In 1999 I was living in Hollywood CA. A screenplay that a friend and I co-wrote starting getting some buzz. That story is called “Every April”.
EA is a good story, we got really close to getting it made a few times. But something always fell through at the 11th hour. Right now, what you need to know about that screenplay are the names of the main characters, as those are going to be the bulk of the constants that allow us to identify the Synchronicity's. Those names are,
Anna, Casey, Duncan. Katy, Kye, David, Jerry. and of course, mine. Ryan.
After one too many heartbreaks, we let the project fade. I spent the next several years sleepwalking through life like a well dressed Zombie, not knowing I was incredibly dysfunctional. Relax, I won't bore too deep into the after-school special, but I had gotten hurt pretty badly as a kid and shut most of myself down. Unable to commit to anyone or anything, I basically just spun my wheels, occasionally self sabotaging myself out of success.
Sad but true. I was my own worst enemy. For example, a friend who liked a script of mine turned out to be really well connected. She took the script to a company run by Tucker Tooley. The guy has produced about 35 films, and said he wanted to make mine.
I blew the deal.
That's the equivalent of winning a hundred thousand dollars in the lottery and saying no to the money. It's actually much worse, as the money also comes with a career that attracts supermodels. The worst part is that I wasn’t even aware that I was constantly sabotaging myself.
That's how dysfunctional I was. Somebody offered to pay me to fulfill my dream, and I said no.
In spite of myself, I booked a few small jobs here and there as an actor. In one film, I played a guy who had an advanced degree in engineering, but was selling pool tables for minimum wage. He was also emotionally stunted, had no self esteem, and was completely unable commit to anything real with a woman.
In other words, I was playing myself.
Here's a clip from that film. I'm the Brunette.
This story weaves back and forth between the writing and the film clips. The clips are all integral to the story, and need to be viewed in order to make sense of it. The bigger the screen the better.
Burning man is somewhat explained as a temporary city of 50,000 people all trying to blow your mind with their generosity. It's basically like stepping into the Twilight zone, as it's the world capitol of weird.
Just as my friend Jay predicted, it changed my life. While there, I finally felt love for the first time. This helped me to realize I was actually living the exact same life as the guy in the film. It took something that painfully obvious to get me to finally be able to see that something was wrong with my life.
That's an example of how synchronicity can be a very useful tool. It creates a way to help you recognize the parts of yourself that you weren't aware of. It can be an introspection lever.
To my mind, in this crazy overstimulated world, anything that leads to quiet introspection is priceless.
So now I knew I had to get to work on myself. The question was, how? Luckily, while at the Burn, I discovered the thing that would become the tool I needed to do that work.
Firespinning.
NEXTLEVEL
EA is a good story, we got really close to getting it made a few times. But something always fell through at the 11th hour. Right now, what you need to know about that screenplay are the names of the main characters, as those are going to be the bulk of the constants that allow us to identify the Synchronicity's. Those names are,
Anna, Casey, Duncan. Katy, Kye, David, Jerry. and of course, mine. Ryan.
After one too many heartbreaks, we let the project fade. I spent the next several years sleepwalking through life like a well dressed Zombie, not knowing I was incredibly dysfunctional. Relax, I won't bore too deep into the after-school special, but I had gotten hurt pretty badly as a kid and shut most of myself down. Unable to commit to anyone or anything, I basically just spun my wheels, occasionally self sabotaging myself out of success.
Sad but true. I was my own worst enemy. For example, a friend who liked a script of mine turned out to be really well connected. She took the script to a company run by Tucker Tooley. The guy has produced about 35 films, and said he wanted to make mine.
I blew the deal.
That's the equivalent of winning a hundred thousand dollars in the lottery and saying no to the money. It's actually much worse, as the money also comes with a career that attracts supermodels. The worst part is that I wasn’t even aware that I was constantly sabotaging myself.
That's how dysfunctional I was. Somebody offered to pay me to fulfill my dream, and I said no.
In spite of myself, I booked a few small jobs here and there as an actor. In one film, I played a guy who had an advanced degree in engineering, but was selling pool tables for minimum wage. He was also emotionally stunted, had no self esteem, and was completely unable commit to anything real with a woman.
In other words, I was playing myself.
Here's a clip from that film. I'm the Brunette.
This story weaves back and forth between the writing and the film clips. The clips are all integral to the story, and need to be viewed in order to make sense of it. The bigger the screen the better.
Burning man is somewhat explained as a temporary city of 50,000 people all trying to blow your mind with their generosity. It's basically like stepping into the Twilight zone, as it's the world capitol of weird.
Just as my friend Jay predicted, it changed my life. While there, I finally felt love for the first time. This helped me to realize I was actually living the exact same life as the guy in the film. It took something that painfully obvious to get me to finally be able to see that something was wrong with my life.
That's an example of how synchronicity can be a very useful tool. It creates a way to help you recognize the parts of yourself that you weren't aware of. It can be an introspection lever.
To my mind, in this crazy overstimulated world, anything that leads to quiet introspection is priceless.
So now I knew I had to get to work on myself. The question was, how? Luckily, while at the Burn, I discovered the thing that would become the tool I needed to do that work.
Firespinning.
NEXTLEVEL
do what you love with all your heart...
ReplyDeleteThat footage of BM made me teary! There really is NOTHING else like it on this planet. Pure MAGIC, and it may just be the capitol of Synchronicity.
ReplyDeleteHow's this for syncronicity:
ReplyDeleteAs I was reading this, I received a Facebook message from a friend who has just completed a movie script and is in production. He told me that he wants to work on a screenplay for an idea I told him about a long time ago, and that he's found a guy who is interested in working on a graphic novel for the same concept (the novel was my original idea, the screenplay was his but I am great with it!)
Had I not just read what I did, I would have shrugged it off with false modesty. I started to feel that rise in me, and shrugged THAT off, and told him in very positive terms that I am very, very interested.
In addition, I've been interested in fire spinning for a while. When I watched the Burning Man video I thought to myself, "Hmmm, maybe trying to get back into that would be good for me." The end of your post confirmed it. Things lining up.
This is a good thing that you are doing. Thank you!
If you wish to contact me, email me at theauslanderman@gmail.com.