Biographical Stuff » Dreams of Arcadia

Still Looking for “My Movie”

Aug 102011

[Before I go to far, let me encourage you to read two remarkable essays describing the event I'm about to discuss. Over at "The Cooler" you'll find a surprisingly moving account by Jason Bellamy here; and the ever wonderful Sheila O'Malley's (of The Sheila Variations) companion piece here. Go on, I'll wait...]

A while back, a group of my favorite film bloggers met up at a party, and, as they stood in a small circle basking in the warm glow of a love equally shared, a magical thing happened. Stephen Boone, a blogger for Capital New York, quietly posed a question that crystallized a moment in time, and focused the minds of his companions as sharply as etched and frozen glass:

“I want to know, from all of you, what movie …” he put his hand over his heart. “is your heart.” Continue reading »

The Legendary Leroy and Earl

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Apr 052011

Storytellers draw on an almost endless well of characters, some based on people they’ve encountered in real-life, others thumbnail sketches of people they’ve observed that have been provided a backstory and behaviors plucked from the teller’s imagination. The purpose of the latter is to serve as a kind of verbal shorthand for presenting characters that an audience can immediately recognize, much the same way a character actor in a film presents a “type” that viewers can immediately relate to. Continue reading »

A Meeting of Minds

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Jan 212011

The two men stood facing each other in the twilight, paused for a second, and with an exchange of wisecracks moved together to join in a firm handshake. It was the first meeting of a pair of minds joined together in the ether – hopefully the first of many – an opportunity to chew the fat over subjects both diverse and deep. The younger man had traveled far, following an extended invitation to drop in for a visit with the country squire. The squire himself had driven a shorter distance, to help the youngster find his way in the dark. It was wintertime under the mesas, and the night air shivered as it raced to replace the light from the sun. Continue reading »

Suicide Hill

Biographical Stuff, Writing Stuff 1 Response »

Sep 182010

One of the joys of being a kid is the sense of absolute freedom – where the only responsibilities you have consist of common-sensical things such as remembering to get dressed in the morning, and not setting yourself fire or consuming shards of glass throughout the course of the day. You are truly “care” free, and the concepts of fear and failure are as distant to you as the prospect of old age and a walking cane. There comes a time, however, when life begins teasing the mind with tantalizing glimpses of possibilities. A time of science at its purest, unfettered from caution, where daring discoveries are pulled from the jaws of death by the pure of heart. When the mind becomes obsessed with the boundaries between what you know, and what you imagine to be possible “with just a little extra effort.” Continue reading »

Clara Riddles

Biographical Stuff 6 Responses »

Aug 262010

To borrow a cliche, it was a day like many others…

My co-workers and I had made our usual lunchtime journey over to the CNN Center for a bite to eat and to rail at the talking heads on the giant monitors hanging over the food court. It was a sunny day – warm, but not too hot – and one of the rare occasions where things were running smoothly at the office and life seemed pretty good.

To say we are regulars at the Center would be understatement – we eat there so frequently that, “I’ll have the usual,” is an acceptable order, and our relations with the food court crews have long belonged to the Southern formal,”How’s your mom-and-them?” Continue reading »