Remaking "Kung Fu." Oh, my

Apparently, Warner Brothers is re-making “Kung Fu” (before you scream about remakes, note that a film version of a television show isn’t a “remake” any more than is an adaptation of a comic strip or a book. In the top ten films currently playing, two actually are remakes, one is a book adaptation, and one is an adaptation of a television character. To contrast, 30 years ago, the top boxoffice of the year included one film adapted from a magazine article, “Saturday Night Fever”, one from a stage play “The Goodbye Girl”, and three from books—“The Deep”, “The Rescuers”, and “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Hollywood has ALWAYS looked for material from other media, or its own history.)

I’m nervous. The original series just lit me up. I loved it. Learning the tragic circumstances behind its origin (co-created by Bruce Lee, he was denied a lead because of his race.) or even more savage irony connected with it (after Lee’s death, his pet project, co-written with James Coburn and Sterling Sillophant, was finally made…with David Carridine, star of the television series. Jeeze.) I was watching a “50 Great Horror Movies” collection yesterday, and the one frozen on my screen is “Deadly Hour” starring Boris Karloff as Chinese detective “Mr. Wong.” Remember when there were Asian detectives like Mr. Wong, Charlie Chan, and Mr. Moto? Notice that as soon as it became politically incorrect to allow whites to play Asians, you never saw these characters any more? So bizarre, and so sad. At any rate, please note the following description of the actor sought to play “Caine”:
“For now, they’re searching for “Caine, Male, 20-35. A handsome mix of East (Chinese/Asian) meets West (American). A man with the emotional capacity of a young Clint Eastwood. Charismatic and charming, Caine was raised by Shaolin monks after his mother’s murder and became a highly skilled fighter. In addition to being a strong actor with the right look, the actor for this role should be athletic and although not required, some martial arts training, gymnastics or ballet are a plus.”

Anyone catch it? Anyone? Alright, here it is: we know that Caine had an Asian mother and a White father. Did anyone out there catch that they equate “American” and “White”? This is not a mistake—it is the automatic, unconscious pre-assumption of the majority: we are the norm. Anything else is “other.”

The ability to “norm” yourself, place yourself at the center of the universe and think that everyone else is “other” “less” and “different” is one of the hidden, invisible and almost insurmountable advantages white Americans give their children. It’s like the ability to look at “flesh” colored band-aids or crayons, and never, ever consider that there might be something odd in that label.

BTW—I’d figure there’s about a 40 percent chance that Keanu Reeves will get the role of Caine. He does actually have some Asian blood, at least. What would be astounding is an Asian actor “made up” to look more Caucasian. Never, ever seen THAT.
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Today I start my second round of “4x7” aiming at FlowFit 2 and the Bruiser Gama Cast Century. I made it to 12 sets of 9 reps. After the last cycle, I felt sore, so I think I moved a little too quickly, and kept my volume too high. I’ll start at 8 rep sets this time, and move up the ladder more slowly. The problem is one of recovery, and allowing my body to tell me if it’s too much. I think that 1-2 Bruiser workouts per week is plenty: it’s whole body like crazy.
##
Today I start the rewrite on “The Good House” for Fox Searchlight. One executive wanted me to cast a “good” magic and a “bad” magic on the basis that that’s what audiences want. I will if I have to, but have an aversion to this. Seen it too many times—and the “bad” magic is always something practiced by some dusky people, while the “good” magic is usually Christianity, or something practiced by Europeans. First of all, that’s just Cultural bigotry. Second, according to my own studies and experience, it’s over-simplification and simply inaccurate. Magic is a lot like looking at a pile of rocks, finding the one that holds the others in place, and slipping it out, triggering an avalanche—in other words, a release of potential energy that already exists in the natural world. It is a neutral force, like fire or water. Fire can cook your eggs, or burn your house to the ground: it is neither “good” nor “bad.” Those labels are added by human beings.
##
My best guess is that the obstruction experienced by those assigned to the 9/11 commission was real, but not the result of people trying to cover-up a plot. More likely, people trying to cover their asses in the face of a horrible cluster-fuck.

Worst case scenario I consider likely? That Bin Laden’s boys were helped along by folks looking the other way. Motivation? A bunch of ‘em, some venal, some nationalistic and patriotic, ranging from fear of radical Islam to the need to obtain oil for our national welfare to the desire to make a TON of money exploiting Iraqui oil. But that’s the outside range of what I could believe happened.

The thing I don’t believe at all is that “controlled demolition” brought down the Twin Towers. Why? I would guess it would take weeks, and hundreds of men, to wire those towers for demolition. And the evidence would be massive, and witnessed by thousands of survivors. And anyway, why in the hell would you demolish those towers if you were planning to slam airplanes into them, anyway? Make no sense. The airplanes ALONE would be enough to trigger a war. Doing something that would have to have, at the least, hundreds of witnesses who could send you to the gas chamber with a single whisper makes no sense. Conspiracies just don’t work like this.

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something rotten in Denmark. Remember: just like Conspiracy theorists would like you to believe damned near EVERYTHING is a conspiracy, anti-conspiracy theorists would like you to believe NOTHING is. Oh, really? I can’t believe either extreme. There’s never been an effective conspiracy that unraveled down the road? Never? A statistical impossibility, I’d think. And at every step of the unraveling, the best defense is to promote the worst, most wild-eyed “straw man” theories and mock them.

Of course, that doesn’t mean 9/11 was anything other than a series of massive screw-ups, triggered by a brilliant coup on the part of Bin Laden (and I really think it was brilliant), who correctly predicted that people would think that the best way to deal with hijackers is sit quietly and obey. It has, and will, NEVER happen again. That was a one-shot deal.

One thing that disturbs me is how frightened everyone got about the whole thing. Wait: something like one ten-thousandth of a percent of our population was killed, and people were willing to change our entire way of life over this? Like, if I’m the patriarch of a clan of a million people, and ONE is killed, I’m going to disrupt and frighten the rest of my family to get the perp? This really doesn’t make sense to me. Other nations have dealt with terrorists without spending a trillion dollars, or (contributing to the killing of) a million citizens of a country that never attacked us.

And how powerful was Bin Laden, anyway? He got in one sneak punch on us. One. And we freaked out. And what has he done since? A single suicide bombing? No? Nothing? Hell, if he'd pulled off so much as a car bomb during the Xmas shopping season, he could have really hurt us. Nothing. For SIX YEARS. Does anyone believe he wouldn't have hurt us, if he could? And if you really believe that we’re “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here” do you really believe that terrorists don’t KNOW they aren’t hurting us as much in Iraq as they would be blowing shit up in New York? Don’t you think they’ve heard that slogan, and know that we’re “deliberately” drawing them away. Do you think they’re that stupid, that if they could reach us, they wouldn’t?

Maybe you do. But boy oh boy, if so, you see a very different world than I see. Frankly, I hope you’re right, because if you’re not, we’ve done one of the stupidest, most cowardly and evil things I’ve ever seen. And with the recent information about George Tenet, the head of the CIA warning Bush DIRECTLY that best information said Saddam had no WMDs...and that Bush discounted him. Now, let's assume that Bush had the best intentions, and was misled by his "superior" data. I have never seen any evidence or suggestion that Tenet's info was passed on to Congress. And unless it was, you CANNOT say that blame for the decision to go to war must be equally shared by the Senators and Congressmen who voted to give Bush that power. Even if you think he had the best of intentions, if you can't admit, by now, that the White House did not provide the American public and their representatives the information necessary to make an intelligent decision...then with all due respect, I suggest that that article about rigid neurology and Conservatism was hideously dead on target.

