The View Up Here

I really dislike winter. Well, to be more accurate, I dislike the long, cold, damp of winter in the Northeast. Specifically, in Western New York. Winter in Salt Lake was cold but dry, so it was tolerable. Winter here - and the scary thing is we haven't even begun, really, with all these warm temps in the 50s and 60s - is going be a bear. Since I can't change the weather, I need to change my 'tude. I also need to recognize that I can take better care of myself in winter. Maybe you have similar problems with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) aka "the winter blues." Of course, exercise is one key way of being healthier in winter, but for many of us, it's not enough. Here are some ways to make the best of things this winter: Find beautiful places to go for a walk. Maybe it's close by your home, maybe you have to drive to get there. But seeing the beauty in wintry nature on a sunny (if cold) day will do much to lift your spirits. Take soothing hot ...

(how weird that I just did a M*A*S*H* up a few days ago)

Once again, yesterday and today have melded together in such a way that I thought I'd already posted. What's up with that? I'm writing this while watching M*A*S*H*, somewhere around first or second season. Frank Burns is trying to burn books in preparation for Gen. MacArthur's visit to the 4077th. My husband and I constantly bicker about the relative merits of the film vs. the sitcom. The film counts up in my top 10, but I also appreciate the sitcom, especially in the earlier seasons, before it became too silly. This reminds me that last year, my husband and I drove to Rochester to see M*A*S*H at the Dryden Theatre, a fundraising event hosted by Elliott Gould (who was clearly phoning it in for the Rochester Jewish Community Center). It was great fun watching it with a hep audience. Mr. Gould sat just a few seats behind us up in the balcony. Oh, and whe n I was an undergrad, Larry Linville was on the college circuit and came to speak with his reels of favorite momen...

Last week I started watching Babylon 5 via Netflix, because I'd never seen the series and I hear tell they're gonna do a reboot a la Star Trek. So finally I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I'm through the first three disks (still first season), and so far I am enjoying it, despite the cheesy 90s aesthetic and computer animation from back in the day. I'm looking forward to the Bruce Boxleitner episodes. Oh, and I haven't actually read that Wikipedia link because I'm avoiding spoilers, which can be difficult fifteen years after the fact. I can see why it was lauded as better than Star Trek: Deep Space 9 at the time. I did watch DS9, actually, and dug the the intrigue and inter-species complications and politics. Recently a friend of mine said he watched DS9 beginning to end and found it holds up over time. Funny how these shows from the 90s hold up over time. What sci fi TV will people remember and order on Netflix in another five years? Fire...

No, I'm not talking about husbands. Our old TV went kablooey a few weeks ago, and we'd been using the tiny one that normally resides in my husband's office. Tonight he brought home a Sony Trinitron TV for $45 from the Fingerlakes Reuse store. This is the same store from which I bought a netbook for $200. Suhweeeet. I am so thankful for this place. Not only is it easy on the purse, it helps us keep our goods in service rather than chucking them into a landfill or by the side of the interstate. It's great to watch DVDs on a screen bigger than my head and with stereo sound. This will help the next month and a half pass quicker.

My return from Korea was less painful than previous bouts with jet lag and reverse culture shock. I've spent the last week and a half recovering, figuring, writing, reading, and sleeping. I go back to work at TC3 next week, and the week after that my class at I.C. will start up. This semester's schedule promises to be more sane than last semester's, allowing me to devote more time to writing (and also derby!). A few reflections, in no particular order: 1. Characters or at least their desires need to be in jeopardy. Always. 2. Conflict means nothing without connection. It's the tension between those two opposites, the yin and yang of them, that makes good drama. 3. Meditation helps me to write better; it's great practice for focusing. 4. TV writing is like breathing air on another planet. I think I like it, though. 5. Writing excellent scifi or speculative fiction requires more than creative thinking. It requires research.

Even though writing retreat has been over since Sunday, I've managed to continue some of that momentum. Just finished the last bit of revision on "Beauty Is...," along with the log-line, and sent it off to my manager. It might be a bit off-beat for them, but I think she'll at least have some good feedback for me. I've started working on the next few projects, and have made some decisions for Korea DreamBus as far as structure is concerned. This is a major development, because I've been struggling and going all wishy-washy on how to push that baby out into the world. Not feeling terribly well, though. Headache and general woozeyness. Tomorrow I'm back to work, and by end of next week, the semesters at I.C. and TC3 will be in full swing, so I better be ready! Last night I watched (on-line) the pilot of " Spartacus: Blood and Sand ," a STARZ production. It's "300" meets "Gladiator," Exec. Produced by a handful of people incl...

