Tribal Connection

Listening to Gogol Bordello cause I can't get enough and they're coming to town May 1st

Thoroughly enjoying having to read Everything Is Illuminated all over again for English class

Just finished watching the film version which is great in its own ways that have nothing to do with the book

Please enjoy the first piece in my Dinosaurs In Rocketships Series, Cosmonaut Rex

That's Amore

Yesterday was one of the best days in the Italian Market. I was with a new friend who had only been there once and very briefly, so we got to do some fun exploring. First, we walked through the market to browse the stalls and then went to Sarcone's where they only had one loaf left - lucky for me it was seeded (my fave). Then we trekked to Isgro's to split a biscotti (free!) and a cannoli (not free). After that we picked up some iced tea at Anthony's and then went immediately to Claudio.

She had been in DiBruno before, but never Claudio. I will always love that look of awe that people get when they see those punching bags of provolone for the first time. We searched for pastas (I bought some black farfalle to try) and landed at the counter. Mike, one of the usual servers, waited on us. After he took us to the end of the counter and gathered the things we had already picked out, he listened to our initial orders and went to retrieve them (2 mozzarella balls, 1/4 lb. Italian prosciutto). While slicing the prosciutto, he remarked to me, "You know, it's a shame Tom isn't here to help you!"

Tom is probably my favorite guy at Claudio. He's somewhere in his 40s (maybe 50s) with a mop of curly hair just reaching the top of his glasses. He's the first one who ever recognized me in the store, and that was after over six months of not seeing me. Every time I go in, whether or not he waits on me, he always stops to talk, ask how things are going, how was my holiday, what's new, etc. Any sample he passes to his customers, he always makes sure I get a bite, too. In September, my mom and I tried to go to Villa di Roma for lunch, but they were closed, so we decided to go to Ralph's instead. As we turned around to head back up 9th Street, we ran into Tom stepping out of Claudio. He instantly greeted me and went on his way, and my mom turned to me and said, "You're right. They do recognize you here. Even on the street."

Mike sliced the prosciutto and continued with, "I haven't seen you around in a while - where you been hiding?" I told him that I hadn't really had a chance to get down there what with schoolwork and all. He asked me where I live - I said West Philly. He replied, "Ohhhh, I thought you lived down here!" I wish!

We sampled the prosciutto and the Prima Donna cheese I bought. In addition to those, we tried their 25-year-old vinegar at my request, and Mike brought us a bunch of other things for us to try (I can't even remember the names of them all): a lemon-type deserty cheese, another cheese with cranberries, a wonderfully light and smooth goat's cheese, a roasted turkey with herbs that was sliced like prosciutto, and their sundried tomatoes.

Unless they are ridiculously busy (like Christmas Eve when the line is out the door), the samples that flow from behind the counter are amazing, both in quality and in quantity. One of my best friends makes me order for him when we go there, because (according to him) I get better and bigger samples than he does. Once when we went down there, we were being waited on by one guy, but another server kept bringing us stuff as well. He's a round guy in his 30s with a smile for everyone. As we ordered our food, he kept walking down the entire length of the counter to hand me different cheeses and -- right before we left -- a fist-sized chunk of nougat. All for free.

All of the employees are great in their own ways: the old man is funny and charming in that South Philly Italian way ("This next cheese was named after you...Prima Donna!"), the quiet guy rounds your bill down to the nearest dollar for ease, the youngest guy gives you great banter while you wait...it's wonderful customer service. If they love you, you get great conversation and loads of samples. If you're new, they treat you like they've known you for years to get you to come back -- and you will, cause you can't beat the atmosphere.

I was paying for my order with the gift card my uncle had bought me, and my friend remarked that it's exactly what she wants, but her mom lives in LA and wouldn't be able to get her one. I suggested maybe checking online or getting a business card so she could call one in. She said that sounded like a great idea, and apparently the old man thought it was, too. He leaned over the counter, handed her a few business cards and said, "We also do shipments, dear." He smiled and went back to his customers.

