July 2010
5 posts
the second thousand
broadcasting now from chicago, at what is the halfway point in our 26 day trip. the day to day is increasingly more awesome than i ever expected it to be. from giant bugs marching around millenium park in chicago to massive electrical storms at four in the morning in south dakota, america maintains its breathtaking reputation.
have some more haikus!
—-
11. super kind lady mountain market...
The First One Thousand
Here be the first ten haikus from Great America, my summer 2010 road trip. They are intended to encapsulate the first one thousand miles, or one hundred miles per haiku, roughly. In the interest of full disclosure, I have broken 2,000 miles, but haven’t finished the last few haikus of the second group, so here are the first ten.
—
1. let’s talk about girls crushes, dances,...
5000 miles! the silliness of america! analog the...
here i sit, mere hours away from a 5,000-mile, 22-state, international road trip. i’m in the process of burning CDs for the trip and organizing some clothes and wondering which shoes to bring.
i have several pairs to choose from! there’s a yellow pair and a blue pair and a brown leather pair and a running pair.
anyway, this road trip comes at a nice time for introspection. a time for...
Party Hat
Abraham: Where are you going?
David: Just a little get together.
Abraham: Is it a party?
David: It's not a party.
Abraham: Do you want to take your yarmulke? Just in case?
David: In case of what?
Abraham: In case it turns into a party. Here, take my yarmulke.
David: Dad. Why would I bring your yarmulke? Or my yarmulke? Or any yarmulke, for that matter?
Abraham: You'll want a party hat in case it turns into a party, David. I'm only looking out for your best interests.
David: Why do I need a hat at a party?
Abraham: A party hat.
David: ... Why do I need a party hat at this party?
Abraham: Have you considered the alternative?
David: The alternative to wearing my hat to a party? You mean, not wearing a party hat?
Abraham: Exactly. With the exception of your brother, I've made very few mistakes in my life, and they've all been related to hats.
David: Wait. Robbie? You made a mistake with Robbie?
Abraham: Huh. You know, I guess that was hat-related, too. Well, look at that! Every single mistake in my life, every single embarrassment... it's all tied to hats.
David: What the hell are you talking about, dad?
Abraham: I'm talking about Linda Marlene's Cowboys 'n Indians birthday! Jenny Garland's weekly Conehead night! Gerald McGovern's Inaugural Address Soiree! Alexander Coffer's Sombrero y Salsa Celebration! Each one a terrific party, each more hat-centric than the last. And each time, I got caught with my pants down.
David: Are we talking about Robbie again?
Abraham: ...
David: Can I go now?
Abraham: Is that your dress yarmulke, or the -
David: It's the Spiderman one.
Abraham: Go on, get outta here. Have fun.
writing in july
i am going to write things on whims this month, daily.
so far, i wrote some ‘lyrics.’
it’s complicated to think about it
so you might as well forget about it
smile and have some drinks about it
lay out and get sunburnt about it
for the trip, i will be doing ‘hundred mile haikus’ as well as casual observations and photo-takings. hopefully i can work on the...
June 2010
10 posts
what up summer
it’s been two weeks! i moved, i went to some concerts and some parties, and i went swimming in the lake. these are very summery things! i also grabbed my two film cameras from my apartment and will have them at my side to document what will be a decidely analog road trip for the month of july, from sacramento to new york, with stops in utah, minnesota, the dakotas, chicago and canada....
passionfruit
i am all moved in to santa monica and i already moved out. kinda. i’m actually back in loomis for a few days, hoping to catch up on reading (finished curious incident of the dog in the nighttime!), writing (two projects, finally), running (a lot) and being (human).
—
sports revelry. watched the lakers win their second championship in a row on thursday night at sepi’s. pitchers...
“If you do creative work, there’s a sense that inspiration is this fairy...”
