... Indy 4 isn't a "film" it's a "movie", and as such it ROCKS!)

And here's why...

I learned about "cliff-hangers" or movie serials when George Lucas revealed that that was the inspiration for Raiders of the Lost Ark (and, for that matter, Star Wars). I'm, like, 10 years old and all my friends are telling my how cool this movie is, and I see this making-of documentary before I actually get to see the movie.

Then I finally get around to talking my parents into letting me see the movie, AND I'M BLOWN AWAY!

Most exciting movie of my life!

So, naturally, I look into Serials when I'm a little older and the VHS has been invented and mass-distributed, and I find his really interesting world... You usually had one really interesting character fighting really bad villains, and these situations that made you think there's NO way the hero can survive.

Comic books, basically. (Though the movie cliffhanger pre-dates the comic book... HOWEVER... the concept of "serials" began with the daily comic strip, which inspired the movie serials...)

Okay, so...

As I grew up and wanted to learn more about the history of story-telling in the 20th Century, I learn about B-Movies and Pulp Fiction (NOT the Tarantino flick, lol) and I discover that what entertains me most are these marginalized forms of entertainment that are disregarded by the entertainment "inteligencia" , but terribly fun to EXPERIENCE!

...by the way...

If you're looking for a bad-ass movie serial to introduce you to the world of Cliff-hangers, I'd like to recommend The Adventures of Captain Marvel. It's got all the best and worst that cliff-hangers have to offer, and is an excellent example of the format!!!

Getting back to the topic...

Before Indy 4 came out, I was aware that Lucas had wanted to make a sequel called Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars. Which, at first consideration, seems like a grievous mis-step.

BUT...

If you look at the Indiana Jones franchise, that's really not a bad idea!

The first movie reflects Serials of the 1930s/1940s. The second film really feels like a 1940s movie (by the time they did Last Crusade they had a "feel" for what made an Indiana Jones flick an Indiana Jones flick, so they went with that) and the knowledge that they had to acknowledge the passage of actual time between Indy 3 and Indy 4 meant that HAD TO make Indy older by that much time...

Which means the film has to be set in the mid-50s...

And what was the equivalent of the movie serials of the 1930s/1940s in the kid-50s?

PULP FICTION.

So to keep the tone of the Indy franchise honest, there's really only 1 place to search for inspiration!

Which is where Lucas searched.

And if you read pulp fiction or comic books from that period (TV is useless, because TV was, at that time, concerned with recreating the experience of a stage performance, which was trying to be timeless and eternal) they are concerned with 2 things: (1) the Atomic Age and (2) the potential of life from other planets...

So if you're familiar with the history of popular entertainment, the idea of Indiana Jones and the Saucer Men from Mars is a SUPERB idea!!! :)

However, apparently Spielberg and/or Ford weren't as interested in this idea as Lucas was.

So they reworked it into what Indy 4 is now...

WHICH IS AMAZING!!! :D

I've read some reviews that called Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a B Movie, but in a slightly derogatory manner, as though the film delivers slightly less than one would hope.

But this was not my experience of the flick!!! :D

I thought Indy 4 was a GLORIOUS celebration of ALL that Indy represents!!! :D

It's cool, because I listened to an episode of Spooky Southcoast that had an expert on Crystal Skulls -- Joshua "Illinios" Shapiro -- talking about the history of them, and he provided a great deal of context that I took with me into the movie. I even kept Brian up a little too late listening to that episode, lol.

And when we walked out of the film, I felt like Lucas had not only respected the mythology built up around the Crystal Skulls, but also offered a possible explanation to explain-away the nay-sayers of the Crystal Skulls legend, hehe! :)

And at the same time, he -- and Spielberg and David Koepp and Ford and screenwriter Jeff Nathonson -- delivered to us an Indy flick that met with the tonal requirements of a 1950s "exploitation" flick and a good, solid entry into the history of Indiana Jones!!! :D

I mean, WHO COULD ASK FOR MORE?!!

Now, Brian & I have watched it once on the Big Screen and sort of half a time (we each crashed at different times) on the Net, so we won't be able to determine if this is our favorite Indy flick until it's released on dvd. But right now, I'm willing to say that it might be! :D

I mean, you can't really beat Raiders... It was the product of some young, idealistic folks who were in their prime and trying to recreate for the rest of the world an experience that INSPIRED them to want to make movies! But, for my money, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is AN AMAZING sequel, and a spectacular book-end to the first movie!

ALSO...

Like any good sequel, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull gives a sort of weight and import to the sequels that came before it. It makes the series, as a whole, make sense and feel "right". It even includes a few references that make the TV series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles fit nicely into the "cannon" of the Indy films!

So I have had me a GREAT weekend! ;D

And in a couple of days I'm going to watch my daughter graduate high school A YEAR EARLY!!!

Good times in the life of a Ray Jay. :)

I hope you're experiencing some good times, too!!! (It's always best when the wealth is shared!)

DON'T PANIC

This coming Sunday -- May 25th -- is the 7th annual TOWEL DAY, a day of lugging your towel about everywhere you go in memory of the wit and wisdom of the late, great Douglas Adams!!!

:D

Not that I need a reason to celebrate the life and work of one of my all-time favorite authors, but I adore this excuse to remind people about the genius of DNA, or the excuse to try to introduce the man to potential new fans!!!

In anticipation of Towel day, I'm currently listening to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio show, Secondary Phase. Not the best of all the HHGG series, but because of that fact I've listened to it the least, hehe.

I'm disappointed to find that the next series of Dirk Gently BBC 4 Radio episodes doesn't air until October. :( That would have been a great way to celebrate Towel day this year! However...

If you're not familiar with DNA's work, I recommend you browse your favorite second-hand book store and grab a copy of ANYTHING written by Douglas Adams. Do it Friday night or Saturday morning, then start reading immediately. By 12:00 am Sunday you'll be completely in love with Adams and will understand why we fans celebrate him annually.

OR...

If you have an iPod, an iTunes account and some money, you can get one of his audiobooks. This is, I find, a splendid way to enjoy Adams's work. I don't know why, but for some reason Adams's writing sound beautiful when read or dramatized!

I don't recommend the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a suitable introduction, however. The flick is great fun, but Adams -- and co-writer Karey Kirkpatrick -- had to strip away a great deal of the "Douglas Adams-ness" of the original work in order to make it a proper film.

I mean, if you know nothing about Douglas Adams and that's the only introduction that appeals to you, then it's perfectly serviceable as such. But the movie is a great deal more rewarding if you are already well familiar with the novel and/or the original BBC Radio series.

If you are familiar with at least one of Adams's novels, may I recommend the HHGG Advenutre Game as a wonderful way to celebrate the brilliance of DNA's wonderfully twisted creativity?

For those to young to remember, back before Guitar Hero, back before Grand Theft Auto, back before the first Tomb Raider and even before Tetris, home video games were mind-bogglingly primitive!!!

And adventure games were especially so!


But DNA -- fascinated with developing technology -- used the limits of "text adventure games" to its fullest advantage. It just so happens that his own unique sense of humor blended perfectly with the random-ness of text adventure games, and he was able to create a text adventure that makes you laugh as much when the game is perplexing you as you do when the game is going your way! :)

I don't think I'd recommend this as a way to get to know the man's work, though, lol. The alien-ness of the format itself is likely to put you off before you can discover its genius.

No, the BEST was to get to know Douglas Admas is through his writing.

That's what the man was: He was a writer. A wonderful word smith who crafted eact sentence with care and humor and insight. he was Monty Python in paperback, only you didn't need the visuals to fully appreciate the jokes, because he provided them for you. :)

He was so visionary that he predicted the future of computers!!!

Check this out:

The titular technological device of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a small computer, about the size of a small book, that connected to a network of information floating in the air, able to grab a random article and display it for use by anyone anywhere at anytime.

If you have a WiFi-capable Palm Pilot (or even laptop), you're first thought might be Google or Wikipedia.

