Must...Think

h/t: DuelistG via takineko's Facebook

TNT Birthday Bash

At an Eagle Rock bar near Occidental College, various Team-in-Training folk celebrated assistant coach Liz's 30th b-day. The crowd was mostly college-age. You got the feeling that if a fight loomed, the parties would threaten to produce laptops and write something cutting and wry. Congrats to Coach Dave, who is now engaged to Bethany. As always, I was the first to leave. Not a drinker, my departure was timed to avoid the odd mawkishness that can appear after several cocktails. ('I think of you as an older brother. Let's go to Europe.')

Finally

Jumbo short story went out today, just shy of 15k words. The story put me in mind of a large, overweight child that wouldn't leave home. Then one day, boom, he's gone.

And there's a sad emptiness.

But mostly relief.

Necronomicon Video

Life changing literature.

h/t: badadvicegoodtimes via Viral Footage

Salinger-Zinn-Rubinstein: Connect the Dots

Coincidence? Reclusive author J.D. Salinger, Marxist professor Howard Zinn, diminutive actress Zelda Rubinstein all dead.

All of natural causes.

All famous.

All old.

All now silent.

Who stood to gain? And why? Let's examine the facts: Salinger—literary giant, unpublished in almost a half century; Zinn—an academic giant who never stopped publishing; Rubinstein—very short actress, who starred in a film 28 years ago and never really cracked the limelight again. Here we see only the outward strands of an intricate web of—

Okay, let me start over: Salinger—rejected fame; Zinn—courted it; Rubinstein—had it and lost it. Fame is a four-letter word, but that word is also a sinister acronym. F.A.M.E. stands for—

Hold on here. I'm just warming up. Salinger—Catcher in the Rye; Zinn—People's History of the United States; Rubinstein—Poltergeist, a movie, which she didn't write. Two linked by art, one an academic, all involved in espousing world views that unmasked the hidden cauldron of—

Well, they are all deceased.

Short-Sighted

Doing the final polish on my 67 page "short story." MDW thought that it could easily be expanded into novel territory and very easily into novella world. I agree, but sending it out is all that concerns me now.

Struggling with this chi walking business. To work as exercise, it must first succeed as a means of propelling me across the living room to the front door. Since core muscles factor in, I'm exercising that area to increase strength. In the meantime, I've reduced my meal portion sizes as I try and drop 20 pounds. (For starters.)

But I will run once more. I'm not sure when or how far.

And if I want to build power, I can always print out my short story and press it over my head.

Killer Green

h/t: Mind Numbed Robot

Pitching National Geographic Channel

Revealing document find from 2003. Back then, I was trying to hone my studio pitches to a science. I found a notebook I'd kept on how much time and effort were going into each pitch, from studying materials, to rehearsal, to writing, to the actual meeting. Here's an example of a pitch I did for the National Geographic Channel.

They wanted an animated show. They had a few ideas and wanted original ones as well. Materials arrived for me on Aug. 5. I read pages and watched a video. Spent 6 hours writing ideas for what they thought they wanted, plus original material, plus several additional hours rehearsing.

Worked on my attitude and talked to a friend of mine in real estate. She suggested I stand when I pitched because my energy would be better.

August 14th was meeting day. I hardly got a word in edgewise. The junior exec. did most of the talking, but was clearly impressed with my ability to sit silently and smile. Another meeting was set with the senior exec. I was given character sketches for two ideas they liked and invited to supply said ideas with story, motivation, supporting characters and villains.

More hours spent thinking, writing, rehearsing.

On September 16, I got off the elevator and there was the senior exec. I was supposed to meet. She was backing up while talking to me and accidentally walked into a large floor plant, almost knocking it over. I said something like, "A close brush, yes?" That probably finished me.

In the meeting, the senior exec. was mostly interested in the idea I cared for least. Out of nowhere, she called the artist, put me on speaker phone with him, and listened as we swapped ideas on what a show with this character might be like. Very awkward. In the end, senior and junior execs. were polite and noncommittal, but I got the sense they weren't all that interested in my take.

Later, my agent called to say they weren't all that interested in my take.

I added up all the hours. They totaled 23; almost a day.

Two months later, I was hired to story edit a show without any interviews or meetings or execs. falling into plants.

So I figure it evened out.

Post So Cal Deluge

A dry, chilly day. A friend up in La Canada was evacuated for three days and just returned home. And while the street was muddy, her home didn't undergo a moving experience. Back to sunny and dry with blue skies for another year.

Well-Armed

Visited my old doctor, re. a shoulder pain. He's a distance runner and we talked the Honolulu Marathon and running form. He was down with my plan of: 1. Acquire proficiency in chi walking. 2. Lose 20 pounds. 3. Slowly integrate chi running into chi walking. 4. Continue strengthening my quads and glutes. 5. Perhaps work my way up to running 3 miles by this fall. (Guided, as always, by how well my knee holds up.) This I shall do. In fact, here it is: I will run the Chapman University 5K in October. Not only is it a fall race, but you get a tech tee-shirt, medal, and timing chip - a veritable BMW of 5Ks. My doc hadn't a clue about my shoulder, so it's back to physical therapy. But they all remember me there, so it'll be a small homecoming.

Keep Transcribing

Keeper does works of note re. Animaniacs.