August 26, 2007 by Dave.

Damnit, this really sucks! I still have a few places in my room to check, but I lost something of mine. It’s a medicine bag that a friend of mine gave me a few years ago in Ft. Worth, TX. I knew Darla from the FUUSE community and talked a lot back and forth. We finally met at GA in 2005. She was as fast a friend in person as she was online. Anyway we were talking and somehow the conversations turned to medicine bags. Now a friend of mine gave me one that was a necklace that he bought in Canada. It was a bit touritsty but I wore it nearly religiously. So much so that from sweat and wear, a small hole bore its way into the back of the leather. I talked to Darla about that, and just like that she pulled a grayish leather medicine bag out of her pocketbook. I actually thought she was trying to show me her bag but she gave it to me right there! I put it in my pocket and it’s been there ever since. Until a couple of weeks ago when I was changing stuff from one pair of pants to another and it was gone. I’m still not sure if it’s still in the house or completely gone, but I’d like to find it soon. I really love that bag.

On the plus side of things, one script revision is knocked out. I started with the easiest one: the script that only needed the last act revised. I like the way that act goes and I’ve tightened some of the language up to lower the page count. So that’s been sent to my writing lab mentor to check out. Also I’m all paid up for my 20th high school reunion and the IFP film conference. I’ve been planning to go to that conference all year and need to get things up and running for that. Networking in earnest and really trying to make contacts to get my scripts out again.

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August 24, 2007 by Dave.

The last week or so I’ve been spending a lot of time on Memory Lane. My 20th high school reunion is coming up in less than a month. The list of people on the MIA list is long but so is the list of graduates. That got me surfing Myspace and classmates.com to see who else is around from those days. Of course it got me looking through the old yearbook, sifting through all the mullets, metal hair-dos and fades and checking out all the people I knew back then.

Let me just say that I hated being 15. If it weren’t for my UU youth cons and the close-knit friends made at the time in school, I wouldn’t have survived high school. I was definitely a geek, not quite a nerd, but certainly an outcast. I was told often and in no uncertain terms that I was too fat, too unattractive, not Black/Latino enough (listened to classic rock and spoke too well), and meant to feel like crap most of the time. Discovering and nurturing friendships with those in the same boat is what got me through. I am not nostalgic to relive those days again. However it would be interesting to see how far people have come.

I went to an art high school. In looking at some of the bios of fellow alumni on classmates.com, some people stayed with what they studied in one form or another (maybe not the exact form they started to learn); some took a totally different track. I’m one of those who stuck with it in one form or another—while I’m trying to break into the career I studied, when I do it will be a more sideways step.

It’s amazing to me how we spent so much time trying to be in the right cliques and competing against one another amongst cliques and it takes us 10 or 20 years to realize the whole thing was bullshit. It’s like that scene in Woody Allen’s Hannah and her Sisters, when Woody walks up to Diane Weist and says “I don’t know if you remember me, but you were the worst date I ever had in my life,” thus starting a great love for the two of them. A lot of what happened at 15 were the most important things to us, and when we look back we all were complete dorks and had no idea. 20 years later we either look back at those days as the best of our lives and have a need to relive them, or we use them as a marker to see how far we’ve come. I think even on my worst days, I’m part of the latter group.

For a few of my best friends don’t need reunions to get together again. We’ve stayed in touch ever since high school. Others it would be good to see again and see what they’re up to.

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August 18, 2007 by Dave.

Heard this story on the news. There was a group of Buddhist monks–vegans I must point out–that went to New York City in Chinatown and bought a few hundred dollars worth of live eels and turtles that are sold to restaurants for food. They then went as a grooup to release them into the wild. Okay, if they are radical vegans sounds like a good plan. Just one hitch. Where did they release the animals? The Pasaic River in New Jersey. Jersey! In one of the more rancid rivers in the state. Totally defeats the purpose if the animals they tried to release are DEAD! It really defeats the purpose if THEY kill the animals they’re trying to release.

The news reports say there is no evidence of the animals anywhere in the river. Of course not! I’m surprised the animals weren’t bubbling up the moment they entered the river!

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August 18, 2007 by Dave.

I posted this in another blog a few days ago.

