Thursday, March 31, 2011
Portable apps
In the office early setting up my flash drive for class. Not sure why I never did this before. U3 programs like Firefox, Celtx, getting everything I need together so I don't have to use whatever computer is in the classroom -- a matter of convenience, I suppose. I can make the bookmarks I need etc. Took me over 10 years to figure this out ha ha.
Running errands
I love running errands -- as long as I am alone. Because if I'm alone, then I can turn the experience into a slow brooding creative private brainstorming session about whatever the hell I'm working on or what's bugging me to be worked on ... I can mumble, talk to myself, take my time, and otherwise take an hour doing a 15 minute chore. Doesn't work too well if the wife or anyone else is around.
Hence this morning, when returning library books and buying supplies for scrapple became a long session of brooding. Brooding is one a writer's most valuable tools. When those early producers in LaLaLand found the studio screenwriters staring out the window all the time, they didn't think they were working. Little did they know.
Easy day in class, I think, the first couple weeks usually are because I introduce so many concepts that are new to most of the students. Today I'll try out the Portable Celtx I put on a flash drive and talk about format and writing style while developing a script on the screen. Usually I do it by hand on a chalk board or whatever they call those white boards that sometimes replace "black boards," as they were called when I was a student in class. Also have a couple short videos to show, interviews with screenwriters ... and then next Tues I'll show the feature documentary "Tales from the Script." I give them a lot of exposure to the pro's from the start, who of course say the same thing I or any competent screenwriting teacher says. But when so many are saying the same thing, more or less, it has an impact.
I need a short project of my own for this term. I'm not ready to get serious about the novella yet, I see that as being obsessive and taking most of my mental time. A summer project. I'll keep writing poems, of course, and I can get a jump start on putting the book together ... but I'd like a new project that takes a couple months. I've had a couple ideas for stage plays but I keep remembering what a "former playwright," now successful screenwriter, once told me, that now and again he had an idea for a stage play but he found that banging his head against the wall and drinking a lot of whiskey got rid of it for him. He was speaking, of course, to the lack of remuneration for such work, especially when compared to screenwriting. I mean, you can make more money on screenplays that go nowhere than on stage plays that do well! This may have been more true in the 80s when Option Fever became a pandemic among producers. But playwriting can be thankless unless it's so much in your blood, you love it so much, that you do it, and theater generally, despite everything. I don't have the energy or dedication any more -- though I still flirt, now and again, with the idea of forming my own company and doing small serious plays, writing and directing myself. Well the video does the same thing with larger exposure.
On the other hand, I feel genuine relief and excitement about doing a project, the novella ahead, that requires no collaboration. I love working with actors. But I also love, and often more, working alone.
Well. The point is, I am fumbling around for a term project to get me to the summer. Or maybe I should just spend all that energy on practicing the banjo and get much better at it.
Decisions, decisions.
Hence this morning, when returning library books and buying supplies for scrapple became a long session of brooding. Brooding is one a writer's most valuable tools. When those early producers in LaLaLand found the studio screenwriters staring out the window all the time, they didn't think they were working. Little did they know.
Easy day in class, I think, the first couple weeks usually are because I introduce so many concepts that are new to most of the students. Today I'll try out the Portable Celtx I put on a flash drive and talk about format and writing style while developing a script on the screen. Usually I do it by hand on a chalk board or whatever they call those white boards that sometimes replace "black boards," as they were called when I was a student in class. Also have a couple short videos to show, interviews with screenwriters ... and then next Tues I'll show the feature documentary "Tales from the Script." I give them a lot of exposure to the pro's from the start, who of course say the same thing I or any competent screenwriting teacher says. But when so many are saying the same thing, more or less, it has an impact.
I need a short project of my own for this term. I'm not ready to get serious about the novella yet, I see that as being obsessive and taking most of my mental time. A summer project. I'll keep writing poems, of course, and I can get a jump start on putting the book together ... but I'd like a new project that takes a couple months. I've had a couple ideas for stage plays but I keep remembering what a "former playwright," now successful screenwriter, once told me, that now and again he had an idea for a stage play but he found that banging his head against the wall and drinking a lot of whiskey got rid of it for him. He was speaking, of course, to the lack of remuneration for such work, especially when compared to screenwriting. I mean, you can make more money on screenplays that go nowhere than on stage plays that do well! This may have been more true in the 80s when Option Fever became a pandemic among producers. But playwriting can be thankless unless it's so much in your blood, you love it so much, that you do it, and theater generally, despite everything. I don't have the energy or dedication any more -- though I still flirt, now and again, with the idea of forming my own company and doing small serious plays, writing and directing myself. Well the video does the same thing with larger exposure.
