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 »

Please Don’t Take My Picture

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Jun 012011

I have a thing about having my picture taken. It’s not quite a Sean Penn level of loathing, where the fists fly as soon as an unwelcome shutter closes, but it’s close enough to be discomforting for others who don’t get what all the fuss is about. It started in my late teens, a period where my self-confidence was at an all-time low, and there was little about myself that made me happy in the presence of others. This is isn’t to say I was shy or reserved — I was quite the opposite, in fact — but the personality I had acquired at that age had very little to do with what I felt was the “real” me, and more with what I thought people expected me to be. Unfortunately, these assumptions were so far from the truth — more shoebox shorthand than genuine understanding — that I quickly came to loathe living up to expectations. I felt something like an actor on somebody else’s stage; a performer expected to realize some mystery director’s vision, and who despised the character he was expected to perform (like Leslie Howard in Gone With the Wind). 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

Biographical Stuff, Writing Stuff 2 Responses »

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 »

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