Let's get it going, Google Earth. I wanna know if my lines this year are as more-straight-than-ever as I think they are.
sorta kinda like me. Except one appears to be an honest-to-goodness farmer, and the other appears to actually have something to do with/in Hollywood.
Plowing time came early this year. AgriCrap Incraperated and millions of genetically-modified-corn-fed farting cows may or may not have something to do with it. Meanwhile. as the world cooks, I'm writing another screenplay. Someone may care someday. On the other hand, I can't think of a better excuse for never getting around to finishing a screenplay than the end of the world.
And out. But down and out? As in down for the count? Who knows.
Can't say it doesn't make sense. Why pay for "High School Musical: China" when China likes "High School Musical" just fine?
It only took a toe in the water out there to (re-)learn that it's not about who you know, it's about who you've known. And the new Disney head Rick Ross has known Sean Bailey, the guy who's right now sitting in what probably should have been our man's chair, for years.
Should've, that is, if Hollywood -- if people -- valued talent, intelligence, and experience over their old familiar relationships. Which they don't. And maybe can't. And maybe for the best. Community is not only how things happen, it's how humanity survives. The perfect is the enemy of the done.
I'll let (the two of) you know if I run into him up there on the hill. It would be a good move, I think, for a lot of reasons... one of which is that people around here are the people who have known him. But then that could also be a reason for staying as far away as ever.
UPDATE: Our man down? NOT SO MUCH. He got 1.5 years severance pay/insurance plus an office for 6 months "off-campus." Time to make his long-postponed dream-projects come true. Or maybe just massive-money-making projects in which he gets to keep (most of) the money. Plus some big agricultural endeavor? Go go original Hollywood Farmer. Let me know if you ever have any shit that needs shoveling.
UPDATE to UPDATE: Shit? Not so much. Spam, maybe. But sustainable ag needs initiatives like this too.
The Victory Garden continues to make its way back into the re-awakening popular consciousness.
Because WHO KNOWS what else AgriCorp's food is doing to us??
UPDATE: Think I might finally have come up with a script that's "out there" enough to get passed around as a calling card. My neighbor who got his start with The Farrelly Brothers inspired me to push the limit here. Maybe he'll find the time to read this one.
UPDATE to the UPDATE: I'm coming to the conclusion that hardly anyone has time for anyone else. Huzzah for my belated entrance into the real world.
From FishbowlLA:
According to The Right to Breathe, a 21-minute documentary that premiered earlier this week in Santa Monica, approximately 5,000 people die prematurely each year in Southern California because of air pollution. The health risks are even higher for those residing in or near the so-called “Diesel Death Zone,” an area bordered by the 405 freeway, the Port of Los Angeles and a railway line. Director Alexandre Phillipe tells The Lookout that it was no fun filming there:Phillipe said he felt the effects of the pollution almost immediately. “Within 30 minutes, I literally started hurting. I could taste” the pollution, he said. It made him think about the people who live in the area–mostly low-income families or older people.
Here's the map that apparently nobody's editor wanted included in any story about this blight, probably for fear of drawing the ire of anybody concerned with the fate of all properties thereabouts:
for a few months. We'll see who I run into. And what I can come up with. So far, my scripts have found no purchase. I choose not to take this the worst way possible. It's a difficult choice for me.
Been doing a lot of East-West bi-locating along the way. Managed to catch the stage debut of my twins Mary and Joan my future-guest-star Clare. And to set up the pool, this year with an even-better salt-to-chlorine machine.
The Hollywood Farmer. Still unsustainable. And loving/hating it.
It's hilarious even if you don't know the original. Which I will not pay $1.29 on iTunes to see. But those who have seen it say that it's even funnier if you have.
When I get back to the farm, I'll start posting about farming again. Meantime I continue to waste time while waiting, as opposed to, you know, doing anything productive.
Well, that's not quite true. I did write, but of course did not finish, this recently. And filmed this. And this. That might count as doing something. I also drew a few breaths. And took up a whole lot of space around the house where I'm currently freeloading.
Meanwhile, there are a lot of small farms (70,000) in California. But they're in decline. This could be a whole new cause for the wife and me, taking up a new battlefront against the invasion of Planet Eaarth. If I could get work here, that is.
Meanwhile, back east, an interesting development in one of the most important battlefronts in the aforementioned struggle: urban farming. Any thoughts, LA? Reactions? Acting is reacting, after all.
likes this.
And not just because someone from their production office was nice enough to get back to me.
Passing time between meetings with something happy.
It's taking me back to my own college (OK, grad school) days. When TMBG still used an accordion.
The winter defenses I set up the before the drive to LA (e.g., greenhouse button-up, wood-pile tarp, ice-dam-preventing-roof-heating-cable) have held up well.
The snowplow attachment on the Troy-Bilt works great too.
Exclusive bonus video from mindFLUX: Dafoe on Foreman from mindFLUX on Vimeo.
"MindFLUX" explores the life, work and impact of critically acclaimed experimental playwright, director, and designer Richard Foreman. After founding the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in 1968 Mr. Foreman soon became recognized as one of our most important avant-garde experimental artists. Foreman has written, directed and designed over 30 of his own plays and his international recognition include nine OBIE awards, a MacArthur Fellowship, Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France and the NEA’s “Distinguished Artist Fellowship for Lifetime Achievement in Theatre”. The film features interviews with numerous Hollywood notables who have worked with Foreman, among which are Willem Dafoe, Yoko Ono, and Lou Reed.
"MindFLUX"'s inspirational themes are driven through Foreman's own journey and the lens of prominent colleagues and cultural warriors interviewed exclusively by Ride5 in New York, Los Angeles, London and Paris. New footage is supplemented by previously unreleased material Mr. Foreman generously provided. The film’s story is shown using Ride5’s innovative visual style--fast paced cuts, animation, high-end motion graphics and integrated media techniques."
is in Hollywood.
Actually he's closer to the PCH right now.
He's working on a very cool project out here. And still working on that pilot. And calling home about his greenhouse.
What is he doing here, you ask? Because it's about time that The Hollywood Farmer started living up to his oxymoronic moniker.
Actually, it's because he's desperate for work. And like the man talking to his Jewish mother on the phone in the CVS in the Palisades said, "No, Mom. If I want to work in this business, I have to be here. There are no shows in New York." (What about Ugly Betty? Cancelled, Mom. In January.)
Hello again. I'm the Hollywood Farmer. Still not sustainable after all these years.
Anybody else feel like the weather forecast is a crap-shoot anymore?
Wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that "10% chance of rain" means that in the past on only one day in ten under the given conditions did it rain which in turn depends on the future being like the past which in turn depends upon the CLIMATE NOT CHANGING.
Contra-indications welcome. Because although it's my theory, and I made it up, and it belongs to me, G*D DAMN IT.