As we stepped toward the door, I said to Mike, "I promise I won't wait as long to come back next time." He said, "Great! See you next weekend!" I laughed, knowing that I won't have to come back next weekend, that the only possible thing I could "need" would be another mozzarella ball, but my best friend said he's in desperate need of things, which means I'll have some ordering to do.

After all that we went to Fante's where I got some Japanese Sencha green tea I've been looking for and a tea infuser. Strolling happily down 9th Street, our arms loaded with bags of food, much like Christmas shoppers and their dozens of boxes and bags from Macy's in New York City, we considered the day well spent.

A couple summers ago, I went to the market in the middle of the day in the middle of the week -- perfect, because everything's open, but no one's around. I stepped into Claudio, munching on Sarcone's loaves as I placed my order. The youngest guy brought me my samples of prosciutto and Prima Donna and I said, "I've been waiting for this all day!"

"Really? You've been waiting for this all day?" he laughed. I nodded as I ate, and he brought me a big sample of their punching bag provolone. We kept talking for a while until the old man came up, pointed at the loaves in my arms, and said to the guy, "You know, you should cut this young lady's rolls and go sit down at a table and eat somewhere." He blushed and we laughed, but all I could think was "You have cheese. Marry me!"

They say the quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Obviously, whoever said that never met me.

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I Get Ideas, I Get Ideas

Today, I read my entire script out loud. I was quite parched by the end, but I got some feedback and I'm feeling okay. Of course it's not perfect -- it's just the equivalent of a first draft after all -- but I feel much better than I did in September. A lot better. I like it a whole lot more.

I can't believe this is it. Holy shit. Senior project. Done.

How will I be celebrating? By getting my passport renewed on Saturday so I can go to Aruba for Easter. This was all decided in about one day and out of the blue. I'll be missing three days of classes during the first and second weeks of spring term, but who cares? An almost last-minute trip to the islands is worth it every time.

Souvenirs, anyone?

The mind wanders when it should be sleeping

"Rain, rain, go away,
Come again another day."
I write a haiku.

Echo

I've sent in the new draft and I'm going to be spending the next two weeks fine tuning it even more. I think there's still a few things to work out, but I like this version a lot better - I feel more optimistic about its potential than I did last month.

I have mixed feelings about how the course was structured, in terms of draft 1: week 2, revisions: week 6, final: week 8. Part of me missed how loose Workshop was two years ago, because I worked more on my own time and I had one solid deadline instead of thinking in terms of "week 2, week 6, week 8." Then again, this structure was great because we're going to have more deadlines like this in the real world. While I wish I still had those last two weeks of the term to keep working, it'll be nice to have the project DONE in week 8 so I can concentrate on other things.

Everything's almost over. So weird. And it's not four years of schooling ending - it's six years of finding Drexel, finding screenwriting, working my ass off, and falling in love with this city and what I do. Oh I know, it's the cliche "just the beginning," but still. Wow.

I'm so glad I chose here.

Road to Awe

Been going through my script and making notes / changes, but the thing is, I'm thinking of massive story changes that I'm not 100% sure might work, which I plan on discussing next week. For example, my main character's girlfriend is pregnant - should I get rid of that and change part of the problem, or would that be too hard to tackle? I dunno. I'm still figuring it out. I have made some changes and realized some ways that can help explain his frustration with life in general at the beginning, like emphasizing the pressures that are placed on him by everyone around him -- "you should study this" "forget studying and do this" "I want you to do this" "why don't you..." etc.

I'm frustrated myself and pissed off at it. I kinda hate it right now, but if those big changes work, maybe I won't. I find that when I get this way, I keep thinking of new and different ideas for movies and think "Ooh! I should work on that instead! That's much more interesting!" But I can't, because this is Number One and what I have to deal with. Grumble.

