Monday, November 23, 2009

LeechBlock and Gimpix

Two great finds this morning while writing:



First, LeechBlock, a Firefox add-on designed to block those time-wasting sites that can suck the life out of your working day. All you need to do is specify which sites to block and when to block them.

This add-on has a ton of customizable features, allowing you to block groups of sites during specific days and time periods. You can even limit access to application's preferences to keep yourself honest during an unauthorized Facebook craving.

Thank you, James Anderson, for this gift to writers. Goodbye Facebook, hello productivity!



Second, my research on long leg casts led me to this peculiar, possibly NSFW site. Gimpix is a site dedicated to "exploring the sexuality of an attractive woman in a plaster of Paris leg cast."

The author of Gimpix explains his site in a 9-point "Rationale" section. Some highlights:

"My pulse quickens and I receive a powerful stimulation whenever I see a pretty woman with her leg in a plaster cast, either hobbling on crutches or staggering along in a walking cast!"

"Of the many orthopedic devices that exist, only plaster leg casts have such charisma."

"Watching a woman wiggling her toes is very seductive whether they are in a cast or not. But seeing them sticking out of plaster intensifies the allure."

"Also sometimes pleasurable for women is the warm feeling provided by the exothermic chemical reaction of the setting plaster, although one must be cautious to avoid high water temperatures, and consequently risk of burning."

Thank you, the Internet! My gift to you this Monday morning.


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Friday, September 18, 2009

Upscale Restaurants to Try

grace
http://gracerestaurant.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/grace-restaurant-los-angeles

buffalo club
http://www.thebuffaloclub.com/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-buffalo-club-santa-monica

akasha
http://www.yelp.com/biz/akasha-culver-city
http://www.akasharestaurant.com

the little next door
http://www.thelittledoor.com/tldhome.html
http://www.yelp.com/biz/little-next-door-los-angeles

tanner's coffee
http://www.yelp.com/biz/tanners-coffee-co-culver-city

king's cafe
http://www.yelp.com/biz/kings-cafe-culver-city
New Cafe List

SANTA MONICA
infuzion cafe
http://www.infuzioncafe.com/

VENICE
joni's coffee
http://www.joniscoffee.com/

cow's end
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-cows-end-venice

dola

BRENTWOOD
Brew N Beans
http://www.yelp.com/biz/brew-n-beans-los-angeles
sat 8-3

CULVER CITY
Westsubs
http://www.yelp.com/biz/westsubs-culver-city

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Every Little Step

Just watched Every Little Step at the Arclight, a documentary about dancers auditioning for a show about dancers auditioning for a show. I saw a community theater version of A Chorus Line with Catherine Ho in high school. I left the theater and ran to the Borders across the street hunting for the CD.

The most interesting thing about the film, I thought, was how it revealed the lineage of each character in the show as auditionees attempted to capture the essence of the roles. One thing I didn't know about A Chorus Line was that it began as a taped interview, Michael Bennett assembling a group of dancers one night to talk about their lives.

All great theatre is an experiment. A Chorus Line was based on the lives of real dancers, and in the original, those dancers played themselves. So what's interesting about the revival is how the auditionees are vying for roles that were originally created from and inhabited by other real dancers. Asian-American dancers auditioned for Baayork Lee--not just the original "Connie Wong," but the woman on whom "Connie Wong" is based. "Cassie" hopefuls danced to "The Music and the Mirror," a song tailored to Donna McKechnie's unusually large range.

What I liked about the film was its communion with the past, with the original actors and the actors who reprized their roles.

Cote Smith's "Hurt People"

Just finished reading the latest issue of One Story: "Hurt People," a debut story from Cote Smith.

The story is amazing. Eerie, elegant, chilling, a tale of two brothers in a town "with more prisons than restaurants." Smith's interview on One-Story.com was very interesting as well. He talks about refining stories on the sentence level, going for the understated instead of the over-the-top. Here's a snippet from the interview:

"I had been writing stories that I didn't really like and I couldn't pinpoint why. Thinking about the stories, I liked the ideas, but I didn't like the actual story. I finally figured out it was the over-the-top, sentence-level writing that turned me off. How I figured this out was I read two short story collections, Twenty Grand by Rebecca Curtis, and The First Hurt, by Rachel Sherman. Those two books showed me how someone can write beautiful, engaging, and surprising stories using nicely measured sentences with basic syntax and structure. So I decided to write a story in which I just showed as much as possible, in simple, hopefully beautiful sentences. The first sentence I wrote was, 'The town had more prisons than restaurants.' The story took off from there."

I think that this "over-the-topness" is something that often happens in my writing. I'm going to check out the collections from Curtis and Sherman and want to experiment with a more measured approach in the new Spork project I'm working on.

Can't wait to read more from Cote Smith.