Archive for the ‘News’ Category

A rather unexpected and stunning turn of events in Chicago city politics – really the only politics that count for anything in the state of Illinois. (Chicago all but runs Springfield and the rest of the state.)

Hizzoner, Mayor Richard M. Daley, “The Son, “(as he is sometimes referred to), as well as “Daley the Second” will not seek re-election at the end of his current term early next year.

He will step down after outlasting his father’s run as Mayor of Chicago by only several months when he does. The important note is that he will have served longer than his father – a stated goal back in the fourth or fifth term when asked how long he would like to go. If Richard M. had run, it would’ve been for a historic seventh term. He was referred to as “Mayor for Life” by most of Chicago’s citizens, some with a sneer, but most in all honesty with a sense of relief. In the City That Works many tax payers slept much easier knowing that a Daley was manning the Fifth Floor, term after term. There really hadn’t been much true opposition to Daley’s re-election campaigns in quite some time. No one in their right mind wanted to tangle with the family name.

That has some to do with the good things that Richard M. did for the city since he took over the reigns back in 1989. But, when you get down to it, the family name stems more from the legacy of  his father – Richard J. Daley, a.k.a. “Daley The First,” or “Boss Daley” and possibly the sudden death of Richard J. while still in office. Richard J. was Richard J. Daley, an American Pharaoh who shaped late twentieth century Chicago in his image by sheer force of will and the unrivaled power of the Democratic Machine. Many believe Richard J. literally put JFK in office, his power within the Democratic National Party was so strong at the time and the legend so entrenched of Richard J. delivering Democratic victories by means both above-board and nefarious.

Father and Son shared many similarities and took the same tack for shaping Chicago with their vision – construction. Never-ending public works, incentives for developers, gentrification – especially with Richard M., the Son, that would run wild through the Windy City’s neighborhoods. Their rule over the city lasted forty-two years out of the past fifty-five. That’s nearly a half-century between father and son leading one of the largest and most powerful cities in all of America. That’s an epic familial legacy. In those shared similarities were both good and bad qualities, traits, and ambitions. Neither man liked to lose a political battle and were willing to hit below the belt to get their way. Both had a clear-cut vision for what the city needed to evolve and grow, both succeeded in implementing these plans and transforming the city into a Chicago on the rise. The Father did so twice – once in the post-World War II boom period of the 50s and again through the Urban Collapse of rust-belt cities in the 70s (Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland.) Then the Son at the turn of the century, bringing Chicago to the international stage, promoting Arts, the Restaurant Industry, Tourism, and public works (Millennium Park.)

There’s the darker side. Was their graft, cronyism, and other hallmarks of the Machine – even in the Son’s tenure when he claimed the Machine was dead and gone? Most certainly. Chicagoans have seen it everyday of their lives. They expect that behavior. It’s a part of the City and how things are done.  Is some of that behind Daley stepping down now, even though many believed he would at least seek another term? We’ll see. That’s possible. Always possible in Illinois politics. The Feds sniffed around Daley a few times, but the Feds never serve an indictment unless it is a lock and so nothing was brought against the current Hizzoner, just like his father. There are other, personal reasons (anything nefarious is pure speculation.) His wife’s long and difficult battle against breast cancer, the failure to get the Olympics to come to Chicago, and, of course, the spectre of his father’s sudden death in office and a desire to write a different ending for himself.

I would guess Bar Owners throughout the city are rejoicing right now. Daley the second was tough on them and different points in his career. He hated the old school, neighborhood network of street corner taverns and waged war on those establishments often. He froze liquor licenses in the city a long ways back, so that you couldn’t open a new bar. If it didn’t serve food and was a proven restaurant, or was a tavern/bar/club with an existing liquor license, then there was no amount of money you could pour into city hall to make them approve your establishment.

All in all, the news today makes me turn my attention back to THE SCRIPT and stokes my desire to see it come to life some day. It baffles me that, seemingly, everyone’s afraid of making that show right now. Will things change with this sudden shift? I doubt it, but one can dream – can’t they?

It will be interesting to see who steps up to the plate. Many say Rahm Emmanuel will resign from his Chief of Staff post and announce shortly after mid-term elections. He’s openly coveted the job. Either way, Chicago will see its first truly competitive, wide-open Mayoral campaign in over two decades early next year. Now, that will be a race to watch.

There was a lot more lat night that I wanted to get into, but wasn’t able to due to the late hour and my general tiredness. So let’s dive right in with this pick-up post.

We did indeed have our second to last pitch for TV pitching season today @ Parkes/MacDonald as I mentioned. To recap, because it was a great week for who we were pitching to, the companies we pitched were Brillstein, Gran Via (Mark Johnson’s company,) and Parkes-MacDonald. All are good companies with lots of muscle who responded to our reps presentation of us and our sample (BOSS.) We pitched well this week. Better than last week for sure. We thought we did pretty good last week, but in retrospect and after our conference call with our TV team the other day, which was kind of a halftime review of how things were progressing so far, it’s clear the adjustments that Jason and I made really tightened and elevated our pitch.  We’re still waiting to hear from everyone this week as to there initial reactions and if there’s interest to pursue our idea further. That being said, and I think I covered this last night a bit (without looking back ) Everyone last week passed. Which isn’t unusual. There are hundreds of pitches on the TV side at this time of the year and a very select few get ordered to script. We’re not completely out, but the genral tone of the conference call seemed to indicate that we were not going to get this pitch across on this round. Which if this does indeed turn out to be the case, because its healthy, I’ll admit is pretty damn disappointing. But, about par for the course being that we’re new, unknown writers and our pitch is on the edgier side of things.

That isn’t to say that the pitches weren’t success’ in what they needed, ultimately, to accomplish which was get our name out there and get us some experience walking into those major league rooms and presenting our idea and our talents in a fun and entertaining way. The idea being that what we did was plant seeds with each person we met with. And that these seeds will bloom in assignments or other pitches or whatever down the road. According to our team, we were shone in every room we went into. With one producer going so far as to say he could tell “that we will be major stars.” Every door is without a doubt still left open, according to our agents, who set the meetings and do the check in to get the “meeting behind the meeting” after it’s over. We made a bunch of fans and that’s what it takes. Ultimately, I feel as we walked out of the pitch today, both Jason and I could look back over the two weeks and see just how much we had learned.

We do still have word on the three to come in from this week and one more pitch to go; but from there it looks like the TV side will quiet down for a bit. On the feature side, though, it appears (hopefully) they are finally ready to rev up to full speed and get us out there. We also have one of the three screenplays that we started for young producers or directors at our level before we signed with the agency, that is believed to be ready to go out to possible actors, production companies, and directors in an effort to get it into production. So, hopefully, in September we’ll have a bunch of generals with feature people and then this script will go out and one or the other or both will make headway. The big thing that Jason and I are fighting – beside the obvious material concerns of finances – is the psychological of wanting that first break to come in. Not so much for the money it may bring, but more so to cement our representation team in place. To justify all their hardwork and time spent on us. Because even though there are those tough times of silence, when we’re out there like we have been the past two weeks we are in near constant contact with them – especially our manager, but also the agents, and when we contacted our feature guys they got back to us within a couple of hours – which is not typical for those of us who haven’t made them money yet and established themselves with an assignment or sale yet. Part of this psychological pressure stems from the horror stories we’ve heard through school about peers signing with a major agency right out of the gate, but because something didn’t happen for them the first time out with an idea or script, they weren’t dropped so much as they were set adrift, with phone calls not returned and material not read, that sort of thing. Kind of dropped, without being told they were dropped and their careers started to stall because of it. It’s something you definitely feel some concern over. You’ve got to produce or there isn’t room for you.

So, here we are at the end of round two, a lot of lessons learned. Our work cut out for us. Still in the game. Still feeling extremely fortunate.

…as a UCLA graduate student. Next stop? The real world and a career of some kind.

Been thinking of the wonderful souls who lifted me up along the way, most of all the years I spent bound and determined to fall. I am truly blessed soul who travels this world in the company of some fierce supporters, who couldn’t have helped me anymore than they have in my winding road to this beautiful point in my life. My gratitude to each and every one of you knows no bounds.

My folks are visiting for the first time since I moved out. We toured North Campus today, had lunch in W L.A. at John O’Groats, stopped by Urth Caffe in Beverly Hills for a late afternoon coffee drink, and then out to Santa Monica and Il Fornaio for dinner. It was a good day. Action packed, but good. UCLA’s campus size really seemed to blow them away, plus it was a beautiful day and there’s nothing quite like that campus on one of those postcard perfect afternoons. It’s some serious pretty.

To be honest, I’m seriously frazzled and can’t believe tomorrow is tomorrow and not a big ole day of rest. I think we should run Graduation like the NBA finals and put four or five days in between events. At least.

With that, I will bow out. One more parting thought, tuck it in your breast pocket so it stays close to your heart.

This week two very different, but equally dear, close, old friends of mine lost a parent, unexpectedly. Both were not terribly young or as healthy as they could be, but were young enough for each death to be a bit of a tragic surprise.

I share this in hopes that if you’re the praying kind, you’ll say a prayer for both. They’re largely on their own in dealing with all the arrangements and that’s a task I couldn’t imagine.

But also, as a gentle reminder, in life we all know there are many beginnings and endings, but we don’t always see either coming. So, if your near someone you love, as I know many of my UCLA friends reading this are this weekend, take a minute to cherish their presence and hold that memory of cherishing them for those days when you won’t be able to.

My heart and prayers go out to both souls of the dearly departed, and to their two wonderful children who grieve their sudden departure.

So much to gab about, so little time tonight to gab about it. So, without further ado, let’s hit it:

-I’m hesitant to say anything about the Cardinals at the moment. (Did you see tonight’s box score, Dad? Not bad. Not bad at all.) Let’s just simply say: YAY! And leave it at that.

- Mouth? Still sore. But, starting to settle in. Body? Still discombobulated. Though I think that’s more from the 48 hour write-a-thon I found myself in, before the final 434 on Thursday. BTW, that script is looking quite sharp. It was a rewrite of one of Jason’s – a spare, dark psychological thriller. Near my sweet spot, so to speak. He did a pass, after I wrapped up on Thursday and the script sparkles in my opinion. Truly sparkles. I want to see this movie. See what a director could do with it.

- The delightful Ms. Antone is in town for the weekend from Prescott, AZ. Always a major league treat! We hustled out to see a play at the Pasadena Playhouse. It’s called boom by Furious Theater Company. It was not the best thing we’ve seen. A little annoying. Tough to say if it was the direction, though, or just the play itself. Overall, I’d say the production was quite well done – acting and set design. But the story turned on a rather trivial and tired joke at the end, with far too much wackiness before that to really hinge on something so – plain. One notable to the evening is that this production featured Julia Duffy, mostly known for her work as a series regular on the funny and endearing sitcom, Newhart .

-Tonight, my niece, Ellen, had her high school graduation party. I wish I could’ve been there, or, more importantly, there on Sunday when she graduates. She’ll be off to Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame, in South Bend, next fall. Congrats, Ellen!

- I’m just glad Ellen made it home, safe and sound from her senior trip – a mission trip to Guatemala that some students do as their senior project. All the students do some sort of aid work as their senior project. This particular trip took place this past week. Which meant that they were trapped in Guatemala after the volcanic eruption and then tropical storm. You can read about it here.

-Always makes me a little melancholy when someone I love, who’s heart is still full of wonder and isn’t hardened to the roughness and inexplicably tragic in the world quite only to get a random glimpse of it before they should. I made choices that I’m not so proud of when I was quite young, lead an extremely reckless and self-destructive life when I was in high school, college, and my 20s. This life brought me out into that rough and inexplicably tragic world far sooner than I should’ve been. When I look back on some of those things, string them together in their proper context, and look at them again in clear eyes, I wouldn’t wish that for anyone’s teenage years. Not what I saw. Not what I did. Not what I learned – about myself, about others, and about the world.

-I have three days to rewrite the play. Should actually be a mellow experience. A nice victory lap on my MFA career.

-I’ve made the decision to search for a 2bd/2ba apartment with my buddy Jacob Bursten-Stern, a fine playwright, former HS basketball star, and good guy. I’ve known Jacob for the full three years of school. We both worked together, as well, at the UCLA Film Archive during our first year. We go to lunch every few weeks, talk shop, etc.. He’s also a very good friend of Tiffany’s, a playwrights who plays poker, has good taste in TV shows and – with Tiffany – kept me in it to win it with playwriting this year. We’ve been discussing this, after Tiffany suggested it, for a couple of weeks. Kind of amiably considering it. Bottom line came down for both of us, at different times, this week and the fact of the matter is that we can find a place in Culver City that’s big and will go for $1300 to $1500. Split that in two, plus split the bills and all of a sudden, I cut my monthly by a third, which is nothing to sneeze at. So, for July 1st as the target date. I hate to give up living alone. But, I’ll have plenty of time for that later. Need to stay in the hunt and this will help that – tremendously.