But DNA imagined this 1978, LOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGG before computers were nearly so compact (they used to fill up entire rooms) and well-long before anyone without a PHD in Computer Science knew anything about the Net! (Keep in mind that it wasn't until almost the turn of the millennium that we -- Society as a whole -- became so Net savvy! 20 years after DNA came up with the Hitchhiker's Guide!

In fact, I would argue that DNA was so far ahead of his time that many of the more Absurdist elements of his social commentary have not only come to pass, but become commonplace and accepted!

He joked in the first HHGG novel that the job of the President of the Universe wasn't to wield power, but to direct attention away from it. Any alert American citizen watching the Bush Administration over the last 8 years has observed the truth of that observation. ;P (Were we really fighting over whether or not gay people should be allowed to legally marry over here? Or did those in power want us to concentrate on that subject while they passed laws that took away a few more of our civil liberties?)

But Adams's work wasn't about politics. THAT is the beauty of it!!! :D

His work was about laughing at the absurdness of BEING HUMAN! :D He had this way of taking some of the more frustrating aspects of Life, the Universe, and Everything and allowing us to laugh at them, and thereby be freed from their power over us. (I say "had the ability to", but his work STILL has that power for me!)

Great poets can make us cry about how frustrating Life is.

But Adams is one of a handful that can make us LAUGH about it! And in doing so, the frustration subsides a little. It loses a little of its power, its strength. And gives that power back to US!!! :D

Oh, hey...!

If you're not familiar with DNA's work and you have the money to choose which book introduces you to his creativity, I'd like to recommend So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish! It's the 4th book in the increasingly inappropriately titled Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy, but it contains all the humor and charm and insight of any of his other works! It takes place in 1980s England (for the most part) and you don't really have to be familiar with the first 3 books to enjoy it fully. Plus, it is -- in my opinion -- a love story to rival any other! :)

And it took me 7 or more readings to finally get it -- what with all the jokes and stuff -- but it is also fulfilling Thematically. DNA has a very specific "something" to say about Life, the Universe and Everything, and he says it rather entertainingly!!! :)

Or if you're of a more "serious" mind-set, there's always his classic Last Chance To See, his only non-fiction book documenting his travels to view endangered species before they go extinct. This book may be quite a bit harder to find, but it's WELL worth the search! And you'll be surprised by how a man can believe so passionately about such a serious cause, and still make you laugh out loud throughout every page of his sojourn!!!

Okay, I've gone on for a while now -- I always do when I start talking about Douglas Adams, lol -- so I'm going to call it quits for now.

Here's hoping you join me Sunday in celebrating (not mourning) the life and works of Douglas Noël Adams! Worst Case Scenario: You lug a towel around with you all day and, when in public, you feel a little silly and laugh at the idea of how you must look to everyone else.

But even if you don't join me in celebrating Towel Day, I wish for you lots of laughter all weekend long! ;)

Groovin' My Groove-Thang

Hola, me peeps!

Just checking in. Nothing major…

EXCEPT WEDNESDAY! DUDE!!!

This ridiculous storm smashed Austin Wednesday! My first day back to work and for the first six hours of my ten-hour shift we’re slammed reporting the weather!

These two large storm cells came up from southwest and north east of us and collided, forming this gargantuan super-cell and just pummeling us!

I spent the next two hours after that doing paperwork, reporting what went wrong and why.

We lost power at the station a couple of times, but the back-up generator kicked on, so we stayed on air. But after the hail and nigh-hurricane-force wind ceased, I stepped outside to survey the damage…

Green leaves covered most of the concrete and asphalt. Tree branches, and even entire chucks of trees, littered the parking lot and street. And for half a mile in every direction, the station was the only building with electricity!

It was kind of groovy.

Brian called me up during the worst of it. He had been sound asleep when tornado sirens woke him up. He figured since he was awake, and had already gotten some sleep, he’d play some Age of Mythology, but then the power died, lol. Since we don’t have TV, he usually checks out the Live Doppler Radar on the Net when the weather starts getting interesting. But with no power, he was forced to give me a call to find out what’s going on.

He also grabbed my portable dvd player and popped Twister in, lol. (He’s not the only one… I enjoy watching storm movies when the weather is feisty, too. Or, like, watching The Fog (the carpenter version) when you can see three feet in front of your face outside, lol.)

Driving home, I got to see what a mess the rest of the city was. The trip began with a construction worker walking over to my car to let me know that he’d cleared as much of the branches and wash-over (I believe that’s the term he used) out of the street as he could, but that the lights at the intersection were out, so I needed to be careful.

Which I thought was very considerate of him!

Then when I got to work Thursday night, my boss had bought all of us dinner, for having done a good job during Wednesday night’s chaos.

Which I thought was not only considerate, but practical! :D I always appreciate a free meal!

This weekend’s going to be cool: I’m going to be animating! The producers of Watchmen are having a contest in which Watchmen fans can create their own Veidt product commercials, and the best ones will appear on TV screens in the background! We’ve written 3 commercials so far, and 2 of them are graphics-driven, and one requires an actual physical shoot. We’re not ready for the shoot just yet, so Tommy and I will be working online together on the 2 graphics-driven ones.

I wish I could show you the one I’m working on, but I doubt I’ll be able to. (I haven’t read the rules yet, so I’ll check on it.)

Also, I’m one disc away from having finished Alias, Season 2, AND my good friend Lothar has loaned me Season 3! So I’ll be able to go straight from the season 2 cliff-hanger to the Season 3 Premiere! (Which, I can already tell, is going to be a NECESSITY, the way those maniacs dick around with their show, lol! Halfway through Season 2 they complete the objective that you thought it was going to take them the entire run of the show to complete, leaving your head reeling and your mouth just going “Wha? Huh?!”)

Oh, and that reminds me: I’m 2 episodes behind on LOST, and I’ve been told they just started the first episode of a 3-episode Season Finale! So I need to catch up there, too.

Luckily for me, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull doesn’t come out in theaters until next week, or else I’d likely get NOTHING done, lol.

DUDE!!! A NEW INDIANA JONES!!! I was, like, 10 when the first one came out! It changed my life, permanently mutating me into an Action Movie junky!!! :D The third movie came out a month after I graduated, and I clearly remember reading the novelization during my graduation rehearsal!

Which seems sort of sycronistic, as I’m going to go watch my daughter graduate the week after Indy IV is released…

Okay, I need to get to bed.

Oh! I didn’t even tell you the coolest part of the week! I started this week off with a little Gnomey-lovin’! This is just a big, fat, bad-ass week for me!

And I suspect cooler things to come…

I hope your weekend is blissful and your next week is just A BLAST!!! :D

IRON MAN RULES!!! :D

Brian & I just got back from watching it on the Big Screen!

We watched it online last week (we were broke, sadly) but we HAD TO see it in the cinema, so we did tonight!

BETTER on the Big Screen!!! Like, 100 times better!

PLUS... that cool bit after the end credits... It's not online. :(

Um...

I'm up to Disc 4 of ALIAS Season 2. ALIAS ALSO RULES!!!

I know I've said it before, but I can't stress that enough. J. J. Abrams? GENIUS!!!

Other than that, I've just been writing. My co-written project is at a pausing point right now. My trilogy of movies/novels is coming along slowly. (I'm missing some component element that's keeping it from flowing right.) And my spooky audio idea is at a halt pending further research (which I can't afford at the moment).

But I'm certainly keeping busy!

It's kind of funny... After Script Frenzy I thought I'd just blow through these next projects, but writing is never that simple, it seems. Every project (and I've heard and read this before, but I guess I'm understanding the statement more fully now) always has its own hiccups.

Which is fine. :)

I still contend I'll sell my first screenplay and my first novel in 2009. The path just seems a bit more daunting than it did last month, hehe. ;P

Also, Mom's in town for a couple of weeks! That's groovy! So Brian & I got to spend Mother's Day with her and Gan-Gan. :) (And our new "sister" Daisy, a 3-week-old Rat Terrier, lol.)

