An update

I haven't done any writing for quite some time, almost two months. I can tell I'm itching to do some, but nothing has sprung out to whip me into a scribing frenzy. I wanted to do a rewrite of an old screenplay, but I haven't mustered the chutzpah to throw down. I think I'm really stifled when I lack a place to work, beyond sitting in my bed with my computer on my lap. I need a desk or a table, and preferably a comfortable chair.

That's my life in a nutshell. Headed out to Westport for ten days of hard physical labor in honor of Dionysus. (And cold hard cash I guess).
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

"The Happening"

Someone needs to explain to me why I keep going to see movies by M. Night Shamylan. I've seen all the movies he's made, and been sorely disappointed by all but his first major release.

Now, I'll say here that I think he is a capable director. The movies are generally well shot and, usually in spite of the screenplay, well paced. The chief problem is the writng. I think the screenplays have to be the problem. The stories are usually really intriguing, but the execution of the story into a film almost universally misses its mark.

"The Happening" presents an interesting survival movie, but there is no oppurtunity for the protagonists to be proactive, and their eventual survival (it's a M. Night film, so you know it'll have a happy ending) is not a result of their actions, but of the world around them. They could have done nothing, in essence, and the end result would have been the same. To me, that made me rather bored. I just didn't care by the end. Also, the movie is remarkably short, mainly because it seems as if he's managed to write a movie without a third act. In some ways, I'd argue there's just a second act, without much of a first......

On the plus side, Night didn't place himself in a cameo position, and I saw a few trailers for films that looked quite intriguing, so....
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

A short thought on villains

This blog certainly is a ramshackle affair, but I hope it is entertaining. I'll continue writing these elements of how to, merely because I believe that teaching is a great way to learn. However, I think I'm going to expand the content here. Writing is about more than just craft, it's about reality and irreverence and a whole lot more. Ultimately, it has to be about life and the world, or, at least, a reaction to what we see around us.

That said, here's my thought on villains for the day. I think the key tenet to a truly great villain is the moment of empathy that allows you to see that the villain does not consider himself (or herself) a villain. They firmly believe what they are doing is for the betterment of their world. And to me, that's the scariest damn part of it all.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Villains pt 2

So, I'm here, standing in line in a grocery store, waiting to pay for my food. First off, Mom, I have healthy food and no trans fats.

Second, for whatever reason, I started thinking about Superheroes. The superhero is a quintessential American notion... Or is it? I'll leave that question for a later date. The reason why superheroes applies to villains is because a superhero really isn't interesting until there is a supervillain of some kind to go up against. Spiderman will never have difficulty taking down street toughs.

OH HEY! My turn at the checkout! Will continue this later.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

iPod Format

I don't read my blog all that often, but I took a peek today, and I
noticed that the emails I send from my handy little iPod end up with a
strange text format. Does it bother people? I mean, it kind of bothers
me. Sometimes I'm forced to wonder... Do gadgets make life easier or
harder?

Sent from my iPod

Villains Pt. 1

There might be some people who argue otherwise, but I'm pretty sure
the villain, or antagonist, is of tantamount importance to the manner
in which a story is told. Imagine "Star Wars" without Darth Vader.
Imagine Indiana Jones without the Nazis. Imagine "Twister" without the
tornado.

Some of you reading that might think, "Twister", really? You saw that?

Yes. The reason I mention it here is because there's no hard and fast
rule that the antagonist in a story needs to be a human. I think that
is one mighty big flaw in the idea of saying Villain. The tornado is
the primary antagonist, and easily outshines the mostly pointless part
portrayed by Cary Elwes. So why do we remember the tornado and not Mr.
Elwes?

Simple. The tornado presented a heady challenge to the hero. And the
special effects. But I think it also has something to do with the
universal cultural fear of something. We all can understand the vague
concept of the destructive power of a tornado. I mean, we might not
know the exact nature of the tornado. We might not have seen,
firsthand, the destructive power of the tornado, but we can imagine
it. And it seems monstrous and insurmountable.

Perhaps, then a good question might be to query why volcanos make poor
antagonists? I propose, because they are too mountainous.

Sorry.

I think there is something overpowering about the volcano. It's too
big. Too insurmountable. We see the hero go up against the volcano,
and it just seems ridiculous.

Of course, this brings up the problem of man vs nature. As far as I've
seem, and forgive me for just using the masculine pronoun but let us
just pretend it can leap about and stand for all the genders (I mean,
isn't that the point of generalizing?), there are a few ways to
generalize protagonist vs antagonist. Man vs nature. Man vs man. And
man vs himself.

Can man ever win against Narture? I mean, the realest answer I can
think of is survival. But is that a victory or just a postponement of
the battle?

One manner in which there's a difference between, say "Dante's Peak"
and "Twister" is the goal of the protagonist. Not just survival, but
something else. And it is this something else that injects something
new to the man vs nature. See, by not just surviving, by trying to
overcome and best this element of nature, I think we, the audience can
be pulled in somehow. We see there is a possibility that victory, and
not just survival, is possible. We can feel that, and that inner
caveman is intrigued by the idea of beating nature.

