September 24, 2021

I sent my screenplay to the director yesterday and immediately slept for three hours. I had semi-waking dreams about RHLSTP and lyra. 

Going to take the day off from script writing and instead catch up on my Mlog/Blog. 

Blog time! 

**SPOILERS**

Scalzi, John – OLD MAN’S WAR

Published: 2005

Read: 9/2021

Americans on Earth are kept mostly in the dark about the universe, its numerous aliens, and the technology developed (read: stolen) by the Colonial Defense Forces. The only way to see the universe is to join up on your 75th birthday and spend two to ten years defending the colonies. Due to quarantining issues, people who have joined can never return to Earth. These old people join the military because the CDF can make them young again. They transfer your consciousness into a modified young clone of yourself. The battles are brutal and imperial. The main character, John Perry, finds himself naturally capable at being a soldier. He survives a particularly bad ambush, meets the Ghost Brigade, including his dead wife, and is promoted to Captain. 

I keep reading Scalzi because his concepts are interesting and his work is fast and accessible. I like it but I definitely don’t love it. After the recruits get their young new bodies, there’s a detailed sex scene that made me gag. Like Rocky Flintstone-level bad. There’s also a jocular humor throughout that I don’t connect with. The tone is a little too pleased with itself. No harm in reading Scalzi’s stuff, but I should remind myself that, although it takes limited investment, it also offers me limited reward. 

Rating: ★★★

Before I go on to the Mlog part. My neighbor who talks a lot came over the other day. He was saying how the definition of being clutch, in sports, is basically the ability to work as you always work under pressure. To be yourself, to bring your game, no matter the circumstances. I think there's a way to be like that in writing too. And I think I accomplished it with my screenplay. I don't know if it's ultimately going to be good enough to sell and be made into a movie, but I was able to bring to it all of my abilities. I was clutch in that sense. It also reminds me that my neighbor can have some insights some of the time. An infinite number of chimps typing on typewriters and all. :) 

MLog Time! 

**SPOILERS**

NASHVILLE

1975

Directed by: Robert Altman

Written by: Joan Tewkesbury 

Watched: 9/23/21

This film is largely about people making it, or trying to make it, in the music business in Nashville. There are a bunch of different characters and storylines. A man’s wife is in the hospital. His niece from California is staying with them, but she can’t be bothered to visit her aunt. (We also learn later that this couple lost a son in WWII.) On the same floor as them is a country music star who’s had mental breakdowns. Her manager/husband deals with her somewhat roughly and pushes her to get back out on stage. We learn that she’s been singing professionally since she was ten years old. There’s a rock trio made up of a husband and wife and another man. The wife is sleeping with the other man and is in love with him. That other man is sleeping with a lot more women including the soloist in a black Baptist choir, who’s married and has two deaf sons. He seems to love her. A woman who works at a diner wants to be a professional singer but she can’t carry a beat and is tone deaf. She’s very sexy though, so she manages to get gigs. A woman from the BBC is running around trying to interview people and make a documentary. A soldier is trying to see the sick singer as much as he can because his mother loved her music. A woman is running away from her husband, trying to make it as a singing star. A populist political candidate is running for election on a replacement ticket. His van drives around broadcasting recorded speeches via megaphone throughout the whole movie. The movie culminates with a rally for the political candidate. The sick singer gets shot onstage. The soldier who’s there to watch her steps in. As she’s carried off, one of the other famous singers (who’s been shot in the arm) insists that everybody keep singing. “This isn’t Dallas. This is Nashville.” The woman who’s been running from her husband takes the mic, and she’s actually really good. The black gospel choir backs her up and the crowd all sings along.  

The movie is long and all over the place. I was a bit fatigued after the first hour or so, but somewhere in the second half I was able to settle into it. A lot of the musical performances are actually very good, and I think that helped. It reminded me of seeing shows in Branson, Missouri on family vacations growing up. My dad especially has always loved lived country western music. The shooting came out of nowhere – except earlier one of the characters goes on and on about how much she loved JFK, and she describes her reaction to the assassination in detail – but the response to the shooting was perfectly set up. A lot of it reminded me of being in Hollywood. People are desperate to make it. Talent. No talent. Delusion. Exploitation. Adulation. Transcendence. 

Rating: ★★★1/2