-Been a frustrating week on the business side of things. That’s all I’ll say for now. It is what it is. Suffice to say, this business is not a very above board, say what you mean style of business. Deciphering the different layers of “I said this, but really meant this.” Or, “I agree to this, but what I really wanted was this.” Is a major pain, most all the time. But, it’s also par for the course, unfortunately, and you just have to grin and bear it. Best advice? Keep writing.

- YAY REDBIRDS!

-Coach John Wooden, The Wizard Of Westwood, passed today. He was considered not only one of, if not the, greatest basketball coach/es. More than that, though, he was a teacher, a mentor, a molder of men. As Vin Scully said: “He is a genius in his ability to inspire There are a few giants who walk among us. He was truly one of them.” Coach Wooden’s spirit pervades all of Westwood. Not just in a basketball sense, but in an inspirational success. One of my favorite Wooden quotes:

“Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”

Below is an brief video from UCLA’s tribute page for Coach Wooden. In it he talks further about failure:

“In life there will be peaks and valleys. The strength of a person’s character depends on their ability to accept both success and failure. Gonna have both.”

That is a lesson former Sony Pictures Head and famed Producer, Peter Guber, who will speak at graduation on Friday, taught quite eloquently in his opening lecture for his class ‘Navigating A Narrative World.” I believe he mentioned that he had learned it from Coach Wooden, but I’m not sure. It is, I feel, the core lesson that UCLA teaches and a resounding truth to life that is all too often overlooked. In all things and in all lives there will be peaks and valleys, you must reconcile that in your heart, have faith and learn to grow from both.

At the end of the tribute, Coach Wooden intones a beautiful poem on letting go of the fear of dying.

God Bless and Good Night.

It’s the last week of the quarter. Well, the last week of the last quarter. So, I’ve been crazy busy, trying to bring the projects home on time. Had an immense weight lifted today. I finished my last 434 script and handed it in to my awesome professor, John Sweet (The Affair of the Necklace.) I haven’t slept much in the past two days, but I got it done and in. So, now all I have left is the rewrite of my play for next Tuesday. Then school will be done.

Regular posting should resume tomorrow. I’m taking a long night on the couch to regroup, before the final push. Plus, Jason and I have a few things we have to get cracking on. On top of all that, I had my dental appointment on Tuesday. What was supposed to be a 3-4 appointment turned into an 8 and 1/2 hour marathon. 8 of those hours were solid work. The 1/2 hour was interspersed throughout the day in ten minute increments for breaks. It was unexpected and wiped me out. I still haven’t completely recouped my forward momentum. I lost an entire day to it. I came home and tried to work and couldn’t. It was a rough one. Roughest I’ve ever had – terrible back pain in the chair in the morning, countless shots throughout the day  to numb the area consistently that they were working on, six teeth in total were addressed, an allergic reaction to the slow-setting material they used for my first round of impressions. It was grueling. I’m thrilled it’s over and I don’t know how else it could’ve been done, but I never want to endure that again.

So tonight, some TV, some pasta, some Ice Cream, and some sleep. Tomorrow’s another day.

Basically, I’m just rumbling down the tracks. I did a little work – really not as much as I should’ve today. I have to admit, I have a wicked bad case of spring fever and really just want to drift around L.A., drink Iced Coffee’s at some little cafe in the Palisades or Malibu, read for fun, go see bad movies, walk along the beach, and visit the Getty. Thankfully, I’m not  exactly flush, so I’m pretty homebound. If that’s the case, then what better to do than write?

Moral of the story is that tomorrow, more will  get done. I am in pretty good shape for the final sprint. I reached the end of my play (well, minus the final scene and image.) It’s 85 pages right now. I’m going to forget humility for a second and pat myself on the back….There. My first love (as the saying goes) was theater. I loved musicals when I was little. One of my first theater going (for plays or movies) was to go see a traveling version of ANNIE. Plus, my folks took me to see the MINNEAPOLIS CHILDREN’S THEATER, which is an award winning troupe. I initially thought I’d be a playwright, but when I took my first class at Marquette, an Intro to Dramatic Writing class, my teacher a playwright/screenwriter promptly told me after reading my first pages that I was “too visual” and that I had better write screenplays, instead of plays. That was it, I switched over and never tried to write a play again. So, finishing this play, even though it’s a bit of a mess (I learned a ton which is all that matters), this play represents me finally making good on the gut feeling I had that day, almost twenty years ago, which was – “No, I’m not too visual. I’m just visual enough. I can do both.”