DUDE!!! Also...

As cool as it was to watch IRON MAN with my li'l bro, it's so much cooler watching it with an audience! That's something I keep forgetting in this digital age: Movies are meant to be seen with audiences! I mean, you watch your favorite movies over and over again on dvd, and revisit the audio commentary or the behind-the-scenes features or featurettes, and it's easy to forget that film is meant to be a communal experience! They are designed to be viewed by a small community, not by 1 or 2 people sitting at home.

I usually don't have the time or fundage to leave my apartment and see a flick on the Big Screen, so I've grown used to the very intimacy of viewing a movie all by myself. But when you're watching something great, it's so much better in a half-full to full house!

I need to keep that in mind.

Okay, so, this being the first of my 3-day weekend, I think I'm going to go play and not worry about getting any writing done tonight.

PEACE!!! :D




(Btw, that was "go play" and not "go have a play" to a certain someone who likes to tease me when she gets the chance to, hehe.) ;)

May the Force Be With You :)

Netflix is BEAUTIFUL!!! :D

Okay, I've finally finished Season 1 of Alias and am ready to begin the second disc of Season 2, which is huge for me! :) I watched the first 2 discs of Season 1 some time ago, and Script Frenzy -- as well as life in general -- has kept me from getting any further.

Until this weekend! :)

Also...

Again, thanks to Netflix, Brian and I watched Family Guy: Blue Harvest yesterday, lol! GENIUS!

But that made us have to watch the Robot Chicken Star Wars Special, which we found online. (Including filmmaker commentary, which is SO FRICKIN' COOL!!!) :D

And as a result of all this Star Wars stuff, I had to listen to the NPR radio dramas on the way to work, and then most of the night so far, lol.

Blue Harvest was cool because we got the disc in the mail, then our buddy Tommy happened to stop by to discuss the Watchmen Commercial Contest, and after working for a couple of hours we took a break to watch Blue Harvest. So we got to watch it together -- which, considering the fact that he's now pops to 2 little girls, is unusual, hehe! :) (We don't get much time to do work together, much less just relax together.)

As far as writing goes...

Um...

Well, I wrote a commercial for the Watchmen contest with the guys yesterday! :) That's good! (And, you know, when you write one commercial, you actually write, like, 5 that you don't end up using before you get to the one that you do choose to use... So... That's some work, right?)

Actually, I need to get a bit more serious about the script I'm co-writing with my li'l bro and My Genius Friend Dave... but, you know... I've been working so hard for so long... I'm kind of enjoying not having a deadline to answer to.

So I had a groovy weekend, and am not disappointed to be back at work. I mean, I look forward to the weekend, to be sure, but I've had a pleasant enough weekend that I feel refreshed and stuff.

So yay! :)

LOVE TO MY GNOMEY GODDESS!!! :D

Actually, the way we've been communicating recently, I may speak to her over the phone before she reads this blog entry. But just in case... ;)

And I hope that YOU have an AMAZING week!!! :D

I'M A WIENER!!! I'M A WIENER!!!

What a TERRIFIC day today has been!!!

First off, I woke up to groovy, pretty, stormy weather that didn't hurt anyone I know but just provided an exciting, invigorating vibe! :)

Always a cool way to wake up!

Then I finally got around to converting my The Cure CDs to mp3s, so I was able to drive to work with EXCELLENT music!

I got to work late. :(

But once at work, everything went smoothly -- which is particularly note-worthy because usually when there is severe weather, working at a TV station can get very complicated!

(This gets interesting, I promise. I'm just building up to the really cool parts...)

Then after my work was done, I got to chat some with My Genius Friend Dave, with whom Brian & I are writing a screenplay based on a joke he once made.

That was cool, because I simply told him of a type of character I'm trying to create for the dynamic of the story, and he gave me not only the character, but also created some very valuable backstory that makes the world of the movie a great deal richer and more interesting! :D

Then after he left and I was all alone at work, I was able to work on that script a bit, as well as an audio story that's fallen into my lap.

I didn't plan to work on either of these stories tonight; it just sort of happened and I got some valuable work done!

Also, there's a really cool thing that happened a couple of day ago, but I haven't blogged about it yet. So I'm going to arbitrarily cram it into here:

But a little background first...

At the beginning of this month I mentioned that I was reading Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies. That's a book by Blake Snyder, a screenwriter who has taken all the academia out of the screenplay development process and broken it down to a clear, streamlined process that amps up the both the entertainment value and the market value of your screenplay by, like, 100%.

What makes his approach so revolutionary is his approach to genre: Being a professional screenwriter, he doesn't think of movies in terms of "It's a sci-fi flick" or "It's a comedy" since these terms don't really tell you anything about what's really going on in the story. What he and his writer friends have come up with is alternative genres, such as "It's a Dude With A Problem flick" or "It's a Monster In The House movie". Even if you don't know exactly what elements go into the movie, you've got a much better idea what the story might be about!

It's AMAZING!

I read his second book first because the Barnes & Noble on my way to work had it, but they didn't have his first book -- Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need -- in stock. So I ordered it online and read the second book while I waited, hehe. :)

One of the cool tools he has created is a beat sheet: It's sort of a structural guide to breaking the story of your movie. (You can download a copy here...)

But the structure is set up for a feature-length story.

Because of the audio idea I've got (which I was thinking of doing as a series of 3 1-hour episodes that make up one long story) I got to wondering if maybe the beats could be condensed into an hour-long format. If so, this could be useful for writing more well-rounded episodes of TV shows, as well!

So, for my own purposes, I played around with the structure and found a way to -- I hoped -- successfully condense it from 120 pages to 60 pages, keeping the structure in place. (Meaning that you don't just cut the pages numbers in half, you also consider how long each section should play for, as well.)

But I wasn't sure if I had gotten it right, so I emailed Mr. Snyder to ask him what he thought. I was hoping that if I missed some important aspect of the structure he would point it out to me. (Assuming he had the time to reply at all... He's a working screenwriter, and he's also working on his 3rd Save the Cat! book, as well.)

I think it was the very next day that I got an email back from him, and he said I was -- and I quote -- "brilliant"!!! lol :D

Now, this is a guy who IS brilliant! I've read A LOT of books about screenwriting, by some really top-notch minds, and the majority of the work (though undeniably genius and valuable) always turns out (1) too theory-based to be practical for actually developing a story from the initial idea up, (2) overly simplified -- this is rare, but it occasionally is the case -- or (3) just plain impractical (in this category, I once read a book supposedly designed to help you write the "perfect" screenplay competition script, and "The Formula" the writer provided was just nonsense that looked good on paper, until you actually tried to apply your movie idea to it, lol). Snyder has found -- through experimentation in the industry, meaning that if his strategy worked he actually got a lot of money for the script he tried it in -- the perfect balance of theory and practical writing tools, so that a non-writer could follow his instructions and turn an idea for a movie into a 11-/120-page screenplay!

So to have him use that phrase in an email to me, and be pleased with the tinkering I did with his hard-earned work was kind of a thrill, hehe. :D

And I guess that fits in with this amazing day of mine because I got to tell My Genius Friend Dave last night at work, so I got to relive it again. :)

So now back to tonight...

I log onto ScriptFrenzy.org to see if they're gearing up to announce winners, and I'm greeted with this full-page YOU'RE A WINNER! message, providing me with banners I can put on my web pages (you'll notice the new Script Frenzy ticket thingy on my blog header) and a certificate I can print out and hang on a wall (which you can see at the top of this blog entry)!

And so I've had this really cool day, and I'm just about to head out the door and come home, when my phone rings...

6:00 am and my phone rings.

Who could be calling me this early? Especially on a Saturday morning!

IT'S MY GNOMEY-GODDESS!!! :D

She's at work (it's noon in the UK) and she had some down time, so she called me to give me some love and conversation! :D

What a sweetheart!!!

