Today was the LA Marathon, an amazing test of endurance and stamina that stretches the boundaries of tolerance to physical stress and mental hardship -- but folks here in LA are tough, seasoned competitors and, despite the enormity of the task, were able to withstand the tremendous traffic jams and day-long gridlock for which the marathon is legendary. Apparently there is also some sort of footrace involved.
Speaking of tolerance to stress and hardship, I just finished my first week of work at a downtown law firm. It's not a bad place, I have and office with a window and a view of the Hollywood sign. Things are a little different out here than what I am used to. The first day around 5 p.m. I noticed that things had become eerily silent outside my office door and I went out to investigate. To my astonishment, I found that EVERYONE WAS GONE. It seems that out here, people go home at the end of the business day (which in New York firms is referred to as 'taking a half day off.') On wednesday, the partner on the case I'm on (whose office is conveniently located next to mine) was out all day -- PLAYING GOLF! It took me a while to get used to this bizarre comportment, but I think I may get to like it.
The commute is not nearly as bad as I thought, I spend about ten minutes on Santa Monica Blvd. (at 40 mph) getting to the freeway where I spend twenty minutes (at 15 mph) to get downtown. The car is working now, although I had some problems starting it a few weeks ago. I called the local mechanic and told him sometimes it starts just fine and sometimes it doesn't catch and I have to wait exactly nine minutes and then it starts fine. He said if it starts he can't tell what's wrong with it, so I should wait until the problem becomes more frequent. Later that day I was driving down Sunset at rush hour and the car DIED in the middle of the road. I pushed it onto a side road and left it in front of a very large house in Beverly Hills, walking the two miles home. The next day I went to get it and sure enough, it started right up. Taking no more chances, I drove straight to the mechanic's. They put in a new fuel pump and now it starts first time every time.
I hooked up with a couple of lovely young actresses named Jennifer and Liz, who I know through my friend Tom Blake. Jen and Liz are out here for Pilot Season -- which I suppose is something like Fleet Week in Brooklyn. We had a great lunch together discussing an idea for a TV show they want to do on community access. They said I could be the writer. Last night, in fact, Jennifer and I got together for a brainstorming session -- however, due to the unforseen meterological influence of a certain 'Jose Cuervo' the brainstorm turned into patchy fog with occasional drizzle. We had a good time though, and I look forward to working closely with Jennifer and Liz (individually and in tandem) as soon as weather permits. (Ed. note -- before you get any ideas, forget it: one's married the other's engaged.)
My networking at the CAA shindig paid off in several respects -- I got the name of a Vice President at William Morris who is looking at my script April Fool, also I called a guy who writes for Suddenly Susan and sent him a TV script. A writer/producer I met that night is looking at two scripts. And Paul Schiff, who I spoke with briefly that night and whose movie Rushmore has been hanging in there at the box office, called me back after I gave him a follow-up call. He said he's looking forward to reading Red Herrings and it's at the 'top of his list.' He didn't say which list. I did a re-write of a third script called In Your Dreams so just in case the first two get sold right away, I'll be ready with the next one.
I'm expecting good news at the end of this month, not for any particular reason, except I did find a cricket in my bathroom just now and everybody knows that a cricket in your bathroom means good luck. At least I hope it was a cricket.
My job should last at least another couple weeks and depending on an upcoming ruling by the court, could go on indefinitely. But I'd much rather sell a screenplay.
Love, Rich
aka 'Hollywood Dick'
Just got back from the big shindig over at CAA (major agency once headed by Michael Ovitz, now run by Wes grad Rick Nicita) in honor of film dept. guru Jeanine Basinger. This was the major schmooze-fest of the year for the Wesleyan film community and one which I almost missed since I somehow got left off the invite list. Luckily my friend Jude (Dreamworks) told me about it after she told me that she still hasn't read my script because she lost it. She suggested I bring it to CAA and give it to her in person. I decided to take the opportunity to give it a nice polish and incorporate her advice from our last meeting. I also called everyone I could think of to get me an invitation. As it turned out they were very apologetic and I was added to the guest list.
I also spent some time putting together some screenplay summaries for Greg, an aspiring director I am contemplating working with (if he lets me). Between the rewrite and the summaries I've been pretty busy, but not so busy that I didn't notice that my phone hasn't rung in a while. Out of three temp agencies, I still have no job. Anyway, I got my rewritten script, my punched-up summaries and a list of everyone I have spoken to, or heard about since I got here and put on some writerly looking clothes (jeans and a sportcoat) and went to the party.
