I wrote my Storytellers Unplugged essay this morning. It’s called “Writing In My Head,” and was inspired by a blog I read in the NY Times. It will appear on Friday morning.
I’m on the verge of starting a new short story. I have the first scene mapped out, and I think I know what it’s about, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen yet. That sounds weird. It is weird. I’ve been ruminating over the scene for a while and it’s sticking with me, so it’s time to do something with it. Hope I don’t get stuck.
I saw the trailer for a new movie called The Words which comes out in a few weeks. It stars Bradley Cooper as an aspiring and struggling writer. His girlfriend is Zoë Saldana. Jeremy Irons is an older man who tells Cooper his story. I’m not sure how Dennis Quaid and Olivia Wilde factor into it, but I’m glad they do. I love the part of the trailer where Cooper says to his father: “I gotta pay my dues” and the father (the always solid J.K. Simmons) says, “No, I gotta pay your dues.” And then there’s this observation: “You have to choose between life and fiction. The two are very close, but they never actually touch.” I liked that so much I wrote it down.
I deleted The Closer from my DVR schedule. Another series come to an end. Seems like there’s been quite a few of them lately. The show went out with a bang. It made sense to bring back the one outstanding case that’s been on Brenda’s mind lately. Her reaction to the man’s insolence demonstrated that it was time for her to leave, to get away from concentrating on the dead (a theme oft-repeated in the past couple of weeks). The team’s parting gift to her was funny, especially considering its contents. They know her so well. Fortunately she’s just moving to another job down the street and not to Atlanta, which means that Jon Tenney (Fritz) gets to keep his job on the spin-off.
It remains to be seen whether the concept of Major Crimes can be interesting on a weekly basis. That is, giving up the confessions of The Closer in lieu of forcing a plea bargain. Young Rusty uttered the show’s status to Captain Raydor: I don’t know you and I don’t like you. I wonder if it will ever become necessary for us to like her to like the new show. Maybe we can ally with Provenza and the other cops in our disdain for her. I sure hope Provenza sticks around, despite what was shown in the trailer for next week.
