Search for the Cure
Check out my team Search for the Cure’s set from Friday Night Nights! I’m wearing a green cardigan and an awesome attitude.
More Shows
I updated the sidebar and the shows page with the latest shows at TNT and Room 101!
Do you remember when I blogged here about writing and not publicizing my own improv shows? Me either.
Life and How It’s Weird, or 2010 and Improv
Back in 2009 basically all of my extracurricular time was devoted to writing and reading. It was awesome! I was finishing up a book that I was crazy mad in love with, and I felt secure that the wild and ravenous support from my first readers was going to translate into the world loving the crap out of this book as much as we did. I saw 2010 as a year with big things happening for me, writing-wise. I plotted out the new book I would start. I upped my reading goal list to an insanely high number. Unfortunately 2009 had a lot of big disappointments; I felt already that 2010 would be different.
Well, 2010 was different. Publishing/writing-wise? It was mostly much, much worse. Despite that I finished my book (and still feel crazy mad Swimfan over it) it has not found a home. I have cried over this and thought about quitting over this. I fought off writers block for long stretches of time on the new book I’d so easily plotted only months earlier. I heard from multiple places that readers don’t necessarily want the kinds of books I love, and I worried a lot about what that means for me.
So when I started to think back on the year it initially felt like failure. Except it totally effing isn’t. Because something crazy happened.
Last year when getting ready for that plotted-out next book, I realized that if I wanted to write about a character taking an improv 101 class, Iiiii should probably do it too. This was not something I was happy about. I kept debating with myself that I should just interview people who’d taken improv 101 classes. But then I thought, buck up, little kitty, you live in Los Angeles, home of some of the best training centers in the country. TAKE A FRIGGING CLASS.
So I signed up. And then when that email arrived confirming my enrollment, I almost vommed. Every time I thought about it, how at the end of the eight-week course I’d have to perform IN A SHOW, I almost vommed again. But I wouldn’t let myself quit. And I showed up on Week 1, and it was awful and I was horrible and I felt raw and mentally exhausted the way I do after therapy. But I kept going. Week 2 was just as scary, but I guess Week 3 wasn’t. And by the time the show rolled around, well, I still wanted to vom a little, but I was also pretty effing excited.
That was about a year and a month ago. In that time I’ve taken tons more classes, workshops, electives, etc. I’ve seen more shows than I can think about keeping track of. I’ve performed at places that used to make me feel like I wasn’t cool enough to even buy tickets. (To be fair I have bad self esteem so that’s basically everywhere.) I have made tons of friends and cheered many beers and stood in the line outside the UCB Theatre for probably more than a day’s worth of hours (that’s 24 if you need help). I will debate you about game and form and format. I will bully you into signing up for 101. (You will love me for it.) I will Yes And the shit out of you.
So, OK. My new new book is barely started. My reading list is only at about 80 percent of where it should be. I don’t have a book deal and I don’t have a movie deal and I spend my days working in advertising.*
But I spend most of my nights being creative and involved and, uhhh, perhaps happy.
I might not churn the rest of this book out for awhile, 2011. Your reading list is going to be even lower than before. But, just like 2010,** I am not going to call you a failure. I’m just going to remember that part of “The Lodger” where Eleven shouted “I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT” and use it as a metaphor for 2010. Because, holy hell, I was not.
*Advertising is not as sexy as Sterling Cooper makes it look, FYI. Even when you work for a so-called sexy mag.
**2010 was an effing failure in other ways. Sad family shit. Lots of death.
A Note on Recaps
I really fully intended to recap The Good Wife, but considering three episodes have come and gone – including, in my opinion, one of the best of the series – I’ve learned I unfortunately don’t really have time to recap weekly, at least right now. But I may try to pick up again in the future.
Good news is there’s some great stuff on the internet today! Check out these pieces from my favorite TV blogger/journalist, Jace Lacob, on the Daily Beast.
Recap: The Good Wife: Season 2, Episode 3 – Breaking Fast
My friend Nick told me to start recapping TV here. So I’m totally going to. YES IT’S THAT EASY.
