"What a terrible fucking day"....

...were the first words I heard uttered out of the mouth of story lecturer Robert McKee. He's almost completely like his portrayal by Brian Cox in Adaptation except he has a thick New York accent instead of a British one, and he says "fuck" a lot more. But he's a really awesome lecturer.
Minor thrills included taking a piss at the urineal next to him and having him sign my copy of STORY. I also asked what I thought was an intelligent querstion and he didn't yell at me.

It's been pretty cool to meet so many other people whose goal is also to write for film. On the first day I meet an Australian girl who lives in London named Nadiya. The Australaian accent is a powerful ice breaker amoungst all these crazy Calafornian's. She's been to L.A. several times before so it's cool becuase now I've got someone to show me around town. I've also meet a copule of other people who actually work in the industry as well as a dentist who really wants to write.

The good news is the McKee is coming to Australia in August so I'm thinking I might re-take the seminar then as well because the information is far too much to absorb in one weekend. It's really good stuff.

Sick powder and other spiffy things

Today I went skiing on some awesome blue runs with Simon, a little English guy from Oxford that I've met here. Things went well until I decided I was tired of standing, and would instead sit down on my skis. It was an excellent stack but in the process I sprained my right thumb. This annoys me because it means I might not be able to take notes when I go to the Robert McKee STORY seminar next week.

I fly to Los Angeles on Tuesday. I've changed my accommodation so that I'm now staying at a location less prone to gang land shootings. I'm staying at the Travel Lodge next to LAX. I'm going to see if I can reenact scenes from Heat while I'm there. I also found out that a Swiss guy I met at the hostel is also going to be in LA at the same time so were going to meet up. I figure we can party at the Viper Room and then take a photo of the corner where River Phoenix died. Los Angeles has a lot of history.