– Ira Glass.
this must be los angeles
this morning i woke up, put on my running shoes and hoofed it to santa monica beach. i ran past black babies in strollers, latino kids with matching hats and single-speed bikes, and awkward white girls on cruisers.
then i made myself peach tea, ate some cheez-its (breakfast burrito is on deck) and am making plans to bike to westwood to watch the game. don’t worry, kings nation, i still love...
new
i’m falling asleep in santa monica! this has all sorts of implications!
the rule about: the recording session
my friend rachael and i are working to record some songs for our band project ‘the rule about’ and i thought i’d share some of the process with you. i worked on this timeline during the downtime during our first recording session.
—
12:54: decide to blog about the recording session. fingers hopped up on caffeine and potential. rachael’s quote about the computer:...
“im so blessed to
have spent that time
with my family and the friends
i love...”
– Yeasayer, “Red Cave”
put your crown on the ground
vegas was groovy. miike snow rocked. judd apatow and jason segel tomorrow. banquet wednesday. thursday play. friday museum and neon indian and sausage. banquet saturday. recording EP sunday. final. release EP. andrew bird. final. graduation. jury duty. home. road trip.
let’s go!
May 2010
17 posts
pro am
a lot of how people perceive you is how you let yourself be perceived. if you make available every rough draft, unedited picture, unfinished track, you make yourself too available.
what’s made public needs to be guarded, for the public sphere is more valuable than we give it credit for. it’s very easy to ask for input from everyone at every point of a project. this transparency to...
im the great white hope
just saw the national at the wiltern with lauren and daniel, followed by a very prommy dinner at canter’s; just two days ago i was watching edward sharpe and the magnetic zeros at royce hall.
film festival finale tuesday, vegas weekend and a miike snow concert next monday.
things are floatin’ along better than ever.
intern 3: the point of no intern.
i started writing this post in the belly of the beast (aka, the office of the boss), but then i got an assignment and ended up working till the very, very last minute of my internship. i emailed the final document, closed my laptop, walked to the lobby and had a piece of ice cream cake.
and that’s all she wrote. i’ve gone through this post-internship exercise before, where i sum up...
underdog
gotta be underdog because he’s the come from behind guy. got a script to read and cover for my last day of interning, a video to make progress on, my own scripts to write and some songs to sing.
if there was enough time, i’d probably squander it anyway, so let’s make this an ode to dealing with what we’ve got, not for what we wish we had.
closing time
ah yes, the familiar habit of blogging before bed. it feels nicer than i thought it would feel to slip back into this routine, but this familiar habit of going to bed post-three (at this rate, if i truly am going to read a script) does not feel as nice.
i should mention the excellent night of comedy i went to on monday, headlined by aziz ansari, because it was very funny. i should also mention...
the rule about!
working on a music side project with my friend rachael. call-and-response boy/girl tagteam with allusions to an explosions-in-the-sky-flavoured grandeur.
the pursuit of creativity always breaks up monotony. i guarantee it.
moats and boats and waterfalls
i write about writing more than i write. i get outlines and treatments and first drafts written, but i cannot get it to a level i’m proud of.
opportunities are beginning to present themselves to me where having completed writing would be an asset. so far they have been innocuous enough, but they’ll soon get to the point where my lack of finished products is just stabbing myself in...
meet me in the basement
tonight i wrote my last bit of coverage for my internship, a summary of a ridiculous graphic novel. tomorrow, i will talk to my internship boss about the future (mine, hopefully). have i earned a chance at being a reader part-time to pay the rent? to fill some position in the office temporarily? a spot in the upper echelon of all-time interns?
stay tuned! until then, i continue to struggle...
stampede
when i was younger, i used to draw comics. i liked jokes (still like jokes, in fact!), and i liked the immediacy of being able to draw something and throw it up online and get feedback…
i went through a billion iterations of comics before moving on to other creative outlets like short story writing, then screenwriting, and then into animating and filmmaking. the latter few make it hard to...
animating again
late night productions are like the sun to my creativity = it’s equally draining and energizing.
i find myself excited about certain shots with this project… the cinematography is better than any animation i’ve done before.
then, mere minutes later, i find myself lying on the floor in desperation, hoping for the motivation to get just one more scene done. one more scene now...
no days off
my two creative idols right now are rapper wale and comedian/writer/actor/rapper donald glover.
