Shit from Shinola

It's a known fact that Stanley Kubrick was a big fan of Carl Reiner's The Jerk.

It was on Universal HD last night and I watched it again. Fairly dated, goofy as all get-out. Some of it I think stands up pretty well, if you go along with it. Some of it's just unsalvageable. But I've gotta say, it kinda grows on me. A distinctly rewatchable movie. The kind you may not instantly LOVE upon first viewing... but you may grow to love over a course of time. Not unlike the way cancer cells will invade a healthy body.

Steve Martin had a string of movies in the 80s like The Jerk and The Lonely Guy (which is begging for a remake, written by me). They inhabited a peculiar reality that doesn't make as much sense today. Not in film terms.

Bit sick the past several days. Metamorphosis is painful...

Hold Up!

I'm gonna stop blabbing my mouth off here...

The face-to-face meet with Paramount's been postponed about a week. Contract's still being kid-gloved. Everything is still very delicate, so I am just being patient.

I know it's gonna work out. Next few weeks are just a vulnerable time...

You're a Woman, I'm a Machine

My departure from the nine-to-five draws ever closer.

Wednesday. September 27, 2006.

Thursday the 28th will be my first in-person meeting with Paramount.

I handle this with cool blood. I should be bouncing around, but I feel cold and determined. I know what I have to do. The assignment is clearly laid out.

Writing is a science and an art. For scripts, at least. Plot and structure are the hardest part. For structure, I take inspiration from Rube Goldberg machines. Take from that what you will. Get all the elements popping in the right direction, and then you've got a righteous machine.

I've learned a lot about design and symmetry at my day job. Learned about it to death. In unlikely ways.

Now, it's time for war.

In Chaos and Riots!

These eyes... see only what they wanna see!
These ears... hear only what they wanna hear!
These minds... think only what they wanna think!

Two weeks, children of the revolution. Two more weeks of day-jobbing and your Uncle Malice is going to take some time off to write full-time. I've been test-driving the whole "writing full time" schedule -- on weekends -- and it's amazing how much I can accomplish when I don't have to wake up early to clock in at a day job. I think I'm capable of a lot more than I've realized.

Which is good, because I'll need to be top tier to go where I want to go...

I'm feeling good about the work I'm doing now. It should be... surprising.

Purple Haze, Galang-a-lang-a-lang...

Stayed up till 4:45am, wrote a new scene. Went to bed and woke up less than 2 hours later having had the most unsettling dream...

Scribbled down as much of it as I could remember in a notebook. Was thinking of recording it here, but it's way too elaborate. Dealt with two weddings. Twins. Receptions for both held at the Manno Compound, on different days.

So much happened, I can't recount it all. But there was a cameo by someone at the very end. She and I had a talk. She looked like she'd been through a lot. There was the ghost of an elaborate tattoo on her face, as if she were in the process of having it surgically removed. She said a lot but at the very end, before I woke up, she asked me,

"Do you have a home...?"

Ghost of the past, present, future. Dark and ominous. It's a good thing I don't believe in ghosts or dreams.

Heaven is a Place on Earth

"Maybe I was afraid before
But I'm not afraid anymore..."

September 12th is National Monkey-Cat Day -- represent + respec.

A foot out the door with the day job, can't concentrate. I write, I blog, I use as much of my time for NOT doing what I'm paid to be doing here. When you're on your way out, nothing really matters. Anyone can see. Nothing really matters. Nothing really matters... to me.

I may have to fly out to L.A. sooner than expected. We're all slaves to a big machine. All tied up to a big machine.

I hate not being able to plan anything. I bought a ticket to a show I may not be able to see if I've got to fly out this week. Haven't been on an aeroplane in several years. But I will do whatever I need to do... because I want that million dollars, Howie...

Holy Fuck...

Just watched Paul Greengrass's Flight 93. Jesus Christ... I don't know when my blood's gotten so hot while watching a movie...

I know a lot of people who won't watch these 9/11 movies, and I respect that, but I think they serve a purpose. For all the "We Will Not Forget" sloganing, I think it's easy to forget. Even if you were here, like I was. Forget what it was like, before, during and immediately after. It was like stumbling around the street blindfolded, traffic whizzing around you.

What's the purpose of dwelling on it? With these dramatizations? Is it just fear-mongering? Or, worse, exploitation? I don't think so. At least, I think that's too large a blanket to put over it all. An easy way to dismiss these things.

The reason I write ANYTHING is to get something out. Express something I feel strongly about expressing. Put things into a different kind of perspective for myself. To whatever degree I succeed or fail in connecting with other people, that's what I try to do...

I realize that "The Butcherhouse Chronicles" (stage version) is NOT a Columbine play, but it's my Columbine play. Just like "Chinadoll Overdrive" is NOT a 9/11 play, but it's my 9/11 play. Knowing that puts it into perspective for me and gives me a better idea of how I move forward with them.

[The Butcherhouse Movie is something else entirely, and it'll become whatever it needs to become, and I'm at peace with that. My plays, however, are mine.]

I Remember When I Lost My Mind

Do I hear a new national anthem?

GNARLS BARKLEY
MTV
Conan
Top of the Pops

COVERS
Raconteurs
Nelly Furtado
Paolo Nutini
Butch Walker
The Academy Is...
Twilight Singers
Of Montreal
Mates of State
The Kooks
Texas
Bryan Adams
Billy Idol
Karl G. Remix
Dave Nada (Mash Up)
Kardinal Offishall, Joe Budden & Remy Martin
Amateur 1
Amateur 2
Amateur 3*
Amateur 4
Amateur 5

Christina Aguilera

Yeah, I watched/listened to the entirety of all of these.

(I think I'm batshit. Most likely.)

[* wait for the end]

My So-Called Horror Movie

"Witness to a Sacrifice."

This is my new line. This line represents the solution to a problem I've been wrestling with.

There's all sorts of problem-solving I've got to do with this adaptation.

What is an "adaptation" anyway? My screenplay is going to be so structurally different from my play. I'm mapping out the beats and setting up the skeleton. But it's going to be much more than "the movie version of the play". It's inspired by the play and will have the same premise, but it'll be a larger, more thoroughly realized world.

I'm feeling better and better about it as I come up with solutions to various problems.

Of course, that's me personally. I'll have to see how the studio execs respond to my solutions.

This isn't gonna be like Marber's Closer. (Though I liked Closer and I pray I get sole screenwriting credit like Marber did.)

Misdirection. A secret in a small town. Witness to a sacrifice. Unrequited lust. A romantic view of the world. Revenge.

I won't even begin writing for a few weeks yet, but I want to be ready when I begin.

... and I will be... with guns...

God Volcano

My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on a limb...
And all I remember... is thinking, I want to be like them...
Ever since I was little... ever since I was little, it looked like fun...
And it's no coincidence I've come...
And I can die when I'm done...

It hits me that I'm going to be immersed in All Things Butcherhouse for, perhaps, many years. Between the movie and the play (and potentially sequels), I should be in the Butcher business for a while. Even if I can nail everything on my creative end in good time, getting everything else in place is going to take some time.

But it's cool. There's a lot to explore in it. I hope it's not the only big thing I get to work on creatively.

My goal was always to get an opportunity like this. My new goal is to get many more opportunities. And get my bills paid on time.

What a weird business. I'll be getting paid to make up stories. I guess it's no stranger than what I've been getting paid to do at my office day job for the past 6 years...

30. Four months from 31. The countdown begins for everything I'd like to get done before I die. I should probably start taking better care of myself.