Local Raconteursism

I figured I would go ahead and post these things in parts according to categories, this being film, television and story. In most of these cases, I've played critic and writer with my own little pieces of fiction. Hey! Ebert did it so why can't I? Some time back I posted a local craigslist ad where we look for local authors or people with stories wouldn't mind telling them on a mic. Think of it as a moth hour. It's a slow start but it's something we'd like to do

While I'm talking about writers, the other day (not today) I was wondering when someone knows they want to write. If we were all connected in some way where we could know how the other person is feeling or what they're thinking than I would imagine it would be easier to know if someone is into something for sure. For instance, at a younger age -- unless a person somehow develops a sense that they know for sure, they don't know how important writing is until they get older and go through shit-life experiences to understand. It's not math. If you had to write a letter or something like that, perhaps longer than the standard text or tweet in a emergency situation, you would feel a real sense of urgency. That's what needs to happen in writing all the time, and not seize up or look at it as if it were a chore. I think that might be the case with my nephew. I don't trust that someone at his age would understand for another twenty years (

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“The WTF Leonard Maltin interview”

Leonard Maltin, who did an interview with Marc Maron this week, was the type of kid who got it from the beginning. His obsession with cinema started at a very young age. For a film critic, that's nothing new here. All of these dudes are like that! Good critics have a major obsession with cinema, they're the nerds of film, but they're also great writers. Again, I bring up Roger Ebert who not only wrote his own film reviews but also wrote screenplays such as the weirdo movie of the day called Beyond the valley of the dolls. If you haven't seen that, then... well, you know what to do! Maltin tipped his hat off to Ebert:

know(

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Yep. I still haven't seen this thing, but I'm definitely interested in giving this a go when it hits the home theater. I mean, that's how everyone does it, right? So many studios have abandoned so many projects that it's a big part of that industry. I read a book about screenwriters who can make a decent living writing screenplays that don't get made. If they're good enough to be bought, that is. We all imagine everything that we see on screen or read the behind-the-scenes about, is all there is. But speaking on abandoning things, how about this big ole Godzilla vortex-hole? (

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"The search for a good Star Trek movie" (July 16, 2014)

In the same way that Hollywood fails to follow up with some of these things, they tend to drop the ball on big entertainment influences like Star Trek. Or at least they almost did because let's face it, Rick Berman was the only guy doing the thing. Say what you will about him, the man was a heavy-weight with this stuff. I vote that Captain Berman be the next captain of the Enterprise.

Something's in the works apparently for another movie but while that's happening Star Trek stuff is still ongoing where it should be as a series. I mean, that's what gets people charged up, right? To fill in the void, I had to get my nephew in on this thing. (

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"Writers and actors have fear to overcome and satisfaction to gain" (July 11, 2014)

Just the other day the great Don Cheadle was interviewed on a radio program where he said:

…you don’t have to knock on the door of a lot of these networks and try to get a gig. You can create your own opportunity and just put it out, you know, yourself and find people that will buy it. And then kind of build that infrastructure around you and help you to really realize your full vision. So I always encourage people to, if they want to really work on getting into this business, to be writers first. Don’t worry about being an actor first, be a writer. Create something. Own it and then you, you know, the world is yours.

Goddammit he’s right. If you recall the Star Trek Voyager series, the actor who played Tuvok, wasn't going to let the studios tell him he couldn't make a Star Trek series cause he was so passionate about it that he went indie. That's kind of like going rogue in the industry. But the point to this post is to point out the similarities writers and actors have, and as the quote from Don Cheadle confirms how connected they are, here I try to point out other similarities in how much we doubt ourselves because from the creator’s perspective, we experience the same vulnerabilities. What does it take to push through to get the most out of a part or understanding what you’re writing about and do it over and over again. Because for both roles it’s always fear. (

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"Breaking Bad' Spanish remake: Top moments from the new Walter, Jessie" (June 8, 2014)

“Yo no estoy en peligro. El peligro soy yo” Breaking Bad

Preserving things like pop-culture is a difficult thing to do. Some things hold up well and others don’t. For instance, I've always thought that Pretty Hate Machine and License to Ill could use more studio sessions to modernize those albums as improvements. That’s of course never happened and I've been quite satisfied with the reworking of that material during live shows – it has been happening with a lot of other works in every level of media. The Spanish adaptation of Breaking Bad, comes at a perfect time when I was wondering if this would be a show my mom would get into. All of her favorite programs are in Spanish and anything else seems like she’s forced to watch it. I guess it’s also fitting to say that I only recently finished the last season almost a year after the show ended, so it’s still pretty fresh in my mind.

The trailers for the show reminded me of the remake to Hitchcock’s Psycho with Vince Vaughn, which they redid shot-by-shot. That ended up pissing off a lot of people (of course) but it’s one of these ideas that sounds so good and looks so possible to pull off on paper that the only way to test it out is to just do it.
Which is the case here and – so far, there are plenty of reasons to do it. So, I finally got to watch this thing last night…

"The Amazing Johnathan, a terrible magician and a great comedian" (July 24, 2014)

Back in the early days of Comedy Central when they would have at least a few shows that ran comedy clips, I remember a comic by the name of The Amazing Johnathan, whose clips were in constant circulation. I remember at least a few people around me who also considered him as one their favorite comedians. I'd never seen anything like him before. Watching him I thought to myself, "This guy is a real life cartoon!" Growing up on cartoons, I should know. (

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"Go watch 'Requiem for a Heavyweight" (1962) - (July 24, 2014)

I hate cable for these reasons, but I'll still watch the shit out of some T.V. Right now, all day, it's Christmas on the moviestvnetwork channel where they're showing Prancer, The Santa Claus and Miracle on 34th Street all day. I don't know what's going on and I know I should be using my Google powers to find out, but I'm gonna go old school on this one and guess it's got something to do with some social event I haven't heard about. Since I do nothing but sit here and write most of the time. television becomes a reward and what a reward it was when this movie was on yesterday! Perfect timing too because this week (I swear it happened), I thought about how much Javier Bardem looks like Anthony Quinn. (

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"The Cue" (fiction) (May 29, 2014)

To round things up here, I want to end with a ridiculous and fictional story that would totally be rejected in a pitch meeting, a story that's related to the topic of the film industry. Were I attached to this thing at all and really really stubborn, I would stomp out of the meeting room and raise the funds to make it myself. There's no way I would be attached to something like this though, even though I am. (

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So that's it for this beat-down. I'm coming back with some music stuff cause there's a lot going on with that. Keep reading you CHUMPS!