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About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
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Blogocentric Formulations
Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
Thanks for stopping by! 
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My wife and I booked an impromptu end-of-summer vacation. We haven't traveled anywhere in a while, so we figured we should squeeze in a trip before she goes back to grad school and teaching in the fall. We looked online and ended up getting a killer deal for a 5-night stay in Washington, DC. It's a city we've never visited before and it's on our short list of places we'd love to see, so we're very excited.
For anyone who lives in DC or knows their way around, any suggestions on things to do or see while we're there? We're already planning on doing the normal touristy stuff (Capitol, White House, Smithsonian, National Mall, Library of Congress, etc.), but if anyone has any suggestions for little known gems (especially restaurants), please let us know!
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The shooting at a midnight screening of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in Aurora, Colorado is a terrible, terrible thing to hear about. It seems all anyone can talk about this morning (except for some of my classier colleagues and fellow movie industry professionals who are more concerned with how the shooting will affect the movie's box office performance this week  ), but what really gets me is all of the extremist groups and individuals who are using it as a platform to push their agenda, and those who are completely overreacting to what - by all accounts - appears to be the isolated actions of a clearly disturbed individual. In reading about this incident this morning, I have so far heard the following claims/demands being made:
 That the trailer of THE GANGSTER SQUAD be pulled from all DARK KNIGHT screenings (the trailer features a scene of a shootout in a theater);
That THE DARK KNIGHT RISES itself to be pulled from theaters;
That THE DARK KNIGHT RISES have its rating increased so children can't go see it unsupervised;
That we immediately push a ban on all firearms through Congress and repeal the 2nd Amendment;
That midnight screenings of any and all movies be discontinued immediately; and
That Hollywood stop making movies with violence and/or dark themes.
In just a few short hours, people have managed to take this tragedy and turn it into an opportunity for them to climb onto a soapbox and espouse their own personal agendas and opinions. What's even more disturbing is that many of these people seem to already be looking for a scapegoat with the movie itself, as if Warner Bros. or the Batman property or movies in general are somehow responsible for the actions of an individual. Remember another Colorado shooting just over a decade ago, when everyone was sure that it was Marilyn Manson and other heavy metal bands that were responsible?
In my opinion, the theaters actually seem to be handling things pretty well. Many theaters are increasing security, and adopting a cautious approach to future screenings. They're not pulling the movie or taking any rash actions... AMC Theaters, for example, is simply proceeding with its existing schedule while increasing the number of security personnel around their theaters, refusing entry to anyone wearing a mask or other costume that covers their face, and has already warned people in costume that they may be asked to remove it or leave the theater if other patrons find the costume disturbing or if it appears suspicious.
It's nice to see that at least some people are thinking rationally in the wake of this tragedy. 
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Not sure how many of you are familiar with Wesley Snipes' recent legal troubles, but the basic gist of it is that he cheated on his taxes and is currently serving a three-year prison sentence. Before all that, though, his former agency (United Talent Agency) sued him for unpaid commissions from his acting work (agents get 10% and apparently Wesley didn't pay them their 10% on a few of his acting jobs).
Recently, a video was unearthed of his deposition in connection with that UTA dispute, where Snipes compares talent representatives to pimps. Unfortunately for him, the savvy lawyer deposing him was quick on his toes and turned the analogy around on him. Here's the excerpt, for your reading enjoyment:
Snipes: I can translate [the way talent representation works] to the way I understand it. It's no different than a pimp. That's what a pimp does with a ho. A pimp will lay claim to whatever the ho produces anywhere on the planet for as long as she's a ho. And then, even after she retires from being a ho, they're still gonna make the claim. Now, whether they actually do anything or not to deserve it is a whole 'nother issue. That's kind of my experience with the talent agencies -- if they receive the phone call, if your name has been a part of their roster, if they receive a piece of mail, then as far as they're concerned, they are entitled to commission.
[Lawyer]: What does the pimp do when the ho doesn't pay?
Snipes: They usually beat them up.
You have to give that attorney credit for taking Snipes' analogy and turning it around on him. Well played, sir. Well played. 
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Well, since the year is a little more than half over, I thought I'd take a look at my reading and writing goals for the year and see where I'm at in relation to where I'd hoped to be. Back in January I assigned myself the daunting task of reading 52 books and 150 screenplays, and writing 4 screenplays and 1 book during the 2012 calendar year. Which means that at the halfway mark, I should be roughly 26 books and 75 screenplays in, finished with two screenplays and at least thinking about my book. How are things shaking out?
Books read: 19
Screenplays read: 44
Screenplays written: 1
Books written: 0
So it looks like I've got a little catching up to do in the latter half of the year. The books can be at least partially attributed to the fact that I've been reading longer audiobooks during my commute (George R.R. Martin is not light on run time!), and I just flat out burned out on screenplays by not pacing myself and frantically reading over half a dozen per week for a span of a couple weeks. The writing is where I'm really taking a hit, though. I had thought at the beginning of the year that I would be far more productive than I have been. On the plus side, the one script I have written is quite good I'm told, so maybe this will be a year for quality over quantity. I do still need to get a few more projects done to feel like I've given my writing a fair shot this year, so I guess we'll see how the back nine of 2012 shapes up. At least I'm not so far behind that it'll be impossible to catch up. Right? RIGHT??? 
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When faced with adversity, have you ever lamented your misfortune, asked yourself how [whatever it is] could happen to you? Have you ever cursed your luck, your God, or fate for the cruel twist that has visited such pain and anguish upon you? How often do you see an obstacle in your path and view it as an inconvenience or even a punishment? When bad things happen, it's all too easy for us to revel in our misery and wonder why things suddenly took an unexpected downturn or why such unfortunate circumstances could possibly have happened to us.
