Thursday, August 31, 2017

The Rainy Season

Summer is indisputably the rainy season in Hong Kong. We get more rain between June and August than in every month of winter, fall and spring combined. Between May and September, it will rain at least half the month. Guaranteed.

Summer is also typhoon season. But it's not that all the rain comes from typhoons. Summer will be rainy whether any typhoons come close or not. Typhoons form over the ocean every year, but they don't always hit us. Most will hit the Philippines, some will hit Japan or Taiwan, and pretty much every typhoon that is headed west will hit somewhere in China. But it's pretty hard to hit Hong Kong.

Whoever decided to build this city was smart. You have the natural harbor and mountains that make it interesting, and all of the economic advantages of international trade and opium wars, but two of Hong Kong's major advantages are the Philippines and Taiwan. Without them, we would be hit by multiple typhoons every year. I doubt Hong Kong would be the city it is today without that protection.

As it is, typhoons have to squeeze through a tiny passage to get to us. Almost every typhoon that collapses near here has already made landfall somewhere else. That makes them much weaker.

This typhoon season has been a little different. We have already had two tropical storms that slammed directly into us, Merbok and Roke, and one that landed close enough, Pakhar. That happens from time to time. Tropical Storm Roke slipped through our Philippines/Taiwan blockade. Pakhar slammed into the Philippines and slowed down before hitting us. Merbok was a little sneaky and formed west of the Philippines. It headed north, so there was nothing to protect Hong Kong.

But those were tropical storms. They bring a lot of rain, but this is the rainy season anyway. Hong Kong is not subject to flooding the way the Philippines and low lying parts of Mainland China are. Tropical storm winds are 75 mph or less. In a typhoon, it's the wind that really causes the most damage. We get tropical storms every year. Something we don't always get are typhoons.

On August 23, Typhoon Hato crashed right over Hong Kong and Macau before landing in Jinwan. It was the first time Hong Kong issued its highest warning system since Typhoon Vicente. That one caused a lot of damage. The streets looked exactly as you would expect streets to look after a super typhoon. Somehow, no one died.

Typhoon Hato was a little smaller, and not nearly as dramatic. At least in Hong Kong. I would like to say that the government learned from Vicente and made improvements to protect us, but we probably just got lucky.

Macau and Guangdong were not as lucky. Hato was Macau's strongest storm in 50 years. The army had to clean up debris. Government officials resigned. Ten people died. In the rest of China, a few hundred thousand people were left homeless and 19 people died. The damages were about US$3 billion.

You did not hear about Typhoon Hato on CNN because at the same time, Hurricane Harvey was hitting Texas. CNN is an American company, so obviously anything happening in the United States will always take precedence over anything anywhere else, and Harvey was definitely a newsworthy event. But it would be nice if CNN finally recognized that more than one news story can take place at the same time. They spent four straight days talking about nothing but Harvey. There was some information in there that most of us would have never known otherwise, but one of CNN's biggest problems is talking about the same thing over and over, even when there is nothing new to report. They will repeat everything they said five minutes earlier. In between updates, they could acknowledge that there are other countries besides the United States. If you get all your news from CNN, you probably have no idea that most of the people on this planet live nowhere close to Wall Street.


Typhoon Hato 2017

Typhoon Vicente 2012

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis was an interesting person. By most accounts, he was a raging asshole, yet he was the face of muscular dystrophy for 60 years, raising countless dollars and hosting what has to be the most famous telethon in the history of the world. He was generally dismissed as a mere comic and Dean Martin's wacky sidekick during most of his career, yet every filmmaker today uses techniques he pioneered. He was far from the first comedy actor to direct, write and produce the movies he starred in. That was common practice in the silent era. But it was unheard of in the studio system. When most comedies were written by one team of mostly unknown men, directed by another man, produced by a studio man and starring a famous comedian, Jerry Lewis did it all himself. And he took his comedy seriously. So instead of disposable screwball movies that the studio only saw as quick money grabs, we have ambitious classics that will long endure.

Jerry Lewis died on Sunday after a lifetime of poor health. He had his first heart attack when he was 34 and had several heart surgeries throughout his life. His heart finally killed him at age 91.

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis made 16 formula movies together, but it was his solo work that made a difference.


My Friend Irma
directed by George Marshall
written by Cy Howard & Parke Levy
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Marie Wilson, Diana Lynn, John Lund, Don DeFore, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Hans Conried

My Friend Irma Goes West
directed by Hal Walker
written by Cy Howard & Parke Levy
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Marie Wilson, Diana Lynn, John Lund, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Corinne Calvet

At War with the Army
directed by Hal Walker
written & produced by Fred Finklehoffe
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Angela Greene, Polly Bergen

That's My Boy
directed by Hal Walker
written by Cy Howard
produced by Cy Howard & Hal Wallis
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Ruth Hussey, Marion Marshall, Polly Bergen

Sailor Beware
directed by Hal Walker
written by James Allardice & Martin Rackin
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Corinne Calvet, Marion Marshall, Robert Strauss, Betty Hutton, James Dean

Jumping Jacks
directed by Norman Taurog
written by Herbert Baker & Robert Lees
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Mona Freeman, Don DeFore, Robert Strauss

The Stooge
directed by Norman Taurog
written by Fred Finklehoffe, Martin Rackin, Jerry Lewis
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Polly Bergen, Marion Marshall, Frances Bavier

Scared Stiff
directed by George Marshall
written by Herbert Baker, Walter DeLeon, Norman Lear
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Lizabeth Scott, Carmen Miranda, Dorothy Malone

The Caddy
directed by Norman Taurog
written by Danny Arnold & Edmund Hartmann
produced by Paul Jones
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Donna Reed, Barbara Bates, Howard Smith, Nancy Kulp, Fred Clark

Money from Home
directed by George Marshall
written by Damon Runyon & James Allardice
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Marjie Millar, Pat Crowley, Robert Strauss, Sheldon Leonard

Living It Up
directed by Norman Taurog
written by Jack Rose & Melville Shavelson
produced by Paul Jones
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Janet Leigh, Fred Clark

3 Ring Circus
directed by Joseph Pevney
written by Joseph Pevney & Don McGuire
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Joanne Dru, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Elsa Lanchester, Kathleen Freeman

You're Never Too Young
directed by Norman Taurog
written by Sidney Sheldon
produced by Paul Jones
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Diana Lynn, Nina Foch, Raymond Burr, Nancy Kulp, Margery Maude, Milton Frome, Hans Conried, Tor Johnson, Hank Mann

Artists and Models
directed by Frank Tashlin
written by Frank Tashlin, Herbert Baker, Hal Kanter
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Shirley MacLaine, Dorothy Malone, Eva Gabor, Anita Ekberg, Kathleen Freeman

Pardners
directed by Norman Taurog
written by Mervin Houser & Jerry Davis
produced by Paul Jones
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Agnes Moorehead, Lori Nelson, Milton Frome, Lon Chaney, Lee Van Cleef

Hollywood or Bust
directed by Frank Tashlin
written by Erna Lazarus
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Pat Crowley, Maxie Rosenbloom, Anita Ekberg

The Delicate Delinquent
directed by Don McGuire
written by Don McGuire & Jerry Lewis
produced by Jerry Lewis
starring Jerry Lewis, Darren McGavin, Martha Hyer, Frank Gorshin

The Sad Sack
directed by George Marhsall
written by George Baker
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Jerry Lewis, Peter Lorre, Phyllis Kirk, Mary Treen

Rock-A-Bye Baby
directed & written by Frank Tashlin
produced by Jerry Lewis
starring Jerry Lewis, Connie Stevens, Marilyn Maxwell, Hans Conried, Mary Treen, Isobel Elsom, Chester Conklin, Hank Mann

The Geisha Boy
directed & written by Frank Tashlin
produced by Jerry Lewis
starring Jerry Lewis, Marie McDonald, Sessue Hayakawa, Barton MacLane, Suzanne Pleshette

Don't Give Up the Ship
directed by Norman Taurog
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Jerry Lewis, Dina Merrill, Gale Gordon, Claude Akins, Fritz Feld

Visit to a Small Planet
directed by Norman Taurog
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Jerry Lewis, Joan Blackman, Earl Holliman, John Williams, Gale Gordon, Milton Frome, Paul Wexler, Buddy Rich

The Bellboy
directed, written & produced by Jerry Lewis
starring Jerry Lewis, Bob Clayton, Isobel Elsom, Milton Berle, Stan Laurel

Cinderfella
directed & written by Frank Tashlin
produced by Jerry Lewis
starring Jerry Lewis, Judith Anderson, Ed Wynn, Count Basie

The Ladies Man
directed & produced by Jerry Lewis
written by Jerry Lewis & Bill Richmond
starring Jerry Lewis, Helen Traubel, Kathleen Freeman, Fritz Feld, Buddy Lester

The Errand Boy
directed by Jerry Lewis
written by Jerry Lewis & Bill Richmond
starring Jerry Lewis, Brian Donlevy, Kathleen Freeman, Isobel Elsom, Fritz Feld

It's Only Money
directed by Frank Tashlin
starring Jerry Lewis, Joan O'Brien, Jack Weston, Mae Questel

The Nutty Professor
directed by Jerry Lewis
written by Jerry Lewis & Bill Richmond
starring Jerry Lewis, Stella Stevens, Kathleen Freeman, Milton Frome, Buddy Lester

Who's Minding the Store?
directed & written by Frank Tashlin
starring Jerry Lewis, Jill St John, Agnes Moorehead, Ray Walston, Kathleen Freeman, Nancy Kulp, Isobel Elsom, Mary Treen, Fritz Feld, Milton Frome

The Patsy
directed by Jerry Lewis
written by Jerry Lewis & Bill Richmond
starring Jerry Lewis, Everett Sloane, Phil Harris, Keenan Wynn, Peter Lorre, John Carradine, Kathleen Freeman

The Disorderly Orderly
directed & written by Frank Tashlin
starring Jerry Lewis, Susan Oliver, Kathleen Freeman, Alice Pearce, Everett Sloane

The Family Jewels
directed & produced by Jerry Lewis
written by Jerry Lewis & Bill Richmond
starring Jerry Lewis, Donna Butterworth, Sebastian Cabot

Boeing Boeing
directed by John Rich
written by Edward Anhalt
produced by Hal Wallis
starring Jerry Lewis, Tony Curtis, Christiane Schmidtmer, Suzanna Leigh, Thelma Ritter

Three on a Couch
directed & produced by Jerry Lewis
written by Samuel Taylor & Bob Ross
starring Jerry Lewis, Janet Leigh, Mary Ann Mobley, James Best, Kathleen Freeman, Gila Golan, Buddy Lester, Fritz Feld

Way...Way Out
directed by Gordon Douglas
starring Jerry Lewis, Connie Stevens, Anita Ekberg, Dick Shawn, Brian Keith, Dennis Weaver, James Brolin

The Big Mouth
directed & produced by Jerry Lewis
written by Jerry Lewis & Bill Richmond
starring Jerry Lewis, Susan Bay, Kathleen Freeman, Buddy Lester, Charlie Callas, Frank De Vol

Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River
directed by Jerry Paris
written by Max Wilk
produced by Walter Shenson
starring Jerry Lewis, Terry-Thomas, Jacqueline Pearce, Patricia Routledge

Hook, Line & Sinker
directed by George Marshall
produced by Jerry Lewis
starring Jerry Lewis, Peter Lawford, Anne Francis, Kathleen Freeman, Scatman Crothers, Del Moore

One More Time
directed by Jerry Lewis
written by Michael Pertwee
starring Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, Ester Anderson, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee

Which Way to the Front?
directed & produced by Jerry Lewis
written by Dee Caruso & Gerald Gardner
starring Jerry Lewis, Jan Murray, Kathleen Freeman, Kaye Ballard, George Takei

The Day the Clown Cried
directed by Jerry Lewis
written by Joan O'Brien, Charles Denton, Jerry Lewis
starring Jerry Lewis, Harriet Andersson

Hardly Working
directed & written by Jerry Lewis
starring Jerry Lewis, Susan Oliver, Buddy Lester

Slapstick of Another Kind
directed, written & produced by Steven Paul
starring Jerry Lewis, Madeline Kahn, Marty Feldman, Jim Backus, Pat Morita, Merv Griffin

The King of Comedy
directed by Martin Scorsese
written by Paul Zimmerman
starring Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard

Cracking Up
directed by Jerry Lewis
written by Jerry Lewis & Bill Richmond
starring Jerry Lewis, Herb Edelman, Milton Berle, Foster Brooks, Sammy Davis Jr, Buddy Lester

Retenez Moi...Ou Je Fais Un Malheur
directed & written by Michel Gerard
produced by Michel Gerard & Pierre Kalfon
starring Jerry Lewis, Michel Blanc, Charlotte de Turckheim

Par où t'es rentré? On t'a pas vu sortir
directed & written by Philippe Clair
starring Jerry Lewis, Philippe Clair, Connie Nielsen

Fight For Life
directed by Elliot Silverstein
starring Jerry Lewis, Patty Duke, Morgan Freeman, Barry Morse

Cookie
directed by Susan Seidelman
written by Nora Ephron & Alice Arlen
starring Emily Lloyd, Peter Falk, Dianne Wiest, Jerry Lewis, Brenda Vaccaro

Mr Saturday Night
directed & produced by Billy Crystal
written by Billy Crystal, Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel
starring Billy Crystal, David Paymer, Julie Warner, Helen Hunt, Jerry Orbach, Ron Silver, Jerry Lewis

Arizona Dream
directed by Emir Kusturica
starring Johnny Depp, Jerry Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Lili Taylor, Vincent Gallo, Paulina Porizkova

Funny Bones
directed by Peter Chelsom
written by Peter Chelsom & Peter Flannery
produced by Peter Chelsom & Simon Fields
starring Oliver Platt, Jerry Lewis, Leslie Caron, Oliver Reed

Até que a Sorte nos Separe 2
directed by Roberto Santucci
starring Leandro Hassum, Camila Morgado, Jerry Lewis

The Trust
directed by Ben Brewer & Alex Brewer
written by Ben Brewer & Adam Hirsch
starring Nicolas Cage, Elijah Wood, Sky Ferreira, Jerry Lewis

Max Rose
directed & written by Daniel Noah
starring Jerry Lewis, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Pollak, Dean Stockwell, Fred Willard, Claire Bloom

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Taipei On the River

What really attracted me to the hotel and neighborhood where we stayed was the river. The Keelung River cuts through the city while the Danshui River runs along the western border. For reasons I will never understand, Chinese people do not particularly care about waterfront property. Beaches and rivers in China and Taiwan are often treated like toilets. The Keelung River is famous for being a public sewer.

Part of Zhongshan's renovation was the construction of several riverside parks. There were long stretches of empty land near the river, since no one likes living on the water, so someone eventually decided to turn a few swamps and patches of nothing into recreation areas. The parks are mostly long stretches of green with walking, jogging and bicycle paths. There are a few sporting fields here and there and, ironically, a park for dogs to run around without their leashes. It is ironic because, like China, dogs in Taiwan run around without leashes anyway. Stray dogs and pets are everywhere. I have rarely seen any on a leash. Strays kill more than a few children every year in China. I don't know what the statistics are in Taiwan.

Close to one of the park entrances, and throughout the city, are Youbike stations; a public bicycle sharing system that is much easier to use than I expected. Lily and I have MRT Easycards, which are just like MTR Octopus cards. If you have an Easycard, you scan it on the Youbike kiosk and enter your phone number. Within seconds, they sent a message with a number code that we entered into the kiosk. That activated our Easycards. You can also activate them online, but doing it at the machine was easy. Once your card has been activated, you can scan it at whichever bicycle you want. When you return it to any station, you scan your card again and it deducts whatever the fee is, depending on how long you had the bike. The prices are low. It starts out at something like NT$5 (HK$1.50) for the first half hour, NT$10 (HK$2.50) for each half hour under 4 hours, NT$20 (HK$5.50) for each half hour between 4-8 hours, NT$40 (HK$10.50) for each half hour after 8 hours.

I don't know what they would do if we stole the bikes. Easycards are anonymous. We bought them at vending machines with cash. There is no way for any government agency to identify who owns a card. People without Easycards can rent the bikes with credit cards. They can be charged for stolen bikes. We returned ours, of course, but what would they have done if we had not?

The bikes were nothing special. They were typical city bikes with adequate brakes and adjustable seats. That is really all you need. The park where we rode those bikes was exceptional. There were separate roads for cars, bicycles and joggers. In a Chinese city, that is beyond important. The only reason I don't own a bicycle is because I live in Hong Kong. Riding a bike in the city is suicidal. There are plenty of mountain trails in the New Territories and some of the islands, but mountains are too advanced for me. The safest trails and bike paths require an MTR ride, so it's easier to rent a bike when you get there than to bring your own. I would love to be able to ride a bike from my apartment to wherever I'm going, but that would require some very busy and dangerous streets.

Yingfeng Riverside Park in Taipei required almost no riding on city streets, except for half a block from the bike station to the park. The park is flat, so if you are looking for an extreme challenge, it's not for you. But it is the best place for a calm, relaxing and safe bike ride that I have ever seen in East Asia. The most dangerous aspect of our bicycle time was the blaring sun, but we are both used to that. Hats and sunscreen usually do the trick. That was probably also why the park was always empty. I'm sure it gets crowded on cloudy weekends, and more people mean more accidents.

Between sweating in the park, riding trains in the rain and swimming at the hotel, it was a pretty wet trip.

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Taipei On a Train

Not that long ago, getting from the airport into the city required either several connections or one long bus or taxi ride. Like a lot of large Asian cities, the airport is nowhere near the city.

Taoyuan International Airport recently underwent some major renovations. Most of it looks cosmetic, as far as I can tell, but one big difference is that now you can take a train directly from the airport into the city. When they built the high speed train line, it never touched the airport, for some reason. To get from one to the other, you had to take a slow and not especially clean shuttle bus. They filled up pretty fast, and waiting for the second or third bus in the rain was never pleasant. There was always the regular bus that went from the airport into the city, but that was always slow and not especially clean.

Some time between my last trip and this one, they connected the airport to the high speed train. That means you can take a single train, with no shuttles, into the city. Since the high speed train system is only about ten years old, I don't see why they did not do this right from the beginning. There is probably a convoluted political answer.

Ironically, there was a smaller airport right across the river from our hotel. Unfortunately, there are no direct flights from Hong Kong.

Once you are in the city, Taipei's MRT system is pretty much like Hong Kong's MTR or Tokyo Metro. Taipei has fewer lines in a smaller space, making it pretty simple to navigate. Hong Kong and Tokyo always made it easy to get into the city from the airport.

Something I have always wanted to do is take a train across the United States. Right now, I don't have the time, and I don't live conveniently close. I would also like to take a bullet train across Japan. That takes less time. Those trains are fast, and Japan is considerably smaller. As it turns out, a Japanese company made the high speed trains that run the length of Taiwan. Taiwan was also nice enough to make itself much smaller than Japan or the United States. The length of Taiwan is about the same distance as New York to Washington, DC. You can take the high speed train from one end of the country to the other in less than two hours.

From Taipei, the other end is Kaohsiung. I don't know anything about Kaohsiung, but a few people have told me I should go there. It has the largest natural harbor in the country, apparently. And lots of shopping. When you live in Hong Kong, people always tell you about other cities with shopping. I don't get it. That is almost like living in Chicago and people telling you about pizza in Indiana.

Lily and I took the high speed train from Taipei to Kaohsiung. Not to go to Kaohsiung, and certainly not to go shopping. We wanted to ride the train. The cars have wide windows, so you get a good view of the scenery. Unfortunately, we did not get much scenery. Taipei had blaring sunlight. Taichung, in the middle of the country, was cloudy and had obviously rained before we got there. South of Taichung, we sped headlong into a storm. The scenery for half the trip was dark and wet.

The end of the line was Kaohsiung, which has its own MRT system to get from the station to more interesting parts of the city. But it was raining heavily and we knew nothing about Kaohsiung. I'm all for exploring new places, but we could do that in Taipei without a cloud in the sky. After lunch at the shopping mall connected to the station, we went back. This time, we left the gloom and rode into the light.

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Taipei On a Break

Lily and I went to Taipei for a little weekend getaway. It was not technically the weekend, but it was a short trip for no real reason. We picked Taipei because it's a quick flight, a relatively inexpensive city, we don't need visas and I wanted to ride a bicycle.

Someone told me that August is the worst time to go to Taipei. That is when it is the hottest, most humid and right in the middle of typhoon season. I'm sure all of that is true. But we came from Hong Kong. There were no typhoons while we were in Taipei, but it felt slightly less humid. The temperature was probably pretty much the same.

This was my fourth trip to Taipei, and Lily's second. We have both stayed at a business hotel in Zhongzheng, which is essentially the capital and a major shopping area. I have also stayed in Xinyi, which is downtown and a major shopping area, and Zhongxiao Fuxing, which is a major shopping area in the Da'an District. It's not that we like shopping. There is more than enough of that in Hong Kong. It's that most of the hotels seem to be in the middle of shopping. That is standard operating procedure in East Asia.

This time, we stayed at the Marriott in Zhongshan. There are encyclopedia volumes I don't know about the history of Taipei, but apparently, Zhongshan used to be the main financial district. Then everything moved away to Xinyi and Songshan, and Zhongshan became a bit of a dump. Recently, they have been doing some renovating. It looks like they are trying to bring back international business with new office buildings and, of course, a large shopping mall. There is even a new Marriott Hotel.

I have stayed in too many business hotels, and they all seem pretty much the same to me. This one was no exception. It had everything you would expect from a business hotel. That must be what business people want. They are always full of amenities I don't care about. Usually when I go to a business hotel, it's either conveniently located/priced or I'm in a place where I don't want to take a risk on the local hotels. I will always choose a small boutique hotel over a Marriott or Hilton, but you have to do more research with the boutique hotels. You never really know what you are going to get until you check in. With a business hotel, you know.

Taipei probably has some great boutique hotels, but I did not feel like looking around too much for this trip. The first time I went to Taipei, I stayed at the Home Hotel. That was a quiet boutique hotel in a loud neighborhood, and the best hotel I have been to in Taipei. So far.

One of the Marriott's amenities that I did care about was the swimming pool. My apartment building has a pool, but it has been under renovation for a while, and public swimming pools are not an option around here. There are plenty of them, but once you have seen people use them as toilets, they become far less attractive. The Marriott's lap pool was not big, but it was good for swimming laps. I don't know if people are less likely to soil a swimming pool in a hotel because you get a better class of people in a place where you have to pay more or if it's simply more fashionable to shit in public pools. Either way, the Marriott's pool was clean. It was on the roof, but always protected by shade whenever we went. That is important in a city like Taipei.

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Hailey's Novel Diary – 8/8/17

The first draft is finished. The ending made me laugh out loud. Every time I read it, I still think it's funny. That is never a bad thing.

Everything about this story that was in my head is out on paper. Now, the real work begins.

The first draft is always the easy part. You type up the story, plot, characters, character development, incidents and accidents, hints and allegations. Once everything is out there, it gets harder. Now I have to make sure it all makes sense.

Editing usually takes longer. I will always read bits and pieces while writing the first draft, but you have to really read it during the editing stages. I might just read it all the way through, making minor changes along the way, and then go back and start to work on it in more detail.

Monday, August 7, 2017

Hailey's Novel Diary – 8/7/17

The last chapter takes place over a much longer period of time than most of the other chapters. I knew that a lot of things were going to happen, and the last thing I wanted was to have an enormous final chapter. If it's slightly longer than other chapters, I can live with that. If it's five times longer than any of the others, that would bother me.

So I changed the pace. In other chapters, scenes move from one to the next without any big announcements. In this chapter, time flies. The words “two weeks passed” or “a month later” are nowhere to be found, but it should be clear that time has marched on.

Accelerating the pace of the narrative actually made me type faster. I don't know if having a longer, drawn out chapter makes me type slower, but the faster the action moves, the faster I type. Psychologically, I'm sure it's the other way around.

The only downside to cramming so much into a single chapter is that it is currently the shortest chapter of the entire book. In an effort to keep it from being the longest, I went in the opposite direction. I don't mind if it stays the shortest. There is nothing wrong with that. But I might have condensed too much.

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Hailey's Novel Diary – 8/6/17

I wrote a phone conversation today. That was more interesting than I expected. It's just dialogue, but it is only one side of the conversation. The trick is to give the reader a general idea of the other end of the conversation without spelling it out.

The lazy way would be to have the character say something like, “No, I don't know what color the car was.” Obviously, the unseen character on the other end of the phone asked about a car's color. But how many people would answer like that? “Do you know what color the car was?” “No, I don't know what color the car was.” Who would answer it that way, other than a character in a Quentin Tarantino movie.*

I think it is far more interesting to have characters speak however they would speak. Readers will only get one side of the conversation, but a little common sense should tell you what is being said. If I were writing an internet article, I would probably have to make it more obvious, but this is for a book. I hope I never see the day when books about adult stories are forced to fit in with the Highlights demographic.

* Quentin Tarantino dialogue is pretty repetitive. Here are the reasons Quentin Tarantino dialogue is repetitive. The first and foremost reason Quentin Tarantino dialogue is repetitive is because Quentin Tarantino likes to have characters repeat what they just said. The second, though no less important, reason Quentin Tarantino dialogue is repetitive is because Quentin Tarantino likes the way it sounds when characters repeat what they just said in Quentin Tarantino dialogue.

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Jeanne Moreau

Jeanne Moreau died in her home on Monday. She considered herself a stage actor first and foremost, but appeared in more movies than plays. Orson Welles called her the greatest actress in the world and she starred in what is arguably his greatest film, Chimes At Midnight, among others.

The overwhelming majority of her movies are in French, and she worked with the best directors of her time, François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Renoir, Louis Malle, Roger Vadim, Luc Besson, Michelangelo Antonioni, Luis Buñuel, Marcel Ophüls, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders. She did several movies in English with Orson Welles, Elia Kazan, Tony Richardson, Paul Mazursky, Martin Ritt, John Frankenheimer, among others. She was also a singer, appearing on a dozen albums.


