So far, so good -- or taking a breather

Got through the busy morning and even made a tad of progress on this piano piece that I find difficult this week for some reason. I'm also entering the Finale class less clear about the material than I have been in the past. Maybe being "over my head" is beginning to catch up with me.

First things first. I'm on a thesis oral defense committee that meets in an hour, the work of a poet getting a Masters. I like much of her work.

Then to Finale, then to First Wednesday. By then, 9ish, I'll be overdue for dinner. Probably stop at O'Connor's in Multnomah Village on the way home since they serve late.

This week is too crazy. I hope the rest of the term isn't this way.

Screenwriting software

With Sophocles dead, I've been snooping around for a small, portable screenwriting program that I can run from my flash drive -- and Celtx looks like it may fill the bill. I've recommended this to my students as a free and useful program but it's been a long while since I've checked it out myself -- and it's added features galore since then. This indeed may be just what I've been looking for, a portable screenwriting program. I'll test drive it for a while.

Old Flip video v. Ultra Flip

Thanks to Julie for the link.

Hyperdrama CD-ROM

I'm making a CD-ROM of my recent hyperdrama project, using Lulu, selling at cost, just to have it in another package and one that can get into libraries. The search for converts! ha ha.

The tough week begins

Although I have an easy time in class today, just showing Sideways, this bear of a week begins in earnest. I have a Masters thesis to read before the defense tomorrow; I have a difficult piano piece to continue work on (and tomorrow I'll be reading scripts all morning). I already am looking forward to the end of this week ha ha, and it's just starting.

Last night, for diversion and perhaps sanity, I started a thin little book that looks like it might be a gem, Letters to a Young Mathematician.

Images from the past

I woke up with a strange image from the past in my head. I was at a book signing, seated next to Craig Lesley. His first novel recently had been published, as well as my play Christmas at the Juniper Tavern. Down the table, Jean Auel was signing copies of her latest Cave Bear book. 100s, I mean hundreds, of women were lined up to get her signature. Lesley and I were pretty much ignored, lost in the crush of all these women elbowing forward to get close to Auel. Pop lit v. literature, we joked, or something to that effect. Lesley was unknown at the time, his first novel, and although I was better known, plays are never big sellers. I think he signed 5 or 6 books before the night was over, I about half that. Auel must have signed 500. I do remember having a good time, however, in a surrealistic sort of way. L. and I amused one another.

Brick walls

A frustrating day! Everything I started ended up being far harder than I expected. It's going to be a tough week indeed.

A challenging week

Both music theory and Finale class have new and challenging material this week. Plus I pick up first drafts of scripts tomorrow, sit on a graduate thesis defense Wed before Finale, with First Wednesday afterwards, well, it looks like a hell of a week. But we're on the downhill side of the term.

The sun!

Managed to get some yard work done today. However, each year I seem to tucker out sooner than the year before.

Earlier I went to H's opening, and my old buddy from piano last year showed up. Nice to see him. I shot some video but left early to get to yard work before I lost my resolve.

Say what?

It's come to my attention that I'm quoted on a number of foreign websites.

"Je préfère La dramaturgie d'Yves Lavandier à Story de Robert McKee, probablement le seul autre livre de même envergure." - Charles Deemer

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Pode falar, Charles Deemer:

"Um dos segredos sombrios da profissão de escritor é este: quase não há uma classe média. A maioria dos escritores profissionais [...] não consegue ganhar o suficiente para viver, escrevendo."

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Pode responder, Charles Deemer (roteirista norte-americano):

"Numa cultura que glamouriza a violência tanto quanto a nossa o faz, eventos violentos como os assassinatos de hoje na escola só são surpreendentes por seu momento de ocorrência e por sua magnitude. O que mais além da violência podemos esperar de uma cultura violenta?"

My one-act hyperdrama also is reviewed, or analyzed, or condemned, or something:

The Last Song of Violeta Parra

Este segundo exemplo, The Last Song of Violeta Parra6 (www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/chile-m.html ) é, sem dúvida, o que podemos definir como hiperdrama.

Escrita por Charles Deemer em 1996, esta peça possui unicamente um acto. Todas as mudanças cénicas são feitas sempre que uma personagem sai (ou entra) de uma divisão. A história é simples, sendo no entanto complexa a forma como é apresentada.

Mais uma vez, o protagonista é o espaço. Todas as personagens têm a mesma importância para o desenrolar da trama; o mais importante é o espaço onde estão colocadas e a sua ligação a este.

A particularidade mais importante do texto está na forma como os links são feitos; cada vez que uma personagem muda de sala abre-se um novo link; assim as personagens circulam de uma divisão para outra sem que isso faça com que a acção inicial seja interrompida. A personagem ou se junta a outras que já estão no espaço ou inicia uma nova acção, enquanto na divisão deixada outras personagem continuam a circular. Assim, o que temos são várias acções que decorrem em simultâneo em diferentes espaços.

Apesar de existir um inicio definido na peça (Living Room I), o percurso pode começar por qualquer das 7 divisões da casa ou por qualquer das 8 personagens ou até mesmo por uma indicação de tempo. As acções são cronometradas pelo que aparentam ser segundos. Assim as opções do desenrolar da história multiplicam-se, podendo até mesmo mostrar ou esconder acções e personagens; tudo depende do caminho que se escolhe para chegar ao destino comum (seja qual for a escolha o local de destino é sempre o mesmo).

Segundo Charles Deemer , o hipertexto é a forma ideal de "mostrar a vida como ela é", ou seja, se Allesattor XPTO se destaca pela sua componente pós-humana de diálogos poéticos, The Last Song tenta encontrar uma "well made mimesis" até mesmo no tempo de acção em que a peça decorre (sendo 3 a 5 vezes mais longo que uma peça tradicional, equivalente ao tempo real da história). O que temos é a junção do "demasiado realista" a um meio que vive da ficção e da artificialidade.

