5...4...3...2...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!!!!!

I was stuck on the stageplay, so to unclog the pipes a little bit, I went and wrote that short that's been stewing in my head for a couple months now.

Labor Flows (the second in a series I'm putting together) comes in at a compact and form-fitting 5 pages without a single word of dialogue in't. So much fun to write. Once the beta-readers take a look at it, I'll be curious as to whether or not I got my points across. Very interesting meta relying on exposition in a medium where every cue is visual. Certainly nuanced my understanding of character mannerisms and action-response. Man, our bodies can be so expressive it's a wonder we use words at all. ::grin::

Okay, so I've got Celtx open and have been staring at a blank page for the past thirty minutes. This new project scares me shitless.

Sons of Eden - 11/23/09, 7.28 PM

New Words: 2371

Total Words: 26623

Page Count: 135

Mean Things: Terrorist attack in European capital

Reason for Stopping: End Part 1.

Notes: Seems like I glossed over a lot in this chapter, and I suspect I'll be putting more meat on the bones next time around, but I just wanted to choreograph the scenes properly and get them on paper. Thematically, there's a little cleaning up to do, but Part 1 is finished. ::grin:: Now, I can get to some of these other projects. Deadlines a'looming.

Sons of Eden - 11/20/09, 4.25 PM

New Words: 336

Total Words: 24255

Page Count: 124

Mean Things: Nothing really.

Reason for Stopping: End of chapter.

Notes: While I was in high school writing the Project Cameron cycle, I think one of the premier things that led to such a high output was that there was so much input from so many different places. Not input as in comments on the story. But input as in stuff I could use. I think that's also why each book has a different flavor. Ghosts was the action-y meditation on how power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, inspired by all the comics and graphic novels I'd been reading. Sons of Eden was the spy novel, informed in large part by the formative experience of "The Modern Middle East", a class I'd taken as a junior, the first class that got me to ever read a newspaper. O, Promised Land was the cerebral one, informed by my little foray into philosophy.

And I think somewhere along the way (maybe the latter years of college), I lost that ability to take anything and everything that was happening to and around me and turn it into story material. But now it seems as though it's coming back. I just did something really cool with Drake and it simultaneously provided a new perspective for this issue I've been having of late of divorcing my own prejudices from those of my characters.

Perhaps when people say writing can be therapeutic, this is what they mean.

Sons of Eden - 11/20/09, 5.28 AM

New Words: 1256

Total Words: 23918

Page Count: 122

Mean Things: Drake wonders if he's collecting people's "bad parts."

Reason for Stopping: Starts with a b and ends with "ed"

Notes: see below.

P.S. Black Label Society, then old-school Busta Rhymes is a very interesting combination.

I've been watching a lot of "Chappelle's Show" lately with the little bro and am amazed and simultaneously saddened by how brilliant and prescient that show was. The "Black Bush" skit (if you can find it somewhere on the Net, you should watch it) is absolute genius.

But going into its 3rd season, there were "creative differences" and Dave Chappelle ended his contract with Comedy Central. The straw that broke the comedian's back was a sketch notoriously called the "pixie skit" where various people, when met with a particular scenario, were confronted by a little pixie meant to embody the essence of their stereotype, a pixie that allegedly resides in all of us, and must make a decision as to whether or not to give in to the urgings. Frex, black man on a flight is offered fried chicken or fish for his meal. Pixie says, "go for the chicken" and does a little minstrel dance in blackface. Frex #2, white man is at the club with his black friends and is asked to dance by an afro-latina with a generous butt. White pixie dressed in a cardigan tells him it's a trap and that he should just do the twist and think of rock n roll tunes to get his rhythm.

Anyway, this was the sketch that really did it for Dave and I think he was most upset over what this sketch would portend for his show, that it would perpetuate stereotypes rather than critically address them.

This got me thinking about my torturous relationship with the N-word. I was always tickled that the word wasn't censored but f*ck would get the bleep treatment because I grew up under the impression that both were equally reprehensible. Recent years have complicated my rapport with the N-word (ideas of cultural appropriation at work here), but I think my feelings are very nicely and cleverly articulated by my new favorite rapper, a guy named Wale.

Here's a clip of the track in question. Warning: Its intro is Mike Richards' infamous outburst at that comedy club a couple years back so it's a little raw and harsh going in, but Wale's words are beautiful in their truth and I think it's worth a listen.

Then again, I am in the midst of a crisis as regards my own prejudice.

Anyway, here's the video below:

Plan Colombia has this excellent interview with Luis Jorge Garay, an Colombian economist, on the evolution of organized crime in Colombia and its ties to the state. This is right up my alley and most of the bullets listed in the article are pretty common components of successful criminal enterprises, though the distinction between organized civil society and the local population (the former the subject of intimidation, the latter the recipient of criminal benevolence) is very interesting.

