Short Short Story Prompt

Hi!

As you guys might have known, the day job is keeping me pretty swamped lately - there are 27 television series currently shooting in NY, and pilot season hasn't even started, so...woof.  Its great and wonderful, and totally exhausting - and my writing has done bupkis for three months.

Sad face.

I was just invited to a group that does writing prompts - in this case, a key phrase that the writer takes to make a short story of 100-500 words.   I've never been good at micro shorts, but spitting out a hundred words in a few minutes in order to keep writing?  I'm there.  It's about what I have the attention span for at this point.

The first prompt was 'What say thee?"

This is what I wrote:

“What say thee?”

“Donald,” I replied, “I say we're in a goddamn Denny's, so put down your axe and quit mangling middle English for five minutes. Okay?”

His face fell, but he dutifully tucked his new, mass produced battle ax gently on the seat. Our waitress came over, popping gum. She gave our costumes the once over, sucked pink latex back between her teeth, and walked away. Donald looked into my eyes, pleading.

“I'm really hungry.” He said.

I sighed.

“Okay, fine. You can keep the axe on the table.”

Our service did improve tremendously.

What a year so far - man on fire :)

2013 is certainly starting off with a bang!

I've been bouncing around a couple of network television shows. Good times.

One of the things that you learn really fast when working in film/tv is to dress for the weather - studio gigs are great, but you never know when the day will send you outside, or how crazy the elements will be when you get there.

Recently, I was on a scaffold in driving rain, focusing and babysitting some 5k lights.  Yup, that's five thousand watts.   They come in a couple of different flavors, and look more or less like this:

Rain and cold weather gear are probably the most important investments you'll make.  I remember starting out, buying the cheap stuff, and being miserable and sick a lot.  Cotton long underwear is not a good choice, and polyester is completely useless.  If you sweat, or your rain stuff gets permeated, cotton will become waterlogged and lose any warmth baffling it had to begin with - which isn't a lot.

I know I sound like a PSA here.  Seriously though, if you can afford it, get the wool.  The price stings, I completely agree.  It also allowed me to work overnights in five degree weather without being too miserable.  And take care of it, so it'll last you.

Back to the rain.  It slanted in every open space, hood - everybody was damp.  It was past midnight.  We were prepping for a special effects shot where a stuntman gets soaked with gasoline, set alight, and runs around for a while.

One of the guys asked how I was holding up, up there.

I said:

"I really wish we could set this guy on fire now so we can all go home."

Earlier in the day, we were doing a whole lot of blood effects and squibs for some people being gunned down in a store.  Effects shots take a long time to set up and reset, so we'd been going for a while without a meal break.  It happens, no biggie.  It does induce me to say things that sound really horrible out of context, though.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"I'm hungry.  Can we finish killing these people and go eat?"

My boss snarfed coffee on me.

Torture via Cambucha - more adventures of the texting kind

Kombucha is a fermented tea with floating bits in it.  Boything think's its brilliant.  I think its gross.  And more than a little creepy. 

 Boything:  true

on a completely different and unrelated note. I found out a way to grow a kombucha mother..the weird growth thingy needed to make kombucha

 me:  oh god

no

it'll eat me in my sleep

join forces with the cat

take over and grow on the walls

nononononono

THE BLOB

that stephen king story about the bad beer with the mold

that ate the guy

nonnononononono

...today is not the best of brain days either, I'm noticing.

god damn it

Boything:   thanks for reminding me that I will have to store it out of your reach.  I must allow it to grow big enough to stand up for its own

 me:  NONONONONONONO

IT WILL EAT ME

WHILE THE STEAMER WATCHES

 Boything:  kom bu cha kom bu cha kom bu cha

 me:  WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Boything:  sounds like something you would hear in a horror movie

 me:  it IS

Boything:  and they call it a mother..meaning that it can have babies!!!!

 me:  KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT

 Boything:  but I have not started to grow one yet..and love it.. and nurture it.. and FEED IT!

 me:  WAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAHHHHH

The Saga of Kitty

Boyfriend and the cat are arguing about his radio antennae. Cat ate it. Boyrfriend took it away. Cat is bitching about that. Boyfriend refuses to return the remaining two inches of wire out of the original ten, and is demanding to know what happened to the other eight. This will be the highlight of my evening.

"What did you DO with it?'

"Mew."

"Is it INSIDE you???"

"Miaw."

"GODDAMN it, cat!"

"MOW"

"NO. I'm not giving it back!"

Boyfriend throws away the wire.  Two mintues later, it's back.

'You snuck it out of the trash!?  You little scumbag ."

"MOW."

I live in a cartoon.

Ood to a Grecian Urn

I painted this for a friend of mine, who's an obsessive fan.

Not necessarily of Dr. Who - he's kind of an amazing dude.  Once he becomes interested in a thing, he learns - nay memorizes - whatever aspects of that thing interest him.  He can name the Yankees players from  the inception of the team.  I'm always in awe of the sheer amount of information that's packed away in his brain.

I'm the idiot who introduced him to Dr. Who.  Within two days, he knew more, and could remember more details about the series than I ever could.  I'm always impressed when talking to him about anything.

He's also incredibly clever, with this vast well of knowledge. As we were rambling about tv shows (Dr. Who in particular) he said:

'You know what would be hilarious?  If someone painted 'Ood to a Grecian Urn'."

So I obliged.

Goals

Goals are important if you want to get where you want to be. To that end, I'm going to start posting one a week. My long term goal is to be an amazing illustrator. This winter's goals involve finishing my book and doing a stop motion project.
This week's goal is to finish a post production project, and my art class homework.
Tonight's goal: organize these files.
Tomorrow: get a magazine about dance and use it for my art class homework.

What is your long term goal? What are you doing this week to get there? Today?

The Daddy Diaries

No, I'm not a dad myself.

As a creative working in an industry that more and more isn't (video), it gives me the hankering to do projects that are fun and meaningful to me.

Most of what I want to do is rather epic in scope, diametrically opposed to my out of pocket funding source.  I'd love to do great, dystopian science fiction; or huge fantasy creations.

What ends up happening though, is that I end up stymied by lack of funds and schedules of my other industry friends - who are great and more than willing to help, but likewise can't afford to work for a month on a free project, however they may like me personally.  It's okay, I understand.

While wracking my brain to come up with a project that I could do on my own and (unlike the stop motion) complete in a matter of days rather than months, I reconnected with an old college buddy.



Like many of my peers, he has a kid now.  (Where DOES the time go?)  His daughter is hilarious, and does the most amazing things.

I thought his stories were just too good not to share, so I am.