Write Fem!

Well, dang! Reading all the news about WaPo you'd think it was run like a high school weekly with student senate rivals calling the shots. And they aren't the only ones hoodwinked lately.
Oprah thought Doubleday did fact-checking. Who knew?

Just for the record:

• Write Fem doesn't plagiarize movie reviews
  
  
• Write Fem doesn't lift stories and put them in The Flat Hat (college paper)
  
  
• Write Fem doesn't even know The Flat Hat
  
  
• Write Fem doesn't treat fiction as fact and clearly calls her work FICTION
  
  
• Write Fem doesn't think Coretta Scott King is a Communist. She thinks she's a saint. But even a Communist wouldn't lift stories from The Flat Hat!
  
  
• Write Fem wouldn't lie about any description she gave about Coretta Scott King after she said it. That would be even sleazier.
  
  
• Write Fem doesn't lift stories from National Review Online
  
  
• Write Fem doesn't even like National Review Online
  
  
• Write Fem doesn't lift items from the Cox News Service
  
  
• Write Fem doesn't know Steve Murray and doesn't 'borrow' from him
  
  
• Write Fem doesn't steal work from PJ O'Rourke
  
  
• Write Fem wouldn't shrug it off and continue to lie if she got caught at stealing work. She'd shrink about a foot, wet her pants and die on the spot!
  
  

One thing the Write Fem wants to know - how do these looser guys who steal and lie their way through college - or just don't go to college at all and lie that they did - get these top jobs in journalism and bookdom????

Is it anything except the "buddy system"?
Well, that "buddy system" has wrecked the whole planet. Write Fem is mad.

I am reading with sadness the obit in the Times for Richard Pryor.
This comes on the heels of the grand goodbye for Rosa Parks and days after the 25th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon in front of his Central Park West apartment. I want to write here on Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner since so much gets said after someone passes I think its a shame the words aren't said when they are good and alive. Also I think there is hardly any ability today to contemplate their combined work or speak to the larger meaning of it.

Harold Pinter's Nobel speech
http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/2005/pinter-lecture.html
recently spoke of truth in art and truth in politics. Of course the acclaimed speech is banned here and papers of record ignored him (Pinter!). It is widely quoted and talked about all over the world but like he says "(in America) it never happened". There is an unvarnished assault on truth in our country that has a foul social impact.

I believe the majority of works by Lily & Jane wouldn't make it to mass media if they were staged today for the first time. It isn't just that the content was so contemporary and 'wouldn't fly' today because issues etc. are different it's that there has been a dumbing down of the American public. Mostly by design it is often ascribed to the consolidation of media and the lack of broadcast programming in the public interest. The vast majority of Americans cannot contemplate 'issues', equity, feminism or the state of the state. Before the public could embrace pseudo-reality shows (which are scripted and staged), pabulum plots on sit-coms and corporate music groups the critical thinking part of the nation's brain had to do a spontaneous disappearing act.
Us oldies are blessed to have been able to go a long way with entertainment by the likes of Lily & Jane. It was a lot more than just entertainment, a diversion to agreeably pass some time. The monologues, plays and films shed light on society, prejudice, justice, the role of the state vs. the individual and vice versa. My fear is that with each passing day we come further away from seeing a phenomenon like this again. The loss won't be just a poorer entertainment experience. That would be neither hear not there. But the experience that engenders introspection, critical analysis of state policy, advocacy for the down trodden, etc. will vanish.

As it stands this country cannot look at itself, at least not in mass media and I fear it cannot in private. Our testimony that it wasn't always so exists in the recorded art of Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner.

The Soap Opera in Washington, D.C.