I did catch "Robert McKee" in the first quotation above. I don't recall reviewing his book, which I'm actually no fan of. I hope it's not some out-of-context praise ha ha. I think his book, like the software program Dramatica, makes story analysis more complex than it needs to be for the working writer. But both have legions of fans.

A full day

Though I won't really know until I get into editing, a quick glance at the video from my interview today looks good. Afterwards I had lunch with a friend and stayed to watch the Derby, which was exciting. Tomorrow H has an opening, and I'm trying to decide how to surprise her.

Derby Day

I always associate the Kentucky Derby with Spring, 1959, when I left Berkeley to hitchhike to Louisville and see the derby, my first adventure on the road, as it were, which I documented in a journal which I still possess. I was 19 years old. I had transfered from Cal Tech to Berkeley in the middle of my sophomore year but promptly dropped out of school, finding the Berkeley street life far more exciting than classrooms. This was a major turning point in my life, the beginning of a coming of age transformation, from nerd to writer. Here are sample journal entries from that trip:

April 22, 1959 … 4 rides today from Oakland to Bakersfield. … [about 3rd ride] Rode most of day with these guys. Running away from folks. No money. Plan robbery in Bakersfield tonite so Dunc & I cut out. Real nice bunch of fellas. Just on wrong side of tracks.

[later that night] Met interesting woman tonight. Old in physical appearance but strong as an ox, has been in 48 states 4 times. Tattooed from head to toe. Had on man’s pants, shoes, shirt. Shirt buttoned in only one place, high. Breasts hanging loosely, visibly, with no bra. Has two kids in Vermont. Friendly as hell, the type of woman one does not believe exists. Makes freighters all over. Used terms like “shack out,” “this side of midnite.” “Hell” most popular word in vocabulary.

April 23, 1959 … Rode from Mojave half way to Barstow with desert-rat wino. Passed bottle; very unsafe. Glad to have left him. Duncan bummed meals for 3 of us.

[that night] Between 1st and 2nd Ave. on Fremont [Las Vegas] is a “main drag.” The lights are so bright that the sidewalk is as bright as at mid-day. The city never sleeps. It jingles alive – stretched endlessly over the desert.

Monday, Ap 27, 1959 … [after Duncan left me on my own] I’m headed for Mississippi. Since Salt Lake been with Al, 29 from Miss. Going there for fishing and pussy – talked me into making it.

[later, same day] I’m a little south of Carthage, Mo. It is still light – overcast, thundering, raining intermittently.
Today, about 3pm, Al told me he was going downtown. We were both damn sleepy, so I stretched on a blanket in the park – where I am now. He was to meet me in 2 hrs. He was going to try to con $10 from the Amer. Leg.
I don’t know how long it has been since I went to sleep, but Al is not here. I don’t know what to think. His jacket is here, but I can’t find the $ he is supposed to have in it. I “thought” he took his crap and perhaps cut out. He has nothing of mine, which makes me believe he’s slowed down. I’ll wait all nite if need be – I hope he’s not in trouble …
For the first time this trip I am alone with no one to talk to. I suddenly realize the intensity of loneliness. And in a goddamn thunderstorm no less!

Tues Ap 28 ’59 … 9:00 AM … No sign of Al. I have choice of going – to Miss. Or Ken.; or waiting. I’ll at least wait a few more hours.

Wed Ap 29 ’59 … I left Al – never showed. Got ride today with another queer. This one teaches j.v. deliqs.

[later] Another drunk, another queer tonite.

Although I made it to Louisville in time for Derby Day, I had little money and no more inclination to see the race. The journal continues:

Thur Ap 30 ’59 … Man asked if I wanted ride as I walked down street of Louisville. Bought me 3 hamburgers and a coke. Very friendly.

[later, outside Danville, starting home] Ken. friendliest state I’ve been in. Rained hard tonite – small boy & his older, cute, blonde sister let me sleep in their parents’ barn. I slept up in the hay loft above the hog – protected from the rain.

Fri May 1 ’59 … Sicker than dog today, can’t keep anything down. Finally picked shade and slept. Slept most of day. Tried hitching at 5pm. Long wait for short ride. Hit sack at sunset with thumping headache.

Sun May 3 ’59 … Rode to Memphis with Mississippi newly-weds.
[later] Anxious to get home and feel clean again. Would like in future to motorcycle around states. Hitching fine if time has no meaning. This is its appealing factor.

I was young, sheltered, naive. I learned a hell of a lot quickly on the road.

A good Saturday

A busy but fun day, I think. First, shooting video, an interview with folk musician Kate Mann; then lunch at Nobby's and catching up with an old friend; home to do some yard work. Tomorrow H has an art opening, which I'll make, and I also need to get in editing and piano time. We're on the downhill side of the term now. I'm beginning to look forward to summer and my challenging new projects, as well as wrapping up some older interests. Onward.

Sometimes A Great Notion

Portland Center Stage's adaptation of the great Kesey novel is much better than I thought it would be. The heart of the book is captured in a highly theatrical production full of fine moments and memorable stage images. The choreography of work and fight scenes is especially good. The cast is good top to bottom. The set is great. What keeps this play from being as great as its conception is the pacing: there are too many slow repetitive moments. 15 or even 30 minutes shorter, this would be an extraordinary show. As it is, the accomplishment in bringing Kesey's novel to stage is considerable. And the monologue by the only woman in the cast is worth the price of admission.

TGIF

Glad the week winds down today. Piano this morning, class, and we're catching a special play matinée this afternoon, Sometimes a Great Notion. Saturday I have a video interview for the review. Need to bring editing the new issue front burner now. Lots to catch up on. Also need to check how we're doing for bandwidth, what with all the video we're publishing.

Next week in class we watch and discuss Sideways, a relatively easy week since I've done this so many times.

On the summer project list

In no particular order.