On the other hand, I feel genuine relief and excitement about doing a project, the novella ahead, that requires no collaboration. I love working with actors. But I also love, and often more, working alone.
Well. The point is, I am fumbling around for a term project to get me to the summer. Or maybe I should just spend all that energy on practicing the banjo and get much better at it.
Decisions, decisions.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Lazy afternoon
Got some actual work done this morning, finishing an old screenplay and getting into passive marketing. Feel like I've accomplished something. Then a little banjo practice for my first class tonight. I'm presentable if not great.
It occurred to me, there's a periodic string band class in town but it's always on Tues night when I teach. BUT next school year I teach at noon -- so I can take the string band class! And by the gods I think I will. Something else to look forward to.
It's nice to look forward to things, especially when some folks think I'm morbid ha ha. Morbidity looks forward only to one thing.
It occurred to me, there's a periodic string band class in town but it's always on Tues night when I teach. BUT next school year I teach at noon -- so I can take the string band class! And by the gods I think I will. Something else to look forward to.
It's nice to look forward to things, especially when some folks think I'm morbid ha ha. Morbidity looks forward only to one thing.
When someone remembers
A comment on a 2007 post here, in which I remember my mentor the late Dean Regenos, has good things to say about Dean from someone who knew him before I did, who credits Dean with the reason he got excited about and went into theater. We're not forgotten by everyone all the time, which is comforting to remember.
Portable Celtx
Celtx, the terrific FREE screenplay format software, has a portable version that you can run from a flash drive on any PC, thus giving screenwriters great mobility. It's available at a Danish website.
Portable Celtx homepage.
Portable Celtx homepage.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Home sweet home
Exhausted and glad to be home. Teaching takes more out of me the older I get. I couldn't teach two classes back to back any more.
And Baylor is losing! God I hope the Baylor women lose. I dislike them because they play men's style with their gigantic center. Boring.
And Baylor is losing! God I hope the Baylor women lose. I dislike them because they play men's style with their gigantic center. Boring.
Curtain Call (poem)
Curtain Call
I suspect it will happen
without warning or fanfare
without drama or premonition
now you see him now
you don't sort of thing
and of course there will be
those who are surprised
and those who aren't
but no one collapses
from shock
the tidbit in the paper
gets published or not
and a gathering of sorts
arranged by my wife
and some come
and some don't
a few nice things get said
somebody reads something
if I get my way but
of course I'll never know
and that's about it really
maybe a few mentions now
and again but there's no family
legacy to speak of
just a library full of writing
an online archive the same
gathering dust and whatever it is
that happens in cyberspace
to megs of forgotten bytes
finally no one remembers much
of anything and says less
silence begets silence
even dust to dust suggests
more activity than merited
by oblivion
--Charles Deemer
I suspect it will happen
without warning or fanfare
without drama or premonition
now you see him now
you don't sort of thing
and of course there will be
those who are surprised
and those who aren't
but no one collapses
from shock
the tidbit in the paper
gets published or not
and a gathering of sorts
arranged by my wife
and some come
and some don't
a few nice things get said
somebody reads something
if I get my way but
of course I'll never know
and that's about it really
maybe a few mentions now
and again but there's no family
legacy to speak of
just a library full of writing
an online archive the same
gathering dust and whatever it is
that happens in cyberspace
to megs of forgotten bytes
finally no one remembers much
of anything and says less
silence begets silence
even dust to dust suggests
more activity than merited
by oblivion
--Charles Deemer
Life In Portland (poem)
Life In Portland
you own the sky she said
look up and claim your space
but when I did all I got
was water in my eyes
--Charles Deemer
you own the sky she said
look up and claim your space
but when I did all I got
was water in my eyes
--Charles Deemer
Progress
Managed to take notes and finish the proofing of a manuscript, which I can update tomorrow and send off. So the afternoon was very productive here in the office. A former student roamed by and stopped, and we chatted. He's doing very well, just took a full time job with a publisher.
Office sweet office, or Excitement
A new term! I'm here 4 hours early with bells ringing. And I'm looking forward to fall already, when I teach at noon, which will be a new experience on campus here for me.
I brought work to do, some proofing on Kindle, some newspaper/magazine catch up reading. I can keep myself busy. I've always been good at that.
