Today, I have an honest-to-goodness meeting about a Television show!
Some guys at VH-1 are doing a new show called “Totally Obsessed,” and they called me about hosting it. I guess the people behind “Behind The Music” are behind this one, so I’m sure it’ll be a good show. Hosting stuff is a lot of fun for me, because I get to goof off, and make jokes and stuff. Whenever I watch a show, I’m constatnly saying to myself, “What would I do here? As an audience member, what do I want them to do?” so when I get a chance (like today) to be that host guy, I know where to go.
Hey, last night I had dreams. This is a big deal, because I haven’t been able to remember a dream for MONTHS. I can’t recall any of them right now . . . of course . . . because I didn’t take my notebook to the bedroom with me last night. But I know I had them, and that’s a good start. I miss the nights when I’d have lots of vivid dreams. There was a time, a couple of years ago, when I would dream these incedibly lucid dreams almost nightly. It was like living another life when I was asleep. That was cool. I miss that.
After my VH-1 meeting, I have another meeting with a writer. He wrote a really fantastic script, and wants to attach me to the project. I’m meeting with him to give him a letter of intent that he can take to investors, and talk about some things I think can be better in the script. If everything goes according to plan, I may actually be working on a movie next year.
Tonight, I’m reading from, and signing Dancing Barefoot at the October meeting of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society. Admission is FREE. Directions are here. LASFS is the organization behind LOSCON, where I’ll be speaking on a few panels next month.
Monolith Press is going to stop direct sales of Dancing Barefoot pretty soon, including autographed copies. So if you’re interested in grabbing one, it’s probably a good idea to get it sooner than later.
Speaking of Dancing Barefoot, I went to *my* local comic shop, the one where they pull books for me and everything (anyone else read “Fables”? I freakin’ love that book), and I saw my book right on the shelf next to Death. It gave me quite a thrill to see that. When I paid for my books, the guy told me, “My wife read your book, and loved it. She wants to know when the other one is coming out!”
“As soon as I can finish it,” I told him. “I’m hung up on Chapter 10 right now . . . not that that means anything to you.”
“Well, I read your Vegas story, and I loved it, so now I’m going to read the whole thing. We’ll carry your other book when it’s ready, too,” he said.
Some other guys who work there sort of drifted over, and I got the impression that most of them had read my book, and liked it. L walked out of there feeling pretty good.
I have this idea for a movie: You know how Clerks was about . . . well . . . clerks? What about a film about a comic shop, and all the interesting characters that hang out there? Like the guy who doesn’t work there, but is always there, reading books that he never buys while he sits at the counter? I think it’d be great to explore the relationships between the owner, who probably loved comics at one time, but now really runs the place like a business to support his family, and the guys who work for him, who remind him of the person he used to be. The “spine” of the story could be about a big artist who’s coming to do a signing.
HEY! Don’t steal my idea, fuckers!
Okay. Thanks.
We just found out that Anne’s Grandmother is really sick, so we’re leaving first thing in the morning to drive up to Oregon for the weekend. This means AudioBlogs, and MoBlogs, if you’re interested. Where’d that cool camera phone come from? Funny you should ask. The whole story gets its own post in a few days. 🙂
Finally, I need to thank everyone who wrote in with support, encouragement, and all that stuff about my recent frustrations. I feel guilty and weird, because I’m not *looking* for anything like that, but I’ll admit that a little encouragement goes a long way with me. So thank you. I mean that.
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kind of a clerksy, high fideltiy-ish, comic store thing. i’d see it.
“Yes, finally I would like to return your quote, unquote ‘Ultimate Belt'”
Hosting, huh? That should be fun to watch. Pity we don’t get VH-1 here in Canada… *sigh*
Being the type who hangs out at comic book stores, I like the idea of a movie. But maybe the uninitiated wouldn’t get it? I guess it depends on who writes it…
Hope Anne’s grandmother feels better soon. I’ll, um, “send the mojo” her way…
cool. I want to see you hosting a show. Might actually make me watch VH! (curses! :p). and a movie? nice.
comic store idea is cool. make sure to have a few people that are like the guys that are always there, but always there playing cards or something. proud that he can beat all the kids at magic the gathering. there’s a lot of those my my comic store.
