Confessions of a Climate Change Comedy Screenwriter
Occupational hazards abound for the writer. Sitting at a desk all day, incessant use of reading glasses, fighting off the flurry of notifications our digital overlords have embedded on our phones, iPads, and desktop computers. Exercise patterns have changed, there is now a daily bike ride to account for. I’m averaging 100 miles a week, […]
Read More bike ride bijouWe all know about the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security and of then the more familiar Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation. Reading today’s Financial Times the sage reporting of Ed Luce by way of a feature story Lunch with the FT-Christo Grozev spills the spy craft beans. […]
Read More Microchipped Pet Geolocation GiveawayFor my money Dunkirk is Christopher Nolan’s apex directorial moment. His impulsiveness reminds me of the challenges Robin Williams presented when trying to contain the great performers tendency to be let loose and run unbridled. Nolan isn’t as frenetic; he doesn’t fly off on some stream of consciousness riff, his challenge is the same as […]
Read More barbie goes BAZILLION—There are a lot of theories about how this deal got made, but nobody that knows is talking, most of the players in what has been characterized as a sweetheart deal have since left the Land Department.
Read More groundwater giveaway caperSee you on the other side of Independence Day, we can get to work on the campaign to oust the gay haters who have lied their way onto our nation’s highest court—
Read More script coverageFlatiron’s two best pilots are both Black American women, both skilled pilots, there is Major Emma Bezel and Lieutenant Colonel Dovey Doverspike.
Read More 60 Word pitchI want our existential crisis to be funny, I want humanity to win, and I want the story to have a glorious life extending ending. I hope that’s not asking too much—
Read More climate change comedyRevisions to the screenplay continue at a measured pace. I unpacked a lengthy exchange between two characters, that helped with flow. I’m still miserable about trying to hide a few key facts without bringing the narrative to a grinding halt. The manuscript is in Word on my computer and iPad, I can read while I’m […]
Read More finish the linePrincipled people can disagree about a lot of things, casting a vote not to raise the debt ceiling is not one of them. I don’t like the deal, but I don’t like defaulting on the national debt worse. Bernie, Warren and AOC are not on the same principled page over the debt and think they’ve […]
Read More Sausage Along the PotomacOur nearest reservoirs are full to the brim. Our hillsides are slathered in wildflowers.
Read More Falling Water/Crumbling Sea CliffsA lot can happen in the next three years the most important perhaps is that if Biden wins reelection negotiations in 2026 can’t harm the career of a lame-duck President.
Read More Colorado River AgreementIt’s there somewhere behind a gate with a guard standing at a barricade that military undercover agents are trained.
Read More Saguaro BloomComing up with plans—
Read More Plot as Epiphany—If Phoenix is a hot mess of a beast, Gilbert is the sizzling distant unknown reptile nobody has ever heard of. I’d come in from the south, drove through Coolidge, then finally the long straight boulevard into downtown, the very beating heart of this anonymous gargantuan valley town.. Three lanes in each direction for 20 […]
Read More Let’s Talk City Buildouts—Nearing late afternoon in Tempe, late April touching 91 degrees F, waiting to pickup Eileen coming in from Denver. Crow, a street performing friend lives in Tucson. After blueberry pancakes this morning drove to his place for coffee before heading north. Married to a Korean wife, she’s visiting family and is away, when she returns […]
Read More Nine Arizona TouchstonesRivers that originate in Arizona are few, the Verde River begins its journey up in the mountains in northwest corner of Yavapai County. Once upon a time the river’s water was counted as one of the tributaries to the Colorado River. In modern times every drop remains here in the state and is relied upon […]
Read More Casey’s GiftTraveling can be inconvenient. Entering Arizona was a longer jump, followed by a series of shorter jumps from town to town. Arriving at each place there is a setting, a building, people and their things. This is a picture of just one object in a home filled with thousands upon thousands of carefully collected objects […]
Read More Collecting SurpriseFirst time I came out from San Francisco for Casey’s 60th birthday. I had not ever been to a desert home built on the banks of a river. The home is surrounded by a is a mix of mesquite, cottonwoods and sycamore trees. Last night I saw a scarlet tanager. Morning we drank coffee watching […]
Read More House on the Verde RiverOnce I finish this script, I’ll start another.
Read More How Film Fly’s—Here at Mercy Hot Springs, the proprietors have solved the mystery of all great conundrums— to wear a bathing suit or not to wear a bathing suit.