Last night, I was incredibly ticked off at life in general, too. There's basically only a handful of people in the world that aren't pissing me off right now, and I want to do something different. So I decided at midnight that I would get up early and go down to Penn's Landing and watch the sunrise. When my alarm went off, I smacked it thinking, "What the fuck is this!? Why is my alarm going off?!" when I remembered "Oh yeah. I'm getting up in the dark because I decided it was a brilliant idea to watch the sunrise. Smart move."

It was. I met up with a friend and we took the El to 2nd and walked all the way to the amphitheater section of Penn's Landing and sat on a bench as close to the river as we could. The gulls circled above in a wonderful Hitchcockian manner and I asked, "I don't look enough like Tippi Hedren for the birds to attack us, do I?" The light wisps of clouds on the horizon scattered the light just enough and there was a lovely orange and pink glow amongst them. My friend pointed to the way the orange reflection mixed with the blues of the water and how it looked like a Monet. We nearly went blind staring into the sun as it began to break over the buildings of Camden. Not exactly the most beautiful skyline to watch, but it was far better than sitting in West Philadelphia and waiting for the sun to clear skyscraper after skyscraper.

When the sun had finally cleared the buildings and lit up the city, we went home, exhausted from getting up before the dawn, but better for the experience. I actually haven't intentionally watched the sunrise in almost four years, and it was well worth it. I came home, made blueberry muffins, drank Jasmine green tea, and found out my English class was cancelled.

It's gonna be a lovely day.

http://tinyurl.com/bealovelyday

Just a Thought

I've often been told I need to do more new things - really, see more new movies - and I agree. And I want to. I enjoy experiencing new things, new films, books, music, places, tastes, smells, textures, sensations, all of it.

But isn't there something truly amazing in revisiting the old and familiar, finding something that you never noticed before...and rediscovering why you fell in love with it in the first place?

Yes, I need to see more new films. Yes, they've been arriving via Netflix and theatre.

But I will never stop feeling the need to sing along with Victor Laszlo.

How It Ends

Since I'm taking the Writing the Personal Essay class which is essentially memoir writing, I've had to read examples of personal essays and excerpts of memoirs. One of the best things I have read so far is something that is not on our list. It's called Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. Inspired by the legend of Hemingway's "For sale: baby shoes, never worn," this book contains hundreds of peoples' lives compressed into six words. They range from Stephen Colbert's "Well, I thought it was funny." to a nine-year-old girl's "Cursed with cancer. Blessed with friends." One of my favorites is "Cheese is the essence of life."

I enjoyed reading these, trying to imagine exactly why these people chose those specific six words to summarize their lives. Some obviously put a lot of thought into it, and others didn't seem to as much. I got ideas for stories and movies from these half sentences. This collection was a brilliant idea. For a while, I made myself write at least one six-word memoir per day, detailing something that had happened or that I thought during the course of the day. For example, the first time I had to answer phones at the Film Office, I summarized the experience as such: "Film Office. Who's this? Please hold." And when it seemed like it was going great, I wrote "This isn't so bad after all!" and then when I fucked up royally: "Shit shit shit shit shit shit."

But then I started to think of how I would summarize my life so far in a six-word memoir. How could I do such a thing? How could I consolidate 21 years into six words? Obviously other people had done it with far more years to consider, but what would I say? Was there an exact moment that defined my life, like the person who wrote, "I fell in love with Charlie"? Or could I sum it up in something silly, like "Happiness is a warm salami sandwich"?

I thought about all the different things I say and do in my life, how I never feel like or seem to be one thing. I'll do something that people expect of me, and then I'll throw them for a loop with something else...but the thing is, it's still me, and they all still realize that. I don't turn into a different person when I change out of my jeans that I have drawn all over and into a satiny cocktail dress. Someone who's only seen me in one of those outfits might not have expected the other, but once they've seen it, they expect anything and everything. And that's when it hit me.

I wouldn't want to sum up my life right now as only accounting for the past 21 years. I want to include past, present and the future. I want something that will last. I want something that will keep.

"One day, I'll really surprise you."

