Ass Meets Chair

July 31st, 2010Blog1 comment

After a dozen years, my chair is finally giving out. This is my work chair — the chair I sit in when I’m crouched over my computer writing. I got it at Ikea before I had written my first screenplay, my first full length stage play, before all of that stuff — and now it’s finally giving out.

I noticed this problem starting to occur about five years ago. Screws kept falling out of the bottom of the chair. I would studiously screw them back in — I even keep a screwdriver on my desk for this purpose. Over the years this would occur with greater and greater frequency. It didn’t affect the performance of the chair — there was never any danger of the thing completely falling apart, which I suppose is a testament to Ikea engineering — but it went from initially irritating to habitual. Just another weird thing that needed to be done every now and then in order to keep on writing.

Now the chair’s cushion is well compressed and there’s a hole worn in it that is metastasizing with increasing speed. The arm rests are wobbly. The chair-sitting experience is rapidly deteriorating. It’s time to get a new chair.

I usually don’t anthropomorphize things, but I’m sad that this chair is going away now. In a meeting someone recently told me that I’ve just started my mid-career phase — I’m no longer a beginner or emerging writer anymore. So this chair was essentially my baby chair. The chair with training wheels on it. Having just typed that, I think I’ve just decided to hold onto this chair instead of throwing it out. However, it’s going to have to go into a corner or something. And I still need a new chair.

I’ve been looking at one of these. My goal is to get a chair that will last me another 12 years, taking me through my mid-career phase and into my curmudgeon phase. I figure that it’s worthwhile to spend a lot of money on something that I use every day, for hours a day. Also this chair will make me feel like I’m on the bridge of a space ship, and that’s a worthwhile thing too.

I wonder if this new chair will affect the geist of my work. I have a feeling that it won’t. I’m always a little worried about changing the variables of my work. But inevitably, any good writing concerns change and transformation. So change needs to happen no matter what.

Yes, the old chair’s going to go into the corner. It’ll be like a trophy — something that I can glance at for rememberance’s sake. I think I’m even going to leave the hole in its cushion.

Actually, scratch that — I’m gonna get the hole fixed. It’s an eyesore.

Tee Vee

July 12th, 2010Blog2 comments

I’m doing a comprehensive study of television right now. Reading scripts, watching the corresponding shows. There are so many good things on TV right now — and it’s only going to keep getting better. Here’s what I really like right now:

It is an absolute shame that Party Down has been canceled. I hadn’t heard about this show until about two weeks ago when a good friend said that I had to watch it. It’s about caterers in LA — i.e., actors working lame day jobs — and each show centers around a specific event that they’re catering: A homeowner’s awards party, a sweet sixteen birthday, an orgy. It has incredible acting and writing — for me, this show is up there with Eastbound and Down. Maybe it’s because the comedy concerns people that have seriously lost their way, and the tragedy of their lives is great fuel for laughs. I don’t know. This show belongs in the pantheon of great shows that were killed after just a couple of seasons. But at least we’ll always have a couple of episodes worth of Jennifer Coolidge taking fairly rudimentary lines like “I SEE LEMONS!” and turning them into comedy gold.

Castle is my current favorite procedural. I liked Firefly, but Nathan Fillion is much better playing a womanizing mystery novelist than he is at playing a brooding space captain. The dialogue in this show crackles. It’s fun, it takes place in NYC, and its characters are nifty. It upends the idea of the procedural, focusing on character as much as plot — a great mix. I haven’t been this excited about a show since I saw the first few seasons of House.

Louie is an absolutely amazing show full of ballsy truth. I’m told that Louis C.K. has complete creative control over the show — he even edited the pilot. The comedy in this show knocks my socks off, but beyond that he tells some really compelling stories that contain a lot of drama and unpleasant but important facts about life. I’m amazed that he was able to get some of this stuff on the air, but make no mistake — I’m really glad that it’s there.

I’m late to the party with Ken Burns’ The National Parks, but this series is as enthralling as anything else this master of docs has put out in the past. All of Burns’ documentary series tell the story of America, but you’d never expect a show about the creation of our national parks to touch on race, classism, and the sheer power of individuals to turn their passions into national movements. The story of John Muir by itself is incredibly fascinating.

Finally, I saw the pilot for Will Arnett’s latest show Running Wilde — it’s fantastic. I was hoping GOB would get his own show, and finally, he pretty much has it here. Keri Russell is involved as a pretty fantastic straight man; plus the kid that plays her daughter is fantastic. I have no doubt that this kid’s going to be a star — her comedic timing is impeccable.