Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly said, “Do one thing everyday that scares you.” Although maybe she didn’t. For more courageous people, this might be a tall order. Who’s got time to go skydiving or go down in a shark cage every day? So maybe it’s fortunate for me that my bar for fear is not set so … Read more
From The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders: “If you want my advice?” said Sid Ronsen. “Work harder. Actually, no, don’t work hard, work smarter. Be more efficient than you’ve ever been before. In fact, be more efficient that is physically possible. I know that’s what I’d do.” “That’s also what I would … Read more
The paragraphs following this one duplicate part of a post from The Daily B. I’ve been trying not to do this in my endeavor to keep my little collection of “writing posts” separate from my collection of “life posts,” but this section seemed to straddle the line pretty evenly… After many more years than you … Read more
My friend HinxMinx recently turned me on to Every Frame a Painting, and in particular to this video about inter-scene cutting in the work of animator Satoshi Kon. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz49vQwSoTE?rel=0&w=560&h=315] Watching this reminded me of a John August / Craig Mazin conversation about transitions in writing at JohnAugust.com. They talk about the different kinds of devices … Read more
Continued from Part 1 Have I ever tried the blklst.com site? Why yes, I have. Toward the end of May, I uploaded three scripts on the Black List and within a few days I ordered one evaluation for each. Some people suggest that if you order one evaluation, you should go ahead and order two, … Read more
On a few of the forums and online pages I occasionally lurk on, the question comes up: What is this Blacklist dot com thing? Have you tried it? Is it worth it? In this three-part series, I will address each of these questions. Part 1: What is blcklst.com? Back in 2004 (according to Wikipedia, and … Read more
This blog is dividing / moving. Because the blog that you are reading has a tab on my “professional” site, such as it is. It’s probably the not that confidence-inspiring for someone to get my business card, visit the site, read the bright and cheery “about me” section, and then click my blog to find … Read more
The short Hispanic woman selling blinking plastic light-sticks from a shopping cart offers a collegial fist bump to the guy in the wheel chair selling bunches of roses from his lap, then continues down the block. A black man, so thin he swims in his all black shirt and trousers, break dances next to an … Read more
Los Angeles current temperature: 93. Wednesday’s high: 99. Thursday’s high: 99. Friday’s high: 95. For some reason “Like the Weather” from 10 Thousand Maniacs popped into my head. An old favorite back in the day. I had a tape, but never watched the music video of the song. Would it have occurred to to me … Read more
I’m behind on recording movies. I know I’ve seen a couple that I’ve forgotten about..Maybe it doesn’t matter, because maybe hearing someone recite movies they’ve watched is about as interesting as someone telling you their dreams. But here’s the last three anyway: Last weekend Paul offered me a date night–since game night got cancelled– and … Read more