You might have been noticing in the Twitter updates, each week I've been setting for myself a big picture goal. So far, I've been getting a lot out of it. Last week's, "one step after the other" was a big success and thinking about these macro-sized things and making them into weekly mantra's can be helpful when you get stressed.
This week's mantra is born out of two things; the first, being the death of Tim Russert, who was one of my heroes. I talk about Russert's influence on me as a journalist over at Flaming Politics, but he's a hero to me because of the way he conducted his life. He was aggressive, tough and successful, but remained true to his roots, cared deeply about passing on his knowledge as much as he was excited about absorbing others and brought passion to all the arenas of his life. I believe, and try to live out, that success should never change who you are, because who you are is what makes you successful. Tim clearly embodied that axiom. Here's a guy who worked relentlessly, put his family first and still showed a generosity of spirit to everyone he met, no matter who they were or where they came from.
The second reason I'm keeping "Let There Be Love" in my head this week is that I'm making real headway on the screenplay and it's reminding me why I love writing stories: They surprise you. I keep referring to the movies as "Close Encounters", because I want to do a big, fantastical commercial film that's grounded in an everyday reality. But the surprise over the weekend is that I'm realizing that what I'm writing is an anti-apocalyptic movie. The usual summer blockbuster is about the world put in peril by a killer storm/alien/large rock of kryptonite and someone comes along and beats up someone else and somehow the world is saved. I think I'm writing a film that inverts that formula a bit. The end of the world always seems just around the corner, be it by the hand of war or science or religion and sometimes it does come, whether its in Darfur, on the beaches of Normandy or on the 82nd Floor of Tower One, but we keep living. In the face of apocalypse, humanity doesn't run screaming into the night; we endure. We don't have the luxury of Superman, so we survive through love.
Now, I just need to, you know- make it sell to the 14-28 year old males. Good thing I put in explosions and hot chicks.
I have a piece on L.A. artist Fritz Haeg up on Out.com. Tomorrow, I'll be downtown at the Dwell on Design conference, where Haeg is a featured speaker. Expect Twitter updates.
Your editor says, "Hey, here's all the downloadable music from SXSW. Write a review. By the way, that's 48 hours of music. Have fun!" What do you do? Well, if you're Paul Ford, you make each review just six words long. Check out Ford's minimalist music reviews here. They work brilliantly. For Seeing Things' "Eat Skull": "But I'm not hungry for skull" and People Person's "Pissed Jeans": "Claims adjusters secret noise side-project." Ford also keeps his Twitters to only six-words each.
Any writer worth their salt will tell you it's far easier to write more than less. The game is to score the biggest punch in the fewest words. Though, Proust's In Search of Lost Time sort of proves me wrong; reduce it to six words-- A Madeline! Holy shit, I remember" and you lose-- something.
So, I've been racing to finish my screenplay. It's a sci-fi movie and one of the big plot elements has to do with, well-- energy. And I've been sort of tearing at myself at how to handle it in a way that's not "evil corporation". Then I came across this video for the old pre-show opener to The Universe of Energy. You don't really get the full effect here- the screen is made up of rotating tripods, so that it's kinetic. Anyway, the benign corporate futurism of the '80s era Epcot was exactly what I needed.
Here's some of what I've been working on this week:
An interview with Arthur Dong, director of Hollywood Chinese, a fantastic documentary about the Chinese-American experience in Tinseltown. I could have talked to Arthur for hours-- a really funny, fascinating and thoughtful guy. (The Advocate)
A QnA with photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya. Sort of got me thinking about how the media's job is to define and label things (this is a trend, it is about these kinds of people, it fits into this category) and fine artists are all about introducing ambiguity and challenging the nature of the boxes we stuff things into. Not that any of that shows up in the piece. (Popnography)
The 400 pound gorilla this week is my big feature story on "The Boys of Buzznet", Jeffree Star, Clint Catalyst and Matthew Lush. I'll probably write another blog soley about the backstory to this piece. For the moment, I'll just say I'm pretty proud of it and really thankful for my editor, Shana. (Out.com)
Like a lot of great things about the publishing world, I was introduced to Gourmet by my old editor and boss, Alex Cho. We liked to talk a lot about what makes a great magazine; how a good mag had to cut both deep and shallow, how it should reflect its audience, but also challenge and engage it, how to be stylish and fresh without sacrificing the illusion of institutional heft. Editing's a pretty misunderstood job (most people mistake it for copy editing), but a good editor is like a conductor who knows that the score is illuminated not just by balance and harmony, but by counterpoint and dissonance. Alex stood by my door holding a copy of Gourmet in his hands and declared, "This is what a magazine should be."
Being a food lover and half-decent chef, I've been reading it ever since, but it's as an editor that I get my deepest satisfaction from its pages. It's everything you want from a magazine; the editorial photoshoots make a rack of lamb look more comely than any centerfold model could aspire to. The thematic unity of each issue; for instance, this month is focused on French Bistro cooking is thrilling because it's not slavishly devoted to the topic. For instance, the main feature is about what you'd expect: coq au vin, profiteroles and steak frittes, but you would never anticipate Francis Lam's essay on his obsession with creating the perfect omelette or a story about how the people of Perche, France are developing their own terrior of baguette (of all things) as a way to fight off the pressures of globalization. And at the end of each article, there's always recipes, reminding the reader, "Oh yeah, this is a food magazine".
