On the other hand...

...I'm just getting into OCTOBER ROAD and oddly enough I'm enjoying it. Can't really say why, but it has nice bits for what it is.

Review: John from Cincinnati

JOHN FROM CINCINNATI is peculiar to say the least. It isn’t the plot, though it does run a bit existential, and it isn’t the fact that if more Jesus Christ references were made you’d think the writers had gone to the Spielberg school of AI (garnering a degree in “shoving it down the throat”. The major problem with the show is that Milch and the other writers seem to have not left the cadence of DEADWOOD behind. The dialogue has an identical timbre and cadence with the added tropes of modern vernacular. It’s truly bazaar. The story itself is definitely weak, but not unbearable. However, if John isn’t an Angel sent to oversee the new Christ, then he must be Christ himself. I don’t necessarily mean literally in the Judeo Christian way, but definitely within the symbolic Mysticism running so rampant through the episode. How else could one explain the youngest Yost child bringing a dead bird back to life and the grandfather of said child floating literally off of the ground. However the most bazaar thing by far is that John seems to empathically communicate on a base emotional level with the youngest Yost prodigy Shaun by some odd dance maneuver that he teaches the young boy which had better pay off the same way Owen Meany’s Hoop Shot did. However, I have to say I didn’t really enjoy it enough to stick around and find out. BTW, in what odd system did Milch and his writers think that John’s “pocket of opportunity/convenience” would not seem both a little odd and truly unbelievable? It was one of the worst story conceits I’ve seen in years. I have no idea why HBO thought to kill Deadwood due to budgetary reasons just to bring this to the screen. Albrecht had better press hitting his girlfriend than this show is going to generate.

Trust me, look at the dialogue and tell me I’m insane. What were they thinking? I’ll watch two more if I can, but it had better evolve into something worth watching or I’ll have to say something nasty about the fact that this beat out DEADWOOD.

BTW, who gives a flying F%$K about surfing in the US but the limited coastal population? I know surfers, but I don’t see anything in this show that would attract them. They’d rather watch surfing documentaries and a fourth season of Deadwood. The again I don't know that many surfers.

How someone like me who loves "reality based fantasy" could not enjoy this show troubles me. It's just not up to snuff, and if it's too weird for me, It's probably too weird for the majority of the population.

Nothing to see here. Back to work.

Profanity Report

Just for the S&Gs, I ran the statistics report in Final Draft on the first hour of CA. Part of the report is a profanity report, which is mainly why I ran the report. As soon as I saw it listed as part of the report, I couldn't resist. Although in the end it's funny, it was worse the first time around. I guess I keep slowly removing the curse words as I rewrite. That's kind of depressing really.

PROFANITY
This profanity report should be used as a general guide to the profanity content of your script. Some of the items in this report may not be actual profanity and other real instances in your script may have been missed.

"Ass" (1 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
44
It is spoken by the following characters:
QUIET HORSE

"Fart" (1 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
29
It is spoken by the following characters:
MR. O’CASEY

So now I can't stop. Here are the ones for Fabulon and Valentine as well. Valentine wins hands down.

FABULON

"Damn" (1 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
25
It is spoken by the following characters:
FATHER

"Shit" (1 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
106
It is spoken by the following characters:
FATHER

VALENTINE

"Ass" (3 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
38, 82, 94
It is spoken by the following characters:
FATHER MICHAEL, MS. JENKINS, VALENTINE

"Bitch" (1 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
70
It is spoken by the following characters:
VALENTINE

"Damn" (2 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
8, 48
It is spoken by the following characters:
GRIGORI, VALENTINE

"Dick" (1 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
37
It is spoken by the following characters:
VALENTINE

"Fuck" (4 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
8, 25, 58, 80
It is spoken by the following characters:
VALENTINE, VOICE

"Fucking" (2 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
28, 38
It is spoken by the following characters:
MAN IN SUIT, VALENTINE

"Shit" (1 occurrences)
It appears on the following pages:
25
It is spoken by the following characters:
MAN IN SUIT


It's a little odd in the end though, I always felt there was more in these than there is. I must be censoring myself on the page but not in the draft in my mind. I'm not sure that's a good thing. So anyone reading this and currently writing something in FInal Draft, run the profanity report on what you're working on and post it here in the comments.

Writing...kind of.

Entertainment Cabal

Went to an Alumni gathering this evening. A group of Alums from Columbia are trying to get a sort of Entertainment Cabal off the ground so we can help Skull and Bones each other to the top. I’ve never been much of an Alumni sort of person. I did however get the benefit of seeing a number of people I went to school with and had yet to make contact with here in LA. I also got to see a few people who came out from NY for the event. The best part was discovering how much I’m not alone in my effort to simply survive out here. I’m sure some are finding it more difficult than I am and others less so, but very few I talked to were riding high as it were. All in all it was an enjoyable evening. It got a bit crowded at the end, so I said goodbye to the people I could find in the dark and skulked on home. Hopefully something will come out of all this. Many people have put great work and thought into it. I’d host the next get together myself, but I could really one entertain 8 people or so in my apartment, so maybe I’ll wait until I find something bigger, or at least until I can find 7 more chairs.

Cure the homesick blues

I've been getting a little homesick lately, so I've been killing the blues listening to WDVX at the office. It's amassing what a little bluegrass will do for the soul, especially when you're in lA. I feel a little bad since I'm not in a position to support/donate at the moment, but the sweet relief it provides will not soon be forgotten.

I'm posting from the office as well since access at the apartment is completely gone at this moment. I'm hoping it won't last too long.

WTF

Armed units from the private security firm Blackwater USA opened fire in Baghdad streets twice in two days last week. It triggered a standoff between the security contractors and Iraqi forces, a reminder that the war in Iraq may be remembered mostly in our history books for empowering and building America’s first modern mercenary army.There are an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 armed security contractors working in Iraq, although there are no official figures and some estimates run much higher. Security contractors are not counted as part of the coalition forces. When the number of private mercenary fighters is added to other civilian military “contractors” who carry out logistical support activities such as food preparation, the number rises to about 126,000.

Having fun with History

Yesterday I purchased and downloaded Handel’s Israel and Egypt off of iTunes. It is of course purely for the need to hear it as I write scenes of CA. The reason is that I’ve decided to place a “Perfected Phonograph” into a scene and as luck would have it Edison completed his Perfected Phonograph and sent it to Colonel Gouraud in London in 1888 to generate oversees sales. That same year Colonel Gouraud took the phonograph to The Crystal Palace and at 100 yards away recorded an unknown number of cylinders (2 min a piece) of a 4000 member choir singing Handel’s Israel and Egypt at the Handel festival that had been held roughly every three years since 1857. As of today, only three of the original cylinders still exist and there is no accounting as to how many were originally made. They are the earliest musical recordings still in existence and reside in New Jersey at The Edison National Historic Site.

I haven’t figured out what exactly is on the five I’m bringing back to life, but that’s the joy in doing it. No one can ever say with certainty that they did not at one time exist. I envision the montage sequence I'm writing to begin with the phonograph playing, which would be diegetic sound and then becoming non-diegetic sound of an actual performance suffusing the scene with a mood of foreboding.

In case you were wondering...

...they taste like a hamburger with a skosh too much dill pickle on them. Not bad actually.

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