Once a Week?

Try as I might - not much - I failed at my 'weekly' entry. However, I made a box for a book - the book is called The Leap Day Book because I finished it, purposefully, on February 29, 2008; I made a short film (about a minute) called Waiting to practice filming, and I organized my office - which is still a work in progress. And I, uh, worked on another blog plus a website so I wasn't completely innocent of blogdom in my spare time. The box is here but it's sideways so you either have to turn your computer on its side or tilt your head or imagine it upright.

In other art news, I'm listening, slowly, to Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring Cycle) which I have never listened to before. This is the opera from which we have our image of opera singers as being big, fat, (It ain't over til the fat lady sings) and wearing breast armor and helmets with horns. One opera - of course it takes four days to watch it - and it created a stereotype. There is a lot of yelling... I mean loud singing, but there is also some incredible music. (And not just the Ride of the Valkyrie of Robert Duvall Lt. Colonel Kilgore Apocalypse Now fame.)

Greetings from Afar.

Yes, months ago I posted a post and then fell silent whilst working on something called "life." But I have returned with a Bushite smirk and a song in my heart. What have I been working on, you may ask? Besides the day job, you mean? A variety of home improvement projects which, as you well know, consume entire bank accounts and reek havoc on the most innocent of lives with merely a whisper of thanks or warning.

Also included in this silence was the inclination of a total, again, revamp of 手取川 - Tedorigawa. Yes, again. The first Tedorigawa was a rampage of raamen. The second incarnation was a rambling of a lot of meandering rivers in the streams of consciousness. This, the third revival of a blog, will focus like a laser beam in on art. Art, I tell you. Not related to the Garfunkel of Simonand kind of art but of art in real life. Mostly, however, movies, screenplays, and books that I have seen, written, or plan to write. (See below: Dancing on the Arc of a Dream for further details on the written and plan to write phases of writing.)

I will, one hopes, promise (which, with $4 will get you a cup of java at your local caffeine outlet) to update this New Improved Revamped Revived Blog more often. Dare I say "Once a week"? We shall see. We shall see.

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Next week: Text to Speech Suspense Drama -  Part One: The Invisible Client.

NationalNovelWritingMonth (NaNoWriMo) Winner

I managed to finish a Nanowrimo novel in November: The Priests of Hiroshima. The novel is about time travel, love, the little quirks of fate that change lives, Gutenberg, Istanbul, and a priest who falls in love with a nun. I blogged the first draft of my novel (still not completely up) which, if you're so inclined, you can read by clicking the blue words (indicating a link, as well you know) above. 

This all means that now I have more time to update Calvado, another Nano novel about love, the little quirks of fate that change lives, singing, modeling, and criminals. Calvado, our heroine in Calvado is also our heroine in The Priests of Hiroshima. You can read Calvado above.

It also means more time can now be devoted to Dancing on the Arc of a Dream, which I hope someday to finish and get up for sale someplace. It's the first draft/only draft of a bunch of hard-working folks trying to make it in Los Angeles. They are this close to making it, too. As stated before I'm not going to blog it so that whoever buys it will be the sole owner! Exclusivity! Great.

Dancing on the arc of a dream (continued)

Yesterday, Sunday, October 28th, a day that will never make it to the infamy top ten list, I sat in an outdoor cafe with my Mexican rice, coffee, and salad and wrote several... many pages of Dancing On the Arc of a Dream. So many, in fact, that I fear I may run out of room before the blank pages evaporate in a shower of ink and doodles. I'd write the story, doodle a drawing that may or may not be related to the story, and write some more. I discovered, half way through one scene that I had the wrong character interacting with another character so I had to go back and cross out the original character and enter in the proper guy's name.

Speaking of characters: here's a rundown of the main characters so far and which I hope will be the only characters, except for a few minor thugs and hangerson:

• Janice Jean J - the narrator; 20, the 'mother' of our little group, the glue that keeps the other two in orbit.

• Mel - 24, the disgruntled, angry young man who has made a very bad deal for drugs and a coffee shop.

• Syd - 24, a former drug dealer who was shot and lost quite a few IQ points; Janice Jean J takes care of him and Mel has a few soft spots for him, too.

• Red - Mel's dad, a scam artist.

• The Suit - a mysterious woman with too much money and a drinking problem.

• Mike - a rock star guitarist super-god, The Suit's boy-toy and perhaps a benefactor in Janice's coffee shop. The last I saw him he was getting beaten up by Red.

