Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)

I love Shane Black's work (Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Last Boy Scout) and I really wanted to love KISS KISS BANG BANG, his directoral debut.  I'd heard so many good things about it that I thought I was about to see another Pulp Fiction.  No such luck.  This convoluted story, about a thief pretending to be an actor pretending to be a detective (don't ask) is too clever by half, and entirely too cynical to be the fluffy entertainment it yearns to be, too self-referential and aware to be a noir detective film, and too insider-joke Hollywoody to really be successful in the general market.  The setup is that the aforementioned faux actor has a chance to impress his childhood sweetheart by solving a mystery involving her kid sister.  There's a damsel in distress, several dirty dogs, a gay private eye (played by Val Kilmer...and in some ways, this is the gayest film I've seen in a long time for a number of fun reasons), double and triple crosses, and a pretty decent mystery at the heart of it all.  Still, there's no real consistency to the characters--the thief/actor (an excellent Robert Downy Jr.) just isn't streetsmart enough to be a criminal, and acts like an actor, tossing off observations about Hollywood only someone who's been out here long enough to get seriously disenchanted would know.  In fact, the entire movie plays like Shane Black's rejection of the entire ethos that made his fortune in the first place.  The fact that the film sets itself up for a sequel makes me feel a bit queasy...is Shane rejecting action movie formulas?  Embracing them?  Hard to say, but although I enjoyed this, I'm a die-hard fan of both action films and detective novels, so I really enjoyed what he was doing.  It just wasn't the break-through clever movie I hoped for.  Pity.  I'll give it a "B."
##
And by the way--there are only two black characters, and both of them die.  So there.

Writing Twenty Novels In Ten Easy Steps

The Golden Hour


     During a recent telephone conversation, I mentioned having sent off the last revisions for my twentieth novel,  “Great Sky Woman.”  There was a silence on the other side of the phone, followed by the question “How in the world do you do that?  Twenty novels!”
     The truth is that I know many writers who have written far more than twenty novels.  It is not that unusual.  In fact, if you are a working writer, the “perfect” output is very close to a book a year.  Less often than this, and the readers stop anticipating your next book, and wander to another writer’s literary pasture. 
     There is a commonality to the behavior patterns of successful writers, and a commonality to the behavior patterns of writers who just can’t get started, can’t get finished, or stall out at their first or third book.
     Successful writers:
1) Write every day.  That’s EVERY day.  They sit down, open their veins, and bleed into their computers.  Yes, it can be painful, but if you don’t maintain this kind of regularity, rust creeps in.  The connection between heart, mind and fingers is broken.  And we mistake the struggle for our natural state.
2) Read every day.  Reading is priming the pump.  It is modeling successful behavior.  It is increasing vocabulary, studying plot and characterization, and entertaining the little subconscious demons and angels who actually do the deep work.  Never neglect this.
3) They set deadlines and quotas.  There is a certain amount of work to be done, on a daily basis.  It need not be some huge amount—a page a day will create a book a year!
4) They create a writing space, a place that feels comfortable to them.  This is both a physical space (a desk) and a psychological space (created with music, posters, familiar objects, etc.) It may also be a temporal space—a specific time of day or night that they write.
5) They have specific goals.  They have committed to being professional writers.  This is how they define themselves, and they never forget it.  If you accept this definition, then you MUST behave as a professional writer, on a daily basis, or it causes emotional  discomfort.  They are willing to accept this friendly prod.
6) They don’t listen to the negative voices in their heads.  Everyone has them.  The voices tell you you can’t, you mustn’t, it isn’t good enough.  You must find a way to tell the voices to shut up, to ignore them, or to quiet them.  Any flow-based activity will help here: meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, running, Sufi breathing exercises, martial arts…the list is endless.  Find one.
7) They are committed to the long-term.  They know that if they spend an hour or three a day, every day, for a decade, they will build their career.
8) They expose themselves to criticism and rejection.  In other words, they FINISH their projects, and then SUBMIT those finished projects to editors and agents.
9) They involve other people in their “master mind” group.  Successful writers know other writers.  And readers.  And editors. And agents.  They befriend them, recruit them, get feedback from them, and listen to the feedback.  This is their “brain trust.”  Unsuccessful writers hide in their offices, never finish their work, never send it out to risk rejection.
10) Successful writers have W.I.T.---they will do Whatever It Takes to ethically reach their dreams, to become the best they can be.  They never quit.  They know that success is based less on talent or “who you know” than persistence, hard work, and honesty. 

There are more distinctions, but I’m out of time—got to start working on book twenty-one!

Had a good I.D.E.A. lately?

The most elusive quality of excellence, of peak performers worldwide
and throughout history is that thing called "Mastery." What is this
thing, and is it possible for ordinary people, however committed, to
touch this exalted state?
The answer is "yes," but I've got good news, bad news, and more good
news. The first good news is that the path is deceptively simple. The
bad news is that it is hard, and can be painful. The last, good news
is that those on the path have no real competition-very few people are
actually willing to be excellent in life. They want to talk about it,
and dream about it, but are unwilling to actually pay the price.
And this, as I've said, is very good indeed for those of us who are.

The first thing we must do is devise a useful definition of "Mastery"
whether we are talking about this quality in the domain of writing and
the arts, of interpersonal interactions, of intellectual pursuit. Then
we must throw light on a pathway to this quality that will enable us to
reach our peak potential.
Try this description: "Mastery is the ability to perfectly match
energy and attention to the task at hand." In other words, if every
task has a perfect "profile" of attention and ability necessary to
complete it, if you bring either less or more of yourself to the task,
you may well complete it, but you will struggle and waste energy-or not
perform properly at all.
Or try this description: "Mastery is the ability to perform
instinctively and instantly in the manner you would perform had you a
month to consider your actions." In other words, to have instant
access to your own deepest capacities.
In other words, Mastery is the place where intellectual or physical or
emotional preparation meets pure instinct. The reflexes of an animal,
the emotional purity of a child, the intellectual focus of a scholar.
An incredible goal, designed to create incredible results.
And the achievement of that goal is exactly what I.D.E.A. is about.
Instinctive Designation of Energy and Attention. The deliberate
cultivation of instinct, energy, and intellect to maximize your results
as a writer, athlete, businesswoman, human being.whatever your goal.
The theory is both childishly simple and devilishly difficult, but is
your key to accessing your deepest wisdom.
Basically, I.D.E.A. says that you develop your instincts by giving
yourself deep feedback about the way you are currently operating in the
world. To strip away illusion, and operate in a "truth zone" about the
person you are and the world you live in. As the ancient Samurai
Musashi Miyamoto once put it, "Do not think dishonestly." A commitment
to total truth will tear the blinders from your eyes, possibly for the
first time in your life.
Sounds simple? Just wait. Here's the bad news. In order to be
certain that you are accurate in your assessments, you must take
responsibility for your life, and the results you have achieved (or
occasionally endured!) in all three major arenas of your life: body,
mind, and spirit.
1) Body is fitness and health. Your body should be in alignment with
your own values, or you should be engaged in a daily process of
cultivating the physical health and beauty and performance that WOULD
reflect your values. Want to know if you are? Strip to your underwear
and look in the mirror. If you are attracted to what you see, you are
in alignment with your values. If you aren't, you aren't. It's as
simple as that.
2) Mind. Mind manifests most clearly in our education and career. Any
worm will move away from pain, and toward pleasure. Believe me, if you
aren't working at a career you enjoy, it isn't due to lack of
intellect. In such a case you may have emotional conflicts, value
confusion about safety, freedom, and responsibility, and it would
behoove you to commit to healing them. The core question: if you won
the lottery next week, would you still be at your job next year? If
not, you should accept the challenge of crafting for yourself a career
path that IS that attractive.
3) Spirit. Just as grass bending can signal the presence of wind, the
relationships we have with other human beings in THIS world can help us
understand our connection to the divine. The most important
relationship to address is the one with our most significant other, our
husband or wife, or lifemate. The history of this aspect of our lives
tells us an enormous amount about our inner world. The most important
question: If you viewed your partner (or the average of your partners,
over your relationship history) as being your mirror image, what would
that say about you? And don't protest that they aren't, that there's
no connection between you and the most important person in your life.
What a joke! Our relationships measure our honesty, passion,
intelligence, self-respect and general energy Take responsibility
here. If you're happy with your relationship, pat yourself on the
back! And if you're not.you have work to do.

You need not tell another human being what you learn if you look at
these three arenas, but YOU need to know. You need to come to some
conclusions about how and why you are in the life space you are in.
The answers to these questions must be consistent: in other words, you
are willing to judge other people by the same standards you hold
yourself to. In all likelihood, engaging in the I.D.E.A. process will
give you vast compassion for other human beings: we are all
battle-scarred, we are all magnificent, we have all failed, we have all
succeeded.