9/11

Look:

I really, honestly, sincerely don't know what to make of the following. But the number of people who would SEEM to be in a position to have an intelligent opinion, who are disturbed by unanswered questions, is sufficient to pass on this email I received today. If it's 100% bullshit, I apologize. But if there is any validity in ANY of these opinions, it is so incredibly important that it be publicly discussed that I am perfectly willing to look silly. The questions about "Building 7", especially, trouble me--I've just never heard what felt like a good explanation for that collapse. Studying history...and my conversations with my old MI friend, convince me that terrible things happen, and then are lied about, and this has gone on for all of human history. Is it possible that something monstrous happened in 2001? You bet. Probable? I really, seriously don't know. I only pass this on, with caveats, because it would be irresponsible not to.
####

Here are 40 experts, including the Chairman, 9/11 Commission, Thomas H. Kean, Former Governor of New Jersey and Vice Chairman, 9/11 Commission, Lee Hamilton, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Homeland Security Advisory Council ~ sounding off in short quotes about their misgivings with the 9/11 commission and the too many questions that are still UNANSWERED .


Allen L Roland
http://blogs.salon.com/0002255/2007/09/11.html


9/11 REVISITED AND QUESTIONED

Summarized from www.patriotsquestion911.com.


Senator Max Cleland – Former member of the 9/11 Commission, resigned in December 2003 "I, as a member of the [9/11] Commission, cannot look any American in the eye... It is a national scandal... this White House wants to cover [9/11] up."

Senator Mark Dayton – Member, Senate Committee on Armed Services and Homeland Security "[NORAD] lied to the American people, they lied to Congress and they lied to your 9/11 Commission...the most gross incompetence and dereliction of responsibility and negligence"

Congressman Ron Paul - Vice Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee "the [9/11] investigations that have been done so far as more or less cover-up and no real explanation"

Congressman Curt Weldon - "[9/11 Commission] there's something very sinister going on here... something desperately wrong... This involved what is right now the covering up of information that led to the deaths of 3,000 people"

Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney - Member of the House Armed Services Committee "the [9/11] Commission ran up against obstruction by the administration and non-cooperation from government agencies... the errors and omissions immediately jumped out at us"

Director of the FBI, Louis Freeh – "[9/11 Commission] findings--raises serious challenges to the commission's credibility and, if the facts prove out, might just render the commission historically insignificant itself"

Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts, PhD - "Distinguished national and international scientists and scholars present massive evidence that the 9/11 Commission Report is a hoax and that the 9/11 "terrorist attack" has been manipulated to serve a hegemonic agenda in the Middle East... We know that it is strictly impossible for any building, much less steel columned buildings, to "pancake" at free fall speed. Therefore, it is a non-controversial fact that the official explanation of the collapse of the WTC buildings is false"

Assistant Secretary of Housing, Catherine Austin Fitts - "Regarding 9/11 "The official story could not possibly have happened... It’s not possible. It’s not operationally feasible... The Commission was a whitewash. "

U.S. Army Intelligence officer, Federal Prosecutor, Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Department of Justice, John Loftus ~ "The information provided by European intelligence services prior to 9/11 was so extensive that it is no longer possible for either the CIA or FBI to assert a defence of incompetence"

Foreign Service Officer, George Kenney - " I cannot believe, much as I might like to, the standard account of 9/11"

Foreign Service Officer, J. Michael Springman - "Fifteen of the nineteen people who allegedly flew airplanes into buildings in the United States got their visas from the same CIA Consulate at Jeddah"

Deputy Attorney General, State of Pennsylvania, Philip J. Berg, Esquire - "The official story of what actually took place on 9/11 is a lie. "

Major General U.S. Army, Commanding General of U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, Albert Stubblebine ~ "I look at the hole in the Pentagon and I look at the size of an airplane that was supposed to have hit the Pentagon. And I said, ‘The plane does not fit in that hole’. So what did hit the Pentagon?"

Col. Ronald D. Ray, U.S. Marine Corps – Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Deputy Director of Field Operations for the U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center - "I'm astounded that the conspiracy theory advanced by the administration could in fact be true and the evidence does not seem to suggest that's accurate"

Col. Robert Bowman, U.S. Air Force, Director of Advanced Space Programs, PhD Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering - " the official 9/11 story is impossible .. There is a cover up .. high levels of our government don't want us to know what happened .. highly placed individuals in the administration .. Dick Cheney .. the very kindest thing we can say about George W Bush .. is high treason and cospiracy to commit murder "
Col. George Nelson, U.S. Air Force, aircraft accident investigator ~ "I never witnessed nor even heard of an aircraft loss, where the wreckage was accessible, that prevented investigators from finding enough hard evidence to positively identify the make, model, and specific registration number of the aircraft -- and in most cases the precise cause of the accident... The government alleges that four wide-body airliners crashed on the morning of September 11, 2001, resulting in the deaths of more than 3,000 human beings, yet not one piece of hard aircraft evidence has been produced in an attempt to positively identify any of the four aircraft. On the contrary, it seems only that all potential evidence was deliberately kept hidden from view .. with all the evidence readilty available at the pentagon crash site, any unbiased rational investigator could only conclude that a Boeing 757 did not fly into the Pentagon as alleged. Similarly, with all the evidence available at the Pennsylvania crash site, it was most doubtful that a passenger airliner caused the obvious hole in the ground and certainly not the Boeing 757 as alleged .. the most heinous conspiracy in our country's history "


Major Douglas Rokke, PhD, U.S. Army ~ "Regarding the impact at the Pentagon on 9/11/2001 "when you look at the damage, it was obviously a missile."

Capt. Russ Wittenberg, U.S. Air Force, fighter pilot, commercial pilot flying 707, 720, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, and 777 ’s. Had previously flown Flight 93, which impacted in Pennsylvania, and Flight 175, the second plane to hit the WTC ~"The government story they handed us about 9/11 is total B.S. plain and simple...[Regarding Flight 77]"The airplane could not have flown at those speeds which they said it did without going into what they call a high speed stall. The airplane won’t go that fast if you start pulling those high G maneuvers at those bank angles... The vehicle that hit the Pentagon was not Flight 77"
Lt. Col. Karen U. Kwiatkowski, PhD, U.S. Air Force, Office of the Secretary of Defense, staff of the Director of the National Security Agency ~ "It is as a scientist that I have the most trouble with the official government conspiracy theory, mainly because it does not satisfy the rules of probability or physics. The collapses of the World Trade Center buildings clearly violate the laws of probability and physics...There was a derth of visible debris on the relatively unmarked Pentagon, where I stood only minutes after the impact. Beyond this strange absence of airliner debris, there was no sign of the kind of damage one would expect from the impact of a large airliner... this visible evidence or lack thereof may also have been apparent to the Sec of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who in an unfortunate slip of the tongue referred to the aircraft that slamed into the Pentagon as a ' missile ' ... I saw nothing of significance at the point of contact ~ no airplane metal or cargo debris was blowing on the lawn in front of the damaged building as smoke billowed from within the Pentagon .. all of us staring at the Pentagon that morning were indeed looking for such debris, but what we expected was not evident .. the same is true with regard to the damage we expected .. but I did not see this kind of damage. Rather, the facade had a rather small hole, no larger than 20 feet in diameter. Although this facade later collapsed, it remained standing for 30 0r 40 minutes, with the roof remaining relatively straight .. The scene, in short, was not what I would have expected from a strike by a large jetliner. It was, however, exactly what one would have expected if a missile had struck the Pentagon "

1. Senior Military Affairs Journalist at the Naval Postgraduate School, Barbara Honegger, MS ~ "The US military, not al Qaeda, had the sustained access weeks before 9/11 to also plant controlled demolition charges throughout the superstructures of WTC 1 and WTC 2, and in WTC 7, which brought down all three buildings on 9/11...A US military plane, not one piloted by al Qaeda, performed the highly skilled, high−speed 270−degree dive towards the Pentagon that Air Traffic Controllers on 9/11 were sure was a military plane as they watched it on their screens. Only a military aircraft, not a civilian plane flown by al Qaeda, would have given off the "Friendly" signal needed to disable the Pentagon’s anti−aircraft missile batteries as it approached the building...Only the US military, not al Qaeda, had the ability to break all of its Standard Operating Procedures to paralyze its own emergency response system"