The plot, as we speak, is Janice and Mel are trying to get enough money to keep their coffee shop afloat. Mel borrowed some drugs from the bad guys (as of yet unseen) and was going to sell them to The Suit except someone did the old swithcroo on him (on Janice, she was meeting The Suit) and now they need money to pay for the drugs And the coffee shop. Red things he has a scam ready.

Exciting Semi-News

After a short break I have returned with a vengence upon Dancing on the Arc of a Dream. Tomorrow I will have escaped the rigors of any day job that might be lurking behind me on a dark street like a stalker about to pounce and will be devoting several hours to religiously creating more words, stories, characterization, and plot to "Dancing". For several minutes today, whilst listening to a web design podcast called boagworld, I re-read the some fifty pages of the novel so far, looked at the pictures, scribbles, and asides and this has bolstered my enthusiasm to carry on! To boldly split an infinitive where no human has split one before! To write, draw, and plot! Ah, the wonders of hand-written, hand-drawn, hand-bound novels. It sends a chill up my spine just thinking about it.

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Check out my online novel, Calvado: Love Kills.

Dancing on the Arc of a Rainbow (con't.)

I enticed an artist acquaintaince of mine to assist me with Dancing on the Arc of a Rainbow. She is going to dabble in the margins and, perhaps, create a drawing or two of the action in the story. Being an artist, she is quick, she is creative, and she can do a doodle in 5 minutes that looks more like a complete drawing than a doodle. Amazing to watch work and encourages me to write faster.

The plot thus far:
Our heroine is about to get some major money to create an upscale coffee shop for the rich so that she can make enough money to pay back the loan her dead-beat friend got from gangsters Except, the dead-beat friend's father, a con-man from back in the day, is on the scene. What does he have in mind?

Shouldn't I be riding the dig-me! blogging wave and blog Dancing on the Arc of a Rainbow? I should and could except I wanted the finished copy to be the only one and computer screens, online sites, and Flickr are not too receptive to hand-drawn art, hand-written novels, and waxed Irish linen thread threaded through needles. At least and not keep their warranty.

A New Day • A New Post • A New Blog • A New Challenge

First!

I have begun blogging a novel called Calvado. 

Calvado is a love story between a street-smart, hard-living man and a woman of exceptional intelligence. Mack, the man, discovers early in his life that everyone he loves dies. He never gets close to anyone. Until he meets Calvado. Calvado was hired as a model when she was 14 but had planned to become a doctor since she was 9. They meet in New York City where Mack has gone to get lost. 

The novel takes place all over the time: We meet Mack in the final moments of his life, we meet Calvado as a young med student. We flash back to the many, many times they 'meet' but do not become friends. Then, we flash up to why Mack is escaping New York. 

It's being blogged slowly but surely over time. The first installment: The Delaware Water Gap is up now.

Second!

I plan to blog my NaNoWriMo novel this year, just to see if I can do it. The title:  The Priests of Hiroshima. It's an historical magically realistic story of Calvado (making her second appearance), Hiroshi (a Japanese college student hitch-hiking through Turkey), an as-yet-to-be-named used bookstore owner and his 657-year-old bilingual cat.

This fab four make their way through time and place when Hiroshi discovers that Istanbul is laced with tunnels that meander over the earth and around time.

They go from the Fall of Constantinople to the bombing of Hiroshima; they wonder at the birth of Genghis Khan, and visit the studios of Wang Zhen in Yuan China as he invents movable type 130 years before Gutenberg. They visit Mainz, Germany three times: to watch Gutenberg print his Bible in 1450;  to watch as Martin Luther sends his 95  Theses to the Archbishop in 1517; and to watch Hubert Schiffer, a Jesuit priest, receive his priestly robes. Schiffer is one of eight Jesuit priests who survived the bombing of Hiroshima.

Mostly, though, The Priests of Hiroshima is a love story between Calvado and Hiroshi.

Third!

And, no, I haven't forgotten about Dancing on the Arc of a Dream. It is still being worked on. It is still being drawn and hand-written. It is up to 50 pages and growing. I'm working on it when I have the time and because it is the first and only draft, I'm being careful about plot and characterization. It's not like I can hit the delete key 28 times really fast to eliminate a misspoken sentence.

