2003-02-22 - 3:00 a.m.
I went out tonight, against my better judgment. I was thinking that some rest in familiar surroundings would be welcome. But instead I found myself hanging out at the house of an acquaintance discussing the idea of turning the rather horrid childhood of a common friend into a screenplay. I don�t really recall exactly how my name came up, although it was gratifying that this group of people all seemed to be in agreement that I actually possessed some sort of talent. I was thrust a bundle of poems and a 40 page treatment towards a novel as well, given email address and pressed into critical service.
I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. It would be nice to share in someone�s dream like that, if only for a while. To be inspired by the passion an idea holds to someone. Can I take that unbridled romanticism and pare it down into something tolerable by the rest of society. Well, a heavily marketed towards segment of it? It�s hard to say. The �pitch� went something like: Third world boy is kidnapped by rebels and taught the art of guerilla warfare as training to become an expendable assassin. He fights his way into being a success but eventually escapes to the US. It would be about exposing American sanctioned Fascism in South America. I immediately discounted such a story, as being not salable and thought to put forth: Third world boy is kidnapped by rebels and taught the art of guerilla warfare as training to become an expendable assassin. Sent on assignment to get a powerful visiting politician a series of mishaps transports him to the United States where more mishaps lead him to be placed in foster care. Adopted by an elderly gay couple in San Francisco�s Pacific Heights neighborhood, wacky fish out of water hijinks ensue until it�s revealed that the neighbor is actually the man he was to have killed. I thought that John Voight and William Defoe would be perfect as the couple with someone plucked from the mall to play the boy. It would be a type of Princess Diaries, only with 10 year old hit men and Gay people. But I can�t just blurt out, I�ve reworked your story into a comedy involving trite situational comedy and overused stereotypes. I don�t have it in me to write drama. I�m terrified of delving deeper. Let�s just keep it all airy and fun. Have some laughs, not have to think about anything. It makes me wish I was independently wealthy, so I could walk around all day with my MD recorder to capture my ideas, a camera to take snapshots of people or places that inspire me, and put it all together creatively into something. Probably multimedia, so I could put out a score or a soundtrack. I�ve always wanted that.
Zen and don't cry out loud - 2007-07-29
Zen and the stumbling rocks of fitness - 2007-07-19
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Zen and fasting - 2007-06-20
Zen and hiccups - 2007-06-18
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