Capt. Gregory M. Zeigler, PhD, U.S. Army, U.S. Army Intelligence Officer ~ "I knew from September 18, 2001, that the official story about 9/11 was false. ... [A]nomalies poured in rapidly: the hijackers' names appearing in none of the published flight passenger lists, BBC reports of stolen identities of the alleged hijackers or the alleged hijackers being found alive, the obvious demolitions of WTC 1 and 2...and WTC7...not hit by an airplane...the lack of identifiable Boeing 757 wreckage at the Pentagon"

* Capt. Eric H. May, U.S. Army, Intelligence officer ~ "I view the 911 event ...as a matter that implies either...A) passive participation by the Bush White House through a deliberate stand-down or B) active execution of a plot by rogue elements of government, starting with the White House itself, in creating a spectacle of destruction that would lead the United States into an invasion of the Middle East"

Former Chairman, National Intelligence Estimates, CIA, responsible for preparing the President’ Daily Brief, U.S. Army Intelligence Officer, Raymond L. McGovern ~ " I think at simplest terms, there’s a cover-up. The 9/11 report is a joke...just as Hitler in 1933 cynically exploited the burning of the parliament building, the Reichstag, this is exactly what our President did in exploiting 9/11...making a war of aggression on a country that he knew had nothing to do with 9/11...that’s certainly an impeachable offense...But compelling evidence for an even more disturbing conclusion: that the 9/11 attacks were themselves orchestrated by this administration precisely so they could be thus exploited."
National Intelligence Officer and Director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political Analysis, William Christison ~ "there is persuasive evidence that the events of September did not unfold as the Bush administration and the 9/11 Commission would have us believe. … An airliner almost certainly did not hit The Pentagon. … The North and South Towers of the World Trade Center almost certainly did not collapse and fall to earth because hijacked aircraft hit them...this all was totally an inside job… I have since decided that....at least some elements in this US government had contributed in some way or other to causing 9/11 to happen or at least allowing it to happen... The reason that the two towers in New York actually collapsed and fell all the way to the ground was controlled explosions rather than just being hit by two airplanes. … All of the characteristics of these demolitions show that they almost had to have been controlled explosions... I think you almost have to look at the 9/11 Commission Report as a joke and not a serious piece of analysis at all... It's a monstrous crime"


U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer, case officer CIA. Robert David Steele ~ "I am forced to conclude that there is sufficient evidence to indict (not necessarily convict) Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and others...This is, without question, the most important modern reference on state-sponsored terrorism, and also the reference that most pointedly suggests that select rogue elements within the US Government, most likely led by Dick Cheney with the assistance of George Tenet, Buzzy Kronguard, and others close to the Wall Street gangs, are the most guilty of state-sponsored terrorism...I'm absolutely certain that WTC 7 was brought down by controlled demolition and that as far as I'm concerned means that this case has not been properly investigated. There's no way that building could have come down without controlled demolition"
CIA Case Officer, Specialist in the Middle East, Directorate of Operations, Awarded Career Intelligence Medal, Robert Baer ~ " Regarding the opinion there was an aspect of 'inside job' to 9/11 within the U.S. government, "There is that possibility, the evidence points at it."

Counter-terrorism expert in the Security Division of the federal Aviation Administration. Team leader of the FAA's Red ( Terrorism ) Team in the Federal Air Marshall program, Coast Guard officer, Bogdan Dzakovic ~ "At worst, I think the 9/11 Commission Report is treasonous."
Minister of Justice, West Germany, Horst Ehmke, PhD - "Terrorists could not have carried out such an operation with four hijacked planes without the support of a secret service."

1. State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Defense, West Germany, Andreas von Buelow, PhD - "The official story is so inadequate and far-fetched that there must be another one...This is unthinkable, without years-long support from secret apparatuses of the state and industry."

President of Italy, Francesco Cossiga ~ "[9/11] could not be accomplished without infiltrations in the radar and flight security personnel."

General Leonid Ivashov, Chief of Staff, Russian armed forces, Ministry of Defense ~ "Only secret services and their current chiefs – or those retired but still having influence inside the state organizations – have the ability to plan, organize and conduct an operation [9/11] of such magnitude...Osama bin Laden and "Al Qaeda" cannot be the organizers nor the performers of the September 11 attacks. They do not have the necessary organization, resources or leaders."
Foreign Minister of Egypt, Mohamed Hassanein Heikal ~ "Bin Laden does not have the capabilities for an operation [9/11] of this magnitude. When I hear Bush talking about al-Qaida as if it was Nazi Germany or the communist party of the Soviet Union, I laugh because I know what is there. Bin Laden has been under surveillance for years: every telephone call was monitored and al-Qaida has been penetrated by American intelligence, Pakistani intelligence, Saudi intelligence, Egyptian intelligence. They could not have kept secret an operation that required such a degree of organisation and sophistication."


Chief of Staff, Pakistani Army, General Mirza Aslam Beg ~ "The information which is now coming up, goes to prove that involvement by the ‘rogue elements’ of the U.S. military and intelligence organization is getting more obvious. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda definitely do not have the knowhow and the capability to launch such operations involving such high precision coordination, based on information and expertise."

European Parliament, Committee on Security and Defense, Giulietto Chiesa ~ regarding 9-11 "Billions of people were given only one explanation....which is entirely false....everyone who dares to question it is treated as if he was a fool."

French Army Intelligence and artillery officer, Col. Pierre-Henri Bunel, Expert in the effects of artillery weapons and explosives ~ Regarding Department of Defense photos of the Pentagon on 9/11 "Image of the impact on the Pentagon is very instructive as to the nature of the explosion. ... It corresponds to a detonation of an explosive with high energetic power. The explosion does not correspond to a deflagration of kerosene...suggests a single engine flying vehicle much smaller in size than an airliner...resembles the effects of anti-concrete hollow charges that I have been able to observe on a number of battlefields...lead me therefore to think that the detonation that struck the building was that of a high-powered hollow charge used to destroy hardened buildings and carried by an aerial vehicle, a missile."

Safety Engineer and accident Analyst, National Safety
Technology Authority, Finland, Heikki Kurttila, PhD ~ "Conclusion: The observed collapse time of WTC 7 was 6.5 seconds. That is only half a second longer than it would have taken for the top of the building to fall to the ground in a vacuum, and half a second shorter than the falling time of an apple when air resistance is taken into account. ... The great speed of the collapse and the low value of the resistance factor strongly suggest controlled demolition."

Counter-Terrorism Officer, MI5 (Britain), David Shayler – regarding 9-11 "The available evidence indicates that people in key positions in the FBI, the State Department, the CIA and so on were not loyal to the Constitution; that they saw an opportunity in plans laid down by genuine Islamic terrorists to carry out an operation that would shock the world and would therefore justify U.S. adventurism in the middle East, particularly in Afghanistan and Iraq."


Chairman, 9/11 Commission, Thomas H. Kean, Former Governor of New Jersey - "FAA and NORAD officials advanced an account of 9/11 that was untrue...We, to this day, don't know why NORAD told us what they told us...It was just so far from the truth."

