It Can Only End Once...

Hey Flip-philes. Back from a two week break to bring you another magnificent helping of blog.

I have finished the first section of Gulfview Heights (pretentiously titled "Some Invisible Threads), and it has been a bizarrely-smooth process so far. All of the doubts and worries that slowed down the writing of Down and Yonder are absent here. If all goes well, I may be looking at a completed script in time for April. Since my personal goal was May, I will try to use the remaining time to inject the kind of detail that separates the great stories.

Right now, I'm reading The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and I'm constantly stunned by the amount of history, wordplay, and care that has gone into every sentence. It's a slow read, but that's not a bad thing. In fact, here it's an outright amazing thing. The sentences are so loaded with careful detail and the language is so precise that you almost have to take your time. Chabon's attention to the small minutia of daily-life is admirable and hopefully I can instill something similar into Gulfview Heights. Again, I will probably be the last one to know.

I've started working again on the book, We Are The Echo. I'll admit I suffered from a minor case of writer's block. However, after taking a month or so off and thinking about the logical scope of the piece, I think I may have overcome it. My goal is to have it ready before the end of the year. We're halfway there, folks!

Coming up on my L.A. radar, I have The Room this Saturday. It's one of my favorite monthly rituals, and I encourage anybody on the west coast to seek it out. Over the past couple of years, I've become a rather avid fan of the midnight movie. There is just something about watching an overlooked classic (or, in the case of The Room, not-so-classic) with a theater full of movie geeks. This is the sort of bunch who, when I say that "Han shot first," they understand what I'm talking about.

Alright, last week's Locke-centric episode of Lost, entitled "The Substitute," was amazing. Absolutely breath-taking, one-for-the-record-books kind of awesome. It had great revelations and plenty of food-for-though mythology-wise, but it remained intensely focused and character-driven (I promise- no more hyphens for the rest of the post). I loved the flash-sideways storyline this week. It showed a John Locke without an island destiny, and it's hard to argue that he isn't better off without it. He's loved and content. I've long theorized (for about three weeks) that one of the timelines is eventually going to flicker out and take precedent over the other. John Locke is so happy here that it's easy to begin rooting for our island timeline to be the one that fades into temporal non-existence, to hell with our six years of investment.

To close out the blog, I have decided to include some pictures I took last Saturday while walking through Griffith Park. Too many times I have heard people talk about Los Angeles as not being a beautiful place to live. There's beauty everywhere. You just have to be willing to look for it and acknowledge it.

Anyway, I believe that wraps it up for this week. Please make some comments! The blog is only a powerful tool of we use it to engage in a larger conversation.

Flippo

Tomorrow Is Just A Future Yesterday

Hey Flip-philes. Back again with a little more blog to help you fill that void in your life. No time like the present. No present like time.

I have finished the first ten pages of Gulfview Heights and am now in the process of perfecting them, not that this is a process that one ever truly finishes. I've said it before here on this blog, but the first ten pages are difficult. You have to establish so much is so little a time. You have to set-up characters, motivations, tone, and give at least some indication of where it is all going. Not only that, but it needs to have space to breath. You have to tell a whole lot of story without seeming like you're in a hurry. I think this time it proved more successful than some recent attempts.

Yesterday, I took a trip to the Laemmle theater near Sherman Oaks (a nice little art theater I encourage you to check out) to go see An Education. I admit that my enthusiasm for this film was very minimal. That said, I thought it was an amazing film, one to which my thoughts keep returning. Peter Saarsgard has made a career out of playing pretty intense individuals (one day, he NEEDS to play John Malcovich's son!). But in An Education, he was something I never really suspected... charming. I wholeheartedly encourage you to see it. It has my favorite kinds of twists and turns, ones that arise not out of plot mechanics but out of characters and an understanding of human behavior.

We had another Lost episode this week and, while it was more of a slow-burning character study in relation to last week's jam-packed season premiere, I'm having just a difficult time shaking it. Yes, I know some of you thought it was a dissappointment, but there was just something about this episode that is kind of lingering with me. I'm not quite sure of the implications of the "mirror-world," but something is definitely off about it. Claire and Kate were sure drawn to one another, despite their better judgement. Is that a product of sloppy writing or destiny? This is one we'll probably have to sit on until the end of the season (and series!) in order to find it's worth.