Note: I really fully intended to recap the show, but considering three episodes have come and gone – including, in my opinion, one of the best of the series – I’ve learned I unfortunately don’t really have time to recap weekly, at least right now. But I may try to pick up again in the future.
- Jason Street’s voiceover at the beginning was super creepy. Also the clips looked like Flash Forward. Also I am seriously still getting used to him being so upright.
- Good god, how much do I love Alan Cumming as Eli Gold? SO EFFING MUCH. I had to rewind and watch him choke again.
- Wait, so Eli said “Cut to” and then there was a literal cut? To… Cary? To Cary strutting? That was weird. Meta. Etc.
- Will Gardner, you’re so sensitive and empathetic asking Alicia to step back from the case. Let’s make out.
- Holy crap, the score while we glimpse shots of Jason Street and Will playing basketball! And hookers! AND A NEW SNIPER ATTACK. AND OMG CAN I HAVE THAT DRESS KALINDA IS WEARING.
- I love seeing Alicia with her brother. For how painstakingly the show doles out its backstory, I relish every effing bit of it. And it’s so good seeing Alicia laugh! I realized tonight while seeing her so open and free with Owen that we… really don’t see her like that too often. It’s interesting Owen called her out for being judgmental of those who don’t live up to her standards. We spent much of Season 1 watching her trying to deal with Peter’s not having lived up to, I dunno, ANYONE’S expectations. Also it really sheds a lot of light on how hard she was on herself, careerwise, even counting the Junior Associate Survival Game. This is really the first (I think?) we learned about her family, and I hope that’s something Season 2 gives us even more of.
- “I know this sounds a little Dumb and Dumber” might be my new favorite way to disclaimer the stupid crap I come up with. Outdated references for the win! Also, Eli, your idea wasn’t totally horrible because it yielded Jackie trying to work out the intricacies of eating kosher. (No, pork + cheese =/= OK.)
- Peter and Owen’s conversation is so indicative of what this show does best. I was all set to root on Owen against Peter, except, godDAMN, Peter had a point. Not giving me a clear good guy or bad guy is so awesomely real.
- Whoa, the sniper’s DOB is the same month and day as my mom’s. CREEPY.
- Oh, Cary. You are still my favorite smug little douchebag. Your crush on Kalinda reminds me of a certain crush I nurse, which is super unrequited and impossible and embarrassing. Except I only say things like “Do you miss me?” in my head. GOD, I HOPE IT’S JUST IN MY HEAD.
Overall I liked this episode, didn’t love it. I don’t want to lose Everyone’s Favorite Douche but it doesn’t make sense Cary’s prosecuting every case Lockhart, Gardner, and Bond defends. Also, you know what makes even LESS sense? LG&B WINNING every case. Season One let our heroes fail more, and I miss that. But points for Owen and everything about Alicia and her past he brought out.
Things I Love About L.A., Part A Billion
- Roller derby bouts at the Doll Factory
- Donutesque onion rings at Alcove
- Sipping coffee and reading at an outdoor cafe table while overhearing guys you assumed were gangbangers talk passionately about opensource technology and knowing your assumption could still be correct
Also this isn’t L.A.-specific, but I love that I have a keyring full of friends’ keys fully for the purpose of cat-sitting.
Clear Eyes Full Hearts
Sorry I haven’t been doing anything as of late like blogging or writing or reading. Instead I watched four seasons of Friday Night Lights in a matter of weeks. I pish-poshed everyone who said it was good for four years, but I learned my lesson good, I did.
I’m about to put in disc one of Season One of Mad Men. Am I about to learn a similar lesson? Stay tuned.
Writing & The Good Wife
I really love television. Like, a whole lot. Like, after deliciously amazing books, it is my favorite medium, particularly for storytelling purposes. I’m not into movies for the most part, though there are many* I love. Theatre is a huge love of mine but I don’t get to experience it on a nightly basis, and also there’s something about the long-term nature of television that is super appealing to me. I love being in it for the long haul. I write academic papers on episodes I love (and loathe). I love my TiVo with a rabid** fierceness.