• Cold War novel
• Three Loves, the new posthumous play
• silent comedy video
• major musical project ... music drama, a requiem?
• write some pop songs
• major house chores

Does the author know best?

Here is a list of my personal favorites in my large archive of work.

End of week

Good theory class today. Getting into stuff that is very useful to me now, rather than "just" theory.

With the review deadline approaching, I'm beginning to feel under the gun as I usually do at this stage of the cycle. I need to catch up with editing in the next 2 weeks because the last half of May will have a ton of stuff coming in, I expect. I don't have a sense of the new issue yet, except that it's going to have more video than usual in non-video areas, i.e. interviews and readings.

I'm already getting anxious for summer. The new review will be out and I'll have all these exciting new projects to juggle. I've decided to try and finish my Cold War novel over the summer as well. If I let it slip, it may never get done. It's worth doing, and I have a good start on it.

Phone plays

Very short plays that happen on the telephone.

Dead men don't vote

A sad affair and poor decision, in my book. He'll get a lot of money. He'll camouflage greed with lofty literary mumbo-jumbo. He may even become a literary hero. Brings to mind the end of Mahagonny, "You cannot help a dead man."

clipped from www.npr.org Nabokov Novel to Be Published, Against Dying Wish All Things Considered, April 30, 2008 · Vladimir Nabokov's final work — an unfinished manuscript scholars call The Original of Laura — was meant to be destroyed 30 years ago. When Nabokov died in 1977, he left instructions for his heirs to burn the 138 handwritten index cards that made up the rough draft. But Nabokov's wife, Vera, couldn't bear to destroy her husband's last work, and when she died, the fate of the manuscript fell to her son. Dmitri Nabokov, now 73, is the Russian novelist's only surviving heir. He says he inherited the problem of whether to honor his father's wishes or save the literary master's last written words for posterity. But after 30 years of grappling with the decision, Nabokov has announced his plans to publish the novel.

Tough night

Finale class last night was a challenge, and I didn't get everything together until I came home and did some more work. But I'm back up to speed. We do more complex things each week.

A busy morning, in fact a busy day, catching up on midterms, a rush to music theory, a rush to the university and class, and tomorrow a full morning on piano. Seeing a play after my piano class tomorrow. Saturday a video interview for the journal.

Now and again ...

... something like this happens and I can forget about all the egomaniac jerk superstars in sports these days.

Thanks to Paul for the link.

clipped from nbcsports.msnbc.com 'Unbelievable' sportsmanship in softball game CWU players carry WOU player around bases after knee injury following HR PORTLAND, Ore. - With two runners on base and a strike against her, Sara Tucholsky of Western Oregon University uncorked her best swing and did something she had never done, in high school or college. Her first home run cleared the center-field fence. But it appeared to be the shortest of dreams come true when she missed first base, started back to tag it and collapsed with a knee injury. She crawled back to first but could do no more. The first-base coach said she would be called out if her teammates tried to help her. Or, the umpire said, a pinch runner could be called in, and the homer would count as a single. Then, members of the Central Washington University softball team stunned spectators by carrying Tucholsky around the bases Saturday so the three-run homer would count — an act that contributed to their own elimination from the playoffs.

Too bad

clipped from news.yahoo.com BCS rejects plan to turn system into 4-team playoff HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - There will be no playoff for the BCS anytime soon. Bowl Championship Series officials rejected a plan Wednesday to turn the controversial system for deciding a national champ into a four-team playoff, starting in the 2010 season.

Adventures in etymology

I love stories like this.

clipped from news.yahoo.com People of Lesbos take gay group to court over term 'Lesbian' By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS, Associated Press Writer ATHENS, Greece - A Greek court has been asked to draw the line between the natives of the Aegean Sea island of Lesbos and the world's gay women. Three islanders from Lesbos — home of the ancient poet Sappho, who praised love between women — have taken a gay rights group to court for using the word lesbian in its name. One of the plaintiffs said Wednesday that the name of the association, Homosexual and Lesbian Community of Greece, "insults the identity" of the people of Lesbos, who are also known as Lesbians. "My sister can't say she is a Lesbian," said Dimitris Lambrou. "Our geographical designation has been usurped by certain ladies who have no connection whatsoever with Lesbos," he said.

The screenplay at a glance

Sometimes a screenplay comes in from a student that I can tell at a glance has serious problems. I can do this without reading a word. The giveaway is "text density" -- there is so much of it on the page, so little white space, that the writer clearly misunderstands what it is s/he is supposed to be doing. The same thing happens when I'm a judge in a screenplay competition: I find scripts I reject unread. They simply do not present themselves as screenplays. This is the classic case of the writer shooting himself in the foot.

I had an extreme case this term. A student turned in a script with two long paragraphs that took up the entire first page. Well, he turned in the rewrite with the midterm and it's great! Short paragraphs, simple sentences, the narrative darting forward nicely in an airy script that moves the eye vertically as much as horizontally -- a spec screenplay! It's satisfying to see someone "get it" and especially as quickly as this. From disaster to good screenwriting in one rewrite.

The reason I have one-on-one conferences with each student is to make sure they understand the format and rhetorical hoops they must jump through. Screenwriting is primarily about storytelling, and the quicker all the other issues are out of the way, the better. Let format and rhetoric serve the story, which comes first.

Midterms

Today is dedicated to reading midterms -- and it's usually a good experience. I always have them write a short script to a specific requirement (in this instance, I give them the required first scene of the story), and most do a decent job, showing they are beginning to master the format and rhetorical issues of the craft and can begin to focus on storytelling issues, which is where the emphasis in screenwriting should be. Correct format and a lean, clean writing style must become "givens." So this is a day I look forward to.

And I'm already ready for my Finale class tonight. I'm not, however, ready for music theory tomorrow, so I need to spend an hour on that today as well.

I'm excited to have drafted the silent comedy yesterday. It's very rough -- but hey, any start is better than none. You can't rewrite a blank page.

