The Hive
The official blog of science fiction / horror author Terence West.
William Gibson Blog
Famed author of Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic: The Screenplay.
The Word Foundry
Joe Clifford Faust's "blog of a working writer: tracking writing projects, musings on the
creative process, occasional side trips into music, media, politics, religion, etc."
A Writer's Diary
By Cynthia Harrison, who has the good sense to quote Virginia Woolf: "The truth is that writing
is the profound pleasure and being read the superficial."
The American Sentimentalist
"Never has any people endured its own tragedy with so little sense of the tragic." Essays by Mark W. Anderson.
Screenwriting By Blog
David C. Daniel writes a screenplay online. "I've decided to publish the process as a way to push myself through it.
From concept to completion, it'll be here."
SeanAlonzo.com
Official site of occult fiction author Sean-Alonzo, exploring symbolism, alternative
history, philosophy, secret
societies and other areas of the esoteric tradition.
Crafty Screenwriting
Maunderings of Alex Epstein, tv scribe, about life, politics, and the tv show I'm co-creating.
Stealing Heaven From The Lips Of God
Writer & Artist, Dee Rimbaud reflects upon politics, religion, art, poetry, the meaning of life,
the nature of God and why toast always lands butter side down on carpets.
The Writing Life...
"An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's." J.D. Salinger
"All my best friends are writers and are dead." A friend over beer, Berkeley, winter, 1959
"And it came to pass that all the stars in the firmament had ceased to shine. But how was anyone to know?" The Half-Life Conspiracy
Friday, March 31, 2006 Intensity What I liked best about John Adams' Nixon in China last night was the intensity of the orchestration, delivering an unrelenting rhythm full of tension and promise of dramatic action to come. The payoff doesn't exactly come, or at least not in the way I expected it, and there is little "story" per se in the libretto -- to use a differentiation I make in my classes, this is a situation, not a story. Still, the music drives forward so strongly, I was on the edge of my seat through most of the evening. I especially like the almost surreal third (last) act, called "the most difficult" by the critics, in which the great men of power strip off the trappings of power by literally undressing and changing into pajamas on stage while singing reflective, contemplative thoughts which become layered on one another. I found the effect powerful. However, not all Portland opera goers agreed: an unusually large number in the audience "fled" this performance, most at the end of act one, more at the second intermission, perhaps 10% or more of the sold out house gone by the not-totally-enthusiastic curtain call. I counted 27 empty seats after first intermission in the seating area around me. More after the second. Too bad. Portland Opera needs to be encouraged for doing this, which actually was a co-production of five regional opera companies, most in the west.
This, despite my comments above, was one of the better performance events I've seen in Portland in years. The best events seem to come from the Golden Age of Portland theater twenty years ago. In particular, I remember:
the remarkable company Peter Fornara put together under an improbable CETA grant for a year, which one week opened in repertory four plays in four nights (if memory serves me right, they were Cabaret, Joe Egg, American Buffalo and Marat/Sade)
Kathleen Worley's one-woman show about Virginia Woolf
Katherine King in Coward's Separate Lives
Storefront Theatre's remarkable original post-apocalyptic rock opera
my own hyperdrama Chateau de Mort performed in the historic Pittock Mansion (at one moment, eight scenes going on simultaneously on three floors) with its original cast with B. Joe Medley and Gaynor Sterchi playing the Brodeys (putting it on this list is not merely vanity: a Seattle arts critic called it the second most important Northwest arts event in its year, second only to a Seattle performance by Barishnikov)
the Paul deLay Band before Paul went to prison for drugs, with several members (guitar, piano) who went on to lead their own blues bands later, especially when playing in intimate clubs like the White Eagle
other plays at Storefront, the New Rose Theatre, Theatre Workshop and elsewhere too numerous to mention
All of these events happened in the late 1970s and 1980s. Nixon in China is right up there with them.
3/31/2006 05:56:00 AM |
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Thursday, March 30, 2006 William Blake Doing research, I chanced across some quotations from William Blake that struck me as, well, uncomfortably current:
Commerce is so far from being beneficial to arts, or to empire, that it is destructive of both, as all their history shows, for the above reason of individual merit being its great hatred. Empires flourish till they become commercial, and then they are scattered abroad to the four winds. ... The foundation of empire is art and science. Remove them or degrade them, and the empire is no more. Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose.
Joe Turner and Rock before Elvis Here's a great website, Rock Before Elvis. Learned about it this morning while being interviewed for an upcoming documentary film on early rock and roll (the director found me from my online essay, Birthing Little Richard). Sounds like a cool film. I sent him to interview Eugene's Jivin' Johnny Etheredge, the most knowledgeable person about the era I know, who's had a radio show about the period for about forty years now, Saturday Gold Rock & Roll, and later Son of Saturday Gold.
3/30/2006 12:50:00 PM |
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Renewal A great morning of writing! First on the new screenplay, then rewrote the first 50 pages of Mistress and rekindled my enthusiasm for it. Both projects going well, in a rhythm today that teaching chores made impossible in recent weeks and glad to be back into it. And to think I have the opera to look forward to tonight.
3/30/2006 12:33:00 PM |
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Incorrigible Every time I think I'm "done," i.e. the current in-progress short novel Mistress being my last, I get a dynamic new idea, as I did this morning. Rushed to my desk to take notes. Yes, this one too will have to be given attention. Ah, me, it never ends. I'll die with a story in my head, like an actor dying with his costume on.
3/30/2006 05:53:00 AM |
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Wednesday, March 29, 2006 Thumbs way down, thumbs way up About the new thriller Inside Man, my wife said, "It's all foreplay and no ejaculation." That sums it up. Much promise, suspense and clever twists, and an ending that is flat and unsatisfying. On the other hand, the indie movie The Tenants, based on the Malamud novel of a few decades ago, is first rate! Love this little movie.
I was a tad down before I watched this dark film, which raised my spirits considerably. Nothing raises my spirits like truthful, well executed drama. However, my wife lasted only about twenty minutes, finding the movie so depressing she left! She finds it strange that dark, "depressing" movies cheer me up. It's the art that cheers me up.
Archives Lots of activity in my literary archive on Monday and Tuesday, with over 1100 page accesses each day. Never sure what these spikes mean. Something or nothing, I suppose ha ha. Monday the opera rec'd a lot of attention. Yesterday, the plays area. But it's dangerous to second-guess the web. Still, I find greater access more satisfying than less.
About to dash off my book review. I'll try to do the other before school starts as well. A few loose ends to gather before I return to the classroom next term. Spring term is usually a good one, and I look forward to it.
