Write?

I think Aaron Sorkin is one step away from becoming a parody of himself. And you know that's not easy for me to say, loving most of his work the way I do. It's just that first there was this Daily Beast article in which he rants defensively:

“I wrote all 45 episodes of Sports Night. I wrote the 88 episodes of The West Wing during the four years I was writing the show. I wrote 22 episodes of Studio 60,” he says, referring to the television shows he created. “I understand that’s different from other shows where the show-runner assigns episodes out, and the show-runner just does a final polish on his typewriter. That’s not what I do. I collaborate with a great many people. I collaborate with the director. I collaborate with the actors. I collaborate with the designers. But I’m a playwright. I don’t write by committee. I write by myself.”

If that is so...why did each and every one of those shows have a writing staff at all? I could list, here, the names of all the other writers whose names are on the scripts of all those shows. Some of these are credited alongside Sorkin and some are not. And some he really did write all by himself.

But you can't tell me television networks will pay an entire room full of writers when one guy is actually generating 100% of the content. And of course, he wasn't. Do I believe all or almost all of those scripts went through rewrites (something more than "a final polish") by Sorkin (whether his name is on them or not) in his role as creator/chief writer/producer? Yes I do, absolutely, and very much to their benefit in nearly every case.

But that's not at all what he seems to be suggesting in this quote. Instead, he seems to be suggesting that every thought presented or word spoken onscreen in the shows he created was his and his alone. And I'm sorry, I just don't buy it.

I know about the oversensitive writer (believe me...I know about the oversensitive writer). This may be part-and parcel of the breed, and especially not shameful in those of us still hammering away upon our own individual walls.

But in a multiple-award winning, millionaire screenwriter who is so famous that his name actually gets used in movie ads...it's just unseemly.

So that's the first thing that got me thinking my man Sorkin was veering towards self-parody. And here is the second.

In The Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) models Facebook on Harvard's legendary final clubs, private groups made up of some of the school's most privileged students. But the clubs are as secretive as they are exclusive, which meant researching them was no easy task for screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. Luckily, he got a hand from one of the school's most famous alums: Natalie Portman.

Way to distance yourself from that "elitist" label, Mr. Sorkin. I'm sure her experience as a beautiful if annoying movie star is very typical of Harvard grads.

Now how did I not see this coming?

The latest from George "Greed can be a powerful ally" Lucas...

George Lucas watched the massive success of “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland” in the 3-D format and decided it was time for a return of the Jedi.

“Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” will return to theaters in 3-D in 2012 and will be followed in the stereoscopic format by the five other live-action movies set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic special-effects shop is overseeing the 3-D conversion. 20th Century Fox will release them, as it has done for all previous “Star Wars” films.

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to slip anything past Cong. Steve King

Cong. Steve King (R-IA) claims Colbert right-wing persona actually just a put-on.

Actually, that's the last thing I'm worried about

The CS Monitor has an article on Bill Clinton's advice for Obama. Though I think some or even much of it is good advice, I also think it's all stuff Obama must already know in his bones.

It's just a matter of whether or not he can find enough Democrats with the spines to do what needs to be done (and good luck with that).

So I don't want to talk about the advice. No, what jumped out at me was this assertion by the writer, Brad Knickerbocker (excellent name BTW):

Clinton speaks from experience. Two years into his first term, he got whacked by Newt Gingrich and the GOP’s “Contract with America.” Obama now faces a GOP whose base is more energized than Democrats are (although both parties have the "tea party" movement to worry about), and which has just unveiled its “Pledge to America.”

Honestly, I am not worried about the tea party movement. They (and their effect on the GOP) are handing Obama and the Democratic party everything they should need to hold onto or even increase their majorities in the senate and house.

What I'm worried about is that they won't grab onto those teacup-nuts and use 'em to knock down some bodies. What I am worried about is that Obama will react to a mid-term "whacking" as Clinton did.

No, not by having an affair--by all accounts President Obama is deeply and passionately in love with his wife, and devoted to his family. But by resorting to the straddle-every-issue, don't-offend-anyone strategy that Clinton embraced from (at least) 1994-1996.

Though at least I almost certainly don't need to worry that he'll start listening to the likes of Dick Morris (aka the gnome who lives under your bed and nibbles at your toes), as Clinton did...

"The bottom line is that, issue by issue, we're liberal."

...We're just afraid to admit it.

Bob Cesca reminds us of a few things.

The "both sides" meme [is] a very popular and very serious false equivalency based upon the notion that somehow both sides are equally to blame for this or that. Hell, even Jon Stewart's forthcoming rally is founded upon the false "both sides" meme -- organized around the misguided observation that there's equal levels of insanity on both sides -- as if the unmitigated blather and glaring contradictions from the tea party people, talk radio hosts, Fox News Channel and the Republicans who pander to all three is somehow equivalent to, say, a comparatively minor group like Code Pink. It's a cop-out argument meant to sound fair-minded, but bears no resemblance to the reality of a lopsidedly insane far-right.

The first new music review I've written in almost three years has been posted

It's at my old stomping ground of Ink 19, and it's of the revived Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark's collection of new songs, History of Modern.

Of which you can get a taste from the ad below.

Aaron, suck it up: Studio 60 failed because it wasn't your best work.

October is going to begin and end well for me, moviegoing-wise.

It’s opening with The Social Network, directed by David Fincher but most importantly to me written by Aaron Sorkin, whose work I tend to love.

