I had to write a scene with subtext, meaning what the character is really trying to say, what underlying message they are trying to convey. The idea came easily to me, although i really hated writing it. I felt completely uncomfortable the whole time, and im dreading the reading today. I dont know if it's believeable without the context I imagined the scene in, it just makes me edgy is all.

UNTITLED SUBTEXT SCENE
By Caitlin Corrie

FRANKY, 49 year old carpenter, Dad, semi retired mobster, still does work on the side.
MIKE, 27 year old, full time mobster, holds FRANKY in high respect.
MARIE, 47 year old wife of FRANKY (NON-Speaking)
CINDY, 13 year old daughter of FRANKY (NON-speaking)

(It is just after midnight. MIKE is sitting down at FRANKY’S Kitchen table. They are speaking quietly, as FRANKY make’s coffee and sits at the table)


MIKE
I always like your coffee Franky.

FRANKY
Its just coffee for Chris sake. Never heard a compliment out of your mouth before.

MIKE
You know if anything ever happened to you, I’d see to it that Marie and the kids got looked after.

FRANKY
Mike what the hell are ya talking about? Jesus you gotta get more sleep kid.

MIKE
What no sugar?

(FRANKY gets up and hands some sugar to MIKE. He leans against the kitchen sink facing FRANK)

FRANKY
Anyways. I don’t want Marie to ever know anything about it, if I died that is from this business. She doesn’t need to know.

MIKE
Yeah.

(Pause)

FRANKY
What’s the job then?

MIKE
Well boss wants it clean. Not like last time.

FRANKY
Did he tell you to say that? Last time I got carried away, don’t you think I know that? They think I’m a fucking amateur?! It won’t happen again.

MIKE
Yes he knows it won’t happen again Frank.

FRANKY
Must be a big name eh?

MIKE
No, actually.

FRANKY
Who knows what their planning up in that big house, I don’t care-just as long I get the money. Got to put Cindy through college, and that sure ain’t happening on a constructions workers salary.

MIKE
Yeah Franky.

FRANKY
I got the perfect place to dump the body. Up off Sunset, new house, we can bury where they’re going to lay the cement tomorrow.

MIKE
Nah, boss has something special planned.

FRANKY
Oh? And it’s not a daughter of Chase or something?

MIKE
No. Franky, it’s someone that the boss considers the most immediate threat to the business. But let’s get outta here before Marie hears us.

(FRANKY gets up nervously and head to the door.
They get into the car and drive for a couple of hours up to the foothills. They exit the car at the top of a fire road)

FRANKY
Are you sure anyone lives up here? It’s just a damn fire road, who the hell does the boss have connection with up here?

MIKE
No one Franky.
FRANKY
Then why the hell are we driving all the way into the god damn woods?

MIKE
Franky, you’re a good guy.


(FRANKY pulls out a gun. End scene)

You see I wanted to context to be that the younger guy looked up to the older, more wise guys, who through old age and stress were beginning to loose his nerve. Maybe they had done many jobs together before, maybe the young guy learned all he knew from the older guy. It's one of the main reasons I didn’t have them swearing or talking to each other in a typical mobster sort of way. They didn’t need to show off, or act like big shots in their own company. I wish I had more time to work on it, more patience and more confidence to actually build that sort of feeling. It's hard to work in a page limit, although I can do up to five pages this one turned out to be two, mostly because I couldn’t handle writing any more, and also because I didn’t know how to add all that context in to it.

One of our assignments will be to re-write one of these mini scenes. Will I pick this one? It's not like the scene really matters. I guess what I mean this random post-scene-writing-semi-explanation thing to say is it's hard for me to make it really good if I don't even see the message I am trying to convey in the first place. However my other scenes are much worse, and very stereotypical, cliché to the extreme. I hate them, I don’t like this one because it's eerie, but the other ones scream amateur. (That is why I have not posted them here, too embarrassing) We have one more mini scene to write before a rewrite and before we begin our "ten min. one act" thingy. I am totally not ready! I don’t think I have learned any tools to even approach that. I need freaking exercises to help me make insightful characters and good plots, although I suppose if it were that easy everyone would be writing play...

(PS The reason why I wrote this might be because I am currently in Geography of the Mediterranean. We are reading the Godfather and have briefly examined the mob type qualities of the entire region. It’s not to say that the killing of someone’s good friend is what creeped me out, it’s something else that I cannot put my finger on. Something to do with me as a person writing it. Perhaps it is because my other scenes are so dorky, and some of my classmates actually write quite astonishing and wonderful things. Or maybe it is just because I don’t want to be judged, plan and simple. I don’t know…I suppose I might one day.)