Hosting on VH-1, groovy! 😀 And I haven’t given into my temptation to buy your book. Hmm, I get paid tomorrow…
I like your movie idea. Hey, I’d go and watch it…
I hope Anne’s Grandmother feels better soon.
glad to see you’re feeling better about yourself wil…
new you’d bounce back..you always do… 🙂
great movie idea, and i agree with john guari that it has a nice ‘high-fiedelity’ vibe to it..
mixed with a bit of empire records…(not that empire records was a fabulous movie..but it did have some good points)
allthe best to anne’s grandmother..i hope she feels better soon, and a nice visit from the granddaughter and her husband should make her feel a lot better..
cheers big guy..
and best of luck on the hosting gig..sending the VH1 mojo atcha!
(i’m also from canada, so it’s unlikely i’ll be able to see it….but some one is bound to upload it to kazaa…so who knows 😉 )
Like many people, you have success. Unlike many people, you deserve your success.
There’s a deleted scene from Chasing Amy that reminds me of that idea… I would watch it, but it would definitely be a “cult” flick. 🙂
And if you get this hosting gig, make sure to blink. I watched one with Emilio Estevez (top 100 somethings of all time) where the man does not blink through the entire thing! Katcheya, there’s a pretty good chance that it’ll end up on MuchMoreMusic, since they seem to carry EVERY VH1 show.
There is already a movie with a story similar to yours. It’s called Comic Book Villians. The humor in the movie is a little on the dark side, but it was still worth watching once. Don’t buy. Rent.
But, by all means, you should make a better one. There is defintitely an audience for such a film. We’re called geeks, and it’s likely we’ll buy our tickets in advance to beat out the other geeks. 🙂
hey wil,
first and foremost….LOTS AND LOTS of mojo going out to Anne’s Grandmother. i shope she gets well soon.
second, that movie sounds GREAT! you should seriously think about that one!!!
and last but not least…good luck with the hosting thing. Unfortunaly the UK sucks and you have to have cable to watch VH1, but i’ll be sending you some good luck vibes then too!! not that you need it…coz you’re the best!!
from
rach
Good luck today! Just remember to be Wil, and you’ll do fine.
I could see that movie done in a “waiting for guffman” style…heheh.
The VH-1 gig sounds great, can’t wait to see you hosting.
Hope Anne’s grandmother feels better real soon. Glad to have you guys back in Oregon though 🙂
Break a leg, or… chair with all the meetings! 🙂
Wil, man, I don’t care if you solicited the encouragement or not; you earned it. Most of my lyrics (click here for a few MP3s) come to me in a similar way — I’m just sitting around, kicking back (or trying to sleep) and suddenly a couple of lines get into my head… so I write ’em down as soon as I can or they disappear. Similar thing happened this morning when I woke up with this idea about this mute girl, but when I pulled up Word (I know, I know, but I can’t find anything like ACID for FreeBSD) it was gone. Bah!
Keep up the good work, dude. As soon as I find a copy of Dancing Barefoot, I’m picking it up.
The humor in Clerks may have been mostly related to the daily goings on at the quickstop, Jay and Bob hanging out in front of the store all the time, crazy customers — the type of thing you’re talking about for your comic shop movie (which I would wear my “Wil has a posse” shirt to opening night) — but what made Clerks a good movie, in my opinion, was Dante’s character arc and his relationships with his girlfriends (including Randal). In the end, the movie wasn’t about clerks — it was about people… the geek/cult humor just makes it fun to watch. I’d be interested to hear ideas about plot and character development for your movie. Of course, you are writing a book now, and your movie idea was just a passing thought it seems, but it seems like we all want you to pursue it…
The comment you made today is the only reason I’m writing this!I’ve heard of this site for a few months and am new to the whole cyber world thing.
I read many of the comments to your last entry and I was thinking to myself,Wow look at all the people trying to help you out!Then I had the fleeting thought there is almost too much help here!You were just putting down thoughts for the day.
I have a feeling that you already know, but some people just give off positive vibes that others want to latch on to.One of the problems is when you give freely some want to grab your arm and not let go!Even though we know we could just say let GO of me!We’re too nice too.
Fables!
I love that book. That one and Y – The Last Man. Oh, the comic geek goodness.
Hope Anne’s Grandmother feels better soon.
Matt
http://www.depressoboy.com
http://www.mp3.com/the_winding_path
Wil,
It’s great that things are looking up for you in the acting dept! Hopefully though, it won’t give you too big a head, because you know we all love ya these days because you’re Just A Geek like the rest of us.
Hope Anne’s grandma gets well soon!
Chris
[email protected]
So.. ‘Empire Records’ but swap the records for comics..
Fables rocks. If you like Willingham, try picking up Robin in December. He’s writing a few issues, should be good.
