School’s Out

School is done, for now. Political Science was a great class, I learned a ton of stuff that I somehow missed the first time around. Like, did you know the Democrats are the liberal party? Okay, I’m joking. But seriously, I enjoyed the class, finished with a 97%.

Crossing Cultures, my diversity-requirement cinema class, turned out to be much better than I thought. The sad thing was not getting to know more of the other students until the end. I did, I suppose, labor under self-imposed intimidation, being in with all those decidedly younger students. But honestly, most of them were really nice. I did my final project yesterday, a Power Point-backed discussion of my original screenplay for Unmasking Paulie Bingham. My presentation included photos of glam rockers Marc Bolan, David Bowie, Slade, George Michael, Iggy Pop, Elton John and Boy George. I backed them with audio snippets from “Rebel Rebel”, “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” and “Miss Me Blind”. I talked about the history of glam rock and difficulties those rockers who were gay faced in hiding the fact. I related it to the struggles faced by the characters in my story. It all went “swimmingly” well. A+.

We had a pot luck lunch, and snacked while everyone gave their presentations. There were students who worked for a charitable organization (L.A.’s “Dream Place”) over Thankgsgiving; a girl who described the hardships her Vietnamese parents faced as boat people; a girl who exposed the fact that our community doesn’t take care of its homeless population very well. There were four people who visited the Museum of Tolerance; a guy who works with mentally challenged children and adults through the “LET ME SAIL” program. And last, a young man who made his own >2 minute film about fear between students on campus. The film was great.

I was sad that it was the last day. I made a few friends I’ll likely not see again. I hope to see Melinda, the instructor, next spring, if I can take her Film Aesthetics class. She’s a smart, savvy lady and we got along well. A class like that is more like a treat than a task.

“Just Like Jay”

I’m excited to report that Top Publications has just issued a press release for Sisters in Crime’s  Murder In La-La Land (which will include my short story, “Just Like Jay“), with a publication date of May 2010. There is talk that the anthology may be out in time for the L.A. Times Festival of Books. That would be super.

Works in Progress

Relay For Life

Happy Hannukah

Have a great week! (Note:  For some reason the formatting is screwball on this post and I don’t have the patience to fix it. Sorry…