And we move on, toward the light. For an artist, and we are all
artists, this process opens the door to a level of understanding most
human beings never approach. If you walk this path, it's important to
avoid guilt, blame, and shame-these emotions have no place in the
evaluation of our lives. They merely cloud the issue. Meditation,
dream diaries, therapy, or talking with good and supportive friends
might be valuable to help move through the pain and confusion. What I
promise you is that if you walk this path, you will be one of the very
very few human beings on this planet who are actually committed to
excellence. Mastery can be lonely.but as you climb that mountain,
moving toward a more and more rarified level of performance, you will
begin to meet the other climbers. And they will extend their hands to
you, and welcome you into an extraordinary family...one bonded not by
blood, but by spirit.

Who is the "Hero" in the Hero's Journey?

During the past thirty years, much has been (rightfully) made of Joseph
Campbell's breakthrough research in cultural anthropology, most
famously published in "The Hero With A Thousand Faces." In this book,
Campbell examines the many cultural expressions of the heroic role
model, and in doing so helped to establish the universality of human
hopes, dreams, and lives.

Hollywood, in particular, has embraced this vision, which powers dozens
of films a year, and has become clichéd wisdom in development executive
suites all over Southern California. Of course, the question of the
nature of heroes enters other arenas as well. In the political arena,
shaping doctrine around strong leader figures is one way to promote
ideas to the public. Heroic firefighters and soldiers appear in ads
for one party or another, and our elected officials trumpet their
military service-or are criticized for their lack thereof, or are
called cowards or even traitors if they disagree with the plans or
opinions of an opponent.

Whether one wishes to understand the "Hero's Journey" as a tool for
fiction, or desires to rise above the rhetoric a bit, it's useful to
define just exactly what a hero is. This is, after all, the human face
of the story. If the "Journey" is important, even more so is the
person taking it. If we, as a culture, tend to worship and follow
heroes, it is vital to have a definition of exactly what this is.

Of course, each of us should search our own hearts for the definitions
that help us guide our lives. With that understanding, I'd like to
present a definition that has worked for this writer and citizen for
many years.

"A hero is a man or woman who holds to their deepest values, regardless
of the stress or pressures."

This applies to soldiers in combat, teachers in the inner city, mothers
sacrificing for their children, artists resisting commercial demands,
teenagers resisting the call of drugs or alcohol or premature
sexuality. It demands that the "Hero" understand his or her deepest
values, and often, the entire purpose of a story is to force them to
confront these deeper truths, stripping away superfluous ego-identity.

Culturally, this means that a person of Heroic dimension doesn't
necessarily share our point of view, our political beliefs, even our
morality. To understand this is to understand how an apparent moral
monster can be lionized by his followers. When we disagree with a
leader, and are forced to dehumanize him in order to justify our own
position, we diminish our capacity to understand the human condition.

We must hold to our values, and be clear about them. The entire world
of advertising-whether Madison Avenue is selling cereal or an unpopular
war-is based on anchoring some goal to basic human drives. Those who
are uncertain of their values are like straws in the wind, blown by
whoever plucks their strings. No wonder we cherish those who seem
clear and strong in their identity, who stand by their choices even
under stress. No wonder we respect these men and women even as it
becomes clear that flexibility and compromise might be the better way.
At least they believe in SOMETHING!

If we are to grow beyond sheep needing a shepherd, we must be strong
ourselves. We must know ourselves deeply and honestly, and find the
bedrock of our own morality. From this place it is easiest to determine
when a leader is truly worthy of emulation or admiration or obedience.
When we walk this road of self-discovery, we become heroes ourselves,
experiencing the adventure of our own lifetimes.

Concerning black men, and emotions

In answer to a question following my review of "Get Rich or Die Tryin'"...

 

Question: Since Black men mainly come froma place of strength(or try to anyway)passing by feelings of fear, hopes, dreams, and weaknesses, how can this be made to overcome the lack of these other things?


No faltering, no weakness, no doubts,
just missles locked on target. I found it very appealing and have been wondering the "what if" of a real person like this.

#######

I believe that such a person would be a sociopathic psychopath.  No human feelings, no connection to anything real outside his own fantasy life.  Nothing human or animal can really be this way with even a prayer of sanity and wholeness.  We all have dreams, hopes, needs, and fears.  A strong person can lock them away for a while, as they move toward their dreams.  A strong and evolved person has integrated their personality to the point that those negative voices are clearly understood to be merely voices calling in the woods.  You needn't pay attention to them.

 Mark my words, I DO think that black men face special challenges, and that one of those has to do with an explosive amount of fear and anger that few whites let themselves understand at all.  This isn't surprising: if the historical position were reversed, most of us would be in denial, wanting to believe that whatever we've accomplished in life is purely due to our own righteous effort, and not due to harm done to innocent others.  Fine.  That's human nature...but we still have the responsibility to be good, and moral, and role models for those who are looking for answers.

##

The answer is not to be found in disowning our emotions.  The answer is to be found in loving ourselves, really diving in and embracing our own humanity, accepting our failings while doing our best to rise above them.  Along the way, we must forgive others as a way of ridding ourselves of emotional poison.  To accept your humanity fully is to walk the road of enlightenment.  If you have ever mastered a single skill--and you have--then it is possible to transfer those same skills over to the domain of self-realization.  Just be honest with yourself about your successes and failures in the three main arenas

(body, mind, spirit/emotion) and begin to take responsiblity for both.  Strive to learn a little something new every day.  Self-doubt is a part of life, but you don't have to let it stop you.  While as a man of color you have special challenges, every person, and every group, whether defined by race, culture, sexual orientation, politics, gender, age, physical condition, or whatever, has "special" challenges.  What you are dealing with is the countless subliminal messages you have received your whole life that you aren't as good, as important, as sexual, as smart, as worthy of life.  This is frightening, believe me, I know. And that fear creates anger.  Go to the root of it.  There is energy and power there, but you have to dive deeply.  James Bond-style villains (and heros) are definitely popular because of their single-minded, fearless style.  They don't exist, nor should they be aspired to once we reach adulthood, and want the powers, responsibilities and freedoms of adults.  But that doesn't mean we can't be heros.  That is something we can, and should, aspire to.  A hero can be tough, and ruthless, and smart, and sexual...but they also fear, and hope, and dream, and cry.  That's just us, as human beings.  Try to lose that, and you create a monster. 

Get Rich Or Die Trying' (2005)

I am fascinated by the number of rappers who have crossed over into film.  Never in the history of the music industry have so many performers accomplished this.  Not traditional music, religious music, classical music, R&B, Rock, Country, Jazz...nothing.  But the list of Hip-Hop and Rappers who have done it just staggers the mind.  Queen Latifah, Will Smith, LL Cool J, Mos Def, P. Diddy, Eminim, Eve, Lil Bow Wow, and on and on and on. My theory?  Well, these people (in general) can't sing, or dance, or play instruments, or read music.  They are heavily dependant on their producers (as are most musical performers) for their sound. What, then, exactly are they bringing?  And you'd better consider that the competition has to be incredibly fierce, up to and including lethal levels of physical intimidation. Rap is a CUT THROAT business, so I am forced to conclude that those at the top have more of whatever "success quality" is required than those further down.  And I think that the major components of that are the elusive thing called "star poewr", and the ability to act a role. 

##

Enter Curtis "Fifty Cent" Jackson, a rapper of moderate skills and no real point of view, whose primary claim to fame is having been shot nine times.  Think about that.  That's his claim to fame? The thing that makes him marketable, the fact that he is a bona-fide gangster?  I guess so. And that disturbs the hell out of me.

Back tothe movie

##

The film, a fictionalized version of Jackson's life, is probably best criticised by comparing it to two much better movies, "8 Mile" with Eminim, and "Hustle and Flow" with  Terrance Howard.  Eminim's music, mroe than almost anyone else in rap, is self-revelatory, and deals withhis personal pains, hopes, and dreams, his family anguish, his personal failings and devils.  In other words,his primary talent is honesty.  I am tempted to look at the vast majority of black rappers and wonder what keeps them from being as honest...then again, no, I don't.  Just like black male sexuality is a taboo in American film, any other exploration of genuine feelings and weaknesses and hopes and dreams beyond a narrow "get paid and get laid" is simply not profitable...or not perceived as profitable.  I think that the perception is accurate.  Black men have masked their feelings for four hundred years--to let out the homicidal anger would be suicide.  Fear gets bound up with pain and love and hope and frustration, the kind of emotional ball that is bounced with such wonderful effect in the Blues.  Hip Hop, especially the stuff played on the radio, is NEVER about weakness.  It is all about strength, and lack of real feeling. And this creates a problem in film when companies, looking for marketable black faces, casts Rappers.

