The Dotted Logline

Sometimes you just need the right person to suggest a title. My superhero satire screenplay finally has a name.

Struck.

I went down to the University of Miami tonight to see Dave Barry and his wife Michelle Kaufman (a sports writer for the Miami Herald) speaking at my old dorm. It was a lot of fun. I even spoke with Dave Barry a bit. He called me a shrew bitch. Actually, he told me that Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs Of A Geisha, had called me a shrew bitch. Being that this was Dave Barry, I’m pretty sure he was joking.

This came about because I briefly mentioned that when Arthur Golden came to speak at my high school shortly after Geisha was published, I sort of questioned him about the believability of the ending. Afterwards I realized that was probably really rude, but he was exceptionally nice about it, and even sent me a personally inscribed hardcover, since I told him I didn’t have a copy of the book for him to sign (I had borrowed my English teacher’s copy the previous day so I could read the book before her came.) That remains one of my nicest encounters with an author, aside from Tamora Pierce.

But anyway, Dave Barry and Michelle Kaufman were both quite interesting, and I enjoyed the talk. It was almost worth driving on the Palmetto to go see it, except nothing is worth driving the Palmetto.

At the local grocery store, there is a massive Star Wars/Lays Chips display that plays tracks from the movies. I should be disgusted at the commercialism, but John Williams just makes grocery shopping so much more… epic.

I finally saw Sideways tonight, and was reminded just how much I enjoy stories about writers, even writers who are failures in their own eyes, and (judging by the semi drunken description of his novel) not necessarily good.

There was one scene that really struck me, when Miles and Maya were talking in the back of Stephanie’s place. The way the camera framed Maya as she talked about wine, slightly off center, perfectly still, somehow perfectly captures the feeling of talking to the person you have a crush on at the tail end of a party and being completely focused on whatever they happen to be talking about because you have a crush on them. That’s something I remember from my college days… I can relate to that almost as much as the writer thing.

I have a tendency to continue to watch/read TV shows/comics/etc even when they go drastically downhill in terms of quality. I’m not sure if it is loyalty so much as it is being ingrained in routine. But I like to imagine that it’s a grace period for the property to show it still has some juice left.

Case in point is Smallville, a show I have always watched for concept and good acting over writing. But for most of this season, the writing has been painfully bad. I haven’t actually stopped watching, but I haven’t bothered to set the VCR anymore either.

But tonight, the show was back in form. I won’t bother detailing the plot, which was rather contrived as per usual, but it brought about a glimpse at evil Lex Luthor, the Lex Luthor that Superman fans have been waiting for since the show started. Lex has been such a wellspring of angst and torment that it was refreshing to see him be completely evil and ENJOY it. Well, the half of him that wasn’t chained in the basement in an iron mask being angsty and tormented.

Not being a big Superman fan (everyone knows that Batman is way cooler), I’ve been more interested in the Luthor aspect of the show for the whole run. Michael Rosenbaum and John Glover are easily the strongest members of the cast. It seems like the writers put the majority of their effort into the two Luthors anyway. Or else Rosenbaum and Glover are just better at making mediocre dialogue work.

One thing I forgot to mention that struck me while watching Sin City was a certain bit of product placement. There were two character in the large cast who wore Converse Chuck Taylor high tops, one good and one evil. I was a bit surprised a shoe company would be willing to be associated with a homicidal cannibal like Kevin, but there were three factors that made this bit of product placement make sense.

1) There was an emphasis on how fast and silent Kevin moved. Obviously this was because of his excellent footwear.

2) At one point, Kevin gets his legs chopped off. He misused the power of Converse and thus had them taken away by force.

3) Dwight, the Converse-wearing hero, had a red pair, one of the few colored elements in the film. Thus, they stood out much more than the black pair worn by Kevin.

I probably only noticed this because I got a pair myself recently and read up on the history of Converse, but it is interesting in any case (at least to me, but I’ve always been fascinated by this sort of thing.)

My dad took me to see Sin City as a belated birthday gift. It isn’t really a good father-daughter bonding movie. I’m not exceptionally squeamish but I’m not a big fan of extreme violence either. And it is very uncomfortable watching Bruce Willis rip the balls off another guy with his bare hands, even if the other guy REALLY deserves it.

Other than that, I was really impressed with the style of the film. I haven’t read any of the graphic novels, but I have had a reasonable sampling of Frank Miller’s work and the movie really had the feel. I’d be really interested to see what the director could do with The Dark Knight Returns.

One of the things that reaching the ripe old age of 25 has inspired me to do is track down old friends I’ve lost touch with before we all grow gray and senile. Tonight I spoke with a friend of mine from college, Kathryn. One of the many, many Kathryns I knew in college.

This particular Kathryn has the distinction of always having the coolest jobs and connections. Aside from giving me some great advice about networking and LA, she told me that starting this summer, she will be working on Family Guy (she has previous experience working in animation.) Very very cool job.

Anyway, after I had finished talking to her, I got to thinking about Family Guy, and the fact I’ve been wanting to write a new spec TV script for quite some time (my only one is now about three years old, from Angel, which is no longer on the air, and painfully bad).

So after I borrow the complete series from a friend and catch up on the episodes I haven’t seen, I’m going to write a Family Guy spec script. This will be a big challenge, as I tend to be as inoffensive as possible as a writer. But I also tend to write very very bizarre characters, so it isn’t that much of a stretch. I DO think it will be really damn fun. I already have some… interesting ideas.

I turned 25 today. I know that’s still considered very young by most, but I sure feel old. As I tell people who give me dirty looks for saying I feel old, I’ve been alive as long as I can remember.

I haven’t quite accomplished everything I wanted to in terms of writing at this point in my life, but I haven’t done bad for myself. I finished my MFA, which was my biggest goal. No major works published, but I did have a couple of reviews in Graphic Novel Review, which is a paying market. I completed several significant-length works, including a screenplay (being shopped around at the moment), a stage play (made it past the slush pile at Baker’s), and a collection of themed short stories (undergraduate thesis) I won a playwriting fellowship and a production for said play. I have more than enough writing projects to keep me busy for a good long while.

And hey, now I’m old enough to rent a car. So if I have to fly to L.A. for a meeting or some such, I’ll be able to get around the city.

Here’s hoping that 25 will be an even more productive year than 23 and 24 were.

I’ve said before that adaptation is a real art. To make a story work sucessfully in another medium is one of the hardest things I’ve encountered to date. Especially adapting your own work. That said, I have so far made some good progress on the film treatment for Goodbye Dolly. Still not sure how the second and third acts are going to work (or where the first ends) but I do feel I’ve gotten a very good grasp on the movie versions of most of the characters.

But I do have to say that Monsters Inc was NEVER NEVER NEVER meant to be a Disney on Ice show. My mom won tickets, and while the costumes were interesting, it just didn’t work. I’m surprised no one was killed skating in those things.