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Filed under current events
I don’t know whaaaaat’s wrong with me
but I saw the cover of Paul Allen’s book, which I though was so funny:
and spent fifteen minutes on this:
Yes, pretty much all I think about is pork, kitties, and Wu-Tang.
Maybe they can work on a beard filter for Photoshop CS6.
Filed under books, current events
VA – Roll You
NEW MIXTAPE
1 Intro
2 The Soft Boys – I Wanna Destroy You: Deathless.
3 The Ponys – I Wanna Fuck You: Not necessarily conflicting impulses. First heard posted by Finny over at El Stence. I change one word and sing this to my cat – “I wanna pet you! I wanna put my hands all over you!”
4 Warm Ghost – Without A Dancer: I guess “ghost” is the new whatever the thing after “wolf” was for indie bands. Kompact-y.
5 Nicolas Makelberge – Dying In Africa: Don’t let the synth fool you because this is a bitter, bitter jam.
6 DJ Elmoe – Whea Yo Ghost At, Whea Yo Dead Man: This track, the first off µ-Ziq’s Bangs & Works compilation, really opened my eyes to juke/footwork. The sample is Vangelis.
7 Childish Gambino – Freaks and Geeks: Troy from Community stepped up his rap game – punchlines from a comedian, surprise! The casual misogyny is pose – let’s remember this is a dude who takes his fellow female castmembers to APC for style emergencies.
8 Lil B feat. Tony Yayo – #based: I’m still working on understanding the Based God. Meanwhile, Yayo turns in the most interesting verse of his career.
9 The Books – A Cold Freezin’ Night: The video for this is bzzzonkers. Found audio arrangements are close to my heart.
10 The Reborn Identity – Black Hole A Go Go: Mashups are mayflies but this one stayed, at least for me.
11 Sly and the Family Stone – I Cannot Make It: I’m not saying shit about this slice of molybdenum gorg except if you don’t have the album go get it.
12 Gene Chandler – Rainbow ’65: Gene Chandler is great on record and everything but his live performances are solid gold. In Chicago he was bigger than the Beatles.
13 Trap Them – Scars Align: I heard about this record on NPR, of all places. Superficially metallic but punk; “GOOD LUCK pause LETTING GO” cf. Hot Snakes.
14 Metal Mountains – Silver Sun: Yoga cooldown.
15 Lani Hall – Love Song: Naive but charming.
16 Console – Cutting Time: A “band” from the Notwist programmer.
Great video
I don’t love the song but the images are so true. UPDATE: a) the song is growing on me and b) apparently Johan is the Johan from Nicolas Makelberge, who did the awesome and slept on Dying In Africa? Crazy.
Via Ken-Tonio Yamamoto (not safe for uncool workspaces), who did the most recent and bitchin’ Acronym promo.
That was horrible
So a few days ago I installed WordPress 3.1 and it ate my site. Not like last time when it just set a weird flag in my SQL database and I could fix it, I mean wiped everything out. And like an asshole, I didn’t back up first. So praise Google Cache, because I was able to go back and reconstruct most of my posts; missing is like jan-july 2009 and pretty much every comment left after late 2008. It’s my fault, but I pay $100/year in server hosting anyway, why not just move to SquareSpace? Why am I doing this to myself?
bitch bitch bitch
UPDATE 1: Mad propers to Harsh, who clued me in to Google Reader having a complete cache of posts – amazing! Thanks dude!
UPDATE 2: All better except for the comments, which are gone. Turns out there’s an easy(ish) way to restore a WordPress blog if you delete it: get the XML file of Google’s cache (do this: http://www.google.com/reader/atom/feed/http://yoursite.com/feed/?n=100 where 100 is the number of posts you get back) then run that file through an XSLT app with Atom2RSS.xsl as your XSL stylesheet. That produces an RSS file you can pass through the WordPress importer plugin. The whole thing takes five minutes.
felt like this
Filed under technology
Two versions of my second-favorite punk song
My favorite is Nothing by Negative Approach, obviously.
Filed under music
My advice to aspiring screenwriters
I don’t talk about work on my blog much, but recently a dear friend of mine asked if I’d give his friend some advice about coming to LA to try to break into TV writing. This was my response, which I’m putting up because I get variations on the question with relative frequency. It seems “screenwriter” has become the new valorized profession in America that symbolizes freedom and, I don’t know, capitalist glamour or something. Like cowboys a hundred years ago. There is a wide gap between fantasy and reality. So here’s what I said, lightly edited.
—–
Hey L_____,
I’m not the best person to talk to about TV specifically – I’ve only written features – but I can speak to the state of the industry a little bit and maybe give you some general advice. Some of the things I’m about to say will make me sound like an asshole, and I can be, but it’s truth. I’m a baby writer – I’m repped by CAA, my first feature was on the 2008 Black List and it’s currently with producers.
