Thoughts & Stream of Consciousness, rough and ready...random but sane thoughts from an insane mind...from an award-winning filmmaker and author you’ve never heard of while walking off the feeble remains of long Covid, and listening to podcasts…walk day Wednesday (Garbage day) June 19, 20 24
Happy First Day of Summer (finally!), here in the Pacific Northwest, and condolences to many in other places hammered by a heat dome, or where it's just normally hotter than hell!
Weather for the day… nice day, starting out, 53° clear sky, 67° back at home
First Podcast The Playlist on House of the Dragon - 'House of the Dragon’: Showrunner, Ryan Condal Talks Season 2, His ‘Jon Snow’ Spin-Off Pitch, & More [Bingeworthy Podcast]
Then I go to Pod Save the World's, Why Is Putin Going To North Korea? for about 5 minutes, then moved onto my friend
Kelly Hughes' Rising Star - Music That Matters podcast episode with Strange Company - Lois Lane
I’ve said this before...I really have been trying to lean more into the creative arts and away from the political. I’m sick to death of politics. I’m sick to death of Donald Trump. I’m sick of liars. I’m sick of autocrats and people who can't see their authoritarian hand in front of their Great Fooled face. I’m sick of the great MAGALoon infected Republican Party. Yeah, yeah I grew up with politicians as liars, but that hasn’t really been so true as usually they are just basically spin artists.
Until recently. When they realized (thanks Trump) that they can just blatantly lie. Lie in one room then walk to another and tell the opposite lie all just for votes. You do not elect a person of low-quality like Donald Trump, a career criminal and now convicted felon as POTUS in what was quite obviously an honest trial where he was convicted by his “peers”.
Anyway, it looks like this blog today will be on the creative arts.
And I’m so happy about it.
I know, these are long blogs, I try to make them shorter but I keep thinking of things to say, so...
Anyway, I’m listening to a podcast about House of the Dragon, S2E1, Season ("series" in the Britspeak), Episode 1. Host Mike DeAngelo is singing the praises of season one, and in the beginning I would say I’d liked it. But it had a lot to go up against. I’m a big Game of Thrones fan and it’s difficult to do another series based in that universe. Wise to do a prequel. But I finished season one of House of the Dragon thinking I have high hopes for season two. Episode one of this new season gave me what I was hoping for. I also enjoy the series on MAX, The House That Dragons Built, on the making of the show.
Anyway, I’m listening to a podcast about House of the Dragon, S2E1, Season ("series" in the Britspeak), Episode 1. Host Mike DeAngelo is singing the praises of season one, and in the beginning I would say I’d liked it. But it had a lot to go up against. I’m a big Game of Thrones fan and it’s difficult to do another series based in that universe. Wise to do a prequel. But I finished season one of House of the Dragon thinking I have high hopes for season two. Episode one of this new season gave me what I was hoping for. I also enjoy the series on MAX, The House That Dragons Built, on the making of the show.
I’d like to say thank you again on this blog of mine. It comes out at 6 AM but on random days. Sorry about that. Within a minute or two of its autoposting on social media, there were already readers. So, that’s always nice!
OK, On "GOT", so while the John Snow spin-off may not be coming, another one is. excellent! What to know about every 'Game of Thrones' spinoff in the works, including 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms'
So on this podcast, the House of the Dragon co-showrunner Ryan Condal is saying how much he’s enjoying the series "Ripley" on Netflix. I watch that too. I had started it and stopped it when a friend said to finish it. I did and I liked it. Lot of bad press bout it but I liked it. Ryan mentions the movie The King on Netflix, which he thinks should’ve been a series, and says it could’ve been really good. He says he leans into the Conan series as a way to tell epic stories. I’m not sure what he means by that. Or maybe I do.
I first learned about the Conan book series in the 1960s as a kid, in junior high. I was reading a comic book and in the back (I had a history of utilizing back page ads in comic books as a kid as with the old Johnson Smith Company). There was an ad for the Robert Howard, Conan paperback series of books. So I took it to my mom and asked her if she would get it for me and amazingly she did. It wasn't very expensive. So I got the entire series of books in one shot. I no longer have them because to protect them I had Scotch tapled the edges of the book covers and a few years later it had all yellowed and peeled and left a stain. I figured they were worthless as collectibles and they went by the wayside. I was angry at my own stupidity.
Once I started reading those Conan books, I couldn’t put them down, especially after I read the forward or the preface. I don’t remember what it was. But it told a little about Robert Howard's history. And I was fascinated ever since. I read all the Howard works I could. I remember telling my mom about how excited I was about what I was reading. Giant ice worms, sex with warrior women, fighting demons and men and monsters. That eventually led me to the John Carter of Mars series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This was all long after I'd been reading the Golden Age sci fi authors from the 1950s.
OK, the Ryan Condal is now referencing medieval war and the fighting style of knights. I grew up with the Hollywood romanticized version. But I’m a big believer in reality in story. In my film “Gumdrop“, a short horror, I did my best to adhere to reality. Even in a story about a serial murderer and a criminal either touched by the paranormal or mental illness… Your choice.
Having started martial arts in fifth grade back in 1965, that was my orientation in martial (war or fighting) scenes in movies. I grew up with the Hollywood nonsense of "make it pretty, make it romanticized, make it highly sellable/purchaseable."