##

They can't act, in general. Yeah, Queen Latifah and Mos Def and even Will Smith are exceptions.  But when you see Jackson and Terrance Howard acting side by side, there's no comparison.  In "8 Mile" they surrounded Eminim with real actors for him to react to, and gave him a home life that created INSTANT empathy--his relationship with his mother, his sister, a girl at work, his homies. Far, far beyond the level of humanization in "Die Tryin'." where no human relationships more than paper-thick show up for damned near the first hour of the movie.  Jackson does his best, but he basically has two expressions, and although competantly directed, the film gives us nothing we haven't seen before.  Even a nude knife fight in a prison shower is shot with a curious blandness and lack of intensity.  A love scene late in the film does have a nice eroticism, but it's strange how different it is from most love scenes in film.  I salute the film makers for willingness to do it at all, but in most films, the FIRST love scene between two characters is the most incandescent. If we see a second one at all, it is usually far more demure.  Things are jsut the opposite here, which reinforces my sense that Hollywood just doesn't know what to do with black male sexuality.

##

The movie just doesn't work well, and maybe that's because they couldn't get Jackson to open up the way Eminim can, and I thinkthe difference is racial, I really do.  Nonetheless, "Die Tryin'" is compentant, and an actual effort to tell Jackson's story.  While I can't love it, I don't hate it, and it bodes well for future efforts...the trailers for Usher's movie "In The Mix" actually had me smiling.  I'll be damned if I'm not looking forward to it, and I'm not even into his music.  Maybe it's because he does Hindu Pushups and Squats.

Give "Get Rich" a C+.

 

You said in the blog that you usually write a script first and then the novel. Does that make the work a little easier to visualize? I've been searching for a solid method to emulate and this one sounds like the best yet. If I can see what people are saying and what is going on around them, doing the settings later would be a hell of a lot easier. 
 
I think you just solved a problem for me. 
#############

 

Yes.  Final Draft has an "index card" based outlining system that is also perfect for writers.  I start with FD, then import to Word and finish there!

 

STeve

Sent Manuscript Off!

Great Sky Woman went out via e-mail to Betsy Mitchell last night. Yes, there is additional work to be done (when I see the copyedited manuscript), and then again in galleys. And the maps willhave to be re-drawn due to circumstances beyond control of my artist.  But Everything now is tweaking, even if it's serious tweaking.

Man oh man, did I make some serious mistakes with this one...can only pray that I was able to correct or undo the damage.  Here's a brief list of the errors and special stresses during this book:

1) Started writing it with contemporary "bookends" to fix it in space and time.

2) Orginally conceived it as a mystery

3) Changed tenses based on point of view

4) Originally believe there were more varieties of exotic megafauna 30,000 years ago in East Africa.

5) Adopted my son during the writing process

6) Moved from Washington to California during the writing process

7) Had my entire plan for supporting my family self-destruct during the writing process...

8) Didn't follow my past pattern (the last six books) of writing it as a script , polishing the script, and then writing the novel based on that "outline"

###

Arrrrrgh.  All in all, I'd say is that I cost myself about a year, one way or 'tother.  Ah well, we learn as we go.  I think it's going to be fantastic when everything's together, though!  Now I'm going to take a couple of days off, and then jump into the next DREAM PARK book with Larry Niven, and start re-writing the BLOOD BROTHERS script, and, oh yes, start working on my next article for my internet business...

 

No rest for the wicked.

Steve

Countdown

In about seven days, I'm going to start a rundown through all the puzzle pieces that comprise the full "Mastery" system (who knows what it will eventually be called!) that I've been talking about.  Not gonna hold anything back, but some of the things will demand demonstration or illustration, so at some point I'll have to post pictures or video clips.

The reason this is happening is that I'm putting together an internet business to sell the Lifewriting Year-Long program, and there are lotsa separate pieces that all need to come together, including the ability to broadcast to my mailing list, and the ability to create an "auto-responder" series that sends the basic Chakra/Hero's Journey stuff to everybody who signs up.  That way, I don't have to go over it and over it--those two pieces are, with the "Golden Hour," the heart of the system.

##

Let me give you the short version: over the years, I've gathered together every self-improvement technique I could find, with the intent of keeping me on-track in my life and career.  About fifteen years ago, I started teaching the "Lifewriting" method of using Campbell's model of the Hero's Journey to your life.  The Chakras got integrated about ten years ago, but there was still a piece missing, and I believe that (in part) that missing piece cost me my first marriage.  I stopped teaching, figuring that I needed to get my act together better,and it wasn't until three  years ago, in meeting Coach Sonnon, that I got that last piece.  Since that time, everythign exploded. At that time, it began to feel that I could sense the road of the Masters, and in interacting with the most evolved people I could find, that sense deepened.  The question became: what is the most elegant way of presenting this? That's important, you see, because I could be dead wrong.  Dead wrong.  And about something as important as personal evolution, if I'm going to express an opinion, I'd better error-check like crazy.

##

So when I have the Internet stuff a little better together, I can create commentary on the approximately three dozen different aspects, and have them go out to the appropriate lists kinda effortlessly.  Understand: far fewer that 3 dozen pieces are essential.  But what I'm talking about can't QUITE be put into words--I have to dance around it a little, and I'd rather give you too much than too little.  This will be enormous fun, becuase in doing it, I'm inviting you guys to give me feedback on your own experience, and to tell me what you think of the model I've been given (or created.  Or intuited.  Jeeze, I don't know!).  At any rate, it's going to be fun. The next few days I'll ramble on about stuff that interests me, but within two weeks I'll settle down and get more serious, o.k?

 

Steve

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)

A rather odd stroll through the mind of uber-screenwriter Shane Black,
the creator of the Lethal Weapon franchise. You know, I really wanted
to love this. I wanted to consider it another PULP FICTION--the buzz
had been just that good. But this noir detective film starring Robert
Downy Jr and Val Kilmer (both terrific) just didn't convince me. The
central conceit is that a small-time thief accidentally becomes an
actor, who then pretends to be a detective in order to dazzle his
childhood sweetheart. fine. And tricky, and very, very smart. The
trouble is that there are no recognizable human beings, and even on its
own terms, any fantasy film must convince an audience that these
characters are who the writer (and in this case, Director) says they
are. Sorry, but Downy's character NEVER acts like a street-wise former
thief. At every turn, he acts, and his internal monologue is that of,
a world-weary Hollywood veteran, spouting "wisdom" that is pure
Tinsel-town psychobabble. There is no consistency--one minute he's
getting his butt kicked by an actor, and in the next, he's pulling off
derring-do like Martin Riggs in "Lethal Weapon." All right--that's the
mythic element at work. But I simply didn't buy it, and I really,
really wanted to. I actually met Black about two months ago, nice guy,
and I wish him luck. But he seems to have no knowledge of human
relationships beyond the kind of Moving Violation Hollywood-style
"romance" that leaves both people feeling jaded and fragile. So sad,
because this is one seriously talented human being. I have to give
"Kiss Kiss" a C+, which is, considering the talent involved, just not
enough.

L.A. Screenwriting Expo

I had a deeply emotional experience at the L.A. Screenwriting expo, where I was lecturing on charactrerization and plot.  I was certainly prepared for the usual challenges of teaching, but not for my emotional response when a walking boulder of a gentle giant walked up to me and said: "Hi, Steve...I'm Cliff Stewart."  I almost lost it.  Cliff Stewart was one of the three men who founded the original Black Karate Federation, along with Donnie Williams and my first real karate instructor, Steve Sanders (now Steve Muhammad).  I was damaged goods inthose days (still carry some of the wounds today) due to the lack of my father in the home, a real lack of male energy...when I walked into the BKF school, the testosterone blew me back out the door.  God, I wanted it so much...Steve remains the fastest human being I have ever seen in my life, and a true gentleman warrior.  Now, I didnt know Cliff in those days, but I knew OF him.  I got to know Cliff later, in other contexts, and was amazed at the skill and gentility of this legenday fighter and teacher.  He is a marvel, and moves like a rhino on roller skates, I kid you not.  Hadn't seen him in ten years, and when he approached me, understand, I had recently been wondering what to do with my martial arts practise.  Would I move on to something else?  Go back and practise something I'd done in the past?  Something new?  Just not sure.

##

But one thing I know is that I have unfinished emotional business with the BKF.  You know, we're all wounded by life, and I can still see how some of my wounds ooze, despite the best efforts I've made.  But I have an image in my mind...of completing my BKF black belt, and having it presented to me by Mr. Muhammad.  Cliff (with a black belt in about seven arts), who currently studies and teaches the wonderful Serak art I've been privileged to study over the last decade, could be instumental in helping me understand what requirements I'd have to meet, the training I'd need to undergo, the people I'd need to make contact with.  I see a doorway to completing a piece of my young adulthood, and that happens so very rarely in life. The younger Steve would so love it if I could do that.  I'm gonna have to look into it.  I just have to.

