Do Not Go Gently into that Good Night

So... It's 5AM. Another night I cannot sleep. My mind is racing. Buzzing with thoughts and ideas in all directions. It's like a major traffic jam. I knew it would happen tonight. It all started with a few Twitter updates, which BTW I find completely & totally ridiculous, but I do so only to appease and aggrevate friends who demand I tweet, but I will address this topic with another blog.

Continuing.... Then, I bought new Sharpie pens. The advertisement says they are like pens and won't bleed. Perfect for my journal. I miss writing in my journal. I recently purchased a new one, but have yet to add a single word. There is something retro cool about a journal. Plus, it's always right there. Believe it or not, some of my brilliant ideas aren't always while sitting in front of the computer. Oh, the goodies which have died between the car, for instance, and grabbing my Mac Book Pro. Sad.

Continuing... Then, I watched a highly entertaining and intelligent documentary on HBO. Very well done and made me realize the screenplay/writings/stories I wrote and sold to Hollywood last year still sits on some shelf collecting dust. I often joke it sits between "Gremlins 3" and an unnamed documentary about socks. My joke is probably closer to the truth than I may realize. Still, I should not let it dampen my creative spirits. I have always wanted to make a documentary. Of course, it would be a documentary from my warped sense of humor. Years ago, a news story really hit me. It was Thanksgiving weekend, probably, 3 years ago. I was sitting at my parents no doubt eating a turkey sandwich waiting for ESPN SportsCenter highlights. On the news was a segment about the day's annual Black Friday events. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving event when stores all over the nation open their doors super early and offer huge storewide markdowns on various items. Wal-Mart, a store I've learned to hate over the years, is notorious for its Black Friday shenanigans. Incidentally this news story prominently featured Wal-Mart. That Black Friday morning at one of its stores in Detroit, people were dropped to the ground and run over by others hurriedly entering the store for discounted DVD players and flat screen televisions. There were several serious injuries. One thing that struck me was a 30-something lady who was trampled by the crowd. Her misfortune was captured on Wal-Mart security video and replayed over and over on that news story. I felt sympathy for this woman. She touched me. A single instant when she believed she would be the first to obtain price reduced electronics came to a crashing, humiliating end when her feet tangled causing her to lose balance and crash to the ground thus igniting an onslaught of confused persons in her wake to do the same. The moment she grabbed her wig, placed it back on her head and then exited the scrummage was the single moment I realized I must meet this woman and do a documentary on the events that led her to this Black Friday event, the fall, the pain and of course the aftermath. The fact that she had the comeuppance to put her wig back on albeit soiled in foot prints AND return to her feet for sales goodies makes me want to know more about this woman. These thoughts have been on my mind for over three years. I found her name a year ago and almost began calling various homes hoping to find her, but I didn't. Maybe this will be the year. Maybe I can conduct a phone interview. Maybe she wants to discuss the black and blue events of that Black Friday. Maybe. One day, I'll find her and shot this documentary. One day. I wonder if she returned to Black Friday the next year? You do too. Therein lies the reason for this much needed documentary.

Continuing... Then, I checked on a friend's daughter via Facebook asking her thoughts on a collection of horror movies I gifted her before last week's family vacation. She claims to be a huge horror movie fan. I am a huge horror movie fan, so I gave her a dozen DVDs calling it a "Horror Movie Starter Kit". I am happy to report she loved the movies. One of my goals is to write a horror movie. The perfect horror movie---at least break the mold of this current blueprint of scary flicks. I do not like the "Saw" movies or those like it. These crappy things basically try grossing out viewers with their over the top slasher blood and gore scenes. Not scary. Not spooky. Wasted effort. I do not get it. I haven't seen a good scary movie in about 10 years. That's sad. Pathetic. Why the drought? I am uncertain, but I plan to change it. If I can write one good horror flick, I'd definitely set myself up for a comfortable living. One successfully movie could easily branch off into sequels, TV series, books, etc. These movies make huge dough. Huge. People crave horror. We love it. The first time seeing "The Blair Witch Project", I was in complete awe. Today I watch, and it's still the same. Granted, not everyone found it genius as I did, but the concept, the idea, and the marketing was simply brilliant. To this day I have friends who cannot be convinced the movie wasn't actual footage of three filmmakers lost in the woods. Genius. Perhaps Kat and I will make the perfect horror movie. I think so.

Tonight, with a day of ridiculous tweets, brand new Sharpie pens, a very well-done HBO documentary and a "Horror Movie Starter Kit" dancing in my head, I lay here at 5AM. I cannot sleep. My mind is too busy.