Vice Chairman, 9/11 Commission, Lee Hamilton, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Homeland Security Advisory Council ~ "we got started late; we had a very short time frame...we did not have enough money...We had a lot of people strongly opposed to what we did. We had a lot of trouble getting access to documents and to people. ... So there were all kinds of reasons we thought we were set up to fail"

9/11 Commissioner, Timothy J. Roemer, PhD, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence - "that panel members so distrusted testimony from Pentagon officials that they referred their concerns to the Pentagon's inspector general...We were extremely frustrated with the false statements we were getting"
Senior Counsel, 9/11 Commission, John J. Farmer, Jr., Former Attorney General, NJ, Former Commissioner of the State Commission of Investigations ~ Some staff members and commissioners of the Sept. 11 panel concluded that the Pentagon's initial story of how it reacted to the 2001 terrorist attacks may have been part of a deliberate effort to mislead the commission and the public "I was shocked at how different the truth was from the way it was described...The tapes told a radically different story from what had been told to us and the public for two years"

T is for Television

T is for Television

Once upon a time I wrote lots of television: Stargate,
Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, Baywatch...stuff like that.
Had fun, and made a lot of money. Then my
first marriage blew up, my wife moved from
California to Washington, and I went along to
raise my daughter. Ten years later I returned
to Los Angeles, and found that I couldn't work
in the industry any more: the entire model of
writing had changed. Freelancers were no
longer hired, and they didn't hire anyone for
staff who was over 40. I think that the
technical name for this is "screwed."

Well, a couple of years have passed, during
which I've written three books, and sold a
movie to Fox Searchlight. Still, the inability
to work in TV rankles me a bit...

But I wanted to give my impression of television,
as I experienced it. Television is the one place
in the entire writing field where the economics
most resemble a "real" job. In other words,
so many minutes of television must be
produced each month, broadcast each night.
In that sense, it's a lot like the auto industry,
and there are actual jobs with paychecks,
retirement, and medical insurance for those
writers who can handle the grind.

Now, cable television is different from broadcast,
so understand that the following comment
does not apply to HBO or Showtime:

"Television is a creative medium where the
viewers are not the clients. They are the
PRODUCT, and are sold to the "client" (the
advertisers) in demographically-designated lots."

If you understand the above quote, you will
understand much about the nature of the
industry, and why the quality of television
--positive and negative--is what it is. I don't
have a lot more to say, because I don't like
to teach things not a part of my direct
experience, and as I've said, its been years
since I wrote for broadcast.

But study that quote. It will serve you well.

S is for Screenwriting Expo

S is for Screenwriting Expo

Here's a reach-out to my students: I'll be presenting
four lectures at the L.A. Screenwriting Expo, the 25th
and 26th of October. It will be out at LAX, and you
can learn more at www.screenwritingexp.com

This is actually an excellent gathering, with more
writing instructors WHO ACTUALLY KNOW THEIR
STUFF in one place than almost anywhere else on
the planet. My workshops will be on Horror,
Science Fiction, Plot, and Character. I've been a
"Starred Speaker" three years running. Let's see
if I can make it four!
So...in the craft of writing, there are many different
forms that have dominated the field at different
times in history. The narrative song, the play,
the short story, the novel...all have had periods
of popularity, decline, and resurgence. Currently,
the most vital forms are the cable television
drama, and the film.

Most of the basic aspects of writing are identical:
plot and character interact to create theme,
meaning, poetics and emotion. But with the
screenplay, it is vital that the majority of the
meaning is conveyed visually.

I was watching "Witness" yesterday. A terrific
movie about an Amish family caught up in the
violent world of world-weary cop John Booker.
Booker is ultimately forced to hide out in the
Amish community, and there the contrast
between the two lifestyles is played out on
multiple levels.

You could easily, EASILY, turn the sound off,
and follow the film. Every step of the relationship
dance between Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis.
The triangle with Alexander Gudenov. The
corruption at the police department. The savage
murder that sets the plot in motion, witnessed
by an innocent child. The insularity of the
Amish community, and their love and support
for each other--as well as their disapproval
of any action that challenges their customs.

Watch the film. Note the actions that symbolize
submission to the Amish lifestyle (Ford handing
gun and bullets to McGillis. Ford helping to
build a barn.) as well as actions that symbolize
the dysfunction of the "modern" world (a car
not starting. Rude tourists. The deceptions
of those entrusted with "keeping the peace.")

This is a masterful Hollywood entertainment,
a small gem. Watch it again, with the sound
off, and see what you can learn.

In your own work, you have the obligation to
see that the dramatic spine is carried by the
visuals, not merely the exposition. You can
deepen and contrast your basic story with
exposition, but IF YOU CAN'T TURN THE
SOUND OFF AND FOLLOW THE STORY, YOU
MAY NOT HAVE A FILM.

Think about it.

Conservative versus Liberal Neurology

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/
la-sci-politics10sep10,0,5982337.story?coll=la-home-center


Interesting article, if accurate. But I want to re-state that I have NOT seen, in general, a sweeping difference in fitness, emotional health, or finances between the two polarities. Whatever is going on here (if indeed anything is) should be evaluated without smugness or finger-pointing. One might ask: "under what conditions is tendency X more valuable than tendency Y?" Because, clearly, both ways of thinking are pretty deeply wired into our brains...

Jason the wonder-kid...

We just bought Jason a new bed. It looks like a blue sports car, and has no rails—he can get up out of bed now, and that creates new risks, and new opportunities. I punish him (a little) for sneaking around at night, but this morning he did something pretty wild. God, I love that kid.

At night, he sleeps in a diaper, even though during the day we have him in underwear. Well, he woke up wet, got out of bed…and changed himself. Took off his diaper, put on a new one, and threw the old one away! Kid cracks me up.
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I finished my first 4X7 cycle using a Density technique for Bruiser Gama Casts. Got up to 10 reps per set, from an initial volume of 5 reps per set. Did yoga Saturday, and felt serious toxins wringing out of the old body. THEN I realized that I was at the end of the 4X7, and that it was appropriate to feel a bit trashed…especially since I felt strong as hell in my last workout. Now, four days of recover, and begin my next cycle on Thursday. It will be interesting to see how far I progress this time. I’m really going to take it slowly, though…
##
A dear friend who was sexually active at 13 with grown men has chimed in on the issue of my old training buddy, whom we’ll call “Wally” right now. Her judgment is that I should wipe the slate clean—not hold his past against him, but also consider that my “friendship” bank has been emptied. She spoke with great clarity about her position. And I trust her judgment: she knows how hard it is to climb out the emotional hole she dug for herself. One of the men who abused her was another old friend of mine, and when I found out, it permanently damaged my ability to look him in the face. Wow. When I look at some of the wounds around me, it really makes me wonder about myself. Clearly, my associations mirror my own core. I can’t point the finger. But I can continue to clarify and refine my relationships…and continue to heal my own rips.
##
I’m thinking about getting a “Life Coaching” credential. Sounds like an interesting framework to make some money doing what I ordinarily do for free. Does anyone out there have experience with the iPEC coaching organization? Or any of the others? I would LOVE to speak to someone who has dealt with these folks. Right now, they look like the best of the bunch, but if anyone has contrary data, I’d appreciate hearing it.

Free Copy of FlowFit for every American

Good Lord. I haven't talked to Scott about this, but apparently RMAX has decided to give away FREE copies of their FlowFit program. Basically, it has all the benifits of the Five Tibetans, plus most of the benifits of a decent yoga program, PLUS it has the ability to take almost anyone across the aerobic threshold, meaning you can use it for Fear Removal. I taught this to a 300 pound guy with diabetes and half a foot. And you can also tax an athlete. Add FlowFit 2, and you have a program to take anyone from completely un-fit to fine condition, in about an hour a week.


http://www.rmaxinternational.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15796

DO THIS BEFORE HE COMES TO HIS SENSES. It's nuts. But it seems to be true. FlowFit is a wonderful exercise protocol, and they're putting their money where their mouths are about making Americans healthier. Just do it!