 

Steve

Jarhead (2005)

An intense, boring, profound, profane, disturbing, enlightening movie about the process of turning men into killing machines, then postponing the actual killing.  What happens to the human soul when this primal aspect, the killer/protector, is sharpened to a lethal edge?  The hyper male bonding sequences, the hallucinogenic images of war delayed, postponed, or missed by the narrowest of margins strikes me as entering the heart of darkness as deeply as anything I've seen since "Apocolypse Now," which "Jarhead" references.  Based on an autobiographical novel dealing with the first Gulf war, "Jarhead" couldn't be timelier.  As the nation debates the cost and appropriateness of our current conflict, as questions of torture and "black prisons" are raised, it is vital to address the psychic costs of battle, and preparation for battle.  There is also a dark and invaluable aspect of the male psyche that absolutely loves the killing, the destruction, the special comeraderie found only between men who put their lives on the line to enter an arena no civilian will ever truely understand.  it is a part of the human character, and we abuse it only at our peril.  There is soul-risking trauma in opening that trap door, and "Jarhead" takes you there, beautifully.  A "must-see" film that asks important questions.  People said that "Fight Club" dealt with the secret hearts of men.  What crap.  Maybe the secret angst of middle-class white guys, but there was nothing universal about that at all.  "Jarhead" gets one hell of a lot closer to a truth we'd rather close our eyes to: we need this aspect of the human heart, even as we are justifiably terrified by it.  An "A."

B.B King

Tananarive went to 80-year old blues Master BB King's concert on Universal citywalk last night, while I stayed home to work.  I hated that, but that's the price we pay, folks.  I'd seen the Master at the House of Blues in Long Beach twenty years ago, so the sacrifice wasn't severe, but still...

We have to be willing to focus our time and energy, people. That's the only coin we have in life.  Please...be very clear on the things you want from life, and the costs for getting there.  Then be certain you're willing to pay those costs.  And then pay them.  Me?  I want to finish this book! 

Steve

Two More Days...

Almost finished with GREAT SKY WOMAN.  The "push" at this point is more important than anything except my health and my family.  There has been such an unbelievable amount of stress associated with this project that I would like to actually enumerate the specific techniques I've depended on to keep that stress from becoming strain.

1) Meditation.  Daily.
2) Yoga. At least once a week.
3) FIVE MINUTE MIRACLE.  Daily.  5X (of course!)
4) Warrior wellness drills
5) Eclipse (now known, I think, as "Flowfit."  Coach Sonnon has promised it will be available by the end of the year)
6) Kettlebells and clubbells. 
7) Lots and lots of yummie sex.  Come to think of it, I should have listed this first!
##
There's more, and it all dovetails.  Being able to vent on this blog has been a life-saver as well.  I want to thank you all  for particpating.  Believe me...it makes a difference. 
##
Remember--it's not stress that hurts you.  It is strain.  May I suggest that each and every one of you make a list of at least five different "stress-busters" that you use in your life, and make damned sure to apply at least one of them, every day.  More tomorrow...wish me luck!

Steve

Ageism in Hollywood

This is for Suzanne.  When my family moved back to Southern California from Washington, the idea was that I would write for television again--even animation if necessary--while we got out roots in place, scoped the scene, and made plans for our career moves.  The move was somewhat harrowing (physically, emotionally, and financially) but we arrived here on Halloween night, 2004, and immediately began to make our plans.  One of the first things I did was set up an appointment with my agent, figuring that we'd lay out a dozen different shows I should watch and generate ideas for, then go to pitch.
Wrong.
My agent, Jonathan Westover, sat me down and told me that in the nine years since I'd been gone, the structure of Hollywood had changed.  Once upon a time, most of the writing was done by freelancers, with a story editor, and maybe a small staff.  Now, that's reversed.  Most of the writing is done by in-house staff, with virtually no freelancing.  And here's the bad news: they don't hire anyone for staff who is over 40!  I'm sure that's not an official policy, just the unofficial truth. 
##
That hit me like a bomb.  My complete strategy for supporting my family while we made our plans went out the window.  I can't even tell you how much stress I was under, fighting to keep from panicking as our war chest dwindled to nothing.  Arrrrgh.  I'm telling you, if it wasn't for the Five Minute Miracle, and Heartbeat Meditation, and the love of my very very good lady wife, I would have been a basket case.  But we came through it.
##
Why is Hollywood like this?  Not certain.  My guess is that under 40 is cheaper, and perceived as being more 'in touch" with the target demographic.  What I learned is that, while I can't write for TV anymore, what I CAN do is
1) write movies
2) CREATE a television series.

So those are the two roads I'm traveling right now, in addition to the novels.  Time will tell, but I'm clear on my goals and working hard.  Keep you all posted!

Steve

THE BIG THREE

So…over the last ten days or so, we’ve explored the seven levels of characterization: survival, sex, power, love, communication, intellect, and spirit.  Sure can find other aspects, but by tying them into these seven, a writer can create amazingly complicated and realistic characters.  And by examining the impact of damage or progress in each of these arenas on yourself, you can accelerate your understanding of life and humanity vastly.

Where to start?  Well, let’s start with the most basic aspects possible, the simplest model that holds any water at all: Body, Mind/career, and Spirit/emotion.  You can’t get more basic than these three, and if you balance and understand them, you open the door to understanding the Seven.

Body: What are your theories about what a human being’s body means?  Does a person’s physical condition say anything about them?  What?  Why, or why not?  Anyone who has followed the Lifewriting™ theories about this know that my attitude is that our bodies say a huge amount about us.  Our bodies should be able to evade predators, or catch prey.  They should show our secondary sexual characteristics to best advantage. We should have plenty of energy.  If you look at your body in the mirror, you should feel attracted to it.  If any of these are NOT true, trust me, you’ve been damaged, and if you’re honest with yourself, have a clear roadmap to the work you must do to heal and become a balanced human being. 

Mind:  Is your mind sharp and clear?  Do you have well defined WRITTEN goals?  What were your childhood dreams?  To what degree have you achieved them?  Or have you created new, better dreams?  Or have you compromised, sold yourself out?  Are you educated and/or employed to your actual level of capacity?  Why, or why not?  Do you understand the world around you, or do you live in a constant state of confusion, wondering why life seems to be passing you by?  In other words, do you have an accurate map of reality, and can you read and navigate it with aplomb?

Spirit:  Are you easily depressed?  Do you have healthy relationships?  Can you satisfy your sexual and emotional needs ethically?  Do you hold anger toward the people or social institutions that have wronged you?  Do you meditate, or at least have some reliable way of dealing with stress in your life?  Are you pathologically afraid of death or abandonment or aging?  Do you have a sense of the way the universe fits together as a whole—even if you don’t have a clear picture of it, or a belief in a specific deity?
##

Imbalance in any of these three arenas will cause you more trouble than I can possibly say in this short note. Look at the people around you HONESTLY, and see what damage in any one of them, or threats to balance in any one of them, creates in their lives.  Virtually any story you could ever write deals with someone attempting to increase the health or clarity of one or another of these arenas.  If you would be an artist, or an autonomous human being, you must address these questions with courage.

Seventh Level Characterization

The seventh level of characterization ties it all together: Spirit.  This is the level that all world religions play in.  For those without a belief in an afterlife or deity, this level deals with the cosmological questions: the ethical structure of the universe, the nature of our purpose, the meaning of life and death.  Every culture and people on this planet have answers to these questions, and consider the context of our existence to be as important as the actions within that context.  It isn’t vital that a writer have a religious or spiritual belief, but it IS valuable  understand and have empathy for the nearly universal human need to do so.  So let’s look at a few simple questions which, when answered, will help you explore the spiritual dimension of your characters.

1) Do you believe there is a God (or Goddess?) What form does this deity (or deities) take? 
2) Are there divine beings or forces that interact with human beings? 
3) If there are, why do you believe their intentions and wishes have been interpreted so many different ways by different cultures?  If not, why do you think so many people of apparent intelligence and integrity think that there are?
4) Do you think there is “a Way” exclusive of other paths, to approach the divine? Why, or why not?
5) If you think there is no divine pattern or being, do you think the belief that there is is valuable?  How about the reverse question?
6) What is the meaning of life?

