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| I have a few announcements for anyone interested:
1. Yesterday I finished the first draft of my first feature length screenplay. Anthony (the guy who I wrote it with) and I had been working for about a month on it and now we are ready for the next step (a second draft). It feels pretty good to be able to say that, even if there is still a lot more to come.
2. I changed my email address. If you are interested in having it, I will just give it to you: kcbrown.ken@gmail.com. Good one.
3. I know this might rub some people the wrong way, and maybe we have discussed this before, but the song Defying Gravity from the Wicked soundtrack really is one of the greatest songs of all time.
4. Here in England they have these very large flies that buzz like bees and I hate them very much. There is one in my room right now.
You see, that was a short blog, was it not? | | |
| Hi. My name is Kenneth Christopher Brown and I once wrote blogs. Now, I sit around for hours on end thinking of writing blogs and how many different words I would have chosen before officially calling it a blog. But today, for the first time in my life, I am actually going to write one. I had considered writing a three part welcome back/last few months of my life blog, but decided against it because it would have meant putting in photos and sitting down to write this thing twice, which we all know would have ended up with part one and no part two. Oh well. Let me catch you up to speed in one sentence: I came home to America to celebrate my mother's 50th birthday and then to go to Donner Lake with my family and along the way I got to see many of my friends and family, my friend Sparks came to town and then my girlfriend Summer came to town and then they left and then we went to Donner and then Summer left and then I went to Chicago with my dad and then I flew back to London and moved into Sparky's house and then moved into Bryan and Joe and Simon's house and then Jill had a baby and now I am writing a blog. I hope that gives you a general idea of what has been happening. Now if you want the details, you know how they are coming at you, so if you are not a fan of bulletpoints, now is the time to stop reading. Here, here, here we go!
-I don't even know where to begin.
-My cricket career is officially over. This makes me sad. I didn't have a very good season this year either. In fact, I played 6 games this year, and my run total for the year was lower than my one game last year. Cricket was a good friend and it will be missed. If you want me to teach you how to play in America some time, I will, but why don't we just play softball for a bachelor party instead?
-I probably did the least amount of reading in Donner this year in probably 12 years. I read The Shack and some of Invisible Man, that's it. I won't comment on The Shack, as you have probably already read it, and I haven't finished Invisible Man yet, but it begins well. Also, upon returning to London, I read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" as recommended by Brandon Fite. Pretty good. Very dark, very depressing, not much by way of plot but incredible imagery and scary to think about, and in the end, he leaves us all with a little ray of hope. Good one.
-Oh, this is big, bad news for those of you who haven't heard. Marty Is Dead is dead. That's right. Sadly, our dream of seeing Marty die is going to be put on hold for a while. In the end there were just too many question marks on the production side that were going to make it just about impossible. Don't worry though, there is still the musical in the pipeline.
-Also, Dave and I have begun (actually we just about finished, then ditched) a new script. Depending on how it is written, it could be very cool. It's not funny like Marty, but it is certainly strange like Marty. That is all I will say about it until I have more details for you.
-And the final piece of scriptwriting news, over the last few weeks I have been writing a feature length film with a guy named Anthony (Ace) Munro. He had a story that he needed to turn into a script and someone got him in touch with me and we have been working away. I'd say we are still a couple weeks away from finishing, but once we finish, Ace already has a director lined up to make. So, at some point in the next year or so, you might just be seeing my screen debut.
-Staying on the subject of movies, I think Shane Meadows is definitely my favorite new director, meaning my favorite director who's films I hadn't seen before this year. He did This Is England and a new film called Somer's Town, both are very good. Go see them.
-I went to my first game at Wrigley Field last month, what a treat, especially since I got to go with my dad. It's funny how last year when I was home I got to share such a wonderful memory with him (Bonds breaking the record) and now we got to do this. And to top it all off, they played Go Cubs Go at the end of the game and we were singing it out.
-Baseball season is winding down and the Giants are lame. I'm rooting for the Cubs to win it all (and I have been since the beginning of the year because of a dream I had, not just since they started dominating). Football season has started and I wish I could watch more games. I once did a camp with the 49ers starting QB and didn't think much of him, but now I shall root for him. Dave and I are currently dominating the Brits in fantasy soccer. But basketball season is almost upon us and this pleases me very much. Well, fantasy basketball does.
-Summer got it in her mind that I needed some skinny jeans. Now I doubt you have ever seen me naked, or at least from my thighs down, but it is not pretty. I'm not fat, but my legs aren't really cut out for tight fitting pants. Anyways, she wanted to get me some, so we went to the English equivalent of TJ Maxx (TK Maxx) and she had me try on about ten pairs of jeans. I looked ridiculous in all of them. There was one pair that wasn't an officially skinny jean, just a slim fitting, straight legged pair, and they looked ok. Also, they were stretchy, which is fun. So Summer bought them for me, against all my objections and I began wearing them. Now, they are pretty much all I wear. I have fallen in love with them like a real Johnny Benge. If you can find some slim fitting stretchy pants, I strongly suggest you buy them, even if you are heavy-set.