But, when we look back on our lives, how often can we say that the good moments, the great times, the successes we've had are what have defined us? Aren't we made stronger and more resilient from those tough times? Don't we learn more from the trials we face? I don't know about you, but I can look at the person I am today and see the direct influence of events like the passing of my grandfather, being laid off from my job, and even the stupid decisions I made in my teens and twenties where I realized, "Wow, I'm never going to do that again!" I'm not sure I actually learned anything from the great moments in my life. Sure, they were great and felt great, but I don't think I became a better person or learned any valuable lessons by winning a spelling bee, or optioning a screenplay, or successfully cooking a delicious meal for my wife. (By contrast, I learn a great deal about how to fail miserably at cooking a delicious meal for my wife every time I ruin a recipe. ) If you were to ask someone to list the defining moments in his or her life, there might be a few successes in there, but I bet there would be a whole lot more failures, trials, struggles, and adversity in that list.
Which makes me wonder... assuming we recognize the eventual value in arduous experiences, why do we go into them lamenting our luck and cursing those who put us in those situations? Won't we eventually get through the tough times and emerge smarter, wiser, better people for it? And yet so often we wallow in our misery, spending so much time and energy feeling sorry for ourselves when disaster strikes.
Imagine if we could bypass that period of dejection and self-pity, and immediately start looking for not only ways to solve the problem, but what we can learn from it and how we can better ourselves from it. If you lose your job, why spend days, weeks, or even months feeling sorry for yourself? Start sending out new applications and ask what it was that led to you being laid off from your last job. Even more importantly, if you've been looking for work for some time and aren't having any success landing a new job or even an interview, start asking yourself what it is that's preventing you from getting those interviews. Your resume or cover letter? The types of jobs you're applying for? The places you find these opportunities to apply? Similarly, if you break up with someone, there is clearly a time and place to grieve... but there's also a time where you pick yourself up, put yourself out there again, and maybe even look at yourself and realize that there's something about yourself you want to change the next time you're in a relationship.
I realize this may sound suspiciously like one of those, "just look at the brighter side" or "find that silver lining" kind of messages, and it really isn't meant to be. The point isn't to make light of the struggles that people endure, and it's not always easy. There are some downright shitty things that happen to good people in this world, and it would be insulting to just tell those people to keep their chin up and try to learn something from sexual abuse, the loss of a child, complete financial destitution, or any of a hundred other horrors that some people experience.
What I am saying is that, in the grand scheme of dealing with unfortunate incidents, what if you could abbreviate the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) by focusing on acceptance and the ways in which the experience, however traumatic, will eventually make you a stronger, wiser, smarter, better person? So many of those steps to dealing with grief are rooted in how you're feeling now, in the emotions that you feel as you look back on what just happened and reminding yourself about how bad it's making you feel. What if, instead of all that, and as painful as it may be... what if you could wake up tomorrow and tell yourself, "That happened and it sucked, but a year from now I'm going to look back and realize that I learned something from this experience. What is that thing I will learn, and what if I could apply it to my life today?"
I don't think anyone wishes bad things would happen to them. But bad things do happen; it's inevitable. At some point in our lives, we are all tested in one way or another. Imagine a world where people learn lessons from those trials and apply them to their lives today. Would our anger, our bargaining, our depression, even our denial be lessened if we accepted that these things happen and immediately started looking for a way to overcome this obstacle by learning what that obstacle has to teach us about the way we live our lives?
Sometimes, a little change in perspective can make all the difference in the world... maybe even the difference between a very long period of depression or anger and the beginning of the healing and growth process.
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I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself this weekend. My wife volunteered for a foster youth camp which requires her to be away all weekend. Seriously, I dropped her off this morning and was told there would be no phone calls, no emails, no correspondence at all until I pick her up again Sunday evening. She wasn't allowed to bring her phone, there will be no computers or internet... it's kind of crazy to think that I literally won't see or even speak with my wife for three whole days. Even when we've been physically separated during business trips or family needs, I don't think we've gone 24 hours without at least talking on the phone or texting each other since we first started dating ten years ago. 
Well, if this weekend isn't a perfect time to get some writing done, I don't know what is. |
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I can't believe it's been over three months since I last updated my blog. Or done much else on this site, really. I just got back on Saturday from my brother's wedding in Sacramento, and before that it was a hectic few months at work after the departure of two of the people in our department and no one to replace them yet. It's increased the workload and required a lot of long, stressful hours. And in my writing life, I optioned a screenplay at the end of May, which resulted in the first paycheck I've ever received for my writing. It was a pretty amazing feeling. 
In other news, my wife and I have had a great summer together. Now that she doesn't have school to worry about (either teaching her students or working on her grad school classes), we've had the chance to really get out and have some fun. We went to the San Diego Zoo's Safari Park and got a chance to feed baby giraffes and rhinos... we went to SeaWorld and went on a behind the scenes tour of the penguin habitat (and actually got to pet a penguin!)... and I took my wife to her very first baseball game when the Giants were in town playing the Angels. As NorCal natives, we're both lifetime Giants fans, but have adopted the nearby Angels as our other favorite team, so either way, it was a great game. (The Giants won, and it was the first game Matt Cain pitched after his perfect game, BTW).
All in all, it's been a busy but exciting summer. Hopefully the worst of the stress and craziness is over so I can come back and spend a bit more time here. I've missed you all.
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