I'm starting my day early for no reason. Usual bowl of chilled monkey brains just so it won't go bad, watching my girlfriend levitate from the other side of the table. She hits her head on the ceiling a lot since I filled her with helium. Otherwise a typical day.
I may check my e-mails and the usual message boards, even though they say "ignore the fruits of your actions." By that rule it makes no sense to see if anyone replies to a post. It would save a lot of time.
Here's a quote that is rattling around in my head lately, like a song that just won't go away so you have to look for it on Youtube or your own collection and hear it until you are cured:
"I've been in high school eight years; I'm no dummy."
- Curtis Armstrong advising John Cusack in Better Off Dead
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088794/
I think it's the ever-present realization that being "smart about movies" isn't such a badge of honor and that when you close in on a decade of discussions (even killing time on someone else' clock as is the case with many of us most of the time) it's not that a seasoned veteran of b.s. can say to a newbie, "Listen here, in my day. . ."
There have been steps forward in the vocation, but if I was one of those annoying people with a five year plan and a one year plan chirping "fail to plan, plan to fail" I might be more in touch with whatever unconscious depression might be going on. Or I might be exactly where I need to be. They say the measure of sanity is the proximity of reality to the dream.
What could I be doing instead of debating whether a given movie may be over-rated or under-rated? I mean, I'd be sacrificing the pay-off of possibly convincing some anonymous teen to knuckle down and see more movies. What could I be doing instead of watching movies? To my left is a $3500 Cannon HX A1 which can shoot some pretty decent HD; it has a nice t-shirt over it so it won't get all dusty. On the floor is the instruction manual torn apart for photocopies. I've read some of it. What a time to realize my instruction-phobia is back in full bloom. I've had meetings and meetings and generated a backlog of scripts. . .
I wonder how many screenplays I can read and review - under whatever accounts or IDs - and have it improve my taste and facility within the form of the screenplay. It's great to stumble across a link to a resource or somebody else's short film and be inspired once in a while or take a shortcut in my political education or current events by looking at articles and clips that someone else labored to collect. I'll get drawn into a debate on zoetrope once in a while, and it's interesting to come away with a vivid projection of someone's character or pathology. Not something to debate or even state outright, of course, because any self-respecting sociopath would take offence at the accusation. I have been called arrogant, but it's hard to make that stick when I'm pretty open about my stupidity.
I know from my job that there are some very functional sociopaths walking around.
Starting to dabble in radio drama again. I wrote a one-act play for the stage in 2001 after I had been on my job for a few months. It had a public reading, went well, and then after 9/11 there was to be a reading of the next draft and somehow I got the date wrong and missed it. I've been re-writing it on the same themes with each workplace. Once in a while a vital layer is added and the story enriched bu higher stakes. A life experience can be an end to itself; a job experience had better add to the writing.
I keep thinking if I really apply myself I can finish watching all the Extended Lord of the Rings DVDs by this weekend, and hear the commentaries. Imagine THAT feeling like a chore to procrastinate about.
Man, when I had nothing, when I had no job or when I thought my job was temporary I would spend days in a library cubby hole doing my storyboards and correcting my scripts. There is a point where everything that drifts into your transom is not there as a sprig of wisdom that has to be absorbed or explored in your life as an artist. Most opinions are the waste material of having consumed movies or TV or gossip rags or having spent all day playing video games (like cigarettes, this last example is one of the few bad habits I haven't picked up yet, much to the disappointment of friends and nephews).
If anyone else does read this, the one thing I can say in my defense is that the chilled monkey brains and inflate-a-date are jokes. If I actually get some cardio at the gym today for a change, I might view this whole thing differently. I might be ready to actually accomplish something today.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Karlafornication
They say listening to music does wonders for the unconscious mind. I wonder what influence watching TV – even computer-compressed illegal streaming – does for us. I watched as much of Karla as I could before it timed out, then some Californication. It’s an interesting juxtaposition.
They don’t have much in common, usually. Karla had to be filmed in Los Angeles, California, so there is the location thing. But it is set in Ontario, Canada not far from where I live. To Americans, it would be about the “Ken and Barbie” Killers. The idea that the movie was being made angered a lot of Canadians and the movie was misrepresented by critics by and large. Now that I’ve gotten around to seeing it without the pressure of having to pay for it, I have to admit the movie is very well executed in the sense that it is appropriate and it seems to convey what we know of the tragedies. My main emotion was frustration, and I impotently pounded my hand a couple of times imagining how I’d like to bash Paul Bernardo in the head. I don’t have any sympathy for that couple-from-hell, but the movie conveys something more important than a purely exploitive approach would have. We see how plausible it is and how vital it is to keep an eye open for how this activity can happen and how unlikely it is that this high-profile case was rare. There are so many abusive twits and monsters like Bernardo looking for a good time it can be hard to tell a sociopath from a psychopath. It makes me all the more concerned for the safety of someone I know.
Californication so far has only one episode I have disliked, “The Raw and the Cooked,” which puts up walls between me and the characters it is so poorly written. I consider it a jump-the-shark episode. Why is the plagiarist Mia invited to the party? Why is Charlie nice to her when she partly cost him his career? When a surprise is revealed about the Scientologist and Hank – which happened before the reconciliation with Karen motivates what seems like a rejection from Karen so fickle that I lose respect for her. Then there’s Hank asking the daughter Becca’s boyfriend Damien if he supports Roe Verses Wade as part of his screening process and tries to discourage him from dating the girl despite his choicey-friendly view and although both Hank and Karen are both strict with Becca in most respects they are absurdly tolerant of her (revealed now and not mentioned in the future) belief in the Satanic Bible. Granted, Becca has a Wednesday Addams thing going, but she is diminished somewhat by this. The best I can say about The Satanic Bible is that I genuinely pray that in the 12 years (give or take) since his death Anton LaVey has been rotting where he always wanted to be. I can’t believe Charlie and Hank haven’t mounted an all-out offensive against Mia and Charlie’s evil former assistant Dani. I’m hoping the Satanism aspect pays off and they ritualistically kill Dani. But it looks like that character is written off. And of the two shows I’m watching on my days off here, THIS is the one leaving me with more frustration. At least better episodes followed. . .
They don’t have much in common, usually. Karla had to be filmed in Los Angeles, California, so there is the location thing. But it is set in Ontario, Canada not far from where I live. To Americans, it would be about the “Ken and Barbie” Killers. The idea that the movie was being made angered a lot of Canadians and the movie was misrepresented by critics by and large. Now that I’ve gotten around to seeing it without the pressure of having to pay for it, I have to admit the movie is very well executed in the sense that it is appropriate and it seems to convey what we know of the tragedies. My main emotion was frustration, and I impotently pounded my hand a couple of times imagining how I’d like to bash Paul Bernardo in the head. I don’t have any sympathy for that couple-from-hell, but the movie conveys something more important than a purely exploitive approach would have. We see how plausible it is and how vital it is to keep an eye open for how this activity can happen and how unlikely it is that this high-profile case was rare. There are so many abusive twits and monsters like Bernardo looking for a good time it can be hard to tell a sociopath from a psychopath. It makes me all the more concerned for the safety of someone I know.
Californication so far has only one episode I have disliked, “The Raw and the Cooked,” which puts up walls between me and the characters it is so poorly written. I consider it a jump-the-shark episode. Why is the plagiarist Mia invited to the party? Why is Charlie nice to her when she partly cost him his career? When a surprise is revealed about the Scientologist and Hank – which happened before the reconciliation with Karen motivates what seems like a rejection from Karen so fickle that I lose respect for her. Then there’s Hank asking the daughter Becca’s boyfriend Damien if he supports Roe Verses Wade as part of his screening process and tries to discourage him from dating the girl despite his choicey-friendly view and although both Hank and Karen are both strict with Becca in most respects they are absurdly tolerant of her (revealed now and not mentioned in the future) belief in the Satanic Bible. Granted, Becca has a Wednesday Addams thing going, but she is diminished somewhat by this. The best I can say about The Satanic Bible is that I genuinely pray that in the 12 years (give or take) since his death Anton LaVey has been rotting where he always wanted to be. I can’t believe Charlie and Hank haven’t mounted an all-out offensive against Mia and Charlie’s evil former assistant Dani. I’m hoping the Satanism aspect pays off and they ritualistically kill Dani. But it looks like that character is written off. And of the two shows I’m watching on my days off here, THIS is the one leaving me with more frustration. At least better episodes followed. . .
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Blog Off
I'd like to pretend I don't care about pop culture but it is part of the noise around us and once in a while a glimmer of intelligence hits us. An actor I'm not familiar with was quoted on imdb and he in turn was quoting Will Smith who may have been quoting someone else but is to have said, "You can tell how far you will get in life by the five people you spend the most time with." He remarked that he can see a lot of people cleaning house and changing up their friends. Likely the quote was New Years related.
I think there are many reasons to blog or to write, maybe it's just a substitute for the "four pages" of random stream-of-consciousness writing recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way - something others don't have to and perhaps shouldn't read but which purges the writer of baggage. It's supposed to be done first time in the morning. For me, morning is a changing concept because I work four night shifts per week.
Every now and then you may get a toxic e-mail, one that you have to examine to its root and find that whether the sender consciously understands it or intends it there is something disturbing behind it. If you are an actor older than 50 and wish to revisit a character that has a brand name, there will be critics and bloggers and common idiots who state the obvious "he's old," "she's old." The implication of this is "the world would somehow be better if that person sits in a corner and rests on laurels and "ages gracefully (read: unproductively)" and the world is somehow worse off because a popular title has been revisited. As stupid and and pissy as that belief may be, it is the least damaging example of this kind of thinking.
There are too many nay-sayers in life. Failure will take care of itself. If you know someone who is in his/her DNA a producer and they COULD help to facilitate the organization of a project you have in mind but they do not, whether you are rude enough to broach the issue or not THAT is the defining aspect of your relationship.
You do NOT by any stretch of the imagination need a friend or family member to tell you to be "realistic" when they mean give up. It is FAIR to insist that you be in a state of readiness for whatever you dream and aspire to do. In my case, believe me, I know every time I stand up let alone walk a flight of stairs that I have to improve my fitness.
But physical action and getting psyched up are interactive. Once in a while I'll identify a source of input as toxic, shut it out, and actually make progress. Then time passes and you relax the defence, like filing away the "Do Not Access" photo for an estranged person posted behind the security desk. Eventually, people relax and coast because adrenaline and anger usually can't sustain and there are other issues to concentrate on. But the same toxic input can worm its way back into your attention and waste even more of your time. Consider those the words of Satan or whatever other negative image you subscribe to. What is this in service of?
I get along well with my siblings. Others don't. If they lived in my town I would make the effort to phone and visit. I'd like to succeed where I must and then maybe return to my home town some day, even though I've missed a lot of life there while following my main passion in the big city (even while paying the rent by less grandiose means). I can imagine how even siblings would stop talking to each other if certain mental roles life scripts or mind games were being acted out. Once a person is free of the childhood home, they frankly don't have to listen to scoldings and advice. It's toxic. The toxic person may even look for surrogates they can damn with faint praise or mentally mess with all in the guise of support. But again that is so subtle and diabolical it likely will not be a conscious choice. That's giving the person benefit of the doubt. But whether they own and intend the harm behind it, a toxic influence is just that.
It should not be expected to improve anymore than an alcoholic should be expected to recover fully.
Maybe this applies to me more than most and it may be of no use to the average reader. I have what might be called a co-dependant nature and an addictive personality. So there is no grey area, even if I fool myself into thinking there is one. An innocent discussion of movies on a website can be one more irritation instead of the audience research that is intended. If you find yourself reading mostly things that irritate, and it isn't giving a spark of inspiration, maybe it's time to cut that loose.
If anything, those of us who want to make progress in writing, theater, comedy, films or another coveted vocation will have plenty of critics. Those are inevitable. But before the creation the last thing we need is to actually interact with them. I think evaluating the quality of thought behind reviews (or lack of it rather) will help me accept the inevitable blasts I will get in the future from my own work. But that's about all I get from that.
All I can say to other people is good luck.
I think there are many reasons to blog or to write, maybe it's just a substitute for the "four pages" of random stream-of-consciousness writing recommended by Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way - something others don't have to and perhaps shouldn't read but which purges the writer of baggage. It's supposed to be done first time in the morning. For me, morning is a changing concept because I work four night shifts per week.
Every now and then you may get a toxic e-mail, one that you have to examine to its root and find that whether the sender consciously understands it or intends it there is something disturbing behind it. If you are an actor older than 50 and wish to revisit a character that has a brand name, there will be critics and bloggers and common idiots who state the obvious "he's old," "she's old." The implication of this is "the world would somehow be better if that person sits in a corner and rests on laurels and "ages gracefully (read: unproductively)" and the world is somehow worse off because a popular title has been revisited. As stupid and and pissy as that belief may be, it is the least damaging example of this kind of thinking.
There are too many nay-sayers in life. Failure will take care of itself. If you know someone who is in his/her DNA a producer and they COULD help to facilitate the organization of a project you have in mind but they do not, whether you are rude enough to broach the issue or not THAT is the defining aspect of your relationship.
You do NOT by any stretch of the imagination need a friend or family member to tell you to be "realistic" when they mean give up. It is FAIR to insist that you be in a state of readiness for whatever you dream and aspire to do. In my case, believe me, I know every time I stand up let alone walk a flight of stairs that I have to improve my fitness.
But physical action and getting psyched up are interactive. Once in a while I'll identify a source of input as toxic, shut it out, and actually make progress. Then time passes and you relax the defence, like filing away the "Do Not Access" photo for an estranged person posted behind the security desk. Eventually, people relax and coast because adrenaline and anger usually can't sustain and there are other issues to concentrate on. But the same toxic input can worm its way back into your attention and waste even more of your time. Consider those the words of Satan or whatever other negative image you subscribe to. What is this in service of?
I get along well with my siblings. Others don't. If they lived in my town I would make the effort to phone and visit. I'd like to succeed where I must and then maybe return to my home town some day, even though I've missed a lot of life there while following my main passion in the big city (even while paying the rent by less grandiose means). I can imagine how even siblings would stop talking to each other if certain mental roles life scripts or mind games were being acted out. Once a person is free of the childhood home, they frankly don't have to listen to scoldings and advice. It's toxic. The toxic person may even look for surrogates they can damn with faint praise or mentally mess with all in the guise of support. But again that is so subtle and diabolical it likely will not be a conscious choice. That's giving the person benefit of the doubt. But whether they own and intend the harm behind it, a toxic influence is just that.
It should not be expected to improve anymore than an alcoholic should be expected to recover fully.
Maybe this applies to me more than most and it may be of no use to the average reader. I have what might be called a co-dependant nature and an addictive personality. So there is no grey area, even if I fool myself into thinking there is one. An innocent discussion of movies on a website can be one more irritation instead of the audience research that is intended. If you find yourself reading mostly things that irritate, and it isn't giving a spark of inspiration, maybe it's time to cut that loose.
If anything, those of us who want to make progress in writing, theater, comedy, films or another coveted vocation will have plenty of critics. Those are inevitable. But before the creation the last thing we need is to actually interact with them. I think evaluating the quality of thought behind reviews (or lack of it rather) will help me accept the inevitable blasts I will get in the future from my own work. But that's about all I get from that.
All I can say to other people is good luck.
Monday, January 5, 2009
New Gilligan movie ?
If Payton Reed directs it, the tone might be right.Cera is appropriate for Gilligan, Beyonce is plenty sexy but I would cast her as Mary Anne rather than Ginger. There is a chance for Satire with a shallow movie star that we love to hate. We don’t want to cheer for indignities suffered by Beyonce. The girl born to play Ginger is Lindsay Lohan. Lohan as Ginger, problem solved.For the skipper I can only see Horatio Sanz from SNL but they might want to re-team Cera with Jonah Hill who is actually much older. Professor: Vince Vaughn, The Howells: Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner.
New Year Crap-Clear
So I'm sorting through the gym bag that usually keeps vital work-related materials I take to the workplace, pills, work shirt, body spray and random free newspapers I have read on the subway with articles I hadn't finished importing into my brain. Garbage in, garbage out.
I can understand keeping an issue that boasts one of my letters to the editor. Those may not be thrown out except by accident. Whether I should keep them or not. But since it is perfectly acceptable and thoughtful to leave a Metro or Eye Weekly on the subway seat, I have chosen to stuff the most worthless material in my gym bag. So as I throw these papers out it's a review of the year's news that isn't quite news.
Jerry Lewis went to Australia and when asked if he liked playing cricket he said, "That's a faggot game" and did some physical comedy miming use of a cricket bat. So there's an article about GLAAD slapping him on the sturdy wrist and asking him for an apology. Like millions of Rat Pack fans will abandon Jerry for using the "new F-word." It amazes me how lobby groups seem to be in the business of telling people to lie to them. I don't have to pathologize Jerry for being out of touch with the latest edition of Newspeak. But you can understand if he has lingering resentment for the 2002 TV movie Martin and Lewis that was made about him where a guy from Will and Grace - Sean Hayes - played him. I remember saying to a friend after seeing a clip, "I didn't know Jerry Lewis was gay."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318908/
That gives an idea the kind of time and thought wastage results from reading a newspaper.
Did I have to know about that? When Issiah Washington was fired from Grey's Anatomy for calling T.R. Knight the same derogatory term for homosexual, my first instinct was that this is an over-reaction and extremely political (read: cowardly). T.R. crying on Ellen's couch didn't help boost his preferred image as the stoic leading man he was destined to be. Somehow since those articles we have more recent useless information that his role has been reduced on the show since Mr. Washington went to the Bionic Woman (much to the glee of snarky, fey critics). I'll be honest, I thought the Bionic Woman pilot episode was okay and I like Katee Sackoff as a satirical antagonist. A can't comment on Gay's Anatomy, because I've never seen an episode.
Still the new Bionic Woman pales by comparison to the original Bionic Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man which have been mired in a legal dispute between Universal and I forget what company. I try to google it and the term "Million dollar" is pretty common and "Bionic Woman" tends to bring up reference to the new-fangled version.
I seem to be finding a lot of blurbs about the apparent comeback of Tom Cruise after having supposedly killed his career. Imagine Tom Cruise in the early days of Top Gun and Rainman, with Barbara Walters bringing in a psychic to tell him this: "You will be very popular for many years until what kills your career is that you are so happy that you jump on Oprah's couch - but of course that's not enough to REALLY kill your career; you also criticise Brooke Shields."
What else hurt him? Of course Sumner Redstone making a point of saying that his behaviour hurt the box office of Mission: Impossible III. I see in another trash blurb that they have since reconciled and had lunch, but only after Tom had to become head of MGA/UA. Old Redstone seemed to be administering the death blow, and he was motivated because his lovely wife had a head full of this disposable tabloid crap. The guy manages to survive as a top Box office draw with a name like Cruise and what almost sinks him is an old man's wife reading the kind of crap I'm now finally throwing out.
What I can't have the pleasure of physically trashing is the sort of "news" feed you get signing into certain websites for e-mail. How do they choose these columnists? It has never been more true that somebody got a job by giving a blow. Do I really want to see an idiot's list of the "forgettable movies of the year" or a rant against Mel Gibson and the gossip about his marriage? Just another distraction. I have to reign myself in or I'll spend all of my time e-mailing incompetant cyber-columnists. Those that actually have a talk-back e-mail provided. Even then, likely it only bolsters the impression that people are reading the shite.
I won't mention a local Toronto film community that has a pressence on the web and sends out shameless viral marketing. I like the people involved but I've had to withdraw from involvement or the loop of promotions. It's too much. You get double and tripple versions of the same link and it takes up space in your Facebook feed even if you sellect "less from" this friend. And again I've had to confront this mentality and I've been told point blank that their columnists deliberately take extreme and controversial positions - many of which are inarticulate and non-persuasive - to get people fired up and attract feedback. I just thought why make myself crazy. Throw it all out. Ignore, ignore.
Now I'll have to look at my mostly blank Day-timer from last year, with its pages used as a notebook for some random ideas and snippets of dialogue. Maybe I'll actually have more time to plan things to do this year if I'm not wasting a little bit at a time paying attention to the sickening void of pop culture.
I should add another note for the sake of the few knee-jerks who might happen upon this blog and take offence at my issues with GLAAD and groups like them: I'm all for gay marriage and gay adoption and all of those many bench marks of progress that won't have an impact on what I want or have to do in my own life. But we live in a climate where we don't know each other and few intelligent people dare say anything that isn't affirmative. I'm not surprised to see a full-page article about the return of Andrew "Dice" Clay to comedy. People may very well need to listen to something that is expressing a very valid feeling of discomfort. I don't think discomfort should be lumped in with fear and certainly not hated to the point where someone's disinterest or a market's disinterest in something is branded "non-inclusive." I think it's great that the net version of Star Trek has introduced Captain Kirk's gay nephew, but I'm not rushing to find out how that is illustrated. Live long and prosper, as long as I don't have to pretend T.R. Knight is cool. Roddenberry was bucking the system to deal with race and staff the Enterprise with a multi-racial crew, but these days to buck the system is to be politically incorrect and outrage lobby groups.
All of this cluttering my head as I haul fresh new garbage out the door.
I can understand keeping an issue that boasts one of my letters to the editor. Those may not be thrown out except by accident. Whether I should keep them or not. But since it is perfectly acceptable and thoughtful to leave a Metro or Eye Weekly on the subway seat, I have chosen to stuff the most worthless material in my gym bag. So as I throw these papers out it's a review of the year's news that isn't quite news.
Jerry Lewis went to Australia and when asked if he liked playing cricket he said, "That's a faggot game" and did some physical comedy miming use of a cricket bat. So there's an article about GLAAD slapping him on the sturdy wrist and asking him for an apology. Like millions of Rat Pack fans will abandon Jerry for using the "new F-word." It amazes me how lobby groups seem to be in the business of telling people to lie to them. I don't have to pathologize Jerry for being out of touch with the latest edition of Newspeak. But you can understand if he has lingering resentment for the 2002 TV movie Martin and Lewis that was made about him where a guy from Will and Grace - Sean Hayes - played him. I remember saying to a friend after seeing a clip, "I didn't know Jerry Lewis was gay."
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318908/
That gives an idea the kind of time and thought wastage results from reading a newspaper.
Did I have to know about that? When Issiah Washington was fired from Grey's Anatomy for calling T.R. Knight the same derogatory term for homosexual, my first instinct was that this is an over-reaction and extremely political (read: cowardly). T.R. crying on Ellen's couch didn't help boost his preferred image as the stoic leading man he was destined to be. Somehow since those articles we have more recent useless information that his role has been reduced on the show since Mr. Washington went to the Bionic Woman (much to the glee of snarky, fey critics). I'll be honest, I thought the Bionic Woman pilot episode was okay and I like Katee Sackoff as a satirical antagonist. A can't comment on Gay's Anatomy, because I've never seen an episode.
Still the new Bionic Woman pales by comparison to the original Bionic Woman and The Six Million Dollar Man which have been mired in a legal dispute between Universal and I forget what company. I try to google it and the term "Million dollar" is pretty common and "Bionic Woman" tends to bring up reference to the new-fangled version.
I seem to be finding a lot of blurbs about the apparent comeback of Tom Cruise after having supposedly killed his career. Imagine Tom Cruise in the early days of Top Gun and Rainman, with Barbara Walters bringing in a psychic to tell him this: "You will be very popular for many years until what kills your career is that you are so happy that you jump on Oprah's couch - but of course that's not enough to REALLY kill your career; you also criticise Brooke Shields."
What else hurt him? Of course Sumner Redstone making a point of saying that his behaviour hurt the box office of Mission: Impossible III. I see in another trash blurb that they have since reconciled and had lunch, but only after Tom had to become head of MGA/UA. Old Redstone seemed to be administering the death blow, and he was motivated because his lovely wife had a head full of this disposable tabloid crap. The guy manages to survive as a top Box office draw with a name like Cruise and what almost sinks him is an old man's wife reading the kind of crap I'm now finally throwing out.
What I can't have the pleasure of physically trashing is the sort of "news" feed you get signing into certain websites for e-mail. How do they choose these columnists? It has never been more true that somebody got a job by giving a blow. Do I really want to see an idiot's list of the "forgettable movies of the year" or a rant against Mel Gibson and the gossip about his marriage? Just another distraction. I have to reign myself in or I'll spend all of my time e-mailing incompetant cyber-columnists. Those that actually have a talk-back e-mail provided. Even then, likely it only bolsters the impression that people are reading the shite.
I won't mention a local Toronto film community that has a pressence on the web and sends out shameless viral marketing. I like the people involved but I've had to withdraw from involvement or the loop of promotions. It's too much. You get double and tripple versions of the same link and it takes up space in your Facebook feed even if you sellect "less from" this friend. And again I've had to confront this mentality and I've been told point blank that their columnists deliberately take extreme and controversial positions - many of which are inarticulate and non-persuasive - to get people fired up and attract feedback. I just thought why make myself crazy. Throw it all out. Ignore, ignore.
Now I'll have to look at my mostly blank Day-timer from last year, with its pages used as a notebook for some random ideas and snippets of dialogue. Maybe I'll actually have more time to plan things to do this year if I'm not wasting a little bit at a time paying attention to the sickening void of pop culture.
I should add another note for the sake of the few knee-jerks who might happen upon this blog and take offence at my issues with GLAAD and groups like them: I'm all for gay marriage and gay adoption and all of those many bench marks of progress that won't have an impact on what I want or have to do in my own life. But we live in a climate where we don't know each other and few intelligent people dare say anything that isn't affirmative. I'm not surprised to see a full-page article about the return of Andrew "Dice" Clay to comedy. People may very well need to listen to something that is expressing a very valid feeling of discomfort. I don't think discomfort should be lumped in with fear and certainly not hated to the point where someone's disinterest or a market's disinterest in something is branded "non-inclusive." I think it's great that the net version of Star Trek has introduced Captain Kirk's gay nephew, but I'm not rushing to find out how that is illustrated. Live long and prosper, as long as I don't have to pretend T.R. Knight is cool. Roddenberry was bucking the system to deal with race and staff the Enterprise with a multi-racial crew, but these days to buck the system is to be politically incorrect and outrage lobby groups.
All of this cluttering my head as I haul fresh new garbage out the door.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Lemons and Lemonade
Have you ever sat down and kept record of the daily progress on a project? I've done that. As a matter of therapy than posterity to log what went wrong or what I did right when working on someone else' project. I even came up with a checklist or two that could at least bring to the surface any potential conflicts earlier rather than later, since at the start of any venture - a film for example - people are likely to let fights go until it would be a disaster to dissolve the partnership. That said, I'm not sure many people would have it together enough to be so deliberate as to provoke each other early on. It would seem like an insult, a lack of good faith (or bad faith) and they say a liar won't believe anyone else. It's like a Catholic pre-marriage course designed to raise the tough questions. And some people aren't into that. You are looking a gift horse in the mouth, which is a term I've never understood. I mean if you look into the mouth of a Trojan horse before dragging it into your gates, you may see the soldiers hiding inside and burn it instead. So looking a gift horse in the mouth should be a wise routine.
I can think of one producer I worked with back in 2003 who I'm sure is the one who makes up a new Youtube account every once in a while and does a blitz leaving demoralizing and insulting messages on the videos I've posted under the one ID of mine she knows about. When you really don't have many enemies, at least that narrows down the suspects. But what good can I extract from a bad experience? What can I pass along so that it wasn't just a case of poorly spent trust costing me thousands? Well, even if you know better it won't be applied in time. I know I had seen The Spanish Prisoner by David Mamet a few years before. I should know the role politeness plays in preventing people to ask the right questions or refuse the wrong help. Faith in people and lack of imagination make us all marks.
There are some people who hear the word "money" when you say "movie." They may believe "why you and not me?" when it comes to the leadership or "why this idea and not mine?" They may feel I MUST BE PAID as the only measure of worth and value. But they will look at the limited resources for a volunteer-driven film and somehow try to be paid. If they don't sign off their services for a specific amount (even a dollar) they may try to bill you later. You may expect that it makes sense for every contender to bid for a job or a role, but it is not unusual for someone to join under implicitly volunteer conditions and shun signed documents and then consider themselves welcome to a blank check onc work is done. I don't know any filmmaker that can agree to blank checks. I know the movie is a square peg and the round hole is the amount of money available to pay for it.
Years later I still end up paying for the honor of directing my own scripts. Getting excited about the next project can happen immediately and be sustained, but most often now the state of drive to create comes and goes.
One thing I can take from the worst experiences and own and control to an extent is the question of readiness. Am I in a state of readiness? At present, no.
Emotions and thought play catch-up with physical health. I can walk along with a fully developed negative philosophy, then force myself to eat some celery and it's all gone. Or I force myself to get some tedious cardio or go for a swim and a writing problem has worked its way from vague sense of something wrong to problem-solving idea. I plan to swim more in the new year. I don't watch Jaws before swimming nor before sleeping, and I miss the film but I've been sleeping too much and so it's tricky to fit that in. I'd have to start my day watching Jaws while eating apples. Lately I've had no excuse not to swim. The habit I still have from my childhood may have nothing to do with fearing shark visions in a swimming pool. I would stand on the diving board or on the deck ready to jump in but not ready enough. I don't like surrendering to the adaptation of the water, and there is no plan around it. It is all about accomodating the water. Same with a woman. As long as I stay on the deck everything will be fine. Dip my toe into the surface and it will seem a lot colder.
