It's baseball season!
I love baseball season, especially in the Spring and Autumn (and much more so in theory than in practice - Steroids and salary caps and senate committees have kind of taken away some of the fun. I've always thought it would be cool if ESPN Classic would start in April and follow a vintage season on a day by day basis, as though it were occurring in real time.) I always get ready for the season by reading one of Halberstam's books, and every couple of years I spend too much on a vintage card. Years ago, one of my favorite artists, a guy named Mark Chiarello, worked on a series of cards entitled "The Heroes of the Negro Leagues". It's gorgeous stuff, and I was excited to see that most of the pieces have been put together in a book with the same name. Seeing that reminded me of this, which I first saw a couple of years ago. Hilarious - or, if you will, "a laugh riot". (Watch it, and you'll understand the last phrase.)
Ok - So we kill off Jordi's mom or dad for all the reasons you mention. I'm fine with that. In fact, I like it. I like it so much that I think we should open with it, then bounce backward and forward in time from the beginning to the present until the death occurs, at which point we stay in the present and move forward. I think that as part of the whole conspiracy thing, the death should appear random, and completely unconnected to the data Jordi's downloaded. Does a home invasion sound right? Does it make sense that Jodi's parent's last words start her on the path? Maybe the dying mom or dad tells Jordi that the other parent isn't nuts, that the paranoia is justified and that the "sane" parent always felt that if the family minded their own business, no one would bother them.
I don't know though - That's a lot of coincidence. If we go anywhere down this road we need a way to tie together Jordi's search with the missing parent's past. Maybe Jordi finds a security code among the parent's stuff that she enters in the computer as she searches. (One thing occurred to me in thinking about this - I like the idea of massive government/corporate incompetence - Maybe the security code works because no one ever disabled it. Maybe Jordi isn't killed when her parent is because nobody gave that particular order - You know, realistic stuff....)
About the unexpected ally - I dig it. He could be the one person Jordi, in the end, needs to trust. He could also be the person who betrays her, but I like the idea of a conscious betrayal on his part, rather than the idea that he confides in the wrong person. Maybe he's a gung-ho agent looking to make a name for himself, and he initially communicates with Jordi undercover, attempting to gain her trust so he can bring in her in. After he betrays her, and the resultant attempt on Jordi's life goes bad, he realizes that he's working for some bad people, and that the end doesn't always justify the means. Jordi knows that his betrayal almost cost her her life, and so that makes it even harder for her to let go at the point where she needs to trust him.
This way both of our characters exhibit growth.
Anyway, just spitballing...
Oh - I think we did have a name for our Carlyle-like group, but I can't remember it; It was "Globaltech", or "Terratech" (which I like) or something... Labels: Baseball, Betrayal, David Halberstam, Jordi, Paranoia
Stumble It!
David, you are welcome to spew. In fact, I'd even be happy to hold your hair back - It'll be just like old times.
And while I prefer to think of the initial creative process in a different way (For Dave, it's spewing. For me, it's like wandering through a meadow filled with wildflowers. Each beautiful flower represents a different idea, and as I roam, I gather them up, eventually returning to the studio with a gigantic bouquet of potential), in each case the end result is a massive collection of thoughts and ideas, some connected, some not, some workable, others clearly dead on arrival.
From what Dave's written below, it's apparent to me that he is more skilled than I am at organizing his thoughts; I usually just throw my ideas into whatever sketchbook I'm currently filling, where, to be honest, most them die without ever seeing the sun again. Occasionally, though, I'll tack them on the little bulletin board I have next to my drawing table, where they remain both in sight and in mind. That's sort of the way I visualized things working here, at least at the beginning of the process. I pictured (like you suggested in your post) a list of topics which would be random at first - basically be a clearing house for ideas; Things like "Jordi wears glasses." or "China's space program: founded by deported U.S. rocket scientist falsely accused of Communism." (True, by the way...). Eventually the list would require a little organization, at which point we'd do things more formally, perhaps with a character notes on one page, and plot points and beats on another.
Just spitballing here, but maybe it would make sense to code things related to theme in one color and plot in another. I'm also thinking that, with the exception of Jordi, story/theme will determine our other characters. That being the case, their creation will follow our initial discussion - Once we have a rough outline, we'll see who we need and where we need to put them.
And at the risk of jumping the gun, I was thinking that one of the ways we could convey Jordi's trust issues is through solitude. Maybe Jordi's alone all of the time. Maybe she shares her thoughts with no one but herself (and us) through a diary. And maybe it's a traditional diary, rather than a digital one, and maybe that fact can somehow come into play later.
Labels: Chinese Space Program, Diary, Jordi, Wildflowers
Stumble It!