3/29/2006 06:34:00 AM |
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Tuesday, March 28, 2006 Creative Screenwriting Rec'd an email from the book editor at CS to ask if I can get him a 500-word review before 5pm tomorrow. Of course I can. This, a title from some books sent me some time ago with no deadline attached, that I'd been putting off. So this should take about half the day. Good timing.
3/28/2006 05:33:00 PM |
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New syllabus OK, have the new syllabus together. Looking at two books for possible use in the fall, A Poetics for Screenwriters and Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters, each a "theory" book to supplement my "how to" book. In restructuring my syllabus, I am requiring earlier first drafts and a longer period of rewriting. We'll see how it goes.
3/28/2006 09:00:00 AM |
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Monday, March 27, 2006 Progress Did a major revision of my syllabus today. Need to check it with a clear mind tomorrow.
Not one #1 seed made it to the Final Four. I love it. My alma mater UCLA has my backing but I wouldn't mind seeing Cinderella George Mason win either, or LSU for that matter.
Sunday, March 26, 2006 UCLA reaches Final Four With neither team playing well offensively, UCLA beat top-seeded Memphis to reach the Final Four. We'll take it, I guess. It was great to see Bill Walton in the stands, cheering the Bruins on. But what strange games this year. Right now, from what I've seen, I wouldn't be surprised to see LSU go all the way -- and maybe in post-Katrina, this is just what they need.
A spring-looking morning outside. Hope to do some yard work tomorrow, before the next cycle of rain comes.
3/26/2006 07:06:00 AM |
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Saturday, March 25, 2006 NCAA It's a curious tournament so far. More than the usual number of overtimes and last shot games, which makes it exciting. At the same time, I've never seen so many mental lapses or bad calls, which make for frustrating viewing.
3/25/2006 05:11:00 PM |
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Greek drama I'm going to publish excerpts from a radio play highly praised in Europe, written by a Greek poet and translated into English, with script pages and audio files ... Dimitris Lyacos is the author. Exciting stuff! I love giving OLR an international flavor.
3/25/2006 01:58:00 PM |
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Finito! Finished my last chore for the term, feedback on a complete script before a student sends it to Nicholl. Only a couple minor suggestions. A good script but all contests are a crapshoot, more to do with judges than writers. Spoken by a sometimes judge!
A week off but lots of prep work for next term, so it's not like a vacation. Doing a major revision of my syllabus, and an even more major one for next fall. Keep trying to figure out how to put together "the perfect" screenwriting class. When I do, I guess I'll retire ha ha!
Need to get back to my own writing during the break, i.e. a screenplay in progress, a short novel in progress, research.
3/25/2006 10:42:00 AM |
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Perspective A friend and colleague, a writer who normally lives on the Oregon coast, has been living in France (she has an MFA in fiction and a PhD in French lit), and from there is teaching online for Oregon schools. What a gig! She's about to begin an online playwriting class and so wrote for some advice. In our exchange of emails, she asked what I was up to, and so I told her of the common writer's frustration from not reaching a larger audience and what backup things I've been doing, such as "depositing" work in two archives, online at the Univ. of North Carolina and more locally in Special Collections at the Univ. of Oregon. She found this "inspiring" -- a bit different from my own frequent view of it as "depressing"! Which is to say, it's a matter of perspective. She thinks I've admirably solved a contemporary problem, being a literary writer in a commercial environment (even more so than a few decades ago), and have found ways "to get out there" despite the marketplace. Hence, "inspiring." Hmm. In a sense, maybe I'm spoiled since the 1980s were so kind to me as a playwright and to a less degree as a screenwriter. I haven't matched that "commercial" success since, even though I'm a much better writer than I was then. Thousands of writers around the globe experience this very same feeling. We're in the sun for a while, and then in the shade -- and we miss the sun. Perhaps what is "inspiring" is that we don't quit. We write anyway. We write because, duh, we are writers. The culture, which is star driven (as befits a commercial environment) has no idea what to do with so many of us. But we refuse to go away.
3/25/2006 07:58:00 AM |
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The Beats "On this day in 1957, U.S. Customs agents seized 520 copies of Allen Ginsberg's Howl on the grounds of obscenity." So begins today's s Today In Literature. Read the complete story.
Howl and Kerouac's On the Road are probably the two major works to come out of the Beat movement, or at least the important works historically. For me personally, I'd add two poems by Lew Welch, "Chicago Poem" and "Song of the Turkey Buzzard." And, as I've said before, I regard Aram Saroyan's Genesis Angels as good as anything written about the period.
3/25/2006 07:50:00 AM |
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Friday, March 24, 2006 Fascinating puzzle I'm fascinated by the unusual delay in the availability of applications this year for the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowships. A student alerted me to the problem. They do this every year, and it would seem changing 2005 to 2006 on an application form would be no big deal, but they've been saying "soon" for months now to the question of when applications will be ready. They've already had to can their usual early April 1 deadline fee (with savings). The normal deadline is May 1, a month and a week away, and still no applications. Over 6000 scripts apply for these awards (usually five). Man, will they be swamped all at once this year. But what on earth can cause a delay in an application that has been the same year after year after year? Very puzzling.
3/24/2006 06:51:00 AM |
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From the mail bag Always nice to hear from a satisfied student, this from the recent online class:
I waited so long to write you because I wanted to see if the class 'took'. If it sunk down into my methods and improved them. One month after the class, I can honestly say that I feel stronger, wiser and more efficient with my words. Re-writing has improved, and so has concept development. I've recommended you to friends and hope they find the same. Thank you, Charles.
Thursday, March 23, 2006 Gonzaga's Adam Morrison falls to the floor after losing to UCLA during the second half of their NCAA Tournament regional semifinal college basketball game, Thursday, March 23, 2006, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma) 3/23/2006 10:10:44 PM |
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Sloppy playing, lousy officiating, amazing finish
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- UCLA scores final 11 points in stunning comeback over Gonzaga.
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute provided a shocking ending to Adam Morrison's amazing season.
Mbah a Moute scored underneath with 10 seconds left and the second-seeded Bruins scored the final 11 points of the game to knock out Morrison and third-seeded Gonzaga 73-71 Thursday night to advance to the regional final.
3/23/2006 10:06:00 PM |
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Almost... Only a few online scripts to take care of and I'm done.
Novel mailed. My agent is swamped, of course, so it'll be a while before I hear from him. But before the new term is over, I expect. Then we'll go from there.
Eager for today's games, in the mood for vegetating. I started Rabbit, Run and love it as much as ever. What a good thing to do, reading all four in a row. Wonder how long it will take me.