Lately we've been talking in the evning, about the time I wake up and she's headed to bed. So it was such an amazing surprise when she called me on my way out of work!

And with that, my day is complete, and I retire to blissful slumber. :)

I hope your day is full of wonderful, invigorating surprises!!!

Script Frenzy Week 3 -- 115 PAGES!!!

FADE the fuck OUT!!! :D

I wrote from around 6:00 pm until around 12:30 am AND I AM FINISHED!!! :D

YAY! YAY! WOO-HOO!!!

And I can't afford any alcohol to celebrate with. :(

But that's just as well... I didn't finish until after midnight anyway. (If you're reading this in some part of the world other than Texas, we have a curfew on when we can purchase alcoholic beverages, and the cut-off is midnight. Except Saturdays, then it's 1:00 am.)


So I not only made my page count, I also made my scene count...

A FULL 7 DAYS BEFORE THE DEADLINE!!!

:D

How bad-ass is THAT?!!

And now I'm DONE! FREE! I can work on ANYTHING I WANT TO!!!

But not tonight.

I've done a lot of writing tonight. I'm gonna watch Oprah & Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth class -- Chapter 8, which aired live last night -- then listen to some more Spooky Southcoast.

Then maybe some Monty Python.

I loaded my iPod up with HOURS of their albums! I've got, in order of release, Another Monty Python Record (1971), Monty Python's Previous Record (1972), Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief (1973), Monty Python Live at the Theatre Royale, Drury Lane (1974), Monty Python's Contractual Obligation (1980) and Monty Python's The Final Rip Off (1988).

Plus, I've got a few soundtracks and Monty Python Sings, but those aren't loaded onto my iPod. (I'm more a fan of teh sketches, rather than the songs.)

What?

What are you looking at me like that for?

I'm not compulsive or anything! I'm just...

...obsessive, lol.

I've listened to all the Eddie Izzard and Fawlty Towers I can usefully listen to for a year or so, so I've gone back to the well, back to the inspiration for such silliness. :)

So when I sign off from here, I plan to nestle into my bed, set my iPod in its cradle, and give my eyes and fingers a complete rest for hours and hours and hours! :D

OH!

As promised...



TA-DAH!

The Frenzy Beard Update! :D

I don't know, it's kind of okay, right? I mean, it's scraggly, yeah. But it kind of looks like a real beard.

(Btw, that's my face before I started writing today. I had no idea whether I was going to continue writing, or how much I would accomplish. My face now is big and smiley and filled with pride and almost unbearable self-satisfaction, hehe.)

Here's the close-up...



It's still pretty patchy.

Like I've said, my hair is super-fine and thin. So I don't think I'm ever going to have a Harrison-Ford-in-The-Fugitive kind of beard.

Still, maybe it would do if I ever got famous and went through a fat-Jim-Morrison stage, lol. (I know, you're saying "Who are you to be joking about anyone's weigh, tubby?" lol)

And let's compare it to when I started Script Frenzy...



That's some decent growth.

But now that I've won the frenzy and finished my script, I think I'm gonna shave this shit off, lol!

It's kind of itchy.

Okay, enough writing for today!

PEACE, LOVE & HAPPINESS!!!

And LOVE to My Gnomey Goddess!!!

:D

Script Frenzy Week 3 - 83 Pages (and counting)

All right all you Writer groupies, you may begin tossing your undergarments at the stage! :D

Script frenzy has it's official page-validater 'bot up and running (before, it was just the honor system) and I am officially 17 pages away from the win!

And I may not even be finished yet...

See, I'm running into a rather interesting dilemma: When I outlined the screenplay, I was working with a sort of guess-timate about how many scenes it would take to fill up the script, and how long those scenes would run.

When I began writing the script, I discovered I could plow through the scenes at a pace of about 2 pages per scene, but they didn't really have much "flavor", if you will. They were just one moment moving into the next moment.

Not a great read.

So I gave myself license to write the scenes the length they wanted to be written, and I can always condense them later. Sometimes rewriting is a process of looking at a scene, seeing what's there that's good, seeing what's there that's not really necessary or interesting, then condensing the scene for greatest impact.

PLUS...

Writing long ensured that I would win Script Frenzy. Last year I plotted out a feature, then wrote it, and it came just shy of 90 pages. 90 pages is the shortest a screenplay can run and still be called a feature. Hollywood won't even read a spec script that's under 90 pages.

So I felt safer erring on the side of over-writing, rather than risk under-writing.

And now I'm ahead of my page count, but I'm behind on my scene count, lol.

See, one of my goals with this year's Script Frenzy was to finish this script. I want to win the Frenzy, yes... but I also assumed that by winning the Frenzy I would also be finishing the script.

And there's a fairly serious risk, now, of me winning the Frenzy, but still having another week or so of work before the script is finished.

And I've got projects that are dying to be written! For the first time since my early 20s, I can't write fast enough to keep up with my great ideas! (I'm not talking "decent" or "okay" ideas, I'm talking great ideas! Ideas I can't wait to write so that I can show people!)

And the thought of having to work even a week past April is kind of disheartening.

But I've made a deal with a friend who has really stuck with me since around November of last year, making sure that I stick to a writing schedule and actually get something finished.

So I can't, in good conscience, begin working on a new project until I've honored my obligation -- the obligation I begged my friend to keep me to -- to this story!

So...

Despite the fact that I've exceeded my page count for this week by 8 pages, it looks like I need to continue writing tomorrow, to try and catch up on my scene count. I'm 5 scenes behind where I should be.

The good news is that I might complete my Script Frenzy obligation by tomorrow, lol. The bad news is that when I go back to rewrite this thing, I may be hacking and slashing like Jason Voorhees and a certain notorious Friday.

But I'm DONE for tonight.

It's now 5:04 am, and I've been writing since just before 6:00 pm yesterday. (That's 11 hours of writing, folks.) I need to lay down and listen to some Spooky SouthCoast and give my poor, blessed fingers a REST!

Since it's been such a looooooooooooooong day, and since I may be writing tomorrow as well (and therefor revising this week's page count), I'm going to hold off on the Frenzy Beard update for now.

If you're really, actually interested in how thick my Frenzy Beard is (or is not) getting, check back late tomorrow night or Wednesday for the pics.

Meanwhile, have a FANATASTIC day!!! :D

What An AMAZING Day!!! :D

Guess who called me yesterday!!!

Okay, so I ended up going to be about 3 hours earlier than usual Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. No real reason, I just did. ("The day owed me nothing more," to borrow a phrase I once read.)

And, most likely as a result, I woke up WAY early.

My body still wanted to sleep, but for some reason, my consciousness wanted to be awake.

If that makes any sense...

Then I get a text message...

IT'S MY BABY TELLING ME THAT SHE'S GETTING OFF WORK IN HALF AN HOUR AND SHE'LL CALL ME!!! :D <3 <3 <3

Now I was completely awake! (It's been a while, you see, hehe.)

And sure enough, she called me and we chatted a bit while she waited for her ride, then she invited me to call her in a few hours so we could resume our conversation!

We have to have talked for a couple of hours in all! IT WAS WONDERFUL!!! :D

On the one hand, I would suggest that -- from a practical standpoint -- one not get romantically involved with someone from another another country unless you frequently visit that country, or she visits yours frequently...

On the other hand, IT SO DOESN'T MATTER! I mean, if she's the One, then she's the One and the pros WELL OUTWEIGH the cons, lol! :D

And my Gnomey-Goddess is DEFINITELY my "the One"!!!

Dude! I'm serious! When I talk to Gnomey, or even THINK of her, it's like sitting in the midst of a huge, immaculate garden! And the weather is always perfect, and everything around you is alive and in bloom and radiating a powerful energy that surrounds you and flows through you and nourishes you on more levels than you realize you have!!! :D

Poor thing, though, she's had SO MUCH going on! It's like this is one of those phases in her life (that we all experience, though perhaps not to this degree) where life just refuses to let up! If it's not one thing it's another, and if it's not one of those first two things it's this bizarre THIRD thing you couldn't possibly have expected!

