Sex and The Wrong City

Tomorrow is Sex and The City Day. Laugh all you want but I'm pretty excited about it.

HR2 invited a bunch of her girlfriends to head to her neck of the woods, wearing their favorite dresses and heels - then it's off to sip Cosmos and watch the S&C movie. This is as close as I get to home right now, so I kinda need this. I know I have less then 2 weeks left of my year long stay in London but I'm not going to lie, when S&C comes on TV here I get a little weepy eyed.

I pretty much live on Cosmos back home (not so much the heels and dresses), as I don't really like beer and the wine is usually served from a box I have no other choice right? And for some reason cocktails are what NYC does best. It's odd but there you have it. Here in London it is so much a beer culture that I've gotten into wine. At least they carry a variety of wine, in actual bottles, cork and all - unlike my local Brooklyn bar that I swear grabbed a large jug and poured me a glass. In retrospect at least it wasn't in a pint glass.

The sad news is I don't have any heels or dresses with me. Anything that resembled the dress code I brought back home on spring break and left only sweats, some jeans and t-shirts. So today I wandered about Angel, in all the second hand - antique stores looking for something I could pull off, while in one shop some shop girl was going on about S&C to her coworker, spoiling the whole movie! I wanted to scream at her to shut her mouth but I just hummed to myself instead. Guilty pleasures don't come often so when they do I like to see them unspoiled.

Maybe just to spite her I looked and pulled, touched and fiddled with everything I saw in the store - without making a purchase. Ha! So there.

Then again I still have nothing to wear now. I think maybe that one back fired on me. I do have my 'skinny Sarah Jessica' black jeans from the gap with me though. That counts. Right? No heels though. Guess I'll be the Butch one of the ultra girlie group tomorrow- oh I'll be Miranda! Hurrah! Problem solved.

Toast to my faboo Sunday!

UPDATE: (So I put something together - it was fun but the Cosmo's were the smallest in the world - as my facial expression clearly points out. Still I had no problem spilling half of it on my dress right after this was taken)

Jump Inside the Small Screen

TV, TV and more TV.

Film? Been there, done that. Theater? Apparently 10 weeks is enough. Now it's onto their love child, a lovable little scamp that the world can't resist taking into its living room, and sometimes bathroom- when the moods right. (Or did I mean bedroom? No. No. Bathroom.)

I have to say I've always loved TV with a passion, so I never thought of writing for it because it's my escape in life. I didn't want to lose that. Having said that it's hard not to analysis it now that I've worked so much in the other two mediums. Having this term plunge me right into the heart of it (Soaps) I'm thinking maybe I should think seriously about this.

You can't make a living as a playwright, this has been ingrained into me since I first wrote one in junior high school. It hasn't stopped me from doing it obviously. But I do have other interests (surprise -surprise) such as film and now TV to possibly explore the idea that maybe one day with more work and the right connections (cough - HR2 and her fab new job at the BBC? - no no - we won't harass friends.)

(even though that is what they are there for. Right? Wink. Wink. Nudge. Nudge. ) Anywho not going to lie, it's late and I'm tired but I wanted to share two blog sites I stumbled upon while at lit agency today, in between reading script submissions of course - (it was one of those days where the scripts I got, I didn't know if I should laugh or cry - that's not a good thing people.)

Aspiring Writer
This is a girl working in a agency - lit? and looking to be a TV writer - she's funny and gives a fun look into her new LA world. Having been there done that I feel for her.

Jane Espenson
Jane's at the other end. She really has been there done that and succeeded. She's an old hat at the TV game. But she writes a blog for new writers and it's really funny yet educational.

If I had the talent of the blogger I'd like to write like these chicks. SO enjoy.

PS The pilot of Greek was shown today in little old Britain - a little later then back home but I really got hooked and although the rest of the world's seen what happens it looks like it's summer rerun time for me - oh wait modern times - hello Netflix DVD!

Gangs of London

I was attacked by 11 year old boys on a bus. I'm starting to really hate this city.

Heading to HR2's house for a night of drinking with her and her roommates, I almost didn't go. I still had homework to do and no money to spend but I needed to get out. If only for a bit. And whats the harm in that? So I get on the bus and I'm a few stops into my journey when all the sudden this gang of 11 year old boys (maybe younger or older) appear in hysterics about how they had just got away with something. They banged on the window at some poor soul outside screaming obscenities.
One of them boasted "I hit him with a rock."
Another asks "Where?"
He thinks for a moment "His head."
All of them burst out laughing.
"I can't believe we got away!" and they go on joking and laughing as a boys do.

