Three Obsessions of the Week

1. The Films of Yasujiro Ozu: Let's get this straight for those of you who don't already know. Yasujiro Ozu is the greatest film director of all time, if you haven't heard his name, go to my other blog "Jeremy and the movies", I've written extensively about his films and him as well. Every now and then I feel the need to watch his films, and the fact that two of his films "The Only Son" and "There was a Father" are new to DVD just gives me another reason to see his movies and talk about them.



2. "Little Dorrit" by Charles Dickens: Let's get this straight for those who don't already know. I love Charles Dickens, to me he's the greatest writer who has ever lived. I think I've mentioned this before in this blog, but just to be sure. I'm currently reading "Little Dorrit" which is about a girl who is born in a debtor's prison, and is working for an invalid women, who's son is trying to help the girl release her father from the prison where he has spent so many years in. It's a great story, I've read only 200 pages of it so far (it's 825 pages long) but I'm not bored with it at all, it's shaping up to be one of the best books of his I've read.

3. Lost Season 4: Ok so, Desmond and Sayid are on a boat, which is there to rescue them, locke just let Ben out of his cell, Charlie's dead, Jin seems to be dead in the future, as does Claire. Desmond can time travel but he doesn't remember, and Michael's back! Thing's are so crazy up in here. After not being sure about "Lost" in the beginning I am now addicted to it. And you know what, it kinda reminds me of a Dickens novel as it inhabits so many characters with mysterious backgrounds, and there are strange coincidences that happen all the time. P.S. Desmond is awesome.

George Carlin A Master of Words

I unfortunately got to George Carlin a little too late. When he was touring, he was around my neck of the woods a few times, going to Edmonton and Calgary, and I never went to see him.

Now George Carlin is dead and I won't ever get to see him live in concert, which is a shame because I've come to the realization that he was indeed one of the funniest people who ever lived, not only that but he had such an exciting mind that worked overtime when he was performing.

Carlin was the type of comedian who used words, he loved words, and was able to use them to his advantage. I usually think the smartest person in the room is usually the funniest. The thing about Carlin was he wasn't so much a comedian as he was a poet, there was a rythm to his speaking, it was something he was always trying to find, it was like music.

Take a look at his routine above where he talks about time, he seems to savour the different concepts of time, and the different connotations we relate time with.

Below I've included an interview Carlin does with Jon Stewart (A man who I think is his one true heir especially when it comes to articulate comedy). Stewart is very young, but at the end of the interview Carlin mentions that he expects great things from the young comic. But also listen to the part where Carlin talks about what a nun says to his mother about the words he uses in his act. Carlin never used a word badly, like he once said, "There are no bad words". He used words to his advantage, to get across important subjects, he was one of the great modern wordsmiths.



Earlier tonight I watched a program where Carlin received the Mark Twain award posthumously. I have no doubt Twain would've agreed with this recipient, I guess it just got me thinking of how great Carlin was.

Wrote a New Play

So I wrote a new play today, it's a first draft, but I'm very excited about it, it's unlike anything I've written before, it's much more dramatic and much more mysterious than usual, I love the ending, it still needs tweaking, right now I want to read it with a bunch of friends. I don't want to tell you what it's about just yet, but if you want to know a little bit about it, you can read a few blogs down, on the title, "End of the Day". This new play is sort of a sequel to that.

The title might give it away, I'm keeping it underwraps until I tweak it and have it read out loud, needless to say it was just great to write something again, something concrete. I had an idea where it should go and it ended up pretty much where I thought it should. Like I mentioned, some tweaking is needed.

Just wanted to share this little bit of info with you guys/loyal readers out there.

I must admit, it's been a little lonely a bit, I miss hanging out with people, I'm alone living at work, but I have the next two days off, I was going crazy so I've been keeping myself occupied. Right now it's really quiet and I really want to hear the sound of people. I'm not depressed or anything, I just wanna hang out with someone right now, I wanna show them my play, I really do. That's probably why I'm writing in my blog right now, because no one is here, and I just wanted to share my excitement with someone.

I just wanna have a nice conversation with someone right now, that's what I really need, just a nice conversation with someone, yes sir, that would be great. I am tired however, it's 1:00 in the morning, and I do have to work tomorrow, I should get to bed, maybe I'll fall asleep listening to music, that would be nice. Good night.

Three Obsessions of the Week

1. Paris: If there was one place I'd want to go, it would be Paris. Maybe it's the romantic in me, maybe I've seen too many French films, but I would just love to see it just once. Go on top of the Eiffel Tower, visit The Louvre, walk along the Champ-Elysees, to me it would be heaven. I've been seriously thinking of a trip there soon.

2. Walking: I've been getting my share of exercise lately, I've decided to park my car and stroll around town as much as I can. Yesterday I walked nearly 5km I think, not sure the exact number, but I think that it was right.

3. The Playwriting Community: A strange unexpected thing sort of happened, and I have now been perceived as somewhat of a writer in my little community. Suddenly people want me to write things for them or with them. Me and a few cohorts are concocting a plan to create a local Writer's club where we can sit down and share our work, and most recently I've been asked to join a board for playwriting workshop committee at our college. I never quite expected any of this, it has me being excited but also hesitant to commit as my schedule just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Top 5 Favorite Books of all time

As I'm struggling to write on a subject worthwhile, I've decided to do something fun and list my top five favorite books.