I know, I know, I'm late to the party once again. Madmen , amc 's smash hit drama, has been on for three seasons and I just finished watching the first season on DVD. I am riveted by the writing, the themes that are woven so thoroughly and tightly, the characters who make you love and hate them at the same time. As I told my husband somewhere in the middle of Disk 3, "This is everything 'Revolutionary Road' tried to be and failed miserably at." I have long held a fascination with the 50s/early 60s in America. In fact, I'm writing a screenplay that takes place in 1953, with some of the same themes as Madmen, but with a much younger set of characters in a very different set of circumstances. In contrast to the grim 1960 snapshot of the relationships between men and women at home and at work, my script leaves the reader with a reminder that things have improved since the age of women-as-mannequins to be dressed, used, and discarded as whims of men. Gettin...

This season of Leverage is gaining momentum. I admit to being slightly disappointed at the season opener, but since then the eps have been strong - funny, twisty, totally entertaining. Will Wheaton's appearance was priceless. Between Leverage and other shows like Burn Notice, I am hopeful that the kind of writing I aspire to actually has legs in the current TV market. That is to say - quirky, personal, fast, funny but with heart. I still feel like I need to spend some time in L.A. but I am still clueless as to how to make that happen with the Ithaca home base. Ideas? I am trying to get a writing retreat set up for Thanksgiving break, as we will not be traveling, thank the gods. Too many projects on tap during the busiest semester in years. But I like it. Oh yes, I like being too busy for my own good.

The impact of this week's immense losses to pop culture and media gluttony has yet to be revealed. I am especially saddened by Farrah's untimely passing. As girls, my best friend and I would play "Charlie's Angels," and Farrah was beyond any level of our imagined attainment. When other blonde TV actresses in the 60s-70s-80s were playing the ditzy bimbo (Suzanne Sommers, Goldie Hawn - don't get me wrong I love Goldie but c'mon), Farrah quit "Charlie's Angels" and did "The Burning Bed." Her fight, her spirit, her work are to be commended. Michael Jackson. King of Pop. Pedophile. I'm sick of the glorification of his personal life. The man was mentally ill and could've used some help while he was alive. Let's hope and pray someone helps his three kids. Ed McMahon was a class act on the Tonight Show, though I have no idea of the man as a human being. He left late night a legacy every bit as much as Johnny did. As a Buddhis...

I just spent a glorious six days devoted to my writing at the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts artist colony . I completed a final draft of "Beauty Is..." (see log line below*). Also worked on the sci fi screenplay that is just about done, and started in earnest writing a TV pilot. Other than that, I went for walks in the woods, hung out with turkey vultures and deer, and did Yoga. Now it's back to the semester's work: grading mid-term portfolios. Here's to life! Beauty Is... In a small Connecticut town in 1953, a 16-year-old tomboy is forced to go to “finishing school” for the summer, where she encounters a mysterious club of feminine vigilantes who frame her mother for stealing the town’s precious historical silver. This summer, she must stop the vigilantes, clear her mother’s name, and learn how to walk in heels. * Registered with WGA 2008

I'm excited to start 2009 with a TV spec script that I developed over the last month. I'll have a few days at the Constance Saltontall Foundation for the Arts colony in a couple weeks to get started on that script. I also plan to finish a solid first draft of "Beauty Is..." my coming-of-age mystery set in 1953. I'm stoked to be teaching 2 sections of Advanced Screenwriting at Ithaca College, and one section of Short Narrative Fiction (screenwriting) at Tompkins Cortland Community College. I'm hoping this will the beginning of a fruitful relationship with TC3 as they grow their screenwriting program. I have relocated my home office into a much more suitable space for yours truly, leaving my husband with the spare room for his office. It's much warmer out here, for one thing, and the chi just seems to be more conducive to my creative dedication. Recently, I reconnected with one of my college roommates, who lives not so far from Ithaca. She told me the othe...