A Glimpse of the Twenty-Thirteen

As I started to get little tiny posts up here and there, I realized that I hadn't been over here in a while. I have a file folder on my lappy that has pictures of books specifically for this site, pictures of Pynchon books, Murakami and Foster Wallace and Flanagan's works, pictures of books by Murong and Mo Yan and Brossard. The Chandler Brossard's were the last pictures I'd added to the folder. I even started Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but time grew short between all the things. It sits on my front table 200+ pages in, and not abandoned, just, you know, time...

Meanwhile, I'm speeding through a book that Auntie Peg and Uncle Dan got me, a memoir from a novelist who somehow spent twenty years (at the time of publication, in '82-'83) in the screenplay writing business. I can say that I didn't plan to read it in between the Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, but this Hollywood book is like sugary popcorn with extra MSG; it's so fast, but lightweight. Uncle Dan, upon hearing my answer to his question of whether I had ever considered writing a screenplay (me: "Well, sorta...I know there's a good Nikola Tesla movie out there, just waiting to be made"), loaned me a nice bio of the Serb with a laugh. "Here's some source material for you," he told me. Folded in half and stuck in the Tesla bio was a Scientific American article about Tesla.

And I've got to say, this is as close as I've ever come to considering actually tackling a screenplay. Here they are:

William Goldman wrote Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and that screenplay is included in the book. He also has a section where he takes a story he wrote, forgot about, and was reintroduced to by his daughter and contorts it into a screenplay. That kind of mechanical work instruction, for a guy like me, is pretty much what it takes to get me considering a screenplay.

In any case, I'm still a lagger with the Decemberween gifts. Originally I wanted to bring them up myself on a visit with Liz, but with tutoring, the CBEST test, a meeting with Dominguez Hills CSU, and the face to face hocking of Robot Crickets in my region, I haven't been able to get away, or to the post office to mail the stuff. You know how days fritter away...

Happy New Year Brother, to you and yours!