Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Wow! Another post!

and another link!

this one is really cool though. I never get excited about 1) COP SHOWS 2) LAW SHOWS 3) DOCTOR SHOWS

But this is a cop show I've already heard things about- plus a little something EXTRA

CLICK THE LINK!

You Know You're REALLY Homesick when...

...THIS article makes me nostalgic for Chicago.


The Loop deemed 'rattiest' area of Chicago

By Erika Slife, Tribune reporter

9:43 p.m. CDT, October 25, 2010

If you smell a rat, chances are good you're in the Loop — and not necessarily near City Hall, according to a recent survey of Chicago residents on the city's "rattiest" neighborhoods.

That's according to a survey of city residents conducted by Sentient Decision Science LLC, on behalf of d-Con, a rodent-control brand.

Other neighborhoods where rat sightings were prominent include the South Loop, Lakeview/Wrigleyville, Lincoln Park and West Loop. At the bottom of the list of 21 Chicago neighborhoods in the survey were North Center and Lincoln Square.

Residents of the city's "rattiest" areas should not despair. It's not necessarily a reflection of how they live, "but more of a reflection of the economy, and empty buildings, factors like that," said Raj Jain, a senior brand manager for d-Con.

Precautions such as picking up after your dog, keeping the city's garbage bins closed and maintaining neat gardens and yards will starve the rodents of a food supply, said Matt Smith, a spokesman for the city's Department of Streets and Sanitation.

"The ability to stop rodents from taking up residence in an area lies in the residents' hands," he said. "If rats can't feed, rats can't breed."

The city doesn't have a list of its "rattiest" neighborhoods — there's no reliable tracking system.

The rat found in Chicago is the Norway rat, although the breed originated in Asia, according to the city. It lives about six to 12 months, with a female producing four to seven litters per year.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Week Sauce: Wednesday / Thursday

Yes, I'm running behind. What of it?

WED

Woke up early to do some rewriting on our hockey-horror-comedy webisodes. It was pouring rain and I met my co-writer at a coffee shop that was just a few blocks away, so I actually WALKED in the RAIN for about five blocks.

Not a big deal? Probably right, but reminded me of LUC days when it rained very very frequently and I had no choice but to march along #MEMORIES

Oh, and this "#" thing is apparently some part of Twitter. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I guess it lets you put your "tweet" in a specific "topic"... I dunno.

I'm totally on the Twitter bandwagon, BTW. Mostly, I like it because A) Conan Obrien, Jimmy Kimmel, and Steve Martin are HILARIOUS and 2) Its actually a pretty decent way to keep up on news and such too.

Anyway, Wed nights I've been attending an Alfred Hitchcock class at USC...now, I'm not registered for it, nor will I get any credit. Why, you may ask then, am I spending my Wednesday nights at it?

Well, the teacher is amazing and the class takes place in the Norris Theater - big theater on campus - so its a chance to see some awesome movies (some I've seen, some I haven't) on the big screen in 35mm. And, for these movies from 40+ years ago, that's a pretty rare thing. This Wed was I CONFESS and STRANGERS ON A TRAIN... great films.

I mean, its Alfred Hitchcock. The guy is to suspense what the Yankees are to the World Series. HE JUST KILLS IT.

THURS

Ah, so this Thursday was day #2 of a new internship. Its with Pierce Brosnan's production company called "Irish DreamTime" productions.

Pierce Brosnan is Irish.

I don't know where "DreamTime" comes into anything.

Anyway, they are expanding beyond just producing movies for Pierce and getting into TV and stuff so its nice because I should be getting a good bunch of hands-on experience and I love TV so that's good. I just started so still getting familiar with all the projects they got going on - will keep y'all posted.


Thursday night I have a pretty interesting class called "The Business of Representation" - its a business class taught by a TV agent at CAA - Creative Artists Agency.

CAA is to the representation game what Hitchcock was to suspense. They kick ass.

So, its been a really fun and interesting class, had some AMAZING guests in, real big players in movies and entertainment. One week we had the lawyer who brokered the big merger between William Morris Agency and Ari Emanuel's Endeavor. Another week was music mogul LA Ried and just last week we had a manager whose client list includes Bill Maher and Zach Galifianakis. Real nice inside baseball type stuff. Plus, we actually meet at the agency which is pretty sweet.



That's their fancy office in Century City...the inside is not too different from the super modern slick look that Ari's agency has in ENTOURAGE. A classmate had the best comment when we sat down at the giant marble conference table - "This place is like the Death Star".

I would not be surprised if some of the upper level agents had the ability to choke their assistants from 6 feet away....

That night I actually split class and met with some classmates who I've been working on a pretty exciting new movie idea with. I don't know if I've mentioned it on the blog at all - we've been keeping it pretty quiet just cause we really like the concept - but I think I can offer some insight into it.....on Friday's post.

Which will come on Sunday.