But I will say that lately there are not as many shows I love passionately, unless you count how I record even the billionth-repeated marathons of America’s Next Top Model. And that’s OK, because I believe a lot of pop culture and media is cyclical, and if TV isn’t doing it for me right now, before long it will again.
I DIGRESS.***
Early last season, I totally started watching The Good Wife only because my beloved Josh Charles was in it. No, really, it’s that simple for me. I will EVENTUALLY write more entries in the popular**** MY FICTIONAL BOYFRIENDS series, and probably the longest and most passionate will be devoted to Dan Rydell, so, uh, I pay attention to the man. So I started off a reluctant viewer, but before long I realized I was paying attention far more often than when a scene involved Will Gardner. Yeah, I was hooked.
I won’t get into show specifics, because I think good shows are rarely beloved because of what they literally are. Right? I mean, Uncomfortable Plot Summaries lists Doctor Who as “elderly man serially abducts young women” which is just about true, but even being less reductive can’t describe the feeling evoked in me by watching Donna Noble talk the Doctor out of leaving that family in Pompeii. So as far as The Good Wife goes, I can talk about how it’s a serial about a politician’s wife, post-sex scandal, or I could talk about it being a law procedural, but, seriously, who cares?*****
The stuff I like about the show is the stuff I like about lots of good writing, actually. Even though I write novels and not television shows, there’s something inspiring and educational about watching the pieces of wisdom you know to be true play out in front of you:
1. Don’t overload with background info or exposition. Holy crap, has a lot happened between everyone on this show. (We won’t talk about how much time I’ve devoted to thinking about Alicia and Will’s WTF-happened-back-at-Georgetown?-ness.) Holy eff, has a lot happened, period, by the time we’re dropped in in the pilot (and then, very quickly, thrown six months further). The show doesn’t dwell there, though. The show just keeps on chugging along and trusts that we can keep up.
2. Let grownups be grownups. OK, yes, I write YA, and, yes, I like to race my tiny car around town while singing along to soundtracks to Disney movies, but I truly am a grownup and when I watch TV (or read books) I expect adults to behave as adults. Yes, some people are immature, and some people have devotions to pop culture for people a third of their ages******, but I hate watching people who are supposed to be professionals in their thirties and upward behaving like junior high students. It’s much like how deeply I hate YA where teens seem like… well, no teens I know, just the approximation of what an out-of-touch writer thinks. But, anyway, I like the drama on the show playing out between adults. Sure, adults who aren’t perfect, who sometimes make very bad decisions, who sometimes seem to cling to romantic notions straight out of middle school, but adults nonetheless. And it’s funny that I hadn’t quite noticed how often this doesn’t happen until I saw something where it did.
3. Have patience. It’s tough, because a book should hook you on its first page, and if a TV show doesn’t grab you in its first scene, well, why are you still reading/watching? That said, there is something incredibly appealing to me in an enthralling but slowly building narrative that then can drop bombshells on you… after earning them. I mean, I wanted to see the kiss that happened in the episode “Heart” from about episode… 1.02 on? But how much more did it mean because we saw it in 1.17? (Holy hell, people, A LOT. IT MEANT A LOT MORE.)
SWOON AMIRIGHT
Guys, seriously, can we talk again about how janky Google Image Search has gotten? That image came up the other day when I searched for “the good wife” but this time it didn’t, so I searched “good wife will gardner” and lo and behold, luckily it did again, but on the same page of results was this:
I mean, Google, you’re not even trying now, are you? ARE YOU?