Have a student who went ape because I gave him a B on his project. He aced the final and got an A- for the course, but man, the lad is one upset dude. Happens every now and again. And I'm a softy compared to the piranhas in Hollywood ha ha.
3/23/2006 11:43:00 AM |
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House cleaning I'll be finishing up my grading today. But I think I also need to print the novel and get it to my agent, get this show on the road. If I can do these two chores today, it will have been a good day.
3/23/2006 05:36:00 AM |
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Wednesday, March 22, 2006 Almost done Passing time before going to a Masters thesis defense. Might be interesting as I have some problems with it. Did a first reading of the finals and they are remarkably good! I was surprised and delighted. Better thinkers than scriptwriters in this class ha ha. I had them analyze the story strategy in an obscure film I showed them. Should have no problem getting my grades in tomorrow. AND a find basketball game, UCLA-Gonzaga, on tomorrow night. I'll root for the alma mater but would be sad if Gonzaga wins. I'll hope for quadruple overtime. AND I received the Rabbit novels in the mail today and started. This is going to be a joyous long read.
3/22/2006 04:11:00 PM |
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Producer Marty Richards won an Oscar for the 2002 movie "Chicago" but claims to have lost millions in royalties and is suing Miramax Films to get his hands on the cash.
Richards charged in the suit filed on Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court that Miramax, which then was run by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, used fuzzy Hollywood accounting to cheat him out of his share of revenues generated by the film, which he claimed raked in more than $300 million overall.
Oxygen I've been writing more or less every day, more or less full time, for about forty years now. At different times writing has been a vocation, a 9-5 job, a profession, a meal ticket, an obsession and, finally, a way of being in the world. It's been the latter for about the last 2/3 of my writing time. I write, therefore I am. Writing as oxygen. Writing as the way one observes, reacts, lives, and communicates in the world. Not all writers reach this level, and indeed there are good reasons not to. Writing as living means one spends a great amount of time in one's head, often to the detriment of relationships in the world at large. Playing God is not always good for children and other living things. But there's no choice, finally. Writers in this sense write because they cannot not write. It's who they are, what they do, how they exist in the world. Oxygen. Even writers who stop publishing, like Salinger, are reported to write every day. What marvels may be hidden from the world!
I admire writers like Salinger, who continues to play by his own rules despite critical and popular favor. He got so upset at the movie version of his story "Uncle Wiggly In Connecticut," which became "My Foolish Heart," that he refused to let Hollywood touch his work ever again (hence no movie of "Catcher In The Rye," which is too bad because a close treatment would make a great movie). He refused to kiss anybody's commercial ass.
3/21/2006 09:08:00 AM |
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Down the stretch Return projects and pick up finals this afternoon. Should get most read tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon I sit on a committee for a student defending his Masters degree, who write a screenplay for his thesis. Thursday I should finish up the finals and turn in my grades. Then a short break and we do it again.
I'm doing a major revision of my syllabus during break rather than the usual tweaking. Still striving for that "perfect" screenwriting course. I'll probably never find it. But I drop little things that don't work too well and add new ones. I'll probably retire before I get it exactly right.
3/21/2006 06:53:00 AM |
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Monday, March 20, 2006 John Updike Looking forward to reading the four Rabbit novels back-to-back. The volume should arrive late this week.
3/20/2006 03:35:00 PM |
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Me and Scott, aka Scott and I Ha ha, just got a royalty check today for $11.43. Makes me feel like F. Scott Fitzgerald! (see below)
Well, I got through the term projects. Not as many "A" scripts as in the fall. Women's basketball tonight, I think. The Updike set is in the mail, should arrive this week, just in time to start it over term break. Also, re-connected with a former student who's one of the best story idea men I've encountered, and we're brainstorming an idea for possible collaboration.
3/20/2006 03:31:00 PM |
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Classics We tend to forget that books we consider to be "a classic" aren't always successful when first published. Consider the statistics about The Great Gatsby, high today on everyone's list of the best novel ever written:
...the book did not sell when it came out in 1925. In 1927, Fitzgerald received only $153 in royalties; two years after that only $32; by the last year of his life, 1940, second-printing copies of Gatsby were still unsold, and all his books brought in only $13.13. (from Today In Literature)
The novel was a complete failure in his lifetime. And this is not a rare example (Moby Dick, another huge failure, comes immediately to mind).
Sunday, March 19, 2006 The sun, the sun Ol Sol came out for most of the day. Knowing it was bound to retreat soon -- the forecast, I see tonight, is 9 days of rain starting Tuesday -- I took a break and worked in the yard. Got the old reel push mower out of the shed, attached my mp3 earplugs, and worked while listening to Chris Connor and friends. A good thing to do.
The final 16 is a wrap for the men: two 7 seeds, an 11 and a 13. 25% Cinderellas, not bad. Thursday is UCLA-Gonzaga, a game not to miss. Alma mater v. sentimental fav.
Atten-HUNT! My hat is off to the Army women's basketball team! So what if they lost in the first round to a mad Tennessee team (for being "slighted" as a #2 seed), 102-54. These women not only have the difficult task of being female at West Point, they graduate to war, not to professional sports money. They have class and courage. Sports these days can use more of both.
3/19/2006 12:18:00 PM |
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Logger humor
Here is Esther, former mayor of Orofino, Idaho, the mother of my late best friend Dick ... a woman who grew up in the woods and who, despite physical frailty, has a mind as witty and ornery as ever, who recently said about an over-weight nurse: "She's so fat that if you stuck a broomstick up her ass, she'd sweep both sides of the street." May I have such a mind if I reach my late 80s! 3/19/2006 07:49:00 AM |
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Rabbit John Updike's four Rabbit novels have been collected in one volume. Since I need an ambitious reading project, and I'm still not "up to" Kazantzakis (which requires the right mind set), I thought I'd tackle the four Rabbit novels. The Roth trilogy a close second, maybe I'll do it next.
3/19/2006 07:38:00 AM |
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Saturday, March 18, 2006 Crunch time Too busy to write here. But in 5 or 6 days my grades will be in.
3/18/2006 07:43:00 PM |
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Friday, March 17, 2006 Artsy-fartsy Roger Ebert and I often have similar tastes in movies. We both thought Crash was the best movie of the year, for example. So I was looking forward to seeing Bubble because Ebert praised it so much (Roeper as well).
What a great bore! This is cinema verite at its worse, self-indulgent, obsessively artsy, slow and slower, a movie that takes almost half of its 73 minutes (which seems like three hours) to decide it wants to be a murder mystery. It's like watching somebody's home movie and just as boring. At a movie reviews site, critics averaged a "B" and viewers an "F" for this Steven Soderbergh experiment. The only thing worse than the movie is the acoustic guitar soundtrack.
