Elvis Unplugged

I can't stop thinking about Elvis.

I'm working through this out the only way I know how -

total immersion in Elvisness. This concert is pretty amazing. I never really got the whole Elvis thing. I remember when he died the local diner closed because the owner wanted to go to Graceland and pay her respects. But my only experience with the King was bloated, Vegas Elvis singing C.C. Rider or whatever. The Elvis in this concert is what I call Electric Elvis. For the generation who saw this concert, it was probably their equivalent of seeing Nirvana/Kurt Cobain Unplugged. I'm only guessing because I don' t get the guy that much. Anyway, there are twelve youtube parts to this documentary if you catch the obsession.

Elvis is Everywhere

It occurred to me this morning how to work Elvis into the next screenplay I write. That's the problem with telling me not to do something - my mind instantly fixes on finding a way to do exactly the opposite. Remains to be seen how that's working for me.

Realism

I don't know about you, but I'm kind of fed up with realism. After all, there's enough reality already; why make more of it? Why not leave realism for the memoirs of drug addicts, the histories of salt, the biographies of porn stars? Why must we continue to read about the travails of divorced people or mildly depressed Canadians when we could be contemplating the shopping habits of zombies, or the difficulties that ensue when living and dead people marry each other? We should be demanding more stories about faery handbags and pyjamas inscribed with the diaries of strange women. We should not rest until someone writes about a television show that features the Free People's World-Tree Library, with its elaborate waterfalls and Forbidden Books and Pirate-Magicians. We should be pining for a house haunted by rabbits. - Kelly Link

Huzzah!

I am reading lots of plays. I read three last week - True West, and Dead City, and The Female Terrorist Project which you can find here. I was greatly disappointed to find that I did not have this on my shelf as I was looking forward to reading this. Birthday is just around the corner, hmm?

I am writing no plays. The damn thesis: otherwise known as the most self-conscious, doubt-ridden work of my life. Making progress. Huzzah!

Really, I just wanted an excuse to write Huzzah!

Who are you reading?

Addendum: Just received my screenplay rejection email from a contest I entered (no surprises there). In a general note to all screenwriters, we were informed, FYI, that the judges of this particular contest are tired of scripts featuring Elvis. Got that? Too many Elvis scripts. We've got a glut of Elvis scripts. So, if you're hammering away on a script that revolves around the King, yours better be something pretty special. K?

Fake Steve and the "Clintstones"

Fake Steve calls 'em like he sees 'em and Hillary is no exception. Check out these posts. Here.
Follow up Here. This month he's been hitting both Bill and Hill hard - here, here, here, and here.

Text #2

Lucille Burroughs, daughter of a cotton sharecropper.
Hale County, Alabama. Photo by Walker Evans.

Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long. - Walker Evans

Sacred Cows: Make the Best Hamburger

Check out Laura Axelrod's Project1968, a blog docu-novel about two young women and their experiences up to and during in the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

What can I say?

It's a funny time of year. I can't blame it all on the slant of the light. But damn, there's too much darkness - literally and figuratively. I look at my blog from the past month and a half and get a nice little map of my psyche. I get so emotional about politics. Not a good thing. Plus, hey, has anyone noticed? It's dark? I don't do well with the Daylight Savings thing. It really doesn't work for me. I'm not fooled by the fall back thing. One look at the sun and it's clear what time of day it is. Daylight savings doesn't work. You can't save light. Oh, and I'm sleep-deprived because Marshall, my 10-month old is doing what babies do - growing teeth, body, brain, learning to eat, to crawl, walk, putting things into boxes and bowls and taking them out (many, many times). All that activity and this is the tip of the iceberg here - let's just say, he's a busy little guy - well, it makes a baby tired and cranky and for some reason babies respond by not sleeping! Thus as Mommy! I'm sleep-deprived and light-starved. I am Jack's fragile 5-Ht Receptors.

If I could describe my life in one word right now I think it would be "rift." Or as Leonard Cohen sings, "There is a crack, a crack in everything." There is perturbation in the wiring. This is not a bad thing. It is necessary albeit uncomfortable and disrupting. Attempts will be made to articulate this state of being.

Time moves on. It's a New Year. Could be a good one if this dream means anything (and I think it does).

Thank You, George McGovern!

Impeachment is unlikely, of course. But we must still urge Congress to act. Impeachment, quite simply, is the procedure written into the Constitution to deal with presidents who violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. It is also a way to signal to the American people and the world that some of us feel strongly enough about the present drift of our country to support the impeachment of the false prophets who have led us astray. This, I believe, is the rightful course for an American patriot.

As former representative Elizabeth Holtzman, who played a key role in the Nixon impeachment proceedings, wrote two years ago, "it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws -- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate. . . . A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law -- and repeatedly violates the law -- thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors." (via Owl Farm Blog.)

Sound of Music

I was watching The Sound of Music last night with the kiddies and this little exchange between Captain von Trapp and Herr Zeller caught my attention. It's from the scene where Captain von Trapp, Maria, and the children are trying to sneak away at night to avoid the Nazis.

Herr Zeller

Something wrong with your car, captain?

Captain von Trapp

Yes, we couldn't get it started.

Herr Zeller

Karl. Fix Captain von Trapp's car so that it will start. Excellent, Karl. I've not asked you where you and your family are going. Nor have you asked me why I'm here.

Captain von Trapp

Apparently we both suffer from a deplorable lack of curiosity.

Herr Zeller

You never answered the telegram from the Admiral of the Navy of the Third Reich.

Captain von Trapp

I was under the impression, Herr Zeller that the contents of telegrams in Austria are private! At least, the Austria I know.

It's strange watching this movie and thinking about our current political context. Disturbing in many ways. History portrays Nazism as spreading like a blitzkrieg, but in fact, the onset was insidious. There was time to sit and think, well, should we stop it now? Has it gone too far? In our current context we could say: well, Congress has, at the request of the President, suspended habeas corpus (had a chance to restore it in the fall, but voted against it 56 - 43, four votes shy of the 60 needed to cut off debate), suspended rule of law, created gulag, allowed wire-tapping and illegal search and seizure. What's the threshold? When is America no longer the America I know?

I've hit my threshold. There are times I regret not leaving this country when Bush Sr. was elected because I knew then - the country was done for. Now, at least once a week I find myself thinking about where to go and when to go. Do I want to wait until the last minute, until we have to try to sneak out under cover of darkness? I know, that sounds irrational and dramatic. But can you afford to be wrong? To wait too long? What then? As my son pointed out during the cemetery scene when Rolf and the rest of the brownshirts are looking for the von Trapps, "they're going to kill them aren't they? Aren't they?" I reassured him, "No, this is a musical, most musicals have a happy ending." Well, folks, I feel a song coming on.