The Moviegoers - Episode 16

Elysium, The Act of Killing, Blue Jasmine, Drinking Buddies, I'm So Excited...A good movie going month, but one good month does not change my mind of the state of American cinema.

Malibu

Mid-day sun. Bleached. Dum-Dum Girls. Pink delight. Housewife on mimosas and coke doing selfie videos. Construction workers cutting down trees in the background.

Bizarro land. Malibu'd.

Late Nights in Los Angeles

The darkness pulls in everything

And it is possible a great energy

                      is moving near me.

I have faith in nights.

              

                    - Rainer Maria Rilke

                          You, Darkness

Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing

1. Never open a book with weather. 
2. Avoid prologues. 
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. 
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely. 
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. 
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose." 
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly. 
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters. 
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things. 
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. 
"My most important rule is one that sums up the 10," he wrote. "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."



WRITERS ON WRITING: BY ELMORE LEONARD

Sojurner (Magnolia Electric Co.)

A review I came across of Nashville Moon:

He sings as if people are asking him if he's ok, if there's anything they can do and he's saying "no, it's fine, I'm fine, don't worry about me," and he smiles at them until they pay for their own drinks and bow out for the night.

Long Beach -- Busker Festival

Carly Ritter is no doubt the "princess of the prairie."