Read More Mercy Hot Springs—I am human and there is so much I want and so little strength in my character to fully control these profound things called cravings—
Read More Missing and Unbound by the FODMAP—for every 10 new battery electric vehicles in each square mile there is a 3-5% decrease in asthma attacks—
Read More Plans for Hope EternalThe Kid’s Super Special Guy flew south, he had come this way to get a 1995 Toyota pickup truck and deliver it to Seattle. Never mind the arctic blast, the closed highways, the barely open chains only interstate, he’d hole up in a motel and wait for the all clear signal, his goal was simple […]
Read More On Choosing Mudflap’s—Setting sail destination unknown—
Read More Spirit’s New HomeNone was a bigger influencer and favorite of the Kid’s than Burt Bacharach. I Say a Little Prayer indeed
Read More Burt Bacharach Schools the KidThat’s the cheese, you’re the mouse and the trap is the host—
Read More Taking Your Identity With You—if you lived her you wouldn’t have to leave here, it has everything you would want or need. That’s how it stands—
Read More Capitol Hill Dreamer—not you and not nobody may ever question how they use the nation’s resources—
Read More Tantrums of the Water Czar’sThe Colorado River and her water is as big a problem as problem’s get—
Read More Beyond Imagination/All Too RealI was ambivalent over becoming a father, my mother passing away at 56 changed my mind.
Read More Dad Visit— Run Everybody RunPond scum it is believed will see a meteoric rise in its popularity.
Read More We’re All Bakersfield NowWildfire’s are as predictable now as atmospheric river’s and who ever heard of those atmospheric demons until now—
Read More Atmospheric River BluesYou’ll put in a water well, build out a septic system, put up a place to call home and you are set to live a life rife with rattlesnakes, scorpions and disaffected Kari Lake sympathizers.
Read More Arizona’s Water Grabbers—One gull laughed, another cried, a young one begged.
Read More Limantour Beach to Celebrate LifeArizona and Alberta are overheated frozen opposites—
Read More Almost There— The After TimesI’ve crunched the numbers, counted bodies, estimated river flow percentages and had a fair number of Prickly pear cactus margaritas preparing highly accurate projections —
Read More Caesars Palace Water FolliesThe global proletariat thrill meter is pegged at infinite— I told you so. Tesla’s stock has fallen from $384 a share to a close of $156 per today. It turns out the richest man in the world is no longer the richest man in the world. Trolling is misunderstood. Behaving like a privileged, adolescent, juvenile, white supremacist isn’t […]
Read More Proletariat’s Rejuvenation—The Salt Lake City Tribune posted a water story (see it here) that straightened my back and got my attention. The story is well researched, we learn there are 10,000 family hay-growing operations in Utah, that the crop market value is $500 million, and one-third of the crop is sent overseas. Profits in Utah’s alfalfa […]
Read More Emergency on the Wasatchn terms of how many Johnsons away from tragedy, and let’s be generous now, on average say there are two Johnson’s for every foot of water, we are just 276 Johnson’s away from a climate catastrophe of a kind the modern world has never experienced.
Read More Johnson’s JohnsonThe madness of the new Twitter owner, Google’s downturn, Facebook’s fated decline is proving to be game changing,
Read More Timeline of the BagatelleRenewable energy is the low-cost leader, end of story, stop pretending.
Read More Diablo Canyon Shutdown Scuttled for NowDid I mention instant gratification seems to be almost as popular as smartphones—?
Read More Cry Me a RiverMaciel’s New out of this World butcher shop is a three-alarm fire wrapped in mustard— the pickle is free— the fascination is grand slam.
Read More The Vegan Deli & Butcher ShopWhat comes next is unthinkable, but that is what is on offer, a crisis of such magnitude it blows our minds.
Read More Two Harbors Via Hite MarinaLake Powell was never a good idea—
Read More Big Drought Little TimeAnd that my friends, that’s why covering this beat will take your breath, spare ink and reams of paper away. This story is that big!
Read More Reporting from the American WestMoore’s Law is our friend.
Read More Energy Transition Gaining TractionAnd that’s why I want you to forget about alfalfa and start to imagine swimming pools. Imagine millions of swimming pools full of water getting shipped overseas…
Read More Colorado River Basin BluesHalf-truth tellers, braggarts, and exaggerators are stealing water from Americans. Take the executive director of this outfit called the Agribusiness and Water Council of Arizona. With millions of acres farmed in Arizona less than half is dedicated to the food that ends up directly on our dinner plate while a whole lot more of the […]
Read More Can Kicking Over— Hard Part is HereNevada can be tough as a stubborn burro, even the good souls have to fend off the demon temptation to go bad.
