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I’m like a cow living on a pasture. I eat, drink, relieve myself,
get hot and cold, love my family and friends; the only difference is that I get
the MNF game in high-def and have to grade some English 102 papers.
High-def TV has changed my viewing habits. For example, I watch the
Discovery Channel now, just to see the nature shows.
“Look at that otter!” I shout to my wife, who’s in another room, watching
a horror flick.
“Look at that werewolf,” she shouts back at me. (Ever since we returned
from Key West,
she seems fascinated by werewolves. Is that a bad thing?)
I’m further amazed by the clarity of the sea otters
on my high-def, giant screen TV. I find myself mumbling, “This is a lot clearer
than the otters we taped on our vacation video.”
I fly 3,000 miles to videotape otters and other wild things in Northern California on a regular basis. But I’ve never
seen them as clearly or as close-up as I do now, on high-def TV. Watching from
my living room is better than actually being there, especially when you
consider the high price of gasoline and the inherent dangers of flying. Heck, I
might just stay here forever. In a few years, if I want to see the Grand
Canyon, I’ll just buy a Grand Canyon high-def
hologram. Better yet, I’ll rent that hologram one weekend.
SIGN FROM THE FUTURE: “BOOTLEG HOLOGRAMS – ONLY 500 EURO-POUNDS!”
The above proves that being prescient isn’t always a good thing. So
forget the future for a moment. What did you do last weekend? What are you
doing this weekend? Are you writing? I wrote a blog last summer about “Laverne
& Shirley” and how my professor at USC, Stephen Longstreet, once mentioned
that he thought, “Laverne & Shirley were the heirs to Shaw and Faulkner.” I
was wrong. He actually said, “Laverne & Shirley were the heirs to Shaw and
Strindberg.” I hope that satisfies everyone who thinks I can’t take criticism
or correct myself.
I just read that they are re-assembling the “Laverne & Shirley” duo.
That’s right, TV Land network is taping a reality show with the two actresses
sharing the same house. That should bring a mandatory five year prison
sentence to the producers. Why should political bloggers be the only ones
getting five year sentences?
Remember how I mentioned the 1950’s TV show, “The Naked City”? Here’s a
recent tidbit from Creative Screenwriting Magazine: “In 1958, TV producer
Herbert Leonard (he’s the guy I met in the 1980’s; the one who couldn’t find an
electrical outlet in his office and didn’t know his own zip code) made ‘The
Naked City’ as a weekly series and ended each episode with: ‘There are eight
million stories in the Naked City.’”
The original writer of “The Naked City” screenplay, Marvin Wald, wrote
recently, “Not a month goes by when I don't hear someone using that phrase or a
variation of it in newspapers, television, and everyday life.”
Translation: Wald feels he didn’t full credit for the success of that
film and TV series.
Also from CSM:
"Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If
your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats."
– Howard Aiken
And …
"You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do
nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and
again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will
receive some measure of success -- but only if you persist."
– Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov, although gone now, inspires me. Why? Because whenever I saw
him interviewed, he would stress the point that he wanted to write all the
time; weekends and holidays included. He thought those were the best times
to write because no one would bother him.
What are you doing this weekend?
-- Don Rutberg
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