As the bus drives along they continue to heckle people outside banging on the glass. Then all the sudden they stop. The silence is eerie. I think - what's happening? Because I'm at the front of the bus, and they are behind me. It's a double Decker, and we are up top. But I know they didn't leave. I heard whispers and then suddenly out of nowhere something goes flying by my head. Aimed for me. I turn around for the first time at the monsters and they look up, wide eyed but not so innocent. Pointing to each other. "He did it." "What are you looking at"
Then a girl, around sixteen gets off. "You guys are disrespectful" she says and leaves.
They remain staring me down. Once she disappears down the stairs they begin with their evil faces. "What!"

And this is when I could have turned around but I couldn't because I didn't trust them. I knew they would have kept chucking things at my head until they got it right. Who knows what else they had with them?

So I said "What's your problem."
This gets them started.
They charge toward me. In my face.
I say 'I'll call the cops'' and the ring leader, smug says in his broken hackney accent ''My dad is a cop. What's he going to do? Nothing!"
And I tell him that explains his behavioral problems.
One of them pulls my hair so I aim to smack him but he doges and I hit another one instead. The boy I hit looks stunned, probably the first time some one defended themselves against them. It was a light smack on the shoulder but probably the only discipline these boys have ever had. (But once I'm being physically attacked I don't care how old you are, what you are, I'm defending myself and attacking back. )

I yell at them to get off the bus that I'd call the cops anyway. But one of them says 'this is our stop." And they all agree and run off yelling "Spaz" "Call the cops" and go on about how they got away.... again.

The Bus drives off and I'm shaking with anger. How can some one let there kid do this? Run around like animals attacking stranger's? And it made me think of Edward Bonds Play "Saved" were the teens stone a baby to death in the carriage. That's what these boys were. Right now it's people's heads but what will it be tomorrow? No one is stopping them. The bus driver heard everything and kept on. No other adult on the bus stepped in. They got away onto their next victim.

London says it has a problem with teen gangs and violence but that's because they let it happen. Watch it start at eleven until they're a few years old, stronger and more daring because no one ever said no. Everyone turns a blind eye. That's how it happens. They should have learned that by now. Doing nothing is the same as giving permission to let something happen.

ZZZZZZZZ

You know what would be really good right now? A large NY style bagel with soft whipped cream cheese, a juniors cheese cake and a cappuccino. Then a soft comfy bed to sleep and sleep and sleep. When I wake a quite room, with lots of sun light and a computer and endless amounts of time to write and read. Oh and a big screen TV when I get tired of both to escape into.

Yea, that be really nice.

AROUND TOWN

Just some random photos I snapped while living in London:

Red Fools Married to Hate

So I'm innocently researching for my master thesis - families portrayed on stage - three sisters yata yata and I come to a link that says something like "I'll marry my brother so deal with it'' and I think is this a play? So I click and it leads me to www.redstate.com. That's when I got scared.

It was some redneck writing about if gay marriage is legal then he can marry his brother because it makes the same amount of sense. (Well you're probably from the South so in that case I guess it already is legal for you Billy Bob) I almost vomited when I read it. Then the comments of other like mined morons were typing happily away of why it's wrong for gays to marry. One said now two gay pedophiles can marry and adopt kids. I wanted to throw the computer out the window. DO people really go through life thinking this way? A pedophile is a pedophile, not a gay man and a pedophile is usually married with kids to a woman. And it was probably YOU the one who left the comment that's the peddy.

Sometimes I really hate. But it's not to people in love who want to express it, it's to people who can't see the truth beyond themselves and so they try to kill anything that doesn't agree with ma and pa's beliefs and there brainwashing. Let me clarify, stupid people. If a man and a man or a woman and a woman love each other they should be able to live in that love, with that love like any other couple. Most marriages I've witnessed in my life don't last, most straight couples I know don't or haven't lasted but the majority of the gay couples I do have been going strong.

We are beyond religion, it's on to laws and taxes, the right to visit a loved one in the hospital to raise your kids and live happy healthy lives by sharing in health benefits to start. Any man and woman not in love can get married for citizenship, tax cuts and so on. So saying that's why gays want it is ridiculous! If they wanted it for fraudulent reasons they'd marry the opposite sex you retards!

I'm just so angry! Then I think I should write my frustration down in a play but to be a constructive piece of work I'd have to look fairly at both sides - you have to like all of your characters in some way or it becomes one dimensional when you write them. But I don't like these - I can't even call them people! They are just fools. And I hope their children grow up gay and proud and wave it in their idiotic faces. Then maybe they can walk their son and his lover down the isle. Maybe they can witness whats really going on, love. Pure and simple.