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Let the moon be my guide.
She is my God.
She is Lady of the sky, the younger sister of the Earth.
The great mother that is Earth
The great father that is Sun.
She leads him.
She runs circles around her sister, teasing him.
Leads him to the ends of the land, her eye ever winking.

Let me find the place where the water in me cut the land.
The land, which is the boy.
Find that place where I used to well up inside its deep places.
The lamp holder lives there.

Too late?
I’m pouring into the oceans.
I flow tediously, suddenly impregnated with salt.
Floating on my back I cry to the Moon.
By day the Sun pulls me ever closer to the heavens.
My time as that river is done.

Now I’m floating above the Earth.
I look down upon her, suspended between all three.
A sweet trinity, the truest trinity
I see the creatures, deer and elephants.
I slip out with the wind.
Pouring down on to their backs.
Seep into the arms of the Earth, a foreign part of her this time.

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The Last Place on Earth

The Surfing Hippos of Gabon Africa
Originally uploaded by skinnymalinkee.

You know when you see someone who does something that transcends all humanity? I don’t know what I’m talking about, but last night I attended a slide show presentation called, “The Last Place on Earth”. I had heard it was just about some random National Geographic Guys walking across Africa or something. But I arrived at VanDuzer Theater and there was a line, a crap load of people pushing to get in. I luckily found a seat that seemed undesirable but I actually could see mighty well. This guy from the Journalism department gave the introduction; he said they rented a special LCD projector for $1500 and that literally was the expense for the whole thing. I thought to myself, well this must be something important I guess, but no ones getting paid?

Then they both came out and the stage was literally dark, you couldn’t really make them out. It seemed they both preferred hanging out in the shadows anyways. The first guy said “my names Nick Nichols, and I’m just going to show a few of my photographs from the Grand Canyon.” He clicked the remote and suddenly the screen lit up with a brilliant Grand Canyon picture. I realized this was no ordinary photographer. He kept flipping through; each photo was National Geographic Magazine quality. He stopped at one and said, “I hate it when I am in my own photographs, but hey wanted this one for the cover, so I didn’t complain much”. I suddenly realized this guy was of tremendous importance; I realized his photos continuously grace the front of the magazine. No wonder the place was packed I thought, many people probably know his photographs but no one really knows the names. Obviously some people did because of the crowd.

Either way the two guys are photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols and ecologist J. Michael Fay. After traveling to and from Africa since 1991, Michael Fay decided to do a walk. “On September 20, 1999, Mike Fay started the ultimate walk in the woods. His “Mega transect” would reach the coast of Gabon 15 months later, on December 18, 2000. David Quammen’s three brilliant articles in National Geographic Magazine documented the journey.” And Nick Nichols flew in and out for weeks at a time taking photos of everything that Mike Fay documented. They eventually published the book “The Last Place On Earth”. They called it so because literally its one of the last places where animals have never seen humans, no logging roads have yet been cut. Eventually their work amounted to 13 national parks in the most remote places of these African countries. 13! Over 11,000 square miles.

The second part of the slide show consisted of more Nick Nichols photographs. But this time they were ones that the public has not even seen yet! We were the first ones. Nick said that the photos wouldn’t even be released until the March 2007 issue. They were of a small national Park in Chad, only 150 miles away from the chaos of Darfur. The two men spoke of how this park is the last safe place for the elephants of the region. There used to be herds of up to 300,000 roaming in and out of the park, but now there are only about 3000 due to poaching. Mike Fay and Nick Nichols have made it their new mission to set up more national parks and try to stop poaching in the area.

Either way I left in complete aw. These two guys were the people you look at in the NGM and say “wow I really wish I could do that, take all those photos, go all those places”. I was so happy I found a seat and that I got to see real Nick Nichols photos using a beautiful $1500 projector. I came home and looked at all of my desktop photos that are on a continuous rotation. All of them I take from the “picture of the day” on NG’s website. Well I have over 100 pictures on there and a huge amount of those are nick Nichols, some of which he showed at the slide show. I already knew the pictures, seen them over and over rotating on my desktop. Cool!

http://michaelnicknichols.com/
(this is nick's website, check out the photos!)

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0010/feature1/
(this is a link to a little bit of the story, theres a cool map link)

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I was sitting on Belgrade looking out over the Mediterranean today. I could see Britain far off to the North and Iraq below me to the South East. The great boot of Italy spliced the sea in half. Everywhere there were names and lines in blue and black on the green and brown surface. And I loved it all. Every last border I could make out.

Today we spread out flight maps in the KBroom, joined them together and walked across the mini scale of the earth. You could see the vastness from a satellites point of view, and I loved it. At the end of the year we have to make big posters and they are going to be displayed a long with these maps again for the rest of the community to see. Talk about pressure. I have to think of a topic write a freaking long ass paper about it, and then make a damn gigantic poster. I think geographic awareness is one of the most important mission’s geography major needs to be aware of. People just don’t know, and it needs to be known. Places need to be seen and understood.

Eh, I think I’ll do mine on food. I suppose it’s not as ground breaking as let’s say the endangered animals of the Mediterranean. But damn if I know much about the triangle of vine, wheat, and olive. Damn if I know much about Marco Polo bringing back stuff from the orient, or even who brought potatoes and tomatoes from the new world. So maybe that is an awareness issue, where does our food come from? Is the Mediterranean diet really the healthiest and why?

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All those times you’re driving, and the sun is coming through the front of your car, a great orange disk of fire, when suddenly you realize that your parents aren’t there, you’re on your own watch now.

Today I decided I wanted to write a really good paper, at least one really good paper before I leave. And the goal has bee set, but it’s one of those ones you know you most likely will not keep.

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So I am sitting in a computer lab typing and not bothering with very much. I have a mini scene due in about 50 mins, but I have only chicken scratched a few lines for it. I don’t think that’s going to get done in time.

I guess I should say that we went kayaking around Arcata Marsh, I got a blister and hope to god I don’t get freaking Staph. infection from the water. It’s not uncommon. But being out on the water is incredibly relaxing. The pool session before allowed me to get comfortable in the kayak, being strapped into a boat that won’t flip upright as easily as it flips upside down is a test of nerves. I never liked the idea of drowning for a death, too panicky. But anyways after I learned a “wet exit” or a “bow rescue” I was able to just float out there on the bay just listening to the water lapping at my boat now and then. We were in river kayaks on the bay though which made for extreme work paddling. You see river kayaks are meant to have a river pushing you along and all you really have to do is turn. But on the ocean is different, the boats don’t go anywhere and when you put your paddle in and you’re immediately going to the left rather then straight. I was constantly towards the end of the group.
As for James on the other hand, he took to it quickly. I don’t know why I ever doubt him. Physical activities come natural to him, even though he doesn’t really do any of them. He was great at fencing, is good at billiards, bowling, weight training or any simple games all the way up to complex video games etc. Anything that might require a finer touch to make the action one is performing go right, he seems to excel at. All the finer paddle strokes we learned he caught onto almost immediately and could speed around easily in his kayak. I wasn’t jealous as much as I was happy that he was getting in a boat and actually getting some kind of new and exciting experience, (just as I was for myself). Either way I was quite proud of him, he was confident doing all the rolls upside down in the pool even though he doesn’t have an aquatic background. He seemed to just fit in. I on the other hand did a billion years of junior lifeguards and practically lived in a pool everyday when I was a kid, but I still looked like a wet dog and had to scrounge up courage to let myself flip under a huge kayak. Maybe that comes from the fact that in Junior Lifeguards the last thing you want is to be attached to a plastic thing on top of you when you’re swimming in to oncoming waves. Either way the mental part for me was both enjoyable and challenging, which is a good thing. James seems to just be good at everything the bugger.
Anyways the end result of the physical part of the adventure was that I got dehydrated and totally strained my arms and shoulders as well as the part of the hand between the thumb and index finger. It was so bad that if I moved them too fast I would get extreme nausea and nearly pass out from the pain. This resulted in me being practically bed ridden all of Sunday night and most of Monday morning. I skipped out on leaving the house for school or work and spent the day at home wondering why I let myself get so weak in the first place. I hardly did any homework, except studying for a test that I go postponed to Wednesday. But as for anything else-zip. So here I am waiting and wondering what I’ll say in my next class when I am called on to hand out my non-existent scene for people to read.

On another note I got my job back partially, well till the end of September at least, and I will get paid for the work I’ve done. Cross your fingers that I will get a chance to get in on the left of work-study monies.

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Things...god damnit!

Well i lost my job today based on a little technicality down at the stupid financial aid office. I wasn't awarded federal work study this semester-and i like a retard, didnt notice. so here i am working and not even knowing i wont get paid for it. but i guess gina says they are gonna try to get something together for me. and so i was let go not by gina but by the god damn state. no income=stressed out, and also equals lesser chance of finding an apartment of our own.

I am going river kayaking this weekend. Yeah its an all day class, i'm really excited about it because it might make me feel not boring. Maybe i'll be really good and i can compete, and then i dont even have to worry about losing my job. are there river kayaking competitions?

other then that, i tried blogger beta and it frightens me-plus im too reluctant to leave all my writing here. i hope they dont delete the damn thing. maybe i should go through and try to save all my posts on to my computer. what a great process that will be.

And i also want to say, I really am going to miss steve irwin. He may have been a nut, but he did so much for a really needy cause. I really did love him, and i thank him for everything he did for the future.

i'm so sad, frustrated and pissed if you cant tell...

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