This is really, really hot. Like…Tarzan hot. We must be a mile from the sun.

July 22, 2008 by wilmington.

From the undisclosed, secure location of the Sea Shanty Production Headquarters (the lovely Pirate’s Cove Studio/HydroTherapy/Massage Appreciation Compound)…to the baking clay surrounding a monastic-sized apartment and oak-lined university in Waco, TX…to the sun-drenched-but-still-just-right streets of hard-working-while-still-looking-damn-good-as-I-take-a-meeting-sitting-outside-Starbucks in West Hollywood, CA, Sea Shanty powers through.

I’ve used up all the dashes stored in my keyboard, so don’t look for any in the rest of this post. I’ll buy more when I get a new can of Ether to power up my network connection.

1) Screenplay work continues unabated.
In fact, due to strange and possibly big things afoot in Hollywood, the new script (which has already taken shape and is now revealing its own momentum and quirky twists) has been joined by a “clean up” of the oft victorious X GEN ! (Grr..no dashes).
What can I tell you about the new script?! “Nothing” is one way to answer that question. “Very little” is another. “Mind your own stinking business you carrion eating film industry spies!!” is yet another.
I think it’s safe to say, especially since I am usually in a trance like (man, I miss those dashes) state when we collaborate and really have very little reliable information, (and as a further precaution, am using scare quotes in order to sow suspicion and ambiguity on any word or term that might give things away or commit us to accountability of any kind),

[Clarifying paragraph break inserted here by Federal Mandate due to excessively bloated appositive. Please refer back to initial clause and continue reading below. Thank you, and God bless the U.S.A.]

that Matt and I are working on the following kind of story: a “Thriller” with some “Horror like” aspects that takes some “cues” from “two” surprising and very, “very” different plot stru”ctur”es.
As I have written somewhere or at least thought to myself while staring blankly at a wall, we intend to get representation, market this script, sell it, yawp barbarically while diving into our piles of cash, and dabble in a little world domination whenever we get a break from our Cristal baths and Koala Bear endocrine gland facials.

It’s hard work. Just witness the manic incoherence of this blog entry. It’s all about clarity of action, motivation, and dramatic arc. St. Sid of the Fields has laid it all out for us, but shifting all the pieces around and continually asking yourself questions in order to whittle the story down to its barest essentials…and then suck the marrow out of that essence and throw everything else onto the scrap heap…well, it’s hard work.

But it’s not really just about horribly mixed metaphors and ridiculous quotations stolen from Whitman and Thoreau. It’s also about the money. And the women. The women AND the money. That’s right. Writing a screenplay is not at all about sitting on the phone for hours in the dead of night eating Life cereal in the dark agonizing over the larger effects of whether a character should be abducted by police at the airport or at an apartment. It’s a gangster’s paradise, and Matt and I are Mr. Big and Tony Montana, respectively.

Item Number “B”) I have no idea what else I was giong to write about. Abby Wambach broke her leg and can’t play in the Olympics? Anna Grace squawks like an attacking pterodactyl while diving with her gaping, slobbery mouth at your neck and then laughing and squealing hysterically. Luke has a great raquetball swing..including a decent backhand.

III.) G.K. Chesterton is awesome? I couldn’t possibly have been planning to write that…could I ? Myles Werntz has outed himself as a Jason Voorhees loving Friday the 13th aficionado?

#’s Fier through Zehn) Finishing strong…
> German hurts my brain.

> And The Dark Knight has serious problems that keep it from being the complete masterpiece many people claim it to be (despite being overwhelming and amazing throughout).

> And Brigham now has a Jeep!

> The four, six song EP’s Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot) wrote and released are excellent. Musically diverse, stylistically unpredictable, and very well written.

> Took a listen to several Wynton Marsalis albums that I haven’t played in years PLUS the recent “All Rise.” Am more convinced than ever that all those barely disguised counter-culture warriors who bashed everything Wynton wrote, played, and said as “cold…passionless…neo-conservative/classical…over technical, etc.” will regret their slavish advocacy of the so_called (grr..) “avant garde” of the 80’s and 90’s. People will be listening to, and young musicians will be learning from, any number of Wynton Marsalis’ albums…how many people will be listening to critical sweethearts like Myra Melford or David S. Ware? How many people are even still listening to them now?!

> I finally checked out iTunes University after hearing it recommended a dozen times. You can get podcasts of all kinds of lectures and panel discussions and conference presentations (even sermons!). So I can now hear Geoffrey Wainwright, Sam Wells, Joel Marcus, and others discussing ecumenism, Christian ethics, and the Resurrection while driving in my car. The fact that I think this is amazingly cool should remind you that 98% of my non_sleeping time is spent doing academic work in Theology…not, evidence on this blog notwithstanding, creating sloppily_ written and rambling blog entries about filmmaking, music, and soccer.

> Many of my former students have shown themselves to be pretty cool, almost like real, actual human beings!, via the widely used (OK, gotta dig around for extra dashes that might have fallen into the couch cushions) Facebook. They ask about books they’re reading or thoughts on colleges…and of course, I also get to continue tormenting them in various ways. It’s a win-win. (Found one!)

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