3/17/2006 09:30:00 PM |
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Love this tournament Yesterday two 12 seeds and an 11 pulled upsets ... today so far, a 14th seed:
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Stuck in the corner with time running out, all Jermaine Wallace could do was heave the ball and hope.
Swish!
Wallace hit a fadeaway 3-pointer with a split second left, and little Northwestern State pulled off a shocker with a furious rally, beating Iowa 64-63 Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Down by 17 with 8½ minutes left, the 14th-seeded Demons from Natchitoches, La., stormed back to down the Big Ten tournament champions.
Meanwhile, emailed a screenplay to an agent in Canada who asked to see it. Makes me feel like I accomplished something today besides watch basketball. Actually two things: I sent off a short story based on my still unprinted unsent-to-agent short story. Actually my agent loved the short story. I have this strange mindset he's not going to like the novel.
A pile of student scripts to read and grade but I'm taking the day off from teacherly chores.
3/17/2006 12:47:00 PM |
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Modern times Had a request for a screenplay delivered electronically as an attachment. This still happens seldom enough, as opposed to hard copy requests, that I scream for joy when it does. It makes it so easy!
3/17/2006 08:59:00 AM |
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Competitions The whole field of literary competitions has gotten completely out of hand regarding fees. Just got a press release from Writer's Digest about a contest, the fee is $100! Standard screenwriting contest fees are now around $50. A booth at an upcoming literary fair here costs $300. A small press would have to sell 150 books, say, to break even. At a book fair with the anthology last year, we sold about 30 books and thought we did well. (We got the booth free). Writerly expenses just climb and climb and climb if you are trying to break in. When I began, we were all "starving writers" and couldn't have afforded any of these fees. It was tough enough to afford postage to send your stories out. I don't know how all these contest entrants afford it.
3/17/2006 07:34:00 AM |
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Webcams and the arts A fascinating story on the news this morning. London, a typical new band. Scrounging for gigs etc. Somebody gets a bright idea. A webcam in the basement to telecast rehearsals over the internet. $60 investment. They do it. A month later, 60,000 people are watching them rehearse and the phone is ringing off the hook for bookings.
3/17/2006 07:12:00 AM |
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Thursday, March 16, 2006 And off we go... A morning upset, a double overtime, a major upset avoided by 2 pts, and another upset just about to finish, the latter Montana (12 seed) from the Big Sky Conf. where PSU here belongs. Just think, it might have been us ha ha. Montana has a 9 pt. lead with 2 mins. to go. I hope it's a tournament full of upsets, esp. if ACC teams get beat.
The last day of class. Winter term is always the hardest. Must be the weather. I look forward to four leisurely days of reading their projects and exchanging them for final exams next Tuesday.
My LA friend arrives Thurs night, in 2 weeks, during my term break. Maybe we can spend some time together on Fri. The funeral is Saturday and she returns to LA that night.
Spring It's beginning to feel like spring in the head if not the body, what with the NCAA basketball tournament starting today and picking up term scripts this afternoon for the final time. Still gray, cold and dreary outside, typical Portland weather, and I'm eager to see the sun for more than a fleeting glimpse. One of the nice things about living on the west coast is that the tourny games start at nine in the morning. I'll be there, probably with the sound off so I also can do a little work while I watch. I'd like to see UCLA and Gonzaga go deep into the brackets; otherwise I'm rooting for underdogs, or as I sometimes say, I root for the team with the highest GPA ha ha.
A week from today I should be just about ready to turn in my grades. I might be printing my novel then. Get that sucker in the mail to my agent next week. I'm ready for whatever happens. As far as I'm concerned, it's the book I wanted it to be, which is the only thing I have control over. Everyone who's read it is moved by it. I'll probably end up giving it out for Christmas presents.
I've gotten behind on editorial chores for the review again and need to catch up over term break. A couple of play submissions to consider, some corrections to make.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006 Look what I found Looking for something else, I found something amazing: a poster for my play (my favorite play, still, over 20 years after it was written) The Half-Life Conspiracy. My o my, who did this? My name is absent from the poster, which actually is illegal in any professional setting. This may be from a cafe production in NYC a couple years ago or from some other basement production. Wonder how often this happens.
3/15/2006 01:56:00 PM |
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Morning report The calm before the storm, as they say. Collect the term projects tomorrow, and my final reading chores are off and running.
Going to go through the good screenplay feedback from my colleague today and do the polish. Then do some reading the rest of the day, I suppose. Basketball also starts tomorrow -- I'll be able to see a few first games of the tournament before going to class.
Term break will be busy, with a funeral, an opera and a baseball game (the Mariners come to town) in three days. Now there's variety for you! Oh yes, and hopefully Saturday night I'll be able to spend some time with my friend from L.A. who is coming up for the funeral.
I also have a lot of work, more than usual, in tweaking my syllabus for the spring term. And already have another big change for next fall term. I have never used the same syllabus twice exactly, always tweaking the damn thing. I would love to find exactly the right balance and books so I can do two terms the same. I think I'll be sticking with SIDEWAYS for a while, just as in the past I used THE BIRDCAGE for several years in a row. I was thinking of using BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN because both story and script are in one book but a very, very odd format style is used in the script, so odd that I'm almost certain it's a book designer's doing. I have never seen sluglines formatted that way! I hate to put bad models in front of students because a few end up emulating them no matter what I say. Also, I like to keep book expenses to a minimum for students. Ah, me. Decisions, decisions. I know I'll use my own book on screenwriting, and I know for fall I'll use SIDEWAYS. I likely will add one other book. I'm checking out a book of interviews with screenwriters. Also checking out putting out a course pack of supplementary material.
I've seen a lot of odd ways that book designers change the format of a screenplay but this recent one is one of the worst -- or most creative, depending on whether you're a screenwriter or a book designer ha ha! In general, I hate what designers do to text, my most famous outrage being the poems posted in buses, that were so over-designed as to be illegible. They changed that! They are now large black print on white instead of violet on peach and various other artsy nonsense. Function over form!
Over break, I also need to print the novel and send it off to my agent. I may have been unconsciously avoiding this because my expectations are low. But let's get done with it. At least I have my backup plan in order, ready to instigate on a moment's notice. Interesting to have such low expectations with what I consider to be the best thing I've ever written. I'm reminded of the agent's comment, the guy who handled Dead Poet's Society: "This is the best thing you've ever written. I don't think I can sell it." And it took him seven years to sell it. Well, my agent doesn't have that kind of faith or perseverance. You need it: 5 yrs. to get Crash made, 7 Dead Poets Society, 8 Brokeback Mountain -- somebody is retaining faith in the material during those long hauls. The writers surely have gone on to work on something else.
