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Arousal of the Mind

Have you ever stood before a work of art that stunned you with its beauty? Ever heard a piece of music that made you cry? What about hearing a story and being so pulled in by it that you forget everything else going on around you?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these then you have been inspired. What is inspiration and why does it drive us? One definition for inspiration is the arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or creativity. An arousal of the mind…..

Arousal doesn’t have to be sexual. When you are aroused you are awakened. Once you’re senses have been waked this is where the magic happens. The mind is spurred to that special level of activity.

Ideas begin to form in thoughts, words, maybe even pictures in your mind. Inspiration, this mental arousal, isn’t just a passing thing. If you are truly inspired something happens. You become driven. There is an aching need to see this idea come to life.

For a writer inspiration is what drives us to weave stories. We are given the chance to create people and worlds that just might inspire someone else. Where do you get such deep inspirations you ask?

It can come from almost anywhere and sneak up on us. Our minds are aroused though music and art but also the ordinary things in life. Sometimes even the things we like the least will be of great inspiration.

Men, women and even children are inspired to great heights every day. Stephine Meyer wrote the Twilight series inspired by a dream she’d had. Stephine even has said she started with writing her dream which was the middle of the story. Then went back and added the beginning and the end.

Picasso was inspired by a circus poster, Salvador Dali once said the very air he breathed was inspiring.

Hanna at seven years old was diagnosed with stage four Burkitt’s lymphoma. After intense chemo and a Make-A-Wish trip to Disney’s Magic Kingdom this little girl was inspired. She made a necklace out of melted crayon and a black walnut shell for a mold. If you’ve ever seen a black walnut inside you know the wax came out in the shape of a heart.

Hanna made more heart necklaces and sold them with all the money going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. In 2009 they presented Hanna with the Lori Shulz-Betancourt Indomitable Spirit Award. This little seven year old girl as raised over $20,000 for the Foundation.

Are you inspired yet? If not go to a museum, take a walk though the park, listen to your favorite music open your heart to it and the inspiration will find you when you least expect it too. Maybe even in the grocery store or a blog post.

Question is once you find that great awakening what are you going to do with it?

Snow in the Sunshine State

for our adventure and pics of our Florida snow storm go here…. http://adventureatrandom.blogspot.com/

2010 The Fortune Cookie Year

Fortune cookies tell all

I have been pondering a post that would be deep in thought. Maybe even enlightening. Well after two days of thought…. I got nuttin. Sorry. If you’re seeking wisdom it might be better to open a fortune cookie.

Hey don’t knock it. There’s some pretty good stuff in those crunchy treats. You can find out about your love life, if you’ll be successful, maybe even get the winning lottery numbers. One thing about those fortunes, they all say these things will happen for you soon.

Soon as in this afternoon, tomorrow morning, next week maybe? I’m impatient I want my true love now. (David Caruso, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce… any of those will do nicely) Success would be great too. Slice me off a big piece of that pie. But guess what… that old saying, “good things come to those that wait”, it’s true.

We have to wait and be patient for all these good things the all knowing cookies promise. But we can’t just be sit by the window and watch for our true love. (Adrian Paul would be a lovely sight indeed coming up my walk way.) If we just expect success to knock on our door we’ll be filing bankruptcy and living in our cars.

No we wait actively. Yeah I just made that up but it sounds good huh? Think about it. I’m a writer, if I want success with my novel I’ve got to do something about it. The manuscript isn’t going to get off my desk and run to the shelves of the nearest bookstore.

I have to get those pages to the agent or publisher who wants them. I have to wait and find the right one… see how that waiting actively works now? It applies to everything in life. If we want to find happiness, love and success we have to do something about it.

Fortune cookies aren’t necessary lying to us. We really can have all those things we just have to do something about it to get them. So I’m going to look at this shiny new year as a giant fortune cookie.

2010 holds success, happiness, travel, and even love. (If someone slips David Caruso my number it might speed things along.) I’m going to find each of my fortunes as they come along this year. Then I’m going to hold tight and build on those dreams.

So keep watch and I’ll keep you posted on what those cookies bring this year.

Lake County Folk Festival Comes to Mainstreet

Lake County Folk Festival comes to the Eustis Mainstreet
for all the lastest info on this event. Look for the event report on Sunday.

Free Museum Day 2009

This will be the 8th Annual Museum Day sponsored by Smithsonian magazine. Participating museums nation wide will offer free admission to guests with a Museum Day card. The card is good for two free admissions to the participating museum of your choice.

Some of the featured museums include Virginia Museum of Natural History in Virginia. The Irving Arts Center in Texas, South Street Seaport Museum in New York, Memorial Hall in Massachusetts and the Seminole A-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum in Florida.