I love his work but I don't always think he's right. Case in point:

As ]Sorkin] revs up, we coast over the statistic that one in four Americans still believes Barack Obama was not born in the United States (“There’s just too much bad information getting out there, and I have to believe that’s mostly the fault of the Internet, which isn’t held to any standards of accuracy”).

Oh god, he's back on this again.

Stop being pissed at the bloggers about S60, Sorkin.

Maybe you've been writing nonfiction too long. Maybe you've forgotten that your ficticious characters are 99 and 44/100% pure wish-fuffilment. It's the politicians and the journalists, Aaron.

There's bad information out there because few or no real politicians these days have the morals of your West Wing, and at least as few journalists these days have the talent of your Danny Concannon.

Not the people on the Internet, 95% of who are just trying to get through their lives after those people who actually have power and influence get through with them.

But anyway, that's how the month of October is starting in movies for me.

It's going to end with...oh shoot, what was that again...it's a heartwarming musical romantic comedy...I just can't think of the title...oh yes, that's right, I remember now, it’s...

Nile Crocodile

Nile Crocodile
Originally uploaded by geoftheref

its the one the only croco! strongest reptile on earth! stay away or else.

Tristan Deyoung-Dreykuss

(da nephew)

Observations on my downstairs neighbor

Apparently he's such a precious flower that he's called the manager--twice--to complain about my snoring. According to what he told her, it's actually driven him from his home at night, when he takes to the streets in his car rather than...oh just, say, toughening up, the crybaby.

So has anyone got a good snoring remedy?

I don't doubt that he can hear me...because I can hear *him.* (The floors here are thin.) Difference between us, I haven't been whining about it...

The manager just suggested that I move into an open apartment across the hall from where I am now, so he's no longer be right beneath me. I'd rather not do that (I happen to like the views from my windows)...

Sometimes I have to wonder

Do the Democrats--and specifically President Obama--realize that they won the last election?

In Talking Points Memo:

Onward and Downward
... Dems preemptively moving to compromise on tax cut politics? It appears House Democrats may be moving toward accepting half a loaf on the policy front in exchange for conceding the politics to the GOP.

Oh well, it would've been nice if they'd acted like winners for a while (y'know, when they actually were)...but don't worry, they'll be losers again soon enough.

Dear Anti-Mosqueteers...

Do you realize you're coming off so deranged that you're making my man Jigsaw look sane?

Do you care?

I'm not sure about this, but I think it's definitely worth a conversation

E.J. Dionne, to whom I haven't linked in too long, has an interesting idea:

Obama should debate Boehner and McConnell

Oh, god...

I think I just figured something out. For years now, I've been saying (at least in my more cyncial moments) the reason why Republicans always seem to be in a position of strength while Democrats always seem weak is this:

Republicans have accepted and learned to use to their advantage something which Democrats still deny: Most of the people in this country are rock, bone, stick, stone stupid.

Now I think, Democrats (or at least the Obama administration's version of them) have started to catch on to this...but they think it only applies to their base.

This seems just so wrong

This doesn't seem to have hit the news sites...

...but on Facebook Alex Bennett is saying that comedian Robert Schimmel has died in the hospital following this car accident.

A Modest Proposal:

Via the H-Post:

BP is warning Congress that if lawmakers pass legislation that bars the company from getting new offshore drilling permits, it may not have the money to pay for all the damages caused by its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Okay, BP, how about this. You don't have to pay any money. However, all your executives are required by law to wear big, impossible-to-mistake letters "BP" at all times. The rest of us are free to beat you bloody with tire irons whenever and however many times we see fit.

Sound good?

Your final reminder

Tomorrow, September 1, is my birthday. My Amazon.com Wish List can be found to the right of these very words.

And if you find these frequent pesterings annoying (I know I would), just wait till October rolls around. Then you're gonna get so many Saw references you'll be begging me to go back to wheedling for some token of your approval--begging, I say!

I want to play a game (and no, this isn't a Saw post)

Those are coming in about a month.

The game I want to play is that I want you to read the opening paragraphs of this news item...

NC farm produces emerald shaped into massive gem

An emerald so large it's being compared with the crown jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great was pulled from a pit near corn rows at a North Carolina farm.

The nearly 65-carat emerald its finders are marketing by the name Carolina Emperor was pulled from a farm once so well known among treasure hunters that the owners charged $3 a day to shovel for small samples of the green stones. After the gem was cut and re-cut, the finished product was about one-fifth the weight of the original find, making it slightly larger than a U.S. quarter…....

...and tell me honestly: How many lines into it did you have to get before the words "meteor;" "crystal;" "Superman" and/or "Kryptonite" crossed your mind?

Questions for the Universe

What the hell is Matt Frewer doing not participating in the DVD of Max Headroom: The Complete Series?

Things I've Found In Books: The Tradition continues

Just now, between pages 94 and 95 of the Seattle Public Library's copy of How I Got To Be Whoever It Is I Am, by Charles Grodin...:

It's apparently a prayer card such as is given out at a funeral. There's a photograph on the front of a sculupture I don't know enough to recognize, but it's of a man collapsed in the arms of an angelic-looking woman. Against a blue-sky backdrop.

On the back, it says "In Loving Memory of..." and I won't give the name, but curiously it's the same as a science fiction writer/editor (not the same person, tho) and quotes the 23rd Psalm:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for though art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.