Sigh…
(note: this e-mail was sent to me as part of a mass group, the contents are not private, and the name is only blocked because there is no reason to make this private person into a public one over my use of the e-mail to express ennui.)
April 19, 2024
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
And another one bites the dust.
I thought this had been announced a long time ago?
You’re like a teacher teaching intelligent creation in the summertime, J-Mc.
Nooooooooo subtlety.
(point of reference: Fat Albert)
Sometimes, DP, I forget this blog is actually a diary. Yes, I got your point, but I thought it might be something else.
I prefer Fat Abbot.
You don’t have to get offense as a form of defense, J-Mc.
There is a difference between anticipating a death and the day the body gets cold. Sorry that confused you.
So…you’re three days early.
(I apologize for my intentional rhetorical obtuseness, but seriously: who sends out an email like this? I’d be equally confused if it read “Hello. As of Friday Oct. 3 there will be 81 days until Christmas.”)
Can you pleaase stop putting commas at the end of sentences before the persons name? If you put a name at the top of the sentence, you’re addressing the person, so you set it off with a comma, but at the end, a comma signifies who the message is from, so there’s no need for a comma the way you’re using it.
T. Holly, that is absolutely incorrect.
The direct-address comma rule applies wherever the address occurs in a sentence.
“I was talking to you T. Holly,” for example, which is what you seem to be suggesting, is WRONG.
As is ending a letter or post with: “That’s all I have to say about that, LexG.” That means I am addressing LexG, not that I am signing off.
Three degrees!
That’s right,,,,,,,,,, Jeff.
Thanks for recognizing.
(I actually think T. Holly has piped up with this before, and I schooled him then, too. Of course he ignored it.)
Jesus Christ. SHRUNK AND WHITE, BITCH.
Same difference here: If you like, we can talk about it. We can talk about it if you like.
T. Holly, please learn something:
http://editfast.com/english/grammar/commas/commas_hey_you.htm
Lex, T. Holly is (a) female, and (b) not a native-born English speaker (correct me if I’m wrong).
WHOA, IS SHE HOT?
GET ON FACEBOOK OR IM ME AT YAHOO.
ROCK ON.
Yes, there would have to action before the name to be a sign off. Minor phrases shouldn’t be set off by commas though in modern editing.
They can be.
The comma is totally expendable in this case, a relic from times of old. Get with the new, Lex. Maybe it’s the habits of editors coming out here but hey, if you can find a reason to eliminate a pause in the flow of a sentence I say go for it.
Maybe it’s because I have an English degree, but I’m with Lex on this one. Such “relics” serve a purpose. Some pauses shouldn’t be eliminated. To take one of Lex’s examples: “That’s all I have to say about that, LexG.” The comma makes it clear that Lex is being addressed. Without the comma, it would mean the writer has said all he has to say about Lex (“that LexG”).
Commas are notoriously difficult for lots of people, and I understand the impulse to just throw up your hands and say “f” it. I’ve read lots of stories and scripts by wannabes who randomly insert commas every five words or so in hopes of getting it right some percentage of the time. And others use none at all. Read a few dozen consecutive run-on sentences and see if you don’t think commas are our friends.
Kris, that’s the same thinking that in movies suggests that every film should be paced faster, faster, faster. Which is nice when it drops out redundant material, less nice when it means abandoning intelligibility and meaningful interludes and reflection.
This is one of those ‘slow erosion of standards’ things as far as I’m concerned.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/11/03/
Comma use in screenwriting is a real mo fo. Some will say they should only be included when the speaker is intended to pause, so a lot of normally correct grammatical uses would be eliminated. Although, as some of the examples brought up here would suggest, deletion of some commas could cause confusion and change of meaning by how the line is delivered.
“Ya see all you have to do is get an idea and write it down on paper and then hire someone one else to put in the commas and shit. I’ve seen scripts that had words I known were misspelled and hardly had any commas in there at all”