But bless her, she's not only holding up under it all, she's still just as fun and funny and loving and lovable as ever!

I should get back to work. But I've been basking in our interactions all night and I had to share it before I exploded into heart-shaped, gooey, sunshine, lol!

:D

Script Frenzy Week 2 - 51 Pages

We're at the halfway point of Script Frenzy, and I'm just over halfway through
the required page-count! :)

I could have done more, probably reached the Week 3 page-count goal, but this weekend has been weird. I started off sick, and spent the last 3 days in bed. I was in and out of sleep, listening to paranormal podcasts. (Weird choice of listening material when you're ill, I know, but hey... It kept me occupied, lol.)

Actaully, I've fallen in love with one particular podcast: Spooky Southcoast!!! Tim Weisberg, Matt Costa and Science Adviser Matt Moniz rule the airwaves!!! :D

Spooky Southcoast is a radio broadcast that also uploads for a regular podcast, and if you're into paranormal topics, THIS is the podcast for you! Very fun, but they take the subjects they discuss seriously.

Listen to a few episodes (they run a couple hours long) and see if you're not addicted after just a couple!

I'm also into a podcast I discovered called Cult of UHF! It's simply B-Movies that you might have watched on a cable TV station some Sunday afternoon back in the '70s or '80s, lol. Growing up in Odessa, Texas, I never had a local channel that aired a Friday Night Fright Flick or a Sunday afternoon B-movie, but for some reason I adore the idea!!! I don't know what's up with me, but for some reason it's so much fun to fall asleep to a bad movie on my iPod, lol.

Plus, the portability of the Cult of UHF podcasts means that I can watch a bad B-movie where ever I go, hee-hee. :D For some reason, that appeals to me. :) (Which is slightly odd, because I've got plenty of really good movies on my iPod that I can watch. But there is some mysterious appeal to being able to watch a bad one that I'd never in a million years rent off Netflix, lol.)

Okay...

Week 2 of Script Frenzy...

Let's check in on the ol' Frenzy beard...



Please ignore the bed-head. I've been up since around 7:00 am and just haven't gotten around to doing my 'do.



I think you'll agree that getting started on the Frenzy beard a week early didn't really give me any advantage, lol. My facial fuzz just doesn't like to grow.

If I ever act in a flick where I need a full beard, I'll have to use a prosthetic, or maybe have the makeup guy give me a hand, lol.

Okay, back to bed and podcasts for me.

SHOUT OUT TO MY GNOMEY GODDESS: I LOVE YOU, BABY!!! :D I miss you and I hope you are well!!! :D <3 <3 <3

38 Pages!!! :D

My dental appointment was a bust this morning, and I flipped my sleeping schedule yesterday, staying up until 8:00 pm or so. So I was left with a whole day to fill.

So I wrote some more. :)

I visited the Script Frenzy site and checked in on how other participants were doing. I found one woman in Austin who had some 30 pages. (There's someone in Australia who has completed 127 pages already!)

So I figured I'd go ahead and get some more done on the script.

Up to 38 now!

38 and 1/2, to be precise.

And it's too soon to check in on the ol' Frenzy beard again, but I want to reveal just how big a geek I am...



I have NO interest in guns whatsoever, and weapons in general (save for lightsabers, phasers and other sci-fi fun). But this is a replica of LARA CROFT's gun!!! Her default dual pistols that she uses!



Check out the design on that thing! I particularly like the 3 jagged things on the bottom of the front of the barrel! Very wicked looking! :)



I don't know how long she's been sporting this model. This is the earliest videogame pic I can find, the her facial design suggests this is back during Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. I know she has them in Tomb Raider Legend because I spotted the replica gun some time ago, and then noticed it while playing the game.

In the promotional pics, you don't really get a good sideways shot of the gun, but you can tell by the barrel.



Also, I know Angelina Jolie uses them in the first movie, and I believe they're in the second movie, as well. (I might go back and check sometime, but not right now.)

So yeah, I'm a nerd, lol.

I only bought one, however. I'm a nerd, but I'm not that big a nerd, lol. ;P

Mom is coming by soon to take Brian & me out to dinner, then we're going to go see my pop's grave site. It's the 3rd anniversary of his passing.

So probably no more writing tonight. But I'm off tomorrow, so who knows! :)

Peace to all!!!

Think of someone you love, then tell them. As a favor to me. :)

29 PAGES for Week 1!!! :D

I'm so very excited! :D

I didn't do any writing since my last entry. In fact, I spent yesterday at work and most of this morning reading Save The Cat! Goes To The Movies instead of writing, as I probably should have done, lol.

It's a book with a very unique, straight-forward approach to developing a screenplay from a mere idea or concept, and I discovered it night before last via an interview with the author.

It's very illuminating! :)

But anyway...

So I have 7 pages done and I'm looking for 18 before Tuesday to keep up my quota, in order to win Script Frenzy this again tis year, and I found myself dozing off as I'm reading my new book, lol!

But I'm off for the next 3 days, so I decided "screw it" and I've been writing since 8:00 or 8:30 am. (It's just after 3:00 pm as I write this, hehe.)

Now, I've still got 3 more weeks to screw this up, so I'm not resting on my laurels... much, hehe. ;P

I have Family Stuff tomorrow, as well as a dental appointment. So I don't anticipate writing on Monday. But who knows what Tuesday will hold.

Or the rest of the week, for that matter.

Still... I feel triumphant right now, and Now is the only time we really have, right?

So...

YAY, ME!!! :D

Okay... Let's have a look at that Frenzy beard...



Maybe a little bit of growth there...

Let's have a closer look...




The mustache seems a shade darker, perhaps.

But there are these patches that just refuse to meet, lol.

Honestly, when I look in the bathroom mirror it looks a bit thicker, but I guess that's just the shadows from the bathroom lights. When I photograph it, it just looks like I need to wash my face, lol.

Okay, hope everyone reading this has a MAGICAL week, and I'll be back sometime around next Tuesday with an update on my Frenzy page-count.

7 Pages down, 16 to go before Wednesday :)

I probably should have more written by now, lol. I've been procrastinating a bit.

I didn't actually get ANY writing done Tuesday. No real reason... I just felt lazy.

I did watch Season 1 of Flight of the Conchords' HBO show. And some of JAWS. And yesterday I woke up early and, instead of writing, I watched JAWS 2.

Mom's in town! Brian & I did the Red Lobster thang with her Tuesday night. (I suppose that's part of my excuse for not writing Tuesday, but it's really just that: an excuse, lol.)

Ooh! And I had my first King Cake, too! Mom's adjusting quite well to life in Louisiana. She pronounces Mardi Gras (Mar-dee Grah in Texan) Mahdigrah, lol. And she discovered this tradition around Mahdigrah time about eating King Cakes. So she gave us, like, half of one so we could experience it. (It was too huge to be a slice, it had to be a half of the cake!)

Very tasty!

I was hoping I'd get the piece with the Baby Jesus inside, so I could be king for a day, but I didn't.

My sweet tooth was well satisfied, though! :)


And right now I should probably write a few more pages...

But I don't think I'm gonna, lol.

It's not that I'm overly tired or anything. But I spent an extra half hour at work writing, and just feel lazy again.

Should I be admitting this?

3 Days Till SCRIPT FRENZY 2008!!!

Tuesday, 12:00 am, I get to type "FADE IN:" on my screenplay!!! And hopefully, by 11:59 pm Wednesday, April 30th I will have finished it!!! :D

I just COULD NOT be more excited about April, and I'll tell you why:

I feel like this screenplay marks the actual beginning of my career as a writer! All the study and practice I've been doing for the last decade and a half has culminated into THIS script! This beginning!