Last Love, directed by Jean Stelli
Meurtres, directed by Richard Pottier
Pigalle-Saint-Germain-des-Prés, directed by André Berthomieu
L' Homme de ma vie, directed by Guy Lefranc
Il est minuit, docteur Schweitzer, directed by André Haguet
Dortoir des grandes, directed by Henri Decoin
Julietta, directed by Marc Allégret
Touchez pas au grisbi, directed by Jacques Becker
Les Intrigantes, directed by Henri Decoin
Secrets d'alcôve, “Le Billet de logement” directed by Henri Decoin
La Reine Margot, directed by Jean Dréville
Les Hommes en blanc, directed by Ralph Habib
M'sieur la Caille, directed by André Pergament
Opération gas-oil, directed by Gilles Grangier
Le Salaire du péché, directed by Denys de la Patellière
Jusqu'au dernier, directed by Pierre Billon
Les Louves, directed by Luis Saslavsky
L'étrange Monsieur Steve, directed by Raymond Bailly
Trois jours à vivre, directed by Gilles Grangier
Les amants, directed by Louis Malle
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, directed by Louis Malle
Le Dos au mur, directed by Édouard Molinaro
Les Quatre Cents Coups, directed by François Truffaut
Les liaisons dangereuses, directed by Roger Vadim
Five Branded Women, directed by Martin Ritt
Moderato Cantabile, directed by Peter Brook
Dialogue with the Carmelites, directed by Philippe Agostini
La Notte, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Une femme est une femme, directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Jules et Jim, directed by François Truffaut
Eva, directed by Joseph Losey
The Trial, directed by Orson Welles
La baie des angess, directed by Jacques Demy
Le feu follet, directed by Louis Malle
Peau de banane, directed by Marcel Ophüls
The Victors, directed by Carl Foreman
Le journal d'une femme de chambre, directed by Luis Buñuel
The Train, directed by John Frankenheimer
The Yellow Rolls-Royce, directed by Anthony Asquith
Mata Hari, Agent H21, directed by Jean-Louis Richard
Viva Maria!, directed by Louis Malle
Chimes at Midnight, directed by Orson Welles
Mademoiselle, directed by Tony Richardson
Le Plus Vieux Métier du monde, “Mademoiselle Mimi” directed by Philippe de Broca
The Sailor from Gibraltar, directed by Tony Richardson
La Mariée était en noir, directed by François Truffaut
The Immortal Story, directed by Orson Welles
Great Catherine, directed by Gordon Flemyng
Le Corps de Diane, directed by Jean-Louis Richard
Monte Walsh, directed by William A Fraker
Le Petit Théâtre de Jean Renoir, “Quand l'amour meurt” directed by Jean Renoir
The Deep, directed by Orson Welles
Alex in Wonderland, directed by Paul Mazursky
Comptes à rebours, directed by Roger Pigaut
Chère Louise, directed by Philippe de Broca
L'humeur vagabonde, directed by Édouard Luntz
Nathalie Granger, directed by Marguerite Duras
Absences répétées, directed by Guy Gilles
Joanna Francesa, directed by Cacá Diegues
Je t'aime, directed by Pierre Duceppe
Les Valseuses, directed by Bertrand Blier
La Race des seigneurs, directed by Pierre Granier-Deferre
Le Jardin qui bascule, directed by Guy Gilles
Hu-Man, directed by Jérôme Laperrousaz
Lumiere, directed & written by Jeanne Moreau
Monsieur Klein, directed by Joseph Losey
The Last Tycoon, directed by Elia Kazan
L'Adolescente, directed & written by Jeanne Moreau
Plein sud, directed by Luc Béraud
Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid, directed by George Kaczender
Mille milliards de dollars, directed by Henri Verneuil
Querelle, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
La Truite, directed by Joseph Losey
Le paltoquet, directed by Michel Deville
Sauve-toi, Lola, directed by Michel Drach
Le Miraculé, directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky
Remake, directed by Ansano Giannarelli
Jour après jour, directed by Alain Attal
Nikita, directed by Luc Besson
Alberto Express, directed by Arthur Joffé
La femme fardée, directed by José Pinheiro
Anna Karamazoff, directed by Rustam Khamdamov
To meteoro vima tou pelargou, directed by Theo Angelopoulos
La vieille qui marchait dans la mer, directed by Laurent Heynemann
Until the End of the World, directed by Wim Wenders
The Lover, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud
Map of the Human Heart, directed by Vincent Ward
La nuit de l'océan, directed by Antoine Perset
L'Absence, directed by Peter Handke
À demain, directed by Didier Martiny
Screen Two, "The Clothes in the Wardrobe" directed by Waris Hussein
Je m'appelle Victor, directed by Guy Jacques
Screen One, "A Foreign Field" directed by Charles Sturridge
Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma, directed by Agnès Varda
Catherine the Great, directed by Marvin J Chomsky
Beyond the Clouds, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni & Wim Wenders
I Love You, I Love You Not, directed by Billy Hopkins
The Proprietor, directed by Ismail Merchant
Amour et confusions, directed by Patrick Braoudé
Un Amour de Sorcière, directed by René Manzor
Ever After, directed by Andy Tennant
Balzac, directed by Josée Dayan
Il manoscritto del Principe, directed by Roberto Andò
Les Misérables, directed by Josée Dayan
Lisa, directed by Pierre Grimblat
Cet amour-là, directed by Josée Dayan
Love Actually, directed by Richard Curtis
Les Parents terribles, directed by Josée Dayan
Akoibon, directed by Édouard Baer
Le Temps qui reste, directed by François Ozon
Go West, directed by Ahmed Imamović
Les Rois maudits, directed by Josée Dayan
Roméo et Juliette, directed by Yves Desgagnés
Chacun son cinéma, “Trois Minutes” directed by Theo Angelopoulos
Désengagement, directed by Amos Gitai
One Day You'll Understand, directed by Amos Gitai
Everywhere at Once, directed by Holly Fisher
Carmel, directed by Amos Gitai
Visage, directed by Ming-liang Tsai
La guerre des fils de la lumière contre les fils des ténèbres, directed by Amos Gitai
Kérity, la maison des contes, directed by Dominique Monfery
Une estonienne à Paris, directed by Ilmar Raag
Gebo et l'Ombre, directed by Manoel de Oliveira
Le talent de mes amis, directed by Alex Lutz