Sophocles again

Sophocles users, including myself, are still trying to find out what's going on with the screenwriting software company. There's some discussion of this at the Done Deal forum. The Sophocles website has disappeared. The domain, however, remains active until July 1, according to domain records:

Domain Name: SOPHOCLES.NET

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Promote your business to millions of viewers for only $1 a month
Learn how you can get an Enhanced Business Listing here for your domain name.
Learn more at http://www.NetworkSolutions.com/
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Administrative Contact:
Tim tsheehan@SOPHOCLES.NET
Tim Sheehan
Sheehan Software
3248 Washington St., #2
San Francisco, CA 94115
US
999 999 9999 fax: 999 999 9999

Technical Contact:
Uzzanti, Tim juan@teamjuanuribe.com
Crystaltech Web Hosting Inc.
6135 N 7th St.
Phoenix, AZ 85014
US
915-479-5151 fax: 915-585-9400

Record expires on 01-Jul-2008.
Record created on 01-Jul-1999.

I've had cordial communication with Tim in the past but he hasn't replied to a recent email about his company. The email did not get returned, however. One theory is that the company was sold but if so, this is a poor way to do the business of transition (unless it was gobbled up to get rid of it). We may never know what happened.

Meanwhile, I'll keep using the program, a damn good one, until it crashes and I have to use something else.

Survived

Got through all the student conferences with a tad of energy left for class. Just have to show a video and discuss it afterwards. Onward.

Student crises

A couple of my students may be asking for Incompletes, their personal lives rearing up stressful obstacles to doing the work they should be doing. I'm always ready to be flexible on such matters. After all, I had something close to a nervous breakdown in grad school and dropped out myself, and if it had not been for my department chair, Kester Svendsen, I might not have been readmitted later. But Svendsen put a letter in my file to reinstate me whenever I reappeared. Lucky because he died of cancer while I was rehabilitating (and becoming a writer in the process), so couldn't have stood up for me in person. I owe Svendsen a lot -- and try to return his favor to my own students.

What, a draft?

Somehow or other, pounding out script between student visits, I have a draft of the short silent comedy. At least, I typed THE END. We'll see how it looks after a few days simmering. I may have too many title cards. But lots of intrigue, fun, double dealing, and opportunities for wonderful exaggerated acting, especially of grief and of suspicion. What fun.

In the office

Met with my three early students, had a break sufficient for running out for a quick breakfast, back and waiting for the deluge. While waiting, started the silent comedy script and already have fun with it. But what a different story strategy in this genre!

A long day

Once a term I spend a day meeting one-on-one with my students, and this is the day. Fortunately I have a break around ten, so I can grab some breakfast. In class, I'm showing The Monster That Ate Hollywood. Be about a 12-hour day.

Once is not enough

G. and M., the stars of that gem of an indie film Once, passed through town last night, and we were there in the large auditorium to see them. After handing over a complete first set to two Irish musicians traveling with them, they came on stage, where a huge adoring crowd kept them singing for almost two hours. This has been quite a ride for them, a real fairytale. (In a zero-sum universe, balances out that creep who kept a daughter in a basement for decades, screwing kids out of her.) G. seems like a nice guy. He even brought a local guy he'd met that afternoon on a walk on stage to sing.

I'm not big on crowd-events, be they musical or sports or anything else, so I didn't enjoy the evening as much as H. did. I prefer the movie to the concert, and I like the songs better in the film's context than otherwise. But my lack of ga-ga put me in a small minority.

Not with a bang but a whimper

clipped from news.yahoo.com Iranian official warns against importing Barbie dolls TEHRAN, Iran - A top Iranian judiciary official has warned against the "destructive" cultural and social consequences of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys. Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi said in an official letter to Vice President Parviz Davoudi that the Western toys was a "danger" that needed to be stopped. Iranian markets have been inundated with smuggled Western toys in recent years partly due to a dramatic rise in purchasing power as a result of huge increase in oil revenues.

Virtual Yardy

Imagine a novel that takes place in cyberspace. Now imagine a group of mainly Jamaican bloggers who have never met each other and they plan a meet-up in Negril and one of them is murdered. Then, they find out that the murderer, a Jamaican Cotton Mather, has plans to kill all of them to rid the island of “fornication, corruption, and battymanism.” This is Geoffrey Philp’s introduction to Virtual Yardies, his recently completely “hypertext novel”. Virtual Yardies is a novel told via blog posts, e-mails and instant messages—a 21st century epistolary novel, as Nicholas Laughlin says over at Antilles.

Check it out.

Writing a syllabus

This summer, I hope to put together a syllabus for Hypertext Literature to present to the chair here. This will take considerable research but fortunately many universities, unlike ours, have been teaching this for a decade. There are many different approaches in online syllabi. I was happy to see that my own work was on many of the class reading lists.

I was able to sit down and write the Hyperdrama syllabus with hardly any research at all because I know the field so well. Not so in the broader context of hypertext, where I'd want to cover matters of history, poetics, trends. This will take some research, thought and work to put together.

Free software

101 Fabulous Freebies from PC World.

Morning stew

Looks like my syllabus for a hyperdrama course has initial approval. The procedure moves forward.

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Dinner party last night. Nothing like a dinner party hosted by a younger generation to remind you of aging. While this was an energetic gathering I might have hosted myself 40 years ago, conversations and subjects did remind me how much of the world is not "mine" any more. Which actually is fine. I also was reminded of how lucky I've been to belong to my generation, not anyone else's. I have no desire to be younger. If I'm jealous, it's of older generations, not younger.

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Not sure what's on my plate today. Tomorrow I have a full day of student conferences. Thursday I return midterms. So the class week is set. Lots of balls in the air but not sure which to catch today.

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Need a free HTML editor? I swear by Alley Code.

R.I.P.