Over 60 museums are participating in the state of Florida and over 50 in Texas. Many more all over the country will accept the Museum Day card. You can get yours by filling out a short form then download for later printing at the Smithsonian web site at http://microsite.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/index.html

There is a full listing of all participating museums on the website for Museum Day. They range from art and history to cultural and science. There is some place for everyone to explore on Museum Day.

CSI Miami Premiere Sneak Peek

Have your box of tissues ready this is going to be a big opener! Sept. 21st at 10pm.

Writers Don’t Deserve an Emmy?

The Academy of  Television Arts and Sciences (the people behind the Emmys) have disallowed writers from eligibility in the category of Best Series. Apparently earlier in the process they tried to cut writers out of several other categories of awards.

Under great protest this was reversed but now this decision has come forth. That series staff writers will not be eligible to partake in the Best Series category.  In truth with out writers there would be no Best Series to nominate.

There would be no dialogue for the actors to give their best performances to earn nominations with. The Best Series award is meant to recognize the entire staff of the show. Doesn’t that include the writers?

The following is from Doris Egan on the subject of writers being left out of this category, thanks to the LAT The Envelope blog.

— “What do you do when someone spits in your drink?”

Television writers are upset, depressed, and just plain angry. The reason why can be found a letter from the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences, aka “The People Who Run the Emmys.”

If you watch the Emmys, you’ve seen what happens when the “Best Series” prize is awarded; a ridiculously large group of people go up on stage, where they shift uncomfortably but happily from one foot to another while their boss makes a speech. These are the faces behind the show: the writer-producers, mainly, usually along with a few director-producers and line producers. They are the people who create and round out the characters, design the story arcs, write the words the actors speak. As it turns out, however, these tasks are considered unimportant by an Academy whose raison d’etre is supposed to be acknowledging and rewarding quality of effort. The Academy has determined two things:

1) Only a producer should receive an award for “Best Series.”
2) Only a producer who spends a greater portion of their time producing other people’s episodes than writing their own should receive an award for “Best Series.”

Directing producers, in. Line producers, in. Writing producers… well, the Academy’s letter reads:

“A priority of the Acadmy is preserving the value of the Emmy Award thus insuring that those who are most deserving and actively involved are the ones honored with nomination.”

That would not include writers, apparently. Though it would include people who do the scheduling and handle the budgets, and it would include producer-directors.

(The award, by the way, is not for “Best Producer.” It is called “Best Series.” It is simply a tradition that producers have received it; were I King, I’d give everybody on the show an award, and as for who could come up on stage, I’d say, “Choose two writer-producers, two production-oriented producers, and two actors.” Because, let’s be real. If we’re talking about who contributes to “Best Series,” the actors have something to do with it.)

Before I go any further, I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “Why should I care?” Indeed, you may be asking, “Why should you care?” It’s just another stupid awards ceremony, you’re thinking.

If you think that, you’re correct. But if you think that status in this foolish town does not translate into power, money, and the opportunity to do the work you love, then God bless your naivete. I could write a treatise listing all the ways this is so. And here’s the trouble with the way writers fit into this picture: they’re low-key. They’re pathetically grateful to be making a living writing. Whenever discussions of money take place, within two minutes or less a writer will point out to other writers that we make a comfortable salary in a world where people are starving. This is true, but it’s not an attitude that gets you very far in Hollywood. This is a town full of loud-talking narcissists, who walk in laying claim to everything. You may recall the island of Laputa in Gulliver’s Travels, where no one could have a conversation without a person designated as an “ear flapper,” who would strike the person who was supposed to be listening and make them pay attention. In Hollywood, there are entire companies whose sole reason for existing is to attach themselves to a writer with the promise that they can get somebody to listen to them. (And I’m not talking about agents.) There are directors who direct a pilot, leave, and retain executive producer status for the rest of the series run. A great many people, all along the way, puff up their status and take a huge chunk of power and budget from the studio. Writers, however, come from a long tradition of holing up in their caves and working. They are rarely political. Frankly, they are often political idiots.

They do work, however. Let’s talk about that. Writers come up with the ideas that become episodes of the show. On many shows, every writer works on building every single episode, and then one person goes off and writes it. On other shows, every writer contributes to other episodes when asked, and spends the bulk of their time building their own episodes. All writers join in brainstorming general ideas and creating the overall series arcs. None of this counts with the Academy however, and I’ll tell you why: it’s writing.

Now, shows are all run differently, but on the vast majority of them, writer-producers also have producing duties. This may include re-writing other writers; it almost certainly includes things like casting; participating in concept, tone, scheduling, wardrobe, and production meetings; going on location scouts; giving editing notes; and showing up on set at 6:00 in the morning for the first rehearsal and not leaving till that night’s wrap. None of this counts with the Academy, however, and I will tell you why: most often, a writer-producer is producing an episode that they have written themselves. Again, that taint of writing is involved. Each writer-producer is spending a larger proportion of their total hours doing that awful writing than they are producing, and that’s just not being “deserving and actively involved” in the show.

