Tacos and Beer

Back in the olden times, when people wrote movie scripts with typewriters, I can only imagine that properly formatting a screenplay was tedious at best. (If you’re not familiar with what a screenplay looks like, check out this NoFilmSchool.com article that explains how screenplays are formatted and why they are formatted that way.) When I first started writing screenplays in the early 2000s, software was available to make the process easier. But the industry standard, Final Draft, was famously expensive. And the competition wasn’t cheap. Chuck and I won a copy of Movie Magic Screenwriter at an early Sidewalk Film Fest . (I think it was called “Movie Magic Screenwriter 2000” at the time, because back then all the software companies were appending a “2000” to the end of whatever they named their software.) I am pretty sure I wrote Hide and Creep using that software. I guess if we hadn’t won that, I would have written it in Word and manually put in all the weird tabs and spacing t...

The classic 1960s STAR TREK TV series is one of my favorite shows of all time. In the 1970s and ’80s, STAR TREK reruns were one of the best sci-fi things available. Especially to a youngster like me who lived in a rural area with no cable TV. I’m somewhat obsessive about the show. Especially now, since I have my DVDs of it ripped and readily available on my home media streaming server. Having watched every episode a few times (and favorite episodes several times), I have opinions. I decided I’d start making... The classic 1960s Star Trek TV series is one of my favorite shows of all time. In the 1970s and ’80s, Star Trek reruns were one of the best sci-fi things available. Especially to a youngster like me who lived in a rural area with no cable TV. I’m somewhat obsessive about the show. Especially now, since I have my DVDs of it ripped and readily available on my home media streaming server. Having watched every episode a few times (and favorite episodes several times),...

When elected officials do terrible stuff — and they seem to be doing a lot of terrible stuff these days — it’s frustrating to see people who could stand up to those elected officials stay silent. I mean, I can say it’s bad when states basically outlaw D.E.I. programs, but I’m just a guy with a blog. I’d like to see business leaders and university presidents standing up against bad policy. When elected officials do terrible stuff — and they seem to be doing a lot of terrible stuff these days — it’s frustrating to see people who could stand up to those elected officials stay silent. I mean, I can say it’s bad when states basically outlaw D.E.I. programs , but I’m just a guy with a blog. I’d like to see business leaders and university presidents standing up against bad policy. So it’s nice to see Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish both endorse Kamala Harris for president. I suspect a lot of people in the entertainment industry are loathe to make political endorsements because the...