Must See TV: Pushing Daisies

 

Once in a while, something comes along on television that is, for better or worse, different.  Thankfully, Pushing Daisies is good. Very, very good, if the pilot is any indication. I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it on the boob tube. It unfolds like a whimsical, fractured fairy tale for the modern age, complete with touch of the supernatural, a narrator who’d be perfectly comfortable telling bedtime stories, and a girl awakened by a Prince Charming. Who happens to be a piemaker.

That this fairy tale is grounded in death should come as no surprise to anyone who’s seen Showtime’s late lamented Dead Like Me, an earlier brainchild of Pushing Daisies’ creator Bryan Fuller.  Piemaker Ned (Lee Pace) is gifted with the bizarre ability to bring dead people back to life. The caveat? If that person stays alive for longer than a minute, someone else in the vicinity kicks the bucket.  Even worse, if Ned touches the resurrected person a second time, that person dies. For good.

So of course it comes to pass that Ned resurrects Chuck (Anna Friel), the girl he had a crush on when he was a kid. In the space of a minute, the two reconnect, and Ned finds himself unable to let her go. But now that she’s rejoined the ranks of the living, he can’t touch her again either, for fear of killing her for good.

In heavier hands, this would be all angst and drang. But it’s a wondrously heady, whimsical affair with Fuller as showrunner, and with Addams Family director Barry Sonnenfeld directing.  Fuller has been quoted as saying that Amelie is one of the show’s inspirations, and it shows in the cadence of the narration from time to time.

In addition to the considerable talent behind the camera, Pushing Daisies is fortunate to be blessed with a stellar cast. Lee Pace does a heartbreaking turn as Ned, whose unique gift has turned him into a social recluse. Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene shine as Chuck’s eccentric aunts, and as do Chi McBride as Emerson, Ned’s P.I. pal, and Kristin Chernoweth as the waitress at the Pie Hole. But special mention must be made of Anna Friel, who plays the recently deceased, recently resurrected Chuck who’s eager to make the most of her second life.

Below is a clip from the show. Pushing Daisies airs on ABC beginning October 3rd, Wednesdays at 8 p.m.

Why Is That Tree In My Parking Spot?

 

On September 21st, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) observes National Park(ing) Day , which will see two parking spaces in Los Angeles recreated as urban oases.

TPL is creating two Park(ing) parks in Los Angeles. The park in Downtown LA will be located in front of Macy’s West, Downtown LA 7th street between Flower and Hope from 11 AM to 2 PM. The park will feature seating, turf, drought tolerant plants - a tranquil oasis in the asphalt. Map

TPL’s Healthy Parks, Healthy Communities Program is partnering with Community Health Councils to create a fitness-themed park at the 3800 block of Crenshaw Boulevard, which will include an obstacle course to get visitors’ hearts racing. Map

Writing Update

 

(Note: This is going to be a regular sort of blog entry, just to keep myself honest about what sort of progress I’m making on my writing. It also serves as a way to organize some of my ideas).

Number of Pages Written: 102 (including Act Three)
What Act Are You Writing Right Now: Act Two

I was on a roll there for a while, until I hit a block last week. This is the part where a key character appears and explains it all to our intrepid band of heroes. Also, an unusual obstacle is placed before Nick. And then there’s more exposition in two other sequences. So all in all, it just seems like a lot of talking, after lots of action. Plus, in the back of my head, I’m afraid this is going to be too long (At page 73, I’m more than an hour in, but am just getting to what seems to be the real setup of the movie).

Solutions: Move on! The exposition scenes can be tightened and made funny later. If there’s a problem with the pacing, I’ll figure out how to balance it out later. And yes, the overall product might run too long in the first draft. But I’ve  already figured out how to rewrite the first act to cut it down by a good ten pages. So it’s not impossible.

What I Really Want To Do Is Direct

Spent all of Saturday afternoon at the Echo Park Film Center, where I had signed up for a class on 16 mm filmmaking.  The place itself is an awesome funky little joint, situated at the  corner of Alvarado and Sunset. Clearly, co-founder Paolo Davanzo and everyone else who works there are firm believers in the spirit of grass-roots filmmaking.  It’s a great space to learn the craft of filmmaking, from people who clearly love the medium.

Paulo himself taught the class. His crash course in using 16 mm cameras was peppered throughout with political insights about the war in Iraq and the South Central L.A. farm controversy from last year. In fact, Paulo’s hard at work now on a documentary about the issue.

The class itself was intense. After a quick primer on how film works–24 frames a second,  sprockets keep the film moving forward– we did a quick exercise where participants did artwork on strips of film– we drew, punched holes, wrote things. The results were pretty trippy. Afterwards, Paulo introduced us to three different 16mm cameras we’d be using for the afternoon– two Bolex cameras (one reflex, the other parallex), and a Scoopic.  After a brief but comprehensive lecture on film speed, aperture size, and a variety of other important concepts, the class was let loose on Echo Park to film, well, anything and everything.  No one’s expected to come back with masterpieces– rather, it’s an opportunity for each of us to handle the camera, and get used to working with each one.

Afterwards, Paulo led us all into the basement underneath the building, where he taught us some of the basics of hand processing.  I wasn’t able to stay throughout that demo, but I’m definitely looking forward to the results. Paulo’s burning DVDs  of the entire project, so we’ll get to see how our artistic endeavors panned out.

In the meantime, here’s a video made by one of the youths who attended the EPFC’s classes. He’s chosen a subject that I feel a lot of anger about as well, the removal of the Chavez Ravine community in the 1940s to make way for Dodger Stadium.

A Great Way to Propose

 

 Now this is the way to do it!

Anyone who plans on proposing marraige to  his/her special someone anytime soon should take a page out of cartoonist Chad Thomas’s book.  After dinner, Chad and his girlfriend Jill went to the Borders bookstore where they first met. He’d arranged for a friend to drop off a portfolio for Jill to find. It’s possibly one of the cuter and more romantic ways of asking for someone’s hand.