I have to lose weight, and read more often and stick to books rather than what passes for news and concentrate rather than addle myself with even the best movies or TV streamed on-line. As much as I have to catch up on Californication, I also have a backlog of scripts and outlines to complete, prepare and shoot. I'm not sure I care to attend a film festival and schmoose and promote something I've done. But that's another blog.
I can think of one producer I worked with back in 2003 who I'm sure is the one who makes up a new Youtube account every once in a while and does a blitz leaving demoralizing and insulting messages on the videos I've posted under the one ID of mine she knows about. When you really don't have many enemies, at least that narrows down the suspects. But what good can I extract from a bad experience? What can I pass along so that it wasn't just a case of poorly spent trust costing me thousands? Well, even if you know better it won't be applied in time. I know I had seen The Spanish Prisoner by David Mamet a few years before. I should know the role politeness plays in preventing people to ask the right questions or refuse the wrong help. Faith in people and lack of imagination make us all marks.
There are some people who hear the word "money" when you say "movie." They may believe "why you and not me?" when it comes to the leadership or "why this idea and not mine?" They may feel I MUST BE PAID as the only measure of worth and value. But they will look at the limited resources for a volunteer-driven film and somehow try to be paid. If they don't sign off their services for a specific amount (even a dollar) they may try to bill you later. You may expect that it makes sense for every contender to bid for a job or a role, but it is not unusual for someone to join under implicitly volunteer conditions and shun signed documents and then consider themselves welcome to a blank check onc work is done. I don't know any filmmaker that can agree to blank checks. I know the movie is a square peg and the round hole is the amount of money available to pay for it.
Years later I still end up paying for the honor of directing my own scripts. Getting excited about the next project can happen immediately and be sustained, but most often now the state of drive to create comes and goes.
One thing I can take from the worst experiences and own and control to an extent is the question of readiness. Am I in a state of readiness? At present, no.
Emotions and thought play catch-up with physical health. I can walk along with a fully developed negative philosophy, then force myself to eat some celery and it's all gone. Or I force myself to get some tedious cardio or go for a swim and a writing problem has worked its way from vague sense of something wrong to problem-solving idea. I plan to swim more in the new year. I don't watch Jaws before swimming nor before sleeping, and I miss the film but I've been sleeping too much and so it's tricky to fit that in. I'd have to start my day watching Jaws while eating apples. Lately I've had no excuse not to swim. The habit I still have from my childhood may have nothing to do with fearing shark visions in a swimming pool. I would stand on the diving board or on the deck ready to jump in but not ready enough. I don't like surrendering to the adaptation of the water, and there is no plan around it. It is all about accomodating the water. Same with a woman. As long as I stay on the deck everything will be fine. Dip my toe into the surface and it will seem a lot colder.
I have to lose weight, and read more often and stick to books rather than what passes for news and concentrate rather than addle myself with even the best movies or TV streamed on-line. As much as I have to catch up on Californication, I also have a backlog of scripts and outlines to complete, prepare and shoot. I'm not sure I care to attend a film festival and schmoose and promote something I've done. But that's another blog.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Amazing Stories
Volume 2 hasn't been released to DVD. I'll be one of the few people in Toronto who buy it.
I used to tape each episode on VHS and edit out the commercials by pausing back in 1985.
I'm a fan of Steven Spielberg, even when that isn't a popular thing to admit. But in 1985 it was fairly safe. His first TV series - not including series' he had worked on before breaking into features - wasn't embraced by Neilsen families, but I liked it. Had Spielberg given us a ritual - like personal introductions or bookends in the style of Alfred Hitchcock Presents - it may have gone beyond the two-season contract it had. But back then Amazing Stories and Alfred Hitchcock were part of the same entertainment block hour in most markets if not all.
I wouldn't make a blanket statement about anything. I take each episode for what it is.
Season 1 Season 1, Episode 1: Ghost Train (fun and somewhat touching - esp recently, for me)
Season 1, Episode 2: The Main Attraction (superficial, mild fun)
Season 1, Episode 3: Alamo Jobe (A few amusing moments but a lame idea)
Season 1, Episode 4: Mummy Daddy (Total fun, good idea well executed)
Season 1, Episode 5: The Mission (Certainly well directed; takes a big risk with it's ending, a deus ex machina that could be the heart of the problem people have with AS - one can't be amazed by a device that takes a story from somewhat realistic and harrowing to magic-solution)
Season 1, Episode 6: The Amazing Falsworth (Actually quite well done and involving episode.)
Season 1, Episode 7: Fine Tuning (This Uncle Milty stuff barely played in the 80's and likely wouldn't work for kids today. It might have good intentions but it's terrible aliens. hamming it up.)
Season 1, Episode 8: Mr. Magic (I like this one. Sid Caesar strikes the right note and it is clearly somewhat about his own ups and downs so there is more than the story itself. The premise seems to have been recently lifted and used in a short that preceded Wall-E in theaters.)
Season 1, Episode 9: Guilt Trip (Fun, light romp, harmless though somewhat a rip-off of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality. The lame factor kicks in with the Casablanca "beginning of a beautiful friendship" which plays to me like finger-nails on the chalkboard. Over all, it goes for a few dark laughs which could have had more emphasis.)
Season 1, Episode 10: Remote Control Man (Basically fun Bob Clark fluff. The TV character definitely date it, and Adam Sandler has recently made "Click" which shares some of its content, but it is certainly not badly done.)
Season 1, Episode 11: Santa '85 (I have to watch this again now that I know Matt Damon is the boy. This was a favorite for the kids in my family. Pat Hingle is excellent and the magic of the ending works because they don't waste time making us guess if he is the "real" Santa.)
Season 1, Episode 12: Vanessa in the Garden (Interesting Eastwood episode that may be too slow and aloof or too mature for my own tastes. I was bored despite likeing everyone involved.)
Season 1, Episode 13: The Sitter (Total fun with a central character I think about often. Great example of a high point for the series.)
Season 1, Episode 14: No Day at the Beach (I have nothing against this episode but I'm also not sure of it's message that we should be nice to the geek because one day he might magically save everybody. Still well done for what it is.)