Thank you and enjoy your life.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream: A Novel Writing Idea

Good morning, everyone and welcome to Tedorigawa for August 7, 2007 and my new brainstorm.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

I stumbled upon a great idea at Plotastic.com via The Writing Show with Paula B. (on iTunes, of course, where else?). Seems Mark Putnam, creator/editor of Plotastic, wanted to write a novel but couldn't concentrate on any of his many ideas. He created Plotastic.com and a survey wherein people could vote on main character, plot points, motivation, etc cetera for Mark's novel, which he would write given the parameters of the survey. He is hard at work and as of today has about 35,000 words of his projected 100,000-word novel.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

Bear with me here; I'm getting to the point. Mark inserted a link to NanoWrimo on his website. NanoWrimo is National Novel Writing Month which is held each November. Your goal in NanoWrimo, should you decide to accept the challenge - and what writer can't? - is Simply? to write a 50,000-word novel in one month. I have dragged my carcass through NanoWrimo for the last three years and have reached the goal of 50,000 words each year. (Yeah, me!) Meaning, in my case, two completed novels (Calvado and Tristram's Printer) and one incomplete novel (Caraculiambro) but still over 50,000 words.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

Now, what does NanoWrimo, Mark Putnam's Plotastic, and me have to do with this great new novel writing idea I have? Read on, MacDuff, there's more. I also enjoy hand bookbinding. I'm a very, very beginner but enjoy it. Here is a link to one of my books on Flickr, if you're dying to see what a handbound book by me looks like.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

Get to the Point! I hear the one person who is reading this blog scream. Okay. Let's see what we can add up: bookbinding, NanoWrimo, me, Plotastic. What do you get? Me, handwriting a novel in one of my handbound books before the year is out.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

I've already bound the book and I've already started scribbling. I'm eschewing computers and anything more high-tech than a ball-point pen. I'm writing it without a net (no outline), and I'm editing it as I write In the Book! First draft is the last, all editing marks, crossouts, misspellings, doodles, and other aids to procrastination included.

Dancing On the Arc of A Dream

I have a title but no plot ... But! the plot is forming as I write! Talk about organic (see The Writing Show episode for July 29, 2007 with Anthony G. Williams "Scales" for more on organic.) And what is the title? Look: Dancing On the Arc of A Dream!

Ocassionally incredibly illegibly hand-written by George Stenson using pen, pencil, doodles, art, notes, and re-writes, Dancing On the Arc of A Dream is the first hand-bound, hand-written, first-draft novel written since 1450: the first and only draft of Dancing On the Arc of A Dream.

Here's the plot so far: Two men and one woman borrow money from the wrong people to open a greasy spoon coffee shop. They discover to their horror that they are in over their heads and have to beg, borrow, steal or print lots of money real fast. Murder, revenge, back-stabbings, double-dealings, drugs, rock and roll, and a woman known only as The Suit. Wish me luck.

Photos of Dancing On the Arc of A Dream are here: Dancing on the Arc of a Dream!

Film Noir Podcast

There's a film noir podcast wherein two academics talk about film noir. Personally, if you can get past the academic jargon ('source material' for 'the book it was based on') and the introduction wherein one of the two academics makes.... pronouncements about the movie in question, the podcast, Out of the Past, is pretty good with some insights about the genre, etc.

As for my film noir screenplay, Die Me A Genealogist, it is not going through a re-write. I'm just not un-busy enough to put it up or put up with it. Plus, I had a major computer crash. Two, in fact. One computer has been returned minus the faulty hard disk (with tons of data.) The other computer - with Die Me A Genealogist on it - is still in the shop and if it comes back with an erased disk, well, Die Me A Genealogist is poof, up in smoke, in the nether regions of life and quite an experience it was, too. I do, however, have a cool vampire movie in mind titled: Vampire Steaks. No, that wasn't it. Oh, well, I can't think of the original title so I'll go with that.

Anyone have any idea for a plot?

Go in peace. Live in harmony. Promote Good Thoughts.

Script Frenzy Script

I have finished my film noir screenplay and have been announced a winner (over 20,000 words - aout 100 pages) of the Script Frenzy frenzy. Someday I plan to put most of the script up here on a related page. If I figure out how to do it.
I believe, if memory serves, only five people get killed in my screenplay, the good guy gets the money but not the girl, and ach... six people get killed. Maybe I'd better read the damn thing to find out what happens. This is one of the special results of writing in a frenzy and not really paying attention to what you're doing: writer's alzheimer's - makes reading it a new and fresh experience!