But it's a magazine not about making food, rather it's a magazine about taste. It's menu's take you away to exotic locales. The roasted garlic souffle is presented in a way that's aspirational; the implicit promise is that in preparing it, you will be whisked, on some psychic level, to the fields of Provence. This is what all magazines do; they're aspirational mirrors. People read newspapers for the news, they read magazines to reflect who they are, or wish themselves to be. Ask someone to name three magazines they read and you'll be well on your way to knowing the soul of that person. People who don't read magazines or worse, cite Time as one of the magazines they read, should be disregarded.
But back to Gourmet. It works because its aspirational, but it also offers up 15 minute meals and isn't afraid to tell you to use a frozen bag of fries now and then. It cuts shallow as well as cutting deep. It also has institutional quirks. My favorite magazine quirk is The New Yorker's insistence on diaeresis marks over double vowels, but Gourmet's seems to be a fascination with Calvados, that is apple brandy. It's constantly offering up deserts with whipped cream infused with the stuff and seems devote a paragraph or two every other month to extolling its virtues. It's these sort of little details that turn readers into raving fans. It's subtitle is "The Magazine of Good Living" and it's sort of a joke because you'll never see an article about yachts or fast cars or the fashions of Milan in its pages, just food. Because for Gourmet, what else could good living require?
The first issue of The Advocatesince its redesign hits the newsstands today. As you can see, it's got an interview with Hillary that's a must read. Clinton says nothing new, but the piece, by Sean Kennedy, does a great job dissecting the relationship between Hil and the gay community.
Also, I've got two pieces in this issue. One is on Pete Jones, Project Greenlight winner and accidental homo (read it here) and another with Dan Savage about the forthcoming musical adaptation of his book, The Kid.
It's a double feature! My pal Jason Bellini (of Logo's Here and Now) and I are doing a crossover special. Both of us took our five favorite words from the Urban Dictionary and each made a video podcast about it. He calls is "vlogging", which sounds to me like something that happens on Star Trek, but his pieces are wonderfully insightful and he's definitely been a motivator for the pieces I'm doing. I just wish he'd spell my name right.
Words, Words, Words-- Now in a Convenient PDF Format!
Sorry for the lack of posting, but I've been awfully busy the past few days. Getting ready for the NLJGA Conference tomorrow on top of writing, looking for jobs and you know--working out at the gym and catching up on Design Star has taken it's toll.
However, you might have noticed that the 'Writing' section of the site is up. This is mainly to make it easy for potential employers and editors to look at my work, but if you've never read my writing, it's like getting a whole bunch of new blog posts, only they're edited and more interesting.
The big thing however, is that I finally created a writing portfolio. I wanted something I could easily hand out at the conference and thought I'd just throw a few clips together and call it a day. I figured it would take--oh, two hours. Two days later, my portfolio is finally done ('til January) and available for download on the writing page. I'd love to know what you think.
I keep meaning to mention this: I have an interview with Dan Kurtz of Dragonette in the current issue ofInstinct. It's probably one of my favorite interviews. It doesn't hurt that they're a fucking awesome band.
If you're in San Diego next week, I'll be speaking on a panel at the National Gay & Lesbian Journalist's Association (NLJGA) Conference. The panel is called "Surfing Tips: Avoiding Online Riptides" and is about the whole "Is blogging journalism?" debate with forays into what sort of standards traditional media should set for freelancers, etc... It's moderated by none other than Nietzschean superman Ben Patrick Johnson. It's on Thursday at 10:15 a.m. My plan is to blog while doing he panel, because you gotta have a gimmick. I'll be covering the conference throughout next week.
Went with my friend Robert, who was in from Palm Springs to the new Trader Vic's last night. It's pretty awesome. They had a DJ playing and you know- mai tai's. We talked about the pilot I'm writing and he had all these great questions I hadn't thought about. The best one, I think: "Where do you see these people five years from now?" Probably the best question you can ask someone writing a pilot.
I'm nearly done with the first draft and I made a mistake that I'm starting to correct. The original episode centered on a dinner party- Joyce's "The Dead" with plates of cocaine, but all the interesting stuff seemed to be happening after the party. That is, in a future episode. Well, there are no future episodes in Pilot-ville- just one stab to lay out what the feel of the show is, who these people are and what the dramatic question of the show is.
I think I'm getting there, but this is the first thing I've ever written that I really want to see on TV. I would watch this show. Even though the reason I'm writing the pilot is to really just serve as a calling card of what I can do for agents/producers, I'm really starting to like these characters and the fun of talking about class in America. So, I'm trying to really nail it. Which is good. Which is fun.
Robert hated the title, so I think I'm changing it to something else.
The pilot I'm writing is about trust-fund kids. It's not The O.C. or Cruel Intentions, but much more Neil LaBute, Jay McInerny (vs. Brett Easton Ellis, btw) and at the risk of sounding like a total prick--The Sopranos, at least in the sense that it' s about severely screwed up people making stabs at conscious moral choices.
The first issue of The Advocate since its redesign hits the newsstands today. As you can see, it's got an interview with Hillary that's a must read. Clinton says nothing new, but the piece, by Sean Kennedy, does a great job dissecting the relationship between Hil and the gay community.
Went with my friend Robert, who was in from Palm Springs to the new Trader Vic's last night. It's pretty awesome. They had a DJ playing and you know- mai tai's. We talked about the pilot I'm writing and he had all these great questions I hadn't thought about. The best one, I think: "Where do you see these people five years from now?" Probably the best question you can ask someone writing a pilot.
