Danielmedley.com

Monday, September 04, 2006

Michael Caine On Modern Film

And it’s not pretty.

FILMS made today pale against cinema classics of the past because they are so lacking in dialogue, character and plot ...

In today’s world, dialogue is anathema and plots that are not designed to quite literally beat you about the head and shoulders are few and far between.

The Oscar-winning star has lost count of the number of times he has seen films such as Casablanca, On the Waterfront and The Third Man, which he never tires of watching. Which is more, he said, than can be said for today’s “banal” films: “I can’t think of one I could see again,” he said.

Bottom line: He’s right.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Failed And Forgotten

Breakable You:

Mr. Morton knows too much to be taken in by the myth of the New York intellectual. His characters are often writers themselves, but they tend to be failed and forgotten — like Leonard Schiller, the aging novelist in “Starting Out in the Evening” — or helplessly exploitative, like Nora in “A Window Across the River,” who describes herself as an emotional cannibal.

Wildhorse

The last few months I’ve been working on a project called, Wildhorse. So far it’s turning into a collection of short stories which are vaguely connected by way of location, and different characters that are loosely connected to each other over a period of four generations.

The stories range anywhere from the 12,000 word range to about 2,000 words.

The first story, which is titled Walking With Rosa, is in a fourth draft and is near completion. You know how it is; you do a draft, let a couple of people read it, get good advice—thanks, Justin—and then you put it away. I’ve put this one away three times now. I will say that I’m comfortable enough to post some excerpts, though.

Other titles that are in various stages of completion are: Wildhorse(third draft), Blue Horizon(second draft), and Little Whiskey And The Cave Of Life(first draft).

Other than posting some excerpts here, I have no idea of what I’ll do with these stories. Right now, I’m concentrating on finishing the damn thing. 

This Blog and That Blog

In the few short days that I’ve had this web site up and running, I’ve already received a few comments and some e-mails. I’m impressed with the warmness of the people I’ve heard from in the writer’s blogosphere. It’s quite a far-cry from my other site—which I will not link to. Not that I’m trying to distance myself from it. Well, actually, I am trying to distance this blog from it. In fact, I’m thinking that this post will be the last reference to my other blog on this site, ever. 

This blog is here for completely different reasons than my other site. Is it work and play, play and work? I don’t know.

Anyway, that’s the way it is.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

A Work In Progress And The Great Language Barrier

I’m still adding links and doing some minor tweaking. The goal is to get the site set up and to not have to spend a lot of time maintaining it other than posts. It’s all a work in progress so, please, bear with me.

Now, on to something unrelated. Earlier this week, my mother in law arrived from Ukraine. Since there is a huge language barrier—I don’t speak Russian and she does not speak English—time has been rather pressed. It’s OK, though. I’m certain that after a few days we’ll develop a sort of working language based on pointing, hand-signals, and help from my wife and son.

Right now I’m wishing that I had put even nominal effort into learning Russian during the past couple of years. Oh well, I guess it’s crash-course time.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

New Blog, First Post

Since this is the first post of this site I feel compelled to express just why the hell I’m doing it. Of course, it would be easier if I really did know just why the hell I’m doing it, which I don’t. I know exactly why I write, it’s all here,

The best answer to that question is, because it’s the cheapest vacation I can think of. What I mean by that, is when you create a world full of various characters and events, it’s better than reading a good novel. One has control over the people, places, and events in a world and reality of one’s choosing. All of this can be done simply by letting your mind wander and rudimentarily organizing it all with the act of writing it down. I’m sure Freud would have a thing or two to say about all of this. Thankfully, he’s dead.

I’m just not exactly sure of the purpose of the site. The nearest I can come to explaining the purpose of this web site is that it’s a place for me to talk about what I’m working on, how I’m doing it, and what I’m doing with it. Hopefully, over time, I’ll meet other writer types and learn something along the way. Other than that, I don’t know exactly where this site will go. So, the only thing I do know about this site is that it will focus on writing.

We’ll see what happens from here.