IV: Let's not wait until the end

There are times when I neglect SWP, and that's a shame. I've had a lot of decompressing to do since the play has ended and the summer is transitioning into the relative inactivity of my remaining school days and whatever else.

So when we last left off I was building toward starting writing this new play. That night I got a huge start and wrote what basically amounts to half of it - assuming it's to be about 20 pages like Half-Past then yeah, I'm just a bit over halfway through, which is impressive to me and hopefully you. I mean, it needs work - it's as sloppy as anything, some of the jokes I think are misfires, and blah blah, but to dive into it, to hit the ground running and create something new, I'm pleased with myself in that respect. We'll talk more about it when I'm done this draft.

While we were doing Half-Past, Cary pitched me the idea that not only should I write a new play but we should collaborate on something (him, me, Chris Ferguson and Pat,) to put into Hamilton Fringe, raise ourselves the entry fee and of course keep the profits. And at the time I kinda blew it off a bit, going "Yeah, that's a possibility, whatever," because I was mentally trying to unravel this other play I was already planning, why should I divert my attention? It was a bit annoying. And then, unfortunately, I got an idea.

The big theme of Thursday was, I was riding high on all the output I'd done the night before, and then, when I was on the GO train, inspiration hit. I found myself sitting on the upper level, not the middle in the Scottozone. It was quiet, until Clarkson, when this family of 3 or 4 got on, I didn't really notice how many there were, but the dad was talking on his cell phone in French. I began to think about, you know, other people on trains and stuff (gee whiz, that certainly hasn't been a recurring theme in my life lately,) and that's where the new idea came up - the idea of a handful of strangers on a stalled Subway car (altered from GO for staging purposes.)

So I spent Thursday mulling over this idea. I even took RyLai up on an earlier suggestion that I at least try to walk from Union station to St. George/College. It was a bit tiring, and quite sunny, and pedestrians can be jerks, but I spent that entire time fine-tuning the new idea in my head. Then when I got home I pitched it to Cary and Chris, and they both dug it, so we got the ball rolling.

Friday night I was in need of something to do, so I hopped on my bike and went down to Greyfriar's, where Lauren Wing was bringing people for drinks on her birthday. OIf course, I mis-gauged the timing a bit and wound up quite early, and by myself. Or so I thought.

I ran into Scott Conorton, whom I hadn't seen in months. We caught up a bit and he ran into some other people he knew, and eventually left. I was drinking alone a while when these other people said for me to come drink with them, so I thought "Well sure, why the fuck not." So I sat with this dude and his brother and we talking a bit. I was a bit dodgy, as I tend to get around new folks, and just as I was finishing my beverage, Lauren Wing and company showed up.

Well, the night hit a speed bump when Pat Vis was caught by the bouncer finishing off a beverage maybe 100 meters away from the pub, barring him from entry. As chate as it was, I had to shake my head because it's pretty stupid to have an open alcoholic beverage in public, because that's illegal. But whatever.

So Chris and Pat began to formulate a plan, attempting a mass relocation to Monaghan's. It's only 20 minutes down the road by foot, and really I wasn't digging the atmosphere at Greyfriar's. Well, that whipped up a bit of "should I stay or should I go" drama, centering largely around Tyler, who was playing mediator. The three of us were joined by a couple other guys, who kinda slowed us down by dragging their feet and insisting we revise the plan and just go back. Eventually, we cut them loose and the three of us soldiered on to a pretty decent chill night at Monaghan's.

So we sat we talked plays, both Half-Past and to some degree the one we were about to attempt to write. I talked up the new one a bit. We talked about people we knew, recent scandals and whatnot. I noted I hadn't actually drank at Monaghan's since that time I came down with RyLai to watch a UFC show back in September. We only had time for one drink, but it was a good one. On the way home, I bought a tube of Pringles and proceeded to immediately lose the lid.

Today, I was awakened by a terrifying, window-rattling thunderstorm. I was a little nervous due to the severe weather and phones Amanda to let her know I'd be delayed in getting to the mall for our usual hangout, trying to wait out the storm a bit. Well, by the time I got out of the shower, the sun had come out and the rain was tapering off, so really, it was no worries, I was maybe 10 minutes later than usual due to lying in bed being tired from waking up amidst a thunderstorm.

The afternoon was spent in Pat's backyard with him, Chris, and Cary, all of us pitching ideas and writing this play idea. It's coming along well and the thing I like best about this idea is that it's ideal for those guys to fill in the blanks left by my main idea - "Who are the characters? Where are they going, what do they need/want?" Cary had a really astute idea that I was initially a bit hesitant of but once we started working on it, it's become quite a good entry point. We worked for about 2 hours and got only a couple pages, because really, we do tend to get a bit off topic. Breaking into teams might be productive in later meetings.

After dinner, I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall and just tried to get into a writing mindset, but really I was distracted due to UFC 100. I usually don't care about UFC, but RyLai and I had made some bets, which he came out ahead of me on 2-1. My main concern was that Brock Lesnar won, which of course he did. Still though, I owe RyLai at least one drink.

So I haven't dug that much deeper into the script tonight, and I'm a little annoyed by that. I guess ideally I'd be able to keep up the pace I set on Wednesday night but I've slowed from a flood to a trickle. It happens. The first draft is, of course, mainly to get it on paper. I like what I'm doing, I just need to keep doing it.

We'll see. And I'll keep on rockin'
-Scotto