HPP and a long-distance call

For the first time in fifteen years, I listened to my very favorite hypnotic tapes (well, MP3 actually) this morning. It’s one in a series by Dr. Lloyd Glauberman, using a sophisticated technique called “Hypno-peripheral processing), an exceptionally clever and complex way to create a subliminal program. What Glauberman does is create two “therapeutic metaphors” (stories containing embedded suggestions that will resonate with the subconscious of the listener) and play one in each ear, simultaneously. There are specific phrases in one story that actually “cross over” to emphasize or reinforce what’s being said in the other ear. Because you can’t consciously listen to both simultaneously, you drop into a deep and receptive trance quite nicely, thank you. The HPP program is called “The Pursuit of Excellence” and it’s worth seeking out. To my knowledge, only three people have ever made tapes using this process: Glauberman, a bodybuilding guru named Frank Zane (with Steve Reeves, the most beautiful athletes in the history of the sport. Astounding symmetry! Then again, he was a math teacher) and…me.

Yep. Years back, when I was conducting the Lifewriting workshops, I created a version of an HPP tape using my then-wife Toni (she has a great voice!) as the narrator of the second story. I created two scripts, printed them in parallel columns so that I could time them approximately, and adjusted the “embedded commands” so that they crossed over from one story to another. Then we practiced for a day or so, getting the timing right, and recorded a dummy version on my TEAC Tascam Mini-Mixer. Once we had that, we just went into a professional studio, put on headphones and listened to the reference track, and repeated what we heard, concentrating on vocal modulations. Sent a copy of it to Glauberman, and he told me I should hear from his lawyers…no, not really. He thought it was really good work, and that I should produce them for sale. I never did…
##
We had our meeting with the movie company yesterday (teleconference from Toronto) and it went great. We’re now in rewrite, to deliver in 6 weeks. Yowsa! And I told Tananarive that if my back is to the wall, she can be certain that I won’t screw the deal up with my racial politics. We’re playing for position, and I have to keep my eyes on the ultimate prize. The safety and security of my family is more important than ANYTHING. Writing comes second. Martial arts third. That’s the order of priorities in my life, and everything else comes in a distant fourth. So if I have to choose between a Harvard education for my son (I’d love to see him as…oh, an FBI agent, or maybe a Congressman…) and my ego, there’s no choice. Some wheels grind more slowly than others. The important thing is this: I don’t have to be a genius to have a career in this town. I have to be professional. That means that I have to learn to speak in pure visual metaphor, negotiate the ego traps of this whacko town, and provide the highest quality work I can on-schedule and without meltdown. That would put me in the top 1% of writers. I believe Steve Perry said that his goal was to “be a faster writer than anyone better than me, and a better writer than anyone faster than me.” I love that. Replace “faster” with, oh, I don’t know…saner? Nicer? More professional? Something like that. And you’d have a big chunk of my strategy.
##
To Mike—be careful with the KB. It is a VERY serious tool. Work into it slowly, no more than three times a week. On alternate days, CAREFULLY stretch, or better still, begin to develop a yoga practice. KB and yoga together could create a killer program for performance, appearance, and longevity. Let the first six weeks be your break-in period. Go lightly, have fun, just take a time period (15-30 minutes, maybe) and experiment with different fast and slow lifts. ALWAYS do less than you think you can do. Take one day a week off COMPLETELY, to check in with your body. Warm up your joints before practice: the Five Tibetans, Sun Salutations, or Coach Sonnon’s Warrior Wellness program would be very cool indeed. Also, look into Sonnon’s Be Breathed and FlowFit. Both of them will teach you things about your body that can’t be put into words.

I LOVE Kbs, even though I’m not using them at the moment. I’m on a roll with the Clubbell Bruiser Century challenge. Today, I’m doing 12 sets of 9, starting one set every two minutes. It’s gonna be killer. Then later, I’ll do my martial arts workout (today is a “heavy” day, using Scotts “4x7 protocol. Tomorrow is a recovery day, and I always take Sundays off). Monday, it’s back to the BKF Kenpo class, hopefully having made the necessary adjustments in the last two weeks to do my workout AND theirs in the same day without overtraining. Being careful there—my pulse is low in the morning, my joints feel fine, and my overall energy is good. All indicators that I’m not pushing too hard.
##
I will probably go see “Shoot ‘em Up” today. Supposed to be great, brainless entertainment, a tribute to the phenomenal John Woo’s “Hard Boiled.” I also want to see “3:10 to Yuma” and the retro-slasher movie “Hatchet.” “Hatchet” will probably wait for DVD, but “Yuma” might go down on Sunday afternoon. Maybe. Going Salsa dancing with my cousin Oliveen later that night…life is just a cornucopia of delicious opportunities right now. I really have to pinch myself sometimes.

No idea what will happen next month, but right now, I’m feeling great.

Oh! Oh! Last thing: Bought Jason a new bed. Not a crib. No side-rails. It looks like a blue sports car. He’ll be able to take himself to the potty. Sniff! My little man is growing up.

Media Bias

http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=6664

The above link is to a UCLA study with some provocative insights into media bias. Take a look, and give your impressions. The study seems to have used fair and intelligent methodology.

Media Bias

http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=6664

Emotional Membranes

Today at 11am, we’ll have our next conference call with the studio making our movie. After that, another story meeting, probably face to face, with our producers (both very very smart ladies). And after that…T and I dive into the re-write on The script. Her novel deals with a black family moving back to an all-white town in the Northwest (curiously, T got her inspiration for this while we were living in Longview. Hmmm.) In writing the script, and dealing with the studio, I’m becoming aware of a casting issue.

It’s like this: the lead character, has a rather nasty husband. She also has a love interest who develops after the husband bails on her. Now, one thing any studio wants to do is recoup its investment. They want the film to play to the widest possible audience. This, of course, is why we were asked: “do the characters HAVE to be black?” This is in practical acknowledgement of that “5-10% disconnect” that I’ve talked about so much. Now, I’m seeing a casting situation that might very well develop: the husband will be cast black, and the love interest will be cast white. This sort of “color-blind casting” (it never really is. There are very specific types of roles that can be “color-blind” we all know which ones can’t.) could very easily happen if no one is watching. My own leverage isn’t great in this situation. I can easily see a situation where a black man is cast as the husband, and oh, Matthew McConaughey is cast as the love interest. And I can see the studio looking at me quite innocently (in the form of numerous execs) and accusing me of racism if I object. I think that my best defense is to point out the creative bankruptcy of the “evil black man, white guy gets the black woman” model. I’ve seen variations on it so often I’m tired of hearing my own voice on the subject, especially since it seems to be a lone voice in the wilderness.

Wow. Would I have the balls to risk the best chance I’ve ever had to get a movie made, based on a point of honor? And if I rolled over, would I really be doing it to be a “team player”? Or to maneuver myself into a stronger position for future gain? Or would it be simple cowardice and creative fatigue? I don’t know, but one of those interesting life tests might be right around the corner.
##
This has all been brought home a little more sharply with the release of the AOL “Top 25 love scenes” list. Before I looked at it, I predicted the following:
1) None of the males would be Asian or Black.
2) “Monster’s Ball” would be high on the list.

I was right, of course. There were a couple of Latino males on there. I tend to use a more sociological than anthropological approach to racial typing. The fact is that there are interestingly “exotic” types that don’t seem to push the “Other” button as hard as I’d think. On the surface, some of these are often considered “non-white” but in practical emotional reactions, they are clearly “whiter” than Asians or Blacks.

And the standard I use most often? Simple: do we see them in natural romantic/sexual interactions with white females, without the ethnicity being a gigantic factor, massive pain being anchored to the relationship, or the relationship leading to death for one of the partners.