1. The industry, mirroring the state of the American economy, is becoming income-polarized. Which is to say that there are a handful of writers that make millions/yr (the JJ Abramses of the world) a majority of others who are just hanging on and a middle that is being squeezed out. This is because every major studio is owned by a larger corporate master that ceaselessly looks to cut costs. This was not the case even ten years ago. The romantic age of screenwriting, where you could come to town with a killer spec and make a million dollars, is over. A very common deal now in features is called a “one-step” – instead of writing a bunch of drafts for a studio and making the WGA-mandated minimum of ~$100k, a young writer will be hired for one step, one draft, and they pay you $30k. Then, often, that’s as far as you go. Mid-career writers with $500k quotes are secretly working for WGA minimums. It’s not fun. The indignities keep coming – for example, The Walking Dead was a big hit on cable this year and after the fifth episode they announced they were firing all their staff writers and will be soliciting freelance script orders for the second season. That’s what happens on a HIT show.
2. In order to work in television, you have to come to LA. And if you’re going to come to LA, you have to give yourself five years to take your shot. I’ve been here almost ten years and have just started to get a little bit of traction. Think about it. I have a whole business on the side doing iOS software development – if I had been relying on writing to make a living, I’d be dead by now. So either you’re independently wealthy or you’re going to have to take a job that’s going to give you big chunks of time to work on your writing.
3. Your xxxxxx education means nothing. Nobody cares, it’s all about the quality of your work, ability to write fast, and relationships.
You should only embark on this course if you feel you will die if you don’t become a TV writer. If it’s about money, do anything else. If it’s about ego, open a restaurant and hire cute waitresses. If you’ve cleared that hurdle, I suggest you stay where you are and strategize about how you’re going to do this. Write a funny novel and get it published, it’ll get optioned and that will pave the way to getting a TV agent. Win a screenwriting competition or a fellowship. That’s my advice.
Best,
Geoff
Filed under writing
Goings-on
- Saw Enter The Void finally, so much of two minds about it. Blindingly great directing (the perspective for part of it reminded me of Ima Boku wa…) but the plot was dumber than the dumbest Hollywood drama. I wish Gaspar had just put out an hour and a half long series of images he wanted to film without the bullshit “provocation” in need of a frame. This was the Phantom Menace of avant-garde French cinema and someone should do a fan edit.
- I did get a MacBook Air 11.6″ with maxed options and have been using it for almost two weeks. It is unreservedly my second favorite Mac ever after the Twentieth Anniversary. You put it in your bag and the load barely registers. Early comparisons to an iPad are all wrong. The iPad is a young, rapidly maturing device whereas the Air is the best expression of a very old way of computing – windowed Unix. The old ways are good; it’s my only machine. Not counting the iPad.
- If you’re in LA you should eat at Cube sometime. My partner and I were there this week and had a greaaaaat meal. Honestly the best gnocchi I’ve ever had, I went to the kitchen and interrogated the chef who told me the trick was to rice the potatoes hot and work in flour immediately because it’s more readily absorbed that way. Pillowy and silken, served with a venison ragu. Some of their produce comes from their own microfarm downtown; I swear I heard it’s on a rooftop.
- I’m impressed by the new Kanye West record. I listen to modern commercial hip-hop on the radio and it sounds like EURODANCE. (Case in point – jesus christ) Good that there’s a competing strain.
Filed under current events
MacBook Air 11.6″
So I looked at this thing today and I thiiiink I’m going to buy the 128gb/4gb model and use it as my primary machine. My only machine. I mean, I have a phone and an iPad. The 11″ is just the right size. You can’t make it any x/y smaller because then you can’t have a full size keyboard. People talk about how they wish it had an SD card reader or a third USB cable or an ethernet jack. I wish it didn’t have any ports except power.
This thing could change how you live. It’s so small and light you could always have it with you. And if it’s your only machine computing fades away except for when you need it. Because most of the time you just need your phone, and that’s in pocket. So you take it outside of your house, open it, do some serious work, close it, and go somewhere else. It doesn’t draw much power.
Have I shown you this picture of Steve Jobs from the early 80s? Scroll down.
In the room with him are enormous speakers, probably the best turntable that existed at the time, some records, reading material, a sitting mat, a teacup and a hundred thousand dollar Tiffany lamp. Somewhere else in this gigantic empty house is a bed and a kitchen where the tea is made. Probably there is a tea kettle on the range and that’s it. People talk about how Steve Jobs is ahead of the times but never more than in this photograph. Having almost nothing is incredibly futuristic.
Update – here’s SJ at home circa 2004. Messy desk! Looks like the past caught up with him. (Via Shaun Blanc)
Filed under technology
I write screenplays, books and push software; I'm a collector and indoorsman. If you have a Masonic scepter or a copy of the Boyd Philadelphia Blue Book (any year), drop me a line.