Change of address

Anyone still checking in on this site should now please move over to the revamped site you can find here...

http://cuethewaterworks.blogspot.com/

So long.

Back from the Dead

And going to Sundance in two weeks. So, yeah, there's a bit of a gap in the story. More to come as I return to the blogiverse.

Star Meter

As of this morning I'm up 351% on IMDB's Star Meter.  I don't know what that means, other than I am pathetic for occasionally checking my own IMDB profile.  It truly does, as I was told by a friend, stand for I'm a Douche Bag.

What's been happening since the strike has been going on:

I got braces.

I got an olive tree.

I read a few of the New Yorkers lying around making me feel guilty.

I caught up with almost all of the first four seasons of the greatest show on TV, The Wire.

I made a few strike buddies out on the line.

I wrote a sad short story that needs some work.

I saw a great documentary called Street Fight.

I started a "cleanse."

I've read some more Raymond Carver short stories.

I played nursemaid to my girlfriend who got pink eye.

I looked at an apartment.

I've gotten back to the gym a bunch.  

I did a couple days of yoga.

I tried to revive this here blog.  We'll see what happens as things progress in the world of showbiz hardball.

A message from my leader.

Dear WGA Award Nominee,

First of all, congratulations on your nomination. At a very difficult time for all of us, I hope you find this recognition from your fellow writers especially meaningful.

As I'm sure you know, we have put significant pressure on the conglomerates by withholding waivers and threatening to picket award shows like the Golden Globes, the People's Choice Awards, and the Academy Awards. Alternatively, we have granted waivers to SAG, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the NAACP Image Awards for varying strategic reasons. In such a highly charged atmosphere where award shows are being canceled or significantly altered because of our decisions, the Board of Directors has been grappling with what to do with our own show.

There are myriad political concerns and publicity issues regardless of what we do and our decisions sometimes change with events but, as of right now, we will not be holding the traditional WGA Awards show previously scheduled for February 9. I feel badly that this decision impacts on the opportunity for the guild to recognize your achievement but, with the Academy Awards bearing down, we expect to be pressured strongly to give them a waiver. Showing that the severity of the strike’s impact motivated us to postpone our own show will help make clear that we cannot give the Academy and the industry a pass.

I know this comes as disappointing news. We have yet to decide exactly what will happen in place of our show but, regardless, we fully intend and expect to celebrate your achievement at a public event once the strike is over.

Let me extend once more my personal congratulations and my gratitude for your understanding and patience. We are all in this together.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGA West

That Stricken Look

A friend takes pity and mocks at the same time. It creates a feeling I'm familiar with: love.

Scribe (?)

Up late today as I had to pick up my lady from the airport last evening at 11:30. That's about two hours past my bedtime these days, and as a result I slept in until the ripe old hour of 8. The schedule, folks, you want to get anything done in this world it's all about the schedule.

Speaking of which, I started work on a novel yesterday. Why, you ask? Because I wasn't going broke enough trying to sell screenplays and TV ideas. I wanted to break through to a whole other level of poverty. From now on I can claim that not only am I a broke hack screenwriter, but a broke aspiring novelist. Big diff.

So far it's great. I'm three or four pages in and I plan on doing a half hour a day in between the other projects I am trying to get done in my free time. That way I figure in a years time I'll be done with a first draft. And so far it's great. It's the Great American Novel, actually. It's set in America, number one, but number two, so far it's great.

Here's the thing though, if I did a short story, I'd be done a lot sooner. Maybe that's the way to go. And, also, technically writing this cut ten minutes into my writing. All about the schedule.