And you're not gonna be ready for it.

Devil's Dance Floor

BAM!

It's just after 3 and it's in!

I MEET DEADLINES!

There is soooooooooo much I need to fix. Like I've said before, I've focused on getting pages out and trying to incorporate certain new ideas into them, but I am looking forward to (1) not thinking about the script for a day, and (2) going back and completely ripping it to shreds to make it something much better.

I've only just realized that my lead is similar to a character I recently saw somewhere else. So what I'm going to do is watch this other character and see how he's been written and how the things in his life are played out. No, I'm not stealing - I want to see what made him successful as a character and how I can apply that to mine.

Oh man. This is amazing. I know the work has only just begun, but now that one -- albeit in desperate need of help -- first draft is done, I feel much better. So much better. It's in. It's done. On time. It's no masterpiece, but there it is. Ha. Done. On time. Boo yah.

Don't rain on my parade, I'm doing my victory dance.

I'll Be OK

It used to be that I'd always write scenes that were way too long and unnecessary. I always had to cut things down by a lot. Now, I feel like I'm getting control of that and getting everything out in scenes much quicker and in a more concise manner. Which means that my scenes are really short. And that means they take up less pages. Which means I need to write MORE scenes to fill the pages. Which really sucks. What also sucks is how little space action takes up on a page. So a moment that might actually last a whole 30 seconds in film isn't actually taking up half a page, but two sentences. So I could write five pages that actually take fifteen minutes, but I'll still be ten pages short. God damn it.

And even though I'm working on this and all, I am much more interested in the real-life drama around me than I am in fake drama on the page. That's another thing that's changing - usually, I'm so interested in my characters and what they're doing and these made up stories that I really don't care what's going on outside the screen. Now? Nope. Real things are ACTUALLY interesting and compelling. And I would much rather go live my own adventure than write one for an imaginary person.

I feel incredibly motivated and alive, and at the same time, ridiculously pissed off and angry at everything. I want all you people to talk to me, and then I want you to leave me alone.

"Everybody's crazy except you and me, and I'm not so sure about you."

Save Me

It's been a while since I blogged, I know, I know, my fault. I've been going crazy over break with everything I have to do between family stuff and my own drama and I haven't written as much as I should have. I'm working on it. It'll be ready by week 2, I know, because I make myself meet those deadlines. I'm still just focusing on cranking out the pages and reworking stuff later. What matters right now is that a draft gets done.

Ugh.

And while I'm not totally feeling this project right now, I just had a great screenwriting experience. I was asked to give advice on and then rewrite a film senior project script. I had three days to do it, and it seems to have turned out well. It was probably the biggest moment when I felt like a writer, that this is what I do. Writing the game simulation script was cool and I actually got paid, don't get me wrong, but reworking a story and putting someone's ideas on paper for them when they can't do it themselves is very rewarding. I felt wanted. I felt like what I did mattered. It needed to be done. It's crisis mode. It's going to be filmed. I know that within a relatively short amount of time, I can say "Yeah, see that? I helped write that."

At first, I did it because my friends asked me to and I wanted to do whatever I could to help them. But I should be thanking them instead, because this opportunity has shown me again how much I love what I do, even if stuff feels like crap from time to time. So Aly, if you're reading this, thank you! And I'll thank you in person, too.

Also going on at the moment: I just reached a critical moment in a certain chapter of my life. For a bit, life actually felt like a movie. I was half expecting to hear the soundtrack playing in the background. I thought -- and sincerely hoped -- that I had entered the last 10 pages in which I would have to get in a cab which would drive too slow so I'd have to get out and run and reach my destination before the stroke of midnight and all would be well. Instead, of course, I have just entered Act Three in which something horrible has happened and then it all has to magically get better before the credits roll. Yes, I'm in "martyr" mode, at my lowest point.

So in these final pages, final terms, final moments that we know that we'll have together...something good better happen. Or I'm going to be very angry. And lose faith in a lot of things. But you know, no biggie.