The first person I met was Dave Bartholomew, a lawyer who has lived here since '82, the same year he used to come down and visit us in San Diego. Dave is a great guy and knows everyone in LA so he became my guide. I paid homage to Jeanine, mentioning that I am Susan Allison's brother always gets a good response -- I used the same strategy with Wes. pres. Doug Bennett and his wife Midge. Doug said I had some good genes and at first I thought he meant my pants but then I realized he was referring to my illustrious sister and my Dad, the guy who helped organize the whopping million dollar alumni contribution a while back. Midge said "I met your mom!" She didn't know where but said she introduced herself as "Susan Allison's mother."
I saw Greg and gave him the summaries and started scanning the room for Jude, I really wanted to get the script out of my hands, as it made me feel quite self-conscious to be carrying a script around at such an event. Ran into Akiva Goldsman and told him his assistant had read my stuff and said it was very good. He said 'give me a call and stop by' I said, 'you betcha.' Saw Paul Schiff and congratulated him on his bit part in his new movie Rushmore (he plays the waiter) He said 'your my one fan.' I told him at least now he has something to fall back on.
I met a friend of Dave's named Bruce McKenna (another writer -- everyone by the way is wearing jeans and sportcoats) and told him I was finding it hard to locate the people I've never met since no one was wearing nametags. (I did however notice the very attractive Dana Delaney sitting under a ficus talking to Akiva.) Bruce asked who I was looking for, I mentioned a name and he said 'I just met him' and led me to Bill Wolkoff, assistant to Ed Decter, I've been bugging Bill for many weeks as he has a movie and a TV script of mine. He's training for the marathon. I recommended drinking lots of beer. 'The night before?' he asked. 'No -- during the race.'
Bill pointed out his boss Ed and I went over and introduced myself, unfortunately we were interrupted by some speeches given by Jeanine and Doug. It turns out that Ed is good friends with Dave Bartholomew. I saw Chris Dorr and asked him when his new Paul Newman movie is coming out. They're still working on it. Nearby, I noticed a stunningly beautiful blonde of the type you see a lot in LA (Miss November '97?) but very rarely at a Wesleyan function. The mystery was cleared up when her date Michael Bay appeared at her side with two glasses of red wine. They say he has a really nice home theater system. I saw Larry Mark , whom I sent Merlin to years ago, but he was constantly surrounded by ass-kissing punks who wouldn't leave him alone long enough for me to go over and kiss his ass.
Every so often I'd circle the room to make sure I hadn't missed Jude coming in late or something but never saw her. I finally decided to leave, and ran into Brad Whitford. I said hi and he said, 'Dave Bartholomew told me you were here.' Who knew? I told him I thought he was excellent in A Perfect World (he shoots Kevin Costner) and he ate that up. I would have talked to him sooner but he was over in the corner hanging out with Dana Delaney and Akiva and those people are even more intimidating when they're all clumped together like that. Did I mention how attractive Dana Delaney is?
Anyway, I finally dragged my ass out of there after almost three hours of record breaking (for me anyway) schmoozing, still clutching the script I had specially rewritten and brought with me to hand deliver to Jude. Oh, well -- she probably would have lost it anyway.
Not a lot else is happening around here. I had another nice visit from Dan Haar, and Brian and I inaugurated our ongoing Scrabble tournament. After two grueling games we are tied. Watched the Super Bowl with Clay, Norma and Clay jr., which was great (not the game, though) Met some friends of Brian's who are in the biz, am trying to schedule a get-together with a nice woman named Karen, but she's always busy. Car is running well, though I never use it. Once a week I take it out on the freeway just to let it stretch out a little. Hopefully after tonight someone will actually read one of my scripts and call me with good news. Like the I Ching says: "Perseverance brings good fortune to the Wanderer..."
p.s. (next day) called Jude and sent her the script -- fingers crossed
Moved out of Norma and Clay's on 12/22 exactly three months after arriving in LA and drove to my interim digs at Stephanie's apartment in Culver City. (She is back in Chicago for the holiday). Made myself right at home while working out the details of my new semi-permanent location. It's a good place, nothing fancy but well situated in the heart of things and surrounded by all the modern conveniences. Also a lot gay bars. Best of all I'm just a short walk from Brian's place. It's great to have a friend nearby.
