Cornered

"There's no one here," one security guard said to the others. He put his finger to his lips, and then pointed to the bag of loot the men clutched. They split, leaving the bag. The guard stuffed it behind the dumpster.

He rejoined the others. "Must have gone the other way," he said.

My Frontal Lobes Are Mush

Been without internet at home for four days. Couple that with my lack of mobile phone reception and my comments about living in a cave have become a self fulfilling prophecy. Maybe I should start commenting that I win the lottery all the time.

I'm convinced my wireless card is some sort of futuristic assassin sent back in time to drive me crazy and dead. Like the Terminator, only less explody and more cerebral.

2x4 logic

Returning from visiting the family, I was asked what a film producer does...again. Understand, this is so commonplace I'm starting to believe it's a nervous tic...shared by everyone in my family.

Also, moved into a new place, been playing Tetris with the furniture. Haven't quite got it right yet. Still trying to get the rack to fit next to the iron maiden. What exactly is the proper Feng Shui for a dungeon, anyway?

Hardly see the new roommates at all. Need to figure out which ones are human beings and which ones will require staking, beheading, filling the head with garlic before the beheading, dousing in holy water, unprotected exposure to sunlight, and whipping (gently, of course.)

Someday the roommates in the 2nd category will thank me for it, and we'll share a hearty laugh. At least I will anyway.

Camping Trip

“It’s not as bad as you think,” he told Canby, “I can’t even feel it really. I’ll be okay.” A piece of metal had torn right through his arm. It bothered him not at all.

Canby patted him on the shoulder, smiling weakly. Their car was totalled.

“Chicks really dig scars, right? How long do you think the rescue people will be?” Canby felt guilty about the relief that the metal through his brother’s arm gave him. He was so focused on it he didn’t realize a bigger piece metal had torn his back badly or that the cell phone lay smashed a few feet away from them, at the foot of the tree they hit.

The Universe has a Sense of Humor

I have now been attacked twice outside my house on my way to the L-Train...by birds.

There I am, minding my own business when a little blackbird swooped down by my shoulder. Thought nothing of it so I kept going. Then the bird, again, and a thud against my shoulder as it flew by again. That freaked me out...

...but not as bad as today. Walked out of the house, thought, "Hmmm...wonder if that bird's gonna do that again." Sure enough, flew right by me once. Then again, only this time, right by my head! Always swooping in from behind, too.

What, he can't face me like a man? See how he likes it when I start packing a tennis racket.

Someone at work told me it's a sign. If it is, I don't want to know for what. If kamikaze blackbirds are the universe's way of telling me to shape up and fly right, I don't want to know what it does when it tells you to quit smoking. Does it rain lunchmeat?

If it wants you to stop embezzling money from your company, do pandas come out of your eyes?

Neglecting your bills? How about being run over by a clown car?

I'd hate to even begin to think what offense would get you targeted by an army of Ninja Zombie Doom Nuns.

Or, they say those whom God wants to destroy he first drives mad. Maybe that's it. Some day I'll be found babbling and incoherent, going on about how "The blackbirds made me do it."

"The birds, the birds!"

Happy Thoughts!

The amount of money I pay towards my student loans (almost) ='s my rent.

Me + Bills = Broke

Me + Moving = Bye, bye savings (again)

Me + Stress = My script not getting done = More stress

They really don't prepare people for this sort of thing in high school.

...help?

Loss for words

There has to be a word or phrase to describe something so serene, beautiful, and calm that it gives you the creeps. When your unconscious reaches behind the facade and can sense something disturbing underneath the surface. Surely the French must have a phrase or word. Maybe the Germans? If the Germans can come up with schadenfreude, they can come up with a name for anything.

Also, what's the name for when someone is a hypochondriach but for other people? There's a term for it, though I forgot.

A Few Quick Ones

I saw a homeless woman sitting on a manhole cover on the sidewalk. The odor of the fumes from the manhole didn't bother her, at least they were warm. She happily ate her meager food.

A few blocks from work there's a fire hyrant where someone wrote the words "Create Dangerously" in gold letters.

Yesterday, in the rain, a couple huddled close to each other. He held the umbrella over their heads. He was over six feet, she was close to five. Even though she was still getting wet, she seemed happy.

I get a religious feel from the Giants' stadium when it's empty. I don't like to watch baseball but I like ballparks. Maybe churches should have grass indoors, then then wouldn't feel so much like tombs.

We don't have enough statues in the city. I look at pictures of old European or Asian cities and that thought strikes me. We need a more majestic and haunted look to our cities. City planning via Tim Burton. We need more statues...if only for the sake of pigeons.

All lined up in a row

I was going to write about how I saw V for Vendetta and how the comic is better, blah, blah, blah...but I don't want to be "that guy." You know what I mean, the guy who gets angry because he goes out in his fancy new Bizarro t-shirt and people tell him, "Nice Superman shirt, dude."

Imagine the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons, "Ahem...this my dear sir is a Bizarro shirt. Notice how the color of the shirt is purple rather than the traditional Superman blue. Also, the "S" logo is backwards." You know, the guy who thinks he's better than everyone who isn't a fanboy.

So in the effort to not be that guy, I will not be writing anything about how the movie V for Vendetta isn't as interesting as the comic book.

You're welcome.

(By the way, Bizarro is what you get when you try to clone Superman using primitive Earth science. It comes out pasty white and it says the opposite of what it means. Ergo, "Hello," is goodbye, and "Goodbye," is hello.

...yes, I'm a dork.)

I have to admit to some disappointment in the careers of certain promising, young movie directors like the Wachowskis and Bryan Singer. The Wachowski brothers made Bound, which was a promising movie, but now all they make is big budget stuff directly or indirectly based on comics. Bryan Singer made the Usual Suspects, which is one of my favorite movies. Now he's going for his THIRD comic book movie with the Superman movie.

I dunno, where did all the promising filmmakers go?

Christopher Nolan who made Memento? He made Batman Begins.

Terrific...

The King is Alive

My goal of writing a little bit here every day seems to have not worked out. C'est la vie.

It seems hard to think of new things to write about. It's not though. I can think of at least five things that would be worth writing about.

1) The strangely Zen state of mind I go into while riding the crowded L-Taraval train back home.

2) That scientists think they have discovered how to make bionic limbs that will be several times stronger that regular ones.

3) The simple pleasures of going for a walk even when your feet are killing you.

4) The possibility of theater undergoing a dramatic 21st century reimagining.

5) The joys of being a teacher's aide for a screenwriting class full of 18-year-olds who like nothing more than Sci-Fi and action.

There, five whole things I could talk about for hours and yet I've opened my Blogger account several times, written half an entry and deleted it.

It's not like I'm terribly busy either. I want to do it.

I wish I could say I've spent my time meditating on a whole new film grammar in which to express myself. Something that takes the symbolism of David Lynch and combines it with the humanistic touch of Pedro Almodovar to create a cinema that rewards repeat viewings with stories that are so multifaceted that you discover new things everytime you see it.

Mostly I've been hiding in my room, making blueprints for the unstoppable robot army I hope to unleash upon the world someday.