You know? Survival has been played out. We want more. We want to
conquer.

Next time man vs nature again... Animals.

Sent from my iPod

One Man Shows

I've seen a couple of one person shows, and I admire the passion and
capability of a single person to think they can carry an entire
evening of entertainment/education on their own shoulders.

However, I don't think I like them. I just don't enjoy the experience,
nor the elements that are forced on the show by the restrictions of
having a single actor. Really no entrances and exits. No actual
dialogue. I don't know how to articulate it further, but I wanted to
post this note because I'm currently working a one person show, so its
on mind.

Also, note the addition of the twitter above, which will allow for
some quick short updates from the road.

Enjoy!

Sent from my iPod

Iron Man

Okay, so I'm a little late on writing this review, but one might argue
it's a miracle I'm writing up all the movies and plays I've been
reading/writing/seeing.

Iron Man was a good film to open up the summer movie season. It had
good special effects, witty one liners, and a charismatic lead
character.

I thought there were some areas to be improved, the first being the
removal of Gwynneth Paltrow, who was, in my opinion, the weakest of
the bunch.

The story. I'm not exactly familiar with the source material, so I
can't really lay claims on either its originality or its veracity.
It's rather riddled with cliches, but nothing that breaks the
proverbial bank, so to speak.

The villains were largely stock. I didn't care about them, or
sympathize with their plight.

See, this brings up an interesting question, the question of the
villain. Who can they be, who are the best villains? What elements do
they contain? Do they have similar components? That, indeed, will most
certainly be a future topic of this blog. Perhaps it will be something
I work on outside of the blog and bring a real researched essay on to
near on this topic. For now, play well, write something, and click on
some ads to make me some money.

Sent from my iPod

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Let me begin with the blatant admission that I love Indiana Jones. He
was an iconic figure from my childhood dreams, and I have been
dreaming and hoping for more of his saga since the end of the last
film. I even, at one point, began to read the novelized versions of
the film, and got snared into reading some of the novels which dealt
with Indy's other stories. All that said, I'm not in the leagues of
many of the superfanboys out there.

Bias acknowledged, on to the review. The film was pure spectacle. That
might be what you're looking for. Not me. Boiling it down for you, if
you really enjoyed the Temple of Doom, then this flock might be a
great film for you. Me, my favorite of the original trilogy was the
Last Crusade, which had a great blend of true story telling and
special effects wizardry. This latest entry into the series could have
used more in the story department because I'm pretty sure George Lucas
spent most of his time dreaming up new and zany ways to have Indy
fight this new selection of the eponymous and free to hate enemy.
Soviets.

The films from the past (and I am not speaking in general terms of all
films from the past, but films in the Jones series) there has been a
heady deviation from reality, clearly magical realism taking place,
and that's great. I loved it. This film, IJATKOTCS (not the shortest
acronym by any means), takes reality and throws it away. At times, it
feels as if Lucas got confused, and thought he was playing in his
Star Wars sandbox. The ants come to mind.

However, the acting was generally good, and I appreciated the
reincorporation of some of the characters from previous installments.
I find this notion vital for any series, whether it be on film or
television.

The basic elements of the story are pretty interesting. The
incorporation of elements of US history are quite fun.

Good film? Can't honestly say Yes. I enjoyed the romp for the most
part, but I'm not aching to see it again.

Sent from my iPod

So I was thinking-

I've had a lot of very interesting discussions with friends about the concept of "art". Is there some answer to that brutal question, what's is art?

Art is:

Well, I don't really know. I think a perfectly reasonable, if overly vague, answer is, Art is something that makes you feel something. But does it stop there? Clouds in the sky make me feel things. Are they art? Outside of opening up a debate about nature as art and God as painter, I'm not sure I think of clouds as art. I mean, I might be wrong, but then again, I have the electronic microphone here, so this is me working through my own sense of what art comprises.

So, do we then say that art must be made by humans? What about the elephant paintings? Do they qualify as art or as a neat trick?

For me, I'd have to say that a requisite of Art for me does rely a lot on emotion. But also thought. and humanity. I think artistic pieces need to have some sense of relation to the human existence. Otherwise, we run the risk of having just pure spectacle. I'm very curious at the contemporary divide between spectacle and, because this blog focuses on theatre and such, dramatic art. (I'll talk about spectacle vs drama later)

So. Did I answer that question? What is art? No. Maybe scratched the surface, its a deep question, and I'll hit it again. Now, Indiana Jones.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Questions

I realize, as I look over a host of my posts, that I seem to ask a lot
of questions, and don't seem to offer many answers. In that regard,
and to compliment what I think I know about playwriting, I'm going to
try to answer some of the questions that I've postulated on the past.

Of course, someone is using my computer right now and I'm writing on
this, so I really don't know what questions I've postulated in the
past. I will deviate from the writing talk for a moment of gadget love
and say that the typing on this thing isn't as bad as I thought it
might be, and might actually be something I could get used to given
enough time.

Okay, so questions I will try to answer in the following week.

