February 17th, 2007 by screenwriterguy
 This week, one of the students I tutor fed me some amazing comedy. During one of our sessions, he asked me about the planet Uranus–in complete innocence and sincerity–”Why do some people call it YŎŎR-ə-nəs, and other people call it yŏŏ-RĀ-nəs?” As a general philosophy, short of breaking the where-babies-come-from story before mom and dad get the chance, I believe that if a kid asks, a teacher needs to answer. And what student-mentor relationship WOULDN’T be strengthened by more frequent use of the word “butthole?” I explained to my tutee that it was partly a more European pronunciation but also just a way that teachers avoid listening to students snicker. Naturally, he snickered.
As an interesting sidenote, a 4th-grader in a former classroom one proved to me that you cannot win for trying. His teacher had been using the YŎŎR-ə-nəs pronunciation, so as not to say Your Anus, and the boy laughed, cupped his hand to his mouth, and whispered in my ear:
“Ha! It sounds like URINE-us.”
No idea how I’ll ever fit moments like that into a script. Too much explaining is needed. However, the same student who asked me about the pronunciations gave me a joke that I’m totally going to put into my My Name Is Earl spec. In a fake debate between us, he retorted, “I am not ignorant! Wait… what does ignorant mean?” |
Posted in Comedy, General Musings | 2 Comments »
February 16th, 2007 by screenwriterguy
 Grey’s Anatomy has been picking up steam for me. Perhaps it’s not as brilliant as last year’s Super Bowl cliffhanger, but a lot of dopey distraction has been cleared aside, and some more genuine character conflicts lately show promise for interesting stories to come.However, did you notice that in last night’s episode, Izzie had a couple of speeches in which she had to deliver a whoooooole lot of parallel sentence structure? During her last little diatribe, she started about nine sentences with “I believe…” Am I the only one who desperately hoped she would break out with “I believe the children are the future?” |
Posted in , Comedy, TV Shows | No Comments »
February 13th, 2007 by screenwriterguy
Part of why television is the medium in which I aspire to work is the length and breadth of character development afforded to its writers. To me at least, part of where television becomes a vital art form is when a show dares to draw characters that grow, learn, and/or change.
Over the last week, several shows have offered fabulous character and relationship reversals. People who think and feel a certain way suddenly have found themselves behaving in quite an opposite manner. While such behavior might feel like inconsistency if done poorly, these latest examples have featured very reasonable, logical circumstances that lead to minds changing.
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Posted in , , TV Shows, Character, General Musings | No Comments »
February 10th, 2007 by screenwriterguy
If you’ve been watching the news lately, you’ve seen how 10 days ago the guerrilla marketing campaign used by a third-party PR firm for the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie “paralyzed” the city of Boston. I, for one, am happy to know that should America ever actually find itself in a real-life game of Space Invaders, at least the city of Boston is prepared. But as annoying as Boston’s overreaction is–just the latest side-effect of an administration whose re-election hinged on keeping at least half the population fearful–I find myself equally disappointed by the moves Turner Broadcasting has made since the event.
The initial response Cartoon Network made was the right one: “They have been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger.”
This is the kind of apology any good boyfriend knows how to make. “I’m sorry you’re upset, honey.” Placating, and yet oh-so free of guilt admission.
I completely understand the need to be overly cautious. I was a classroom teacher long enough to know that when it comes to safety (not to mention lawsuits) you’d better err on the side of overprotection. I also concede that I am in the target demo for ATHF, that being immature man-children who still watch cartoons. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Seriously, America?, Movies, Industry News | 2 Comments »
February 9th, 2007 by screenwriterguy
 I’ve been blogging for a few months now, and I guess it should be no surprise that the post that has seen the most attention is the one entitled, “Character Development and Naked Women.” I’m thinking that from now on, every time I come up with a post title, I should append “and naked women.”I jokingly predicted in that original post that my blog’s traffic would go up as a result of having potential search phrases like “Jessica Simpson Naked” and “nude Natalie Portman” in a posting. Out of curiosity, I took a look at the statistics for visitors and discovered that no such phrase appeared. There was, however, one lascivious searcher directed to this page. His query? “Ugly Betty Naked.” No Jessica Simpson. No Natalie Portman. Ugly Betty.
Well. God bless America. Ferrara. |
Posted in General Musings | No Comments »
February 8th, 2007 by screenwriterguy
 Since this week marks my one-year anniversary living in the City of Angels, I thought I’d post some of what I’ve learned about this town in which I’d rather not dwell, and the industry that keeps me dwelling here. Following are my top ten observations of things you just don’t see anywhere else but La-La-Land.
| #10 |
You’ll get what’s coming to you…
Good things happen to good people? People who screw over others will meet retribution? Uhhh… no. Still, folks in L.A. are true believers that karma rules the entertainment industry. This despite flagrant, flagrant evidence to the contrary.
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Posted in Top 10 Lists, Living L.A. Vida Loca | 5 Comments »
