Thunderbolt

Went to the circus tonight, man was that a strange experience. I can't say the I was totally enthused or even entertained, but I came away with an appreciation of what circuses are and the hard work that goes into putting on the show. This particular circus, Circus Vargas, has been around for 40 years. As I watched the show I thought to myself how strange that no one has made a contemporary film about circus life. I had a couple ideas for kids films and maybe a farce, but I also kept coming back to a star studded Altman-esque idea, something I will never write. It seemed that everyone had a couple of jobs at the circus. The death defying motorcycle rider whose display of skill closed the show was also the guy taking photos of audience members and trying to get them to buy the picture before the end of the show. Seems that everyone who performed also worked on the crew in some capacity. Trapeze artists also rolled out the carpet, the women who performed magic also sold concessions b...

I don't want to be negative, but I'm afraid that the Indians season is slipping away. There would be nothing I'd like more than to be proven wrong on this one. But with one of their starters, albeit an ineffective one, and one of their best relievers (who was one of their best starters before he got switched to the bullpen) both getting injured last night, I'm getting that sinking feeling in my stomach. There is so much talent on this team, yet they don't seem to have any fire under them. While I'm sure that Eric Wedge is a good manager and I've supported him in the past, I wonder if there needs to be a shakeup and if the blame shouldn't fall on his shoulders. It's not just about inspiring, it's about managing . The great manager, when his guys are slumping, he yanks 'em to place a more effective hitter in the lineup. Torre does it. LaRussa does it. And to use an excuse like, "we're a young team" is crap. Martinez, Sizemore and ...

I was so disheartened that I had left the room. But something told me to go back and watch the last second of this game. Something inside me said that I wouldn't want to miss a miracle if it actually happened. So back to the bedroom I went, where Sophie and Julie were laying in the bed and the TV was on. The Cavs had 1 second. ONE SECOND! They would have one chance to throw the ball in bounds and take a shot and there was only one person who should be handling the ball. I'm still smiling. It was the most amazing feat I've seen in a very long time and the fact that it was happening for a Cleveland team and not against it was the kicker. Yeah, they blew another huge lead, but this kind of win can create momentum. Let's hope. Gotta love Marv Albert's call at the buzzer.

I am nearly out from under the pile of DVD reviews I committed to reviewing for Popdose. One of them came out in April... zoinks. Basically I should be cranking these things out but I always want to go back and proof the reviews and revise what I've written. It's not like I'm writing some dumb blog or anything. The thing is, we're trying to make Popdose something unique, which means doing my best as a writer. I know PR firms have to tell their clients how many reviews they've received, but since I'm not getting paid, I feel like they can cut me some slack. The worst thing that could happen is I don't get nay more DVD's to review and I have to spend all of my time working on the book. Actually, that would be a great thing. I just want to get done with these reviews so I can focus on the book. I feel like I've hit a wall and I really need a kick in the ass to get back writing. I'm pretty frustrated with myself for slacking off after having such a g...

Julie has returned and we now go back to routine of normalcy until school lets out. Then , I don't know. I'm not going to lie and say that this summer is going to be easy. Without Julie working get regularly things are going to be T-I-G-H-T, tight. Man it would really help if something could get sold, but even if someone bought one of my scripts, the reality is that the money wouldn't be in the bank for months. So, we bite the bullet. We shall make ends meet as best as possible and hope that the fall brings better fortunes. But hey, let's not all get down about this. We're not the only ones going through this, so I take some limited comfort in that. For some insane reason I am not gnawing off my fingernails over this. What is this feeling? Hope? Blind faith? Or perhaps I have just lost it. Oh, and let me as this: I downloaded UB40's version of "Red Red Wine" from their greatest hits album ad it's the single version, sans the ska rap at the end. ...

Our neighbors, Dee and Larry, recently sold their house and will be moving a 1 1/2 acre home by the end of the summer. The reality of them leaving didn't begin to sink in until today when their daughter moved out of the house. Seeing the U Haul and boxes stacked up on the driveway made me a little sad. Dee and Larry have been in their house since we moved into our house. I'm not sure how close they are to any of the other neighbors, but I've always felt like our two families bonded nicely. I used to watch their dogs when they went on long vacations and one of their other daughters used to watch our cats. You know the old cliche of the one neighbor always borrowing the guy across the street's tools? That was me always hitting up Larry for a weed whacker or some obscure tool. And Larry was always eager to give me what I needed and to lend a hand when I asked. They're not gone yet, but it will be sad when they finally do pull away in their moving van.

Julie is now in Atlanta having left yesterday afternoon. It was quite a traumatic day for both of the kids. When you consider that Sophie has never been away from her mom for 10 years and Jacob for 7 years, there is bound to be some separation anxiety. However, they have been doing great today. I'm very proud of them. Today was also a minimum day at school, so I stayed home, too. The family picnic at the school took place at 11:45, so I had a couple of hours alone in the morning to do some writing, which I didn't do because I'm obsessed with my iPod. My poor little iPod hates me. At least once a day I have the small device hooked up, trying to manipulate as much as I can out of the 8 gig drive. Just yesterday I realized that the jpegs I atach to each song actually suck up memory space. The iPod has been angry and shutting down. I must be nice to the iPod. I can not let the iPod crash on me. Soon I will explain my obssesive compulive set list that I compiled to write the boo...

A sudden cold knocked me on my ass last week. All day Friday I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone and then I was slapped in the head with one "bad mother fu--m 'Shut your mouth!' Just talking 'bout" cold all day Saturday. At one point Saturday night, while trying to get to sleep, I coughed so hard it felt like someone took a knife, magnetized it, then picked up a hundred pins and shoved the deadly pin knife into my throat. Needless to say Mothers Day was a little disappointing. Oh, it wasn't disappointing for Jules; I believe she had a very nice day. It was disappointing because I was low on energy and couldn't do as much for as I had hoped. Nevertheless, we did have some fun this weekend, taking in a Lancaster Jethawks minor league baseball game Saturday night and spending the afternoon Sunday with Budd and Karyn's family. I haven't run since last Thursday and I'm not sure if I'll be up and jogging until after this weekend. Julie is le...

Man, the Indians are just KILLING me. 9 and 16? Their horrid defense and inability to hit with men in scoring position is crushing my heart. I know, I know, it's early.

Last week I attended a couple panels at the LA Times Book Festival. The Festival itself was nice, but I'm not into the whole "walking from booth to booth and getting free stuff" thing. I've decided that I'm going to try and write a book and I wanted to hear from some authors writing in the same genre I'm trying. The two panels were interesting, although I enjoyed the 1st panel much more. The authors on that panel were Robin Benway, Deb Caletti, Lauren Myracle and Lisa Yee. This particular panel was moderated by Cecil Castelluci, an author herself. The five women were quite animated and it was very interesting seeing their different personalities on stage. I came away from the panel with a couple nuggets of motivation that have kept me moving forward with my writing. The second panel was fine, though a little stuffy. The moderator for that panel ran it much more traditionally by asking questions on down the row of authors. I liked the free form conversational ...