It took me a while, but I finally GET the old axiom "Writers WRITE." Before now, I might have added to that quote "Yeah, unless they don't know what to write." But events have fallen into such a place that I now know -- KNOW -- that once I begin writing April 1st, I won't quit until I retire or die!

When this screenplay is finished, I'm immediately going to begin another. When that is done, I'll return to this one and rewrite it (probably as a novel, but that would still give be a good Second Draft because I'll be changing things as I go), then if enough time has passed I'll go back and rewrite the second script, then I'll come back to this story and adapt my novel back into screenplay form, then I'll start on a 3rd screenplay, and so on and so on until I am a published novelist, a working screenwriter, or BOTH! :D

If I have to write 20 screenplays and 20 novels before I start making money as a writer, so be it. That's simply the way it goes. That just means that it took 20 screenplays/novels to actually get great at it. I'm cool with that. :)

My plan is 3 screenplays finish and ready to send to Hollywood before 2008 is gone.

But that's all in the future.

If my Gnomey and I are finally united and I have to take a 2nd job to keep a roof over our head or something, obviously the model will shift. But I suspect I WILL be writing during that, too! (Just a slower output than my current plan.)

So I don't want to jinx myself, but... :D (There's a great quote from DUMA KEY "God always punishes us for what we can't imagine," lol.)

As far as the Script Frenzy goes, my strategy is simple: 25 pages a week. I can't count on sticking to a daily page-count, but I've discovered over the last 4 months that a weekly page-count is AMAZINGLY do-able! :D And even though 25 pages in, essentially, 3 days is A LOT of work, I've already taken care of the hardest part...

I've completely broken my movie! :D I have every single scene outlined and structured, so all I have to do is look at the outline, see what scene is next, AND WRITE THAT MUTHA!!! :D

Then every Tuesday I take count: Have I finished 25 pages? If I fall behind, then I know I'll have to find some extra writing time during the work week. If I get ahead, groovy. And if I only just make my schedule, I'm finished a full day before deadline!!! :D

And here's the beauty part...

Even if I don't make it this year (last year I made the deadline, but the script I wrote was crap and I could feel it long before I finished it) I STILL WIN!!! Not the Frenzy, but... you know... LIFE in general, lol. Because my real goal is to finish the first draft of this script and get started on my next story.

Because I've finally figured out which game I'm playing!

LIFE!

What I mean is that I believe our lives are a lot like SecondLife... You can do anything you want with certain limitations. So you familiarize yourself with the limitations, familiarize yourself with what's fun, then you basically create your own game!

Every time you enter SecondLife, you do so with an agenda. "I want to hang out with So-and-So." "I want to build this." "I want to experience that." Or maybe just "I want to go sailing." If you don't have an agenda, you usually just don't log in.

Same, I believe, with Life.

I don't wake up every day because my alarm goes off. Maybe I wake up because I have to go to work, yeah, but I go to work to pay my bills and (occasionally) buy neat stuff. On my days off, I get to figure out for myself why I'm waking up. "Want to see if my baby is online." "Got some writing to do." "Wanna get to the next level in Tomb Raider." "Want to watch such-and-such dvd."

But we create our own agenda. (Or we allow someone to create it for us, but that's another blog entirely, lol.)

And I believe we do so with Life, as well. I see Life as a physical-reality videogame and us as the spirit-beings playing it, and the way we win the game is to simply PLAY THE HELL OUT OF IT!!! :D We get EVERY OUNCE of enjoyment and wisdom and understanding that we can find until the game is over!

And after searching (blindly, it now seems in hindsight) for almost 20 years, I finally figure out my game...

Tell some stories that make some people happy so I can get some money so I can get the hotty. Then I tell more stories that make more people happy so I can get more money while hanging with the hotty. Then I tell some more stories that make more people happy so I can get more money while I'm raising a family with the hotty. Then I tell some more stories that make some more people happy and make me some more money while the hotty and our family laugh a lot and love each other and have lots and lots of fun together. And then one day it'll all be over for me and I'll die with a huge-ass smile on my face!

That's not a bad game plan, yeah? ;P

And although, at 37, I feel it has taken me FOREVER to figure this all out, I suspect that at 87 it will seem like no time at all! ;)

But first... the Frenzy!

This is the starter's gun. This is when the game begins, and doesn't end for years and years and years! :) One month of frenzied writing, followed by a lifetime of frenzied writing... broken up by laughs and love and Life.

Is there ANY way I could make Script Frenzy 2008 more grandiose? lol

Oh yeah, and for this Frenzy I'm starting a Frenzy beard, lol. Just an idea that occurred to me. I remember being impressed by Conan O'Brien's strike beard, so I thought I might try a Frenzy beard.

I don't know how much it'll grow in a month (not much, I'm sure) but it might be fun watching it grow! (Maybe, lol.)

As of 8:36 am Saturday, March 29, 2008 I have maybe 2 days' growth and this is what it looks like...



Okay, I'd like to start off with the observation that this lighting doesn't do me any favors. :( It seems to give me a yellow-ish tint, which I don't have. I'm much more "pasty white" than "jaundiced yellow". And my teeth are not NEARLY as caffeine-/nicotine-stained, lol. ;P

But this is about 2 days' growth on me.

If you're having trouble spotting the new growth, here's a closer view...



There ya go. Now you can almost see it, lol.

The goatee and soul patch, naturally, have been growing for years now. But that thin smattering of darkness on top of my pasty jaw is the Frenzy beard doing its thing.

See all that white (or yellow, as the case may be) between those pencil-thin streaks of hair? No hair is going to grow there. Over the coming weeks, the hair that is there will simply grow longer. So what I believe you will witness over the next month is the phenomenon of how thin, baby-fine hair can actually refuse to create a beard.

It should be riveting. ;P

But be back here next Tuesday to see if I've made my page-count for the first week of Script frenzy 2008, and to see if maybe it might be possible I can grow a full, manly beard.

In the meantime, ENJOY YOUR LIFE!!! For all we know, we only get THIS ONE! :D

Finished DUMA KEY!!! :D

I put it up there with THE STAND and SALEMS' LOT and INSOMNIA!!! This is one of King's best books ever!!!

I also put it up there with some Koontz novels: FROM THE CORNER OF HIS EYE, ONE DOOR AWAY FROM HEAVEN, and THE TAKEN!!!

The year before last I read CELL and was pleased to see than King was still rough and raw. But having read DUMA KEY, I really appreciate that King has matured, and can tell a story that is just a joy to read in and of itself!

I usually read King because I want him to scare me. But the scares mostly come late in the game in DUMA KEY. What you're left with is people that you LOVE hanging out with in a place you love inhabiting! If King didn't write horror stories, if he jst wrote fictitious drama, you'd still love his work! :D

I suspect I'll be revisiting DUMA KEY frequently, lol! :)

VERY good book!!!

Otherwise, I'm waiting for April 1st, when I'll begin the Script Frenzy and finish my current screenplay. (I've broken the story, so I just have the actual pages to write now.)

Okay, I have food cooking, so I'm going to go for now.

PEACE!!! :D

Lost In 2 Great Books...

I'm almost finished reading Eckhart Tolle's A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE, which is probably the first Oprah Book Club recommendation that I've ever read, lol. But my friend Traci told me about the free 10-week online class, which is available for download on iTunes the next day.

So I watched the first 2 classes (Chapters 1 & 2) on my iPod, and bought the book. It's good reading! :)

Also, since I've seen the cover of Stephen King's current novel, DUMA KEY, I've been obsessing over it. So this morning, after I bought a money order for this month's rent, I treated myself to the unabridged audiobook version ($35 at Audible.com, $32 at iTunes!) and fell asleep listening to it. Then I listened to it on the drive to work, and have been listening to for the past 2 and 1/2 hours at work. (I have all my heavy-duty Friday stuff done, so the rest of my shift is babysitting the technology and keeping the beast fed. Plus, I keep the iPod audio quiet enough that I can easily hear all three of my stations, in case something went wrong.)