-My new room is Brandon's old room, which was Ben Jamie's old room, which was Joe's old room. Is that strange?
-Did I mention that Dave and Jill had a second child? I think I did, but just in case any of you care, they had a little girl named Lily and she is not very big, but I think she has a lot of heart. We will find out soon.
-My parents were oh so close to naming their new cat Sneaks, which would have just sent the real Sneaky Tits over the moon. I wish.
-I think Ken is in Poland right now, and I would like to be there with him. Hey Ken.
There are probably a bunch of stories from home I should have shared in this blog, but now it is getting a little far away from that time and I think they will just have to go unmentioned. This saddens me a great deal, but it must be done. Actually, if you really want to know what went on, you can probably just check out different photos that people have tagged of me on facebook, but something tells me you aren't going to do that. Fair enough. Well, I will try to write again soon, but you all know I will probably break that promise, so I will see you when I see you. Thanks for sticking with me.
Ken | | |
| The time is rapidly approaching for the rebirth of blogbyken. No one knows the hour at which it will be posted, but I know in my heart of hearts that soon and very soon it will be upon you like a thief in the night. | | |
| Hi. Ken here again. It's been a while. So much for consistency. Whatever. How about the fact that I just wrote five sentences, none of which had more than four words? In fact, if you discount the last sentence (the one that just says Whatever.), then you would have a nice little haiku. You can check it if you like. There are a lot of things that have happened since I last wrote, but I am surely not about to share them all. No, instead I will just settle for the usual highlights.
-I'm not sure if this is the most important of all of them, but it probably is. After about four months, I have finally finished reading Moby Dick. This is without question the longest it has ever taken me to read a book all the way through, so you can't count the time when I read half of The Iliad back in high school and never finished it. The strange thing is that there was no real reason why it should have taken me so long. It is relatively easy to read, is broken up by very short chapters and is pretty interesting. All of those things tend to make for quick work. Sure, it is 630 pages, but that has never been a particularly big deterrent. The problem was that the longer it sat there not being read, or being read slowly, the less I wanted to read it. It became a large, looming cloud over my head. It probably didn't help that I read three other books over the course of this one (Blink, The Watchmen, Sex God), but whatever. So it's done and I feel great about it. It really is a wonderful book with some particularly insightful things on both writing and life, and not to mention whaling. I don't want to go into all of the details that I would if we were conversing, but if you want to discuss, we can. I say if you have the time and can commit to reading it in about a month, do it, it's worth it. If you don't, don't start it, because it will loom large for a long time.
-Bryan moved out yesterday, which is pretty wacky. I know, you thought it would never happen, but alas, it did. With him moving in to Joe and Simon's place, I will move back down into my old room for a month while the Claxtons move in to my room. It's weird, but it should be fun. I am going home in July, and when I come back, it will be time for me to seek out a new place. Am I happy about that? No. But, sometimes you just have to do it. Bryan, I hope you are resting in peace in your new bed.
-I took a whole load of music from Bricer when he left his computer out in the open one day. Good for me. If the FBI busts Bricer for file sharing, don't tell them that I told you that I was the one who stole it all. And yes, I am listening to some of it currently, and yes, Dave is glad we are listening to it.
-Yesterday I broke Brad's cricket bat, and a whole lot of hearts. Not only was Brad's bat his prized possession, but it was also the secret to my cricketing success. So now Brad is batless, I am powerless and the team is hopeless. It's a very sad day in Mudville.
-If anyone asks, tell them that I broke Brad's bat over my knee in a fit of rage, that would make me sound sweet.
-My fantasy baseball team is so bad that it isn't even funny. We're so bad that I hap to drop somebody to pick up Jayson Werth of all people. Talk about down on your luck.
-Summer's birthday was on Tuesday and we had a good time with it. On the Sunday before, we went down to Brighton with Brad and Katie and hung out on the beach and walked the pier, which might as well have been Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, then sat in the pub and played 20 questions for a long time. That might not sound fun to you, but it was. Basically the weekend was a big celebration of Brad and Summer, but mostly Summer (sorry Brad). She is now 26, and officially two years older than me, which makes everyone happy. Happy birthday Summer.
-I can't believe I have failed to mention this yet, but this has been the best stretch of weather since I have been here. We have had almost two straight weeks of sun. I finally get to wear all of my wonderful pairs of shorts again. Will it last? I don't know, but I am really enjoying it while it is here. I seriously thought that there was no sun in this country, and have been proved wrong. I mean it is so warm, that I have even slept with the windows open. Amazing.
-Dave and I are working on some projects before we start to film Marty to get some experience behind the camera. I think it is a smart move. I will tell you about it later when I have some more concrete details. Also, we just got permission to use the doctor's surgery below the Cheer office for the opening scene in Marty. Yes, the same doctor's surgery that used to be the recording studio for The Who. Will their magic rub off? Let's hope so.
-I still haven't seen Shine A Light yet, and it makes me angry.