1. A Tale of Two Cities: I would say almost anything by Charles Dickens is worth reading, but this is my favorite. I'm a big fan of redemption, and although it's sentimentality can be seen right through, I'm a sucker for it. The only book where I had to hold back the tears.

2. A Catcher in the Rye: I'm in love with J.D. Salinger at the moment having just finished his "Nine Stories" and "Franny and Zooey". Amazingly I just read this classic of teenage angst this year and like many I fell in love with it at the moment I read it. I was surprised with how funny it was, I didn't feel depressed at all when I read it, and I found a voice I could relate to like so many who have discovered it.

3. Nicholas Nickleby: My second Dickens book on the list was one of the first of his I read. This is classic Dickens that has a labyrinth of characters, and vast descriptions. I get pulled into his worlds so quickly I never want to leave them. Many Dickens books have been turned into films, some of them into great ones, but the one thing a film cannot produce is the wonderful prose.

4. The Glass Key: I've read most of everything by Dashiell Hammett and love them all, he is the Godfather of hard boiled. If I were to pick one book by him to put on my list, it would be this. It's a mystery involving a character who plays both sides, you don't know where his loyalties lie but you always root for him, it's a classic.

5. A Farewell to Arms: Earnest Hemingway's tragic love story really changed the way I looked at books and reading in the first place when I first read it in high school. Hemingway has a writing style that's to the point, he holds his emotions on a tight reign, but it serves his stories well. I became a big fan of Hemingway afterwards and still am.

I focused on the novels I love above, but I also don't want to leave out the short stories of Anton Chekhov, a man I believe is the second greatest writer after Dickens, also Salinger's "Nine Stories", and Shakespeare's "Hamlet" which may just be the greatest thing I've ever read in my life.

Trying to Write

It's been awhile since I last wrote something in my various blogs, I'm not sure if I had much to say. A few days ago I thought about writing about my play "The Universal" which had its premier at the "Bohemian Rhapsody" festival in Red Deer, but I thought no, I don't really wanna write about that. Trying to write about something I wrote is almost as difficult as talking about something I wrote.

I read something by this fellow blogger whom I just happened to come across about trying to write something everyday. That was what this blog was helping me to do. I'm not sure if I got lazy and decided not to write something in awhile, or I was taking a vacation.

I wanted to write something in my blog, it many ways it's therapeutic, and sometimes it's just fun. Writing takes my mind off things, even if it's just a bunch of stuff I find interesting. I saw two short plays last night that inspired me to write, one of them was by a friend of mine, the other one was by an acquaintance, needless to say they both humbled me. One of them took a certain style I envy and have tried to write before with little success, the other dealt with a subject matter which I would say was foreign to and did it with integrity.

After watching these two plays it reminded me of the importance of art and staying true to yourself. It's difficult, I mean really truly difficult to actually stray away from other people's expectations and to actually create something that is 100% true to yourself. I often ask myself, "is this what I wanted"? Never mind what people thought, is this what I wanted, is this what I set out to do when I thought of the idea? Did I compromise in any way?

Another question I ask is, did I do everything humanly possible to create what I wanted? I'm hardly ever sure of any of these questions, second guessing myself is a great fault of mine.

I don't know, maybe I felt I needed a break from writing, maybe I was disappointed in myself, maybe I had to recharge my battery, maybe I had other things on my mind.

I guess whatever the case may be, I was sidetracked for awhile, I will always come back to writing, it's an addiction, even if I'm bad at it or I'm struggling with it, I will always come back to it because I truly believe I have something to say and when I'm able to find the words to express them, it is one of the most fulfilling moments of my life.

So I guess I'm here to say I'm back, I'm back to writing, doing what I do, hoping that someone somewhere will find what I'm saying interesting then sometime I will be able to get something out there that is worthwhile to someone.

Three Obsessions of the Week

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:Can you believe it, I haven't read this yet? Talk about getting sidetracked, I think I was in the middle of my seventh Charles Dickens novel at the time this book came out, I was told by everyone to stop whatever I was doing and read it. Well I figured I would read it when I was good and ready, and right now, I'm good and ready. When it comes to fantasy books, I can't get that excited, but Harry Potter is the exception, it's just a fun read, the characters are so vivid and human, and the series never lost its sense of humour, there's a reason these are such great summer books, it's an escape, and now the hype has died down, I'm able to enjoy the book for what it is.



2. Lost: Speaking of hype, here's something else I missed the boat on. I was really disappointed with the lack of really escapist entertainment at the theatres this summer, and after watching "Dr. Who", I wanted a fix of solid entertainment that could just take me away. "Lost" was recommended by practically everyone I know, and it felt like I committed a cardinal sin when I "didn't really get into it". For now, I'm finding it quite entertaining, and a nice summer distraction, I'm almost done season one, although I'm in no hurry to finish it just yet.



3. The Marx Brothers: If I can't find a good movie at the theatres, I just go back to the classics, and you know what they say: "Comedy is good for the soul", and noone is better for my soul than The Marx Brothers. I've been diving into their catalogue of movies this past week just to keep my spirits up, they are the few people who can actually get me into a good mood, I'm smiling a lot more these days because of The Marx Brothers.