W2 - Wendy to the Second Power

MERLIN is being promoted as the BBC England's first attempt at exporting a TV series for American audiences. I applaud that they use the British historical fantasy and re-tell it, in the story of Camelot and the Round Table. Only in this story, King Uther lives, at least long enough to browbeat his teenage son Arthur. And Merlin is not an old wise man who teaches Arthur, but his same age. Merlin is being tutored by (Richard King as) Gauis, the King's herbalist, but they have to keep the fact he knows magic on the down low. King Uther has forbidden magic in Camelot, on pain of death!

Which is part of the problem with the plotting on this series so far. Every episode has the same arc, the same problem. Poor Anthony Head, his King Uther character serves no other purpose except to be mule-headed and cause plot problems. He behaves like a spoiled nut, just so our main characters can have obstacles to overcome. Must every story have Uther say, "Take him to the dungeon! No magic allowed here!"? Must every story have Arthur, a spoiled teenager but good fighter, be pimped out for death by his own father? There's also a lot of people saying "okay" and "that's gotta hurt" and other modern slang. They also have the rules of chivalry and the knights, but it's not something Arthur created to fix the abuses of the upper classes who believed "might makes right." It's just used as a convenient plot problem when someone (Launcelot, last week for example) needs to be frozen out.

I do like cute little Colin Morgan as Merlin with his delicious dimples. And how fun to have a Guinevere who's a ladies maid with a crush on Merlin. Plus she's played by someone who appears to be a Maori actress!

I'll watch one more episode, but if it keeps being these lame-o stories, it's a waste of my time.

I think they said this is on Lake Harriet, a big park and lake near Minneapolis. Somebody covertly made and installed a statue of the Loch Ness Monster. Supposedly an artist who does this type of creature work just moved there from NYC, so that's the best guest. For some reason, somebody (the same somebody?) has created a Website for the statue.

I won't publsh the photo since I don't have rights, but a guy I know from my Fortean list took a series of photos. That's his (c)-- D.R. Shoop. Go see, go see!

http://www.darkwatercreativegroup.com/nessieC.jpg

It's the kind of crazy hot day that makes me glad I have several creative projects so need to stay in!

But first, I had to get some socialization out of the way, so I just met with my progressive (as in, politics) ladies for lunch at the newest Madam Maam's. They turned the Shanghai River place at The Village (where goulo made me eat too many times because it had a vegetarian buffet and was steps from the Alamo Drafthouse) into the more upscale and tastier MM's.

Speaking of the letter M, also at the lunch was my friend MimiM, whom I had lost touch with. I saw her at a lunch months ago, but this time we talked for a long time. She's in line for a PR job in a FEMA deployment. My buddy NancyM also does those FEMA assignments, and loves them. Feels like she's making the nation a better place, helping her fellow man, and getting to live away from Austin for awhile.

Ever since a Chicago Chinese dinner four years ago, I've been questing for a place that makes Egg Fu Yung. Yeah, yeah, I understand it's a "fake" regional dish that was mocked up for American palates. But the dish in the Chicago place was killer. I've been so disappointed when I asked around Austin; nobody here did it and they made a face that I even asked.

Imagine my surprise when I see that Madam Maam's has a "Thai omelette" made with eggs, crispy noodles, onions, pork, etc. Mmmmmmmmm (to belabor the M), it was a wonderful comparison to the Chicago dish. Not the same, but equally as good. Everybody's meals looked yummy -- and HUGE! Tons o' food!

Then leaving the restaurant at 1:30, I melted from the sun frying everything. OMG. But I'm buying an assortment of gifts for Leslie's b'day. The theme: body care products. (She's been on a strict diet and cleansing for 14 months.) I still had shopping to do, including a sweaty hike through The Domain. But I got various fun and cool (and, in the case of Origins, $$$) gifts. The big gift is a spa detox wrap session at the gym we both go to.

Oh, and I found vetiver and cedar soap (French-made) for myself while shopping. The spicy, woody scent of vetiver sends me into a hypnotic state. So....

Shopping WIN

Deodorant FAIL

http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/02/beck-guest-calls-for-osama-bin-laden-to-bomb-america/

I meant to post about this last week, when the crazy ex-CIA guy said it and Jon Stewart broadcast it, with some pithy remarks:

Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer told Fox News’ Glenn Beck Tuesday night, “The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.”

And also, Glenn Beck (an awful commentator hoping to be crowned Prince Limbaugh), just nodded sagely. No, "whaaaa?!" No, "but sir, this is your country!" Just nodded, as if to say our administration totally deserves that.

It's timely because we've been seeing this particular video played and replayed lately, RIP MJ, so her imitations of it are recognizable -- and priceless!