What's telling and perhaps more than a little unfortunate is that this does not strike me as odd or bizarre at all. My Balkans work led me to this conclusion (minus the civil society bit) and I imagine if a model were to be built to explain or at least examine cross-border criminality, it would carry many of these component.

Very interesting stuff, nonetheless, even if my fascination is of the morbid variety. I'll be keeping an eye on Garay's work. His background as an economist means he's taking this issue on from an angle I have yet to come across in any depth.

I've run into a dilemma that I don't think I'll find the answer to any time soon. But blogging is rather therapeutic and an ancillary benefit is that it can generate conversation and lead me down paths of understanding I would not have found on my own.

It appears I'm an anti-Semite.

Or rather, one of my characters is.

I've never really had a problem writing characters who share different and even opposing viewpoints from myself; in fact, I thought I was rather good at it. One part of that is that I wasn't as good as I am now at crawling beneath a character's skin, at getting closer and closer to realizing that character's consciousness and trawling its contours. Another reason, though, is something else that approaches the issue of taking sides and this point was made to me several months back when I handed in an essay on Richard Price's Clockers, as beautiful and harsh and honest a book as I've ever come across.

I made the point that by alternating chapter points-of-view between the two major protagonists on opposite sides of the law, Price was effectively being Switzerland and sacrificing polemics in the effort of maintaining journalistic distance and impartiality. By describing everything, he was just letting the characters breathe on the page, letting them build their own monuments, letting them dig their own graves.

But my professor made the extraordinary point that even in the act of writing what he wrote, the inclusion and omission of any details meant that Price was, if not picking a side, then providing some sort of commentary. Whatever grays you focus on--even if the grey is the fabric of your entire novel--you are making a statement.

And I think this is what I've come across in this most recent endeavor.

Impartiality is impossible in this line of work, but I feel I've stumbled into difficult and dangerous territory here.

For the first time, I feel so embedded in the terrain of my characters' mindsets that it feels akin to what war correspondents call "going native."

I'm reminded of a 2007 post on subtext and implications and think that my present conundrum is a combination of that and my character issues. What's on the page is what you write, but there's also plenty of white space alive with what's not being said, and I worry that perhaps my prejudices have strayed out of their bounds and filled up that white space or whether perhaps those prejudices were already in the white space and have only managed to bleed into me.

I've written murderers, arms dealers, drug traffickers, child soldiers, racists, fanatics, and suicidals. How much of that is drawn from the fabric of my own being? How much of that is merely me exercising my capacity for empathy? Is there really that much of a distinction between the two?

It used to be that I could say that a character's anti-Semitism wasn't mine because we didn't share those beliefs. But now I'm starting to wonder if the no-man's land between the character and myself is a lot more easily traversed than I initially supposed.

Writing a convincing character never before meant having to inhabit that character's consciousness for more time than was required to let them bleed on the page, but I worry if there isn't a bit of every villain I write that lingers inside me. Or, rather, the villainous bits of every person I write that lingers.

I'm trying to write people being people. But I seem to have forgotten that my (a)vocation doesn't prevent from being "people" as well.

Sons of Eden - 11/19/09, 1.01 AM

New Words: 1150

Total Words: 22670

Page Count: 116

Mean Things: Drake's upset with his reality.

Reason for Stopping: Bedtime.

Notes: I am b.e.a.t. I can barely keep my eyes open. Which is alright because I don't have work until 1 PM this afternoon. ::smirk::

P.S. I just realized that the Jay-Z "Kingdom Come" off the album of the same title samples "Superfreak" by Rick James. Just Blaze, you are an effing genius.

The Queens International Film Festival was this past weekend and Astoria was where I had vanished to. I was staying with a friend in Manhattan and just playing around on the subway most days but the big transportation days were Thursday when I went up and Sunday when I came back

As my first festival experience, it set the bar magnificently high. I came in with no expectations whatsoever, had no idea what I'd gotten myself into, and knew less than nothing about the whole process. Apparently, somewhere down the line All-Access Filmmaker badges and a script critique were involved, but those are besides the point. The festival was a successful experience not because of any organizational acumen (in fact, there was an extremely tangible lack of it), but rather the fantastic, generous and, in some cases, visionary people I was able to meet during those few days.

It was something I'd rarely experienced, fellowship with individuals as passionate about a craft as I was and able to articulately bring their own experiences and backgrounds to bear on it made discussion a wonderfully fulfilling pastime. It also planted the seeds for many, many potential future collaboratons, of which I am unbearably excited.

There were some wonderful films in evidence at the fest. The animation shorts were by far the most satisfying in terms of "good films per block". And while some of the live action shorts were innovatingly filmed and photographed there was a notable lack of narrative cohesiveness in many of them, and I'm all about the storytelling.

