August 2009

My wife Judy sent me this incredible photo of the night sky over Sequoia National Park. Check it out. Just click on the following: Dark Sky Over Sequoia National Park.

I have been struggling with my next novel “THE WAYNACK’S WORD.”

I know the story, the concepts, the contemporary spiritual, scientific, philosophical and sociological themes and underpinnings of “THE WAYNACK’S WORD” and the characters, locations (I have seen them in my head, they are extraordinary… like nothing ever done), I have been struggling with the narrative voice, really struggling. Deep inside, I was not going to begin until I knew I had the narrative voice because it is the key to the whole novel.

So yesterday, while walking home from the post office (where I mailed my baseball screenplay “SIXTY-THREE” back East to my in-laws), I looked at the trees. I let my mind, my consciousness, my imagination feel them, receive them, their individuality, their presence, their consciousness. A Palm Tree, inside he felt lean, towering, strong, but isolated and overseeing. A Bottlebrush Tree that I slowly walked toward felt woolly, full and heavy, weighted but burly with a protection of the gentle red flowers, lightness “lighted” upon its dangling arms. I felt their presences inside me, as if I were these trees.

Then, while being with the Bottlebrush, THE WAYNACK’S WORD narrator jumped into my head, or it was always there, I just couldn’t see it. So simple, so clear, so brilliant. The narrator’s voice will be the very first word on the page, and close with the very last word on the last page.

So my journey with THE WAYNACK WORD begins! The magic of surrender, of the letting go of the ego, of being afraid to meld with the existences that surround us from tiniest of flowers to the stars.

I am grateful. I am blessed. Onward.

John

District 9 is a brilliant piece of film making. Original, allegorical, intense and gripping, this film (with no “stars”) is non-stop action and compelling drama, which takes the simple idea from songwriter Joe South, “Walk a mile in my shoes, walk a mile in my shoes, And before you abuse, criticize, and accuse, Walk a mile in my shoes.”

The theme of District 9 is racism, but instead of white versus black, it is humans against aliens. The setting is Johannesburg, South Africa, but today. In Johannesburg, South Africa in 1948, the Apartheid Laws legalized and institutionalized racial discrimination.

District 9 is ground-breaking in style. (to see good trailer click here). Sony Pictures apparently knew that the film was timed perfectly for our time in human history, cultural judgment and polarization, over 70% of people on the planet believe in extraterrestrial life, and when we are at the brink of a “new world order” and global changes in socio-economic-political structures, someone knew that District 9 would strike a universal cord. And it does.

Aside from the allegory, Johannesburg, the high tech weaponry, the racial tension, the action, District 9 is at its heart a very simple story, “Walk a Mile in My Shoes, before you Abuse, Criticize or Abuse.” Don’t miss this film.

My Swiss Army wristwatch stopped today at 10:27 a.m. for no reason. Seven minutes before at 10:20 a.m., I had just finished a powerful screenplay called “SIXTY-THREE” that is about baseball, miracles, myth and mysticism. It goes to my agent Joel Gotler next Monday. As the screenplay was printing, I noticed two spacing and wording mistakes, one of page 133 and one on page 140, the the very last page, which is a powerful white letters over black screen epilogue to the story that concerns the main character Jon Winters and a team. I made those changes at 10:24 (my Final Draft program indicated) at 10:24 a.m.

When I went to get dressed to go to physical therapy for my knee, I reached for my watch and noticed that the time on it has stopped at 10:27 a.m. I knew that I was running late, so how could it be 10:27 a.m.? I was taken aback by this 17 minute discrepancy (I checked the time on my cell phone; it was 10:44 a.m.). It felt weird. It stopped me “in my tracks” so to speak. My watch had been cleaned, oiled, and given a new two year battery just seven months ago, and it has run flawlessly since I took it to the watchmaker. I pulled out the winder on my wristwatch and re-set it to the correct time, 10:44 a.m. Nothing was wrong. It runs perfectly. I sat down on the couch and sent a text to my wife Judy (“My watch stopped inexplicably at 10:27 a.m. R U okay?”) asking her if she was okay? She called two minutes later whispering saying that she was alright. She was at a conference and there were presentations being given.

I do know from speaking with people and reading much that sometimes it happens that watches and clocks (personal items) stop when someone near you dies.