Archive for the ‘Random’ Category

I’ve got a birthday party in an hour (Happy Birthday, Laurapalooza!) so let’s get right to it:

- Been watching THE WIRE a lot lately. I had taken a break after season two. A break that lasted almost a year. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I was so blown away and wanted to savor the experience of watching it the first time. I hope to some day write and produce a television show that is a tenth as brilliant, real, incisive, brave, and chilling. The layers of it and its ability to introduce new characters while slowly expanding the reach of the narrative is unbelievable. I’m at the start of season four and I can honestly say that no show has ever touched THE WIRE’s level of complexity and feeling of unflinching reality.

-On the flip side of that, looks like BOSS is, for all intents and purposes, dead in the water with HWY 61 and PH. His agency, the biggest and most powerful in all of Hollywood, sent it to four heads of cable networks and they all passed – unwilling supposedly to do anything with politics with or without PH attached. It appears that we won’t be getting it back any time soon, either; which is baffling and frustrating – though it didn’t get us to where we are for now. We haven’t reached the end of the road completely, but we’re just about there. I’ve been told that unless someone comes to HWY 61 and PH and says: “Yes, we absolutely want to do BOSS” it won’t get pushed anymore and PH has definitely decided that he doesn’t want to go out and knock on doors/pitch it, which is ultimately what the “no’s” thus far are telling us what the project needs to get off the ground. It’s a tough spot as we share representation now. Apparently, they’re going to push it to the backburner for now and consider what else they may want to do with it. Which will mean nothing, in the end. Hopefully, down the road, it will be like a MAD MEN which was rejected and then filed away by Matt Weiner for eight years, until he had success and could do it.

- Looks like I may be getting some good copywright freelance work coming up (Thanks Artichoke Artisans!) Along with a few other things hear and there, I feel like – thanks to move – I’ll be able to tread water and maybe even break into copywrighting a bit more as I search for a teaching gig of some kind. I may do some extra work here and there to fill in the gaps, or maybe look for a Writer’s Assistant gig on a show.

-Very excited about the newer, cheaper AppleTV (is it ITV now?) and that it will be capable of streaming Netflix as well. Let the movie streaming revolution begin! Say good-bye to DVD’s!

- My niece Ellen was at her first Fighting Irish football game today as she’s at Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame, her mother’s alma matter, for her freshman year. The last time I was there was in college for a game with the Keefe’s. But I watched part of the game today, thinking back to my visit to see Claire there, when I believe I was in junior high. Here and her friends tried to sneak me in the student section, but I got bounced. Luckily, once I got in on my regular ticket, they found me and walked me into the section, which was packed with students. I still think of that visit and being in autumnal South Bend as the iconic collegiate experience. I remember we went to the pep rally and it all seemed as College should be.  I hope Ellen had a blast and is finding her place in the new community she’s in as well as her older sister, Emily, has at Villanova in Philly.

- Caught part of an episode of House Hunters International today. Saw a couple buy a COMPOUND with four small homes on it for two million in FIJI. Compound hopefuls be ready – we may forego Malibu/No Cal and decamp to Fiji. They had a private beach. It was slick. I’m thinking one hit TV show and five million and we might be able to buy a town.

- Been having very in-depth dreams lately. Like I’m almost conscious in them. But, I’m not remembering them when I wake up. What’s up with that? At least let me remember them. Their might be good material in there.

- My beloved Redbirds are imploding as I type. It’s pretty painful to watch. It’s like a NASCAR accident, not some mere stumble. A full on metal and fire, blown tires, hitting the wall implosion. I have long been a fan of Tony LaRussa’s hard charging (i think) brilliant managerial style. He is one of the greatest in-game generals and strategists ever in the game; but it may be time to give The Secret Weapon the chair and see what he can do with it. I think the team is not responding. We definitely have to 86 Mark McGwire as hitting coach and suck it up on the ownership side and raise the payroll to $120 million a year.

- New Arcade Fire album The Suburbs? Brilliant! Check it out. Now. No, I’m serious. Check. It. Out. You won’t regret it.

- Need to get back to work on my play and start in on my new one.

- Best meeting of the week – in terms of wow, we’re in a Hollywood office? Definitely Gran Via Productions, which was in Century City, near CAA. It was on the 16th floor of this office building located within the larger company WALDEN MEDIA (they did The Narnia Films, among many others.) When we walked up to the reception desk, it was hard to not notice to the right an enormous prop from the latest Narnia movie, THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER – the mammoth, ornately carved wooden Ship’s Helm. It was rather impressive. Then we sat in their lovely lobby, where they had a large flat screen (naturally) playing their various films on a loop. Great way to wait for the meeting to start.

- And the best water award goes to….Brillstein Entertainment Partners. When we sat in the lobby and were asked by the receptionist if we wanted anything, shortly after the expected reply of “water” out came a lovely lady with a silver butler’s tray, polished to a high sheen. She set the waters down on lilac colored leather coasters. The water proved to be a cut above the rest – crisp, cold with ample ice in the glass. (Jason promptly awarded it the best water award after the meeting.)