But, this being Lost, there was still plenty I enjoyed. I love the island return of a rather Rousseau-esque Claire. I loved when Jack popped that pill to tests Dogen's true intentions (a pretty badass move made by the good doc). I enjoyed the trip back to New Otherton. I loved the Temple Other's test for Sayid. I especially enjoyed the return of Ethan, this time as a fairly standup guy. I really liked the new information we received on the illness and the revelation that Claire may have it as well. Oh, and the scene where we learn Sawyer was going to propose to Juliet... in fact, that whole scene at the dock was pretty amazing.

Come to think of it... a LOT happened this episode. Maybe us Lost fans were just dissappointed in the lack of Ben and the Locke-ness Monster. Oh well... it looks like next we is going to be a pretty nice cure for that!

All in all, I like the shape the sixth season is taking. It feels big and epic, like the fate of the whole world hinges on these characters on this island.

Oh, and instead of recommending youtube clips, I'm going to have a new segment called "Things We Need to Retire." Here we go...

Things We Need To Retire-

1) Saying something idiotic and then, afterwards, saying "holla!"
2) Introducing bands, movies, TV shows, as if they were some obscure of pop culture that only you know about. Say "this is a song by Radiohead." Don't say "this is by a band called Radiohead." Of course it is! I know Radiohead is a band! This drives me crazy.
3) Complaining about your job to unemployed people.

Life in L.A. is well. Sure, things could be better, but can't that always be said? I'm content and thankful and energetic about tomorrow, the last one being a quality we too frequently overlook and underappreciate.

Flippo

Monday, February 1, 2010

...Sculpting The Time Within Time

A few weeks ago I wrote about intellectual property, a rather ambitious topic for an undisciplined weekly blog. I said that, while I should ideally have the freedom to use others' work in a surprising context if I so choose, I said that, ultimately, such freedom would lead to "artistic anarchy." Now, two weeks removed from that comment, I realized that maybe that's not such a bad thing. What I failed to realize is that art, good art, is anarchy anyway.

My friend Matt Brandenburgh commented on the post, and I encourage you to check out what he wrote. As always, it is thoughtful and intelligent, but it also contains a link you may care to click on if this is a topic that interests you.

I started the new story. It's called Gulfview Heights, and I'm excited about it. The story is planned almost scene-to-scene, so the actualy writing of it will hopefully prove luxurious. It's a story I first started when I was 15 (!), but something always felt missing. When you're dealing with stories about youth, you have to solve the problem of why anyone really cares about a young person's problems. What real effect does this have on the world at large? I'm hoping to solve this problem by deciding to confront it head on.

I would like to say Gulfview Heights will be Say Anything by way of David Mamet. However, since it is actually just going to be by way of me, it's at an unreasonable disadvantage.

Since I haven't done this in awhile, here are some videos I'm diggin' this week:

First up, the Charlotte Gainsbourg music video for "Heaven Can Wait" off her upcoming album, IRM. Just based on the quality of this single, I think IRM might be a helluva album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi20N3idp44

This is one of my favorite TV theme songs EVER. The Rembrandts can't touch Polaris.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnqeeBdGhh4

Next up... I'll let you discover that for yourself. What's Coolio up to these days?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Tds8nMkks&feature=related

Well, I finally got to see the Lost premiere, entitled "LA X." It was a head-scratcher, a heartbreaker, and a mind-melter all in one. I'd love to post some wild theories about What I Think It Means, but the simple truth is that I haven't fully digested this one again. It was so dense with plot developments, character beats, and revelation that I might need another week to fully grasp it. The problem with that, though, is there is another episode coming this Tuesday, heading my way like a freight train.

Though I will say that would I especially like this season is that they're not holding back with the heady ideas. I can't imagine a person, having only watched the first couple, more popular seasons, jumping back on the bandwagon. That's a good thing! I want this season to be a reward for us hard-core fans, the ones who stuck with the show through the ups (The Constant) and downs (Nikki and Paulo). By now, we've learned the secret nerd handshake. Not just anyone should be able to reap the benefits. What's the smoke monster you ask? If you haven't watched, I sure as hell won't tell you.

But let's not end this post on the space between us, shall we? Instead, I rather talk about what my friend Allison said about February. She said that January was just a warm-up month, and it was February where the year really takes flight. I hope that's true, because I think we all need 2010 to be a good year. We need it, and I think we can make it happen.

Flippo

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