I found out that Max Roach died. This was another celebrity death that was a shock to me. One of the founding fathers of Be-bop jazz and probably the gold standard in drumming all around, he revolutionized drumming in general by shifting the time function of the drums from the kick to the cymbals. Trust me, anyone who knows drumming knows that is a huge shift in making drums essential to the band. He’s played with all the jazz greats and influenced scores of other musicians of every color. He was 83.Okay, how many people have I eulogized already in the last two weeks? One famous director, a baseball hall of famer, an old high school friend, and now a famed jazz drummer? This is getting ridiculous. If anyone has any pull, make sure there’s no more deaths for the rest of the year, all right?

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The last two days have been spent interviewing potential new roommates. Haven’t had to do that in a while but it was a nuisance. My main roommate put an ad in Craigs List in July but got no bites at all (if any). I put one ad in Craigs list twice and we’re getting lots of requests. It’s been hard in that both me and my roommate have nearly opposite schedules. Since yesterday was my day off, most of it was spent interviewing people. We still weren’t able to do it together since my roommate had a meeting to go to. It’s just that we both need to be comfortable with the person moving in so we both have to meet them. Not easy with mixed schedules. Still I think we’ve narrowed down the field and will make a decision shortly.

I’ve been trying to get to the gym more often lately. My eating has been much more out of control in the last couple of weeks or so. I was doing okay for a while—three meals, healthier snacks though not many snacks—then it just started ballooned out of control. I think it’s when I lost the Sundance writer’s lab. Anyway going to the gym offsets it. Before I wasn’t able to because of schedule or something or other. I was hoping to be bike riding more last week since Sophia was out with her mom near Worcester and I wouldn’t have to pick her up, but I had a few errands to run in that time—including picking them up from Worcester area. Took to the weights again yesterday. Been off them for a while but wasn’t trying to get back into it for a while (varying the workout). Starting to put them back in—only doing light weights and more reps at a slow pace. Am sore from yesterday, but it’s a good sore. Plus the exercise helps me my head clear, which I can really use these days.

Been blogging like crazy and actually got a bit more into that novella that got stalled, but I’m starting to get back to the screenwriting. I finally started revising the final act of a script I wrote for a writer’s lab last year. I do need to tighten up a few things throughout it, but it’s less of a revision of the whole script and more of a polish. There’s another script I have to revise and that’s the full script. Personally I think it just needs to be tweaked and change some of the context, but it’s not a huge row.

Lots going on as usual.

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August 15, 2007 by Dave.

A few hours ago, I heard that Phil Rizzuto passed away. He was 89 and died of complications of pneumonia. Apparently he’d been in declining health for years and he lived a very long life. As a huge fan of the Yankees, this was a pretty decent blow to me. For me he was the voice of the Yankees. He ran play-by-play for all the games for as long as I was a kid. He spent 40 years in the broadcaster’s booth announcing the scores, telling jokes and stories and generally being the vocal personality for the Bronx Bombers. Sadly, while he’s getting sympathy here in Boston, it has little to do with him but for the team he represented. One person said straight out, I hate the Yankees. Another only remembered him from his ads for the Money Store and said “The Money Store guy died? Really?” In a word, wow.

While I only really knew his broadcasting stuff, I did know he was a Hall of Famer. But there so much I didn’t know. Up until his death, he was the oldest living Hall of Famer. I knew he was a Hall of Famer but I didn’t know however that he played shortstop. That’s a tough position for anyone to play, and at 5′6″, his plaque at Cooperstown notes that he “overcame his diminutive size” to do it. He played as hard as hell as short for the Yanks for 13 years, won seven World Series titles, was a MVP and a five-time All-Star. A great history for anyone.

But of course he’ll be remembered for exclaiming “Holy Cow!” for every great play he witnessed. Hell, just listen to Paradise by the Dashboard Light by Meat Loaf; that’s him calling the play-by-play in the bridge. Even the Money Store comment is based on his distinctive voice. Not a lot of people can say they’ve had a great career in their lives. He had two.

Out of respect the Yankees are wearing his number, 10, on their sleeves for the rest of the season.

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August 14, 2007 by Dave.