4. Get me to love, get me to hate, get me to reconsider. WHAT! I know it sounds like I’m talking crazy, but, man, one way to three-dimensionalize a character is showing me so many of their sides I have no idea if I’m for them or against them. YOU KNOW, LIKE REAL LIFE. Most of us aren’t all good or all bad.*******
Maybe the most obvious example of this on the show is Peter Florrick. Right? Talking about Peter Florrick would give me an excuse to say for the billionth time that Chris Noth looks like a really hot Sam the Eagle from the Muppets:
BUT! Instead I’d rather talk to you about Cary. Cary! Remember when Matt Czuchry was on the Gilmore Girls and he was such an effing tool? I am so glad his toolishness doesn’t have to follow him. One time I was waiting at the stage door area after seeing a play Mr. Czuchry was in, because I wanted to say hi to a super cool actress in it who I had met before and had super shiny hair, and when Matt came out, he thought my friend and I were shy girls too nervous to approach him, so he waited it out and gave us muchos smiles! And then I was like, OMG, this is awkward, I don’t want to break his heart and say “ACTUALLY I DON’T WANT YOUR AUTOGRAPH I AM HERE TO SEE SOMEONE ELSE” so I just kind of kept smiling and looked away and he understood and left.
MATT CZUCHRY IF I MET YOU TODAY I PROMISE I WOULD SAY SOMETHING AND NOT JUST BREAK EYE CONTACT IN A WEIRD JUNIOR HIGH DANCE MANNER.
Anyway. CARY.
ADORBS!
When we first meet Cary, we do not like Cary.******** Cary is smug and bratty, and when he makes that comment about his mom, we’re certain he’s sexist and ageist too. Right? RIGHT? Except then, dammit Cary, you wormed your way into my heart. Was it the shrooms? Was it telling Alicia you didn’t want her to lose either? Was it thinking about how, despite that Alicia is our protagonist, perhaps with my student loan debt and my frustration at paying bills in an expensive but awesome city, sometimes Cary is probably the character I have the most in common with?
And then the pattern continued! Because he would do [annoying thing] but then he’d do [great thing] or he wouldn’t [do great thing] but you grasped why he felt he had to do [the douchey thing] and it’s so hard not to be on his side except when it really freaking isn’t.
(I feel very similar about the show’s main love triangle too; despite that people have made very obvious good and bad moves in it.)
What I’m saying, GOOD GOD FINALLY, is that it’s very easy to make me hate someone who acts terribly, and it’s very easy to make me love someone who does terrific and awesome things. Position someone as the competition and let them act like a not-that-grown-up frat boy and, sure, most of us will hate them. But it’s more interesting when they’re also a very fair person who legitimately works hard at their job. Maybe they have wrongheaded notions, but suddenly you realize from their POV you would feel exactly the same way.
It gets tougher rooting against them. It’s also very difficult rooting for them. It gets messy and complicated, and the story’s ending isn’t broadcast from the word go.
I love being told stories like that, and I try really hard to do it myself.
Anyway, I know there is no world in which it is cool to worship The Good Wife.********* But luckily I am already very much aware of how cool I am not. I could go on and on about everything else I love about this (and perhaps one day I will, because I can think of so many other good writing lessons that tie into the show and, also, I love any excuse to post pictures of Josh Charles********** LET’S JUST BE HONEST HERE).
So embrace what you love. And take your writing lessons from what moves and inspires and entertains you. A lot of times, that isn’t just in a book.
*Of course, many of those are titles such as Sydney White and High School Musical 2, in case you’re imagining my devotion to only award-winners or something.
**Yeah, by “rabid” I mean “foaming at the mouth”, so what?
***Shocking, right?
****Popularity is relative, right? RIGHT, YOU GUYS?
*****Well, I do, but I’m making a point.
******AHEM.
*******I myself am 3 parts awesome to 2 parts assy.
********By “we” I do mean “I”.
*********Except for the world that I dwell in with only Sarah Skilton, which exists only when we’re rapid-fire exchanging v. v. important emails about Alicia and Peter and Cary and Will and Diane and Kalinda. I AM JUST SAYING OK.
**********
About
Hi, I'm Amy. I write young adult novels, perform improv, drink a lot of coffee, and maintain the palest complexion in Southern California.
I am represented by Kate Schafer Testerman of kt literary.
I can be reached at amspalding AT gmail DOT com.