Apparently my screenwriting software of choice, Sophocles, is dead, gone, out of business. Website dead for weeks now. Too bad. My students could get it for half price, hell of a deal. No more, I guess. I'll still use it, of course, for as long as it runs.

Not too bad?

Maybe my bass run isn't as bad as I think. Hearing it again, I almost like it. Maybe it helped that I actually made the playback instrument an acoustic bass (instead of piano, the default).

The moment is fragile

No matter how well things are going, they can change in an instant. In life. In games. In the Mariners game today, the very talented young pitcher Felix Hernandez pitched 7 innings of brilliant ball, 10 strikeouts, scattered a few hits, no runs. Mariners went into the 8th looking good at 2-0. Then Hernandez hit a brick wall. Walks, hits, and before it was over, the A's had a 4-2 lead, which became the final score. 7 innings of pitching brilliance -- and then everything turned upside down. Such is baseball. Such is life.

Pass

The teenage TV star looking for a feature vehicle passed on our script. He'd already played a kid with a dying grandfather before.

I'm ready to move on to a new splay and will soon. Have one in progress but first I'm revising a script that's maybe 15 years old, have what I think is a good new way to come at it. We'll see how it goes. Eager to hear what my agent thinks about the current new one, sent with the new ending.

Musical challenge

Tried to write a bass part to "Take the A Train" for my Finale class. Ended up with something pretty mediocre. I guess the good news is that I know it stinks.

Lost art

Listening to the Mariners on the radio tonight, I remembered a story I wrote for Northwest magazine decades ago about the Portland Beavers play-by-play announcer who had to re-create away games in the Portland studio because the team couldn't afford to take him on road trips. Man, was this guy an actor! He had a small bad hanging from the ceiling and a second to hit it with, before saying, "Base hit!" or "Foul ball!" He wore a glove and threw a ball about 18 inches into it in front of the mic, "Steee-rike!" He had sound effects, the popcorn guy, booing the umpire. He had amazing stories. The way it worked was that someone phoned in what happened inning by inning -- but he only got the results, not the details of an at bat. He'd get "grounded out to short" and had to improv how many balls and strikes happened before then. Once he lost phone contact entirely and had to create a thirty minute passing thunderstorm and delay of game before getting back to it after reconnection.

I really enjoyed this guy and writing the story was great fun, too. Haven't thought about him in, well, decades.

Thornton Wilder's optimism

The nightly news brings up thoughts of Wilder and his firm optimism in the human capacity for avoiding species disaster "by the skin of our teeth." Each year this optimism strikes me as harder to defend. I like Wilder, in my book his work still stands despite the optimism, which is out of fashion, but the case for the cynics does appear to get stronger. We are forever creating new problems from well-meaning solutions. We decide to make fuel from corn -- and contribute to a food shortage. 25 years ago a report documents the failure of American education -- and now a new report says, despite all the money to inaugurate improvement, we're even worse than before. Corporations wave American flags and claim patriotism while moving jobs overseas, even critical airline maintenance jobs. Your computer breaks down and you deal with someone in India whose English accent you may or may not be able to understand. We, who led the fight to save the world from Hitler, are "world leaders" in almost nothing, although political leaders like to posture, and alas even act, as if we were.

World history is driven by the rise and fall of global powers. Maybe it's just our turn to fall. I wonder what Wilder would say today.

Ta-da!

Today's "must do" project, a new ending to the current screenplay, is finished. Ready to print the script now and send to my agent. Onward.

Balances

In many writing careers, perhaps even most, there is a tension between art and commerce, writing inside-out v. outside-in, writing as exploration and discovery v. writing as communication for remuneration. I began my own belated writing career (coming from mathematics) with a focus on art, expressed successfully as a short story writer (three "roll of honor" citations in Best American Short Stories) and unsuccessfully as a novelist (2 unpublished) but soon enough found myself in the school of hard knocks, trying to survive after dropping out of grad school, and embraced writing as commerce, first becoming editor of a trade newspaper and later a regular contributor and sometimes guest editor at Northwest Magazine (and much later editing an anthology from this period,
Oregon Fever).

After returning to school and getting an MFA in playwriting, I was able to exist with a rare focus on the artistic side of this tension, thanks mainly to a new skill in writing grants. But I had to return to writing as commerce eventually and became managing editor of a business magazine. Later I began teaching, which released writing energy for more non-commercial projects.

I bring all this up because I think today I have the best balance between art and commerce that is available to me. The only commercial writing I'm doing is screenwriting. I've returned to playwriting, where I have the most experience and success, in a series of posthumous plays in which I have absolute and total control. Whatever happens to them, if anything, happens after I'm not around to fret about it. I'm energized by learning a new craft, musical composition, which I plan to apply to drama. I'm shooting videos, another energizing and new craft. I'm teaching and enjoying it because what I teach actually can be taught (screenwriting).

Writing also has its frustrations. In the commercial world, you're not getting the income you want. In the artistic world, you're not getting the respect you want. What is curious if you work in many genres of writing as I do, is that your frustration (or lack of it) varies from genre to genre. I'm still a frustrated novelist, my own assessment of my work here greater than the evidence suggests; but in hyperdrama, for example, I have a solid international reputation and even am given credit for coining the term, which may or may not be true (it wasn't coined consciously -- I just started using it, can't remember the context). Overall, I think I deserve more respect than I get but I think most writers who aren't household words feel this way.

"Fame" is flighty, in any case. My own reputation certainly was stronger, or at least more visibly so, twenty years ago than now, even though my work is so much better now. I know of many other writers in the same boat, perhaps an extreme case being the late Robert Sheckley, a true giant in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, who was struggling at the end of his life to get published, who broke my heart in my last coffee visit with him when he asked if I knew of any cheap apartments to rent, he no longer could afford rent where he was. Robert Sheckley, for God's sake! Yes, fame is flighty.