The 20^th anniversary get together of my high school class is coming up in September. That’s depressing in and of itself, plus add on the fact that I’m still too fat to be going to my reunion and, boy, my mood’s been in the toilet (one more thing to be depressed about these days and struggling against it). Anyway, they have a website set up for he reunion and one of the pages was for people from our class (1987 for those who suck at math as much as I do) who passed away and will be paid tribute to at the reunion. Two of them actually died before graduation and were given diplomas posthumously, but that I remember. This time there were a few more people up there, but the one that struck hard was my friend Vladimir France.

Vlad was a great guy. We always had something nice to say to each other in the halls of Art & Design. He was always friendly, always smiling a recognizable smile. Later he went to the same college I went to, transferring to Hunter College from Washington state (I believe). He was about the same age as me (I’m about 8 months older) and he was in much better shape than me to say the least. He apparently died this year in January of a sudden heart attack. To see his face on the tribute page was an absolute shock. I’m still in a bit of shock thinking about this.

While I wasn’t as best of friends as we could have been (we lost touch after I graduated from Hunter) I still remember him. He was one of the guys that made high school bearable for me. While others knew him better, I am glad to be able to call him a friend. He will definitely be missed.

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August 10, 2007 by Dave.

Okay, maybe not ANYMORE. This is not permanent, just temporary. But having said that, I’m seriously burned out. I think I’ve been writing every day straight since June, all working on a screenplay or applications to film labs. It’s been a bit crazy but now I’m tired of it. I definitely have another two screenplays to revise, but I can’t even think about it anymore. I did about a page of it yesterday, but when I tried today, I struggled to get half a paragraph out. I’m gonna take some time away from the keyboard as far as screenwriting goes. Too much of it is just taxing.

Still, I’m blogging stuff pretty regularly now. Granted I had a lot to get off my mind lately, but it’s basically a different format of writing. I need to work a different set of muscles than the screenwriting ones. Fine way to keep writing yet not flame out on stuff that I need to get written soon (well not desperately soon, but at least before the Thanksgiving holiday if I want to try and sell any of it).

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August 9, 2007 by Dave.

“What the hell is in the water?” That’s what I asked myself last week after learning about the spate of celebrity deaths last week—Ingmar Bergman, Michaelangelo Antonionni, talk show host Tom Snyder, football coach Bill Walsh and French Actor Michel Serrault. Bergman’s and Antonionni’s death, both on July 30, were the ones that really hit home , and Bergman’s more than Antonionni. Don’t get me wrong, Antonionni, who’s best known films include The Passenger and Blowup, has earned great appreciation for his contributions to the film world. However Bergman’s influence on cinema is much more far reaching. Yes I do say “cinema.” He was in many ways responsible for the art house movie fascination in the 1950s and ’60s, which influenced the movie makers of the ’70s—of course most notably Woody Allen (whose films he often emulated and even used Bergman’s cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, for four films), but also Scorcese, Speilberg, Coppola and others owe a debt of gratitude to Bergman. And me, too.

I’ve been studying film since I was 17, but I hadn’t seen any of Bergman’s films until 1995, when I was studying for my Master’s in screenwriting. We had to watch a number of his films and read some of his screenplays. To see his films for the first time was astounding. His films were the stuff of wonder. Seeing great films and reallying studying them, you never look at film the same way. Bergman’s films were just that. Some of the images he created in films like the Seventh Seal or Persona or Hour of the Wolf will leave you breathless; some of the images in the last two films mentioned will completely freak you out, too. To see a Bergman film is to also see what film is capable of. After seeing Hour of the Wolf, I realize that a script that I thought was too far out and couldn’t be done had been done before to great effect.

But it’s not only his visual sensibilities. Richard Schickel was talking about him and said that “his explosions were mainly in the conversation between two people.” He is an incredible writer and writing like his could never be filmed today in today’s Hollywood climate. They come close once in a blue moon in the independent film scene, but they too are few and far between. If you want to see how family dynamics can be portrayed on the screen in all it’s fascination and horror, look at Scenes From A Marriage or Fanny and Alexander or Cries and Whispers or Saraband (revisiting Scenes From A Marriage 30 years later). These are chamber pieces—limited number of characters, limited location, but powerful on emotion and drama. These films have serious gravitas; hell, they practically have their own planetary pull. He is one of those filmmakers you see a few of his films and are permanently altered, either by refusing to ever sit through a film like that again or to realize what true cinema can be and achieve. I definitely am part of the second group.