Last thursday I moved out of Stephanie's place, stopped off and picked up my mattress, tied it to the roof and brought it to my new home. After setting up my bed I went over to Home Depot for a few important items (I've been scouring the thrift shops in Hollywood and Culver City trying to outfit my place without going broke, but there are certain things you can only get at HD). Got home fom the depot and was really looking forward to a trial snooze in my new bed...
Then Brian calls, it's New Year's Eve and I've been asking him to keep on the lookout for a party with lots of the cute architect babes in attendance. But it seems all the single ones are out of town. I met many of them at Brian's birthday party, a half dozen attractive, harvard-educated female architects who all work in Santa Monica. (So that's where they keep them.)
Anyway Brian in his inimitable wisdom has decided we should go to Death Valley for New Years. Sounded good to me. He comes over and we grab some pizza, pack and take off for the desert, figuring we'll drive til we get tired and stop off at one of many roadside motels we'll no doubt encounter along the way.
Problem is it's New Year's Eve and the road to Death Valley is the same as the road to Las Vegas and THERE AIN'T NO GODDAMN HOTEL ROOMS! We end up at the Nevada State Line at a cheesy casino where Brian wins $20 at slots and we celebrate by falling asleep in the car in the parking lot.
After a restful one hour's sleep we double back to Baker CA home of the World's Tallest Thermometer (but not the World's Tallest Rectal Thermometer). From Baker we head north to DV, first stopping in the sleepy RV mecca of Tecopa where we have the good fortune of finding a public hot spring. So Bri and I join the old-timers from the RV park across the highway at 7 a.m. on New Year's Day for a soak in the hot springs -- it was fantastic. Afterwards we drove up to Shoshone at the southern entrance to DV and had a hearty breakfast.
Death Valley was incredible, words cannot convey the majesty, serenity, beauty, strangeness, and wonder of this unique place. We stopped at a place called Bad Water the lowest point in the U.S. at 282 feet below sea level. It is in the middle of a ten thousand year old dried up lake bed covered with a layer of white salt that stretches to the horizon in both directions and is bounded on the sides by the most unusually colored and sculpted mountains in the world.
Later we stopped at a place called Golden Canyon and despite (or because of) the fact that we were delerious from too much sun and very little sleep we decided to hike to a lookout called Zabriskie Point (where they filmed the movie of the same name). We made it to ZP then kind of got lost coming back (we decided to try a 'shortcut') but met some fellow wanderers and made it back to the car just in time for an incomparable sunset.
Once again we were too late for the local hotel, but someone suggested we try Lone Pine, a mere 100 miles away. After a needed meal we set off, crossing another mountain range in the dark, but with the brightest full moon I have ever witnessed to guide us. When we came down from the eastern ridge of DV we encountered another dry lake bed and turned north, we could see some spectacular mountains further to the east, their peaks glowing with moonlit snow. We got to the hotel and collapsed.
The next morning we awoke to behold Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the contiguous U.S. rising up before us like a mighty jagged god. Lone Pine is the site of many a movie western and the walls of the hotel are covered with movie posters and photos of John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Steve McQueen, Roy Rogers and more. We reflected on the fact that the day before we had been in the lowest place in the country and now we faced the highest -- a fitting image for the new year.
We attempted to drive up to the trail head where you can hike up to the summit, but the road was closed from the snow. I made a vow to return to Lone Pine and hike the ten miles from the Whitney Portal (elevation 8365 feet) to the summit (elevation 14,495 feet). There is a trail camp at 12,000 feet where you can spend the night. It will be an intense three day hike. We'll have to wait for the snow to melt first.
We drove home that day and I fell asleep at 8 pm and slept for 12 hours, my first night in my new apartment.
Now I'm ready to start back on the business at hand. Seems like forever since I was working so feverishly to make all those screenplay contacts, but now is a good time to start re-establishing communications and make something happen.
Hope everyone is well and having a fine '99.
p.s. I borrowed Stephanie's copy of Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys and have found it to be the funniest book ever written by a guy about guys. I recommend ot to anyone who knows a guy or who is himself a guy.