You learn to live with what crumbs the gods drop for you. You learn to find the balance between art and commerce that works for you. You especially learn why the hell you're writing in the first place. And I've never been more content in the balance of all these balls in the air, or more content in the way my writing goes today. I'm still frustrated, of course, but that's part of the package. I suspect most writers think they're better than many more famous contemporaries. They also think they're worse. And that's another important balance to maintain.

Piano II

When I started piano a year and a half ago, I was part of our teacher's first all male class, five of us. This by accident but kinda cool. We all lasted a year together. But then things started to change. Some women joined the class; a couple guys dropped out; a couple more couldn't keep up and moved back a class. Now there are only three of us, two women who have played piano all their lives but are brushing up -- and me. Consequently, I now am the slowest of the bunch and struggling to keep up myself. But I tell myself this is good for me. Makes me work harder than I would otherwise. Interestingly enough, this is my least favorite of my three music classes. I have no desire to "play piano" other than to play while I am composing. My goal is composition, period.

We may have a dry sunny weekend, if not a warm one, but maybe I can get out and do some yard work.

Piano

Don't have today's piece quite down yet, so it's a morning of practice before class. Then I think I'll treat myself to lunch somewhere. Saturday remains splay day. Finish the sucker!

Office hours

I have two students who are still screenwriting as if they're writing a novel, and I'm puzzled why they don't "get it." I've rewritten over-wrought prose to proper screenwriting economy ... I've shown many examples of good screenwriting ... I've emphasized the "blueprint for a movie" aspect over "literary document" aspect ... I've pounded in the idea of lots of white space and verticality on the page ... and then they turn in huge single-spaced paragraphs of descriptive prose. How do I get to them? It's not a matter of "skill" but of understanding what the hell they're supposed to be writing. We'll try again. Most, fortunately, "get it" and a few are already getting good at it. But I don't understand what the block is to the few who don't get it. Next week I meet one-on-one with everyone, maybe I can get through then.

Music theory was a bit of a waste today, full of storytelling by our teacher, but that's cool. At least we're moving on into the next chapter. We've been treading water while folks learn their 7th chords.

Saturday is going to be devoted to my screenplay. I must rewrite the ending and get it off to my agent. It's less than an hour's work once I'm back into the rhythm of it. Saturday! I must.

Actors are sitting on ready for the summer silent comedy. What a great group. We'll be doing this one a little differently, far more rehearsal and concern for style and look.

Finale class

I'm doing fine so far, better than most in fact, and am keeping up with the assignments. But thus far it's been more of a computer course than a music course. I'll have a slower, harder go of it as the music comes forward, I suspect.

Excited about developing a hyperdrama class. Haven't heard back concerning a hypertext lit class here.

Green light

Initial enthusiasm for my hyperdrama class proposal at Tunxis CC. Next step is to develop a syllabus/outline, which is high on my list now.

First, time to get my head in gear for the music class tonight.

Possible futures

I envy the support for digital storytelling at Tunxis Community College, WSU-Vancouver, and other institutions across the land. We have nothing here at PSU. I asked my chair about this, and she asked if I wanted to develop a course. I think I might: Hypertext Literature: Its History, Its Development, Its Future. The new digital book readers certainly support the possibility of a growing audience. And I also noticed Tunxis has online courses. I'm looking into proposing a course in writing hyperdrama. I feel the old obsession returning. I think the future belongs to branching narratives, have thought so since the mid-80s. It's just a better map of reality if our physicists are correct about how the universe works.

Crazy rhythm, or The Postpartum Polka

It happens this way most of the time: I finish a project with great excitement and exhilaration. I'm done! I did it! It works! But in the next day or two, a cloud nudges all this away and I'm asking myself, Yes, it's done -- but was it worth it? Does anyone actually give a damn? Is this all there is? And then, in the next day or two, I turn to a new project with all the excitement and passion of the serial monogamist. And I'm off and running. No wonder so many writers become mad.

Hypertext fiction

Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links which provides a new context for non-linearity in "literature" and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text to the next, and in this fashion arranges a story from a deeper pool of potential stories. Its spirit can also be seen in interactive fiction.

The term can also be used to describe traditionally-published books in which a non-linear and interactive narrative is achieved through internal references. Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire (1962) and Julio Cortázar's Rayuela (1963; translated as Hopscotch) are early examples (predating the word hypertext), while a common pop-culture example is the "Choose Your Own Adventure" format of young adult fiction.

--Wikipedia

Never read any? You should give it a try. Hyperizons (Duke Univ.) has a directory pointing to some on the web.

Steve Ersinghaus won a prize in UK for his hypertext novel, The Life of Geronimo Sandoval (Windows and Mac versions).

Eastgate Systems is the leading publisher of serious hypertext.

To my knowledge, a hypertext literature class has never be taught at Portland State University. I think I'll check it out.

And hyperdrama is even more invisible than hypertext fiction.

Doing it right

Now here's a summer program in digital storytelling for high school students that makes me envious: Tunxis Summer Mash-Up.

The Tunxis Summer Mash-Up is a two-week intensive program designed for high school students interested in combining their creative talents with contemporary technology to explore the world of digital storytelling.

Students begin with the story. These stories are brought to life through motion and sound. The final products are films that can be viewed on DVD or the Web and used as part of the students’ academic portfolios. All phases of the production process are covered through lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on exercises to give students an understanding and appreciation for planning and organizing.

By the end of the two week program, students will have written and produced two short films that will culminate in an evening community screening of the students’ finished works. Parents and friends are cordially invited to the screenings and share in the student’s accomplishments. Details for the screening will be provided during the first week of the program.

Class size is limited to 20 students maximum.

Program Resources

• MiniDV Camcorders
• Scanners
• MacBooks
• Final Cut Express HD
• Housed in our new facilities!

This is a community college (!) in CT obviously on the cutting edge of digital storytelling education. I don't know of a program close to this in Oregon. Shame on us.