Clearly, Latinos fit in this category. Desi Arnez and Lucy, anyone? Arabs fit. Danny Thomas or Omar Sharif? East Indians seem to be sliding in there as well. Examples of this are smaller and less blatant, but I suspect its there. Although the skin color can be dark, somehow it doesn’t trip the tripwires that a Chinese, Japanese, African, or African-American does.

Strange, and interesting.
##
I think that there are psychological “membranes” relating to certain kinds of change or evolution in our lives. For instance, someone with a serious weight issue carries 250 pounds. They can lose maybe 10-15 pounds of that before hitting a psychological “wall”—if they lose more, they are exposing themselves in some way, and will panic. I’ve simply known too many people who can lose about 10-15 pounds, then put it back on. They stay in this cycle, constantly (on the surface) satisfied by their “progress” and not “noticing” that they are in a loop.

The same thing would HAVE to be true in finances (you can earn 10-15% more, or clear up your finances to X degree, before you freak out and self-sabotage) and relationships. Harder to quantify here, but the most blatant thing I’ve seen is people who have massive wounds in their own psyche, but think that they are “more advanced” than their partners. It’s very human, and is in my mind, a revulsion for what they see in the emotional mirror.

I’ve seen this with smoking as well—people who are always “cutting down” and then backsliding and “cutting back” and so forth. And pretending not to see that the game is to SEEM as if progress is being made without actually getting anywhere.

Well, I’ve noticed this in myself. As I approach the 170 lb mark, I can feel that my subconscious is confused. It doesn’t recognize the guy in the mirror, who is looking really RIPPED these days. So…on Fasting days, by the evening I find it much easier to talk myself into, oh, just a little piece of salmon jerky. Which triggers Limbic Hunger, and leads to more eating. I KNOW this will happen, but the voices in my head talk me into that first bite anyway. Just one bite, they say. What’s the harm?

Man, that’s like a philandering husband saying: what’s the harm with one drink in her room? Or a thief saying: who’ll miss a single dollar?

It opens the door, folks.
##
Somehow, this ties into my friend (did we decide to call him Wally?) Wally is a child in an adult body. He has serious impulse control problems, and blames his actions on the external circumstances. “I was stressed because of my divorce” “she was so mature” “I was depressed.”

And here is where the rubber has to meet the road. Whether the true reality of Mankind is either nature or nurture is probably the wrong question. We’re really looking at a complex interaction of genetic and environmental factors.

But one thing is certain: if someone consistently has a negative reaction to stimuli which does NOT trigger such a reaction in others, you have to look at this very carefully. It doesn’t matter that “in there somewhere” is a good person. In my mind, the safety of our children is paramount. The safety of our society is precious. A person who might, with infinite resources, be salvaged is a tragic case, because we don’t have infinite resources.

And where we spend our resources, and our time, is the best indication of our true values.

Thanks!

I want to extend thanks to you guys for cautioning me about my old friend. I will be very, very careful, keep him at a distance, and offer only generative help--he has to do all of the work. I think he is perilously close to a completely wasted human being: I pray there is a spark left in him, but I don't know. I really don't.
This is hard for me, but as Dan Moran pointed out: I've seen this before. The people I grew up with are mostly dead. Life is easily wasted. And he betrayed a primary trust in life: the care of the young. Even worse, in my mind, the care of a young woman. Sex is so incredibly precious to me, and the thought that he violated the trust of a girl NICKI'S AGE makes me so murderously angry that I have to process my emotions with care. I wonder: is part of my wish to help a reaction to my own repulsion? Am I "not living up to" my own self-image in some way?
One thing I know is that I don't have energy, time, or resources to waste. And this is as close to a lost cause as I've seen in a long time. But what I won't, and can't do, is kick him off the bottom rung of the ladder. I'm sure I can find some compromise...

But again, thank you for caring.

R is for Reading

Here's one I REALLY need to pay attention to,
myself. It is easy, so very easy for a writer to
forget that he must read. In general, the
minimum safe ratio is ten words read for every
word written. If you don't, it's much like
working out without eating--you can get away
with it for a while, but then your body will
devour itself.

And it isn't just a QUANTITY of reading we're
talking about. It's also the QUALITY. As I've
said before, please note that if you eat steak,
you excrete feces. If you were to BEGIN with
feces I don't even want to speculate what
the end product would be. Yucka.

The point is that your output will be one step
down from your input. You can't read comic
books and write classics. Sorry. Here's a
joke I always tell students:
"If you want to write comic books, read pulp
fiction. If you want to write pulp fiction,
read popular fiction. If you want to write
popular fiction, read bestsellers. If you
want to write bestsellers, read classics.
And if you want to write classics..? Choose
your grandparents very carefully."

Yeah, I know, I sneer at the concept of
talent. I believe only in "hard work and
honesty." True. But there's another side
to it, and that's that obviously an organism
is created by both nature and nurture.
We cannot change that immutable aspect
of Self given to us at birth. So we must
learn to mold our clay most effectively.

For writers, this means reading. Even if
you are screenwriting, your depth of
knowledge of human nature, plotting,
texture, the history of drama...all of these
things are fed by writing, even more than
watching film. Even though you are
manipulating visual and auditory input to
create emotion, you have a responsibility
to know what the craftsmen who came
before you accomplished. And this means
reading.

Me? Sigh. Too damned often, I don't have
the discipline to both put in a hard day's
writing, AND get my reading done. So I
start my day, every single workday, by
reading one Shakespearian scene aloud.
Even if I can't read the 10,000 words I
know are necessary to hit my peak, I'm
still feeding my subconscious some of
the highest-protein quality input on the
planet. Hopefully, I'll cope.

Q is for Question

Q is For Questions

There are times when you simply get stuck, when
the literary road you are traveling seems to have
come to a dead end. The answers simply will not
come.

And this is when it is important, in fact vital, to be
certain that you actually understand the questions.
In truth, I find that correctly formulating a question
will place you closer to the answer. In fact, a
properly formulated question will often jar your
mind from its stagnant track and get you moving again.

A recent example:

I'm working on a film treatment for a major action
star, based on elements created by other writers,
who had been developing the story for about two
years.

Where do I start? Well, I have to identify the most
important aspects of the project. What is my end
point? Well, how about a movie that is well-received
by both critics and public, and is deeply satisfying
to me as well.

What is the point previous to this? To create a
script that will excite a studio, stars, the technical
and financial people necessary to produce,
complete, and distribute a film.

What is the point previous to this? To create a
script that will excite the executives who evaluate
the projects that come through the door of a
studio, so that the higher-ups will take it
seriously, and set up face-to-face meetings in
which the possibilities can be discussed. And
the script will be purchased.

What is the point previous to this? To create
a treatment that all of the producers involved
in the project can agree upon.

Now, this is where the very human element
comes in. The people who originally created
the project are just people, with egos and
emotional needs. They invested themselves
in this work, and although there are aspects
of their vision that are...shall we say non-optimal?
There are other aspects that are quite
impressive, ingredients that could actually
make a tasty cinematic meal.

This situation (and at least one person reading
this knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
Hi, Sweetie!) is delicate, somewhat akin to
entering a kitchen after three other cooks
have half-finished a meal, and being asked
to make an exquisite dinner.

If feelings are hurt, people will kill deals just
for spite. Happens all the time. So I have a
"stew" of odd parts, that doesn't work as a f
ilm. But... what if I had to make it work?
What if someone offered to blow my daughter's
brains out if I didn't make it work? Or to put
a million dollars on the table if I did?

Then...another question. What if I look at the
treatment I was handed as a newspaper story
about actual events that happened. Some of
the facts may have been garbled. Some of
the witnesses interviewed may have been
wrong, or their words distorted or
misremembered. They may have lied.

But SOMETHING actually happened.
Something very similar to what was written
down. If I can dig deeply enough, think
broadly enough, I can reconstruct the actual
event.

