cause real is boring?

Slashdot reported this NY Times article about a Government program to turn Scientists into Screenwriters (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/04/movies/04flyb.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=b35c2085878bcf51&ex=1280808000&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) in a strange effort to brainwash american children into science careers. Amazed. Think the idea of scientists becoming effectual and successful screenwriters from scratch is perhaps less realistic than effort to convince existing, successful screenwriters to use realistic science. Also debatable is any effect on children ‘hard’ science in entertainment may actually have. But consider that may be where my own interest in science and math stems from. If there is anything that has shaped me it’s the warm glow of the radiation box, constant companion in most fond childhood memories.
Still sick, annoyingly so. Don’t feel BAD persay, just snifflies and sneezes and fluids of some sort. Fluids are never good. Well… I take that back. SOME fluids are never good. You can draw your own conclusion as to which fluids are in fact benificial on occasion. Most of you are adults anyway.
Still no wedding pictures. I am in teh exile apparently. Oh well, my heart breaks. Meanwhile I’ll go back to reading back issues of Denny O’Neill’s run on The Question. Man, 80’s dialogue is just never good. Comics, most movies, television, whatever. It makes my brain bleed.
Nickel and Dime will start moving again soon, I swear to god it will. Donnie Baker save us all. It will. Just finishing up my super insane outline, probably will forgo the notecards this round. I’m really jonesing to get through the draft. It’ll be weird, these new, underdeveloped structure muscles. I was telling Mr. Cyrus last night that coming from my background, which is character heavy, dialogue strong, story kinda incidential, that now it’s like writing with my non-dominent hand. Awkward and unsure. But I’m set on plowing through like this so I can make it second nature. Definitely see that’s neccessary, which I’m certain a few people told me years back and just went in one ear and out the other. I still feel horribly guilty for forcing my first script on anyone, much less one of my favorite film Profs. Sorry Dale.
Anyway, onward to learning, I’m obsessed with making this involuntary; I think that’s my key strategy at this point. Thoughts welcome.

continued unwellness

Sneezes. Ears. Sinus = Satan. Anyway… Did Charles Meeker’s birthday party this weekend, which was really fun for being folks I haven’t seen since high school, various politicos, and otherness. Open bar = extra fun. If only I could have had true Foos challenegers instead of the random children that came to the bar for the shindig. As if anyone can challenge my Foos skillery.
Also buying tires is evil. Very much so. I challenge the reliance on the evil Tire industry. Flying cars?! Come on already.
Lent Megan and Jeremy a hand in moving also, and had fun hanging out with the Waugh/Shaner crew all together. Finally some people who finished HBP that I can rant too. Probably scared them with my cross reference-no breathing-theory argue technique. But that scares most of the sane types. Lightweights.
Lots of fun reaction on the Nicholl letter, including fun paranoid ramblings from shadowy types, which are always welcome, rest assured. Ms. Burroughs (http://www.patriciaburroughs.com/) suggested I send a note to Mr. Beal, but all is well. I shall brooze and THEN frame this, the first of many.
Existance continues. Over and out.

one mooooore thing…

This is actually very humorous I think, it seems Nicholl letters went out this week, and since I’m sorta bad about checking my mail, I didn’t know until someone mentioned it on a board, so I check my mail and find this:

Yep, rejection, in an particularly gruesome fashion, if I do say so myself. I’m not really upset, because I knew Stainless was particularly flawed when I mailed it, super out of date since I started it in 99 and since that time CSI has killed the genre. But most of all I entered cause I felt rather obligated because I haven’t entered any real screenwriting comps that aren’t local. Can’t be much of a writer without competition, eh? Really, though I know it’s not all that good, so it did what I wanted it to do.

BUT, one wonders what about the script was so bad that Greg Beal reacted like that? I mean, half a letter? How many folks get that kind of smackdown? Maybe it was the JFK line- some people don’t like it:

JUDE
Hard to tell, no skin left to pull residue, but it’s fairly clean, definitely not blunt. I ran the track and there’s no trace left. He’d been in the mud for a while.

REYNOLDS
Exit?

JUDE
Look for yourself.