I think that’s all for now, folks. Have an excellent and safe Labor Day!

I’ve got a birthday party in an hour (Happy Birthday, Laurapalooza!) so let’s get right to it:

- Been watching THE WIRE a lot lately. I had taken a break after season two. A break that lasted almost a year. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I was so blown away and wanted to savor the experience of watching it the first time. I hope to some day write and produce a television show that is a tenth as brilliant, real, incisive, brave, and chilling. The layers of it and its ability to introduce new characters while slowly expanding the reach of the narrative is unbelievable. I’m at the start of season four and I can honestly say that no show has ever touched THE WIRE’s level of complexity and feeling of unflinching reality.

-On the flip side of that, looks like BOSS is, for all intents and purposes, dead in the water with HWY 61 and PH. His agency, the biggest and most powerful in all of Hollywood, sent it to four heads of cable networks and they all passed – unwilling supposedly to do anything with politics with or without PH attached. It appears that we won’t be getting it back any time soon, either; which is baffling and frustrating – though it didn’t get us to where we are for now. We haven’t reached the end of the road completely, but we’re just about there. I’ve been told that unless someone comes to HWY 61 and PH and says: “Yes, we absolutely want to do BOSS” it won’t get pushed anymore and PH has definitely decided that he doesn’t want to go out and knock on doors/pitch it, which is ultimately what the “no’s” thus far are telling us what the project needs to get off the ground. It’s a tough spot as we share representation now. Apparently, they’re going to push it to the backburner for now and consider what else they may want to do with it. Which will mean nothing, in the end. Hopefully, down the road, it will be like a MAD MEN which was rejected and then filed away by Matt Weiner for eight years, until he had success and could do it.

- Looks like I may be getting some good copywright freelance work coming up (Thanks Artichoke Artisans!) Along with a few other things hear and there, I feel like – thanks to move – I’ll be able to tread water and maybe even break into copywrighting a bit more as I search for a teaching gig of some kind. I may do some extra work here and there to fill in the gaps, or maybe look for a Writer’s Assistant gig on a show.

-Very excited about the newer, cheaper AppleTV (is it ITV now?) and that it will be capable of streaming Netflix as well. Let the movie streaming revolution begin! Say good-bye to DVD’s!

- My niece Ellen was at her first Fighting Irish football game today as she’s at Saint Mary’s of Notre Dame, her mother’s alma matter, for her freshman year. The last time I was there was in college for a game with the Keefe’s. But I watched part of the game today, thinking back to my visit to see Claire there, when I believe I was in junior high. Here and her friends tried to sneak me in the student section, but I got bounced. Luckily, once I got in on my regular ticket, they found me and walked me into the section, which was packed with students. I still think of that visit and being in autumnal South Bend as the iconic collegiate experience. I remember we went to the pep rally and it all seemed as College should be.  I hope Ellen had a blast and is finding her place in the new community she’s in as well as her older sister, Emily, has at Villanova in Philly.

- Caught part of an episode of House Hunters International today. Saw a couple buy a COMPOUND with four small homes on it for two million in FIJI. Compound hopefuls be ready – we may forego Malibu/No Cal and decamp to Fiji. They had a private beach. It was slick. I’m thinking one hit TV show and five million and we might be able to buy a town.

- Been having very in-depth dreams lately. Like I’m almost conscious in them. But, I’m not remembering them when I wake up. What’s up with that? At least let me remember them. Their might be good material in there.

- My beloved Redbirds are imploding as I type. It’s pretty painful to watch. It’s like a NASCAR accident, not some mere stumble. A full on metal and fire, blown tires, hitting the wall implosion. I have long been a fan of Tony LaRussa’s hard charging (i think) brilliant managerial style. He is one of the greatest in-game generals and strategists ever in the game; but it may be time to give The Secret Weapon the chair and see what he can do with it. I think the team is not responding. We definitely have to 86 Mark McGwire as hitting coach and suck it up on the ownership side and raise the payroll to $120 million a year.

- New Arcade Fire album The Suburbs? Brilliant! Check it out. Now. No, I’m serious. Check. It. Out. You won’t regret it.

- Need to get back to work on my play and start in on my new one.

- Best meeting of the week – in terms of wow, we’re in a Hollywood office? Definitely Gran Via Productions, which was in Century City, near CAA. It was on the 16th floor of this office building located within the larger company WALDEN MEDIA (they did The Narnia Films, among many others.) When we walked up to the reception desk, it was hard to not notice to the right an enormous prop from the latest Narnia movie, THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER – the mammoth, ornately carved wooden Ship’s Helm. It was rather impressive. Then we sat in their lovely lobby, where they had a large flat screen (naturally) playing their various films on a loop. Great way to wait for the meeting to start.

- And the best water award goes to….Brillstein Entertainment Partners. When we sat in the lobby and were asked by the receptionist if we wanted anything, shortly after the expected reply of “water” out came a lovely lady with a silver butler’s tray, polished to a high sheen. She set the waters down on lilac colored leather coasters. The water proved to be a cut above the rest – crisp, cold with ample ice in the glass. (Jason promptly awarded it the best water award after the meeting.)

I think that’s all for now, folks. Have an excellent and safe Labor Day!

So, I’m been meditating on/contemplating slowly and casually researching a more long term project in a different medium. As with many of my projects these days, some of it has to do with Chicago. A city, presence, and history that looms rather large in my mind the further and further I travel from it. I would love to infuse more Los Angeles into my work. I absolutely love the feel and rhythm of the city. But, for now, Chicago holds court for the most part. It gets the podium when it wants. Lots hours and miles and years traveled there. So there’s raw material aplenty and much of it is too beguiling to just ignore. As I’ve started to do more and more, in the early stages of research and circling something in my head, I tend to collect photos.

I’ve discussed how much I absolutely love and am drawn to the still photograph. How it represents a diving board for my imagination, one rooted in reality. A hair trigger to a story or a scene or an emotion that often spins into something else. So, today, rather than do some work or read, as I told myself I would do on what is probably my last day of vacation in a long, long time, I instead meander through the stacks and stacks of photo streams on Flickr, searching for images of Wicker Park, the neighborhood I lived in for nearly fifteen years in Chicago. Wicker Park has its history and I won’t quite get into here, yet. I’m sure I’ll wade into that hot button topic (in the years that I lived there, Wicker Park became ground zero/an international case study for the effects, both positive and negative, of Urban Gentrification) at some point when I do begin work on this project. (To be clear, it’s not a TV or Film project, so it’s clock is strictly my clock, so who knows when exactly that will be.) Simply what I mean to say before I roll out the photos is that in seeing these streets, where I not only lived, but also worked for so long. Spending my time locked up in this one stretch of Chicago, maybe one half of a square mile at best, twenty-four seven, at all hours of the day and night. That I’m struck by the grittiness of Chicago, compared with Los Angeles. That’s not to say L.A. doesn’t have it’s truly rough parts. Maybe it’s the constant sun, or the way the landscape breaks – whatever it is, L.A. doesn’t strike me as so compact and constructed and old. It doesn’t have the same rawness I see in these photos. Anyways. Here is Wicker Park, circa early 21st Century, about three years past the apex of the gentrification battle.

That's the Six Corners, formed by the intersection of Milwaukee, North, and Damen Ave. It's the heart of Westown, which is Wicker Park, Bucktown, and the Ukrainian Village. The road, North Ave, on the left, is a border between Bucktown and Wicker Park. I lived and worked within two-three blocks of this intersection for nearly a decade. That's downtown in the distance behind the Flat Iron Building.

The Coyote Building which is where the previous picture was taken from. The neighborhood's internationally acclaimed art walk takes its name from this building. The art walk is simply known as "Around The Coyote."

This is taken of the corners from the Flat Iron building. It also captures the Chicago, I recall most - overcast, rainy.

The main alleyway, off of Damen Ave. I can tell this is taken right at the mouth of the alley, which means if you look at the previous photo and locate the North Community Bank sign, next to the Blue Line El Platform, the photographer was just around the corner from there, a quarter of a block. I lived in an apartment that was two buildings down on the right and another one that was five buildings down on the left.

The Damen Ave El stop, which I lived several doors down, right across the park when I first moved to the neighborhood. Three stops and you're in the Loop. This is directly opposite the mouth of the alley in the photo above.

Outside the Double Door, a rock club next to the mouth of the alley. The Rolling Stones played here. Among many other big, small, unknown and friends bands. It's called Double Door because it has this door on Damen and another door on Milwaukee, just around the corner. That's big June, the longtime doorman. Whenever he was working I had an all-access pass. I used to raid there ice machine when ours down the street at Nick's would break down in the summer.

Some folks hanging on Milwaukee Ave, a couple of doors down from the corners. Looks like just outside Earwax Cafe.

This is inside Earwax Cafe. I knew Nick the own, through my fellow Wicker Park Ex-Pat, Brett. Earwax started out as a used CD/eclectic video rental/cafe/hangout spot. Fifteen years later is would evolve into an eclectic cafe with a progressive menu written up favorably in the NY TImes Sunday Section. Which was pretty cool to see.

Night time in the six corners. There are somewhere, or were, in the order of fifty or so bars, taverns, clubs, and dives - some of which saty open until 2 a.m., others until 4 a.m. in a fifteen block radius (if that) around the corners. This looks like an early week night. Pretty slow. I worked right in the heart of this for most of my doorman/bartending career.

Heilman Cold Beer signs. They're all over the place. Along with Pabst. Many, because of the Polish Heritage of the neighborhood, don't say "Cold Beer" they say "Zimne Piwo" which is cold beer in polish. Don't let the door hit you in the dupa on the way out!

The Pontiac Cafe, after my time there, which was the most infamous of bars and dives that I tended bar at. This is also the bar where I had my last drink. Served by Johnny Angel, who also got me sober. How do you like that for irony? In my time, we didn't have that plank/boundary thing - that was city mandated after it was discovered Buddy, the owner, didn't have the proper permits for it. in my day anything that was concrete was patio, so the patio was twice that area. Man, this place....It still defies words (not in a good way.) It's closed now. Which is as it should be. This is one building over, and on the other side of the El Tracks, from the Double Door picture above

Inside the Pontiac Cafe, at the corner of the bar, which was the place that you wanted to be. Guess who is standing, just to the left here? That's right. That's me. Beardless. Looking sharp. Must've been on my way out to dinner or something. It's almost ten years ago. I've definitely stopped drinking and all that, based on the people around me. I'm talking to Gina Black of The Blacks, a country-punk band and a Pontiac waitress. Crazy isn't it? I found this photo by accident on Flickr. I was startled to notice myself standing there. Seems like forever and a day.

Might be a little brief tonight. But, straight from wonderful Corona Del Mar, here’s a collections of things from this week, the daily grind, and the thoughts rattling through my head.

-There’s an etiquette rule, long standing, in Hollywood for meetings. When you’re the Exec/Producer/Rep hosting, you always offer something to drink (the Assistant does) – water, coffee, or soda are usually the choices. Though Soda and Coffee are hit or miss – water is a given. I know we’ve talked about this before. You ALWAYS say yes to the water, as a creative and the guest. It’s polite and endears you to the host, or something to that effect. (This is not the only such little quiet etiquette/social interaction dance ritual that has to happen, but it’s the primary one.) Anyways, that’s a rather overly long set-up to something I noticed this week – the disappearance of the bottle of water. Which was a Hollywood staple of the meeting. Now you get the glass of filtered, cold water in a pint glass – no plastic. This is a big shift (to be so pervasive already.) For example, double-sided printing – to save money and the environment – has not quite caught on yet.

- They have bonfires on the beaches at night in Newport Beach. That’s the public beaches, BTW. I don’t quite know how it all comes about  (do people rent the fire pits?!) But, their they are, one after the other for several miles. So much so that as you zoom down the PCH with the ocean on one side and the town on the other – you can smell the wood burning intermingled with the ocean air. It is one of my most favorite things in the world to experience.

-Apparently the Cardinals don’t want to go to the playoffs this year. Instead they’d rather stumble about and lose to teams they should grind into dust. I’m not frustrated about it or anything. Really. I swear I’m not.

-Anyone watching HBO’s Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets? I saw the time they did the Ravens, a few years back. Jets head coach Rex Ryan is a pretty colorful character and really worth the price of admission. I’m sure you’ve seen some news articles about his controversial “mouth” in most of the episodes. While he definitely goes for the “R” rating (but not on purpose) it’s usually comedic and worth it.

-Still no word on those last two meetings. Which is disappointing to say the least, but not entirely unexpected. Hopefully Monday we’ll hear something.

-The car is officially sidelined until further notice. The brakes are in rough shape – metal grinding on metal, plus their seems to be something amiss upfront between the regular brakes and the parking brake. So, I had to rent a car from Enterprise (Hotwire had a great deal actually.) Unfortunately, I won’t be able to take it to my Mechanic (Who’s seriously one of the best in all of L.A. and completely honest. I lucked out finding him through a classmate.) Thankfully, I now live about five blocks from his garage. Still a bummer though. Los Angeles is a place where it’s almost impossible (not entirely, but ninety-nine percent impossible) to go without a car, so when the wheels go you need to do something about it – whether you want to or no.

-Been looking for flexible jobs – freelance gigs, night jobs, anything that would leave my days open for these meetings. Not much has surfaced yet. I’ve put in an application when it has, but that’s been about it so far. Not much out there right now. Wish it were a little more straightforward (getting some paying work.)

We’ll I think that does it for me. I’m kind of toast and ready for bed. Be good out there!

-

Call it the Corona Del Mar effect. I say I’m gonna do something on the blog, but there’s an unplanned  twenty-four hour delay. It’s the relaxing atmosphere Stags and I cultivate when we’re together. That and the sweet ocean breezes. That helps, too.

Here we go. Tomorrow we have our first pitch. Jason and I are a bit jittery – but that’s more over getting in there so we can do what we do and get a feel for the rhythm of the real game. Tomorrow’s is at Warner Bros. Studios with the producer of Grand Torino, among others. The meeting was bumped up to Ten A.M. so that the man with his name on the door could join the pitch. That’s a good thing. Any time the steps between you and the actual decision makers are cut down, so much the better. This would be our agents or manager probably at work. I’m would bet my bottom dollar there’s some kind of connection. I know we share the same law firm, so that’s something. Anyways, instead of pitching to a CE (Creative Exec,) who then in turn pitches your idea to her Boss, who’s either the head of her department or company (in this case its company,) we get to leap frog to him directly now. The reason why this is better is that he might have a discretionary fund for development from the studio as part of his deal to park his company exclusively on their turf and provide for their pipeline. Which means, if he did (it’s not a given, but it’s a possibility), that the head of the company could lock up the idea with a paid option or outright purchase, before taking it to the studio. That sort of thing. Regardless, it’s one piece in the telephone game of pitching, which means less relying on someone else to regurgitate your idea in just the right way. Got it? Good. Here we go:

-THE WIRE, people. Watch it. All of it. Man, I should’ve listened to my brother years ago. THIS. IS. THE. GREATEST. SHOW. EVER! It’s almost too much to handle. Deadwood’s a close second, tied with Six Feet Under. But, NONE, of them touch The Wire. NONE! I’m on season three. It’s blowing my mind how rich, detailed, and authentic this whole story and characters are – not to mention how they slowly and perfectly grow the world of the story from season to season. Of course, when it’s Denis Lehane, Richard Price, and George Pelicanos on your writing staff, you’re doing good as far as crime writing goes.