And then find the way to tell it most creatively
and honestly and entertainingly...
##
Do you see how this process all began by
asking questions? And that if you follow
the right questions to their conclusion, you
can dismantle a creative log-jam? Try it.
Try writing five vital questions about the
project you are currently working on. Until
you get your own, try these:

1) What is my climactic scene?
2) What is the dominant emotion of this piece?
3) What is my lead characters great desire,
his grand obsession?
4) What is the hidden truth of the lie my
lead character uses to justify his existence?
5) Who is the audience for my story, and
how can I most deeply satisfy them?
##
There are more questions. Infinitely more.
Start with these, and keep going.

An old friend resurfaces...

Nicki’s been out in Las Vegas at an Anime convention this weekend. I’m still getting used to her having this much mobility and freedom. Ah well, it’s all to the good. She takes off for college in three weeks…
##
I want to attend classes at the BKF school down in Leimert Park. My most serious concern is one of balancing the exercise with my personal recovery work. Can’t let the workouts there interfere with my private work.

The reason for this is that my own private workouts are tuned to my physiology and psychological makeup, designed, to optimize my health and performance. The workout at a martial arts school is designed to maximize your performance in that particular style. Often, they are a collection of exercises that produce generalized fitness, or some particular set of attributes considered desirable by the teachers.

Often, these are exercises that are more appropriate for teenagers than those of us over forty. Long sets of pushups certainly produce upper body strength and muscular endurance, as well as a certain amount of overall dynamics. But they also court repetitive stress injuries in sufficiently high numbers, and need to be monitored for joint damage. They knock off a hundred pushups and situps in a class, so I have to be able to do that, but also have to integrate that preparedness into my overall plan.

So yesterday was a test. Full “Density Cycle” workout in the morning (12 sets of 9 Gama Casts, starting one set every two minutes) nd then a game of “Cards” starting at 8pm in the evening—the time a class starts at the Leimert Park school. I chose Hindu Pushups, Situps, 16-KG Kettlebell C&J, and the “Over and Under” 3-2 punch combination that is the core of BKF Kenpo. Assign each a suit, shuffle the cards and off I go. I completed the deck in 33 minutes and 57 seconds, and felt a little (but not a lot) wrung out by the end. The trick is to:
1) make my home workout tougher than the one in class
2) See what it takes to recover effectively.

I don’t feel sore today, but I’m betting that’s an illusion. If I don’t do my yoga, and maybe Spa as well, I’m gonna be a hurtin’ unit tomorrow…
##
I have a situation that I’d love some comments on. An old friend of mine, call him Wally, made a hideous mistake, in the form of initiating a sexual relationship with an underaged girl. Even worse, he was an assistant instructor at her school at the time. We were all shocked when it happened, and I was very disappointed by his apparent inability to understand what he had done wrong. After all, she was a VERY mature thirteen year old…

Jesus Christ. Anyway, he’s just finished almost six years in prison, and is out. As you can imagine, his life is pretty close to destroyed. He would love to be in touch with me, and I spoke to him on Saturday—he lives in another state. I’m really not sure who he is anymore, how prison might have/must have changed him. He could be broken, he could be dangerous. I just don’t know, and I have a sinking sense that there is nothing I can do for him. I’ve tried so hard over the years, and he just wouldn’t listen. I certainly didn’t see THIS particular problem coming, but there was a lack of adult responsibility, as well as some serious impulse control issues.

He has done some terrible things…but he is also someone I care about. If there is anything I can do to genuinely help him get his life together, I really want to. But I’m afraid there is nothing, that he is too far gone, and that I’d be pouring my energy down a sinkhole.

This is especially important to consider because of the opportunities opening to me right now. If I can keep my act together, this is the moment I’ve waited and worked for my entire life. Success at this point, at this time, in these ways means not only fulfillment of personal dreams but the ability to contribute to my family, my community, and the culture at large. But…I fear that I am tempted to throw away a human being who is holding on to the edge of the world by his fingernails. Terrified, ashamed, possibly close to just checking out.

What do you do? When do you let go of an old friend?

HAPPY 60TH STEVE PERRY!

“The secret to Life” said Old Perry
“Is to eat, and to drink, and be merry.
To my very last breath
I’ll outrun Mr. Death
Til I’m too goddam ancient to bury.”

Almost there, old son. Another few years, and they’ll have to re-set your odometer. HAPPY 60TH, STEVE!!
##
Dammit, I have to miss a free trip to Antigua this year—I’m already booked for the Miami Book Faire, and a Black Speculative Fiction conference. If you’ve never been to Antigua, you’re missing a fabulous vacation spot.
##
On the Michael Vick dog-fighting case. Abominable. But I doubt if people would have been as upset were it, say, cock fighting. Why? Because we don’t eat dogs, that’s why. If I was a rooster, I might very well prefer to being a fighting rooster—at least then I’d have a chance. Much like being a bull in a bull-fight. At least you have a chance, however small. But we love our dogs, and the spectacle of Man’s Best Friend bred, raised, and conditioned for such savagery rips our hearts out.

What do I think of him as a human being? Well, he’s not likely to be as empathetic to the condition of his fellow man as the average person. While the inability to empathize with animals doesn’t necessarily map over to humans…I still have to say I doubt I’d want him as a neighbor.

What of his career as a football player? We’ll see what’s left of him after his jail time. A year or two is a lifetime in the career of a professional athlete. Even if he still has his chops, sports is show business, based not merely on ones stats, but the ability to hold the loyalty of the crowd. I suspect that he may have crossed a line, such that the next time that he takes the field, he’ll get booed.

Is that fair? For him to have made a mistake that denies him the ability to use his skills to make a living? Well…you know, that’s life, in one way. It won’t be the government taking his livelihood away, in the final analysis. It will be the market-place. Yes, Mike Tyson was still a big draw after his rape conviction. But I think that’s because people had put him in the category of “barely human animal we like to watch nearly kill people” rather than “athlete.” Athletes are linked to the warrior ethic, where the young men of the village compete not merely to demonstrate prowess but to refine it. Ultimately, we react to them as we do because we understand that the safety of our children depends largely on the strength of those who guard the walls.

We NEED our warriors to be capable of great violence, but expect them to keep it under control. How many dogs were found on his property? Forty corpses? That’s a serial killing. How many dogs are worth a human life? Some would say thousands. Others that animals are more precious than humans. Most of us are somewhere in-between. When we see someone of formidable physical skill, if they are also violent, it is frightening. It unravels part of the fabric of our society—our trust in those more physically capable than ourselves.

At the least, we can no longer hold such men and women up as heroes to our children. They become cautionary tales at best. But we want more than that. We want them to be heroic. Exemplary. We want them to be destinations to inspire our children, and ourselves. So we pay them vast sums of money to exhibit their very special skills. And we are, in my mind, fully justified to withdraw our affection when our trust is betrayed.

Yes, he’s just an athlete. No one should take that away from him. But a rich and beloved athlete? That we deserve a vote on. It’s our money, ultimately. Even more importantly, it’s our love.

Lifewriting Theme song?

Someone pointed out that Liberals tend to use the term “Neocon” as an umbrella term for whatever they don’t like on the Right. I think there’s some truth to that. But to complete the position, it seems to me that in casual discourse and on talk radio, Liberals use the term “Neocon” the way Conservatives use the term “Liberal.” There seems to be genuine venom there, even the “Hah-Hah only kidding” venom of the old bumper sticker “If they take away our guns, how will we shoot the Liberals?” that I used to see. Hah hah.
##
I remember when Liberality per se lost me. It was during the initial debates on Nuclear Power. It seemed to me that Liberal Democrats were debating on primarily emotional basis, and most of the technical, scientific information supported the position of nuclear power as a viable alternative, with its risks and rewards—like every other form of power. The protestors certainly had their valid thoughts, but there seemed to be a huge amount of sheer raving emotion there as well.