Season 1, Episode 15: One for the Road (This has the content of an O. Henry short story but it made no impression on me.)
Season 1, Episode 16: Gather Ye Acorns (Great fun present for Mark Hamill fans the world over, like myself. Anyone else might find it over-stated with the character reaching an absurd low. I agree with the message, but seeing it illustrated makes me question it.)
Season 1, Episode 17: Boo! (I actually like this idea and the approach of it. Nothing wrong with it's clash of generational tastes and tolerance.)
Season 1, Episode 18: Dorothy and Ben (This may be my favourite. Certainly the most emotionally moving. I find it very involving to the point of being embarrassed. The actors are terrific. What some people call "emotional manipulation" I call good filmmaking.)
Season 1, Episode 19: Mirror, Mirror (Clearly about Stephen King and his demons. I find it fun and it's interesting to see Scorcese just concentrating on shot design and having fun.)
Season 1, Episode 20: Secret Cinema (I'm a Griffin Dunn fan, so this kind of insanity appeals to me.)
Season 1, Episode 21: Hell Toupee (Whimsical idea that is harmless and sort of has something to say about vanity, so I like it. Cute fun.)
Season 1, Episode 22: The Doll (Kind of a touching John Lithgow episode. If you are in the right mood for it, this one is quaint and full of empathy.)
Season 1, Episode 23: One for the Books (The old janitor absorbing information from being near books has a progression of events but I'll be darned if I remember it adding up to anything or having much to say. It's a waste of a premise, from what I recall.)
Season 1, Episode 24: Grandpa's Ghost (Kind of embarrassing and uncomfortable.)
Season 2 Season 2, Episode 1: The Wedding Ring (Danny and Rhea are terrific in this. Actually it's the best thing DeVito has directed, even War of the Roses. Total fun.)
Season 2, Episode 2: Miscalculation (I think I liked it better when it was called Weird Science.)
Season 2, Episode 3: Magic Saturday (Liked it better when it was called Shoeless Joe - and later Field of Dreams)
Season 2, Episode 4: Welcome to My Nightmare (I have a dim memory of this. Have to get Season 2 on DVD. Sounds great, though my memory has it in the mediocre file. He ends up on the set of Psycho?)
Season 2, Episode 5: You Gotta Believe Me (Charles Durning does the best he can with this vehicle. It's okay, but totally reliant on him selling his dream and following through. It's not a personal favourite, but you pretty much know how it has to pay off.)
Season 2, Episode 6: The Greibble (If you are a Hayley Mills fan, fine, watch it. But this is overblown Joe Dante at his worst with a puppet that is just annoying. Basically a giant Gremlin.)
Season 2, Episode 7: Life on Death Row (Oh my God, this one I haven't seen. Apparently it is like The Green Mile.)
Season 2, Episode 8: Go to the Head of the Class (Robert Zemeckis, Christopher Lloyd, case closed: 100% approval by me.)
Season 2, Episode 9: Thanksgiving (David Carradine as a mean step dad gets to greedy for the generous people in a well on his property. Nice little episode. Very nice.)
Season 2, Episode 10: The Pumpkin Competition (Technically well done and we get Polly Holiday as a mean old jealous lady, so I have to admit this one should play well for everyone - very folksy and fun.)
Season 2, Episode 11: What If...? (Anne Spielberg wrote this one about a boy born into a family who doesn't appreciate him and shouldn't have kids, who gets to cross over to a nicer couple. Some of it gives me a chill.)
Season 2, Episode 12: The Eternal Mind (I have not seen this episode.)
Season 2, Episode 13: Lane Change (Have not seen.)
Season 2, Episode 14: Blue Man Down (Have not seen. Very interested in it. Max Gail as a cop again.)
Season 2, Episode 15: The 21-Inch Sun (Have not seen. But a plant writing sit-coms sounds about right.)
Season 2, Episode 16: Family Dog (Episodic but entertaining animated episode.)
Season 2, Episode 17: Gershwin's Trunk (Have not seen this one)
Season 2, Episode 18: Such Interesting Neighbors (Have not seen this, but the outline sounds shrill and annoying.)
Season 2, Episode 19: Without Diana (Have not seen this one.)
Season 2, Episode 20: Moving Day (Have not seen. Moving to space. . .? I dunno.)
Season 2, Episode 21: Miss Stardust (Have not seen this one but apparently it is the old joke about an alien challenging the winner of "Miss Universe.")
Overall I would be interested in buying Season 2. Family Dog is the only episode I have been able to find and watch on-line. I used to watch Amazing Stories and tape it regularly, so I don't know how there are so many episodes I have missed.
I used to tape each episode on VHS and edit out the commercials by pausing back in 1985.
I'm a fan of Steven Spielberg, even when that isn't a popular thing to admit. But in 1985 it was fairly safe. His first TV series - not including series' he had worked on before breaking into features - wasn't embraced by Neilsen families, but I liked it. Had Spielberg given us a ritual - like personal introductions or bookends in the style of Alfred Hitchcock Presents - it may have gone beyond the two-season contract it had. But back then Amazing Stories and Alfred Hitchcock were part of the same entertainment block hour in most markets if not all.
I wouldn't make a blanket statement about anything. I take each episode for what it is.
Season 1 Season 1, Episode 1: Ghost Train (fun and somewhat touching - esp recently, for me)
Season 1, Episode 2: The Main Attraction (superficial, mild fun)
Season 1, Episode 3: Alamo Jobe (A few amusing moments but a lame idea)
Season 1, Episode 4: Mummy Daddy (Total fun, good idea well executed)
Season 1, Episode 5: The Mission (Certainly well directed; takes a big risk with it's ending, a deus ex machina that could be the heart of the problem people have with AS - one can't be amazed by a device that takes a story from somewhat realistic and harrowing to magic-solution)
Season 1, Episode 6: The Amazing Falsworth (Actually quite well done and involving episode.)
Season 1, Episode 7: Fine Tuning (This Uncle Milty stuff barely played in the 80's and likely wouldn't work for kids today. It might have good intentions but it's terrible aliens. hamming it up.)