-I started reading The Diving Bell And The Butterfly yesterday and I'm already halfway done. A fast read, but very interesting. If you don't know the story of it, I will give it to you very quickly. The author had a massive stroke that rendered him paralyzed and unable to communicate except for blinking one eye. He then wrote this book only by blinking his eye. Dave brought up the question yesterday after I had just finished Moby Dick and began reading this: MD took four months to read, The Diving Bell took maybe four hours, but which one took longer to write? Interesting.
-Did you know that Janelle is going to cheer for Oregon? How sweet is that?
I have nothing further to say for the moment. I know there wasn't much to this one, but I think we all know you have come to expect very little from this blog these days, so you shouldn't be too disappointed. I hope you are ok, if not, sorry. I'll try coming up with just one important story and telling it in detail next time, thus avoiding just the snippets. Be good.
KC | | |
| I know I'm late, I know, but remember, not blogging is just a bad habit that needs to be broken, so a few days late isn't so bad. At least it isn't a month. Let me set the scene for you right now, just to show you how much I am still living in the past. I just woke up and rolled out of bed at about 11:30 in the morning, and could have easily spent the last half hour in bed just to make it all the way to the afternoon. I then get out of bed, put on a pair of sweatpants, a basketball jersey (a classic JR Rider Wolves), and a baseball hat on backwards (Giants of course). No big deal, so he woke up late and is now wearing some clothes he would have back in college. Well, for some reason that is still unbeknownst to me, and I can't stress enough just how wacky this is, I decided to listen to some Sublime. I haven't chosen to listen to Sublime probably since I was a junior in high school, and even that might be generous. But Sublime is easily the most heard music walking down the streets of Santa Barbara on a Saturday or Sunday morning. I don't even like Sublime, but it feels right at the moment, so good job.
I have no idea why I just told you that story.
-I have been watching the old Scorsese films as of late (Who's That Knocking At My Door, Boxcar Bertha, Raging Bull) and I'm really excited about. I might be more excited about watching the "making of" videos that come with them. It is really fascinating to watch how these got made. It was particularly inspiring to watch the making of Who's That Knocking, as that was pretty much his first big project and he did it for very little money. It's just cool for me to watch as we begin making Marty Is Dead.
-Speaking of which, we read through the script with Matthew Jaime, and I think he might understand the thing even better than we do. Very encouraging.
-Phil sent off the first three chapters of his book to an agent this week, in fact, I think it is JK Rowling's agent. This could be great if he likes it. I think the office is in Fulham, near our house, so let's hope that is a sign. Definitely be praying for Phil Hoyle and his new book.
-Summer, Beth, Dave and Bostwick and I went to the British Museum yesterday, which is very cool. But there was a Persian culture show going on that sort of stole the show (sorry to use show twice, but exhibition didn't work since it was a museum). It was mostly music and dance, but it was just beautiful. We began the museum trip by watching some dancers, then went around looking at some cool artifacts, including a whole bunch of mummies, then to this display of America drawings in the early to mid 20th-century, then I went by myself to check out the Islamic art section, also very cool. Anyways, as we were leaving, there was more music and dancing and we watched that too. I don't know if it was the music, the dancing or all the old stuff in the museum, but something made me feel a bit strange. I can't even describe it, but the best thing would probably be to say that it all made me want to go out and write an opera. No kidding, that is the best way I can say it. I wanted to both create something very beautiful, yet historic. It was a pretty cool feeling, even though unsettling.
-We went home and watched Pride And Prejudice (the one with Kiera Knightly). Pretty good. It was filmed beautifully, which I had been told before, but you kind of have to see it to get it. Now I don't like K. Knightly, but the last two of her movies I saw, I liked her in (Atonement was the other one), and as long as she keeps cranking out period pieces, then we might just get along.
-I'm not sure how many of you will remember this story, but let's give it a shot. Back in high school I dated a girl who very seriously told me that I was not funny. Not in the kind of way that I had just told a joke and she didn't like it, but that in general, I just wasn't a funny person. Obviously, she is nuts. I mean, not to sound petty or anything (definitely to sound petty), she wasn't funny, and I was certainly funnier than her. But I'm funny right? Or so I thought. Fast forward to now, my current girlfriend (Summer, just in case you hadn't picked up on that in recent posts) has now officially told me that she doesn't find me funny. She is pretty funny, so I can't quite use the same comeback on her as the other girl, but what's the deal? Am I really not funny, or is it just that I'm not funny to whoever I'm dating? Lord knows I hope it is the latter. If it turns out that all these years I thought I was funny and I'm not, I'm going to freak out. Anyways, I need you guys to give me some jokes or something, I need to convince Summer that I can be funny, otherwise she is going to dump me for Ron Osborne.
-Oh man I need to stop listening to Sublime. What am I doing?
No more. There will be no more blogging for me today. I'm sorry you had to wait a little longer for this and that it was a disappointment. Oh well. Here is what I will do for the next one: the next time anything remotely interesting happens (interesting in that people other than me might also be interested in it, not like the stuff I normally talk about), I will write it down as soon as I can, and that will be it. I will devote the blog to the one story and not bulletpoints, since I think that is what people like to read. Good day.
Brown | | |
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