     Understand that any character you write about will, at some point in her life, address some of these questions. It is hard to conceive of a character that would not—although that statement should be considered a challenge for a good writer!  Can you craft a character of clear mind who has never asked herself any of those questions?  What does that say about her or her culture?
     ##
     There are countless reasons to look into the “seventh level” of characterization, both for the sake of your writing, and your own life (after all—they are inseparable!)
     We will revisit these questions, and many others, in days to come.
     Note, however, that the more spiritual the story, the more important it is to GROUND that story in the first three levels—otherwise it is a tree with no roots.  “The Passion of the Christ” wouldn’t have sold 1/10th the tickets if it hadn’t anchored the spiritual questions deeply in the mutilation of the flesh.  That visceral reality created a link for the audience beyond anything that had been seen onscreen for a very long time.  The higher the intent, the more important the roots are.  Never neglect them

Steve

Not-so Random thoughts

I have a week to get the book out the door.  Unbelievable stress, but  that's not the killer.  The killer is what happens when stress becomes strain, and I know how to keep that from happening.  Every couple of hours I breathe properly for sixty seconds, as taught in the FIVE MINUTE MIRACLE, and that keeps me sane.  Also, lots of hugs, and naps when needed.  And let me tell you, they're needed!
##
A reader asked me about a sequel to LION'S BLOOD and ZULU HEART.  It's in the pipeline, but for the first time in a long time, I'm actually overloaded.  This is a result of the move to California, with the attendant increase in expenses, and the nasty little surprise of ageism in Hollywood.  We're working around that stuff, but it's requiring some rather slithy moves on my part.  More on that later.
##
another reader asked me to go into greater detail about how I've used the Chakras in my own life.  Man oh man, am I going into THIS in the near future! But first I have to lay out the basic grid of Chakras and Hero's Journey (characterization and plot).  But just as a teaser:
1st chakra interacts with all of the others.  Dealing with core survival, any fear originating in a survival value will screw up your ability to smoothly evolve upward (this is why the "Fear Removal Process" is so incredible, btw).  What kinds of fears am I talking about? Well, here's a short list...
1) abandonment.  As children, we are incredibly vulnerable to the whims of our parents, who  literally have the power of gods. Their approval means everything, and we are genetically programmed to love and imitate them.  This transfers later in life to bosses, friends, and mates, often to our detriment.
2)   Pains or shocks experienced early in life can "anchor" inappropriate stress levels to perfectly normal and harmless activities.  The fear of public speaking is one such, or rejection, or the ability to deal with bullies.  On the schoolyard, we get punched if we stand up for ourselves.  In the workplace, bullies count on the fact that that childhood trauma still controls our behaviors. 
3) Sexual intimacy is incredibly powerful.  We are all vulnerable to rejection, physical control, etc. in the bedroom.  Women often find themselves attracted to the "bad boys" who both excite and frustrate them.  The source of that attraction can be a dominating parent, or a perception of threat that makes our subconscious say: "the world is dangerous...get a dangerous man!"  Only by demanding that we "grow up" and develop the capacity to control our own space can we break those chains.  Men are often endlessly attracted to rejecting women, as they attempt to heal the wounds of a rejecting, distant mother by playing out the intimacy scenario again and again, seeking to gain approval and acceptance denied in childhood.  Survival fear is a powerful force here, as well...men are forever trying to re-create the moments of total acceptance they felt in mommy's arms as a baby.  The result can be devastating.
4) too fat or too thin?  Our bodies hold stress, have their own memories and motivations.  I'm currently dealing with a student who weighs close to 400 pounds, who is dealing with MASSIVE guilt and feelings of worthlessness, stemming from the death of a sibling.  Guilt is fear of worthlessness, of letting down role models, of transgressing in the social arena.  the penalty for such transgressions is exclusion from the tribe.  Often such people find other outcasts, and they cling to each other, "norming" the dysfunctional behavior.  Trying to break free to health often demands that such people leave all known "tribes" behind: the greater social tribe that rejected them, and the current sub-set social group which, while dysfunctional in a few aspects, accepts and loves them.  they must deal with the fear of being alone...and that's a killer.
#####
I could go on forever.  The point is that a single thing, fear, anchored in survival needs, can impact every other level of health and performance in our lives.  Our fears of inadequacy, abandonment, disfigurement, and death need to be addressed directly, not hidden or sublimated, because they will poison everything else, leading to inappropriate relationships, distorted body image, thwarted ambitions, inability to clarify goals, and much else.
###
What is the solution? 
There are many we've discussed here.  A few basic ones:
1) meditation.  Gain clarity and run the "aquarium filter on the fishtank of your soul," so to speak.
2)  Aerobic exercise.  Terrific for improving the brain's physiological capacity to metabolize fear hormones.
3) Yoga.  Designed to break the bonds of servitude to the body needs, yoga has, built into it, some of the finest anti-fear technologies in the history of the human race, far too subtle to explain right now.
4) Prayer.  Faith is arguably the most powerful tool of all.  Find a way to connect to the divine.
##
Fear is a killer of every dream you have.  Confront it directly...which may be painful, but is far preferable to allowing it to fester!

Steve

SIXTH-LEVEL CHARACTERIZATION

The sixth “chakra,” Anja, represents intellect.  Note that this is separate from communication, which also represents education.  They feed upon one another, but intellect deals with our maps of the world, the way we create symbols and philosophies, our cosmology as well as our epistemology. 

There is an expression in yoga that one can awaken the chakras from the bottom up, or from the heart “out”, but never ever from the top down.  In other words, we can develop our understanding of the world by learning to deal with our fears, learning to ethically satisfy our sexual and sensual needs, learning to provide goods and services for our communities, negotiating the reefs of love.  We learn.

Or, we can begin with a heart-space connection to everything around us.  Love will create the bonds that lead to understanding and growth. 

But when we develop an intellectual picture of the world before we have actually experienced life, we stunt our development: the world is larger than our concepts of it.  That said, it is valuable to clarify our relationship with the intellectual world, and use our theories and ideas to inform our writing.
1) What do you think intelligence is?  Is not?
2) Do you believe there are multiple “types” of intelligence?  That it is fixed?  Malleable?
3) Do you believe different groups have more or less intelligence than others?
4) Is high intelligence an advantage?  A disadvantage?
5) What are the drawbacks associated with high intelligence?  Low intelligence?  Are there advantages to low intelligence?
6) Are genius and insanity correlated?
7) Is the mind more important than the body?

With each question you devise and answer, you are creating your own map of the inside of your head.  Whatever theories you develop, apply them to your characters, helping you to differentiate elegantly, so that conversations and actions are completely distinct based on their history and attributes.  But remember that the more intellectual your characters are, the greater the necessity to “ground” them in the workaday world of flesh and blood.  It is difficult (though not impossible) to create a story about geniuses sitting around thinking, note that a movie like A Beautiful Mind used sex and the perception of physical threat to anchor the story of a troubled genius in reality.

What, to you, is the world of the mind?  Open that door, and your characters enter a new realm.

Fifth Level Characterization

FIFTH LEVEL CHARACTERIZATION

The Fifth “Chakra,” said to be located in the throat, controls communication. This is the seat of the old “garbage in/garbage out” situation.  Education, verbal patterns--language, vocabulary, slang, clarity, honesty, and so forth.

Our ability to express ourselves is vital to emotional health, and stifled communication can be incredibly destructive.  Think about the missed and mishandled communications in your own life.  Character can be established in a blink through a few lines of dialogue (didn’t we know everything we needed to know about “Rocky” within the first few dialogue scenes?) and a clever writer will contrast a character’s inner essence with his outer communication skills.  “Good Will Hunting” tells of a math genius who hides as a janitor.  No one who speaks to him casually would have had any idea at all—his speech patterns disguise his intellect.  The contrast between his “presenting personality” and his actual personality tells us that this is a confused young man, trapped between his self-image and his potential.  Of such conflicts are drama made.
1) What was the worst miscommunication of your life?  With your parents?  A husband or wife?  Did you ever lose a friendship because of a lie?
2) How honest are you?  How did you develop your sense of ethics around honest communication? Are there situations where honesty is not called for?
3) What are the different levels of communication that have impact on your life? Within a person?  Between two people?  Within a family?  A community?  A nation? The world?  Between Man and God?
4) What are the primary differences in communication styles between men and women?  How have they caused stress in your life? How have you worked to resolve them?

Every answer you give, or every question for which you have no answer, is the potential core of a character.  Look deeply enough into yourself, and you'll emerge with knowledge of all men and women.  It's worth the effort!