As a kid, when I saw my first Sam Peckinpah films… I thought, "Yeah, that!" On his films, as I remember, there was an uproar about the amount of violence and how he was producing "violence porn". A term I believe was coined later on. But they said he was glorifying violence. When asked about that, Sam responded, "What are you talking about. If we don’t show violence, accurately, how are people gonna be horrified by it? How are they going to see how much we should avoid it?" Yes. I’m paraphrasing there for old Sam.
“Let’s look at the facts,” Sam said. “Most violent crimes are committed by the family or close friends, most violent deaths are involved with people involved with each other.” This quote reflects his view that violence is deeply rooted in human relationships and not just a spectacle for entertainment. 1
He also expressed his perspective on the nature of violence and its portrayal in films with another quote: “Both the movies and television have perpetuated the idea that shooting a man is clean and quick and simple, and when he falls down there is only a small hole, or a blood-stain, to show how he died. Well, killing a man isn’t clean and quick and simple. It’s bloody and awful.” Peckinpah believed that by showing the true nature of violence, he could influence the audience’s perception of it.2
I grew up in the period of old western films where they hired white guys to play Indians with red face on. The first few times I saw a real Indian in a movie, it was amazing.
My older sister, though she prefers not to talk about it, is half native American When I was a little kid, I asked our mom, when I learned of that, since her dad was either chief or head of his tribe in Montana, if that made my sister an Indian princess. My mom laughed and thought about it. And she said, "Yeah I guess you could say that in a way."
For some reason, I was always very into ancestry, into our roots, origins, and history. I knew that my mom and her parents were Czechoslovakian. But then in about 9th grade, I learned that my dad‘s family was Irish. I found that culture far more interesting than what I'd grown up with. Which is kind of typical.
I'd asked her about that: "You're Czech, not Irish, so why?" She explained it was something she picked up from my dad. She said she enjoyed it, it was fun, so she kept up the tradition. She also said it irritated my soon-to-be stepdad. But she didn't care. That's mom in a nutshell. That started me asking her questions until it sunk in that I was "half Irish." I got interested in Ireland. Years before I had seen and loved the John Wayne film, "The Quiet Man". So I started paying attention to all things Irish.
OK, getting back to the podcast…
This is funny. The show runner is saying back when they caught Osama bin Laden. He always thought rather than bringing them back for trial or executing him. They should’ve brought him to Hollywood and forced him to show run the first season of a new show.
Starting my 2nd mile…
Ryan Condal is now saying he really wanted to do justice to George RR Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice “book the new series is based on. I’d like to say this about Martin’s stories… and I think I’ve mentioned this before elsewhere, it’s hard to impress me with story. But his storywork really impresses me.
I think the most multi-layered thing I’ve ever written was my book “Death of heaven“ which I think many people have read it, may not fully have understood what really was going on.
Three shorts I had, two I had converted into short scripts: “Poor Lord Richie’s Answer to a Question He Knever Knew on the Knight When He Lost All “, “Sarah “, and "Popsicle Death" (which began as a short script in a university team scriptwriting class).
It was suggested I take those stories out and go with the frame I created around them, especially the demon hunting, steampunk, female duo. And so I left the stories in, but cut all of them down, except for their lead-ins, and then I jump elsewhere in the story. I seem to be very effective in that kind of maneuvering, story building.
"Death of heaven": I had adapted a novel to screenplay format for an author who was doing quite well. The book was “Dark of kNight “ by TL Mitchell, who has since fallen off the radar for me. She had decided to leave her publisher and start her own publishing company. I was getting frustrated with her because she wouldn’t publish or even read any of my stories. But she did use my freely written, screenplay adaptation.
And so like him, I’ve had trouble with economic success. He put it, when I asked him why he isn’t and should obviously be in galleries and living in a penthouse in New York...he said his experience with galleries was they want you to pick a topic. And he can do just about anything, he just doesn’t want to only paint landscapes or flowers or whatever. He jumps around from sculptures to paintings to various mediums. I mean, one time he made a Murphy bed in his art studio out back of his house and it was itself, a work of art. How do you harness that kind of talent to make money? Sounds easy. Until you try to do it, or have to deal with your own mind and frustrations or limitations.
He used to enter his paintings in our state's Puyallup State Fair Art Show. This was years ago. He got to where he would only enter every other year to give somebody else an opportunity to win
Beginning of my 3rd mile…
It’s getting warm out.
In my writing that true crime screenplay "The Teenage Bodyguard", back in maybe 2014? In my research, which was amazing and took a long time, I had dabbled in it for decades since I first thought about writing it. There’s a character in the story who is a real person, who was one scary SOB and I believe still alive when I was initially trying to sell the screenplay. He’s obviously the bad guy and story antagonist. But a real bad guy, too. He worked for the Tacoma mafia involved. Italians. And although he was older than I, he was scary. Enough that I needed to at least be aware of him. I tracked him down online as living in Tacoma after he got out of prison.
But this is talking another 10 years since then at this point, and although it’s almost been made into a movie several times, knowing how the old adage goes of "only the good die young", he may very well still be alive. But he’s also older than dirt at this point. I wonder if we could use him as an advisor. That would be cool.
Something to be concerned about when you’re writing true crime about actual serious murderers. Them not wanting their story told.
The podcast host just suggested to the showrunner Ryan Condal that they bring "The Rock" into the show as maybe the grandfather of a Dothraki. The showrunner really liked that idea and said he really needs to work on that one and kind of laughed. I mean since they got Jason Momoa got GOT, I would bet The Rock would be into it. Apparently, this showwriter has worked with him on "Hercules" which was the film that made him a produced writer and changed his life, and the film "Rampage", both with Dwayne Johnson, "The Rock".
