coming soon: a jet-lagged monkey in L.A.

There have been some issues with my web site over the past 24 hours due to a change-over of servers by my hosting service. Apologies for any down-time, but there’s not much I can do about it. This might crop up every now and again in the coming week, but hopefully it won’t be too often.

My trip to L.A. is looming large on the horizon. For some reason I mentally picture it as the scene from the original Planet of the Apes where the buried torso of the Statue of Liberty towers over the leather-clad Charlton Heston. I guess Screenwriting Expo will be awash with scribbling monkeys, so perhaps my pop culture sub-brain has come up with that image for its own sardonic amusement.

According to my logs, and the comments on this journal, other members of the scribosphere (a term coined by Craig Mazin in a blog comment, which screenwriters have embraced) are reading this journal.

Since that’s the case, I thought I’d throw out a suggestion–maybe someone else has already thought of this (if so please let me know). Why don’t we organise a meetup of screenwriter bloggers in L.A. during the weekend of Screenwriting Expo? The city will be groaning with an influx of screenwriters, who no doubt will be looking for dark, warm environments that sell coffee and/or alcohol. The poster child of screenblogging, John August, will be at the event, and I think he’d be amenable to turn up (if he doesn’t have other pressing engagements). I’ll even ask him if someone else will think of a good venue, and promises that I won’t be the only person there (I’ll cry).

I’d suggest Saturday the 11th, or Sunday the 12th – but perhaps the residents might know of a better date. There might be an unwritten local rule in L.A. about the best nights for monkey gatherings that I don’t know. A native guide is required. I know downtown L.A. is probably not the popular choice for such an outing, but since it’s the setting for the conference maybe the locals will humour us.

I’d love to meet some of the chimps, apes and orang-utans behind the screenwriting blogs I read. And there’s nothing I like better than talking about films, scripts, and writing with people whose eyes don’t glaze over after the first five minutes.

If nothing else, maybe one or two of you will consider meeting a jet-lagged monkey scribbler for a coffee/drink.