Democrats

The Democratic Party, so energized and optimistic just a few months ago, thus finds itself in a position few would have expected: a nomination battle unresolved, with two candidates engaged in increasingly damaging attacks. At a time when the Democratic Party would dearly like to turn its attention to Mr. McCain, it now faces continued damage to the images of both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama.

--NY Times


I don't belong to any organized political party. I'm a Democrat.

--Will Rogers

Hypertext 2008: The Program

The program, which includes my video project Changing Key, of the conference in Pittsburgh, June 19-21. The things a guy will do to avoid giving a speech! (Do that enough in the classroom ha ha).

I see one of the presenters is from WSU-Vancouver, just across the river.

Did I coin the term hyperdrama?

I did according to Astrid Ensslin, author of Cononising Hypertext: Explorations and Constructions:

The term was coined by hyperdramatist and theorist Charles Deemer, who understands `traditional drama as a special case of hyperdrama' ("The New Hyperdrama") because of its mono-perspectival approach."

Now this is all very interesting (mono-perspectival!). I don't recall "coining" the term. I know when this ride began with Chateau de Mort in the mid-80s, we wanted to call this new theater form "a living movie," which is what Tamara was called, but the term had been registered as a trademark(!). We called it "simultaneous-action theater," which sucked. Some time later I began using hyperdrama, a natural derivative from hypertext, of course, but I don't recall if I read it somewhere or just started using it. At any rate, apparently I have early documented uses of the term and for this reason alone, perhaps, am given credit for it. I'll take it -- but frankly I have no idea if I coined the term or not. I just started using it. I don't recall if I first saw it somewhere else.

Summer video

During the hyperdrama shoot, I ran an idea for a summer project past the actors, and they liked it: a silent comedy. Black and white, speed a tad fast. Today I awoke with a concept for same, which I think will work, which is to say it is both comedic and melodramatic. It's a spin off from the concept of one of Durrenmatt's more obscure plays. Yes, I'm pretty sure this can work. Onward.

Writers and suicide

clipped from www.todayinliterature.com Anne Sexton, "Her Kind," Suicide I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night; dreaming evil, I have done my hitch over the plain houses, light by light: lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind. A woman like that is not a woman, quite. I have been her kind. I have found the warm caves in the woods, filled them with skillets, carvings, shelves, closets, silks, innumerable goods; fixed the suppers for the worms and the elves: whining, rearranging the disaligned. A woman like that is misunderstood. I have been her kind. I have ridden in your cart, driver, waved my nude arms at villages going by, learning the last bright routes, survivor where your flames still bite my thigh and my ribs crack where your wheels wind. A woman like that is not ashamed to die. I have been her kind. Sexton began to write poetry in 1957 after watching a half-hour show on educational television entitled "How to Write a Sonnet."

The Nuts & Bolts of Hyperdrama

The project is now complete. The start page is Changing Key.

Changing Key

I just approved the final video. Need to upload and then update the web pages, and the hypedrama video project is done and ready for its June presentation at the Hypertext 08 conference in Pittsburgh.

Now on to student work, then with what's left of the day to music.

Monday

Done or close with the last video. Look at it today and see if more needs tweaking. Otherwise, a student feature script to read, some pages from another, and the rest of the day I hope to do music and splay stuff.

Rough cut

Edited a very rough cut of my final video for the hyperdrama project. I have a few gaps to fill. This one has been the hardest, the challenge being to make information visually interesting.

---

I've lost track of Peggy Basham, the wife of my friend John who died a few years back, so I snooped around the net. Apparently she had a recent bout with cancer. At any rate, the American Cancer Society was raising $100,000 in behalf of a Peggy Basham, RN, which she was, of Houghton MI, which is her home town. Must be the same one. The money was successfully raised but beyond that, I found out nothing. I'm still wondering how she's doing.

Student work at a professional level

One of my students from last term's extraordinary class, who was one of three who completed a feature script in 10 weeks, and a good one at that, presented me with a new complete script at the start of this term (he's taking the advanced option to continue). Although it's in the horror genre, not my favorite, I was riveted by this suspenseful tale, cleanly written, terrific characters, lots of suspense and frights -- and this is such a popular genre, I think he has a real shot at selling it. Moreover, he's been a "freelance" Sundance goer for years, making many industry contacts. He just loves film. Well, I'll be surprised if he doesn't sell this script or another soon. He's written two first rate screenplays since the first of the year. Go, R.S.!

Champion of new plays

Once upon a time it was Louisville. For a moment in the 80s, there was an opportunity for Portland to emerge as champion. Now it appears to be Denver. New plays gravitate to where an artistic director with vision gives playwrights more than the token staged reading which has become the mainstay of "supporting new work." The theater world needs more Kent Thompsons.

clipped from www.npr.org Enter New Playwrights, Stage Left, in Denver by Elizabeth Blair Weekend Edition Saturday, April 18, 2008 · During Kent Thompson's three years as artistic director, Colorado's Denver Center Theatre Company has become one of a handful of regional theaters regularly staging full-fledged productions of new work. When Thompson took the position, he had two goals: to serve the local community and to develop new plays. "What Kent's doing is extraordinary, because so many plays get workshopped to death," says Herendeen. "They get read and read, but they hardly ever get full productions." Thompson admits that the traditional subscription audience of any regional theater isn't always open to new plays by writers they've never heard of. But so far in Denver, ticket sales are holding steady, and, besides, Thompson thinks hiring new writers is worth the risk.

Editor's cap

My piano songs for class are in good shape, so I've been doing grunt-editing work on the summer issue of the review. Actually, in short spurts, I enjoy the work, which mainly is working with html software. Always nice to see the new issue take shape, too. Stats tell me we have a steady audience now.

Posthumous blog

My posthumous blog goes in spurts. I ignore it for months, then I write in it a lot. I've been writing in it lately.