To the point that when I learned of "The Troubles" going on in Ireland, on the news in the early 70s, I made me angry. Ireland obviously should be an entire country. I wanted to go fight for their independence and join the IRA (Irish Republican Army...seems strange today to use that acronym and someone thinks it's something else entirely). I was not very politically savvy as a 10th grader at that point. But I was growing into my politically aware mind.
One day, I actually went around in our high school cafeteria educating my friends while they were eating lunch, telling them about The Troubles and how maybe we should go over and help them fight England to free Ireland. No one listened. What I had learned was how abusive England had been to Ireland. I learned about the potato famine. I learned about the ignorance of growing only one strain of potato so when the blight hit, the potatoes were wiped out and like 1 million people died, in part because England took the best of the remaining healthy crop.
One day, I actually went around in our high school cafeteria educating my friends while they were eating lunch, telling them about The Troubles and how maybe we should go over and help them fight England to free Ireland. No one listened. What I had learned was how abusive England had been to Ireland. I learned about the potato famine. I learned about the ignorance of growing only one strain of potato so when the blight hit, the potatoes were wiped out and like 1 million people died, in part because England took the best of the remaining healthy crop.
So yes, I wanted to go fight for Ireland. But I couldn’t get any money to take a flight over. I wasn't in touch with my father to talk about this and he would have probably thought I was a fool. And had I arrived in Ireland in 1970 or 71, what the hell would I have done? The easiest thing would be to walk into the pub until you found a Republican one. But would they let me into a pub when I was 15? I don’t know. Maybe? What would the IRA have done with me? Put me on a plane back home? I actually wrote a novel about that. Half a novel. Started but never finished. About a few college friends on spring break who fly to party in Ireland because one of them is from there. A splinter group of the IRA (this is set in the 1980s) and uses them as dupes to plant a bomb. Little hilarity and much panic and horror follow. I should finish writing that.
We all do understand that Irish "Republicans" are vastly different from American "Republicans", especially with this recent MAGA infection of authoritarianism as a personality cult. Even American Republicans aren't fully American Republicans anymore as a minority of them have seized power under the criminal tutelage of one Donald Trump, a convicted felon.
We all do understand that Irish "Republicans" are vastly different from American "Republicans", especially with this recent MAGA infection of authoritarianism as a personality cult. Even American Republicans aren't fully American Republicans anymore as a minority of them have seized power under the criminal tutelage of one Donald Trump, a convicted felon.
Apparently, Marjorie Taylor Greene said something about Democrats making a big deal about Trump now being a felon but she worships a felon. Meaning Jesus, when really she's talking about Trump, Freudian slip anyone?
OK, let's take her at her word about Jesus being a felon:
The term “felon” is a modern legal classification and did not exist in the same way during the time of Jesus. In the context of Roman law, Jesus was not considered a felon, but he was arrested and crucified for what was deemed a crime against the state. The charge against Jesus was claiming to be “King of the Jews,” which was seen as a threat to Roman authority and could be interpreted as sedition.1 Crucifixion was a punishment reserved for slaves, bandits, and enemies of the state.1
It’s important to note that the historical context and legal systems of ancient times were very different from today’s. The concept of felony as understood in contemporary legal systems did not apply during the Roman era.2 Jesus’ trial and execution were more about maintaining the status quo and the power structure of the time rather than a formal legal proceeding as we would recognize today.34
OK, getting back to the podcast…
This is funny. The show runner is saying back when they caught Osama bin Laden. He always thought rather than bringing them back for trial or executing him. They should’ve brought him to Hollywood and forced him to show run the first season of a new show.
Starting my 2nd mile…
Ryan Condal is now saying he really wanted to do justice to George RR Martin’s “A Song of Fire and Ice “book the new series is based on. I’d like to say this about Martin’s stories… and I think I’ve mentioned this before elsewhere, it’s hard to impress me with story. But his storywork really impresses me.
I think the most multi-layered thing I’ve ever written was my book “Death of heaven“ which I think many people have read it, may not fully have understood what really was going on.
From the first short story I ever wrote I wanted people to be able to re-read it and see things they didn’t see the first time around. Because as a reader I love that from an author.
For that book, I took a novella and a short story, literally a one-page single-spaced micro-short story, and built an epic novel out of them. I wanted to write a book that had everything in it... plus "the kitchen sink." To go from the beginning of the earth's creation to its demise. Potential demise…
I remember writing one part of the book, in a scene where there are some zombies. And I remembered a story my psychology professor and departmental advisor at University had us read. It was titled I believe, Over The River By P. Schuyler Miller. I always think that is titled, "Across the River", but nope. Great short story.
That and another story, “Secret Snow Silent Snow" (film) by Conrad Aiken. Both of the stories had a lot to do with my novella “Andrew", and the overall book. An epic story which covers millions of years. But actually starts at the beginning of "Andrew " (Kindle), the novella at the end of my very first published book “Anthology of Evil".
Anyway, I was writing that scene with zombies, and one person who is “turning “goes into a bathroom at a deserted restaurant, in the book near the end of the world. He goes to the sink in the bathroom, partially because of that story “Over the River" in my desire to put “literally everything in this book including the kitchen sink." OK. It was a bathroom sink.
Well, that would annoy my ex-wife. It’s in a restaurant, it is therefore a "restroom". "Can’t be a bathroom if there’s no bath in it."
