Blind Date

A short film by Mariana Arevalo, story and screenplay by Charles Deemer.

Go, Bruins!

UCLA opens its football season today and I am ready with my alumni hat shiny and blue. I think I'll really get into the season this year. Gotta keep busy at something ha ha. Retirement needs a boot in the butt.

Thunderstorm

A big one at 3 a.m., unusual for these parts. Shook the house, scared the dog.

Want to write a screenplay?

You owe it to yourself to checkout my successful (and now FREE) screenwriting tutorial. Here are some satisfied customers:

Excerpts from reviews and letters about the book:

• "If you are interested in writing screenplays, I cannot recommend this course highly enough....For the first time (to my knowledge) the "book" is written for the way one works rather than expecting one to follow the author's suggested line of thought....I was prompted to go back and do further work on one of my screenplays which I had thought finished. How do you put a price on that? Charles has done a superb job compiling as much as one needs to know to write a screenplay. It is a trove of information and guidance. Just add your own story." Cam Eason, The Book Nook
• "the remarkable electronic book on Screenwriting...Screenwright has everything that you would expect in a well written screenwriting work book....Although there is plenty of meat in its twelve chapters, as a quick aide memoire it excels because you can so quickly access a piece of information at your desktop when you need it....Screenwright is a fresh approach to helping your screenwriting and one that deserves consideration from everyone starting out." John Hopson, Virtual Screenwriter at London Screenwriters Workshop
• "Especially for newcomers to screenwriting, Charles Deemer's book can help shorten a long and often painful learning curve. And what the heck -- maybe those of us who have managed to write a few scripts via the 'forest' method can soak up some of the best lessons of the 'trees.'" Si Dunn at Cyber Film School
• "The book is designed like a course, and takes the approach that the reader is basically a beginner. Every step is explained in detail, and nothing is over-looked. ... Screenwright presents a self-contained screenwriting course that anyone can use. It is structured unlike any other screenwriting book -- due mostly to the fact that it is an electronic (html) book." Christopher Wehner, Screenwriters Utopia
• "highly recommended...remarkable, ground-breaking screenwriting tutorial." Screaming in the Celluloid Jungle
• "...this book is [for] someone who is about to start their first screenplay - or someone who has started but found the process frustrating, unrewarding and mystifying....An unusual and innovative approach to teaching screenwriting." And in a second post: "...the strength of Screenwright is that it presents fledgeling writers with a range of options, within which to explore their own personal approach to screenwriting.... this book is ideal for those just dipping into the big pool of screenwriting." Chris Owen on misc.writing.screenplays newsgroup.
• "Clearly, Mr. Deemer knows his subject, has a great passion for it and wants to share his knowledge. Also, the teacher is very kind to his students." Wendy Jane Henson, Hollywood Scriptwriter.
• "an extraordinary book that promises to become the bible of screenwriting for the novice. And that's not an exaggeration!" -- StoryCraft Fiction Writers Page
• "He takes alot of the various theories and puts it all in one text. He also takes into account that different people write in different ways. Lots of examples, plus he actually writes a screenplay within the pages of the text, applying the things he's talking about. If I could only choose one resource, this is the one I'd get. It's well worth the money." B.E., college screenwriting professor.
• "Loved Screenwright. It's a better course than one for which I paid ten times the price." V., Screenwright purchaser.
• "Screenwright is fantastic. It is the most complete tool that I've seen." T.M., Screenwright purchaser.
• "I have done many writing/screenwriting courses, but yours stands out in particular, as you actually recognise 'Forest' writers, such as myself - a breed that virtually every other writing philosophy ignores or ridicules as being wrong and 'can't do!!'. Well done, Charles. The 'looking over your shoulder' [feature] is another excellent feature..." C.H., Screenwrightpurchaser.

More 

A jock with good sense

Kudos to NFL QB Andrew Luck, who decided to retire at 29. He went to Stanford and clearly has a brain and good sense .... and is leaving the game while he still has them. Just stay retired!

False starts

I've made half a dozen false starts on a writing project in recent months. Very uncharacteristic of my earlier career. I keep trying to find a story line that maintains my interest. Optimistic on the latest. Of course, I was optimistic on the others, too. Nothing to do but keep plowing ahead and wait for something to catch fire.

American Exceptionalism

Public Citizen

✔@Public_Citizen

Weeks of paid maternity leave:

59
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Critical audience

Abraham Lincoln, in a letter, 1855

 "Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty — to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."

This is brilliant!

135,000 people sign a petition to rename Fifth Ave. in front of Trump Tower ‘Obama Avenue’

Read the story. 

Iceland loses its first glacier

A memorial plaque ... and a letter to the future.

How Capitalism Exploits Our Fear of Old Age

For decades, ageism has been one of the “isms,” along with racism, sexism, and ableism, that are unacceptable in progressive discourse and illegal under U.S. anti-discrimination law - at least in theory. Yet ageism against older people remains the most unexamined and commonly accepted of all our biases.

Read it. 

My first book of poems.

'It makes me angry': is this the end for America's Joshua trees?

It makes me angry, too. I grew up in a family that frequently camped weekends in the Mojave desert, so I could use my telescope under perfect skies. Joshua trees were a mainstay. I love them. Now ...

Read the story.