I saw only one feature (one with quite a bit of money behind it) and came out feeling like I'd just gone to the cinema. No rough edges, pretty flawlessly executed. But nothing that felt like I was discovering a new color.

All that said, the festival was a phenomenal experience and I now have a bar to measure others. Also, while I was in Queens, I got a call from a work oppotunity in Georgia asking me to join them for the Spring season (Jan-Apr). I'd be doing research and administrative work concerning democratization and government policy, which is incredibly exciting because it means I can finally put this pesky Poli Sci degree to use. So in January, I'll be moving to Georgia for this gig and will reveal details as they are revealed to me. Needless to say, it is a very exciting time in my life right now.

My sister was flying in from Paris that Sunday, so I couldn't stay for the awards ceremony at the festival, but on the ride back, I got a call from one of my friends, notifying me that I was a Best Feature Screenplay nominee, something I still haven't been able to wrap my mind around.

Couple that with a legendary dinner with a very good friend who happened to be in the neighborhood Saturday night as well as the home-cooked meal Mom had waiting for me upon my return, and I'd say this goes on record as one of the best weekends in recent T history.

I'm not at my most articulate because work this week has been particularly draining and I've had to go through a pint and a half of Bud Light just to loosen myself up enough to begin a new Sons of Eden chapter. But suffice it to say, there's been quite a bit of good news, and for that, I am a very happy me.

Quite possibly the best. weekend. ever.

Details forthcoming as I'm on the verge of collapse, but suffice it to say, it's been a success in more ways than I could have ever imagined

Sons of Eden - 11/10/09, 6.40 PM

New Words: 1233

Total Words: 21516

Page Count: 110

Mean Things: David's back.

Notes: Finally wrote the confrontation scene between Eli and David, and it doesn't ring with nearly enough resound as I need it to. And I can't for the life of me figure out what's wrong with it!

Sons of Eden - 11/9/09, 11.33 PM

New Words: 1011

Total Words: 20278

Page Count: 104

Mean Things: Eli's past has finally come a'callin'

Reason for Stopping: Bedtime.

Notes: Feels a little rough getting back into the saddle but I have 1k words I did not have earlier today. That alone is cause for celebration. ::grin::

Currently reading: Blood Meridian, Or the Evening Redness in the West - Cormac McCarthy

Saw Men Who Stare at Goats earlier today with the neighbors and wasn't quite sure what to expect. But I took jpsorrow's suggestion to look for the SFF jokes and was amply rewarded. As a war satire, I'm not quite sure if it works. But as a riff on the SFF coming-of-age story, it was hilarious and awesome. So many of those elements worked and I laughed pretty hard at parts. Anyway, whether or not that's how the film's architects intended for it to be viewed, that's how I saw it and that's exactly why I enjoyed it so much.

Anyway, now to put some words on the page.

Watched the Mad Men season finale with a friend next door and enjoyed it, though I did find myself wanting. There were, of course, some wonderful lines (mostly attributed to Roger), but the flashbacks I found wholly unnecessary and lazy (a gripe I've had all season) and there were a few scenes near the end of the ep that struck me as redundant. All the while, however, I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd seen this whole ( spoiler )

Of course, there'll be innumerable blog entries and internet sqwaking trying to dissect every camera angle of the episode and trying to find the hidden significance behind every syllable. But before they wake up, I just wanted to say that as an example of people moving beyond a tragedy that has/had irrevocably changed their lives and picking up the pieces then trying as best they can to put them back together, Mad Men is damned fine storytelling.

Guess who just rocked the fcku out of his phone interview! I'm so excited right now, I can't remember the last time I got to have a conversation about the intersection of post-conflict reconstruction and organized criminal enterprise.

Anyway, it's in God's hands now. I should have news by the end of next week or the beginning of the week after.

Crossa za fingaz, please.

Two steps forward and one step back is still progress, right?

Had a good (and full) day at work today, then came back to find a note from an opportunity down in Georgia (Jan-May) requesting a phone interview. Stoked, I am. And to add to the perfection, I happen to have the day in question off. Cool, yes?

Add to that I got some awesome (re: really, really useful) reviews on the OWW today and will hopefully be returning the favors either tonight (if I can swing the energy pendulum the other way) or tomorrow, which is probably what'll happen anyway as I'll have the time to pace myself.

Then, not five minutes after replying to the phone interview request, Masada picked up its latest rejection. Granted, it was after the agent read the full manuscript and the reason she gave was thoughtful and much appreciated. But it seems I've hit a wall with that novel and I may need to retrace my steps a bit before doing the next round of queries. Caveat: Though I seriously think I'm running out of agents to query! I've been good about sticking to guidelines and sending stuff to people who would best appreciate the genre Masada sits in, but I dunno. They've all said no.

Either way, I'll probably need to finish the Sons revisioning before I return to that child. Got my work cut out for me, no?