Sunday, September 12, 2010
My new blog is www.alexanderstuart.com
Much as I love this blog - I have a particular affection for its title - I shall be phasing it out in the coming weeks and I would ask you instead to read my longer-established webpage and blog, Alexander Chow-Stuart (www.alexanderstuart.com) - where I shall be blogging in future.
www.alexanderstuart.com was less of a blog in the past and more simply my professional webpage as a screenwriter and author, but I decided recently to focus on that site and make it more of a blog, so it seems kind of redundant to have two blogs, when most likely all I would do is post the same stories to each of them.
So Loving The Wolf will disappear at some point, but thank you for reading it, and I hope you enjoy the new content at www.alexanderstuart.com. I am trying to explore new elements, such as an Amazon personal playlist, that will allow me to collect together hundreds of the songs and pieces of music I love and that have inspired me for you to sample - and to download as mp3s if you wish.
Enjoy the week.
Peace - namaste - Alexander
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Sunset Over The Pacific
Yesterday, at the end of a day of writing, we took our children to the beach for dinner al fresco as the sun set. It was a reminder of just how beautiful the simplest things can be. Watching children enjoying the ocean is magical in itself...as is the sun dipping down over the hills and the beach. We cannot create anything as intensely moving and memorable as a single moment in the company of those we love, or the astonishing complexity and beauty of each instant on this planet...
Friday, August 6, 2010
Kelp Forest on Exposition Boulevard
It's really worth checking out the astonishing Ecosystems Experience at the LA Science Museum (actually it's called the California Science Center) on Exposition Boulevard. There is a truly beautiful kelp tank with the shoal of fish I photographed here, as well as swell sharks, bat rays and other marine life that you would find in a kelp forest. The kelp has even started to reproduce in the tank - watch out for the tiny yellow triangles that show where baby kelp is growing. Really worth a visit. We took our young children and they loved it - as did I.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Twilight Over The Mountains
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Swimming With The Fishes
I had a great time yesterday at UCLA talking to visiting film students from the University of Miami about my "journey as a writer" (mostly on the 101 and 405 to get to the campus). It's always good to experience the enthusiasm and fresh perspective of those aspiring to work in the business - and it was wonderful to see my friend, Paul Lazarus, who runs the film program at UM, where I used to teach graduate screenwriting.
Paul, who is a former movie producer (Westworld and Barbarosa are among his credits) told me a tale of the high days of Hollywood in the 1980s, when - during a negotiation on a particular project - he received a call from a heavyweight (in every sense, including the Vegas-"connected" variety) show business attorney, who asked Paul, "Are you trying to screw my client? Do you want to wind up at the bottom of a lake?"
Paul - a former entertainment attorney himself (Mel Brooks was a client) - answered: "Are you threatening my life?"
To which the other attorney simply answered, "I have nothing more to say to you," and hung up.
Somehow I don't think studios like Pixar today engage in such dialogue with those they are negotiating with...but who knows?
Meanwhile, one of the visiting students, Rodrigo Diaz McVeigh, told me of a documentary he has directed called Havana Surf!, which is a mix of travelog and surf documentary following a group of young Cuban surfers around the beaches of that wonderful island.
As a visitor to Cuba twice myself, and a huge fan of its people and culture, I can't wait to see the film, which has already played at festivals around the world. Here is a link to its website: Havana Surf!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky
Some years ago, the British film director (and wonderful friend and collaborator) Nicolas Roeg gave me a book and told me, “Read this, it will change your life.”
I had no idea what to expect – except that with Nic, I trusted that he knew what he was talking about. I went home and read the book, Paul Bowles’ magnificent novel, The Sheltering Sky, set in Morocco and first published in 1949, and indeed it both woke me up, psychologically and emotionally, and changed the way I thought about things.
The novel is set in Morocco, where American-born composer and writer Bowles lived for most of his life, and among its other effects, The Sheltering Sky made me fall in love with the country, too. Marrakesh became one of my favorite cities in the world (I still dream of its exquisite architecture, its wonderful people and its unforgettable desert beauty) and the drive from there to the Sahara through the Atlas Mountains is still one of the most memorable and remarkable journeys I have ever made. To touch snow in the Atlas Mountains on the same day that you ride a camel up a Saharan sand dune is to know how extraordinary our world is.
Recently I mentioned to a friend, Lisa Anderson, my favorite passage from the book – which literally made me sit up and think differently about life, so startling are the words. Lisa, who also found it remarkable, was kind enough to look it up and email it to me, so here it is. Please read it, and read the whole of The Sheltering Sky.
Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1990 movie of the book captures some of its mystery, but nothing can compare with reading Paul Bowles’ masterpiece. (His short stories are also probably the best I have ever read.)
"Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will
arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible
precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think
of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of
times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you
remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so
deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life
without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more
times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all
seems limitless."
- Paul Bowles (The Sheltering Sky)
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
BP Oil Spill now 35,000-60,000 barrels per day
This nightmare scenario literally haunts me. I love the ocean with a passion and my sadness just grows and grows...
Oil estimate raised to 35,000-60,000 barrels a day
June 15, 2010 5:42 p.m. EDT
Obama to Gulf Coast: 'I am with you'
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- 1.5 to 2.5 million gallons a day into Gulf: up to 50 percent more than previous estimate
- Spokesman: Oval Office address to outline "beginning of the process to restore the Gulf"
- Lawmaker blasts oil firms for producing disaster response plans that are "virtually identical"
- President Obama on second day of Gulf visit with stop in Florida Panhandle
President Obama addresses the nation live Tuesday night at 8 ET with the latest on the BP oil disaster. Watch it live on CNN,CNN.com/Live and the CNN iPhone app.