i admire them as much for what they’ve created as for how they go about creating it, and that’s with dogged determination and a “no days off” attitude.
i want to be in their position, with people encouraged by my attitude, passion and energy.
now, for tonight, for me, that...
the creative personality →
introverted AND extroverted!? creative people sure are crazy.
pre-professional
last sunday i took pictures at a johnny polygon concert in santa monica. the above picture is not johnny polygon, but i like a lot how it came out.
this one is johnny.
lemme just say the crowd that watches underground rap on the westside of los angeles on a sunday night is a peculiar one; bumpers and grinders, one wild white lady, and some college kids trying to help a rapper out.
i might...
late nights and leases
just spent six hours finishing up a script comparison, comparing the newest draft to an older one and finding all the minute changes that were made between them, from scenes being swapped around to singular swear words being added. the task was initially mind-melting as i flipped back and forth and tried to make sense of a story that was being told in two entirely different ways. as i went on,...
just too much life
yesterday started off giddy from the get-go, charging to class to take a midterm after only a few hours of sleep (had studied/shot photos at a rap concert the night before).
then challenging project at the internship which carries into normal life, the comparison of two drafts of a feature script side-by-side.
but the day culminated in watching broken social scene light up the spirits of...
up and down but not out
malibu screenwriting meet-up didn’t pan out, but it allowed me to go and see portugal. the man’s live set in downtown los angeles.
live music will cure what ails me, in any situation, so it’s great that i’m seeing three shows in three nights.
and then many more in may! thanks to El Zee!
—
for fun, i’m going to start a segment that documents at the end of...
April 2010
5 posts
Interview with Chad St. John →
Before his first script sale, he wrote over twenty feature length scripts.
Okay, okay, I’m on it. I’ll write my first one.
this is the life
i’d like to write what i have planned for the next few days before things get carried away and the internet becomes an after thought.
academics: midterm paper due tomorrow (though i’m going to try to pull it off as a script). midterm monday. midterm tuesday.
musically: portugal the man saturday night. johnny polygon concert sunday (my role: official photographer). broken social scene...
right!
feels right writing without an end goal. maybe i’ll make it into film, maybe it’ll just be a nice piece of thing.
you stun sunsets with that look
got to writing again. each keystroke is sandpaper to my rusted brain, but the machinery underneath is still there… just a matter of time before i can put words together enough to form real sentences.
i’m writing with no goal in mind, just seeing if an idea can develop on its own without crazy amounts of outlining and preplanning. seems organic, but so are most things nowadays.
in...
el yay, i come for you.
los angeles, i’m coming for you. i fully embrace you. i want to find the nooks and crannies of the artistic cultures and communities of los angeles, and find my home in them. i’m not sure about comedy or music or writing, but knowing people who are entrenched in the arts is such a beautiful thing.
i’m going to spend the next few years living. i’ll see shows, sunsets, galleries. i’ll write about...
February 2010
7 posts
MILD RACISM
INT. OFFICE CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY
Fourteen executives sit around a rounded, rectangular table. JONAH, 57, leads a PowerPoint presentation about potential new CFOs.
JONAH: Alfred seems a bit unconventional, but fifteen years at AFLAC can’t hurt.
There are nods of agreement around the table. CHARLES, 53, clip-on tie, freshens his coffee.
JONAH: We’re concerned though for he’s...
MAKE
INT. BUS - AFTERNOON
KAFIR, 28 and unshaven, scrolls through his phone with excitement. CHIEF, 24, a lanky white boy, sits to his right. LASSANDRA, 27 and busty, sits to his left.
KAFIR: Ah, dope dope dope. C-Ry is comin for his spring break, and you know he’s down for bars and living real life El Yay style.
Lassandra nods. She looks out the window as they drive through the urban...
VOLVER, NO PUEDO
EXT. SWAMP FOREST - NIGHT
A lonesome figure darts behind trees. There’s a schmucking sound that follows its footsteps. It’s the height of a man, but its limbs are thinner, more elongated. A whispering sound can be heard as its gills clutch for air. He dives into the swamp.