- My second niece is off to college. Which, honestly, makes me feel kind of old. Sounds like she’s doing quite well from what I can tell on facebook. Her sister is a Junior and their younger sister, my goddaughter, just turned 16. They are all getting too old too fast. It’s not fair.

-We booked another pitch for next week today, which was great. It’s with a non-writing Co-Exec Producer on Breaking Bad. That’s pretty good.

-We’ve got five pitches total right now. Which, I think, is just the first set. Or, I would guess it is. What do we know? We’ve never actually done this before.

-The thing I’ve been dwelling on, savoring even, all day is this: In the past, if I scratched something together, it was usually to get one person possibly interested. One person who, as a long shot, MIGHT be able to make something happen. In other words, the very few times I got into this situation, it was a do or die situation. That one person or nothing. Tomorrow, walking into the first pitch their will be four more right behind it. None of it is do or die in the moment. We will get better as we go through the first run of pitches. We may be great tomorrow, but we’ll then become unbelievable. It’s strange, but this feels, despite all the rest of advancements this summer, and even before, like the biggest career advancement yet. This is exactly what we wanted when we were struggling with the deal that ultimately didn’t go through. This is really all you can ask for as a writer in this town – the chance to take your ideas to the market and  to write. We’re doing that. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

-Ten years ago was the most pivotal time of my life as I struggled through the biggest change in my life ever. A change that is still having an incredibly profound effect on my life every single day. I’m beyond fortunate to be here, in this city, just enjoying the sunshine and my friends, let alone to be in the midst of my greatest dream – living that, too. I don’t quite know what to say actually. There were many nights – long, hard ones – where I thought this was just not a possibility EVER. Not in my life. To be here. Well, I feel like I died and went to heaven. Thanks to all the angels that have carried, and continue to carry me here.

- Cardinals looks like they found their bats. A little help from the SF Giants and we might just climb back into the division race. One way or the other, it’s shaping up to be one helluva stretch run!

Okay. I’m gonna catch another episode of The Wire. Then I gotta catch some zzzzz’s. Big day tomorrow!

I think last night’s brief entry on frustration got away from me! I didn’t mean to imply that I would quit the blog. And I know there are a good many readers out there, checking in week to week. I had hoped to inspire any questions that some may have, that I hadn’t gotten to in my unplanned ramblings, which might give me a track to rumble down for a bit, content-wise.

There is one just asked that’s rather timely (thanks, Colin!) as I was asked the same question at Jacob’s birthday get together in the park this past Sunday and I got caught flat footed by it. Even though it’s something I’ve considered internally in my thoughts. As Sunday demonstrated, though, I’ve never articulated my thoughts regarding it. We’ll delve into more of that tomorrow – as I’m going to try to switch gears a bit to more of a daytime posting ritual as part of my work routine.

Anyone see the Time magazine article on Jonathan Franzen, writer of The Corrections. Grew up in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis. The same suburb where we once lived and I was born. Anyways, in the article there is a brief paragraph on his writing space and equipment, along with a picture. It’s quite fascinating. To sum up: It’s a small, ancient looking industrial office computer cart type desk  with a hard backed chair against a blank white wall. The only thing on the desk is a rather clunky early Dell laptop and THAT’S IT!  Yes, there is no one scrap of paper. Not one picture. Not one knicknack in the whole darn space. Desk, wall, chair, dinosaur computer. I didn’t even see a lamp. Very impressive.

More importantly, and something that I hope to do one day, is remove all ability to access the internet from the machine and remove all time wasting games, etc.. from the software files. Apparently, Franzen customized the machine – going all the way down to the programming language to eradicate games from the hard drive, removing the wireless card physically from the computer, and then taking an ethernet cable – pouring superglue in the ethernet port on the laptop – jamming the cable in and whacking off the permanently attached head from the rest of the cable. Amazing! I love it. I’ve always pined for a computer to work on that’s completely and utterly free of the internet and any other distractions.

Also, as a side note to the writers who are reading this, it took Jonathan Franzen ten years to produce Freedom (at 562 pages.) But, as he talks about it in the article, the first seven or eight produced NOTHING usable. He wrote, but kept throwing stuff away, heading down this blind alley, then that one. Finally, after all this time, he had six pages of a female character. It was the first set of pages he didn’t throw away in almost a decade. From there, he cranked out the first draft in ONE YEAR! Probably rewrote it over the course of another.

Lessons from this:

-Every story told is an excavation.

-Character is the light that cuts best through the dark of uncertainty.

-Plot follows Character, not the other way around.