Season 1, Episode 8: Mr. Magic (I like this one. Sid Caesar strikes the right note and it is clearly somewhat about his own ups and downs so there is more than the story itself. The premise seems to have been recently lifted and used in a short that preceded Wall-E in theaters.)
Season 1, Episode 9: Guilt Trip (Fun, light romp, harmless though somewhat a rip-off of Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality. The lame factor kicks in with the Casablanca "beginning of a beautiful friendship" which plays to me like finger-nails on the chalkboard. Over all, it goes for a few dark laughs which could have had more emphasis.)
Season 1, Episode 10: Remote Control Man (Basically fun Bob Clark fluff. The TV character definitely date it, and Adam Sandler has recently made "Click" which shares some of its content, but it is certainly not badly done.)
Season 1, Episode 11: Santa '85 (I have to watch this again now that I know Matt Damon is the boy. This was a favorite for the kids in my family. Pat Hingle is excellent and the magic of the ending works because they don't waste time making us guess if he is the "real" Santa.)
Season 1, Episode 12: Vanessa in the Garden (Interesting Eastwood episode that may be too slow and aloof or too mature for my own tastes. I was bored despite likeing everyone involved.)
Season 1, Episode 13: The Sitter (Total fun with a central character I think about often. Great example of a high point for the series.)
Season 1, Episode 14: No Day at the Beach (I have nothing against this episode but I'm also not sure of it's message that we should be nice to the geek because one day he might magically save everybody. Still well done for what it is.)
Season 1, Episode 15: One for the Road (This has the content of an O. Henry short story but it made no impression on me.)
Season 1, Episode 16: Gather Ye Acorns (Great fun present for Mark Hamill fans the world over, like myself. Anyone else might find it over-stated with the character reaching an absurd low. I agree with the message, but seeing it illustrated makes me question it.)
Season 1, Episode 17: Boo! (I actually like this idea and the approach of it. Nothing wrong with it's clash of generational tastes and tolerance.)
Season 1, Episode 18: Dorothy and Ben (This may be my favourite. Certainly the most emotionally moving. I find it very involving to the point of being embarrassed. The actors are terrific. What some people call "emotional manipulation" I call good filmmaking.)
Season 1, Episode 19: Mirror, Mirror (Clearly about Stephen King and his demons. I find it fun and it's interesting to see Scorcese just concentrating on shot design and having fun.)
Season 1, Episode 20: Secret Cinema (I'm a Griffin Dunn fan, so this kind of insanity appeals to me.)
Season 1, Episode 21: Hell Toupee (Whimsical idea that is harmless and sort of has something to say about vanity, so I like it. Cute fun.)
Season 1, Episode 22: The Doll (Kind of a touching John Lithgow episode. If you are in the right mood for it, this one is quaint and full of empathy.)
Season 1, Episode 23: One for the Books (The old janitor absorbing information from being near books has a progression of events but I'll be darned if I remember it adding up to anything or having much to say. It's a waste of a premise, from what I recall.)
Season 1, Episode 24: Grandpa's Ghost (Kind of embarrassing and uncomfortable.)
Season 2 Season 2, Episode 1: The Wedding Ring (Danny and Rhea are terrific in this. Actually it's the best thing DeVito has directed, even War of the Roses. Total fun.)
Season 2, Episode 2: Miscalculation (I think I liked it better when it was called Weird Science.)
Season 2, Episode 3: Magic Saturday (Liked it better when it was called Shoeless Joe - and later Field of Dreams)
Season 2, Episode 4: Welcome to My Nightmare (I have a dim memory of this. Have to get Season 2 on DVD. Sounds great, though my memory has it in the mediocre file. He ends up on the set of Psycho?)
Season 2, Episode 5: You Gotta Believe Me (Charles Durning does the best he can with this vehicle. It's okay, but totally reliant on him selling his dream and following through. It's not a personal favourite, but you pretty much know how it has to pay off.)
Season 2, Episode 6: The Greibble (If you are a Hayley Mills fan, fine, watch it. But this is overblown Joe Dante at his worst with a puppet that is just annoying. Basically a giant Gremlin.)
Season 2, Episode 7: Life on Death Row (Oh my God, this one I haven't seen. Apparently it is like The Green Mile.)
Season 2, Episode 8: Go to the Head of the Class (Robert Zemeckis, Christopher Lloyd, case closed: 100% approval by me.)
Season 2, Episode 9: Thanksgiving (David Carradine as a mean step dad gets to greedy for the generous people in a well on his property. Nice little episode. Very nice.)
Season 2, Episode 10: The Pumpkin Competition (Technically well done and we get Polly Holiday as a mean old jealous lady, so I have to admit this one should play well for everyone - very folksy and fun.)
Season 2, Episode 11: What If...? (Anne Spielberg wrote this one about a boy born into a family who doesn't appreciate him and shouldn't have kids, who gets to cross over to a nicer couple. Some of it gives me a chill.)
Season 2, Episode 12: The Eternal Mind (I have not seen this episode.)
Season 2, Episode 13: Lane Change (Have not seen.)
Season 2, Episode 14: Blue Man Down (Have not seen. Very interested in it. Max Gail as a cop again.)
Season 2, Episode 15: The 21-Inch Sun (Have not seen. But a plant writing sit-coms sounds about right.)
Season 2, Episode 16: Family Dog (Episodic but entertaining animated episode.)
Season 2, Episode 17: Gershwin's Trunk (Have not seen this one)
Season 2, Episode 18: Such Interesting Neighbors (Have not seen this, but the outline sounds shrill and annoying.)
Season 2, Episode 19: Without Diana (Have not seen this one.)
Season 2, Episode 20: Moving Day (Have not seen. Moving to space. . .? I dunno.)
Season 2, Episode 21: Miss Stardust (Have not seen this one but apparently it is the old joke about an alien challenging the winner of "Miss Universe.")
Overall I would be interested in buying Season 2. Family Dog is the only episode I have been able to find and watch on-line. I used to watch Amazing Stories and tape it regularly, so I don't know how there are so many episodes I have missed.
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