I read the rest of SAVE THE CAT last night over two glasses of Malbec at Don Pistos and I totally loved it.  (This was after watching the finale of “It’s A Brad, Brad World” with Susan and Belle which was somehow intensely moving and silly all at once –– although I had tremendous Déjà vu ...

My friend Julie –– who is brilliant and wise and a terrific editor –– after reading my blog about condensing the script yesterday, very enthusiastically recommended I read SAVE THE CAT! by Blake Snyder, which is one of the few screenwriting books that seems to have eluded me (althou...

No Oscars for us on Sunday night. Instead, Adrian and Belle and I went to the rescheduled Simone Dinnerstein concert at the Montalvo Arts Center, an easy hour drive from San Francisco into bucolic countryside. It’s your basic Italianate villa on 175 acres that a Senator built in the 20s and left to t...

So yesterday I received about 200 messages congratulating me for the appearance of my dropback painting in the New York Times.  It was fantastic and a little overwhelming. We’re talking about my speed dials & people I haven’t spoken to in 20 years;  people I’ve just met & folks I&...

Woke up this morning with a rough plan of the day sketched out at dinner last night with Adrian, mostly of some work I had to do [more screenplay edits + a bid for a small directing gig … that sort of thing] and a list of various activities for us during his visit. Then, while checking email from my ...

While shopping for a few select Christmas gifts this year, I fell deeply in love with a scarf (well, two scarves actually) and I couldn’t decide which to give Adrian.  And I really wanted one.  So I bought the two variations — blue and gold — and gave one to him in NYC and one to myself i...

Woke up this morning to good news:  we have a foreign sales agent for UPWARD DOG. I love foreign sales because besides sharing the book with more people, it’s also pretty much Found Money.  You’ve done the work already, so it’s like extra windfalls of cash. YOGA IN BED & YOGA FOR SUI...

Last night I re-watched SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, a movie I really do think is fantastic.  The more you know about Shakespeare, the better it is, but even if you know next to nothing, I think it shows what the artist’s life is like better than anything else I can recall (at least MY life, that is.) I love...

At last … Had my third meeting with the wonderful Raymond Davi today where we completed an elevator pitch/positioning statement that I actually love. I cannot tell you the sense of relief this provides me with — SERIOUSLY. For one thing, it relieves me of the burden of having to define myself a...