3/15/2006 08:19:00 AM |
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Tuesday, March 14, 2006 This and that Just got a screenplay draft returned, that a colleague and screenwriter looked at. She loves it! Some good suggestions for tweaks but she's really a fan of this one and suggested some people whose hands to try and get it into. We'll see how it goes. It's wearing well on me as well, unlike the one which I wrote just before it, which isn't wearing well at all (another run-of-the-mill thriller, that). This new one has great heart. But it requires a man and woman in their seventies.
Funerals bring folks together. I'm hearing from people I hadn't heard from in ages regarding Diana's death. Also an old friend from L.A. is coming up, a visit I look forward to.
Rumors It's incredible how quickly rumors spread. I'm now getting emails about my friend Diana's death with completely wrong information. In fact, she died in Nebraska while on a trip delivering an RV to Oregon -- but this morning I was informed by a mutual friend that she was discovered by one of her kids here in Pdx (not true). Some years ago, visiting an old haunt of mine, I was informed of the death of a mutual friend. I called his sister to get details -- and he answered the phone! Totally wrong info spreading through the barroom community. As a matter of fact, also some years ago, I ran into an acquaintance who was shocked because he heard that I was dead! (No doubt wishful thinking by an ex-wife ha ha.)
3/14/2006 08:19:00 AM |
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The writing game From a former student who went on to get an MFA in writing:
Observing some of my classmates in action...I've noticed a pattern, and was wondering whether you could tell me...is this commonplace:
Someone from one of the grad-school cliques decides to start a press. They first publish themselves. Then they publish the rest of the clique. Then someone else from the clique becomes an editor at some 300 print-run journal, and then pipes over some other clique-y's work into the hopper...etc etc etc ad infinitum...
To which I responded:
Totally true. This is why the "vanity press" rap is such a crock -- most small presses ARE the same, though they don't bear the consequences of the 3rd party ones. (I've never understood why musicians who bring out their own CDs are cutting edge entrepreneurs and writers who publish themselves are trashed.) I think this "game" is more prevalent now than 40 yrs ago because of the demise of the "literary novel." In a sense, OLR can be accused of being part of this game -- my primary motive was to give a home to new music but certainly I've been soliciting work from playwrights in my "clique". It's an old game. Virginia Woolf's hubby started a press for her. Etc etc etc. The game reflects a response to a serious problem, that there is no real audience for high art in this culture -- or rather, that high art is defined politically by certain powerful critics and institutions. Abstract art is the best example, which became "in" by CIA-paid critics and CIA-sponsored journals during the early Cold War when America was trying for international artistic respect against the Russians, and this form of art, having no "content," was politically "safe." (I'm working on a screenplay about this CIA activity.) There have always been more artists of worth than the culture knew what to do with and the rise of the MFA in the 50s has mushroomed the problem. Writers want to exist. Existence = being out there. If no one else will put you out there, you put yourself out there. Makes perfect sense. I think every literary magazine in America started this way to some degree, with putting out friends or selves. The last journal for which I had high respect, THE NEW AMERICAN REVIEW, began with the New York crowd (Mailer etc) and quickly expanded to include fine writing from all around the country. Most journals, however, are mostly read by those who are in it, and their friends. This has always been true. The bottom line: too many good writers, not enough outlets, too small an audience for serious work. (How the hell did Joyce, esp FINNEGAN'S WAKE, get published if not by friends?).
Should you be irritated or jealous? They are not mutually exclusive ha ha. Write something for OLR! and send it to the clique.
Most writers hate marketing. If you go the traditional route but can't get an agent, well, you give up or you create your own hospitable environment. What the hell else can you do? We don't live in a culture that respects literature. There's a lot of claims that we do but the facts speak for themselves, we don't. The most important class I ever took as an undergraduate at UCLA was "19th Century Popular Literature" where we read the best-selling novels of the 1800s, none of which was written by anyone heard of today, none of the books known today. It puts everything in perspective.
I think there are more writers who want literary respect than want fame & fortune, though of course they will take it. The latter is probably easier to get than the former!
Well, on a similar vein, for some reason I have a good agent right now, though perhaps not for long, and during break I'll print and send him what I think is the best thing I've written, my old men road story KEROUAC'S SCROLL, but I'm not confident he'll find it "marketable," which means I can always plug in to my own clique, a "literary co-op" in Texas (there's a camouflaged term for you) or look for another agent, probably both at the same time ... it's an endless cycle. I've been doing this for half a century, think about that. You'd think I would've quit by now. I think it's a madness.
Monday, March 13, 2006 Nicholl Blues The Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship folks are having a heck of a time. For reasons unknown, they've been unable to produce either a hard copy or online application form yet this year. Usually they have an early deadline on April 1. They kept saying everything would be ready in late Feb. but it wasn't. Then on their website appeared the following: "there will be no early bird application or entry fee this year." Yeah, right. They clearly meant no early bird entry fee, not no fee at all. So a few days later they fixed it: "no early bird application or early bird entry fee" this year. Interesting what clarity correct grammar provides! I do believe that's why we have grammar in the first place. Since they've been doing this for years, I am very curious what on earth could go wrong with cloning the same old application form for another year, where the only thing that changes is the year. Sabotage? Hackers? Is there a movie there somewhere?
Northwest Examiner, a neighborhood weekly, is writing a nice piece on Diana Callihan and I contributed info on her theater work. Probably the best thing she did with my work is directing and performing in the hyperdrama that played at Edgefield, a resort east of town, which was an adaptation of Bateau de Mort, the sequel to Chateau de Mort, which at Edgefield was renamed The Bride of Edgefield. This was not as financially successful as hyperdramas usually are, for a variety of reasons, but Diana did a damn good job at it. At our recent coffee meeting she was even thinking of reviving my play Country Northwestern, which I'd love to see revived. It died after its premier but no play of mine has more ribald logger humor than that one, nor has any play been more influenced by my friendship with Dick Crooks.
Speaking of whom, he is the model for Red Hooker in Kerouac's Scroll (just as I am the model for Robert Bass aka Bear), and during term break I'll print the sucker and mail it to my agent. I'm already covering my ass in case Eric doesn't embrace it. It is impossible to know what someone thinks is marketable. In fact, in real fact, I think anything is marketable today if you put the money behind it, which is why so much crap gets a lot of attention. So the key is what they decide to put their money behind, and in this regard there is more following than leading. A lot of gay guy movies -- firemen, pro football players, loggers, Sumo wrestlers -- are forthcoming, believe me.