Ooh, one of the guys who took the Michael Hauge Story Mastery workshop with me found a good page on Mike's site that lays out his screenplay structure and gives examples from good scripts.

http://www.screenplaymastery.com/structure.htm

Love it, love it that Al Franken won the seat of a cranky, grasping old Republican senator from Minnesota. Hate it that the guy fought him forever, using the big money coffers of the Repugnant Party to pay the legal fees. Love it that the courts upheld the win, the recount proved the win, and Franken now gets to go to Washington.

Boy, but I wish I'd saved a book I got for Christmas years ago. "Stuart Smalley: I'm Good Enough..." It was the first printing, and I bet it'll be worth some bucks some day! Instead, I sold it to Half-Price Books.

But who could've guessed??

So this morning I rendezvoused with NC, who is a long-time water baby, and went with her to her special nook at City Park, aka Emma Long Metro Park. This is a 10-15 mimute drive out of Austin where you can find balmy breezes and chilly lake water despite the 100+ degree days. I hadn't been swimming since the fun at Julie's lake last June, so it was nice! Crowded with hotdogging boaters and jet skis, but refreshing water and a sandy shoal.

My goal was to get some sun, albeit under layers of SPC 30 sun block, and get used to my snorkel gear. I did successfully get sun (we were out from 11am to 2:30 pm, but I was reading in the shady grass when I wasn't in the water) and yet didn't get a burn. Perfect! And then NC had to talk me through my strong claustrophobic aversion to putting on a dive mask and breathing through a snorkel. Even though my mask has prescription lenses so I can see, oooh, I hate that stuff all up and around my face. I got to the point where I was floating, paddling, face down, breathing (panting!) through the snorkel. I realize it's all in my head, and am counting on what the trainers say, that you get used to the mouth breathing and mask after about 5 minutes. The Lake Austin water was green and murky, but when I get to Hawaii in August, I'm planning to get lots of time looking at tropical fish and reefs.

Tonight it's a monthly Dream Study meeting, so I'll get my spiritual fix from that. Tomorrow is mostly about novel writing and reading screenplays down at Austin Film Festival. Plus deciding Y/N on going downtown with friends for the fireworks. It's hot hot hot here, so that's hard to get enthusiasm for...

Man, the screenwriter and story mastery workshop with Michael Hauge went off wonderfully this weekend. He can really cram a lot of education into a single day! The members of the Austin Screenwriters Group really need a hardcore course in structure, too. It's where everybody sort of flails around...

Even me! I'd assumed that my many scripts and many workshops, and, heck, teaching story structure in informal classes for UT, would make me pretty experienced. But nope. When we who'd submitted our story descriptions and first scenes got discussed during class time, I had 10 minutes of explaining and justifying, and it didn't fix my main problem.

NOW I discover a screenplay really needs a finish line/final goal. Not to achieve a final (good) state, but an actual Something. I'd had that in my 2nd screenplay (THE CUNNING MAN) that did so well in Nicholl's and other contests. But I realize now it's not that final oomph thing in many of my other scripts. Dang. So I'm working on it, and Mike was nice enough to read another pass at my story template when I took him back to the airport yesterday.

Another wonderful event this weekend was going to the home of Peggy Schatz in Spicewood for the informal potluck party with Mike Hauge. OMG, what a gorgeous home! Full of art and antigues, but with casual Texas elegance. It's landscaped and set in trees, out in the Texas Hill Country. She even has a German farmhouse they renovated as a guesthouse. That's where Mike stayed (saved us the cost of a hotel, yo). She grilled a mess of fajitas, so it was all lovely.

So for my weekend: WORKSHOP WIN! Here's Mike objecting to the camera in the room:

Screenplay consultant and best-selling author Michael Hauge is coming to Austin Saturday to do a workshop on story mastery. Know why? Because I ASKED HIM TO. I coordinate these things because I get to have very cool conversations with important Hollywood people, yo!

It's gonna be very cool to workshop with Mike again (like I did in San Diego in 2007), and it was supportive of the Austin Screenwriters' Group to let me invite Mike as an official ASG workshop.

But dang, I've been project managing my head off for this. It's a bigger deal and costs more than the events we've done in the past. So there are about a dozen people all volunteering or contributing something toward the event. Very generous of us all, since nobody (but Mike) is getting paid for any of this. But you gotta admire the spirit of cooperation that's gotten us this far!

Right now I've got 5 boxes of his books and DVDs. I went to the Oak Hill Methodist Church yesterday and viewed the room and got the key. I've sent out 15-20 emails coordinating. I've promoted to all the major writing groups in Austin. I put up the Web page onto our ASG site. I just went to HEB today and bought still water, sparkling water, coffee of all types, Diet Coke and Dr. Pepper, granola bars, etc. I'll get fresh donuts on the way to the event Saturday morning. I figure, with a price of $95/$125, we should have some drinks and snacks for the folks.

The good thing is, we needed 17-18 people to break even, and we have 30 or so. Yay! It was a gamble and it paid off financially. Now looking for the day to come and all the stuff to work out... Then Saturday evening, PeggyS is hosting a potluck BYOB social at her home for all to hang out with Mike!