Anyway…
On the creation of "Death of heaven"? Apparently, I am a "frame Savant". I say that because several times I have encapsulated stories in a framework and producers or reviewers or people doing coverage on a screenplay have preferred the frame over the main focus of the work.
In my screenplay “Gray and Lover the Hearth Tales Incident" I wrote that paranormal horror/comedy screenplay because of three stories I wasn’t getting any use out of and I really liked.
For that book, I took a novella and a short story, literally a one-page single-spaced micro-short story, and built an epic novel out of them. I wanted to write a book that had everything in it... plus "the kitchen sink." To go from the beginning of the earth's creation to its demise. Potential demise…
I remember writing one part of the book, in a scene where there are some zombies. And I remembered a story my psychology professor and departmental advisor at University had us read. It was titled I believe, Over The River By P. Schuyler Miller. I always think that is titled, "Across the River", but nope. Great short story.
That and another story, “Secret Snow Silent Snow" (film) by Conrad Aiken. Both of the stories had a lot to do with my novella “Andrew", and the overall book. An epic story which covers millions of years. But actually starts at the beginning of "Andrew " (Kindle), the novella at the end of my very first published book “Anthology of Evil".
Anyway, I was writing that scene with zombies, and one person who is “turning “goes into a bathroom at a deserted restaurant, in the book near the end of the world. He goes to the sink in the bathroom, partially because of that story “Over the River" in my desire to put “literally everything in this book including the kitchen sink." OK. It was a bathroom sink.
Well, that would annoy my ex-wife. It’s in a restaurant, it is therefore a "restroom". "Can’t be a bathroom if there’s no bath in it."
Anyway…
On the creation of "Death of heaven"? Apparently, I am a "frame Savant". I say that because several times I have encapsulated stories in a framework and producers or reviewers or people doing coverage on a screenplay have preferred the frame over the main focus of the work.
In my screenplay “Gray and Lover the Hearth Tales Incident" I wrote that paranormal horror/comedy screenplay because of three stories I wasn’t getting any use out of and I really liked.
Three shorts I had, two I had converted into short scripts: “Poor Lord Richie’s Answer to a Question He Knever Knew on the Knight When He Lost All “, “Sarah “, and "Popsicle Death" (which began as a short script in a university team scriptwriting class).
It was suggested I take those stories out and go with the frame I created around them, especially the demon hunting, steampunk, female duo. And so I left the stories in, but cut all of them down, except for their lead-ins, and then I jump elsewhere in the story. I seem to be very effective in that kind of maneuvering, story building.
"Death of heaven": I had adapted a novel to screenplay format for an author who was doing quite well. The book was “Dark of kNight “ by TL Mitchell, who has since fallen off the radar for me. She had decided to leave her publisher and start her own publishing company. I was getting frustrated with her because she wouldn’t publish or even read any of my stories. But she did use my freely written, screenplay adaptation.
You know, I've sent off a one act play, screenplays, books, and films for awards (Death of heaven was a finalist for Science Fiction: General, in the American Legacy Book Awards 2024). But I never sent off either of my screenplay adaptations from novels. I'll have to do that, too.
I did it for the experience. And said I'd never do that again Until she contacted me later saying one of her authors wanted me to do a transliteration for her too. I was saying no until she told me it was a "spy romance". I wasn't thrilled to do a paranormal romance, though it was fun and educational (as my first format conversion from novel to screenplay). I've long been into espionage as I nearly made that my career and had studied it quite a bit for decades. So I said yes.
That was "Sealed in Lies" by author Kelly Abell. That was a fun project. But I submitted it for coverage and they tore the plotline apart. Still, she was the one who contacted me having had her novel optioned. After that year was up she was shopping for another producer and found one who wanted to talk to me. Augustas Liiv.
I mention this because he is the one who got me to write the story I pitched to him, in my thinking one day of writing it: "The Teenage Bodyguard". He loved the story idea, the true crime element and wanted to see it first if I wrote it. Nineteen days later he had a finished draft. I never heard more about the adapted novel or my screenplay.
He disappeared. Researching him, it seemed he was a micro producer, a producer of small projects. This screenplay of mine is at least $5-7million to produce, in my mind, anyway. In looking him up now in IMDb, something I've never thought to do before. Seems he directed a short, Bibbendum, 6.3 IMDb rating. Not bad...but he's done nothing on there since 2014. This is all new info to me, found out for this blog today. Cool.
What I find interesting about this is, he was just some producer in London in 2014. Now I see his IMDb and compare it to mine. I had NO IMDb back then. I dreamed about getting onto it. When I finally did a few years back, I looked up my oldest son who was in my first narrative film to add him and he was Already On IMDb! He'd been a game tester. Good for him! So I looked up my younger kid. They had an IMDb page TOO! Good grief. Cool! But...really? They didn't even know it.
Finally, TL Mitchell (of the paranormal romance adaptation) said she knew someone who would be interested in publishing my work because it’s just not her area but he would be interested. She had actually just signed a well known former child actor who was doing well and wrote a book, so she was headed in a kind of a different direction than what I wrote. Her loss as I've gotten very good reviews.
So she turned me onto Cal Miller at Zilyon Publishing. He was interested and he said, "Send me your stuff." So I sent him 1000 pages of my short stories.
Finally, TL Mitchell (of the paranormal romance adaptation) said she knew someone who would be interested in publishing my work because it’s just not her area but he would be interested. She had actually just signed a well known former child actor who was doing well and wrote a book, so she was headed in a kind of a different direction than what I wrote. Her loss as I've gotten very good reviews.
