I got myself a Halloween present this year, which is pictured above. It's a Spanish "No" hat! When you shake your head "no" the little balls shake back and forth and even make a cool thunking sound when they hit the brim. If you want to see it just try to borrow some money from me some time!
Big stars have more power in the film world than ever. I'm not sure why. Maybe it has to do with the changing ways that films are financed. Overseas money is more important now and foreign backers are even more star conscious than Americans. Or maybe it has to do with a cultural shift. Whatever the reason, you have to please the big stars to get a film made now and the way to please big stars is to write the kind of script they like to play.
These are my kind of films, real stick-to-your-ribs stuff. And here's (below) an example of the kind of scripts favored by studio bosses:
See the difference? Stars like those intimate, psychological, Stanislavskian scenes. When they pick the scripts the film is always about emotional confrontation. In the old days when two characters had a disagreement one hit the other guy, and the guy fell down dead. Nowadays it's more nuanced. Here's (below) an example of the kind of script actors like:
Stars are running the show now so you better get to like nose-to-nose psychological confrontation. You're going to be seeing a lot of it!
No, the best one wasn't this year, unfortunately. The best one occurred years ago when I put on a Halloween show in my living room for my kid's Indian Guide den (Den? Troop? Coven? I'm forgetting what they were called). Actually it was the night before Halloween and I and a few Guide dads and cartoonists were the actors.
One of the plays was about an astronaut who murdered his friend on the moon (above) because he thought nobody could ever find out. I'd rented a spacesuit from Western Costume, the people who outfit Hollywood movies. It looked great! It was the 50s kind with rings around the joints and a big, round helmet. Here's (topmost, above) a black & white picture of the suit from "Destination Moon."
That show also made me think about building an outdoor stage for my kids in the backyard. I love the one in this picture (above) that I got from a picture archive. What a great design! Don Selders, Rod Scribner's assistant animator, told me that Scribner built one of these for his kids back in the day.
I did get them one of these little Creative Playthings puppet theaters, but that was a mistake too. They never used it and never played with the puppets. Never, ever buy one of these little puppet theaters! They look great but they're too tiny to hide behind...the kids see everything you're doing, and that ruins the illusion of reality.
Believe it or not, this (above) is a more practical puppet theater. It's adult height so the kids can't reach the puppets and try to kill them. By the way, that's not me in the picture.
Holy Cow! It's Halloween already!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaargh! I was so absorbed with work that I completely neglected one of the best holidays of the year! What follows is too little, too late but I refuse to let Halloween pass without at least some recognition here!
Fortunately I stumbled on a site by a guy named Karswell who has great taste in all things horrifying. I'll loot Karswell's site and shake out the bag here, on the floor of my own blog. If you like what you see check out Karswell's site:
Here's (above) an excerpt from "The Greatest Horror of Them All," a story about a guy who discovers that his loving girlfriend was all along a hideous monster.
Here's (above) an excerpt from "The Flat Man" where a guy is run over by a bulldozer and survives.
Skipping a bit of story, the flattened man is so angry about what was done to him that he devotes his life to crime. He's perfect for it because he can effortlessly slip under locked doors. Eventually he becomes rich and decides that he wants a wife. The wife angle is sheer genius! As we all know, every monster wants a woman!
Here's (above) a single panel from Basil Wolverton's "Brain Bats of Venus." I include it because the idea of walking around with a brain bat on your head, controlling everything you do, is just so cool.
Here's (above) the final panels of "The Modern Designer," about a deranged lamp designer who deals with a scheming wife.
I live in LA, specifically in the San Fernando Valley. California ranch houses (above) are everywhere here. Maybe that's because until recent times the Valley was full of real horse ranches and orange groves. People here are so used to the ranch style that it's invisible. They feel that they don't have an architectural style of their own (apart from bungalows) , but they certainly do, and I like it a lot.
Here's (above) an example of the customized look. The three structures don't look like they fit together, but they do and I for one find the combination cozy rather than jarring. The pool is interesting because it's a 50s modern shape. The California ranch style is an interesting amalgam of old and new. It's very horizontal and simple the way 50s modern tended to be, but it also incorporates old ranch and barn ideas, and numbers of old European ideas like French doors.
But that's not the end of the story! According to a book called "Ranch House" where I got these pictures from, the style was also influenced by the movies!
Here's (above) an example of the French doors that often front the back yards, even of small houses. They let in plenty of light but they're not as sterile as the large sheets of plain glass that modern purists were using at the time.
Inside (above) it wasn't uncommon to find sheltering white, beamed ceilings. I love the simplicity of these rooms. The builders used simple, unpretentious materials to keep the price down. And look how cheery it is! These houses had good vibes!
Here's (above) the barn doors and diamond-shaped windows that you see so often. I love the colors: brown, muted yellow and white. On the yellow wall you can see the board-and-batten struts which look great and were cheap and easy to put up. The shake roofs are probably a fire hazard but they look terrific!
California ranch homes frequently open into a modest perpendicular corridor like the one above. That's the front door on the left side of the middle of the corridor. I think I can guess why the builders felt so strongly about these. You could argue that the long corridor is wasted space but when you're actually standing in one they seem delightful and absolutely indispensable. 
Unfortunately these nice, old 50s ranch houses are gradually being replaced by post-modern monstrosities like the one above. Ugh!
I'm strapped for time but here's something valuable that I can pass on with a minimum of effort. For everybody out there who writes, here's sci-fi writer Robert Heinlein's five rules for writing success. Ignore them at your peril!
Rule 2) You must finish what you start.
Rule 3) You must refrain from rewriting, except to editorial order.
Rule4) You must put your story on the market.
Rule 5) You must keep it on the matket until it has sold.
Science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer added his own sixth rule, which deserves to be added to the original five:
