Sorry I haven't been around in a while

If I have any readers left, sorry that it looks like I abandoned you for a while there. Life got kind of hectic all of the sudden.

Just a couple of updates:

• If I haven't mentioned it already, the script for the pilot of my TV show, The Prince, is far enough along that I can start having people look at it. Submitted it to a couple of contests, so far, and will probably send it to a few more over the next few months.

Speaking of The Prince, I shot a video pitch for it to send out to potential producers and studio execs.

• I'm now working on a horror movie project I'm calling Lamia Island. I've had some false starts on it over the past few weeks--this is not unusual for me. Hopefully now, though, I'm on a track that will lead to me getting all the way to the end.
• I bought myself an Apple iPad Pro yesterday, along with an accompanying keyboard and Apple pen. This thing is sweet. I've been without a laptop for a while now and this will, I think, be an adequate replacement. Plus, it just looks so cool.

I also got the movies Ex Machina and Moonlight on Blu Ray over the last week or so. I hadn't seen either of them but I'd heard so many good things I had to check them out. Of course I've now seen them both.

Ex Machina is fascinating from a philosophical point-of-view, and the masterful screenplay accomplished something that is rare, but wonderful--you start figuring out what's happening about a half-beat ahead of the central character. You have the same thoughts he does, just before he has them, and ask yourself the same questions he asks, just before he does. Brilliant. It's beautifully shot, too, and the visual effects--namely substituting parts of Ava's (Alicia Vikander) body with robotic looking parts, or rendering them as almost completely transparent--are believable and effective. This is not a thud-and-blunder, spaceships battling science fiction story. This is more of a drama than most films in the genre.

Moonlight was one of those movies that just sort of sucked me in. The pace is a bit languid, careful, sort of lazily building this world, drawing you into it. It's a beautiful story about change, growth, and self-acceptance, among other things. The cinematography is gorgeous--there are probably hundreds of shots that would make interesting paintings or still photos. The cast is excellent, and I'm developing a serious crush on Janelle Monae. I see why it won Best Picture at the Oscars this year. I haven't heard director Barry Jenkins' commentary track yet--I'll be doing that in the next day or so. It should be interesting.

So, both of those are recommended. Check them out.

Over the next few weeks I'll be trying to hammer out a first draft for Lamia Island, and look around for more opportunities to get eyes on my script for the pilot script for The Prince.

And baseball season will be starting soon. I'm sure that will take up a lot of my time, as well.