Of course, a strange variant of that seems to be happening now with Global Warming—only from the opposite side. And I think it’s just as sad. But the Conservatives lost me during the Civil Rights era, where they were very clearly fighting every piece of legislation, and to this day love bringing up Martin Luther King’s sexual peccadilloes as if that had something to do with his position on social justice. As if Thomas Jefferson’s ownership of slaves diminishes his position in the historical firmament. Yeah, right.

Of course, I can’t go Libertarian, either. I’ve heard Libertarians—all white, of course—suggest that Federal intervention during the Civil Rights era was a mistake. That blacks being lynched and beaten should have just “moved north” rather than ask the Feds to intervene, and try murderers for “depriving of civil rights” slain poll workers. Why, just because the local authorities wouldn’t try them, is no reason to tread on Double Jeopardy territory!

I consider this to be moral cowardice of the very worst kind, the kind of thing that implies a total lack of empathy for other human beings, if they are not of your tribe. I would not want such a person as a neighbor.

So…I have no political home, really. But I’m not at all certain I need one.
##
I was just asked to do a commentary piece for a Philadelphia paper on the subject of King Tut. Specifically, does it matter if he was Black? It’s so interesting being a cultural bridge. No matter what group I’m around, I’m asked to explain the positions of the other group. Story of my life.
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Lifewriting Theme song?

Two weeks ago I was listening to the radio, and heard (again) Natasha Bedingfield’s terrific song “Unwritten.” It seemed extraordinarily beautiful to me, and I suggest you hunt up the lyrics. But a quote from them (all rights reserved to Miss Bedingfield)…


“I am unwritten,
Can't read my mind
I'm undefined
I'm just beginning
The pen's in my hand
Ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words
That you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten, yeah…”


Oh, oh

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries
Are outside the lines, oh yeah yeah
We've been conditioned
To not make mistakes
But I can't live that way oh, oh

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words
That you could not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inner visions

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins…”


Wow. Nobody can tell me that today’s kids don’t have spirit, or can’t write music, or don’t appreciate the wonder of life. Love that song.

I was asked who my favorite poets are. I love Shakespeare, and Poe, and Emily Dickenson, and Maya Angelou, and Rumi, and the Bible, and many, many more. And in music I enjoy (while not considering them at the level of those mentioned) any number of poets, from Prince and Kanye West and Snoop to Harry Chapin (“A Better Place to Be” is incredible) and Bob Dylan to Stevie Wonder and Shawn Colvin ("Sunny Came Home", a devastating song about an abused girl incinerating her abusers, really hits my buttons) and others.

P is for "Poetics"

If someone wakes you up at five in the morning
after the wildest bachelor party of your life, and
asks you what a story is, you should be able to
give a coherent answer. The most basic aspects
of your craft should be so deeply engrained that
they live at the level of "Unconscious Competence"
--the same place that basic walking, bike-riding,
or bladder-control skills reside. If that seems
odd, please remember that, once upon a time,
you had none of these. They are all learned, and
only when you had learned them thoroughly
could you move on to more advanced behaviors,
skills, or responsibilities.

For a decade, I had considered "Story" to consist
of an interaction between plot and character.
Then my good lady wife, Tananarive, convinced
me to add a third: Poetics.

By this I mean two major things: the sounds of
the words as they interact, and the music of
the imagery. In books and stories, you write
in multiple sensory modes: taste, touch, smell,
sight, hearing. Your characters experience the
world in all of them, and you have the opportunity
to create a harmonic flow that can be absolutely
captivating.

In film and television, you have two senses:
visual and auditory. And eighty percent of
the audience's experience is visual in nature.
Film, especially, is what you SEE. So the "poetics"
of film is found not just in the language, but in
the use of visual images, the way that they play
off one another, resonate with each other.

When writing your first draft, it might be smart
to leave out dialogue altogether, to see how
close you can come to telling the story with
pure images--as a silent film. Then comes
dialogue. In your first draft, simply have the
characters say what is on their mind. In
subsequent re-writes, search for ways to
move text to sub-text, to have characters
talk "off the nose" so to speak. What they
DON'T say can be more important than what
they say, because it forces your audience to
engage with the process of communication.
If you've done your job right, the poetry is
created in their minds, as they search the
visual images, the sounds, the words said
and ideas unsaid...and find their own
meaning in your scenes.
But to teach yourself this, I suggest reading
a poem every day. Every single day. Learn
to understand the poet's craft on a level
beyond language. Language is the TOOL
that they use to accomplish an intent. It
is the medium, not the message.

N is for "Never Give Up"

I heard a story once--not certain whether it's
true or apocryphal. It's said that Winston
Churchill was asked to give the commencement
address at a British school. He mounted the
stage, looked out at the audience of fresh
young faces and said: "Never. Never. Never.
Never. Never. Never. Never give up."

And sat down.

It's never, ever, ever been said better. In life,
you should choose an occupation, a career,
a livelihood that you feel that strongly about.
Me? I'd rather fail as a writer than succeed
at anything else. I've typed my fingers bloody,
cried myself to sleep, wrestled with my demons,
read until my eyes were bleary, sought out
any and all advice or help I could find, wherever
I could find it.

All because what I wanted, more than anything
in the world, was to be a writer. Most people
can't handle rejection, not realizing that
rejection, in any arena from getting published
seduction to sales (and aren't they all really
just the same thing?), is just a numbers game.
You have to get rejected twenty times for
every "yes" you get. Or thirty. Or fifty.
Whatever.

The person who wins is the one who gets
up to the plate one more time after his
heart has been broken. Who gets back
on the horse after all his friends are wincing
and limping back to the bunkhouse. Who
asks yet another girl to dance after a
dozen have said "no."

It's a numbers game. When you start
collecting rejection slips, keep a scrap-book.
Paper your walls with the little suckers.
Consider every "no" a victory--you are one
of the few with the guts to keep going after
it gets tough.

And make no mistake, it's going to be tough.
Even writers who seem to have utterly
charmed careers have their personal struggles,
I promise you. They just don't wear their
hearts on their sleeves. You see the finished
product, not the hell they went through to produce it.

You must believe that your efforts will be
rewarded, if your goals are clear, you work
to the edge of your ability, tell the truth,
continually improve your circle of allies,
and have faith.

Go back over everything I've taught you
about the Hero's Journey. It is the combined
wisdom of all the world's elders, condensed
to comprehensible form. While nothing and
no one can promise you success, I can
absolutely guarantee you failure:

Just roll over and give up. That'll do it.

Most Bizarre I.F. Story yet...

I subscribe to an I.F. mailing list, and the following letter was in my box today, from a lady who owns a farm:

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"FWIW, in one group we had 6 people all try IF at the same time. Most
of us lost weight. But one person, who was underweight, gained weight. I
think if you want to have weightlifter-type huge muscles, it won't work as
well as the standard weightlifter diet. But if you want to be lean and
muscular, it might work well.
>
> I base this on my chicken experiments ... ok, chickens aren't
people. But breeds known as "meat chickens" have huge muscles (the part you eat)
> although those muscles are not very strong (typically they can't
walk well, and spend most of their time sitting down). I raised some meat
chickens on an IF diet though (all they could eat, once or twice a day) and they
came out strong, healthy, and lean. They still have a good deal of
muscle, but it's not as big as the ones fed all day. There is very little fat
though, and they are far more active and healthy. They can actually fly,
which is VERY unusual in that breed.
>
> -- Heather
###
Well, there you have it. Treats cancer, heart disease, obesity, Alzheimers, nerve damage, increases longevity...and can teach your chickens to fly.