Mind you, even if every single writer-producer on a show only produced episodes they’d written themselves, that means that — why, good heavens! One hundred percent of the episodes of that show were produced by that show’s writing staff.

That would be the same staff that used to be eligible for the “Best Show” Emmy. (By this crazy Academy logic, Woody Allen doesn’t produce his own movies.)

Now, I can understand the Academy saying, “These groups of people gathering on stage are silly. We want to narrow it down to just four or five people.” They’re not saying that, by the way; but suppose they were. After all, I’m under no illusion that the world wants to see a bunch of awkward writers standing around. (Though I found it rather sweet and amusing back in the days when I watched from Jersey.) Here’s the solution: tell the shows that only three people can be on stage; and they should pick which three. Problem solved!

Or suppose the Academy were saying, “Those Emmy statuettes are too expensive to manufacture. Gotta hold down the numbers.” They’re not saying that, by the way; but suppose they were. Of course, we’d need to pretend those many thousands of dollars in swag the Academy gives to the presenters aren’t happening, but let’s put on our fairness glasses and look the other way. Here’s the solution: “Each show gets three statuettes. Any of the other winners who want one, they or the show will have to pony up for themselves.” Problem solved!

I make these last points only to show that practical concerns are clearly not what is motivating this. Now, you may feel that the Academy’s own explanation is sufficient; the people who create the stories, write them, and produce them are simply not contributing sufficiently. That may be your opinion. I can tell you that a couple of other theories are being more prominently discussed. The simplest and most charitable is that the people who make these decisions at the Academy are themselves non-writing producers, production managers, and directors. It is only human to look in the mirror and believe that what they do is the lever-and-fulcrum which moves television. I will note, however, that by an interesting coincidence, this is happening in the same year the Academy decided to drop the “Best Writing” Emmy from the telecast. (It was only reinstated after great protest.)

At a certain point, when you continue to take abuse, you cease to garner sympathy and garner a touch of contempt instead. To the credit of writers I’ve spoken with, they’re not just depressed and resigned (their normal state). They’re angry. Allow me to quote from an email that I think sums up the feeling (this is in answer to the question, “Are you going to attend the Emmys?” — mind you, since writers are no longer eligible, invitations will be harder to get anyway. But one often wants to go if only to support friends who are nominated):

”What is your response when someone spits in your drink? The PGA and the people who run the Emmys have looked us in the eye and said they were going to screw us–not some nameless group, but us. They have screwed us. And, in the end, they will screw us. They have clearly said they do not value what we do. They have clearly said that the person who figures out how many years the sets can be amoritized over is more important then the person who came up with the story for episode three.

So, the guestion is, when someone says to you, your contribution is insignificant to the success of the show, when someone insults you, I’m not asking them if I can still come to their party. I don’t want any part of them. I will quit the academy and I will not go to the Emmys.”

I don’t know how many other writers feel this way, but the bitterness is certainly widespread. Will there be an Emmy boycott? I don’t know that, either, but I can tell you I’ve heard it talked of. And given the strength of feeling, even if people said they were coming, I wouldn’t be sure till their butts were in their seats on the day. I haven’t seen this much uproar in a while. Here’s a quote from another writer:

“I don’t know why the Academy wants to destroy the traditions television has been running on for the past decades.”—-
**************

Thank you Ms. Egan for your words and standing up for what’s right. I have written a couple of screen plays and know it’s no picnic I can only imagine doing week after week.

Noveling and articles come easier to me. Regardless of my area of expertise I am a WRITER and I must voice a protest. It is wrong of the Academy to think no one will notice and to set aside the creative force that truly gives birth to the Best Series.

No, not every writer deserves an award but those who strive to be the best at our chosen trade deserve to be honored and recognized.

A Gallant Night

Standing in the gallery Lucinda sipped her wine gazing at the veduta. The landscape was timely done in earthy oils. The artist expressed great elocution in his work. Moving on through the gallery she found another painting. This one seemed so real, as if the man standing at the parapet could come tumbling out of the work.

Applause erupted as the artist raised his glass in a toast to Phillip Glazer. Pronounced fee-leep glass-a-er. The shmuck probably wasn’t even French. Lucinda had a premonition that all the artist’s efforts to impress the great critic were all a fallacy.

In her mind’s eye she could picture the review in which uppity Philip would eviscerate the young artisan. At the very least sever an artery.

With a sigh she moved on into the exhibits laughing quietly to herself as she passes a couple. The gentleman was trying to impress his lady friend, badly. He stood back from the painting with a distant expression. Then proclaimed that the artist was ocular. Oh yes the young man had a vision alright. Of getting that pretty little girl between the sheets.