Steve

Legend of Zorro (2005)

Who remembers the original Zorro television series, starring Guy Williams, back in the late 50's and early 60's?  That Zorro was impossibly athletic, the greatest swordsman in the world, and never killed anyone.  A kid-friendly guardian of liberty, fondly recalled.  Well, "Legend" is that kind of movie, dropping from a PG-13 to a PG in one swoop, and reading reviews on "Rotton Tomatoes" one would think this a sin.  Well, I guess I can understand.  Seven years after "Mask of Zorro" Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Zones (both luscious and lithe and excellent) have returned as Mr. and Mrs. De La Vega, the Latino Batman and Robina of 1850 California.  Time has passed since that film, and they have a son who has no idea that his father is a superhero.  Mrs. De La Vega, angry that her husband won't hang up his mask, sues for divorce...and considering that everyone is Catholic, apparantly gets it in record time.  Of course, nothing is what it seems, and all are caught up iin the kind of plot that wil make "The Wild, Wild West" fans feel right at home.  Here's the truth: I enjoyed it, easily slipping into my 12-year-old-boy space and digging the swordfights, the stunts, the incredible Ms. Zeta-Jones (who is a butt-whipper of the first order.  Who knew?) and even the kid, who apparently does at least SOME of his own impressive stuntwork.  And ultimately, I thought of Guy Williams, and watching "The Adventures of Zorro" with my mom, and felt all warm and fuzzy inside.  Yeah, I would have enjoyed a more adult movie, but kids need fun too.  Heck with it--I'm giving the movie a "B."

Saw II (2005)

I might almost wonder if the MPAA was asleep at the switch on this one...Saw II, the sequel to the 2004 sleeper horror film, is one of the grisliest, bloodiest pieces of work I've ever seen get an "R" rating.  This is definitely NOT your mommy's PG-13 horror film, I kid you not.  The original film, a minor masterpiece of indy, not-for-the-squeamish terror dealing with two men chained in a basement, while Danny Glover tries to figure out what's going on, had one of the neatest twists I've ever seen, and that's saying a lot.  While "Saw II" has its twists (and at least one of 'em is a humdinger" this tale of six (I think) folks trapped in a house after being doused with nerve gas, stuggling to find an exit, while Donnie Wahlberg (in a straight-ahead performance as a burned out cop) tries to rescue his son (one of the six) by interrogating "Jigsaw," the mastermind behind this whole mess, kept me hopping, and on the edge of my seat, and actually wincing at some of the action.  I'd have a difficult time justifying the morality of something like this, but have to admit I had a great time.  For lovers of the genre, give it a B+.  All others should think twice before buying tickets!

Clubbells versus Kettlebells

I've had a number of people ask me my opinion of these two fantastic tools, and I wanted to address that question directly.  Personally, I own both, and love them.  But I would weight them slightly differently, depending upon the intent of the user.  In whatever case, however, the difference is in the 5-10% range, nothing drastic.

1) For martial arts, racquet sports, baseball-softball, or any sport requiring special grip strength, the  clubbell reigns supreme.  The long leverage allows you to create torque like you wouldn't believe.  I think the CB has about a 10% advantage over Kettlebells here.  Let me tell you--the Clubbell Bruiser, a 45-pound monster, has to be experienced to be believed.

2) For the general fitness seeker, kettlebells may be superior by about 5%.  They allow you to trash your cardio system without testing the "weak link" of your wrists to the same extreme degree.  It also delivers a different sensation, one that I associate more with "fitness" than "strength-skill"
###

Most importantly, both tools provide endless variation and experimentation, which in my mind is critical to a sustained physical regimin.  If you can find a way to engage your creativity as you explore your body-mind connection, you are far more likely to keep your practice alive.

That said, if I could ONLY  have one tool, it would probably be the Bruiser.  You can create a cardio effect like you wouldn't believe, unreal grip strength, leverage strength to put a smile on an old-time strongman's face, and power arcs to turn your throws and blows into real bone-crushers.  Heh heh.   Once again, just my opinion.  Either tool can transform your life.  

Steve

A success for Nicki

Yesterday, my daughter whupped my butt in our exercise session.  I was encouraging her to wake up earlier in the day (a college student, she sometimes sleeps till noon, bless her!) and as a reward, I let her plan our workout.  As many of you know, she's been working with her baby fat since we got down here to L.A.  Anyone with a teenaged daughter who has a few extra pounds knows that you have to approach this gingerly: she can't associate her self-worth with the weight, or feel that her discipline or success here have anything to do with my love or regard for her.  Simultaneously, I needed to motivate her, because I KNEW what kind of body she wanted.  Just by looking at the hot guys she has posters of in her room, I knew that she wasnted to be a woman who is just as desirable on a physical level.  One should live up to one's own standards!  So it's been a push, and I figured that the best thing would be for me to go on any eating plan right with her, and coach and exercise with her, and help her get to yoga class.
##
I've implied that a break-through has occurred in my understanding of certain fitness elements.  I'll go into it at greater depth later, but lets just say that I've devised an exercise routine which, in 45 minutes, seems equivilent to 90 minutes of Bikram Yoga--you know, the hot room stuff?  Very interesting.  A mixture of Warrior Wellness, the "Eclipse" exercises devised by Coach Sonnon (they will be available on DVD soon.  I'm still testing them, but I think he has done a brilliant job of synthesizing a system almost as deep as yoga or Tai Chi, but learnable in two hours!  Man oh man, I love Scott. For those who don't know, he's at www.rmax.tv) and kettlebells.  When I combined these three things, the quality of my workouts seemed to shift drastically, but I still need more testing.  Believe me, if I continue to be impressed by the results, I'll share everything, and as fast as I can.
##
Anyway, Nicki's been doing great.  She has accepted a higher level of physical discipline, and loves the feeling of her clothes getting loose on her (even though sometimes the scale doesn't change!)  so yesterday, I let her choose the workout.  She wanted to play Cards with me.  That's the protocol where you shuffle a deck of cards and then designate a different exercise for each suit or color.  Flip the cards one at a time, and do that number of that exercise.  If you choose exercises carefully, you can get one monster of a workout, and it can be a rediculous amount of evil fun.
##
Well, she chose Hindu Squats for the red cards, Hindu Pushups for the black cards, and Eclipse for the Face Cards.  Sounded interesting. We began, with Warrior Wellness (as always), and then began Cards, aiming for 30 minutes.    Good Lord.  Now, we were doing this side by side, but Nicki modifies her exercises to make them easier (an easier version of Eclipse, and Hindu Pushups from her knees.)  All I'll say is that the combined sensation was completely unexpected.  My gym was cold, and we were dripping sweat within minutes, every muscle in our bodies screaming for mercy.  But oddly, we were laughing, exercising to good music, making jokes about our suffering.  At 25 minutes Nicki called "quit" and I was grateful.  Yeah, I could have gutted it out, or made my versions easier, but I was hurtin'.  In a good way.
##
All day long I felt the "buzz" of the effect, and couldn't believe how powerful that short little workout had been.  But the cream came last night, when my daughter ran into the room to show us...her abs.  There, beneath a thinning wall of fat, was the beginning of a six-pack.  For the very first time in her life, Nicki is beginning to touch the far edge of her true, mature body.  She was thrilled.  I was thrilled.  All this and straight A's too.  Daddy is just so proud.  Oh, and by the way...Tananarive and I watched her perform a scene from "As You Like It" in her "Acting Shakespeare" class Tuesday.  She was wonderful, and we taped it for her to send up to her Mom Toni this weekend.
##
Life is just exceptionally good right now.

