Another round with Rocky

If you want a good peek at how creative process works, take a gander at ROCKY BALBOA, which I just saw again on DVD. It’s almost a textbook example of how to take the pains and trials of life and use it as fodder. If you research Stallone’s life even a little bit, you’ll notice stuff having to do with his age, his relationships, his career, his attitudes toward success and failure…it’s all over the place. I’ve rarely seen a movie where the filmmaker wore his heart more on his sleeve. He was obviously desperate for redemption after Rocky IV and V. And he seems to have done it. My guess is that if the new Rambo does well, he’ll do more of them. Fine. But let Rocky sleep.
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It’s interesting how the discussion of race in film, and especially sexuality, causes a real blip. Television is often mentioned as a place where black men can have sex (gee! TV is made by the same town that makes the movies. Whatever is going on ain’t the sole problem of Hollywood, trust me.) My guess is that it DOES drop the ratings, but I have no way of crunching those numbers. What I CAN say about television is that there was no DRAMATIC hour-long series that was ever successful (lasted more than two seasons) with a non-white LEAD (the person whose name comes first in the title) until Avery Brooks in Deep Space Nine. It had been tried multiple times. Finally stuck there. Let’s see now…at 10% of the population, you’d think that blacks might be, what, 5% of the leads in successful dramas? Otherwise, you’re certainly suggesting an inhibitory mechanism of some kind. Either Hollywood won’t make ‘em, America won’t watch ‘em, or blacks just can’t act well enough to carry a show. There may be a fourth answer, but I don’t know what it is.

I’m obsessed with starting any analysis from the position of “it’s all roughly equal.” So I go with the Universal Disconnect theory.
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Mike Frank and I were talking at Larry Niven’s New Years party, and he asked whether it was racist to make a negative comment about a group if the comment was true. I said “yep.” By definition, a comment ascribing value based upon race is a racist comment. Doesn’t make it wrong. Doesn’t make the speaker a bad person (necessarily). But it is most certainly racist. I know people who have such attitudes about major racial and ethnic and religious groups…and who are still good people. But yeah, racist.
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New Years Goals are here. I’m still in crush mode on SHADOW VALLEY, so I haven’t put a huge amount of thought into it. I will. I know I want to spend more time with my family (especially Nicki), to read more, and to write the third “Lion’s Blood” book, as well as rehabilitate my career in Hollywood. I want to take my martial arts training to the next level…but first I have to clearly define for myself exactly what that means. But once I have my goals, I’ll need to be able to visualize their end point, to be certain that my values, beliefs, and positive/negative emotional charges all align to support it. That’s the “Time Line” approach to goal setting taught by Tad James. Good stuff.
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And the rope jumping is really fun. Because it relates to so many qualities of fitness at the same time, I can look at it as another window into my overall body/mind. And right now, what it shows is that I’m under serious stress, and need to chill a bit. Hard when you’re under a deadline. But…what the heck. I knew the job was dangerous when I took it.