Sunday, February 26, 2012

The Screenplay Diary: "Between Love and Orgasms"... Taking a Turn for the Words

My favorite story (out of many) about the bringing of story to screen is the story of the 2005 Academy Award nominated film Sideways.

The film was an adaptation of the novel of the same name, written by a relative failure by Hollywood standards (author Rex Pickett), ironically about a man who is a failure as novelist. The story also mirrors Pickett’s life as a quasi-alcoholic in search of success in mid-life, after years of failed attempts to break through to mainstream industry acceptance.

Sometimes lost in the story of the making of Sideways is the tucked-away fact that Pickett’s novel was still unpublished at the time it was being turned into the surprise hit of 2004. Director Alexander Payne “discovered” the story, reading the novel in waiting on a flight from Edinburgh to Los Angeles. But for me, the part of the “lost in the story” story that influences me the most is that a finished, but unsold, story served as an industry “calling card” to get the story of Sideways in the hands of the right person to make Rex Pickett’s words make it to the big screen. Which led me to this conclusion...

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Muth Labben


Today is for counting my wasted yesterdays
Each one neatly lined up, row on dusty row

Every year the same...

Today is for remembering your unborn tomorrows
And the time I sit, because walking is too slow

There is no blame...

Today is for pretending to make sense of the past
From a life ended, with nothing to show

When I speak your name...

Today is for thinking that memories last
But all they do is fade, until they go...

Like every unfinished song to be sung...



About the death of a son.



Copyright © 2012 Bill Friday

Saturday, February 4, 2012

I Am Fucked No More

A little FRIDAY REWIND.



A reissue of my final column for a soon-to-be deceased internet venue.  Please follow the link to the beautiful, new Expats Post, the new home of Friday On Friday, and a whole lineup of talented writers.

For now, here is "I Am Fucked No More" 



Epiphany in my time of greatest need
that the shit on which I feed no longer satisfies my empty beggars gut
as it once did
I am whole within myself
and no sorry-ass opinion of my well-chronicled condition
matters now or in the future
as it once did
like before
I’m telling all
from now on
broken gone
I am fucked no more.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Out of a Crowd



I wouldn’t choose you today if I had to.

Out of a crowd, or all alone.

this makes me want to die

Maybe only to save you from some something.                                                                

Not for the old, not for the new if I had to.

this teaches me to lie  

It’s sad and it’s true.


but only to get by  

Because there’s not much else to do.

no more asking why

With you.






Copyright © 2012 Bill Friday
content originally appeared on the website Expats Post