(CNN) -- Government officials Tuesday increased the estimate of oil flowing into the Gulf to between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels (1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons) per day, up to 50 percent more than previously estimated.
The government's previous estimate, issued last week, was 20,000 to 40,000 barrels per day. The change was "based on updated information and scientific assessments," and was reached by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Chair of the National Incident Command's Flow Rate Technical Group Marcia McNutt, the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center said.
"The improved estimate is based on more and better data that is now available and that helps increase the scientific confidence in the accuracy of the estimate," it said.
Lawmakers hammered oil companies Tuesday as President Obama toured the Florida coast to reassure Americans that the government had firm command over the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
At Pensacola Naval Air Station, Obama declared war on the massive slick, as though it were an enemy lurking offshore.
"This is an unprecedented environmental disaster," Obama told a crowd of soldiers, Marines and sailors. "This is an assault in our nation's shore, and we're going to fight back with everything we've got."
The tough talk on soft sand preceded Obama's first-ever national address from the Oval Office, slated for Tuesday night. In the symbolically important speech, Obama will lay out a game plan for dealing with the worst oil spill in U.S. history, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told CNN.
Gibbs said Obama will outline containment and cleanup plans and address America's need to reduce dependency on foreign oil and fossil fuels.
RELATED TOPICS
Americans, frustrated with the incessant undersea gusher and also what some perceive as a lack of White House leadership, are sure to be listening, especially to what the president has to say regarding claims. The process has become a sore subject for those whose livelihoods have been stung by sheets of oil drifting in the Gulf and washing ashore.
Health threats from the Gulf oil disaster could last for years, and officials lack knowledge on how long chemicals in the spilled oil and dispersants will remain toxic, a health expert told a Senate committee Tuesday.
A Food and Drug Administration official told a Senate committee Tuesday that seafood from the Gulf of Mexico available to consumers in stores and restaurants is safe. "We are confident that Gulf of Mexico seafood that is in the market today is safe to eat," said Mike Taylor, deputy commissioner of the FDA.
Also Tuesday, BP said it suspended the operation to siphon oil from the ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico after a fire aboard a drill ship Tuesday morning.
Siphoning resumed Tuesday afternoon, BP said.
The fire was likely caused by a lightning strike, and siphoning was suspended as a precaution, BP said. There were no reported injuries.
The spill now dwarfs the 11 million gallons that were dumped into Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989 when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground, and oil in varying amounts and consistencies has hit the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
BP has been siphoning oil from a containment cap placed on the ruptured well but had to suspend oil collection Tuesday after a fire aboard the drilling ship Discover Enterprise.
A statement from the company attributed the fire to lightning. It said operations would restart Tuesday afternoon.
Obama is scheduled to meet with top BP officials in a highly anticipated meeting Wednesday. Speedy claims processing will be high on the agenda.
David Axelrod, Obama's senior adviser, has said a new claims plan would call for an independent third party to handle the process, and a White House spokesman said the administration is confident that it has the legal authority to force BP to set up an escrow account for the purpose of paying damages.
BP announced Tuesday that it accelerated commercial large-loss claims and has approved 337 checks for $16 million to businesses that have filed claims in excess of $5,000. Initial payments began over the weekend and will be completed this week, the British energy giant said.
In Washington, senior Democrats launched a blistering attack on oil companies at a key House subcommittee hearing.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, said that four of the five largest oil firms have produced disaster response plans that discuss how to protect walruses, even though there are no walruses in the Gulf.
These are "cookie-cutter plans" that, in reality, are little more than "just paper exercises," he said.
Rep. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, blasted the heads of ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Shell Oil for producing disaster response plans that are "virtually identical."
They all tout "ineffective identical equipment" and often use "the exact same words" in their plans, he said. They have spent "zero time and money" in developing adequate response blueprints, he asserted.
Meanwhile Tuesday, federal authorities announced guidelines to speed up maritime waivers that would allow more foreign ships -- in addition to the 15 already in the Gulf of Mexico -- to assist in oil cleanup efforts.
"Should any waivers be needed, we are prepared to process them as quickly as possible to allow vital spill response activities being undertaken by foreign-flagged vessels to continue without delay," said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's response manager.
The Jones Act, which regulates maritime commerce in U.S. waters, requires that goods transported by water between U.S. ports be carried in U.S.-flagged ships that have been constructed in the United States and are American-owned. The law was intended to support the U.S. merchant marine industry but now limits foreign vessels from participating in the oil response.
Allen also announced Tuesday the establishment of three positions for deputy incident commanders, who will help oversee operations from the coast. The three will join a response team that already involves roughly 27,000 people.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Anti-BP Art - The Huffington Post
Anti-BP Art: The Best Visual Jabs To Come From The Oil Spill (PICTURES)
Huffington Post | Katla McGlynn Posted: 06-13-10 09:56 AM
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Read More: Anti-Bp Art, Anti-Bp-Protests, Anti-Oil Spill Fan Art, Bp Protest Art, Comedy News, Funny Photos, Funny Pictures, Gulf Oil Spill, Slidepollajax, Comedy News
The Gulf oil spill has left people angry and frustrated to say the least, but one good thing that's come out of it is angry fan art. Those who are boycotting BP or wishing Tony Hayward would fall into the sludge have used their artistic skills to create these funny images. From Spongebob's demise to an oil-slicked Little Mermaid, these images get the message across with a little humor to cushion the blow.
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