So all I can do is print the sucker and send it off and go from there. I never am one to let moss gather round my feet, however, and several plans and strategies are in place for whatever happens.
My front burner summer project will be the new libretto, an adaptation of an American classic. It's important to get this done sooner rather than later, before someone else thinks of it.
Term break, I have some catching up to do on the review. Just got the green light on another hypermedia submission. I appear to be focusing on hypermedia for the summer issue, though I am getting some plays. No screenplay submissions yet. Writers can't get used to publishing screenplays, I think. They don't think of them as literature either!
3/13/2006 05:42:00 PM |
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Last week Last week of school, which I enter with good energy because I'm coming off a good weekend of writing. In less than two weeks, I'll be done for the term.
Sunday, March 12, 2006 Parting words Chatting with mutual friends about Diana's demise ... you never know but that the conversation ending is the last one you'll ever have with a person. Her son, who was very close to her, is particularly shook up. Losing parents is so hard. I recall the flight from the east coast when my mom died -- it took forever. And I've written about the mystery of my dad's death (The Weight of My Father's Soul). A friend on the phone to me, "If you don't live to be a very old man, I'll be really pissed!"
3/12/2006 02:17:00 PM |
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My teams I root for underdogs and teams I have a personal or regional connection to. Of the teams in the men's tourny, I know I'll be rooting for UCLA (alma mater), Gonzaga (Northwest miracle) and Boston College (loved them ever since Flootie played there). We'll see what other teams get my curse later ha ha.
3/12/2006 12:57:00 PM |
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March madness Selections today for the men's NCAA basketball tournament, the women's tomorrow, and March Madness officially begins. High on my list of athletic events to watch. Back in my poor writer days, when I didn't own a TV and was mostly living on various writing grants ("the good old days" in a way), during March Madness I'd stay in a cheap motel somewhere for a week to watch games. I actually saved money compared to what I'd spend in a sports bar watching them. One of my favorite escape-motels was on a cliff outside of Hood River, overlooking the Columbia River. As I recall, I got a room for a week for less than $200. Had my old Kaypro computer at the time. Write, watch basketball, and eat junk food. I thought I was in heaven.
3/12/2006 12:43:00 PM |
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Humor You, too, probably get emails from friends with various jokes, amusements, political petitions and whatnot. Most I delete pretty quickly. However, this one struck my fancy.
Miss Sophie was in her eighties. She was admired for her sweetness and kindness to all. One afternoon the rabbi came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room. She invited him to have a seat while she prepared a cup tea.
As he sat facing her old Hammond organ, the young rabbi noticed a cut-glass bowl sitting on top of it. The bowl was filled with water, and in the water floated, of all things, a condom! When she returned with tea and strudel, they began to chat.
The rabbi tried to stifle his curiosity about the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and He could no longer resist.
"Miss Sophie", he said, "I wonder if you would tell me about this?" pointing to the bowl.
"Soitenly," she replied. "Isn't it vonderful? I vas valking through the park a couple months ago and I found this little package on the ground. The directions said to place it on the organ, keep it vet and that it would prevent the spread of disease. Do you know I haven't had the flu all vinter?"
Dropping like flies I just learned Diana Callihan passed away last night, a friend for 20 years. Theater person who's both acted in and directed my work. I once even rented a room from her. Fortunately, I had a long chat over coffee with her only a week or two ago. Her husband had suddenly died recently and she was heart-broken: but also not in the best of health herself. The combination was probably fatal. Yet I left the coffee meeting hopeful, she appeared to be better than I'd seen her a few months earlier. Appearances mean nothing. In fact, I think that came up: I think she said I was looking good, and I replied, Appearances are deceiving. Jeez. Well, keep writing, that's all a writer can do. When the gods pull the plug, you go down the drain with the dirty wash water.
3/12/2006 10:19:00 AM |
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On this day in 1923, James Joyce wrote to his patron, Harriet Weaver, that he had just begun "Work in Progress," the book which would become Finnegans Wake sixteen years later. When Nora found out that her husband was "on another book again," she asked if, instead of "that chop suey you're writing," he might not try "sensible books that people can understand."
Every artist needs an understanding wife. Here's my poem "Advice to an Artist on Choosing a Wife":
May the gods bless you with a wife who understands you
If you are not so fortunate may she accept you for who you are
and if not this at least put up with you
If she cannot put up with you may she not kick you out
or if she does not also call the police or the Mental Health Institute
but even if she does may she not inflict bodily harm or drive you to cut off an ear
though should this happen may the blade be clean and not cause infection
Yet if serious harm comes to you may she at least spare your work and not destroy it
and if she must let her forget the work hoarded by your friends
If she knocks on their doors may they not be home or refuse to answer or escape out the back door
Need to check this out I don't often get excited about contemporary fiction but I heard a review on NPR this morning about a new novel, a political satire, about Upton Sinclair, so this is one I need to check out. Sinclair is a fascinating guy, and I've thought of doing something myself about his run for governor of California in the 30s. A few years back I discovered Christopher Buckley, William's son, who is a first rate satiric novelist. His Little Green Men and Thank You For Smoking are both a hoot. I haven't tried this genre but have thought about it.
3/11/2006 08:59:00 AM |
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Interface The WGA online registration service is first rate. Quick, easy, the net at its best. Just registered the screenplay I've been rewriting, the official gesture that I'm essentially done.
3/11/2006 08:57:00 AM |
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A good Friday Yesterday was the most productive day I've had in a while, working on old projects and new. I have a bit of a breather before I begin the "big week" next Thursday, collecting term project and later finals and turning in my grades. Then a week and a half off before we do it all over again. But it will be Spring, with summer ahead. Ah, Spring. Reminds me of one of my favorite e.e.cummings passages:
as long as you and i have arms and lips which are for kissing and to sing with, who cares if some oneeyed sonofabitch invents an instrument to measure Spring with?
Friday, March 10, 2006 Images v. Dialogue Rewatched this film the other day and find it as powerful as ever. What screenwriting students can learn from this film is the power of images over dialogue. Almost all the poignant moments are "silent," a scene without dialogue, be it a kid sitting on a running board looking across the plains at town lights or silent faces during inept and awkward lovemaking. A picture is worth a thousand words etc but beginning screenwriting students usually turn it around, not yet realizing the power of visual storytelling and therefore overwriting everything. One of the exercises I do in class is have them take a dialogue scene from their term project and turn it into a scene without dialogue, or with only a fraction of the dialogue, that accomplishes the same thing.