So she turned me onto Cal Miller at Zilyon Publishing. He was interested and he said, "Send me your stuff." So I sent him 1000 pages of my short stories.
Yeah. Too much.
He wrote back and said. "Yeah that’s too much. Send me about half of that and I can do a book of short stories." So I went through the stories and chose what I thought were good standalone stories and those became “Anthology of Evil “. Later I added to that in the sequel, "Anthology of Evil II" in a two-volume set (Vol. I & Vol. II "The Unwritten"). Volume two is a one-time Novella that was supposed to end that second book (now Vol. I) in the series.
He wrote back and said. "Yeah that’s too much. Send me about half of that and I can do a book of short stories." So I went through the stories and chose what I thought were good standalone stories and those became “Anthology of Evil “. Later I added to that in the sequel, "Anthology of Evil II" in a two-volume set (Vol. I & Vol. II "The Unwritten"). Volume two is a one-time Novella that was supposed to end that second book (now Vol. I) in the series.
But I had so much fun writing it that it became its own book. “Three universes. Three stories. One ending.“ That book took me two years to complete. My longest-ever story to finish. I'd started it on Wattpad on a lark and wrote myself into a corner so tight it took two years to work myself out of it. I don't update/write there anymore but my old stuff is there there. Whatever there is of "The Unwritten" is not much like the published version. But interesting for some perhaps to see its origins.
So Cal was going to publish my book of short stories and I had all these short stories left over. What to do with them?
I looked them over again and again, and the idea came to me of putting them together and wrap them in a framework to turn them into a Portmanteau novel ("Death of heaven"). Which I did.
That was a lot of work. But then I thought about that Novella “Andrew “. And that short, short, micro story, I wrote at university, “Perception" that I gave to my professor the next morning (which he handed out to all his students the NEXT morning). And drawing off of those, I built "Death of heaven" (Kindle). Yes, the "h" in heaven is lowercase on purpose...long story, which the book kind of explains, so...
Cal read it, and loved it. And published it.
And that’s why I say I think I’m pretty good at writing frames for things.
I won’t go into my documentary which is obviously nonfiction and which is pretty much what my degree is in. That is I’ve written a lot of papers and journal articles in psychology.
And my true crime drama "The Teenage Bodyguard" which is another nonfiction piece that has won awards and done very well and received the attention of a couple of producers and several directors. But I still can’t find somebody who has the same vision I do for it. But then I don't have a lot of phone numbers or direct access, either. One of these days...
So Cal was going to publish my book of short stories and I had all these short stories left over. What to do with them?
I looked them over again and again, and the idea came to me of putting them together and wrap them in a framework to turn them into a Portmanteau novel ("Death of heaven"). Which I did.
That was a lot of work. But then I thought about that Novella “Andrew “. And that short, short, micro story, I wrote at university, “Perception" that I gave to my professor the next morning (which he handed out to all his students the NEXT morning). And drawing off of those, I built "Death of heaven" (Kindle). Yes, the "h" in heaven is lowercase on purpose...long story, which the book kind of explains, so...
Cal read it, and loved it. And published it.
And that’s why I say I think I’m pretty good at writing frames for things.
I won’t go into my documentary which is obviously nonfiction and which is pretty much what my degree is in. That is I’ve written a lot of papers and journal articles in psychology.
And my true crime drama "The Teenage Bodyguard" which is another nonfiction piece that has won awards and done very well and received the attention of a couple of producers and several directors. But I still can’t find somebody who has the same vision I do for it. But then I don't have a lot of phone numbers or direct access, either. One of these days...
Ah… The showrunner Ryan Condal is talking about House of the Dragon marketing campaign. He’s saying basically it’s too simplified, which it needs to be, but the story is so complex. I mention this because I’ve run into that same issue with my own works. Like my brilliant genius, younger artist brother (who's in his 60s now like me), I don’t like being pigeonholed in a genre and I like to jump around and do different things. Not because of ADHD, though that may play a role in it, but because I’ve always been able to do a lot of different things very well and I like to exercise those creative or mental muscles
And so like him, I’ve had trouble with economic success. He put it, when I asked him why he isn’t and should obviously be in galleries and living in a penthouse in New York...he said his experience with galleries was they want you to pick a topic. And he can do just about anything, he just doesn’t want to only paint landscapes or flowers or whatever. He jumps around from sculptures to paintings to various mediums. I mean, one time he made a Murphy bed in his art studio out back of his house and it was itself, a work of art. How do you harness that kind of talent to make money? Sounds easy. Until you try to do it, or have to deal with your own mind and frustrations or limitations.
He used to enter his paintings in our state's Puyallup State Fair Art Show. This was years ago. He got to where he would only enter every other year to give somebody else an opportunity to win
Beginning of my 3rd mile…
It’s getting warm out.
In my writing that true crime screenplay "The Teenage Bodyguard", back in maybe 2014? In my research, which was amazing and took a long time, I had dabbled in it for decades since I first thought about writing it. There’s a character in the story who is a real person, who was one scary SOB and I believe still alive when I was initially trying to sell the screenplay. He’s obviously the bad guy and story antagonist. But a real bad guy, too. He worked for the Tacoma mafia involved. Italians. And although he was older than I, he was scary. Enough that I needed to at least be aware of him. I tracked him down online as living in Tacoma after he got out of prison.
But this is talking another 10 years since then at this point, and although it’s almost been made into a movie several times, knowing how the old adage goes of "only the good die young", he may very well still be alive. But he’s also older than dirt at this point. I wonder if we could use him as an advisor. That would be cool.