A huge landscape caught her eye. The view was from the bottom of a gorge. Near the end of the great trench was a cave, coming out of the gaping mouth was supposed to be a bear. Taking another sip from her flute she decided the artist should stick to landscapes only. The bear looked more like a hamster.

Next was a classic view of the medieval hero Robin Hood. The outlaw stood in disguise line up with the other archers. Arrow knocked ready to fly true and win the legendary contest. Grinning she wondered if she could step into the painting and blow in his ear as he let fly. Let’s see him make that shot.

 An odd coupling by the same artist the next painting held a limo in the Nevada desert. Standing against the side of the car a man dressed forties gangster style. Might have been attractive but for the horrendous scar down the side of his face. Something caught her eye started her laughing at the artist’s morbid sense of humor. Lying just under the edge of the trunk was a man’s shoe.

 Moving on she found the scene of an interior of a house. A woman stood in the background hands on her hips. Cooking over an old wood burning stove was apparently her husband. The poor man was tall and thin obviously worked to death by the shrew.

 The next piece was a collage of calendars. It was quite impressive how he managed to encapsulate so much history into the piece. There was a calendar from the year JFK was assassinated the date circled in red. Little pictures of historical events speckling many of the dates.

 Lucinda actually liked the Florida landscape. The beach with its white sands seemingly stretching on forever. Palm trees shading a group of sunbathers as the waves licked at their feet. A dog with a Frisbee running along the shore gave her a smile.

 Hanging next was a peep inside a brothel. Ladies enticing men with their unmentionables and pretty smiles hoping to make a few dollars that night. Some were dancing, others drinking, a few locked in romantic endeavors but all laughing and gay. All but one. In the corner window seat a woman with long golden locks stared at the moon. Her sapphire eyes held a longing, perhaps of dreams lost. 

 Sighing Lucinda had lost patience with the crowd growing in number and noise. The wine no longer able to quench her thirst she poured it into the potted tree. Glancing around she slipped the flute with its gallery charm dangling from the stem into her purse. On her way out she over heard Fee-leep telling another patron the artist should have stuck to flipping burgers.

The valet brought her car and Lucinda tipped him before driving away. On the way home she listened to Mozart drifting through the speakers. Once inside her apartment the illusion was shattered. Toeing off her shoes she walked over to the wall over her dinning table. Pulling the flute from her purse Lucinda set the glass on a shelf turning the charm to dangle from the front.

 Stepping back she looked at her collection. There was a glass from almost every gallery in New York and LA. Since moving to California Lucinda had found the Beverly Hills posh galleries a lot of fun. It was her little escape from her mundane life as a post office clerk.

Once a month she would dress to the nines walking among the beautiful people. Experiencing the world in their eyes for a couple of hours, tasting fine wines, foods she would never be able to afford. Walking to her bedroom Lucinda took off her dress she’d saved for six months to buy it. There were three fine gowns in her closet just for her little trips.

 Slipping on the oversized tee shirt Lucinda thought about the gallery and all she had seen tonight. Her gallant night out, that’s what she called it. Resting her head on her pillow Lucinda made note to check the listings for next month so she could plan her next gallant night.

When Bloggers Blab Instead of Blog

Blogs are a great place to express views and opinions about the world around us. But there is a a such thing as getting the facts instead of spouting accusations and starting rumor. Once that line is crossed the blog is just blab.

Recently Russell Crowe was seen enjoying the match at Wimbledon. The next morning bloggers went wild with assumptions that Mr. Crowe was, as one blog headline put it, causing trouble. There were photos taken of celebs at the match of course Russell Crowe was one of the most photographed. (thanks for that btw)  Below is one of the photographs showing a Naval Officer and Mr. Crowe pointing. 

 On sight of this image conclusions were drawn that a celebrity is causing a fuss. Instead of asking a few simple questions to find out what was going on exactly many bloggers began blasting false accusations. 

A few stated as if it were absolute that Mr. Crowe wanted to change seats and was pointing where he wanted to move to. Then was refused and had to be calmed by the officer when he was refused.

Guess what…you were fed blog after blog of assumed falsehoods.

Luckily we have the facts to set the matter straight. There was a witness to what was going on in the photo. Yes, a real person with facts. This is their account of the event as witnessed.

I heard the whole conversation with Russell Crowe at Wimbledon yesterday. He saw a friend further down and was asking if the guy could go down and tell her to come and say hello but he was saying he can’t move from his spot. He was perfectly nice and had no problem being told this. – Nell, London W8, 6/7/2009

Thank you Nell of London for coming forward and commenting on one of the inflammatory blogs with the facts. See no fuss no nastiness between them, and no cell phones.

My point is that if you are going to take something like this and post about it get the truth and the real facts before making assumptions. After all you know what they say. When you assume…….