3/10/2006 11:03:00 AM |
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Thursday, March 09, 2006 Online movies Online movies and animations are everywhere now. Sites like Atom Films offer a growing library of short films of every kind. Did a lot of snooping during office hours, what with the T1 connection here, and tracked down some filmmakers I plan to contact for possible appearance in the review. Some amazing work being done, which is only available on the net.
3/09/2006 03:43:00 PM |
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Hyperdrama In a moment of weakness, I officially proposed to the English and Theater departments here that I produce and direct a hyperdrama on campus next academic year. What I have in mind is my one-act, "The Last Song of Violeta Parra," which has been done in Chile and Spain in Spanish but never anywhere in English. I'd love to do this -- but I won't do it without institutional support. I don't need money but resources and actors. And a space! So if I get cooperation from the university, this could happen without much hassle. Without it, an uphill battle all the way, and I don't want to do it badly enough to put up with that. So we'll see what happens. The English head already offered his support but in this case the support of the theater community is much more essential. I don't know the new head there but there are colleagues in the dept. who know my work. We'll see what happens.
3/09/2006 02:28:00 PM |
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Flakes in Puddle City Doesn't look like the city is closing down as it usually does since only the upper elevations, not downtown, got snow. So as long as I can get to a bus stop, which I can by foot surely if need be, school is on. I'm glad because rescheduling the movie I'm showing today would have been a hassle. However, it's snowing outside my window as I write.
The dog went crazy before settling down to make yellow holes in the snow. I remember years ago, winter bar cruising in northern Idaho with my buddy Dick, how walking between bars we'd have races to see who was fastest writing their names in urine in the snow. "A hot one" was the usual drink, a toddy, bar bourbon and hot water in a coffee mug. In those days, a drink was less than a dollar. In the Army it was even cheaper: at the on-base club, every Tues night was dime night, hard drinks for a dime. There also was a nickel beer night. The military is a drinker's paradise. On nickel night, I remember we used to flap down a quarter and buy beer five bottles at a time. Save all that walking to the bar ha ha. What a bunch of more or less functional drunks we were! Work hard, play hard. In retrospect, there was soldiers who didn't drink, or didn't drink to excess, but there also were dozens and dozens in my outfit of Russian linguists who did, and this was the group I hung out with. It was a drinking culture.
(I'm surprised MADD or somebody didn't object to all the drinking and driving in the movie Sideways. Maybe I missed it. It's a true depiction from my own experiences in the California wine country. The most extravagant was stopping on the way to visit Dick in San Jose for his birthday, knowing I'd take him a case of wine, 12 different wineries, and camping out in northern Calif. for a few days to make the rounds and select the bottles, mid-week without too many tourists around. When we were identified as buyers, buying better than their inexpensive line, we were treated like Special Customers, several times being invited into an office for private tasting and once even lunch! This was the trip I discovered Heitz Grignolino and carried its torch for years.)
3/09/2006 08:16:00 AM |
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Snow! Here I thought winter was over -- woke up to find a couple of inches of snow on the ground. Supposed to warm up rapidly this afternoon, so this shouldn't cancel school but you never can tell. Be inconvenient, end of the term and all. I'll try and get some photos before it's gone.
3/09/2006 04:36:00 AM |
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Wednesday, March 08, 2006 Screenwriting A productive and fun day reworking a screenplay. This may be the most "fun" writing there is. Too bad in practical terms it's usually for naught. But fun is still fun.
Crash II After the Oscars, I speculated that Crash may have upset Brokeback Mountain because it was a story set in L.A. A Reuters story today supports this possibility:
"Crash" had an additional advantage with SAG and other union members because it was shot in the Los Angeles area. Unlike "Brokeback," which filmed in Canada, "Crash" provided jobs for actors and other L.A. based workers, who are increasingly frustrated by "runaway" productions that travel to far-flung locations where cheaper costs and tax deals are increasingly helping producers stretch their budgets.
Moreover, because "Crash" was a story dealing with complex racial relations in Los Angeles, it was something that L.A.-based Academy members could easily relate to. Nearly 80% of the Academy's membership lives in the L.A. area and Lionsgate was very perceptive to recognize how important a constituency that could be for "Crash."
Every SAG member was given a DVD of Crash, which also may have helped.
However, in the past when smaller "arty" films took top awards, resulting in speculation that now movies would improve (at least for those preferring more serious films), it didn't take long for Hollywood to go back to its usual commercial ways. After all, none of the best film nominees was even on the top ten money grossing movies for last year! Hollywood, I suspect, still listens to the bottom line more than to Oscar fever.
3/08/2006 04:24:00 AM |
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Tuesday, March 07, 2006 Check this out I think so highly of this book, which you can get for as little as $4, that I'm even providing a link to Amazon so you can purchase it. If you're interested in the Beats, this is a must read.
3/07/2006 02:46:00 PM |
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Lew Welch Taking the working title of a screenplay I'm working on from Welch's incredible poem "Song of the Turkey Buzzard," The Brazen Wing, from the line "not the bronze casket but the brazen wing" in this poem about suicide, death, reincarnation, and going out your own way. If you don't know about Welch, check out Aram Saroyan's thin book, Genesis Angels: The Saga of Lew Welch and the Beat Generation, maybe the best thing ever written about the Beats. My brother knew, admired, was influenced by Welch, and one of Bill's books is called "A Few for Lew." Photo: Welch with Allen Ginsberg 3/07/2006 02:16:00 PM |
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Hyperdrama The dramaturgy of hyperdrama found its niche in computer games. There doesn't seem to be much activity on the boards any more.
Nonetheless, now and again I get the urge. Thus I have sent a proposal to see if I can do one next academic year on campus, an educational experience if nothing else. I'd do the one-act I was commissioned to write by Prisma, the company in Santiago. It's rec'd several productions in Spanish but has never been done in English. I'd direct.
But I need institutional help to pull it off. We'll see if the Theater and/or English departments will give it to me.
Attention screenwriters One of my charges at Oregon Literary Review is to publish good screenplays. Many screenwriters, after unsuccessfully marketing a script, abandon it. Let me consider it for publication instead. We offer a first rate literary environment and respect, two things Hollywood seldom offers ha ha. Info at the review website, link in the left column of this blog.
3/07/2006 03:31:00 AM |
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Childhood loyalties I often am reminded that my childhood loyalties have more staying power than later adult loyalties. Consider sports. I grew up in So. Calif. rooting for UCLA (because the football team was among the last to drop the single wing), the SF 49ers (because my dad hated the Rams), and the LA Angels. I later went to UCLA, where I got my BA. I got my MFA at University of Oregon. So when Oregon, where I've lived for almost 30 years, plays UCLA, whom do I root for? UCLA.
I grew up in a Navy family. A Navy brat. I joined the Army, which almost caused my mother to have a nervous breakdown. Something of a family scandal, especially since my dad's two brothers were both Army. (I did it because of a 3-year enlistment, not the 4 of the Navy. My dad got it.) So when Army plays Navy ... I root for Navy.
So I am thrilled to read today that the UCLA women's basketball team upset ranked Stanford for the Pac-10 title!
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Coach Kathy Olivier wore the net around her neck. Nikki Blue grabbed the glass trophy and gave it a kiss. Noelle Quinn offered hugs to anyone who would accept.
Just down the road from Stanford's campus, another team celebrated a Pac-10 tournament title for a change.
Quinn scored the final seven points of regulation and four more in overtime, lifting UCLA to its first Pac-10 tournament title with a thrilling 85-76 comeback victory over the 11th-ranked Cardinal on Monday night.
This weekend the tournament rankings come out and March Madness begins, one of my favorite sporting events. I recall in the 80s, when I was a bachelor, but without a TV to my name, rather than hang out in sports bars for the tourny I would sometimes rent a motel for a week or two and write and watch basketball there. My favorite motel was this side of Hood River, high on a cliff overlooking the Columbia River. I'd drag along my Remington or, later, my old Kaypro CP/M computer. Sometimes I'd go to the coast.
In fact, I've long thought living in a hotel or motel wouldn't be a bad way to go except for the expense. You never have to clean the bathroom or make the bed ha ha.
3/07/2006 03:18:00 AM |
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Monday, March 06, 2006 From script to screen The top two movies this year according to critics and Oscar folks, Crash and Brokeback Mountain, both were universally rejected before dedicated producers got them greenlighted, the former making the rounds for 5 years, the latter for 8. Nobody wanted to do them. Think of all the quality movies that don't get made because the creative forces behind them don't have the energy to pitch them for so many years.
3/06/2006 06:51:00 PM |
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Term break During the term break, I plan to prepare the final draft of my novel and get it in the mail to my agent. I'm also going to cover my ass in case he doesn't embrace it, which would not surprise me.
And I'm feeling especially scattered lately. I need to eliminate some projects in order to focus on others. Better, I need to create an "exit strategy," which is to say, a writing rhythm for this last act of the journey. Something less frantic than the rhythms I sometimes get into.
Winter term is the hardest of the year for me. I think it's the weather, being a SoCal boy at heart and all. Too little sun, too little heat, get me down.
3/06/2006 06:46:00 PM |
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Sunday, March 05, 2006 CRASH wins Best Picture!!!!! I fell out of my chair. I'm not used to seeing my favorites win. (I wonder if Crash would have won had it been set in Chicago or NY. Maybe the L.A. setting was the key since all the voters live there and experience that movie every day. It became a very personal movie for them. Just a thought. I guess I can't believe it actually won -- I mean, I wouldn't put Brokeback in its class at all but I expected all the hoopla to carry the favorite.) How very cool!
3/05/2006 09:14:00 PM |
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Breather Some light writing this morning, chores. Tomorrow back into focus on my students, end of the term approaching fast. Also loose ends to tie at my online class.
3/05/2006 11:51:00 AM |
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Saturday, March 04, 2006 Spring is here? Such a nice day I did some work in the yard. Then we took a "country drive" and ended up in a nun's cemetery, letting the dog run among the headstones.
Earlier, got some work done on the new screenplay. I have a crazy notion about what to do with screenplays these days, so bizarre I'm keeping it to myself at the moment, so as not to set the universe in stitches. It's harmless, just a tad nutty. But it may solve this contradiction between loving to write them and hating to market them.
Thursday, March 02, 2006 Marketing songs I've stumbled across a good way to market songs, in my case, jazz/pop songs: contact the singers directly. A good number have websites now, and many in my experience are more than happy to look at lead sheets of new material. Compared to marketing fiction and screenplays, in fact, it's a wide open market, or appears to me to be. Very interesting. Most have musical examples of their work online if you're not familiar with them, so you can match the song to the voice and style. This is the secret, the right song for the right singer.
3/02/2006 10:16:00 AM |
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Long day To school first thing in the morning for all day student conferences. Then class. I'll be exhausted by the time I get home, but then I can almost coast till finals week.
Brought work to do during my few breaks. Already near the midpoint in a new screenplay. Really on a roll since returning to the form. God, it's easier than writing a novel! I believe novelists are the "real" writers. Here comes the hate mail from screenwriters.
I want to get back to songwriting, too. Like screenwriting, it's something you can wrap your arms around and see light at the end of the tunnel early on. Novels take forever. I was just talking to a colleague, a screenwriter, who said, If you can't finish a screenplay in six months, forget it, it ain't gonna happen. When I'm in a groove, I like to do three or four a year. I mean, each screenplay, once you squish out the white space, is only about thirty pages of writing! It's like writing a thirty page novel. What fun!
3/02/2006 08:41:00 AM |
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Wednesday, March 01, 2006 Students A much improved batch of scripts! Warms a teacher's heart. Still more to read but compared to the last batch, this is exciting stuff.
3/01/2006 03:00:00 PM |
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Generations Sometimes I forget how little my students know of people and events I take for granted. In class yesterday, during a moment of taking a sidetrack, I talked about the time I lived in Monterey (1960) and mentioned sitting next to Peggy Lee in a bar. Only one student knew who Peggy Lee was, a retired woman auditing the class. Only a few knew who Glenn Miller was. No one knew who Chris Connor was. Only a few knew who Gerry Mulligan was. One person knew who Little Walter was. I was afraid to ask if anyone knew who Frank Sinatra was for fear of being depressed by the result.
Of course, I would flunk any quiz about popular culture given since 1980 ha ha!
Yet, in my view, a generation ignorant of Peggy Lee, Chris Connor, Glenn Miller, Gerry Mulligan, Little Walter, is a generation missing a considerable musical heritage in jazz and blues. Well, my students apparently don't listen to jazz and blues. 50 years from now they will be shocked how little their own students know about hiphop.
But what ever happened to the notion of knowing something about where you came from?
I remember sometime in the late 70s standing in a supermarket line behind two young teen girls. One was looking through a magazine. Suddenly she blurted out to the other, "Did you know Paul McCartney had a group before Wings?"
3/01/2006 04:01:00 AM |
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_The Writing Life