More tomorrow. I leave you with a few photos (because I haven’t done that in a bit) that I found through Google Reader where I track many different news sources on the net. One folder is dedicated to photoblogs. I love the simplicity of a picture a day. Here are two, of a set, that I find captivating and haunting in the most beautiful way possible. Without further rambling:

Dawn On A City Street In Toronto

A Few Minutes Later

I will say this about the photos: I was drawn to them specifically from the many years I worked until dawn at a Four A.M. bar called Nick’s Beer Garden. I lived several blocks away, basically around the corner. There is something strange, beautiful, and beyond peaceful about a city right as the darkness breaks and morning spills in. All the windows dark and the doors shut on the last moment of stillness. My feet on the sidewalk pavement. The Tribune truck dropping fresh stacks in the boxes on the corner. Everything about to happen, not quite yet, but soon.

Here we are. Getting settled in Culver City/Palms and the new pad. Making my way in this crazy, mixed up business. Officially an M.F.A. It’s all a little weird still. I was just talking to a friend and classmate, who I hadn’t seen in awhile. He’s been out since winter quarter and went to New York this summer, as part of a festival, to stage a play of his – himself. He’s in the same, weird financial in between state that it seems those that are just graduating and getting some interest/work opportunities/rep meetings are all in. Too busy to really commit to a real job, but not really getting paid anything, at all – yet. I was relieved to see him because I had heard through the grapevine he might take a gig in D.C., which is one of the places he worked prior to coming west. Instead, he came back because it seemed like the wise thing to do. Anyways, we commiserated over the strangeness. I would say that the common theme is that its not a very comfortable position to be in. This is largely due to the fact that you have no clue where the whole endeavor is headed, or how long it might take to get there, and speeding the process up is mercurial at best or wholly out of your hands, normally. Yet, it can be exciting and it can all see like it’s about to come through – that elusive corner will be turned and you’ll be working….as a writer….just as you dreamed for so many years.

Anyways, suffice to say you keep your head up high, you work hard, you keep your expectations low, but your hopes reasonably high, you stay in touch and don’t isolate too much, you ask for help when you need it, and you look at each day as exactly that – a day in which anything can happen, but, when you close your eyes, you get to start all over again.

All right. That was a waaaay longer introduction than I expected. So, without further soapboxing, let’s get down to it! It is Friday night, after all.

-I’m going to say this once and try and leave it alone after that. How in the name of all that’s holy did David Freese incur a season ending ankle injury, on a heretofor uninjured part of his body, on a rehab assignment in double A ROUNDING THIRD BASE?!?!?! It’s like this kid has turned out to be the boy in the bubble! I’m afraid if the wind blows too hard when we visit Wrigley he might break a bone or blow away. It’s just unreal.

-If it weren’t for Adam Wainwright, I think the redbirds would be having a much, much different season. Waino is indeed Bueno.

-Jacob and I are watching DEADWOOD. He’s never seen it and I’ve only seen it once, when it aired. It’s been fascinating to watch it again. Man, did HBO screw up, or what, when they took it off the air prematurely? The show is beyond brilliant. Milch truly outdid himself and so did the actors. I’m floored by two things – first of all, Milch dumps every spark for the ENTIRE SERIES into the first four episodes. It’s amazing. There’s one major event, that in my mind I would’ve sworn before watching it, that it had occurred in season two. I mean I would’ve bet good money. Season two, Doc? Try episode two! My jaw was on the floor. I had no recollection it had come that early. I was blown away.  (And I’m not the only one, I was talking to a writer-friend the other night and he’s rewatching it to and had the same reaction)

-We have a lot of projects in play right now. Lots kind of hopping around. It’s nice to have this TV stuff vaulting ahead of the pack. It’s all pretty cut and dry, which is good. But it would be lovely to knock some things off our plate. One thing I think we’re learning is that once something gets on your plate? It’s really hard to get it off, even if it’s going nowhere.

-Jacob’s a big fan of THE LAST WALTZ, too. That means he’s really good people.

-We have a pretty kick-ass apartment. I wake up and can’t quite believe how well it all worked out, and we seem to be falling into a good rhythm. I have to say I was against Culver City when I first moved to L.A. for some reason. The one time I had visited years earlier, I had stayed with a friend in Culver City; but never got a good grasp of the place and it seemed real scattershot – one block was cool, the next was rough. I could get that in Chicago, I wanted something different. But, Culver City is pretty awesome. It helps our apartment is so excellent, but downtown Culver City, while not huge, has some neat restaurants and bistros and cafes. It’s got a good feel to it. And, the Albertson’s? The best grocery store, I’ve seen in years. I was actually surprised. It’s a vast place. It even has some bulk foods like whole foods. A-Ma-Zing!

-Did I tell you about the new Swell Season record yet? Well, why aren’t you listening to it right now! The new Arcade Fire’s pretty good, too. Though it’s early.

-I’m a notoriously bad unpacker. Like I leave boxes unpacked for months after a move. It’s a really bad habit. SO, here’s a reminder to myself to push through and finish the job this weekend. There’s hardly anything left and I’ll be a happier man if I do.