A very full class this term, a bit larger than usual. They upped the minimum and I usually let a few strays in. Also I am using a new book, the new collection of screenwriting exercises that I contributed to. Gives students a very wide sampling of approaches to craft.
I brought work to do, some proofing on Kindle, some newspaper/magazine catch up reading. I can keep myself busy. I've always been good at that.
A very full class this term, a bit larger than usual. They upped the minimum and I usually let a few strays in. Also I am using a new book, the new collection of screenwriting exercises that I contributed to. Gives students a very wide sampling of approaches to craft.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Civilization (poem)
Civilization
reading today about
Guatemala I am reminded
how we who call ourselves
civilized wear blinders
to the red core of
our violent world
in civil wars especially
where bodies are
hacked dismembered
women raped
babies crushed
their brains splattered
against wall and tree
the natural order of death
we prefer to pretend
such things never happen
how much easier to drop
bombs from great heights
where victims are too
small to reveal suffering
than to lift a crying
baby in your hand and
swing its small head
against the nearest
fruit tree
--Charles Deemer
reading today about
Guatemala I am reminded
how we who call ourselves
civilized wear blinders
to the red core of
our violent world
in civil wars especially
where bodies are
hacked dismembered
women raped
babies crushed
their brains splattered
against wall and tree
the natural order of death
we prefer to pretend
such things never happen
how much easier to drop
bombs from great heights
where victims are too
small to reveal suffering
than to lift a crying
baby in your hand and
swing its small head
against the nearest
fruit tree
--Charles Deemer
Romance (poem)
Romance
in line at Starbucks
she leans forward
and kisses him
soft as her skin
in the shower earlier
their glow still fresh
all things possible
divorce for example
when this moment
gets forgotten
and there's the tragedy
not the divorce
but the forgetting
let nothing negate
the kiss at Starbucks
it matters it counts
and without it
in a zero-sum universe
the balance of the world
tips askew
you must horde the good
moments in memory
despite everything
--Charles Deemer
she leans forward
and kisses him
soft as her skin
in the shower earlier
their glow still fresh
all things possible
divorce for example
when this moment
gets forgotten
and there's the tragedy
not the divorce
but the forgetting
let nothing negate
the kiss at Starbucks
it matters it counts
and without it
in a zero-sum universe
the balance of the world
tips askew
you must horde the good
moments in memory
despite everything
--Charles Deemer
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Sports Pundits
I've never liked sports pundits but they've become more outrageous than ever as the culture entered the Age of Arrogance and Hype. They are verbose, obnoxious, egotistical with few exceptions. So I am delighted they are so wrong about March Madness. Almost no upsets, they said. They were outraged, OUTRAGED, that VCU got into the tournament.
So what happens? More upsets than usual! And VCU upsets #1 Kansas today and goes to the Final Four, where they will play ... BUTLER! I love it.
So what happens? More upsets than usual! And VCU upsets #1 Kansas today and goes to the Final Four, where they will play ... BUTLER! I love it.
Obituaries (poem)
the morning paper gives
an artist friend several
dozen inches and photo
but only because my wife
hounded them to do so
nearby an old man
who drove a bus
gets brief polite
required notice
of his passing
no photo
does it come to this?
coverage in the obit
section of the paper
with the squeaky wheel
getting the grease?
later in households
throughout the city
both artist and driver
wrap the garbage
another monument to
equality
--Charles Deemer
Saturday, March 26, 2011
My favorite mother-in-law story
In the early 70s, "Sally's" parents visited us in Eugene, where we were both grad students. It was summer, we had time off, so planned a trip up the coast together, ending up in Seattle to visit S's brother. On the FIRST NIGHT, staying at the Oregon coast, at one of the fancier resorts, S and her father got into a huge argument during dinner. It continued after dinner at the bar. They were arguing about how he treated her jr high school boyfriend. I couldn't believe it! Anyway, Martha and I bailed and ended up taking a long walk on the beach. I really dug her, so this was a grand time. However, we returned to discover that S and her father refused to continue on the trip together, so we drove back to Eugene and they rented a car and continued up the coast. Unbelievable!
However, decades later, I would be reminded of S's capacity to hold a grudge because after she came out, she held one against me and holds it to this day. Unbelievable once again. UNBELIEVABLE.
Well, my dear departed mother said it all: "people are more interesting than anybody."
However, decades later, I would be reminded of S's capacity to hold a grudge because after she came out, she held one against me and holds it to this day. Unbelievable once again. UNBELIEVABLE.
Well, my dear departed mother said it all: "people are more interesting than anybody."
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