Film Noir Script Part One

Greetings all.
Here is a short snippet of a scene from the film noir script: Die Me A Genealogist which I'm sure is eagerly awaited by one and all. Let me set the scene... or better yet, no. Read the snippet and figure the scene out on your own. Hopefully, it will be clear. Or I've failed miserably as a film noir screenwriter. We shall see. If you have any comments.... er, I'd be glad to hear from you. No, seriously, I would.

Be forewarned all ye who enter: Here lie Dirty words.

SCENE: Grunge-driven back alley littered with graffiti and broken bottles. An ALLEY CAT scavenges over the garbage for breakfast.

MAINWARING (V.O.)

It isn't everyday a stranger offers you two billion dollars.

The Cat spits at something. JERRY, 55, alcoholic Chinese-American, staggers down the alley.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
It isn't everyday you murder a stranger.

The cat spits and runs off. Jerry turns around.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
It isn't everyday you meet a woman who drives you to murder.

JERRY
What the fuck are you doing here?

SCENE: A park bench. Early morning.

MAINWARING, 40, sips from a bottle in a paper bag. He has a scar from his left ear to his mouth. Jerry sits next to him, still a little tipsy from last night. Mainwaring pulls a cigarette out and lights it.

JERRY
Those things'll kill ya.

MAINWARING
I hadn't planned on living this long.

A STRAY CAT strolls by. Mainwaring picks her up.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
If it wasn't for Jerry, I'd probably have a John Doe tag on my toe down at the Seattle City morgue. He found me right after the Florida job.

SCENE: Florida Coast
Mainwaring, no scar, 30, slouches into the lobby of a flea bag hotel. USTINOV, 20, follows carrying a large worn-out bag.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
I didn't know it was my last job when I checked into that whore's paradise but I should have guessed. There were enough clues: we missed a connection, our hotel was booked solid, and I had to deal with a three-fingered hotel clerk.

Mainwaring holds up two fingers and the clerk shoves two registration cards across the counter. Mainwaring tosses $300 on top of the cards. The clerk pockets the money and hands Mainwaring two keys.

SCENE: Seedy Hotel Room.

Mainwaring looks out the drab window at the yacht harbor. He picks up a rifle scope and finds the yacht he's looking for. Ustinov cleans a high-powered rifle.

USTINOV
Bradley says you're a genius with this.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
Ustinov is a little shit. He thought he was a tough guy because he spent a weekend in jail sobering up. I've never been in jail and hope never to be. Bradley wanted me to train the little shit. I have better ways to waste my time.

Ustinov dry fires the rifle while pointing it at the window. Too close to Mainwaring for comfort. Mainwaring moves slowly at first. Then, in one quick move he slaps Ustinov hard across the face. Before Ustinov can react, Mainwaring has a knife to Ustinov's right eye.

MAINWARING
You point that thing at me again...

USTINOV
It's, it's not loaded.

MAINWARING pushes the knife closer.

USTINOV
Okay, okay.

Mainwaring sheafs his knife.

USTINOV
I was pointing it at...

Mainwaring glares at Ustinov.

USTINOV
Okay, okay.

Mainwaring grabs his coat, fedora, and heads for the door.

USTINOV
Where ya headed?

MAINWARING (V.O.)
I suppose I could have told him, but I didn't feel like handing out any peace of mind. I didn't have any, why should the little shit?

He slams the door behind him and heads for the lobby.

That's it for today. I'll be here all week and hey, let's tip our waitresses, shall we?

Film noir script Part 2: the fun.

The script, which I'm sure you're all really, really waiting to read on baited breath, is going swimmingly - whatever that means - well?. Let's recap, shall we? I have to write a 110-page film noir in one month. I have the good guys, the bad guys, and the woman. I need some plot twists but I'm already on page 65 and moving fast. In fact I should actually be doing the script instead of playing on Tedorigawa but I can't pound out the words that long without running around looking for something else to do. No! It's not attention deficit disorder, it's because I want to think about what my characters want to do, what they are pulling me toward.

Main good guy - Mainwaring (named after the man who wrote one of the first film noir films - Daniel Mainwaring and the movie was Out of the Past starring Robert Mitchum and pretty soon all the nouns will be in wikipedia blue.). A former hitman who now operates a crummy little used bookstore in Seattle.

