August 5, 2005 – 12:54 am ·
Dave recently switched from beer to wine. But as a long-time drinker, he makes the transition easily. Wine has twice the alcohol of beer, but it’s still half that of, say, Grey Goose. Still, he can put the stuff away, so it comes as no surprise to anyone that at Amoebapalooza last Sunday (which I miss) he finds himself staggering outside King King, slurring his words and slumping against the wall in a stupor. No surprise to anyone.
Except him.
Tonight he tells us that he had four glasses of wine that night. Yes, just four. I’ve had three glasses since getting home tonight and the worst effect I’m noticing is an incredible need to edit for typos. And lately, I’m not much of a drinker. Dave could drink four glasses of wine and perform open heart surgery. And that’s without a medical degree.
He knows himself. He knows his limits. He knows he wasn’t within a league of those limits on Sunday. He’s never blacked out, yet he remembers very little after ordering that fourth glass. He’s never collapsed on the concrete, yet he has a splint on his finger to remind him of the sprain he suffered after sliding off Brett’s shoulder. So what happened?
He doesn’t know. Understandably, he’s extremely curious. His last glass of wine comes via someone else. And this person has even mentioned “Roofies” in his presence earlier. Jesus, it doesn’t take Daryl Zero to figure that one out.
So the question is WHY? Was it a joke? Was it coincidence? Was someone anxious to throw Dave over one shoulder and have his/her way?
This stuff drives me crazy.
August 4, 2005 – 8:38 am ·
I haven’t been able to post this week. Since returning from SF, it’s been all about catching-up. That, and preparation. I’m pitching my new script to Maple Shade over at the Warner lot today. Then Threshold Entertainment tomorrow. Then I’m meeting with an independent director on Saturday regarding The Last Hit. He wants to make it, but only (of course) if we can rewrite it. That’s fine with me. It needs a rewrite.
The new script is untitled, unwritten, but it exists in two ways: one, as a full treatment and two, as an odd graphic I cobbled together in Photoshop:
August 1, 2005 – 10:48 am ·
Last Thursday I make the trek up to San Francisco. Rather than go into detail about the whole venture, I’ll offer you the two extremes and let you fill in the rest. The first pic is taken during the trip up. Were this drive competing in the Olympics in the “Most Annoying Thing Ever” event, the judges would hold up a unanimous score of 10.0. It’s the Mary Lou Retton of traffic days.
But then when we have moments like this, somehow it’s worth it.
All of the moments in between those two extremes pretty much hover closer to the second, in case you’re wondering.
Bonus points to anyone who can tell me where these photos were taken.
Three things I learned while I was in the Bay area: Bien Educado can mean “well mannered.” Aunt Tilly likes giraffes and vanilla but not penguins or chocolate (that’s a weird one.) And apparently, I’m not the Messiah. But despite how that sounds, I’m okay with that.
July 26, 2005 – 12:18 am ·
I’ve got work to do. I’m trying to assemble a cool mix disc and I’ve got very little time in which to do it. But I want to share four quick pics. the first is one I take on Sunday:
Pretty much sums it up, no? I get a fix-it ticket for not having a license plate on the front of my car. No big deal. But I will add that I am stopped by the hardest working cop in Hollywood. In between gettng my ticket and arriving at work (which is just down the street,) I see him pull over two more cars.
Recently I notice city workers scraping the thick, layered detritus of countless flyers off the power boxes and light poles around Amoeba and then paint everything gray. A beautification project of sorts. Tonight I am pleased to see that the first person to violate that effort is none other than Buffmonster himself.
This is a snapshot I take just a couple hours ago after work. We’re headed for our cars. The air is cool for the first time in over a week of sweltering temps. On the left is Sara. On the right is Kirk. Sara is a friend and coworker. Kirk is our supervisor on the Mezz (and soon-to-be-published children’s book author.)
Finally, a shot of the music DVD’s on the Mezzanine. This (along with Classics) is my domain. Trying to keep this stuff organized and stocked is a royal pain in the ass.
July 22, 2005 – 9:48 pm ·
When Jason Bentley spins Mylo on Metropolis, one can’t help but start grinning. I blogged about “Destroy Rock & Roll” already. “In Your Arms” is even better.
July 22, 2005 – 4:42 pm ·
Just thought you all might be interested in a few random snapshots. I’m on my dinner break on Wednesday. It’s rush hour. As always at this time of day there’s a ton of activity in the neighborhood. So I wander around in the ninety-degree heat and click away.
This is looking down from the CNN parking lot up Cahuenga Blvd towards Hollywood Blvd and the 101. A near solid block of cars. And check out that stretch SUV turning onto Cahuenga.
There is a huge premiere happening at the Arclight this evening. I’ve never seen so many lights ready for use. The red carpet is out. The generators are hooked up. The movie? Hustle & Flow. In order to get a good angle on the Dome I have to sneak up to the top level of the Los Angeles Film School parking lot (where, for lovers of insanely trivial movie facts, they filmed the “video within a movie” that Kevin Bacon shoots for Jennifer Jason Leigh in The Big Picture.)
Here’s another shot of the red carpet and the battery of lights set up for the evening–as if they didn’t have enough heat already. Special note: that 24-Hour Fitness you can see on the upper floors is where I work out. Just when I’d decided that the place, though nice, was too low rent for celebrity types (unlike the Gold’s on Cole where I used to work out) I spot Jason Priestly goofing off pumping iron there with a friend on Saturday. And in a typical Hollywood development, the gym is closed to members from Monday through Wednesday. Seems they’re shooting a film there. Sure enough, as I’m lifting heavy bits of steel there the other day, I see a typical cluster of film types walking around the gym floor, framing shots with their hands and taking notes on legal pads.
