I woke up this morning to find that the results for the screenplay championship challenge 2 were posted. Somehow, someway, yours truly found himself at the top of the leaderboard. My screenplay for challenge 2, "Bishop Takes McQueen" took first place in the group. My first screenplay took second place. Together, my combined score propelled me to the top of the group. We are the champions, my friend.
There's one more challenge for this round (I think) this weekend. I'll get the genre, location, and prop at midnight tonight. Let's see what happens. With the snow coming down like an upended snow globe, I won't have much else to do.
Looking back on this last challenge, I was definitely thrown out of my comfort zone. The genre was Romantic Comedy (not my strong suit), the location was an aquarium, and the prop was a chess board. It took me quite a while to get a handle on what I wanted to do but, once I got everything settled out, it came out of my mind onto the page very quickly. It doesn't hurt that it's only five pages. If you're intrigued or morbidly curious, here it is.
On a vaguely related tangent, I'm set to see Mishima: A Life in Four Acts tonight with a post-flick Q and A with director Paul Shrader. I'm looking forward to it.
There are few people in this world who do not know, in the very marrow of their bones, the power of shamwow and do not tremble beneath its absorptive might. It's a shammy, it's a towel, it's a sponge. It is madness.
Do not taunt the shamwow.
Yet, even from this Cthulhian fabric, from which even our souls (or spilled soda) cannot escape, comes something good: video parodies. Here, perhaps, is the best (or atleast my favorite for the moment):
I think the Jersey accent makes it. But it could be the reference to ball sweat. Ah, ball sweat.
Last month, I was confronted by a large inflated rat on my way home from work. Two weeks or so ago, that rat, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, had followed me back to Brooklyn and planted itself in front of the construction site at 163 Washington Avenue, past which I walk every morning on my way to work. My commute is becoming rat-infested.
I still have no idea what the original rat was about but this rat appears connected to some sort of protest against the contractor running the construction site, one Pinmark Contracting. Indeed, this morning, I saw a couple of protestors with flyers and I took one:
According to the flyer, a rally is planned on Saturday, the 20th, at 10 AM. I looked the place up on Brownstoner and found nothing untoward. Google came up empty as well. If there is evil afoot here, it's been kept on the down-low. I'll be staying on top of things, mostly because I have to walk by there every day. My advice to these protestors: you need to get the word out better. And ditch the giant rat. Please.
Sometimes I wonder about my internet skills. Better late than never (I guess), I ran into this gem of a gem of a video positing a sci-fi nerd's dream: putting the Enterprise (Next Generation flavor) up against a Vader-helmed Star Destroyer. Let the battle commence!
To be honest, there was no dumpster and no diving involved. What there was, sitting lonely and forgotten on the curb outside my apartment this morning was a sweet looking chair, much sweeter than the folding chair I currently sit in at the table when I'm typing or eating or generally not lazing on the couch.
Image ahoy!
Ain't she purdy?