Reynolds eyes Jude warily for a moment before slipping his hands under the base of the corpse’s neck and lifting–

–exposing a caved-in mess of liquid tissue, which spills out of the head onto the table. Reynolds drops the head in surprise, causing a bit of the soup to splash in his direction.

REYNOLDS
Shit!

JUDE
Rumor has it, JFK’s head was like that.

Reynolds stiffly brushes at his clothing.

REYNOLDS
Yeah. Sorry.

JUDE
He was a goner long before you arrived.

So I guess the lesson here is don’t crack on JFK, even in a study of morbidity. Sorry about that Greg and readers, I’ll avoid it in the future.

still a-live!

The rumors of my nonexistance have been greatly overstated. Mostly due to my ignoring the site here. Sorry, my egoism failed me for a bit there, and well, wedding and such kept me busy.

Let’s be honest. I’ve been reading Harry Potter this whole time. Which was great, and I won’t really go into much detail, although I might post an essay if the whim keeps stabbing me. So I clocked in about 12 hours or so on my first read and enjoyed it crazily. Could not have written a better book myself, because it focused and touched on exactly the stuff I would have, and left me with even more questions and confusion. JKR is just great that way. I hate her for tormenting me, but she’s great.

Also been doing a lot of study on theory and structure in an attempt to understand what I lack. Now I lack motivation and willpower sometimes, and I certainly lack a giant plasma TV, but I’m happy to say I feel like I’m learning again. When I’m not learning I get stuck and depressed and all those writerly excuses that we dress up as neurosies. So lots of philosophy including some Spooner, Stirner. Avoiding Rand just yet, because I don’t know if it will be productive to what I’m working for. Still reading The Origin of Consciousness…- which was displaced by Half-Blood Prince. Reconsuming McKee’s Story, beefing up ideas and concepts, lots of essays and Ted and Terry forum posts. Truby’s breakdowns, scripts, scripts and more scripts. Scripts and then Movies and back to scripts. A cartoon now and then, and back to stacks of philosophy essays. Just really trying to hammer the junk into my brain. Cause my brain is stupid, and tries to convince myself that I’m not a moron every time I turn around. But I know better than that, so I keep reading.

All of this of course in an effort to turn Nickel and Dime into something worth writing, and worth showing the Workshop and not wasting everyone’s time with. really trying to evolve some sort of work ethic through all this, but short attention span is dangerous. Think it has some sort of death wish for both of us. Need to buy pool pass. No doubt alternative form of exhaustion will do me good.
…
So that’s the current state o’ Nicolle, and meanwhile it’s hot as armpits outside. Off to ponder thematic concerns and work habits, thanks for stopping by.

peanut butter

Man. I just don’t even want to talk about the last week and a half. All I’m going to say, is more distaster settled on my shoulders. Cars. Plumbing. Madness.

But we’re gonna let go of that junk here and now. Moving forward, right now I’m listening to Hot Hot Heat and trying to get the final bits of N&D’s outline done. I don’t know why, but it’s sure kicking my ass, like no other script I’ve done. I have two theories- 1st I’ve been writing the wrong way up until now. This is most likely. 2nd This story sucks, which is probably equally as likely, but considering that for too long depresses me. And we’re done with being depressed, we’re moving forward, right?
Wedding is this weekend, so I will be gone for a bit of misdirected friend-stress. Half-blood Prince is also this weekend. And Charlie. I still hold out hope I might get a few minutes to address these between doing the electric Slide. Speaking of which I should have some fun pictures to put up at some point from the wedding shower.
What else is going on right now? Ehn, reality is a right good suckfest, with G8 and the bombings, so I’m enjoying a respite in comic books and cartoons. Still quite keen on Justice League Unlimited, and The Question (http://www.deviantart.com/view/20460825/). In fact so keen that I have a few sketches I’ve dropped on the DA account (http://nerium-oleander.deviantart.com/), AND I’m looking to add a section of my favorite stuff here on the dot com. It’s also got me active back at ToonZone (http://forums.toonzone.net/) which is nice, because it’s been a while since I was over there.
No movies to review lately, not a whole lot drawing my attention, to be honest. Just lots of books, drawing and writing. BSG is starting up Friday as well, so I’m gonna plug that, as it rocks. So that’s about it.