Année : 2004

Montreal based screenwriter Alex Epstein is back on the Web with a new blog, after taking a few months off from blogging. Epstein wrote a great book called Crafty Screenwriting, offering some of the most useful advice I’ve been able to find in this kind of book. His real-world, no nonsence approach on « writing movies that get made » spares us the usual magic formulas we find in most screenwriting manuals. Where else are you going to find such clear details about binding your script? (Note: Acco #5 Brass Fasteners are hard to find in Montreal. They keep all sorts of sizes, but not #5. I ended up finding mine in a gift shop in a small Nova-Scotia town!)

Alex Epstein co-created the television series Naked Josh (on Showcase in Canada). He was most recently Head Writer for a new science fiction TV series, Charlie Jade, which should air next June.

If you’re interested in writing – not just for movies/tv but creative writing in general – check out his new blog, Complications Ensue. The screenwriter is preparing a book about television writing and he shares his daily struggles, smart advice and opinions as he works on a new script.

For Nika and for all of us who have put away our scooters until warmer days, here are fantastic shots found on Flickr.

Saw Madeleine Peyroux at the newly restored Cabaret La Tulipe last night. I had seen her in San Francisco many years ago and I remembered that she was shy and didn’t talk to the public much. Her 8 year hiatus didn’t change her shyness and it seems to have given her unusual voice an even lazier quality than before. A cute california guy named Jackie Greene opened up the show for Peyroux and even though he was only 23 (as he explained to the crowd without offering his name), he seemed more comfortable on stage than Peyroux was. Beth (with whom we saw the concert last night) does a great job at reviewing the evening and the show.

If you ever buy tickets for a show at the Cabaret La Tulipe, try to get there very early in order to avoid having to sit upstairs. The space is crammed, the air is rare, the seats creak so loudly that you can’t concentrate on the performance and there’s no room to put your drinks down. I guess it didn’t matter much in the old days of Gilles Latulippe’s loud vaudeville but it made the quiet performance of Peyroux hard to enjoy last night.