Running Down a Dream

I took it easy this weekend, a bit of a breather from writing before I tackle the marathon of a novel. I did do another round of revision on that story I’ve been talking about recently. I ended up trimming it by about 3-400 words and submitting it to a market it’s never been to before. I received some more feedback on it from a writer-friend, so if it is rejected I’ll have another way to reapproach it. This is definitely a problematic little tale for me. I’ve been working at it on and off for six years.

The rest of the time I read through research material for the novel and made notes. I got through almost all the print material except for one really long document that I need to print out because I don’t want to read it all on the screen. I have a bunch of podcasts to listen to as well.

One of the nice things about research is that I can do it with one eye, so I watched some interesting programs/movies simultaneously. The Sundance Channel aired Peter Bagdonovich’s 4-hour Tom Petty documentary, Running Down the Dream on Saturday. I’m a moderate Petty fan—I have several of his albums—solo, with the Heartbreakers and with the Traveling Wilburys—but I’m far from a completist. Even so, I found the documentary fascinating. I missed the first hour of it, but watched the rest of it and enjoyed every minute. The guy has lived an interesting life, and the documentary manages to cover a lot of ground without glossing over things or getting too sordid. Imagine getting a call from Bob Dylan’s manager asking if they’d back him up at a concert, and then having Dylan invite them to take that one-off on a tour to Australia that ended up being a two-year gig. Wow. I’d forgotten about his legal turmoil with his label in the 1970s and the way he pulverized his hand by punching a wall in the 1980s. Also his battle over record prices when his label tried to use one of his albums as the launching pad for a dramatic increase in the standard price for records, all the way up to $9.98. If you get a chance, check it out.

I also watched most of Crimson Tide yesterday afternoon. I almost skipped past it because I thought it was about football for some reason, but then I realized it was a submarine saga with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman. The character interactions between these two intense actors makes the film more than just a tin can film. Even though the outcome of the final three-minute standoff is never in any doubt, these two make the tension palpable.

The Amazing Race got off to a lively start last night. The first leg was treading on familiar ground for me. Fifteen years ago, I took a lengthy vacation from work, rented a car and drove around Ireland. Clifden and the Cannemara region past Galway was my first stop. The players are interesting, though there are a couple of clichéd throwbacks to earlier seasons (the blonds, for example, and the bickering couple). The bit with the stubborn donkey was terrific, though I expect the team saddled with the braying ass was frustrated beyond belief. Kudos to them for not kicking the ass in the butt. Or maybe they did and CBS decided not to air it. I think I would have had a stroke. The high-wire bicycle roadblock looked cool.