Main bad guy - Eely Moran (named after nobody, just a name I thought sounded greasy and slimey and ne'er do wellish.) A genealogist, the deadliest of bad-guy occupations, yes? Hmmm. Hence the tagling:

When this genealogist checks your lifeline- run!

The Woman (commonly known in the film noir world as the femme fatale; her name is legion. She is known by different names by different people: Eely knows her as Diane. Mainwaring knows her as Gertrude; the cops know her as Special Agent Freytag. But everyone knows her as Nancy - please sing along with the Beatles... ) She's known throughout the movie as....

The Hair

(a mispronunciation by Moran as The Heir - he thinks she's about to inherit a ton of money from her dead husband, who Mainwaring killed for a couple thousand dollars.)

I should say no more. I should get back to work. I should type something useful. I should say no more.

Create Peace wherever you are.

Film Noir (black film?) Screenplay

I have decided to join the ranks of the chosen millions (especially in Los Angeles) who have decided that they, too, can be the next Shane Black (a man who has gotten way too much cash for his scripts - unless someone buys mine, then we're both underpaid) and write a movie. Or, as we say in the biz, a script.
Not an ordinary script, though, (I wish) but a film noir script. A dark, twisted script with three basic characters: the hero, an ex-hitman turned bookstore owner, the femme fatale that makes the ex-hitman jump through the hoops, and the bad guy who tries to manipulate the femme fatale and the bookstore owner. This is all because of Script Frenzy in which we unwashed of the world pretend to be on deadline for a script.

• One month. June.
• One script. Die Me a Genealogist
  
• One film noir ready for sale. Ha.

So, naturlich, I looked up film noir ala wikipedia to make sure I've got all the ingredients for this particular caldron of soup. According to that we need the following pieces:

1. cigarettes - what genre comes after film noir, film cancer?
   
2. flashbacks - love it. All the screenplay gurus (Syd, Robert)say never use flashbacks.
3. a dame
4. a flawed hero
5. a flawed bad guy
6. voiceovers, of course - and, hey, didn't I write about this very thing not too long ago? Am I repeating myself? Do I have blog-alzheimer's? Yes I did! May 23 of this year. Look below! - Who am I shouting at? Myself? Probably. Who's in charge of this blog anyway!?

Today's recommended film noir movie (redundant, or what?) is "Touch of Evil" (released the same year as "No Time for Sargeants" with Don Knotts.) directed by Orson Welles, starring Orson, Charleton Heston, Janet Leigh, and, in a pre-Psycho crazy role as a motel clerk (can you say Norman 'Hi, Mom' Bates), Dennis Weaver (no, Weaver isn't in Psycho, I know that. That was Anthony Perkins. It's just that Weaver's hotel clerk in Touch of Evil is an over-the-top weirdo two years before Psycho was released.)

A bit over-acted in parts, the main reason for watching this flick is to watch Welles' directing - his camera positioning, his angles; his, what, ten-minute first tracking shot. And to watch Welles' character fall into the abyss as Heston watches and may have pushed a little bit, Janet Leigh gets gang-scared, and Dennis Weaver freaks out about marijuana.

If you're interested in film noir scripts, I've got one for you. Let me know. Contact me. Hit comment. Smile. Enjoy your life and hey, let's be careful out there.

"Die Me A Genealogist"
If this genealogist checks your lifeline, you'd better run.

YouNoir? TubeNoir?

A tribute to film noir I found on YouTube.com, one of many, many tributes and whatnots to film noir. Please let me know what you think of this and, no, I didn't make it, write it, direct it or have anything else to do with it except watch it.

"South Korean breakdancing squad" google hit update: THREE! (up from one a few days ago.) Stay Tuned for more Stupid Google Tricks!

Tapdancing South Korean Militant Breakdancing Funda-Squads

There's no reason for this other than to increase the number of google hits for it: "South Korean breakdancing squads" which Zay N. Smith (Quick Takes at the Chicago Sun-Times) coined and is trying to see how many google hits it gets vs how many yahoo hits it gets along with "tap-dancing militant Islamic fundamentalists" which, you have to admit, is a pretty amazing visual image.
On the other hand, Quick Takes is a good read for a quirky take on the news (i.e. printing contradictory quotes from the same person... read: Bush.) Currently, there is only One hit for "South Korean breakdancing squads" on Google.

And, for no particular reason, okay - because of the soothing music, the nice pictures, and the chance to read some Japanese - this video of the Kanazawa Yosui (water ways of Kanazawa, Japan):