Something to be concerned about when you’re writing true crime about actual serious murderers. Them not wanting their story told.
The podcast host just suggested to the showrunner Ryan Condal that they bring "The Rock" into the show as maybe the grandfather of a Dothraki. The showrunner really liked that idea and said he really needs to work on that one and kind of laughed. I mean since they got Jason Momoa got GOT, I would bet The Rock would be into it. Apparently, this showwriter has worked with him on "Hercules" which was the film that made him a produced writer and changed his life, and the film "Rampage", both with Dwayne Johnson, "The Rock".
He said it’s hard to feel ownership over a movie because of where the screenwriter sits in the production, but it’s easier to feel that on a TV show like House of the Dragon.
Man, when I go back to edit this before publishing it there’s gonna be a lot of links in this one…
Ryan Condal then said about being a Director, that he doesn’t know if he would want to do that because he likes where he is as a writer/producer. He said I would like to try it intellectually just to see if I like that and want to go that direction.
From someone who has been in that position, I had been on film sets for a few years before I tried directing. Hang out on a set until you say to yourself, "I could do that." Just be sure, it's harder than it looks for reasons you might not suspect. But I also found it easier and more pleasurable than I'd expected. But I know quite a bit about film and filmmaking. My first film was at university (not a narrative film) My second was a documentary in 1993 (not a narrative film, again).
Man, when I go back to edit this before publishing it there’s gonna be a lot of links in this one…
Ryan Condal then said about being a Director, that he doesn’t know if he would want to do that because he likes where he is as a writer/producer. He said I would like to try it intellectually just to see if I like that and want to go that direction.
From someone who has been in that position, I had been on film sets for a few years before I tried directing. Hang out on a set until you say to yourself, "I could do that." Just be sure, it's harder than it looks for reasons you might not suspect. But I also found it easier and more pleasurable than I'd expected. But I know quite a bit about film and filmmaking. My first film was at university (not a narrative film) My second was a documentary in 1993 (not a narrative film, again).
My first eight-minute narrative film was, “The Rapping “I did it at home with my son who was living downstairs in the lower half of my house. I had sold our house after 15 years that he grew up in and rented a very large house, a couple of towns over. An old Navy officer's house. Which was basically another apartment, with his girlfriend at the time and her kid. We were pretty relaxed about it as we could shoot when we wanted. He took good directions and I thought he did a good job. That set me up to think I could do a longer film.
Moving forward a year or so, he had moved to another town, with a new girlfriend and I had moved a mile away from where I was to a smaller home with a vastly smaller lawn. I decided to write a film based on one of my writings. Which is why I retired, so I could write and produce films back in 2016.
So I looked through all my films and found “Gumdrop City “ (in Anthology of Evil), a fictionalized true crime story I learned about in a university, abnormal psych class. It was the most disturbing thing any of us had ever heard. So I took on the challenge of writing it as a short story because I thought that story should get out there. It's my younger artist brother's favorite short story of mine, about a father who lost his wife, is drinking too much, and has a young daughter. One day he wonders why she’s late home from school and that turns into a nerve-crushing horror show. He meets a cool dog, though.
Most of my screenplays and stories require a lot of special effects. Years ago, in learning about film production, screenwriting and selling spec scripts, I heard the advice to write small. It’s easier to sell. So I thought this short story would be the easiest for me to produce on my own with little need for special F/X.
It wasn’t until about a quarter of the way through the production, with actors on set, mid-scene, that we realized what a disturbing story it was. I know that sounds funny because I wrote the short story. I had heard the actual story in a university class decades ago. How could I not know?
Even though I wrote the screenplay, when you get on set with the actors and you’re doing a scene, and you see in your actors face the realization of where this antagonist is going, for real, you’re acting it out like it’s real, it feels real in the moment, and I just remembered the day we all looked at each other and one of us said “This is really dark.“ Yep.
I first realized that when I first heard the story from someone who was there at the scene of the crime. Had entered the building with the police. I realized it when I was writing the end of the short story back in the 80s. I realized that when I was writing the screenplay in one of the final scenes that are very disturbing.
But we were too far as actors and filmmakers into the story to stop at that point. So we threw ourselves into it as hard as we could and tried to not think about it.
A lot of the weight of that film landed on Tom Remick as lead actor and his son Luke Remick. I stumbled into those two very natural actors and was very lucky indeed.
What’s funniest about this concern of the film's subject matter, was my friend and fellow Indie Director Kelly Hughes watched the film and told me when I said we were worried about the ending, that he had seen bigger produced films recently that went way over the top beyond where we had gone and I just shouldn’t worry about it.
And so there it is.
Damn. I never finished what I was saying about George RR Martin up above. About how complex his stories are. About how I’m not sure I could write a story at his level of complexity, let alone read one of his books. I think I would just have trouble following all of it. But it’s some point you don’t care, you just read and enjoy.
Kind of how I got through K-12 with ADHD. I realized I was not going to absorb and regurgitate like the other students. I would just have to learn and assimilate and let it change my personality rather than try to accurately depict the data of the studies in my mind and reacquire it accurately for a school test. It was later after I separated from the USAF when I realized that memory is either recall or recognition. And I was really good at recognition, but I had trouble with recall. I could work with that once I understood it.