Sounds like a day chock full o’ fun… 🙂
The movie idea is a cool one, and hey, look at that, you could be the celebrity visitor… just make sure you don’t accidentally veer into the ‘Empire Records’ lane… many potholes and caltrops…
Good luck man. I hope you get it. I like VH1. They are doing another I love the 80’s thing which brings back memories.
First of all, sending good thoughts for Anne’s grandmothers.
Second of all, sending *more* good thoughts for the hosting gig, although it comes with a small warning. There was a show like that on CMT recently, and the people they featured scared me a little bit. Like the woman who was so completely infatuated with Kenny Chesney that she planned her *wedding* around him and his songs. Even got her fiance to wear a puka shell necklace like Kenny does. Just a little bit frightening…
Third of all….ummm….guess I don’t have a third of all! Have a good day!
Ooops, I meant Anne’s grandmother! 🙂
dangit! that was an idea i had for a webcomic i was going to do. now everyone will say, awwww, you’re just ripping off wil….
hey, if you do it, make sure to do some stuff between the comic book fans and the gamers.
“Posted by: Hadessa on October 23, 2003 10:34 AM
There’s a deleted scene from Chasing Amy that reminds me of that idea… I would watch it, but it would definitely be a “cult” flick. 🙂
And if you get this hosting gig, make sure to blink. I watched one with Emilio Estevez (top 100 somethings of all time) where the man does not blink through the entire thing! Katcheya, there’s a pretty good chance that it’ll end up on MuchMoreMusic, since they seem to carry EVERY VH1 show.”
This is SOOO true. I love Emilio to death, but that really disturbed me. He didn’t even seem to be having too much fun with his hosting job either, I thought he’d be cracking jokes and smiling like in Repo Man. ;(
It’s cool because my former classmate from high school Richard Cazeau works at MMM now. Really cool guy, former Sunshine Boy too. 😉
Somehow a search for mirror mirror pins for a halloween costume landed me here. I was intreaged to find great depth in what I thought was just another forgotten childhood star. I was about wills age when the TNG came out. The more I browse this sight the more interesting I find will the person is. Anyways.. I guess this is a quick note to say.. Wil you rock. If your ever in St. Catharines and need a pint or two of gunniess feel free to drop us a line. Thanks again for being interesting and we will pop back occationally to visit.
Thanks again for being cool.
Karl + Tina
Awesome movie idea, but it makes me kind of wistful because Kevin Smith and the guys from Clerks would be the perfect people to make such a movie, but unfortunately he is never going to make another View Askewniverse flick.
Too bad…
The show you pitched? Substitute record store for comic book store and author for musician, and you’ve got Empire Records described perfectly.
Congrats on all the meetings today, I’ll cross it all for you.
You are welcome for the encouragement and support. We are just like you, only you’re brave enough to be so candid and open with the world.
The comic shop idea is interesting (maybe write the book first and see how it’s received?) What about if the shop owner used to be a (I don’t know the title, I’m one of the uninitiated) writer or artist of a really popular comic series but sold out to a conglomerate and now regrets it.
Just a thought.
Okay, this site isn’t about comic book store employees, and it definitely isn’t a movie, but the whole “Clerks” thing reminded me of it.
I love this site, I think it’s funny as hell:
http://www.actsofgord.com
I thought I should share it with the ‘world’. the ‘world’ being anyone who reads this.
VH1, eh? Too bad we don’t get it here in Canada.
Fables is a good book, definitely. Depressoboy Matt also recommended Y: The Last Man, which I’d also second.
I’ve been doing most of my comic reading recently based on the talent (er, writer/artist/whatnot) rather than the books themselves. Pretty much all the Brian Vaughn stuff; J. Michael Straczynski (or however you spell that) has a bunch of good books going right now, though I’m a bit annoyed that Rising Stars has aparently been pushed aside to make room for Amazing Spider-Man; Judd Winick hasn’t done anything nearly as entertaining as his Barry Ween stuff since the most recent series ended, but that hasn’t stopped me from reading Exiles for a while; and a bunch of the Bendis stuff, but that’s hard to avoid. And of course any time new Gaiman stuff comes in, it’s left in my box along with everyone else’s.
Needless to say (by this point), I’d watch a movie centered around the characters at a comic book shop.
