Summertime and the blogging's . . . sporadic

Forgot to hang the Gone Writin' sign out on the front door. Not much happening in LA during the dog days of August. Nicholl made its first cut a few weeks ago and my submission, unsurprisingly, was a casualty. But two of my workshop members are through to the quarterfinals with theirs, so well done Lee and Z!

In lieu of anything substantive, I'll link to some business-related podcasts that readers in and outside of Hollywood might find edifying or enjoyable:

Sandra Tsing Loh, a noted chronicler and observer of life here in the southland, details the art of the screenplay pitch for This American Life. At the end of this episode, she tells a funny story of one of her friend's unlikely rise (and more typical fall) inside the Disney "family."

Also from the TAL archive: John Hodgman (better known as "PC" in the Get a Mac ads, and from The Daily Show) explains how and why he rewrote Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace sans Jar Jar Binks;

The author of the original book that would become the film (and short-lived tv series) Dangerous Minds, catalogs all the things that happen to the work after the big sale that every aspiring writer dreams about;

"So Crazy It Just Might Work" is the amazing story of an FBI sting that nearly became a produced film (and still got some writer paid $20,000 of taxpayer money for the script);

Cheryl Trykv narrates a surreal (and hilarious) Palm Springs travelogue from her teenage years, also starring Shirley Booth (Hazel);

And Home Movies is an episode dedicated entirely to the moving picture in its many forms and formats.

Local public radio station KCRW has two originally-produced programs, The Treatment and The Business, that are good listening for out-of-towners (or in-towners). More briefly, writer Rob Long gives his Martini Shot quicktakes on Hollywood and the industry.

Happy listening.