I paused in my listening because my iPod was almost out of juice, lol. I'm recharging it (AND watching/listening to my stations) as I write this.

I think DUMA KEY may turn out to be one of my favorite King novels! :D

I'm LOVING the book so far!

I should explain: One of the big reasons I started obsessing over the book after I saw the cover art is because, for whatever reason beyond the ridiculously obvious, the cover art and the blurb reminded me of the weekend I spent in Florida at my friend Chuck's wedding. (Chuck just happens to be as devoted to King's writing as I am to Michael Crichton's. So there's that, as well.)

I remember obsessing over the book INSOMNIA when I was living a fairly solitary life in Georgetown. The book is about an older guy and his life after his beloved wife passes away. I've read the book a few times now. I really enjoy just being in that world. (Chaos and supernatural murder not withstanding.)

I dug on CELL a couple of years ago, and it's definitely up there as one of my favorites, if for no other reason that it's King and it's (more or less) zombies. Oh, AND it's post-apocalyptic. (Got a weakness for fictitious apocalypses...)

But I've only returned to hang out in that world once, so far.

But Duma Key...

I'm kind of digging being there! :)

And the relationship between the guy (in his 50s) and his adult daughter... There's definitely something very "me" about this story so far! :D I'm really relating to it!

The audiobook is divided into 9 2.5-hour chunks (21.5 hours total running time), and I'm about 4 hours into it. So I'm really in "Act I", if you thought of King's work in screenwriting terms. I've seen glimpses of the supernatural evil lurking somewhere in the darkness, but it hasn't really sprung just yet.

But that's fine by me! :)

I'm just living on a Key right now!!!

Awww MANNN...!

I just noticed that we're airing one of those trashy "Laugh At Videos Where People Get Hurt And/Or Die" shows for the next hour! :( NOW is the time I REALLY need Mr. King to divert my attention, only the iPod's recharging!

There's no work I can be doing to distract myself for the next hour, so I could really use a distraction.

I LOATHE watching people get injured. It sickens me. And it sickens me even more to know that there are enough people out there who aren't bothered watching their fellow humans suffer.

More than that, wasn't FACES OF DEATH supposedly banned in several countries 20 years ago? How come we can show stuff worse than that on TV now? What the hell?

Blah.

Okay... Smoke break, then I'll see how much the iPod has charged. I only have 2 more hours left of my shift, so maybe I don't need it to recharge all the way.

Hope you've got some fun shiny objects with which to distract yourself, too! :)

And happy Easter!!! :D

WOO-HOO!!! :D

I just finished outlining my screenplay!!! :D

What that means is that the next step is JUST WRITING IT!!!

The writing-pages part doesn't take NEARLY as long as the figuring-out-what-happens-and-making-sure-it's-something-good part!

I got an email that Screenwriting Frenzy starts April 1st. Last year the rules stipulated that the project had to be begun and completed within the alloted 30 days. (I think.) So I need to check to see if a movie that's already outlined is admissible. I hope so, cause I think that would be a cool, participating again this year! (I believe last year was the first year of the contest, so it would be REALLY cool to keep going with it!)

I'll let you know after I look into that...

I also need to hear back from my friend (the one who keeps me to my weekly deadlines). Technically, as per our agreement -- which has been INVALUABLE for keeping me productive and not letting me slack until I loose the creative enthusiasm for a project -- I would be taking some time off until April 1st if I sign up for Screenwriting Frenzy.

So if my friend (my Producer, really; in fact, I think I'll start referring to her as that from now on) doesn't go for it, I won't be joining anyway. Which would be fine from a Big Picture standpoint: This script is about getting my career started, not about competitions that don't actually have cash- or production-prizes. Screenwriting Frenzy is more about providing writers with an excuse to do some work and make it more exciting -- which is indescribably valuable! (Often, screenwriting feels like thankless work when you're not getting any recognition -- like a paycheck -- from it.)

However, if my Producer feels like the script is best served just by getting it done now, striking while the iron is hot, so to speak, then that's cool, too! Who knows, if we went that way, I might possibly be done BEFORE April 30th! One never knows...

Also, BIG DAY TODAY!

The reason I completed my scene breakdown this morning -- rather than procrastinating until tomorrow and finishing it then, since Tuesdays are my weekly deadline -- is that TISHA'S IN TOWN!!! She's spending Spring Break in Austin, and tomorrow is my day with her! If Brian's not too worn-out from work, he'll be joining us, too!

And if all that weren't sweet enough, I HEARD FROM MY GORGEOUS GNOMEY GODDESS TODAY!!! :D She didn't have long to chat, she just wanted to tell me she loves me! :D How lucky am I!!! xoxoxo

So two bad-ass days in a row for me!!! :D


Hope your day -- your whole WEEK -- is bad-ass, too!!! :D

Cruisin' Along...

Sorry I haven't really been blogging lately.

The screenplay I'm working on is coming along nicely... Not super-fast, but not slowly at all. Just this nice, even pace! :) I think this may be the first one I finish that I'm actually proud of! :D

At this moment, I'm trying to avoid the living area, where Brian is watching yesterday's episode of LOST online. I have to get ready for work soon, so I'll watch it later.

THE INTERNET RULES!!! :D

I've also been following TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNER CHRONICLES thanks to Hulu.com, and that's fun! They've also got the first 3 seasons of NEWS RADIO and the series THE CROW: STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN!

HULU RULES!!!

Um... What else?

Haven't heard much from my sweetheart, so I'm guessing she's really, really busy lately. :( Poor hotty!

OOH! Brian & I are all caught up on ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, which (you guessed it) RULES!!! And I've watched the first 2 discs of Season One of ALIAS. (Another RULEr)

And I suppose that's kind of it.

Basically, I find myself thinking "I am finally sort of living the life I imagined for myself" a lot with this screenplay, as well as the Zencasts I've been listening to lately.

For example, this past Tuesday (a few days before payday) I scrounged some change and the couple of bills I had in my wallet and went to the store. Only, my gas was way low, and it was a nice evening, so I walked.

It was one of the most gorgeous walks ever! :)

The gold and violet twilight cast this golden glow over the apartments and trees, the odd family out enjoying the dusk and each other, the odd fellow walker taking their dog out.

On my path to the store I pass this old movie theater that has been closed down for maybe a decade now, but it's the same theater wherein I saw INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM the Thanksgiving after I turned 14, and where I saw myself (or, rather, failed to see myself, as I was an extra in a sea of extras) in STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY in 1991. I always wish the theater was still open, but I am always reassured somehow by the fact that it hasn't been torn down and replaced with something else.

Every step of the walk was rich and textured and beautiful!

And on my way home from the store I, once again, realized that I am living the life I imagined for myself so many years ago! That day I woke up, checked my email, worked on the script, took this gorgeous walk, and was on my way home to watch a mini-marathon of ALIAS!

THAT is LIVING! :D

The only thing missing was my Gnomey Goddess. The walk would have been indescribably more beautiful with her, and ALIAS marathon would have been more fun. (If she's into ALIAS. I haven't gotten a chance to ask her yet.)

I mean, obviously I don't make the money I hope to one day make, but that's just money. And I rent an apartment rather than owning a home, but that's not REALLY a big deal, either. The only thing missing from that perfect Tuesday was my Gnomey.

But if I just imagine she was out of town on a business trip or something and would be back home soon, that day was PERFECT.

So life is groovy! :)

And I hope you can say the same, too!!! :D

It's A BEAUTIFUL Day!!! :D

I just got back from seeing U2 3D!!!

You haven't lived until you've had Bono standing right in front of you, singing "Wipe your tears away" to you and only you, lol!!!

But I've got to back up a bit...