Re: Comic Store people, there’s a show in the UK called Spaced that you absolutely must check out. Some fan of the show put up a website here: http://www.spaced-out.org.uk/ …You can get the DVDs from Amazon UK, if you have a multi-region DVD player. Just go and buy them. You’ll be glad you did.
off topic…
http://www.draftwesleycrusher.com/
You’ve probably seen that. But if you haven’t, take a look. It’s…… odd…
Cool movie idea. The following isn’t meant to sound mean toward your movie idea, but here goes: Your co-star from Stand By Me (Jerry O’Connell) wrote a script for a movie, which was picked up in 1999 (the movie is being release Jan 2004), and will star Katie Holmes. The movie is called First Daughter. The premise is very, very lame. Secret Service agent falls for the first daughter. So with that said, write your script, your movie sounds way better than First Daughter. If FD can be picked up, then yours will defintely be picked up. The comment isn’t meant to sound like “if he can do it, anyone can.” You know what I mean. Don’t forget to include a girl in the cast. The girl should be a fan of Wonder Woman!
About the dreams, I have vivid dreams when I eat ice cream about an hour before I go to bed. Breyers Vanilla always produces the most enjoyable dreams.
I’ll send good vibes toward Oregon for Anne’s grandma.
everything that is meant to happen will… good luck to you. and thoughts for anne’s grandma.
I went into a comic book shop once in Berkeley. It was a pretty big place with lots of sections in no apparent order. I was with friends who were getting their weekly comic fix. I had nothing to do but wait, and though the whole comic scene isn’t really my deal, I figured I’d check and see if they had any Milk & Cheese since it’s the one comic I like. So I ask the clerk: “Do you have any Milk & Cheese?” She gives me this exasperated look, rolls her eyes, and says in a voice dripping with sarcasm, “Yeah… they’re under Milk. And. Cheese.” So I just walked out & didn’t buy anything.
When will you mention that GATOR is SPYware on this site, as well as on slashdot?
I bet you could get a nastygram if you angled hard enough for one 😉 The publicity couldn’t hurt your career, as you say, either 😉
I second Erin’s suggestion to check out the UK show “Spaced”. It was the first thing that Wil’s movie pitch reminded me of. Supposedly Bravo has the US rights to air the show but I’ve never seen it outside of UK.
Congratulations on the VH-1 show. You’ve conquered the BBC, I suppose it’s time to move on to the serious media, eh? 😉
Also, have you realized that you’ve reached the most popular MoBlog on the website? It’s got you listed on the main textamerica.com webpage as having a 9.7 rating. Free advertising for the book if nothing else!
dude, sounds like thngs are great. i hope they stay that way, and that anne’s grandmother gets better.
have a safe trip there and back.
also – your movie is not in any way similar to comic book villians. it was fun, paid some homage to the store, but it was about greed and money. not your typical comic book store situations, but i second the motion to rent, not buy.
Best of luck with the audition. I hope you kill.
Glad to see others are still taking an interest in your hosting abilities.
Wil, thanks for letting us know about the SciFi club in Burbank. Sounds like something I should join. I want to make it tonight to hear your talk. If I can’t make it, I’ll drink a Guiness in your honor.
Peace and health to Anne’s grandmother, and that you and Anne have a safe drive to and from Oregon.
Your movie idea reminds me of Empire Records. But it all depends on how it’s done. I’m sure with the gifts you have, it would be awesome.
Good luck!
*sends good karma*
I don’t know if someone has mentioned it in the comments cause I haven’t had time to read them all yet, but you might want to tweak a few parts of your movie idea. It sounds a little like Home Improvements hardware store meets High Fidelity. Tim Taylor and the gang always congregated there, and HF was a book first I believe, but the movie starred John Cusack and Jack Black. Cusack’s character owned a record store and was addicted to explaining his life through LPs. The store also involved some rather odd characters who worked there.
My personal point of view is that if you breathe enough soul into each character, even similar circumstances can be discounted. Too many movies/tv shows latch onto the almost but not quite theory of entertainment where they mutate the concept of the show but forget about also mutating the characters into a new living, breathing life force. But I love the concept. It might even work on television. Then again, what do I know? I’m just a consumer.
My best wishes go out to your family. I hope Anne’s grandmother recovers soon.
Glad to hear things are going so well with you. I think we all knew it would just be a matter of time before things got better. You know: God closing a door, opening a window, and all that crap. 🙂
Heh, VH1 eh? Glad to hear it!! After that whole…. -fiasco- the other year with you know who, it pleases me to hear that you may be re-appearing on one of my regular surfing channels, hehe.
About the comic book store idea… I’d watch it. Definately.
Best wishes to your family, may the fat side be with you.
-Brit
There’s a great British Sit-Com called Spaced in which the main character is a graphic artist.
One of the episodes involves him being sacked from the comic-book shop where he works for insulting a thirteen year old boy who wants to buy a Jar Jar action figure. Very funny it is too.