Indictments in the air spark creativity:

[comment from America Blog:]


At the civil trial, Robert claimed that he had married Bonny in order to get to know her, but that after having sex with her he wanted her to go home. When Patrick saw Judy's notes, he became enraged to find that Scooter had talked to Judy about Valerie before his rendezvous at the St. Regis. In a fit of desperation, Tom ordered his lawyers to subpeona Ronnie. After George finished hammering some nails, Laura told Matt that she has complete confidence in Harriet but didn't say whether she knew about the obscene notes George had exchanged with her. Driving back from the homecoming party, Kevin was arrested for DUI.
- berberry





The Edge of Impeachment



EPISODE No. 1481
SCENE 1
ACT 1

[30 sec. intro - last episode montage #1480]

[commercial break]

MED SHOT: Judy's modish decorated New York apartment. It is semi dark as mauve drapes have been drawn and a Tiffany desk lamp illuminates an open appointment diary, a Montblanc fountain pen and an ivory princess phone on a trendy end table left of the carnation pink leather couch. The room is empty.

CLOSE UP: on princess phone

SOUND FX: phone ringing

ENTER SL: [Judy enters, tossing a business suit jacket onto the couch. She is holding a highball. Answers phone.]

JUDY: (curtly) Judy Miller residence, Ms. Miller isn't home, may I take a message?

CLS SHOT: [Scooter Libby's military grey 'secure' office at unknown location in Washington. 5 clocks on the upper wall, many flat screens display maps, many small tv monitors show local news from various cities. It is sparsley furnished. A portrait of President and Mrs. Bush is prominent on the wall with a baby spot lighting it.]

SCOOTER: Relax, Judy, its me, Scooter. I'm calling from the 'launch pad'. I have a list of imp-

MED SHOT: [Judy's modish decorated New York apartment.]

JUDY: (cuts him off, angrily) Can it, Scooter! I'm through taking orders from you! Look at this mess you got me into! If you think I'm going to take a fall for Rover you are - you are in dreamland! What have you been reading? The Post? I tell you I'm a prisoner here! A prisoner! This is worse than the pen! I have reporters all over my block! And its all your fault!

SPLIT SHOT: Judy/Scooter

SCOOTER: (like a tsk-tsk) Judy. Judy. Judy. (sighs) We know it hasn't been easy. Andy insisted on adding ten grand to that deposit in your Cayman Islands account.

JUDY: TEN! Are you kidding? Tell that errand boy he'd better be coming up with a lot more than that! I mean it, Scooter! I'm scared. I wasn't when "the plan" was on on-track! But its off track now. It's a freakin' TRAIN WRECK. Now you get this and get it good! I want that ten to be a 200 and I want the confirmation number text messaged to me by 2 o'clock.

CLS SHOT: Judy's diamond studded watch shows 12:30

JUDY: You un-der-stan-d me? 2! Or I'll call Harriet. I swear! I'm not dodging bullets for a bunch of -

SCOOTER: (soberly) Now, Judy. Of course we understand your position. Remember the Cayman Islands account is entirely different than the Bank of Aruba. I have complete authority at the - (sinisterly) highest levels - to accomodate you. Its just that there are a lot of ducks in a row who are not entirely lined up ... in a row. You get what I mean? (sly) Not in a row. Like ducks plucking Aspen leaves from the pond. Like DUCKS plucking ASPEN leaves from the pond. And its my job to get those (whispers) DUCKS in a r-o-wwww.

JUDY: (Thoughtfully takes a sip of her highball. Sits on the couch) I have your meaning, now, Scooter. Sorry I flew off the handle.

SOUND FX: doorbell chimes

JUDY: Just a second. Someone's at the door. (puts phone reciever on the table)

PAN RIGHT: Judy crosses stage left through the Pottery Barn furnished dining room. The table is set for 6. Goes to the foyer. Unlocks, opens the door.

SOUND FX: organ music, anxiety suite.

MED SHOT: A man in a black suit is at the door. He is holding a folded set of papers.

CLS SHOT: The paper in man's hand are subpeona to appear in Federal Court.

CLS SHOT: Judy looks anguished.