Leaving London

My milk is spoiled, my frozen foods are spoiled and my coffee is mostly Baileys. That pretty much says it all.

Life's been crazy, with only four weeks left of my London journey I'm in world of hurry. I spent last weekend with HR2 in her home town of Burnley which is somewhere out of Manchester. Her mother put us up and cooked the most amazing breakfast foods I've ever had. All from scratch. Then her kind brother, sister-in- law and little baby nephew showed me the sights. With in one day we saw country side, ruined castle, a witches home, graveyards, a small village town and well whatever else there is in the North of England. But it was my goal this term to get out of London and see what else the UK had to offer.

Before I leave I'm going to go explore Oxford or Cambridge because apparently they make for a good day trip as well.

All of HR2's family thought it funny that GT and I are inviting her to stay with us NYC and I'd said I'll also show her my home town of Miami ,FL while she shows me around a town most people in the UK have never heard of. Everyone says she got the better deal but I'm not so sure. Having grown up and living in the flat suburban sprawl that is Florida, no that is America it was nice to see a bit of country side. I mean these village are ancient. You don't find that back home. That's something I was excited to see, something older then hundred years. They showed it to me. So now I'll show it to you!

Past Page Ten. But then what?

I began my higher education as an Undergraduate student in the world of film and screenplays. Last term as a Graduate student I jumped head first into the world of Theater and Playwriting. Having always had a deep passion for it I learned a lot and became hella inspired. This term however I seem to be straddling the two worlds of Film/TV and Theater. Even though I escaped to England in order to discover the world of writing for the wooden boards, life seems to be pulling me back into the screen and taking me one step further from the stage.

While we are meant to be concentrating this term on our chosen major interest I find myself torn. Our lecturer's on television writing are being bogged down into several short lessons culminating into a three page pitch for our own original TV series.

Something I never thought of doing until I've just been forced to is write for TV. Don't get me wrong- I love the stuff - but to create it? It seems for some reason never to of accrued to me to even try. And all the sudden I realized some of the scripts I've written - that just seemed to be missing something - turns out that something was just a smaller screen! Excited and flooded with ides (I know will never leave my page) I'm motivated into a new direction.

But lets me honest here, it doesn't take much to get me off on a tangent. Does it? Inspiration comes at the flick of a finger to me. It's the ADD probably but while I'm meant to figure out what my thesis play will be I've lost myself in older plays I'm still working on and can't seem to let go. It's no help having this new toy of 'writing for TV' and the never ending stream of scripts I have to read and report on in my new internship blocking my thought process.

Being as busy as I am I've plum forgot to say! I've started an internship at a literary agency in the heart of Camden Town. I work for the (what else) TV&Film department. Unlike some internships in the past (hell even full on salaried jobs) I'm actually enjoying myself and the work! I get handed a script - read and report. One after the other. I mean it's not anything new for me, only I get to sit in an office and do it in the hours in which people work. For some reason that makes it that much more comfortable. Don't get me wrong it's not easy to always give a report on a script, what it's essence is and then give advice on whether it hits the mark or not because there is a writer behind every submission.

A writer like me and I know what it's like to be rejected over and over again (which always makes that one acceptance so much sweeter. Doesn't it?) So unlike other readers who give you up until page ten to make it or break it, I give the benefit of the doubt and continue on because sometimes it's page 11 that's genius and for others it may be brilliant up until page 11 (which I found out recently - because I read on). If talent can be found among the ramble then I'll try and find it.

SO what does all this mean? I came to London to hone my playwriting skills but on top of it I ended up falling in love with TV/Film all over again and perhaps found a new passion for scripts themselves. Not just mine, I mean others. Finding talent and saying 'wow nice job' (I wish I wrote that) or 'there just may be something there - it's just not fully discovered yet. But keep at it.'- But I could say that to myself, couldn't I? A future - a goal? It's there murking about but I don't think I've pin pointed it just yet, which leaves my own script a bit open ended. And who the hell is gonna write that? If only there were dramagturge's and script editors giving reports on your life and handing out helpful suggestions for improving character journeys.

Brighton Beach Memoirs

I set the task to explore the worlds outside of London this term and so far it's being carried out.

Yesterday was spent in Brighton. This short hop and a skip form London brings you to the English sea side. The beaches covered in pebbles, striped wooden foldout chairs one would see in classic post cards of the early part of the last century where being stacked away. Missing were the beach huts and long striped swim suites. Replaced by hen and stag parties wearing low rider jeans. The Pier was what you would expect, loads of yummy fatty foods like homemade donuts, ice cream and shell fish stands. A few rides to the back and an arcade. But I didn't spend long on the Pier.