Chakra #4

Now we're at the heart space, which represents emotion.  This is the fourth level, beyond survival, sexuality, and power.  In other words, when we no longer fear pain (survival), have our sensual needs satisfied, and feel that we have some control in our lives, we begin to seek deeper emotional connections with ourselves and our fellow human beings.  One really interesting thing I heard once concerning chakras was "you can awaken your Kundalini from the root up, or from the heart out, but never from the top down."  What in the world could that mean?
##
To me, it means that you can build your map of the world from the most basic physical levels--survival, pain, pleasure.  When we've mastered that, and learned to please ourselves, and learned to have some control over ourselves and our environments, we have learned a huge amount about the world, and our "maps" are accurate enough to survive the turmoil of the heart.  As we learn to integrate our needs into a reciprocal relationship, combining sexual and security needs, a gigantic amount of negotiation and communication ensues.  And more importantly, I think we take our first step into a truely larger world--the world where Other is as important as Self.
##
We can also begin to relate to the world on the basis of love.  That sense of connection can guide us through much of the conceptual wilderness that devils humanity: what shall I do?  What is right? Every religion I know has the answer that begins with love: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Yes, if you're suicidal or masochistic one might have a non-optimal result from such a dictate, but I can think of no other that is as widely applicable, generally healthy, and contributes to a healthy society.  Even if you said "do unto others as they would have you do unto them," in many cases you are left to wonder what the other person might want...and forced to make your best guess, based on your own needs and wants and desires. Ultimately, it comes back to knowing ourselves and extending empathy to others.
##
the heart, then, is a safe place to start.  But what might it mean to never awaken our vital forces "from the top down?"  To me, that means that to attempt to directly approach spirit  is folly.  Personally, I love the "householder" vision of spiritual growth, where a man or woman completes their education, starts a business, marries, raises the family, and only then when the children are old enough to take over the business, begin an ascetic, wandering life of the spirit.  I've seen few things screw people up more than chasing spiritual enlightenment without ever having mastered the lower levels. 
##
One of those few things that screws people up as badly is trying to "understand" life from an intellectual perspective...again, before the more basic levels have been mastered.  God, I spent so many years in the company of hugely intelligent, unsuccessful people who talked a great game, had all the theories about life you could want, but couldn't accomplish any of their dreams, couldn't sustain a healthy relationship, couldn't control their physical hungers.  But boy, did they ever know how to run the world!  It was so incredibly sad.  Literally, they wasted their lives because they didn't pay attention to the objective evidence that something was terribly wrong with their grasp of reality.  Any worm will try to move away from pain.  When humans fail to do this, one cannot attribute it to lack of intellect.  Something else is going on.
##
Applying this idea to fictional characters is easy.  "Forrest Gump" deals with a young man of great physical gifts (his running) and an extraordinarily open and loving heart.  His intellect is negligible, but still he hobnobs with the great and powerful, becomes a multimillionare, a decorated war hero, and gets everything in life one could want...with the exception of the girl he loved his whole life.  A beautiful film, the one that made Tom Hanks' career, and one could easily look at it as an odd, comic tragedy about the strength of the human heart. 
##
What is the emotional makeup of your lead character?  What do they need and want?  Or even more tellingly, what is YOUR greatest emotional need?  Wound?  Strength?  Where have some of your deepest yearnings taken you in life? What have you learned?  There isn't a single major emotional incident in your entire life that can't be used to create greater depth of character, greater unity of purpose and action in your stories.
##
What stories, films, or books can you think of that seem, to you, to be dominated by emotional needs, by the heart space?

A Chakra analysis of Bush

A reader asked me to throw my hat in the ring with an analysis of Bush, so here goes:
I would say this in chakra analysis of Bush: while an intelligent man, he seems to be the least intellectual president of my lifetime.  He seems to operate on pure instinct, and "heart"--but isn't that understandable?  If you were born into such a fail-safe position in life, wouldn't you feel blessed?  You'd know your accomplishments weren't due to your own efforts, but rather those of your ancestors, or perhaps just getting the divine nod.  Certainly, you wouldn't trust your own mind as much as you would "listen" for the voice of God in your head.  He seems to be very good at binding women to him.  Both Condi and Harriett seem to have emotional resonses to him more appropriate to lovers or husbands than Presidents.  This suggests to me that he is strongly sexual, but probably channels it in an openly ethical fashion (monogamy) while flirting like crazy in an "only kidding" fashion.  We know he is extremely physical, all that running and weight lifting and so forth.  He strikes me as having a very open heart, and a spiritual bent.  I think he believes much of what he says, sees himself as the guardian Father of the American dream, and trusts the people around him to a fault.  How else could he spend so much time on vacation?  His employees at the White House are some kind of surrogate family, with Cheney as Daddy, and probably Rove as big brother or Mentor/Uncle figure. 
##
My honest impression is that this is a "good guy."  A "nice guy."  I just think that the Peter Principle has kicked in something fierce, and this man is just out of his depth, and has gathered around him a group of people who, frankly, are smarter than he, but less honest. They feed him what he wants to hear.
##
I think Iraq, seen from this light, was motivated by a tangle of ideas:
1)  Crush a sovereign country as an example that no one in the world should mess with us, or harbor our enemies...if we even THINK you helped kill Americans, we will drag you out of your palace and execute you.
2) Get a solid American presence in the Middle East (we might be losing Saudi Arabia!)
3) Remember #1?  Look at Saudi Arabia.  Clearly, they were infinitely more complicit in 9/11 than Iraq.  But we can't attack them--they hold too much of our financial paper, and considering the number of holy sites there, it would enflame the Muslim world.  Notice that we attacked one of the only sectarian regimes?  Think that was an accident?
4) Of course there is oil, but as we've seen, the best way to make money isn't direct theft.  It is to support gigantic infrastructure rebuilding, and give out no-bid contracts to your friends, with insufficient oversite.  When billions are being spent, syphoning off millions isn't hard.  Corruption is as natural as the cook taking first taste in the kitchen.  You find it anywhere in the world that there are resources to horde.  So pure money-hunger HAS to be factored in, even if one thinks it a minor motivation.
5) Here's a nasty one.  If Bush is as much a Christian as he says, then deep inside he HAS to consider Islam to be, well, just wrong.  And to have a subtle but inerasable contempt for the culture.  Remember Ann Coulter talking about how we should "kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity"? Do you think that she invented that bit of horror all on her leggy own?  I think not.  I think that was lurking just behind the curtain on much of the decision-making here.  That "our culture is superior" is another universal human trait.  And when you have power to back it up, it's easy to believe your own b.s.
##
So there it is.  Bush is strongly sexual, but consciously channels it into monogamy and charisma.  He is quite physical, but I think it might be armor against something of an inferiority/daddy complex.  His heart is more open than his head, creating problems when he tries to communicate (public speaking) in any non-scripted way.  And spiritually, his eye is on the sparrow as he trods rather blindly on less lofty creatures.

Just my thoughts.  Of course, I could be wrong.

Thoughts from a Conservative about Ms. Miers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/21/AR2005102101825.html?nav=rss_nation/special

Any thoughts?

Domino (2005)

My daughter loved this film.  I found myself struggling to say something nice about it.  The story of Domino Harvey, the privileged daughter of actor Laurence Harvey ("The Manchurian Candidate") who became a bounty hunter in Los Angeles, is director Tony Scott's attempt to make some kind of truth out of what was obviously a drug-befuddled, adrenaline-junkie, utterly amoral twit of a doomed soul's story.  The fact that Scott claims to be surprised by her "accidental" overdose says that he had absolutely no understanding of this troubled young woman.  Are we supposed to overlook the utter lack of regard for human life displayed by these people living in a moral shadowland?  I could care about the faux-family she builds for herself (with Micky Roarke as her surrogate father and mentor in the bounty game) until they show that they are just as repugnantly violent as the people they are dragging in. There's no center of good, so what we're left with is ultimately our own complicity in their actions.  Just how amused are we by casual mutilations?  Well, in my case, considerably.  But I don't mistake the mutilators for heroes.  About he time her "love interest" Chaco shotgun's a man's arm off just because someone on a phone told him to...no, wait, he told Domino to have it done, and Chaco does it without hesitation...no, wait, it was a MISUNDERSTOOD order, you see, it wasn't their fault...
##
No, wait.  The entire thing is so obviously a tissue of lies and confused, egocentric fever dreams as she is wound up in a "caper" involving a crooked bail-bondsman trying to raise money for a child's operation (that's right--everything is o.k. because it was all for "the children.") and Domino, who has never killed anyone, suddenly becomes Rambo at the proper moment. She effortlessly swings between lap-dancing and Nunchaku-wielding at the drop of a hat, because she "has no fear of death."
##
All right.  But what to make of her, and the path she walked?  On the hero's Journey, it would be clear that within the text of the film, everything ends with an incredibly pat and unearned "happy ending" that completely eluded her in real life.  I am tempted to wonder if director Scott wasn't being a bit more disingenuous, whether he sensed the rot at the core of her spirit, and pretended to be pulled in to tell a story shaded by his intuitive grasp of her inevitiable self-destruction.  Not sure.  But she failed any conceivable leap of faith or maturation point, and what we are left with is a juvenile lack of self-examination, ultimately as sad as anything I've seen in quite a long time.  It's a C-, and I struggle not to give "Domino" even less.  But ultimately, that would be whipping a dog that's already died.  Just sort of sad, really.

Chakra #3: Power

How does your character make his way in the world?  And the first three levels combined make up the “Belly Brain,” the realm of the physical.  It is time to be very certain that you know the PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND BODY COMPOSITION OF your character.  Is this person athletic?  Stoop-shouldered?  Physically confident?  And what exactly are your theories of how people become this way?  Genetic gift?  Training?  What combination of these?  How about other factors?  Where do you believe that emotions interact with the body?  Does her body display anger?  Fear?  Lust?  And speaking of that, let’s take a look at the way that physical power interacts with the previous two arenas: sex and survival.  When a human being has been brutalized, or pushed to an extreme physically, they can easily develop a shell around the “wounds”.  That shell can be fat…or it can be muscle.  There are (literally!) tons of body-builders who have plated armor around a small, frightened child.  Martial arts skills can function much the same way (ever wonder why martial artists don’t seem to be able to act?  Here’s the reason.  They have learned to hide their real emotions, while actors must learn to express them).
Movies dealing strongly with these first three chakras, with an emphasis on “body” would be:
1) Almost anything by Stallone (except the 1st Rocky, which strongly engaged the Heart chakra)
2) “Basic Instinct” uses survival, sex, and physicality.  Does anyone mistake those sexual bouts for love scenes?  No…this is sex as an extreme sport, with the danger just adding spice.  No heart engagement at all.
3) “La Femme Nikita” roots in these first chakras, but ultimately creates a context in which Nikita can explore her damaged emotions a bit.
4) Most James Bond movies.  There is little intellectual action, and very little emotion going on.  It’s all flash and tease, with sex substituting for heart.  Pierce Brosnan added a touch of genuine longing to the role—Bond is a man who cannot have a real relationship, and knows he will die alone.  But in general, adolescent boys are encouraged to believe in the fantasy of a self-sufficient man who can walk through hell untouched.  Whatever Bond is, he is not a human being.

