Midweek Cooling Trends

Tonight I have my Critical Studies midterm: "American Film Comedy -- Good idea?" Discuss the motivation of Frank Capra. Compare and contrast Harry Langdon and Harold Lloyd. Beat into the ground the concept of "picaro structure."

On Sunday I met up with Evan, Marc, and Jim (also known as James) at school to attend the TA's review section. Afterwards, the 4 of us went to Denny's and joked around for 2 hours before getting down to studying again.

Usually I am the funniest person in a crowd -- I came in Number 4 with these guys. I was in danger of horking my coffee all over the place, they are so funny.

Considering Marc and Evan want to do comedy (I'm not sure if James -- also known as Jim -- does as well), this is a good thing. Last year, when I was in writing class with Marc, he wrote something that was so funny that the class could not read it aloud without stopping to laugh hysterically. That's talent.

We're a tough bunch, not given to praising one another. It's very strange for one of the GSPers to have unadulterated admiration for another writer. Alex is taking a Script Rewriting course from the Production, not the Screenwriting, track and says that it's much nicer -- the Production students are more supportive than competitive. What a concept! (Especially with Production students...ooooh, now that was catty.)

Yesterday I met with the administrator for the GSP and went over what I need to graduate. I had to start thinking about next semester's classes. Like I can deal with thinking about this semester's classes.

I'm going to be doing a lot of writing next semester too. Whee! So far this semester I've been working on my thesis and totally forgetting about my ER script. Once I get feedback on my ER outline, though, I'll have to get to work on the script. If I can pound out 20 pages a week on that, it'll only take me 3 weeks, not counting rewrites.

Of course, between 20 pages on that and 20 pages on thesis, I'll be a basket case.

Why I want to write for Homicide, reason number 4682: During the premiere this week, the explanation for why Brody, the very annoying cameraman, has disappeared was that he won an Emmy for the documentary he did on the homicide division (that was an episode last season).

Bayliss (Kyle Secor) turns around and says, "An Emmy? They'll give those things to anyone."

The joke being, of course, that despite Homicide's insanely great writing, acting, and directing, they can't get an Emmy nomination to save their lives. Does Andre Braugher get nominated as Det. Frank Pembleton, the only guy on TV who could take Andy Sipowicz? No. Do the Homicide writers get Emmys for their kick-ass scripts? No. It's like being the brilliant stepchild no one wants to talk about.

Damn fine episode, by the way. It's still The Best Damn Show On Television®.

Last night in Biz class we got our midterms back and I got a 98! Whoo hoo! The final grade for the class is determined as: (3 x midterm) + (5 x final) + (2 x ennnh), where ennnh is defined as class participation and showing up for the review sections.

Of course, the two things I got wrong I should have gotten right -- I just didn't read each question closely enough. Duh.

I have 27 new pages for Thesis class tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I should bring them in. Not because they're not good (I am no judge of this -- I'm either in love with myself or I hate everything I do, with no in-between), but because one scene, the important scene that marks the end of Act I, isn't working. I say this because when I read it everything happens too easily. There needs to be more conflict. Everybody gets what they want in this scene way way way too easily.

Now, for someone like me, who has a big problem with conflict, to say that there needs to be more, means I have to rewrite this scene.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

I went running this morning, 3 miles! I didn't even get up early, but it was okay, because it's actually gotten chilly here in Los Angeles -- it was probably about 65 degrees F. (Heh.)