Which in 1979 was how I got through my first college chemistry/physics class. I had sold all my guns and bought a computer, learned how to program it with a book, and when I found I had to learn the entire periodic table I programmed two programs. One utilizing recall and one utilizing recognition. Then I sat every night (I lived alone having just separated from my wife) and played the game every night, sometimes having a beer, sometime getting a bit drunk and play the "games" until I got bored. I did that every night until that test. I was going to pass one way or another. I really had no idea if it would work But it surpassed my wildest fantasies.
Moving forward a year or so, he had moved to another town, with a new girlfriend and I had moved a mile away from where I was to a smaller home with a vastly smaller lawn. I decided to write a film based on one of my writings. Which is why I retired, so I could write and produce films back in 2016.
So I looked through all my films and found “Gumdrop City “ (in Anthology of Evil), a fictionalized true crime story I learned about in a university, abnormal psych class. It was the most disturbing thing any of us had ever heard. So I took on the challenge of writing it as a short story because I thought that story should get out there. It's my younger artist brother's favorite short story of mine, about a father who lost his wife, is drinking too much, and has a young daughter. One day he wonders why she’s late home from school and that turns into a nerve-crushing horror show. He meets a cool dog, though.
Most of my screenplays and stories require a lot of special effects. Years ago, in learning about film production, screenwriting and selling spec scripts, I heard the advice to write small. It’s easier to sell. So I thought this short story would be the easiest for me to produce on my own with little need for special F/X.
It wasn’t until about a quarter of the way through the production, with actors on set, mid-scene, that we realized what a disturbing story it was. I know that sounds funny because I wrote the short story. I had heard the actual story in a university class decades ago. How could I not know?
Even though I wrote the screenplay, when you get on set with the actors and you’re doing a scene, and you see in your actors face the realization of where this antagonist is going, for real, you’re acting it out like it’s real, it feels real in the moment, and I just remembered the day we all looked at each other and one of us said “This is really dark.“ Yep.
I first realized that when I first heard the story from someone who was there at the scene of the crime. Had entered the building with the police. I realized it when I was writing the end of the short story back in the 80s. I realized that when I was writing the screenplay in one of the final scenes that are very disturbing.
But we were too far as actors and filmmakers into the story to stop at that point. So we threw ourselves into it as hard as we could and tried to not think about it.
A lot of the weight of that film landed on Tom Remick as lead actor and his son Luke Remick. I stumbled into those two very natural actors and was very lucky indeed.
What’s funniest about this concern of the film's subject matter, was my friend and fellow Indie Director Kelly Hughes watched the film and told me when I said we were worried about the ending, that he had seen bigger produced films recently that went way over the top beyond where we had gone and I just shouldn’t worry about it.
And so there it is.
Damn. I never finished what I was saying about George RR Martin up above. About how complex his stories are. About how I’m not sure I could write a story at his level of complexity, let alone read one of his books. I think I would just have trouble following all of it. But it’s some point you don’t care, you just read and enjoy.
Kind of how I got through K-12 with ADHD. I realized I was not going to absorb and regurgitate like the other students. I would just have to learn and assimilate and let it change my personality rather than try to accurately depict the data of the studies in my mind and reacquire it accurately for a school test. It was later after I separated from the USAF when I realized that memory is either recall or recognition. And I was really good at recognition, but I had trouble with recall. I could work with that once I understood it.
Which in 1979 was how I got through my first college chemistry/physics class. I had sold all my guns and bought a computer, learned how to program it with a book, and when I found I had to learn the entire periodic table I programmed two programs. One utilizing recall and one utilizing recognition. Then I sat every night (I lived alone having just separated from my wife) and played the game every night, sometimes having a beer, sometime getting a bit drunk and play the "games" until I got bored. I did that every night until that test. I was going to pass one way or another. I really had no idea if it would work But it surpassed my wildest fantasies.
I was the only student in the class who got an "A" on the final. Not one thing incorrect.
So you don’t have to track everything in a George Martin book. Or in any of my stories. You just have to be in the moment and enjoy it. I always enjoyed the prose the most. Which is why Ray Bradbury was always one of my favorite authors.
One of the reviews of my Death of heaven said that it times it’s almost poetry. And yet there’s some stuff in it that one horror reviewer said she found a bit too disturbing.
By the way, I’m not really trying to turn this blog into a marketing tool here today. Especially in having a degree in psychology with a concentration in phenomenology my primary interests are usually in systems and mental processes. I don’t so much care about the story of those I like (after reading them or viewing a film), but how they got to writing that story or producing that film. Obviously, I liked their work if I get to that point.
SIRI says it’s 63°. I just took off my short-sleeved shirt because I’m roasting.
Nuts. Podcast is over. Switching to Pod Save the World.
OK nuts, politics again? Four minutes twelve seconds later...
So you don’t have to track everything in a George Martin book. Or in any of my stories. You just have to be in the moment and enjoy it. I always enjoyed the prose the most. Which is why Ray Bradbury was always one of my favorite authors.
One of the reviews of my Death of heaven said that it times it’s almost poetry. And yet there’s some stuff in it that one horror reviewer said she found a bit too disturbing.
By the way, I’m not really trying to turn this blog into a marketing tool here today. Especially in having a degree in psychology with a concentration in phenomenology my primary interests are usually in systems and mental processes. I don’t so much care about the story of those I like (after reading them or viewing a film), but how they got to writing that story or producing that film. Obviously, I liked their work if I get to that point.
SIRI says it’s 63°. I just took off my short-sleeved shirt because I’m roasting.
Nuts. Podcast is over. Switching to Pod Save the World.
OK nuts, politics again? Four minutes twelve seconds later...
