Balancing work, family, and writing.

Really busy week behind the scenes - my wife had to report to work, which left me balancing between our kids’ school and my work; and, I did a lot of work on the website that I look forward to revealing in a few weeks. Just want to give a quick update about what I’ve been doing lately.

On the pilot front, I’ve done a ton of research that I know will really expand and enrich my story. I’m going to do a series of posts when I’m done, but the topics are:

• The crossroads myth from the ancient cultures to contemporary America.

• Robert Johnson and his deal with the devil.

• A brief history of musicians and their deal with the devil.

• Why kids have imaginary friends?

• Dissociative Identity Disorder and Schizophrenia.

• Mental health and public awareness/denial.

As for this website, I’ve been doing some behind-the-scene redesign that includes the addition of several pages. One of the pages will be dedicated to sharing my learnings from reading screenplays and other stories. Another page will house some information about my original and spec TV pilots.

Lots of stuff in the works that I can’t wait to share on this website. Now, if I can find my son’s math worksheet that he needs to upload on Monday…

Today’s Accomplishments

• Wrote this blog post - hey, I’m still doing it!

• Reviewed the feedback I need to send to a peer in my writer’s group. I’m a bit behind because of how crazy life has been lately.

• Analyzed scenes from CASUAL pilot as part of my script analysis posts that I’m working on. The goal is to read and breakdown pilot scripts by analyzing each of the following components: Scenes, Sequences, Characters, Metamorphosis/Change, Themes, and Style & Dialogue. I’m basing this work off of Scott Myers’ post “How to Read a Screenplay.” CASUAL by Zander Lehmann is first up because 1) it’s a short script and 2) it’s tonally close to a script of mine I need to revise. Hopefully I’ll be posting my analysis in a few weeks.

Tomorrow’s Tasks/Goals

• Write another blog post - weekly review.

• Work on a few more scenes for CASUAL pilot script analysis.

• Work on current pilot - either wrap up a few bits of research (will post about that soon) or work on the rules for each of my main characters.

Today’s Story Worthy Moment

My youngest turned 6 a few weeks ago, but we were in AZ to celebrate. Today, we celebrated with friends in LA by having a birthday drive by with ice cream so my son could see his friends.

My wife decided to rent an ice cream pushcart and load it up with my son’s favorite ice cream treats. It’s a great, affordable idea that we’ve done before. Because the push cart is rather bulky, I had to take my Escape instead of my wife’s Prius.

Now, here’s a little detail to share: Because Covid has basically nixed the idea of me driving to work, we put the Escape in a basic insurance package to save money. We also forgot to renew the registration - I mean, we weren’t driving the car, so why pay $200 or whatever amount to just have a car sit?

Fast forward to today and I’m driving down Parthenia and I get pulled over. I haven’t been pulled over in year.

So, I pull into a parking lots, two officers approach my car and tell me why they pulled me over - my registration sticked on my license plate expired. One of the officers takes my license and insurance card to run my info. Meanwhile the other officer stands next to my passenger side - the window was down.

At this point I’m still confused about not having update registration. I mean, we always take care of that stuff. So what do I do? I quickly reach over and open the glove box. And, just as I was doing that I could see out of the corner of my eye that officer stepped back and grabbed their gun - they didn’t take the gun out, but they were clearly triggered by my movements.

Now, I know that was a stupid move on my part, but I know I’m not going to do anything and I was more concerned about getting a ticket that I didn’t even think about the officer standing next to my car. And in that moment I thought about what would’ve happened if I was a person of color in that situation? Would the officer just step back and put their hand on their gun? Or, would the officer had drawn their gun and told me to stop moving, most likely causing me to get even more upset/concerned?

It was in that moment that I could see how the tragic shootings that have happened to people of color by officers could happen. All it takes is one small move, something innocuous, and an officer will quickly reach for their gun.

Ironically, as this was all happening, I had NPR on the radio and it was playing an interview with Rosa Brooks about her book “Tangled Up in Blue,” a memoir about her time as a police officer in D.C. and how officer’s view the world. In the interview Brooks discusses how officers are fed competing narratives about citizens: treat everyone with empathy and respect but also know that you could be killed by anyone and at any time.

After the officers handed me a citation and drove off I sat in my car for a few moments wondering what would’ve happened if I was a person of color? It made me think about a story of two men - 1 white and 1 a person of color - who go about their day doing the same things - same decisions, same errands, same car, same dress, etc. - and how society treats them differently.

I can’t say for certain that I only got a cheap fix-it ticket because I’m white, but I the experience was enough to make me pause and really think about how people of color are just treated unfairly and unjustly in our society.