Here's one example of a writing prompt:
Do you think "it" will matter in five years?
What do I write about that? I very definitely think that "it" will matter in five years. "It" has mattered all my life so far and I very strongly suspect that "it" will continue to matter for all the rest of my life. In fact, I'm sure I'll end my days thinking about "it" or because of "it."
Here's another writing prompt:
10 things I've done that I wish I hadn't
Ah--ha-ha. Am I really going to answer that?
Uhhhh.....Ah, here's one: I wish I hadn't slept with that coworker--especially since he was pretty gross and I was pretty smashed and he was, unbeknownst to me, dating my boss. And she was not inclined to be forgiving, which I understand. It caused a lot of trouble in the end. More than it was worth.
So that's one. Nine others? Uh....how about another writing prompt?
My 10 favorite movies
In no particular order? Okay, then:
Harold & Maude. A man in his late teens/early twenties meets and falls in love with a woman who is about to turn eighty. It's a very dark--very, very dark--and very funny and oddly hopeful love story. Add a Cat Stevens soundtrack and you have a perfect movie. Perfect.
Ghost Dog Ghost Dog is Jim Jarmusch's brilliant ode to films like Stray Dog and Le Samourai. It stars Forest Whitaker as a gangster hit man who adopts The Way of The Samurai as his personal code. It's funny and sad and dark and strange. In the movie, one of my favorite throwaway gags is the sequence where you see that the gang-bangers learn their gang-banging ways from watching gangster and mob movies and the mobsters learn their ways from cartoons, Tom & Jerry, Elmer Fudd blowing away Buggs Bunny with a shotgun, that kind of thing.
Gilda It's not the best movie on the planet--it's not even the best film noir I've ever seen--but I love the scene where Rita Hayworth as Gilda drinks to her own destruction. It makes my heart skip a beat every time.
Casablanca Of course. An amazing piece of work, amazingly written. I love the scene where Ilsa's come to threaten Rick, trying to force him to give her the letters of transit and when he refuses she says, "You want to feel sorry for yourself, don't you? With so much at stake, all you can think of is your own feelings. One woman has hurt you, and you take revenge on the rest of the world." That scene is so sharp. I am also a huge fan of Peter Lorre and his turn as Ugarte is wonderful.
Good Fellas I don't know how to explain my love of violent gangster movies, but this is probably the finest of the lot. I love the montage of dead gangsters with Eric Clapton backing it up.
The Untouchables I don't much like Sean Connery and I absolutely despise Kevin Costner. I hate hate hate Costner's dead voice and his wooden face, and it's only a fluke that I've ever seen a Kevin Costner vehicle, but I love this movie. I love it. That scene where Connery tells the hit man, "You brought a knife to a gun fight"? Classic. And when he explains The Chicago Way to Eliot Ness ("He puts one of yours in the hospital, you put one of his in the morgue...")? Brilliant. I read recently that Mickey Rourke turned down the Costner/Ness role in this film and it made my want to write Rourke a nasty letter blaming him for allowing Costner to ruin such a good movie. Rourke trumps Costner every day of the week as far as I'm concerned.
Citizen Kane Orson Welles was a genius and a terrifyingly proficient actor. This movie is his finest. (I also love The Third Man.) I just looked up Welles on the 'net and found this:
When asked to describe Welles's influence, Jean-Luc Godard remarked: "Everyone will always owe him everything."Fabulous. True.
Strangers on a Train Alfred Hitchcock. What can I say? I love him, and this is my favorite of his movies. This? Gorgeous. Rope. Gorgeous. The Birds. Gorgeous. But to be fair, you should just see every movie he ever made. Hitchcock was a revolutionary filmmaker. Everything he made is worth seeing, even the bad stuff. You can't say that about most filmmakers.
Dreams This is the first Akira Kurosawa movie I ever saw and after I saw it, I was hooked. I've seen almost everything he made. Dreams is still my favorite (though I adore Madadaiyo and Ikiru and Stray Dog and Rashomon. And Seven Samurai. Of course.)
That's nine. One more? Oh, I can't do just one more! I'll leave it at nine then. Nine of my favorites.
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