And of course, since I’m up there, might as well take a shot of the ol’ workplace. I just passed my one-year anniversary. It hardly feels like it’s been that long, but look. I have proof.
July 22, 2005 – 4:29 pm ·
Two new posts today at LA-ist. I’ve been wanting to post that t-shirt thing forever, but I’ve been so busy I couldn’t get around to it. I’d told Joanna Contreras, the brain behind Red Star Ind., that I’d post about her place, but it took me so long to do so, I ended up expanded the post out of necessity to include a few other t-shirt design places.
And I’ve been bummed about missing the Shout Out Louds tonight at The Wiltern, but since they (along with The Radar Bros.) are my new current obsession, I had to say something about the show.
July 19, 2005 – 10:51 am ·
Writer C.J. Cherryh says that “no rule should be followed off a cliff.” She refers here to the rules of writing and good grammar. But she also mentions this with respect to her own guidelines, some of which she conveys on this page. Good stuff. And a good reminder that though I’ve come a long way since stumbling upon and then imitating the pulpy, blood-drenched fiction of Robert E. Howard I still have a lot to learn. I like what she says here:
With apologies to hard-working English teachers, school English is not fiction English.
Understand that the meticulous English style you labored over in school, including the use of complete sentences and the structure of classic theme-sentence paragraphs, was directed toward the production of non-fiction reports, resumes, and other non-fiction applications.
The first thing you have to do to write fiction? Suspect all the English style you learned in school and violate rules at need. Many of those rules will turn out to apply; many won’t.
{Be ready to defend your choices. If you are lucky, you will be copyedited. Occasionally the copyeditor will be technically right but fictionally wrong and you will have to tell your editor why you want that particular expression left alone.}
July 18, 2005 – 11:49 pm ·
I love it when I get props from a beautiful person.
You’re a sweetheart, Stacey!
July 18, 2005 – 8:42 am ·
I’ve been more or less silent around here lately. Sorry about that. I think this cartoon, taken from the pages of New Yorker (March 21, 1994,) sums things up rather nicely:
Too many projects. And too many projects necessarily means choosing just one or two to focus on. Either that or a picking up some crystal meth, but we all know where THAT leads.
No thanks.
Incidentally, some have been asking why I haven’t blogged about a certain New Jersey-born firecracker currently living in San Francisco who came down to visit over the Fourth of July weekend. Well I’ll tell you. I tend to NOT blog about social relationships. Especially the good ones. If you need more than that, I’ll give you a movie reference (this is HOLLYWOODLAND, after all.) In the film Roxanne, Steve Martin is asked why he’s so annoyingly happy. He says, “Because yesterday, she didn’t, and today…she does.”
July 15, 2005 – 11:03 am ·
It’s Friday and it’s a day off and I’m tying up all kinds of loose ends around here. Mostly it’s a day of working from home. I’ve got scripts to read, a script to write, a few posts to compose for LAist (including the one I just submitted about the intersection of Gardner and Sunset around the corner from my domain,) work to do on my Jules’ photography website and somewhere in there, a nap to take. I’ll post more later.
July 12, 2005 – 12:33 pm ·
Last night I had a prophetic dream. In this dream I was cycling in the Tour de France. It was a hot day. And I learned that the race is not that anywhere as gruelng as the media would like us to believe. I was surprised at how easily I overtook Lance. Especially on the uphills.
I awoke at seven, got ready for work and started my car. But the garage gate wouldn’t open. No amount of percussive maintenance seemed to help. So I had to park the car and ride my bike to work. And it’s a hot day today.
See what I mean?
July 12, 2005 – 10:37 am ·
I’m going to be missing the Rob Dickinson show at Hotel Cafe tonight.
I’ll be stuck working just down the street. But that’s not gonna stop me
from posting about it over at LAist.
July 11, 2005 – 1:00 pm ·
The quest for simplification continues. The next thing to go is the ol’ comics collection. There was a time when the idea of ditching the beautiful, clean, glossy issue of Alpha Flight #1 was unthinkable. But times change. I have different interests. I’m working on my own mythologies now. So with the help of craigslist, I’m gonna pass them on to someone else.
July 10, 2005 – 11:24 pm ·
You ever fling a compact disc into the void and then have it circle back like a boomerang and smack you upside the skull? I get a lot of music suggestions during the course of the week. Dropping a disc into the player and giving it a listen is a lot like hurling it out into the void. Often they spin out over the abyss in a pleasant glittery fashion. Nice sound, nice little “moment” but something eventually to be forgotten. Sometimes, however, they come back. Recent examples include both Maria Taylor and Devin Davis (who’s still in the top 5 for 2005.) this time, it’s the Shout Out Louds.
These cats are from Sweden (which seems to be the new Austin or Seattle or what-geographical-have-you in terms of output of musical hipness these days.) This is one of those albums that stays with me, settles down on the couch and just plain refuses to leave. Their new album just came out in the States. It’s called “Howl Howl Gaff Gaff” and it’s infectious pop at its most frenetic and uplifting. If you’ve got a broadband connection, check out the site, and be sure to check out the video for Please Please Please, which happens to be the perfect entry into the album.
Though for some reason, I’m not providing you with that song here. Instead, check out “Shut Your Eyes” a nice little pop truffle that’s guaranteed to get the feet moving:
Shout Out Louds: Shut Your Eyes (mp3)
Incidentally, if you’re not Lauren, you may not get the title of this post.
That’s probably for the best.