Other than the play, I’ve got half a screenplay to go for my other class, we’ve got our first notes meeting on the desert script on Friday night, and we’re getting ready to do another pilot, as well. So, good things all. (And I got a donor award, which will helps me stay afloat through July.) I would say I’m in decent shape.

More tomorrow.

Kind of a lost day, today, but I mean that in a good way. I told myself I was going to tackle some basic chores around the house – cleaning and laundry chief among them, some grocery shopping would’ve been good. But, I arose a little later than I thought I would and was slow out of the gate, got wrapped up in email correspondence and just, kind of, let the day go. These days happen. Usually after power sessions like the one earlier in the week. So, I’m not too concerned. All right, enough rambling about the non-state of my day, let’s get down to it!

-Went to see a fellow Bruin Scribe’s latest short film tonight – Lily, whom I have lunch or breakfast with every now again, commiserate with and tweet (on twitter for the non-tweeters reading) back and forth with a little. It was screening at The Bridges Theater on campus, along with a directing student’s thesis film, both Produced by Producing student Justin Begnaud, who is producing the serial killer script that Jason and I will draft over the summer. Lily’s film was awesome. I think I mentioned her other short won the audience award at the Milan International Film Festival recently. She’s a hard worker who goes out and makes it happen. She’ll be shooting a feature soon and i can’t wait to see it.

-Alan read the first 35 pages of the script we just handed in and loved them. Really, really loved them. I think he was a little blown away. That always feels good.

-What is up with the Cardinals? They won tonight, but not before starting pitcher, Brad Penny, after hitting a grand slam (yes, that’s right a grand slam) left the game in the fourth with a tweaked back muscle. Which Brad had admitted he tweaked a week ago, while pitching against Cincinnati. The teams been winning sporadically, the situational hitting has been atrocious, the pitching brilliant and the bullpen an adventure. But now, players are hiding injuries! (Mr. Penny was the second pitcher in the course of the past couple of days to go down with a more severe injury b/c he neglected to say anything the first time he was hurt. It boggles the mind! This is a multi-million dollar enterprise. You’d think they’d get a handle on something like this! Quite hiding injuries guys! This has been going on for years. Time to stop. It’s killing the team. Just killing it.

-A 13 year old boy become the youngest person ever to top Mt. Everest. I guess he climbed Kilimanjaro at 10! Man, talk about the best “what did you do last summer” essay when he hits school next fall. Seriously, though, if you can dream it, you can do it.

You. Just. Have. To. Try.

-Has anyone been watching Friday Night Lights, the television show (which is back on NBC now, from DirectTV) ?   It’s on tonight actually and is in its fourth season. If you haven’t been – and I wouldn’t be surprised if  you hadn’t – FNL is one of the most unsung shows in Television history – do yourself a big, big favor, listen to me, and go watch the first season on DVD. You will be hooked. Such a fantastic, heartfelt, stirring show, all about Texas small town High school football and the people of Dillon, Texas. It’s downright criminal that this show wasn’t a huge, smash success. It’s really struggled to find it’s audience, despite being possibly the greatest primetime soap ever. And easily tied for first or just barely a step behind The Wire as greatest television show ever.

-Facebook is about to log its 500 millionth active citizen, worldwide, in the next few weeks. Chew on that number for a minute – 500 millionth! The social media site has only been in existence for six years and was started in a Harvard dorm room (or stolen in one, depending on who you talk to about it.) If it were a country, it would be the world’s third largest – 2/3rd’s bigger than the U.S. That’s a lot of power (personal info on each user) that just a handful of people control. Staggering to think about, isn’t it? With all the privacy debates raging about Facebook, I wonder if they’ve grown too large for the U.S. government to sanctioned or demand changes from. I mean that in more of a philosophical way. Sure, you could pass laws and they’d have to be followed, but is the genie out of the box already?

-Real quick, on Facebook, THE SOCIAL NETWORK, a studio film about the founder of Facebook and the story behind its creation. Well, one of the stories. It’s a major Hollywood production – directed by David Fincher, screenplay by Aaron Sorkin and stars many young, up and coming or just breaking talent. Should be an interesting film. It was very hot screenplay a few months ago. They’ve been shooting some at UCLA.

-LOST ends, of course, this Sunday night with a huge, four hour event. I know of several parties with invitations out that are going on. It’s been awhile since I can recall a show ending that has generated this much attention and outpouring. Sure, this season, compared to last, has been a little off. Maybe it’ll play better, years down the road when all the hubbub and expectations have faded.

With that, I will bid you all, farewell for now.