-We’re thinking about getting some plants. We get great light and we’ve got some perfect spots for them. Any suggestions? (Preferably low maintenance, but not cacti!)

-Can you believe David Freese?!?!

-I’m quite excited that I’ll be doing more cooking here at the new joint. I’ve already busted out the risotto witch is my fast and easy dinner – through some chicken and peas in there, or beef, some parm and away you go. But, over the long haul, we’re talking BBQ, we’re talking Slow Cooker, we’re talking the whole nine yards. Which is good. It’s been awhile. Plus, it’s the type of place where I could have some friends over and it would be comfortable. (I owe some folks some home cooked meals.) We’ve even got enough room and seating to have movie nights for a select few folks.

I think that’s about it for this week’s edition of randoms. Be good to yourself. I’ll be back to regular posts tomorrow.

Been a long, long day. So, without further adieu, let’s get down to the task at hand:

-Viva El Birdos! The Cardinals had rallied quite well out of the game their, post all-star game. Then stumbled a bit recently. Still not sure what to think of this team. But, the bats appear to be waking up (for the most part), now if we could just get everyone healthy, we might be able to play some October baseball.

- Had breakfast with my friend, writer-director Lily, today. It’s always fun to see her and hear how she’s doing. We caught up on various news. She’s a kick-ass double threat and a good friend. You will probably see two features from her in the next year. She tends to make things happen, rather than wait. It’s a quality that I admire, because it’s tough to do that in life, let alone this town. She does it quite well.

-Also had lunch with a dashing young lady that I met at a party a while back. She’s a screenwriter as well, quite charming and funny. That’s all for now. Hopefully, we’ll hang out again.

- Jason and I put in more hard work today on CLIPPED. We’re about halfway through the bloated draft that we used to love. We’ve cut ten or twelve pages so far, simply by going line by line through the script together. It’s a long and involved process, but it’s producing big time results for us. I think we’re both amazed. In a way it’s a riff on an exercise we learned in our 431 class (not the writing group, per se.) Which was – you write a couple of scenes – say a brief sequence of five pages; now, without cutting anything major (like a whole scene) shrink that sequence down to 2-3 pages. It’s like acting like a trash compactor on your pages. Great exercise. We’re excited to see what we have when we get the script down to the proper sixty or so pages. It’ll be the same script, but much clearer and leaner. Can’t wait.

- Unfortunately though, due to the time commitment it takes to do this on a ninety-three page script, at about five -six hours per twelve or so pages; we’ve fallen a bit behind on other projects. Not what we wanted right now. C’est La Vie. I’m not completely surprised by that, but still, we’re not exactly thrilled we fell behind (I think we’re behind seven-ten days on delivering a few projects)We’re about forty-five pages in and genuinely concerned about whether we can finish by the Thursday meeting with our new TV Lit Agent. I think we’ll pull it off, but its gonna be close. Real close.

-I kind of have been having a hankering to play some Texas Hold’ Em lately; but am a) too broke, and b) don’t have the time. Kind of sad.

- The Swell Season’s new album is amazing. I can’t stop listening to it, Go out and get it right now.

-Need to start packing. I can’t wait to get in the next place. I will end up saving a ton of money monthly (a third of what I’m paying now, by myself!) This will help.

-Despite still being completely overwhelmed (in a good way) I’m going to have to keep my eyes peeled for work. There’s some longshot, advertising (writing copy) jobs that might be out there and we’re gonna see if those come through. Just wish we had a sense, of where we’re headed and what we could expect in the next few weeks.

-Going to see The Cheeseman’s tomorrow out in Anaheim at Disney Land. Looking so forward to seeing them.

I think that’s it for the night. Be good to yourself!

Hello and welcome to Limboville where everyday there’s a food truck to delight your palate and a movie to catch on the flat screen, but only after you finish your writing for the day!

Jason and I have fallen into an excellent routine, as you can tell. I know he misses the fam and is probably, as I mentioned, tired of sleeping on my couch; while I am starting to think more and more: “Wow, I’m supposed to move in ten days or so, Jacob and I should find a place!” Meanwhile, we carrying on with the task at hand which is trying to discern what are marching orders are, while prepping for whatever those marching orders might be – which means clearing the deck of as many of our writing commitments as we can, so that we can leap into whatever comes, right when it comes, free and clear. We really have kept the pedal to the meddle and seamlessly pounded away on various projects. Jason and I aren’t usually in the same room, let alone this long, as we work; so it’s been interesting to see that nothing in the process – or the quality – changes with the difference in physical proximity. I didn’t really expect it to, but still good to see.

Onward to the main event:

- Saw INCEPTION. Yes, Christopher Nolan is a Cinematic God. Yes, I was blown away by the movie. (It was a heist set in someone’s dreams!! This is my kind of story!!) But, I’m not sure it’s for everyone – so be forewarned. If you can maintain an open mind – I think you’ll love it, too.

-We got our first phone call from the Agents today. Pretty surreal experience. Just right out of the blue. Suddenly we’re on the phone with them. It was a great sign though – means they’re moving fast and eager to put us out there. They seem to be on full offensive mode.