1. What are good jobs for writers to have?
2. How does one write well rounded characters?

Kay. There we go. I guess I will also try writing a fee articles fo
online publications. Anything I'm search of the almighty dollar. Rest
assured dear readers, if there is some of my writing online, I will
link it back here.

On a final note, I got my first check from my ads, and I would like to
thank all of you for spending time reading this.

Much love.

Sent from my iPod

Trying something new

Hello friends,
I've decided to set up my iPod touch to handle some emailing and
blogging capabilities.

I'm hoping this will increase my productivity, but who knows.

Sent from my iPod

Well now.

Been a bit of time I suppose, since last I came upon this hallowed ground. I have completed year one of Sarah Lawrence College, and it has been a doozy of a year. I hope, and I know I've said this before, that I will be able to keep this blog going better in the summer months, and hopefully establish a bit more of a web presence. That being said, here's a quick summary of the year.

I wrote ten plays. That's right. Ten plays.

1. Hard Fish (yeah, I know I technically wrote this in the past, but I did six whole new drafts of it, and the play is pretty different than the original.)
2. This is Not About Love (a crooner musical with songs I don't own the rights to.)
3. Ninety Minutes to Eternity
4. The Door in the Fourth Wall
5. The Sanity of Byron Constantine
6. Axe Gambit
7. AFK
8. The Prodigal One
9. Faux Real
10. Woyzeck: The Musical

So there we go. The real turning point, in my opinion, was at play five. That's where my professors noticed real improvement and felt they were finally getting a piece of me as a writer in the plays, and that the plays weren't so distant and impersonal. I'm quite proud of a number of the plays. I think "Faux Real" is the favorite for me, though I also really like what came out of my Woyzeck adaptation. I've submitted two plays to the department for a full production, and plan on submitting some other plays to other theatres for development/production soon. SO, if any of my lovely readers would like to suggest places to send plays, let me know.

That said, I'm back here. On the blog. AND, I'm looking forward to a productive summer. For the mean time, I'm headed to the laundry room. It's time to move. Again.

Updates

I've been avoiding updating this blog because I'm not exactly sure what it's about any more. There are so many questions I have and so little answers to what it is that I'm doing here, and in the larger sense of the world. I'm pretty sure that's all I have for the moment, but, and be prepared for this drastic change, I feel this blog may need to shift from being primarily about writing to being about me as an artist, and exist as a place where I try and explore what it is that moves me to create.

Play out

Another play out into the wild! Anatomy of an Anarchist out to Balagan Theatre in Seattle!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Play Submission

SO, two plays submitted so far. One last week to Washington Ensemble Theatre (the Abattoir) and one today to The Black Dahlia (The Sanity of Byron Constantin). Just posting here to keep a record. Will update y'all when I know more.

Early mornings

I should know better by now.

My body doesn't like the early morning. Here I am, waiting at a Starbucks, hoping the world stops spinning because I want to get off. I don't sleep well on the best of nights, and even worse when I have an early call. Despite my best intentions, wherein I went to bed early, avoided caffeine, I still wasn't able to hit that magic sleepland until the bleak hour of four AM. Part of me is just upset because I wasted four hours tossing and turning. Part is upset because I have to be up and around the suits rushing about.

So I'm off to work at the Westport playhouse today. I'll let you know how it goes.

On a sidenote, I was reading a book yesterday, and got to page 122, and the next page was missing. In fact, the next thirty three pages were missing. Bad publisher! Bad.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Hot damn

So, precious readers, I had a reading this evening. I will post the little poster I maee anon. It was a nice time. Oddly, the reading was fast. The script is sixty four pages, and the run time was about thirty five minutes. Overall, I think it was a success. Huzzah.

I attempted to make an audio recording of the reading, and provided it came through, I will try to figure out how to post it up here. Some good feedback from the viewers. And some laughter.

Another reading next week. Whew. Busy.

Feeling better. Much thanks for those who checked in me.

Write well. Smooches.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Fever Dreams

Rabbit rabbit, March first.

So, it would appear, despite my best intentions and boasting, I've managed to find something to upset the delicate balance that is my thermal control.

I think I have a fever.

I also have two plays to do this week. Not good. I mean, they're weird plays in any case, this feverish state might increase the oddity of my output. But when confronted with the idea of sleeping vs writing, sleeping seems more attractive to my beleaguered brain.

So, two plays for next week, "Gift Giver" and "Faux Real". Spencer and Baker respectively.

Oh, and Mr. Scuzzy has provided a delicious graphic thermometer I will post on here with all due haste so we can all track my march progress.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

The Hinterlands

I am a prolific writer. It's something I'm proud of. However, sometimes I find myself in what I think of as the Hinterlands.

It's a place where I try and find a new play to write. Where I explore ideas, mull theories and basically stress out over the concept of being a writer. I ask all those ridiculous questions, should I be doing this. Can I do this?

I'm there now. I have a few things boiling on the stove, but nothing feels done, and (to continue in the metaphor of food) some of it might not end up being edible.

On a side note, I've decided to send out ten plays in the month of March. Time to get my work out there. Hold me to it.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T