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Hailey's Novel Diary – 8/2/17

Chapter 19 is almost entirely a single conversation about making a sex tape.

If you made a sex tape to become famous, what would you do with it? The most popular sex tapes are “leaked”, which generates interest, which gets them distributed. But those are from people who are already famous. If one of the Game of Thrones actresses makes a “home movie” that gets “stolen” from her “cell phone”, she will not have to worry about how to get it seen. Everyone will know about it.

If the actress who played Student with Backpack #3 on an episode of a teen comedy TV show wants to get her sex tape out there, what does she do? She is not famous, so her leaked tape is not going to generate any interest in the tabloids. If she had a good agent or PR team to generate buzz, she would not resort to making a sex tape.

Put it online, you say. That is where sex tapes belong. Ok, but how does that make the woman in them famous? There are millions of not safe for anywhere videos online. There are websites where you can post videos of women changing, taking a shower, having sex or even using the toilet, no questions asked. I don't think the people who run those sites are too concerned about invading anyone's privacy. All that matters to them is traffic to their site. I doubt the people who watch the videos care about any of the names of the people involved or whether or not they agreed to be filmed.

So the question is, if unstable people make sex tapes to become famous, how does it make them famous?





Video Killed the Radio Star
The Buggles

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Hailey's Novel Diary – 8/1/17

There is a restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard west of the 405 freeway called Cafe 50's. The name drives me crazy. Since it is a 1950s themed restaurant, with 1950s decorations on the wall, soda fountains and waitresses in ugly diner uniforms, it should be Cafe '50s. The apostrophe before the decade replaces the century – 1950s becomes '50s. Everyone knows that, right?

No one cares about grammar on Facebook, but this is a business. Not only does the sign over their door read “Cafe 50's”, but so do their menus and everything on their website. They are saying that it belongs to Cafe 50. I really don't think that is what they mean.

I don't know how accurate their '50s theme is. I was born long after, as I'm sure were most of the customers and people who work there. But it's a restaurant, so it does not have to be historically accurate. But is it too much to ask that a '50s themed business know the difference between the '50s and 50's?

Sometimes you have to do a lot of research when you write a book. Since this one takes place in Los Angeles, I have had to look up a lot of streets and landmarks. I have been to the city, but the more I look into it, the more I realize how much of it I never knew.

Something I don't have to research are the plays and playwrights I'm mentioning. One of the characters is from New York and is more familiar with Broadway than Sunset. That gives me the chance to drop a few names that don't normally come up.