Saturday night HR2 and I headed over to V's for a slumber party. The three of us gobbled down pizza, drank wine, watched some telly and passed out. It was a nice change of pace. It also allowed me to travel to Essex. A bit of country air.

The next morning V's boyfriend W drove us to Brighton. We of course got into some heavy traffic. It's a three day weekend this week and there was a large festival happened in Brighton so of course the world was headed there as well.

We made it just in time to see the play Mojo at a small community theater where one of our class mates works with. The bad thing about it was I've never been to Brighton, it was a beautiful day out and I had to spend the first 2.5 hours of it in a darken room watching a play I didn't really like. I know that's why we went down there but still! Matinees on a beautiful Sunday should be illegal. I'm just saying.

After I went with V and W to drop of their car. We drove around lost for a bit which was fun because it allowed me to see more. It kind of looks like San Francisco. That would be the best comparison in America I can think of, or that I've been too.

After W told V and I to walk back and he'll continue to find parking. So we wandered by the Pier for a quick spin and then off to meet everyone back in the Pub. We ate and drank the day and night away. I had a beef Sunday roast to add to my English experience. Unfortunately I was so stuffed I couldn't drink anymore wine either. (We started our drinking at 2.30 I think.) SO when everyone was properly drunk and I was just tired and full HR2 and I took the last train back to the city where we then parted ways. I found my way back to the dorms and fell into a nice relaxed deep sleep.

Sorry in retelling it I've made it all seem soooo boring but it wasn't. It was a pleasant day trip out of the city. Nothing wacky happened, no fights in streets or anything like that just peaceful. Sometimes it's nice to be able to say I just enjoyed a day.

(Next weekend I head out to the real country with my friend HR2 to visit her family but all
ready I forgot where that is?)

BLAH All around

The weather has been classic London Three seasons in one day style and it's making me nuts.

Yesterday I used the gym as an excuse to leave the tiny cell I live in. So when I left it was a bit muggy out but nothing to write home about. Then as I was walking to the gym it began to pour on me. I mean when I stepped into the gym I looked like I had just stepped out of the shower, with all my clothes and sneakers on. Then of course when I left it was as if the sky had never heard of rain. I took of my soggy layer of sweats and wandered about in my running pants and t-shirt.

I'm looking outside now and it looks beautiful but I don't trust it. If I do go out it will be in full rain/winter/ gear. If I go out. A few of us were supposed to see a show in Southampton called Delirium but it got cancelled because an actor was sick or hurt. SO now plans are up in the air. Which is fine but I've been in this room for two days and need to get out. Badly!

I should be doing my homework. We have to write a three page pitch for an original TV show and develop one character enough to Hot Seat it in class on Weds but I'm in no mood to do this. I don't even think my idea is that strong. Mainly because I made it up on the spot when we had to pitch them last wed in class. I'm having a real lack of want this term. All I ever want to do is sleep or eat nothing else. Not much of a driving force in that. Perhaps when my work experience starts next Tues I'll find myself wanting to write more, tired of the office work. Lets hope so or this will be a long six weeks.

Thesis Anyone?

No more stalling! Off to write my paragraph for my thesis proposal. Oy! Lear! Oh Lear! I'm not sure you helped me much my dear. I'm thinking something with THREE SISTERS on stage? Like Checkov's, Tracy's, Samuels, Wasserstein, Shakespeare? OR Maybe branch out to siblings? Add a bit of brother/brother action and include LaBute, Shepard, Penhall, Pinter? But why stop there?! Add the Bother/ Sister and you have some more Shepard, Rapp oh but maybe some Mother / Daughter battle which includes Norman, Tracy, McDonagh, oh no! I must stop and pick one! But what am I picking exactly? --- and scene.

Nice job but a little too much on the manic side. Next time reel it in a bit love.

Seriously, I need too! That was my thinking this week when I had to turn in my thesis proposal. Well I had to pitch it really but we ran out of time in class so A the Italian and I had to go to the pub with our Tutor to get our pitches done. A's doing something with political satire, because she's Italian and I'm doing the messed up family lot because I'm American?

So when you and your Tutor are both drinking a glass of red the pitch sounds way more interesting then it really is. Funny how these things work out. But not funny ha ha because it's not done. She likes the concept but says to pick one and stick with it. Whichever one I'm most interested in. It has to be something I want to discover. What do I want to discover? More importantly what do I want to discover that will fill several thousand words? Oh theater Gods send me a sign!