Since I’m going out of town on Wednesday for a week, I decided to get the current story, called “Adrift,” back in the hands of the editor. I called what I sent him a second draft, but in reality it is more like a tenth draft. It’s been a long time since I’ve edited something so extensively and continuously. This version was up to 5300 words. A lot of changes—a lot. I’m not sure I’m done with it yet. Depends in part on his comments. I also sent it to my first reader. I’ll probably tackle it again when I get back. I suspect that any changes I make at this point will be polish rather than structure, unless I hear otherwise from the editor.
Another good episode of Burn Notice this week. I like the captions when new characters show up: Dude with a Problem. That surfer has to qualify as one of the most clueless clients any detective’s ever had to suffer. I liked his girlfriend’s reaction when she was liberated. And a nice, touching moment at the end between a guy, his girlfriend and their Tokarev. The gift that keeps on givin’.
We watched a couple of movies this weekend. The first was The Factory Girl, with Siena Miller portraying Edie Sedgwick, a wealthy heiress who became part of Andy Warhol’s inner circle for a time before she turned self-destructive. Or maybe she was already self-destructive, which is how she allowed herself to be sucked into Warhol’s insanity. I didn’t know much about Warhol’s penchant for making plotless, aimless movies, so that was interesting. Also intriguing was the way the film danced around the character billed only as “the musician,” who was clearly Bob Dylan, though the relationship portrayed in the movie was supposedly actually more with one of Dylan’s friends. Ultimately it was a tragic movie, more than a bit of a downer. Warhol came off as someone so detached from reality as to be on a different plane of existence. If that’s at all accurate, it explains his pop art—realistic recreations of existing objects with no presence of the artist.
To cleanse our palates of the grim ending, we watched a flighty movie called Gray Matters starring Heather Graham. She and her brother (Thomas Cavanagh from Ed) are closerthanthis until a woman—the brother’s new girlfriend—enters their lives. Bridget Moynahan (the girlfriend) isn’t the best actress in the world, but she’s pleasant to look at. The story isn’t entirely predictable, and there are charming secondary characters portrayed by Sissy Spacek (outdoorsy psychoanalyst) and Alan Cumming as a wise and warm Scottish cabbie. Molly Shannon’s character was annoying and unnecessary, but the rest of the movie was entertaining. I guessed who Heather Graham’s character would end up with before she did.
The atmosphere inside Big Brother house is a lot more relaxed with Jen gone. The reward contest last night was funny, though the producers clearly stacked the deck by having Jessica “come up with” the notion of having it guys vs. gals. I’ll bet the live feeds were sizzling that night. The nominations weren’t a huge surprise, though they did have me wondering for a moment with some careful editing that made it seem like Jessica might nominate Dick or Daniele. And if you ever want to see a photo-depiction of the phrase “busted,” that would be the look on Eric’s face after Amber relayed Jen’s message to Jessica that Eric has a girlfriend outside the house.