I know it doesn't make sense, but, just run with me on this...kapeash?

mk

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

"Week" Sauce: Monday / Tuesday

Man, I really need to stop making blog promises, or "blogasises", I just can't seem to keep to 'em.

But, got a pretty good reason - last night I didn't get to post cuz I was a bit wiped from attending the 2nd annual Chicago-LA Link event: a little shindig for entertainment industry-types in LA with hometown roots in Chicago. I got to go last year and it was pretty awesome; year two did not disappoint.

Lou Malnatti's, Portillos and Eli's Cheesecake were just a few of the food highlights I had the pleasure to sample. Oh, and a number of notable and slightly more"under-the-radar" Chicago peeps were there. Without going into too much detail - had a few drinks, met a couple of new friends / contacts, and had a perfectly valid excuse to blow off my Monday classes!

Anyway, not much else to report on RE Monday since I kinda took the day off besides the event...not to be confused with "THE EVENT", NBC's "We pretend this is the next LOST but secretly hopes it just lasts slightly longer than HEROES".

Tuesday kicks off with screne writing class in the AM, a class where we only work on different types of scenes rather than focus on a whole script.

Its fun , easy, and requires a minimum of commitment.... so its essentially like a one-night stand of screenwriting.

Tuesday night is usually something really great b/c I've got Advanced Producing class, which is taught be a current vice president of Development at Fox Searchlight - a company that is pretty much as good as it gets when it comes to indie films.

Bottom line: if you've seen a movie with an equal amount of sadness and humor with great acting performances and a notable lack of fighting space robots and fat-guy-in -a-waterslide jokes, that's Fox Searchlight.

Anyway, our guest tonight was Shonda Rhimes, a screenwriter that is best known for creating a hit show on ABC...not LOST (2nd refernence in one post? I really do have to go baaaaaack".)

No, she created a show that actually got higher ratings than LOST and is still on the air- Grey's Anatomy.

Now, I've got to come clean and say I've never seen more than 5 minutes of Grey's pilot BUT Shondra was amazing to listen to. I've made no secret for my love of the wonderful world of television and gotta say there was nothing better than listen to the creator / exec producer of one a top show recount her path and experience which included an MFA from good ole USC!

Always happy to see an alum that doesn't have to worry about student loan payments!

That'll be it for now, had a late-night webisode meeting at a bar and have an early morning webisode writing sesh at a coffeehouse.

After listening to Shondra recount her 18 hour days I will say I don't mind them at all, I just can't wait for the day to get PAID for 'em.

Or just free movie channels....I'd....I'd settle.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Week in the Life: SUNDAY

Hey, so in an attempt to try and keep bloggin with a bit more regularity, kind of like writers' Metamucil, I'm going to try and go through a week and do a blog post every day.

They're gonna be quick. Sometimes I get so set on trying to write some brilliant piece of prose and it takes an hour or whatever and then I end up taking three weeks off cuz i dont want to spend an hour writing this each day, but I figure if I start timing myself I may just get a decent update out without having to channel my inner Steinbeck.

Anyway, here goes....

Busy Sunday - the biggest time hog today was for a webisode that I'm going to be working on for a, wait for it, webisode class.

Its a new thing at USC, finally getting on to that "Internet" thing, only took a decade or two.

I guess the big delay on offering a class with web-centric content is that USC was wondering if web shows are "good enough" for their often hi-falootin' curriculum.

While, I've had my doubts about how good it really is to be successful when it comes to web series - ever heard of Clark and Michael? Chad Vader? The Office: The Mentor? - if so, kudos, because that's more webisode knowledge than I ever had before googling the whole notion for research.

BUT, I do think it can be a good way to make a name or get noticed or produce something that can show off some talent. It can also be a way to make money.

$! $! $$$$$$$$!

Maybe. If you get Old Spice to sponsor it, or something.

Anyway, the webisode that I am creating, writing, producing, etc with some classmates is tentatively entitled "THE SIN BIN".

Its about a Chicago Blackhawks fan who sells his soul to see the Hawks win the Cup. When they do, a sexy demon from hell takes his cute girlfriend away, and the fan must team up with another sexy demon to rescue his girlfriend before its too late, defeating all kinds of zombies and vampires and such along the way!

So, its like DAMN YANKEES meets ZOMBIELAND meets DANTES INFERNO. Meets the NHL NETWORK.

Pretty fun stuff.

We're going to be shooting the last two weekends in October, and I spent 4 hours in auditions today, plus a production meeting to figure out how we're going to bring these crazy ideas to the fruition in just two weeks.....

After all that, decided to "unwind" by going to ESPN Zone in downtown LA to watch the BEARS. Two problems - ESPN Zone is a overpriced, overhyped, money-grubbing excuse for a sports bar (made worse by being in LA) AND the BEARS were absolutely horrible...that o-line was so disgusting to look at I'm surprised the FCC didn't make NBC blur those sacks out...children could have been watching!

Well, thats it. Already been writing for + 20 minutes. Trying to keep it short and sweet. I wish I didn't have to be so long win-