He stays under an impossibly long t ime.
A young woman, TAYLOR, wears a white dress. The moonlight strikes it...
ONE HAIRCUT PLEASE
EXT. BARBER SHOP - DAY
A run-down barber shop. The red-and-white cylinder that is the trademark of such establishments no longer spins. Signs in the window mention senior citizen discounts and new Paul Mitchell products.
INT. BARBER SHOP - DAY
MARIELA, 46 and matronly, is on her cell phone. She pays little attention to JEROME, 33, a man with thinning tufts of hair who sits in silence on a...
CRAZY HO
CATALINA, 21, skinny and fashionable, is on a coffee date with FLINT, 21 and comfortable in plaid.
CATALINA: Do you see that blood on the table? Look at that blood!
She indicates a red semi-circle.
CATALINA: Someone probably had a cut on their finger and wiped it on the table.
She makes a wiping motion just above the table surface.
FLINT: Do you think it could be pizza sauce?
CATALINA: Look!...
DONT FLINCH
JEREMIAH, EZEKIEL and FREDIDIAH are three Los Angeles youth. Each is dressed in black. They run with an awkward gait, halfway between intentional exercise and haphazard fleeing.
Past skyscrapers and parked cars and bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors.
Past reflective windows, overflowing trash cans, city parks.
They find the right back alley, and hang a right. Jeremiah and Ezekiel lean over to catch...
TILL THE DEVIL DRINKS MILK
INT. HELL - DAY
MILEY ANN, a 33-year-old serial killer, has been in hell for what feels like an eternity. She pushes through a swinging door and makes her way into the kitchen.
MILEY ANN: It’s so goddam hot in here.
She sets down a tray of dirty dishes and wipes sweat from her brow. Then she wipes sweat from her arms. Then wipes sweat from her brow again. If she stays still too long,...
January 2010
5 posts
MAGICIAN BY DAY
SCOTT AITCH, wearing a pinstripe shirt and boxers, watches an infomercial on his couch. The afternoon sun shines on his hairy legs. The TV blares.
TV: This shirt is an amazing shirt! From the finest cloth and hottest designer, this shirt will fit you and you’ll start to fit in!
Scott looks down. There’s a mustard stain on the left cuff.
TV: Never be caught outside of social...
TRYNA FUCK
A 21-year-old, CHRISTOPHERSON, dances up on RHIANNA. The music blares and the temperature is right. They dip down to the floor at regular intervals, keeping their faces close.
RHIANNA: You’re a good dancer.
CHRISTOPHERSON: I have the right partner.
The music continues. Rhianna grabs Christopherson’s beer and takes a swig.
RHIANNA: I used to think I was pretty good at gettin’...
DATE ME PLEASE
A terminal of computer kiosks spans the length of an off-white hallway. As if in a rhythm, people walk up. An eyeball scanner scans their eyes, a wrist scanner checks a bar code on their wrists, and a pair of electronic lips come out, and each person kisses the lips from their respective machines.
From down the hall a green light bulb goes off over a computer; over FRANCINE, 24, a beautiful lady...
FIRE BURNING
A shirtless boy in skinny jeans, TOMÁS, runs through the woods. He looks back and sees three policemen chasing after. Tomas slides behind the trunk of a tree and catches a breath. His chest heaves.
The policemen slow down and fan out.
Tomas pulls out a bottle of vodka stuffed with a piece of cloth. He lights the cloth, takes a breath, and spins away from the tree.
POLICEMAN #1: There!
TOMÁS:...
CAT LADY
JENNIFER, 33, in scrubs, sits outside the MELROSE VETERINARY HOSPITAL. She smokes a cigarette. A tiny dog, TRIXIE, jumps around.
JASPER, 21, in a collared shirt and green corduroys, walks toward them. He extends his hand and Trixie jumps up, ready to dance.
JENNIFER: Go get him! Get him!
JASPER: Haha, hey, how’re you doing?
JENNIFER: Eat ‘em up, Trixie! Yum!
JASPER: This your...