So I wake up and Brian and I discover the way to remove all out mental blocks to writing, lol!!! I mean, I haven't been blocked in a while, but Brian has. But what's more, this method of developing a story has certain built-in almost-guarantees (because there are no ACTUAL guarantees when you're creating ANYTHING) that allow you to proceed with confidence. (And lack-of-confidence is a HUGE writing block in itself!)

Now, this new information -- gathered from a very reliable source -- is, for me, ON TOP OF the fact that my current screenplay is whizzing right along, no problems, no blocks! This new information will simply speed the process up, immensely! :)

So my day is already off to a smashing start!

After that is breakfast with Mom (who is in town for a few days). The meal? PIZZA!!! Domino's pizza with Double Dave's Pepperoni Rolls!!! (If you haven't had Double Dave's, your life is not quite complete.) Plus, as Brian and I are on our way to meet Mom and this feast she's procured for us, I'm reminded of when Brian & I were kids and Mom would order Domino's. So that was nice.

The reason Mom is in town, sadly, is because her mom, my Gan-Gan, is in the hospital. However, after dining with Mom, Brian & I went to see Gan-Gan, and that was a nice visit! :) It's always alarming when your 70+ (80+?) has to go to the hospital, but it's reassuring when you visit her and she's just as quick-witted and funny as ever! :D

After that, I worked on my writing for an hour and a half, then time for U2!

I HAD THE ENTIRE THEATER TO MYSELF!!!

It was crazy!

It was kind of strange, in a really, really positive way, though...

I got into U2 when I saw the trailer for U2 RATTLE AND HUM back in 1988. I had heard their music, and liked most of it. But I wasn't a fan, necessarily.

Then I go to the theater and I see this trailer... Red background, black silhouettes walking across the screen in slow motion as these exciting notes from an electric guitar slice through my ears, and then the slicing notes become this gorgeous repeated melody that life my entire being into the air and fly me miles through the sky, and then the title card: U2 RATTLE AND HUM, OCTOBER 27, 1988.

That's the way I remember it, anyway. ;P

I don't even remember what movie I had gone to see. I just remember being transported by this trailer and I HAD TO know more about this band!

In particular, I HAD TO HAVE THIS SONG!

Turns out, the song is "Where The Streets Have No Name" from JOSHUA TREE, and the rest of the album is pretty damn good, too, lol!

Being who I am, I also had to buy Eamon Dunphy's UNFORGETTABLE FIRE - THE STORY OF U2 and read it, rereading sections of it several times. (This is back when I was 17 and didn't read unless I absolutely had to, lol.) The book lead me to collect U2's entire discography to date.

I fell in love!

I had them on VYNIL, if you can believe that! (Yes, I am THAT old, lol.)

U2 became my favorite band.

I could go into HOW into them I was, but I'm kind of eating up your Net-surfing time as it is.

But in 1991 I was in L. A. trying to be an actor. I wasn't getting any of the parts I was auditioning for, all my personal relationships were imploding (including my marriage) and life was just sucking, hard-core. I was alone on someone else's turf.

Then I heard "The Fly" on the radio, and I wanted to know who this new, exciting band was. This was an amazing sound! Really fresh!

And then I discovered who it was!

RATTLE AND HUM was the album I listened to the least. I prefered their earlier work, particularly UNFORGETTABLE FIRE and OCTOBER. I guess in the back of my mind I had resigned myself to the fact that U2 was kind of over. I mean, I had seen it many, many times before. Bands put out a few great albums, then put out some not-great ones, then they break up and leave the industry. You still have their good albums, you're just never going to heard new GREAT stuff from them anymore.

But then U2 reinvents itself!!! I mean, "The Fly" was every bit as exciting a fresh to me as "Where The Streets Have No Name" was back in '88!

I got to buy the cassette at the same Tower Records that Richard Gere drove by in PRETTY WOMAN, too, lol.

And I guess this theme of reinvention sort of seeped into my subconsious, because the same month I bought the tape I decided to move back to Texas and get my life back together. The idea of leaving L. A. morphed, in my mind, from a concession of failure into the beginning of the next phase of my life. (Which it turned out to be, actually.)

This isn't an "I Owe It All To U2!" type of story at all, lol. It's just an interesting coincidence, the way the band and their music has sort of been the soundtrack of my life through various stages, from teenager into my 20s and into my 30s, so far.

I'm sure you have a band like that.

Also...

U2 was THE band that I desperately wanted to see live. There were a few of them (the original KISS lineup in makeup, natch), but U2 was THE band. And when they reinvented themselves AGAIN for ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND, I finally got to experience that! (No Doubt opened for them, when Gwen Stephani was still the frontman for a ska band, hehe.)

AND -- and this is a little strange, I'll grant you, but no less emotionally significant to me -- I got to see U2inSL (a SecondLife cover band) with my soon-to-be Gnomey Goddess in SecondLife! She is a U2 fan, as well!!! :D

So tonight I go to see them in 3D, a few months shy of 20 years after they first rocked my world with their first movie. My brother wanted to go with me, but he's had a LONG day and elected to crash.

So I went alone.

And I was REALLY alone, lol! I had the whole theater TO MYSELF! It was, for 90 minutes or so, as thought I had a personal screening room! :P Just me and U2. I could sing along with the songs and giggle with child-like glee at how AWESOME this experience was, just enjoy the movie in any way I felt like!

And I DID, too! :)

And it's sort of cool in a metaphorical sense, because it's great sharing music with other fans, but more often or not, when you're listening to their albums, it really is kind of you and the band. You know? The music speaks to you on a deeply personal level (if it's that kind of music, that is, lol) and you always feel like no one else will ever have the same relationship to that music that you do.

And it's true. Because if you love U2 also, you and I don't -- and can't -- have the SAME relationship to that music. Our experiences are unique.

And even though this is atrocious grammar: My experience of U2 3D was WAY unique!!! :D How many other people on the planet have enjoyed a personal screening of the flick?

Hi, All...

Got a phone call from my Gnomey Goddess a couple of days ago!!! :D xoxoxo

It had been a while, so it was AMAZING to hear her voice again! More musical each time I hear it!!! :D

She told me she was going to be online, but it was late (for me) and so I camped out in front of the computer with PICK OF DESTINY playing... And woke up several hours later! :( She had typed a whole conversation to me, and I missed it. :(

Still, she was so sweet and loving that it made me feel as thought she had curled up with me as I slept, and departed just seconds before I woke up. <3 <3 <3

Oh, yeah... and I've had a couple of other experiences, too, lol. ;P


Um...

Well, I began my weekend sick. :( I was forced to call in Friday and Saturday. I started getting back to well again late Sunday, and I was able to rediscover boredom Monday, lol. But then Tuesday brought some ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT and ALIAS, via NetFlix, so that was cool, hehe.

In fact, Brian & I have watched all of season 1 and most of Season 2 of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, and we're laughing our balls off!!!

Then, today before work, we watched the pilot episode of ALIAS and had a blast! We have the first 2 discs of Season 1 in our household at the moment, so I predict more fun and excitement!

We just finished watching yesterday's episode of LOTS and O... M... G...!!! The very last word of the episode (just before the LOST logo glides toward the camera) blew both our heads off!!!

LOST-viewing, I believe, must be best as a group sport. It's just TOO COOL to turn to your buddy and go, "Did you see THAT coming?!!" And then you speculate for half an hour afterward about what it all means, lol.

DUDE!!!

I hope I get to watch ongoing episodes of LOST with my Gnomey Goddess, and speculate with her!!! :D She always tends to speculate toward the obsurd, so that will be SO MUCH fun!!! :)

Um...

Today -- Thursday night/Friday morning -- was a bitch. But that's not very interesting to write about.

Oops. My laundry is done. I need to go grab it.

I didn't have anything more interesting to write about, so I'll say "later" for now.

Later! :D

Btw: 2 Shout-Outs...

I LOVE YOU, MY GNOMEY GODDESS!! Thank You For Us!!! :D

And THANK YOU to "Senior David"! You know why! :)