I’m switching over to check out my friend Kelly Hughes podcast Rising Star and episode of Strange Company– Lois Lane album, interviewing a band member, then another joins named "Crash"..
Kelly is, among other things, a director. I spent the most time on film sets, on his. I’ve known him for going on a decade. I also acted in one of his short films as lead and was an extra in some of his other films.
Kelly is, among other things, a director. I spent the most time on film sets, on his. I’ve known him for going on a decade. I also acted in one of his short films as lead and was an extra in some of his other films.
The only other film set that I’ve been on was in Seattle back in the 80s for the pilot episode of Starman when I got the hang out all night and hit two locations. One up on Queen Anne Hill, where I lived, and ran into the production company filming on my way home from work one day. I heard they were going to be at the Seattle Center at the monorail so I went down there and the location manager noticed me and realized he’d seen me earlier, up the hill.
I told him I’d studied screenwriting and just graduated recently but had never been on a film set. So he put me next to the camera and the director. Which was interesting because I was single at the time and they were working with stand ins, with their backs to the camera by the open monorail door. People kept looking at me wonder who is this guy next to the director? Especially the actress who was pretty cute and seemed to notice me the most. Anyway, that went nowhere but I got to enjoy being on the set of a TV pilot.
Anyway, moving on…
Oh hey, I got home from my walk the other day and every mailbox on my block on both sides of the street ones where you could easily drive up to the mailbox, had its door down. Nothing in any of the mailboxes so somebody was obviously stealing mail. I had gotten my mail the day before. Mail comes later in the day and I did get my mail later that day. I looked on the USPS website to report it and it’s kind of a joke. Nowhere to easily do that. So I gave up and posted it to the next-door website. I figured there was no way the postal carrier wouldn't notice what was going on.
Oh hey, I got home from my walk the other day and every mailbox on my block on both sides of the street ones where you could easily drive up to the mailbox, had its door down. Nothing in any of the mailboxes so somebody was obviously stealing mail. I had gotten my mail the day before. Mail comes later in the day and I did get my mail later that day. I looked on the USPS website to report it and it’s kind of a joke. Nowhere to easily do that. So I gave up and posted it to the next-door website. I figured there was no way the postal carrier wouldn't notice what was going on.
I asked a cop about this some years ago when I saw somebody steal my mailbox at my previous home, up the street about a mile. Before I could get out of my home office chair they s[ed off. I don’t know if they got anything, might’ve gotten some junk mail. Basically they appeared to be meth addicts. I say that because they looked like it. Twitchy not healthy, etc. It was frustrating watching them, plain as dar through my picture window, talking and herring to steal my mail. It just happened so fast and felt like such an infringement.
I saw a guy that looked like the guy in that car at my new neighborhood, some years ago after I'd moved. He was just walking around like he was searching for open easy houses to rob, but I didn’t see him do anything illegal. It just seemed obvious what he was doing.
I’ll never understand this attitude of "if I can do it or get away with it it doesn’t matter how much harm I do to you."
But then that is the Republican Party anymore.
Finally, starting mile four… It feels like I’m starting mile five.
OK, it looks like I’m only doing 3 miles today. The sun is beating down on me and it’s taking its toll. I’ve been feeling kind of weird for a couple of days now, not bad, just odd. Better safe than sorry. Maybe it's time I shift to 3 mile walks daily rather than 5 every other day. Been considering it for a bit but it's nice having a day off. [I weighed myself when I got home today and finally, I lost 3lbs so far since I adjusted my diet and getting in more exercise]
As far as the Lois Lane song the band on the podcast produced, I’m listening to it right now and it’s good. Leans into country rock, which isn’t my thing. Wish them well though. Kind of 90s rock. I'm OK with that.
On the podcast, Kelly asked him about getting the song license for a show like "Lois and Clark (The New Adventures of Superman)". Better the more recent, "Superman and Lois", I think. And he said, "Yeah that could pretty much change everything overnight. I don’t know what I would do with myself."
I’ll never understand this attitude of "if I can do it or get away with it it doesn’t matter how much harm I do to you."
But then that is the Republican Party anymore.
Finally, starting mile four… It feels like I’m starting mile five.
OK, it looks like I’m only doing 3 miles today. The sun is beating down on me and it’s taking its toll. I’ve been feeling kind of weird for a couple of days now, not bad, just odd. Better safe than sorry. Maybe it's time I shift to 3 mile walks daily rather than 5 every other day. Been considering it for a bit but it's nice having a day off. [I weighed myself when I got home today and finally, I lost 3lbs so far since I adjusted my diet and getting in more exercise]
As far as the Lois Lane song the band on the podcast produced, I’m listening to it right now and it’s good. Leans into country rock, which isn’t my thing. Wish them well though. Kind of 90s rock. I'm OK with that.
On the podcast, Kelly asked him about getting the song license for a show like "Lois and Clark (The New Adventures of Superman)". Better the more recent, "Superman and Lois", I think. And he said, "Yeah that could pretty much change everything overnight. I don’t know what I would do with myself."
Liked the song Kryptonite. I do like Donovan's Sunshine Superman, but then I've been a big fan of his since the 60s. His music got me through Tech School in the USAF.
By the way, what's with Country doing Superman themes? Like Olivia Lane - LOIS LANE?
On that note, I’ll bid you adieu…
And I’ll leave you with that.
And I’ll leave you with that.
It'll be noon soon and time for lunch.
Cheers! Sláinte!
Cheers! Sláinte!
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