What other films have you seen that deal with these first three chakras?

My First Time

ah, let's go back to when Steve was nineteen years old.  I'd promised myself that I would "score" before I left my teens, and was running out of options.  My mother had sold a house to a local big-wig (whose name I will not mention) and his sister had told me, in no uncertain terms, "I'm a nympho, Steve.  Come over any time and get some."  Ahem.
##
Well, one Friday night I showed up at her doorstep, and she let me in.  Call her "Fedex", 'cause she certainly delivered me unto a brand new time-zone.  We flirted for a bit, and smooched for a bit, and then she looked at me a bit cock-eyed (ahem) and said, "Steven Barnes, are you in a lovin' mood?"  Well, I certainly was, so she said "let it be!"  And off with the clothes.
##
I wish I could say that I performed like a stallion.  Well, yeah, if that stallion was a miler, 'cause it was over in about a minute.  I talked the whole time to cover my nervousness, and left as soon as I could afterward, filled with both relief, excitement, and a certain sense of loss.  Even after all these years, there is a part of me that tries to sort out those emotions, and why there was a sadness mixed in. I suspect that I could feel that powerful post-coital pull afterwards, that urge to bond.  And there was nothing to bond to.  No relationship.  No real friendship, just the heat.  I wanted to shout that there was something special here, that I had arrived, that an entire new chapter of my life had begun.  Instead, I felt a bit queasy.  Strange.
##
With the passage of years, I created a set of rules that governed my sexual relationships: I would always try to treat women the way I'd want someone to treat my sister, mother, or daughter.  I would always try to at least be a friend.  There have been times I let myself down, hurt someone inadvertantly.  Sigh.  I could be, and have been, completely oblivious to what ladies were actually feeling, and made poor choices as a result, but in all but one single case in my entire life, I'm still on friendly terms with every woman I've ever been intimate with, and that's a blessing.  Why?  Because I genuinely love 'em, I genuinely think that sexuality is a blessing to be shared, that it is unutterably delicious, and I never wanted to feel that sense of dis-connection that I felt with Fedex again.  It was painful.  I wanted to be able to laugh, and celebrate...even if there wasn't some deep eternal bonding.
##
Years passed, and I had the blessing of actually studying Native American sexual practises, a chance to put orgasm in the context of spiritual growth, and to learn to tap into that energy directly.  Wow.  I can't begin to count the number of times I've brushed up against my real beliefs in this arena in my writing...but have still never quite gotten it right, but will keep trying.  But it all goes back to that first night, when a woman who made me a plain, unvarnished offer moved a nineteen-year-old boy from one side of the line to another.  I hope she is happy in her life, and loved, and nurtured, and happy with her days and the path she has walked.  But more, I wish I knew.  I wish I had cared enough about her to follow up, and didn't have that vague sense of embarassment about what my first time was.  I wish we'd been in love, even a little bit.  Or even friends. 
##
But more than anything, I wish I'd met her earlier.  So much for spirituality.

Inner and Outer Worlds--#2

Sexuality.  Can you think of anything else that is so much fun that botches us up as much?  I know of otherwise happily married men who can't get past the fact that there will always be new women unplucked.  Women who make one horrific choice after anothr in their intimate lives, and slowly kill their hearts.  People who got married because of a pregnancy, and spent the next twenty years hating their lives.  Ugh. How much guilt, pain, joy, regret...how about a woman I know, sexually denied by her husband, who fell in love with the voices of Right-Wing radio guys, because they were the only male voices she could "interact" with?  The guy who let himself believe that sexual attraction to a 14-year old girl was an indication that she was brilliant and mature and capable of deciding when to have intercourse.  He's now in jail in New Mexico, his life shattered. 
##
And yet...some of the very greatest memories of my entire life have been sexual in nature.  New friends, old friends converted...spontaneous actions, well-planned rendevous...intimacy and group gropes...good lord, there's just too much, and every one has a different meaning and a different story.  I'm tell one on myself tomorrow.  But does anyone out there have a good one today?

The inner and outer world--part #1

This is going to be fun, I think.  As some of you have noticed, I have a new product advertised on the blog.  Trust me--I'm not going to start holding back in these writings trying to get you to buy something.  In fact, what I really want is to create an entirely different promotional stream for the "Lifewriting Year Long" so that you folks, who have tolerated my rantings for the last years, actually get marketed to LESS.  The reasoning is this: quite often on this blog I talk about social issues.  Every time I do, the number of readrs jumps.  To me, it would be swinish to reference natural disasters, racism and the like just to try to attract people ot sell to.  Ugh. Feels wrong.  Yet I want to talk about these things, and I also like to run my business.  My solution--to build this community, here, with as personal a series of discussions as possible. Yes, I'm proud of the Five Minute Miracle.  I'm even prouder of the Year-Long course.  but this blog is where I vent, and I want to keep it as pure as possible.
##
The core of Lifewriting is the concept of connecting the inner and outer worlds of the artist.  So let's take a real down-to-earth practical look at how we can do that.  The First chakra is Muladhara, and represents core survival.  Take someone's head and stick it underwater, and the lack of oxygen will instantly trigger this response: powerful, irrational, every engine of the human psyche revved up and roaring in seconds.  Think you know someone who lacks motivation?  Nonsense.  What you know is someone who doesn't believe that their efforts will accomplish anything worth having.  In other words, they
1) have no clear, empowering goal or
2) Have no belief that they can reach their goal.
##
In fiction, since the very beginning, survival goals have moved characters out of their doldrums and into action.  I can't count the stories--real or fictional--where the discovery of a serious ailment has motivated a character to drop YEARS of family hostility and strive for re-connection.  This is what we really are, beings that crave connection.  The fear and anger that separates us from the people we love is usually based on triviality.  Near-death experience clears this stuff up beautifully.  So...what have you experienced in your own life that touches this space?  Ever had a...
1) near-fatal car accident?  How did you behave for the next week?
2) REALLY bad plane landing?  What did you think about during the descent?
3)  A "mystery" ailment that had doctors and nurses giving you "those" looks?  How did you spend your time waiting for the test results?
4) Close friend die unexpectedly?  How did you react?  What thoughts about yourself flashed or lingered in your mind?  What did you think about things unsaid?
5) Have either or both of your parents died?  I promise you, this is a powerful eye-opener.  When both of your parents die, it is as if an unknown room opens in your mind, and suddenly you GET IT, that you are going to die, too.  You can't deceive yourself about it, and that realization can come with shocking clarity.
6) Had a child become terribly sick?  What ran through your head as you sat at their bedside?  How did you deal with stresses at work?  What new perspectives were yours?
###
there are countless other examples of what happens to us when death's fickle finger brushes our spine.  We are terrified of death, but when we are forced into confrontation with us, we often find that that contact lends an eerie clarity to other aspects of our lives.  Hoe many movies and books have we seen where personal relationships, formerly complicated, get very simple under life-and-death stress? (Die Hard, The River Wild, Terms of Endearment, etc.)
Why not take one of the instances you've had of grief, or fear, or exhilaration, and give that gift---or curse--to a character in a story?  What would you say to someone mourning the death of a parent, or a child, or dealing with a terminal ailment?  Whatever that is, believe me, you can use that thought as a primary or secondary plot point quite easily.  A character who is too cocky, too sure, can be brought to earth swiftly by makign their son or daughter ill.  There is nothing quite so powerless as a parent with a sick child.
##
Again, over the course of your life you have been forced into contact with death again and again.  What happened?  What did you learn?  It was his initial contact with death and illness that set the Buddha on the road to enlightenment. What did it do for you? What movies and books have you experienced that touched this space with grace and power?  Who dealt with it in a trivial, superficial fashion?
##
I invite you to dig.  The ocean of life and death is limitless.  From this perspective, all human life is both triumph and tragedy, depending on  your perspective.  What IS your perspective?  Let's probe this a bit, and then move up to the next chakra!