-We were watching the Cardinals-Phillies (a.k.a. the Home Run Derby) and the sound was up when they called. Jason’s a big Phillies fan and if you don’t know who I was rooting for, then I don’t know what to tell you. We were deep into work on two different projects, too. So, the call became a bit of a slapstick moment. Jason got the call first on his cell and didn’t know how to turn down the volume on the TV, so dashed out of the apartment to the courtyard, where I was leaving a message for my dentist. I didn’t quite have time to ask what the issue was, because then my other line on the cell went off and I found myself in a conference call with Jason and everybody else. Made us both laugh afterwards.

- The Agents were calling because they have a TV Agent at UTA. She’s young and, according to research, a very up and coming Agent – but established with some good mid and higher level TV Writers on her client roster. Some of which included the co-creator of HUNG (on HBO), writers on MODERN FAMILY, BREAKING BAD, THE SIMPSONS, and THE BIG BANG THEORY to name a few. We’re excited to meet with her. That’s what the unexpected call was for. Our guys, Ramses & Mike have been talking us up to a few different partners and fellow agents since we came on board last Thursday. They got this agent to read BOSS and she flipped for it. So, we’ll meet with her this week.

- Also, we learned towards the end of the day that our scripts would be going over to UTA to be read. Which means a game plan is being formulated by everyone. The fact that the scripts went over from our manager’s office to UTA was a good, early signed. If either one was way off base, they would’ve come back to us with notes. So, we were relieved. Hopefully the Agents will like them and we’ll barrel full steam ahead.

-To sum up, this is all really fantastic movement. Much faster than we expected, actually. All the reps really seem to be on fire – determined to make something happen sooner rather than later, which is great. It’s put Jason and I in a weird, but wonderful place, where there’s almost daily movement on things – which is exciting and promising and nerve wracking. It won’t always be like this, or course, but for getting the plane (re:our career) off the runway, it really means a lot to have UTA setting such a quick pace.

-The down side is that Jason’s stuck here for a bit longer, at least, and I don’t know if I’m moving or not, now; let alone able to look for a job. Which has been interesting. We’ll see. We both need to assess how things go and were we’re headed in the short-term. The TV Agent could also send us out on a bunch of meetings. So, everything might become even more crazy here shortly.

-Jacob and I had thought we’d found a place. But the landlord came back to us tonight requesting first and last month’s rent, plus an additional months rent up front as security deposit. How much would that come to? $4800 split two ways. The reason? Supposedly b/c I had just been signed and he was afraid that I would make a ton of money all of a sudden and move out in six months, leaving him hanging. #OnlyInHollywood.

- Finally tracked down the elusive Buttermilk Food Truck this morning for breakfast. It may very well be my new favorite. Red Velvet Pancake Bites with chocolate chips and a vanilla custard on top, plus an egg-bacon-biscuit sandwich that was beyond heavenly? Count me in!

-We’re headed to have lunch tomorrow on the Disney Lot with a friend who’s a Writer’s Assistant on BROTHERS & SISTERS and an extremely talented writer-producer, as well. Always fun to visit friends on a lot and eat in the commissary.

-Cardinals are 5-0 since the all-star break. Will they keep it up, or is this a big tease?

That’s about it. Until tomorrow!

My brain is a little fried tonight. Been pounding on the keys quite a bit again. Tons of work to do. Like, starting-to-make-me-nervous-amount of work. I can’t even imagine the chain of events that will lead past this torrent of projects. Uff-da! (As they say in the North Country.)

Okay, let’s rumble:

-What in the name of GOD happened at Coors Field tonight to the Redbirds? Good lord. Can we all agree that Ryan Franklin as closer has reached the end of the line. He gave up two three run home runs! I’m not even angry. I’m numb with disgust. St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball columnist, Bernie Mikalscz is right! This team is an embarrassment at this point. Something is wrong with the mix.

-I have to return to the dentist on Thursday. I will admit I’m fairly depressed over this unexpected development. The lab is not happy with the impression taken last time, so I need to have a third one taken before they can properly make the more permanent crowns/veneers that will go up front. It’s no one’s fault – just bad luck. Because they’re in such a visible spot – my front teeth – we have to go the extra distance on getting them right. Unfortunately, that means four or so more hours in the chair before the four or so more hours to wrap the whole procedure up. UGH!

-I’m having lunch tomorrow with cousin Polly, who’s bring her sons Will and Matt up from the O.C. to attend a basketball camp at UCLA. I’ve been looking forward to this for a bit. Polly’s a very busy lately and with my busy schedule, we often have a hard time connecting. It’s always a treat to catch up with her.

-Still have to hand in my graduation forms, so that I can get the actual diploma.

-Need to get on that job search, too, while I’m at it.

-Wish I could share the almost, really cool news here; but we’re not quite there yet. Moved a little closer to locking up the first stage of it today. Hopefully all will progress just fine with it.

-Free Jason Motte from the 8th inning!

-Apartment search is on hold until Jacob returns from seeing family in Seattle. Should move real quickly upon his return.

I think that should do it for this edition. Have a wonderful day/night wherever and whenever you are!