Discovering Chaucer

Perhaps there is no moment of revelation quite like the young literature student's discovery of Chaucer and "The Miller's Tale." The landscape of literature thereafter changes forever.

clipped from www.todayinliterature.com Chaucer's Pilgrims On this day (or possibly the next) in 1394, Geoffrey Chaucer's twenty-nine pilgrims met at the Tabard Inn in Southwark to prepare for their departure to Canterbury. Chaucer's poem condenses the four to five day trip into one, and scholars have used various textual references and astrological calculations to establish that day as the day before Easter, thus allowing the pilgrims to arrive at Canterbury Easter morning, after a fifty-five-mile hike through a pleasant English springtime

Wraps

This weekend I hope to make significant progress toward wrapping up two projects: the screenplay in progress and the hyperdrama project. I also have two full-length student scripts to evaluate. A busy weekend ahead, in other words. It's supposed to rain, maybe even snow, so I might as well stay in and work.

In good shape with the two piano pieces for this week.

What happened to Spring?

This return to winter weather is a real drag. Zaps my energy. I need the sun.

Finale class

What's surprising to me about my class in Finale is that in general the other students have poor computer skills. My fear that I'd be behind because of my formal music inexperience has not come to pass. My good computer skills have me near the top of the class; in fact tonight I was the only to finish the in-class assignment by class' end. So far, I'm ahead of the curve in class. It helps, of course, that I'm doing everything twice: in class on a Mac and then here on my PC with the 2008 (newer) version of the software.

What worries me is that the really complex stuff is yet to come -- and most folks are having trouble this early on. It's going to get interesting.

Whatever happened to respect for the Secret Ballot?

clipped from www.cnn.com Wife takes divorce drama online, vents scorn via YouTube NEW YORK (AP) -- We're the YouTube Generation, living in the YouTube Era, in a YouTube World. And now we apparently have a YouTube Divorce. Some prominent New York divorce lawyers couldn't think of another case where a spouse -- in this instance, the wife of a major Broadway theater operator -- had taken to YouTube to spill the secrets of a marriage in an apparent effort to gain leverage and humiliate the other side. "This is absolutely a new step, and I think it's scary," said Bonnie Rabin, a divorce lawyer who has handled high-profile cases. "People used to worry about getting on Page Six [the gossip page of the New York Post]. But this? It brings the concept of humiliation to a whole new level."

Misreadings

Often writers are praised for things they deny. Here is one of the better known cases.

clipped from www.todayinliterature.com Lessing's Golden Notebook On this day in 1962, Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook was published. It is the most highly-praised and still the best-selling of her two dozen books. Lessing has described it as an attempt "to break certain forms of consciousness and go beyond them"; she has also said that the novel became "an albatross" hung around her neck by a feminist misreading. In volume two of her autobiography, Walking in the Shade, Lessing elaborates on her regret that ""Feminists discovered the book, in Britain, in the States, in Scandinavia, and it became the 'Bible of the Women's Movement.' A book that had been planned so coolly was read, I thought, hysterically":

A busy day

I have a busy day ahead of me. I need more sleep before I begin. Thought I might do some work now but I can't get going. Back to bed.

Lunch date

To the office early. Nice thing about going from campus to Nobby's for my lunch date is that I hop the Portland Streetcar, which comes through campus, and it takes me almost to Nobby's front door. Public transportation is one of the great gifts in this city. It's not my favorite city by any means but you can't beat the public transportation.

Creative courtship

clipped from news.yahoo.com Programmer pops question on girlfriend's video game JERSEY CITY, N.J. - Hiding a ring in a bouquet just wasn't enough when a computer programmer decided to pop the question. Bernie Peng reprogrammed Tammy Li's favorite video game, "Bejeweled," so a ring and a marriage proposal would show up on the screen when she reached a certain score. Li reached the needed score — and said yes. The word of the romantic feat last December filtered out after Peng, a financial software programmer, posted details on his blog. The reprogramming was a tricky task and took him a month. "I thought it was pretty cool, in a nerdy way," Peng told The Star-Ledger of Newark.

What the week looks like

Today isn't too shabby. Only a few things to do to prep for class. Lunch date. Classroom discussion and collect first script pages.

Tomorrow, read student work. I'm already prepared for Finale class, having gone over the material early on the PC at home. Do the same thing on the Mac Wednesday evening.

Thursday, music theory homework to do. Should do it Wed. so I'm not in a rush before class. Discuss student work in class.

Friday. I'm already almost up to speed on the two new songs we have to learn. Only three of us in class now, two women who are refreshing lifelong piano skills, and yours truly, so we get to zip right along. I'm the slowest one for a change.

This weekend, damn it, finish the screenplay rewrite! And get started on the last video of the hyperdrama project.

Busy, busy. The way I like it.

Hyperdrama cast

Five of the seven actors in CHANGING KEY have their own web pages.

• Hollie Olson, Writer/Musician/Actress
  
• Dennis Tracy
  
• Robert Peate, Natural Light Photographs
  
• Kate Mura
  
• John Donnelly
  

Two down, one to go

The branching narrative section of the hyperdrama CHANGING KEY is now online here, which leaves only the final "nuts and bolts" section to write and edit. I should be able to get a start on it this weekend, perhaps even complete it. It shouldn't take all that long.

Busy work

Just about finished making all the clips for assembling the branching narrative version of the hyperdrama. Too much work. But almost done now. I'll hope to get everything up tonight so I can start checking for path errors. This weekend I'll hope to start the final "nuts and bolts" video. I'd like to finish everything by May 1 and have a shot.

Still haven't gotten to the splay rewrite. And have homework for theory and piano to do.

Lunch tomorrow with a poet friend I haven't seen for a while.

Lifting the spirit

With so much bad and depressing news bombarding us hourly, we must remember that in a zero-sum universe there must be good stories to balance out the bad. Here are two.