Read More Nevada Lithium Miner DaysIf you are living in San Francisco, don’t have a car, rent an apartment, don’t have a garden, haven’t got out on a road trip, then it is likely the 20-year drought gripping the American West may well have gone unnoticed. If on the other hand you are Max Gomberg the Director over at the […]
Read More Tight as a Tick Dry as a Bonerumor has it that the bikini and martini are equally intoxicating—
Read More The Living Breathing Heart of SummerNorth of Yreka the Klamath River passes beneath Interstate 5 while flowing west through the Siskiyou’s to the Pacific Ocean. Over the last two decades the megadrought has pummeled the region. For 13 of the last 20 years the governors of Oregon have declared a drought emergency east of where I am standing in the […]
Read More Dusty Days on the Klamath—what we can pin down and know for certain is written down on a short list—
Read More Rehearsals with Jennifer LawrenceGo figure it’s Jerry Hall dumping Rupert Murdoch that has finally kicked this miserable news baron of a man to the curb.
Read More Jerry Hall Dumps MurdochTo our friends to the north a very happy day of celebrations—
Read More Canada Day Celebration—CongratulationsThe ruins of Chaco Canyon give us a glimpse into the life of one of America’s earliest civilizations. There is evidence the first people prevailed as a culture and economy for 1000 years, the tribes of the desert southwest of Arizona and New Mexico thrived here. After years of abundant rain our first people were […]
Read More Call for a General StrikeTrip to Kona has been a bit of a tale. A carrying cart failed just before coming over to the islands resulting in a propane tank landing square on my big toe. That kind of changed the last two weeks. An urgent care doctor glued the gash back together slapped me on the butt and […]
Read More Vet Showmen Pay Lip Serviceif we are all going to be upset why not get the whole nation pissed off all at once, get it over with, we can get on with trying to preserve democracy
Read More No Service Might Be BestCork oak trees come from the Iberian Peninsula (so does the loyal but obstinate donkey); it is estimated that there are perhaps as many as 5000 cork oaks in California.
Read More The Garden BenchTreating young readers to a juggling show at the local library is one way to motivate the new citizens. These humble institutions are the backbone to our country.
Read More Try a Little TendernessEqual protection under the law is for billionaires. The death penalty is for those people, not your people.
Read More Lost Soul Nation—As dinner party’s go this one turned out to be out of this world. The mix of characters worked swell, the invited included both curveballs and straight shooters— this the odd woven with the even. There was even an expectational tardy arrival of our party’s Hickey Boggs from The Iceman Cometh along with his second […]
Read More Northwest Natural Wine NightNeeding a dose of the kid I hopped a flight on Southwest from Oakland to Seattle for the weekend. Here’s her new condo on Capitol Hill. Never done but always organized. This is not something she got from her dad. Last night we ate at Blotto. Lucky for me they had vegan pizza. Joint was […]
Read More Seattle’s Wet SpringThere is every reason to believe that today, that a runaway and lawless United States government could attack again, that there still is a mania running rampant among the minds of too many men.
Read More Beauty’s Way— Among the First Peoplethe three of us can knock a building down with laughter—
Read More Heart and HomeGreat Basin character sketch
Read More Silver City ShuffleRolling east next week— it’s the road and it’s out there waiting mile after mile to be devoured. Over the years I’ve kept in touch with people, some are friend’s others are business contacts. If I had not been so frequently back to one place or another it might have not been practical to cast […]
Read More Spartan Shave Kit—Suitcase EfficienciesHad I bent to my other’s will, I would have been laughed out of the pool hall where I played for sport and small change.
Read More Loosening the Blithering GripThe megadrought we are suffering turns out to be the perfect civilization threatening weather for my new companion— Montara manzanita—
Read More Password for Fix is YardworkI tossed a life preserver to my foundering soul and signed up for sailing lessons.
Read More Soul with a Chaser of WindSailing vessel Gratitude was underway with three crew by fifteen hundred hours on March 25th. In the first hours the Hylas 46 motored westbound with the ebbing tide toward the Golden Gate Bridge. An overcast sky began to open up and beyond on the Pacific Ocean there appeared the telling detail of a faint blue […]
Read More Gratitude Sails SouthHere in these days of global chaos, where some runt punk tyrant has taken to threatening nuclear conflagration,
Read More Hell on WheelsWe are hopeful creatures, we are eager for the next good chapter and ready to forget this lousy last one.
Read More Guys and FallsSomewhere in all this was the planning to sail to Avalon, to spend the summer bumming around harbor to harbor up and down the California coast.
Read More South Beach Harbor…loneliness is affirmed here, it is a pristine view, near the famous portal to oblivion.
Read More Texas in Monochromatic GloryAll of us have discovered Little Free Library’s. We have plenty in my quaint leafy hamlet.
Read More Free Little Banned Book LibraryLike for example using marijuana, taking mushrooms, having a martini─ these are common sacraments─
Read More God’s Deli Tray of Delights