[dim out]

END ACT 1

[commercial break]

This week I had a spate of writers' streak (sort of like writers' block only 180^o the other way) and tacked out this NEW short story medium . . .

check out

E-MAILS OF EDNA CREWSHIP, PRINTED & COMPILED BY L. P. PRISE, EXECUTOR

by moi

To get to the credits and story info you click on the fake ad links!

 

  
 

Dog days of job hunting lead me to the netherlands of outer Queens. Not the cosy close-by Queens (Long Is. City) or the scenic and quaint Cambria Heights but the gritty mini-Chicago found at the end of the elusive 'J' train.
 
It is 2 &  1/2 hours out there and if you have to go any place special you walk about a quarter mile to a bus.  I think most people out that way work out that way!
 
Got to get a job writing so I can avoid this dreary travel! OK for 'research' (can I deduct my  subway fare?) but not keen on repeating that exercise soon.
 
 

Dear Diary:

Today I heckeled Donald Trump!



I was picketing a Coca-Cola gala at the Mayor's

residence on the swanky but sooty East Side.

We all had really spiffy Killer CNke posters

and we were educating passers bys about the kiddies in

El Salvador that have to cut cane for CNke

and are getting all hacked up with machete accidents

and the gangland style killings in Columbia of the

labor activists trying to get living wages for

CNke bottlers etc. etc.

So the mayor is about to wheel & deal a big contract

with CNke to be

exclusive death squad employer & beverage vendor in city

buildings and there's a follderoll society thing going

on with the world's biggest, most obnoxious limousines

  pulling in and as the protest looks like it's winding down

my pal from Billionaires for Bush points out Donald Trump

has arrived and he has. He is walking in with a a

  Virginia Slims look alike gal - I mean

  anorexia- ville -

So, from across the street I shouted out something topical

like   "Izzat Number 4? Buy her a PEPSI!".


My first celebrity heckle!

What a piece of JUNK
10.5, the mini-series by NBC must give all bad writers hope!

I'm sure they paid top dollar for the brains behind this idiotic teleplay! That leaves plenty of room for people like me to excel!
This goof-ass plot line was OK - a big quake. But, hey, NO RESEARCH REQUIRED! Music to my ears - as that's just how I like to write!

Here are some gems -

• 
  The first thing to go in Seattle was the space tower... but tv was still broadcasting even though the tv transmission tower on top of the tower had just collapsed!!!! (well, ya gotta have tv!)
  
• 
  Electricity and phones completely UNAFFECTED by a 10.5 quake that eats significant portions of the west coast!!! Tell AT&T!
  
• 
  Frantic millions do not swamp phone lines dead with overload of calls!
  
• 
  Stars have small hair distress in the days long adventure but do not perspire, change shirts, loose cognative agility or worry about immediate family-- except the governor worries about unmussed kin 'lost' in national forest. Gov. written out of the plot but unmussed kin hitch a ride with friendly forest folk and never inquire about ma (gov.)!
  
• 
  Evacuees don't experience gridlock on roads!!!!
  
• 
  Kids calmly pack favorite toys etc. at liesure while ma wiles away time on the functioning mobile phone with estranged dad. No sense of urgency that they are about to fall into Pacific Ocean or anything!!!
  
• 
  Nuke plants with deadly waste seem unaffected or nonexistant during this disaster.
  
• 
  Gigundous 10.5 quake that eats a chunk of the latitude in towards Nebraska and kicks up zero dust! No blackened sky for years or red sunsets with this quake. Maybe for allergy Rx sponsors.
  
• 
  President of US has only news tv to gather data from! No gov't agency to advise him etc.
  
• 
  TV News works throughout disaster. No deaths for these cameramen - they levitate above the collapsing streets....
  

... on & on. I gotta get a piece of this pie!

Cannot believe my MS dormant while tv execs buy this crappola. I have dumbed my plots down as far as I can ... maybe I should add the earthquake-lite with still functioning utilities to add some zest to my stuff!!!!