43rd Annual San Francisco Gay Pride Parade

Today, my partner Phil and I marched with lots of friends in the Bay Times newspaper's contingent in the 43rd Annual San Francisco Gay Pride Parade.

I didn't make a video this year. Instead, I tweeted 6-second Vine clips, as I waved a huge rainbow flag over my shoulders.

Here we march past the grandstands. Later, I heard 1.5 million people came to San Francisco this weekend to celebrate gay pride. It definitely felt like all of them were spectators along the parade route.






After the parade, there was a VIP party in San Francisco's City Hall.



Four days earlier, I shot this video only hours after the United States Supreme Court struck down key components of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and dismissed California's Prop. 8 case, which had already been struck down by a lower court. These two decisions, of course, brought marriage equality to California. This issue of the Bay Times very nicely details what a historic week this is in the LGBTQ community's struggle for equality rights in the United States.





Later in the evening, there was a massive street celebration in the Castro, with a stage set up at 19th and Castro streets to showcase DJ's, live music and performances by drag queens.

EVE on the Cover of Volume 11.1 of 360 Magazine

Earlier this month, 360 Magazine did a photo shoot in New York City with rapper EVE, who appears on the cover of our Volume 11.1 issue.

Her fourth solo album, Lip Lock, was released in the United States on May 14.

That same day, we released this video interview EVE made with Eiko Watanabe shortly after the 360 Magazine shoot wrapped.




Everyone at 360 Magazine was delighted when EVE tweeted a thank you to our team.

We look forward to her continued, fabulous success.

PlayGround Film Festival Starts Today

Late last month, I spent an afternoon in Oakland, California with Dances With Light 's Barry Stone, who's producing the 2nd Annual PlayGround Film Festival now playing at various San Francisco Bay Area theaters through the end of May.

The festival showcases six short films based on short plays produced by PlayGround Theater, plus a fun clip of each writer describing how they conceived of their original piece.




After I watched the festival screener, Barry and I discussed making a trailer.





Here's Barry recording the voice over of one version of the trailer we thought up.

I hope to see you at the festival.

It's a fun way to spend an evening while showing your support for the San Francisco Bay Area independent filmmaking community.

Check out these reviews by SF Weekly and Berkeleyside.

Officially a VERONICA MARS Fan Boy

UPDATED May 3, 2013: This fan boy's dream came true on April 12, 2013, when the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign successfully raised the funds needed to make the Veronica Mars movie.

Production begins in Los Angeles, California in June, 2013.

The campaign broke Kickstarter records for raising the fastest $1,000,000, for raising the fastest $2,000,000, for being the highest-funded project in its film category, for having the most backers, and for being the third highest-funded project in Kickstarter history.

When Rob Thomas, creator of the CW's cult television show, Veronica Mars, tweeted me near the start of the campaign, I knew I was officially a fan boy of the show.

The series ran from 2004 to 2007 and stars Kristen Bell as a high school detective.

Female lead + neo-noir thriller = must-see TV for me.

I very much look forward to the film due out summer, 2014.

Me and Antonio GO BACK

Last month, Antonio Toro and I teamed up to rewrite my Twilight Zone script Go Back into a feature-length supernatural thriller. (When you jump to this post on the blog, you can read about the original tv version.)

Antonio is a WGA screenwriter and professional animator. You can see samples of his animation on his site - The shark suit tester is my favorite. He looks deliriously happy with his job.

I very much like writing with a partner. The two of us can determine more quickly and efficiently what works and what doesn't. And, of course, we bring our own unique perspectives and ideas to the project. A consummate cinephile, Antonio says he's never seen on film what happens in Go Back (one reason this project hooked him). I am amazed at the twists and turns he's already brought to the story.

I took this photograph at our weekly meeting at Borderlands Cafe on Valencia, where we're hammering out the outline of the new version.

Stay tuned for more updates.

"Airstream Driver" by Gomez

Lately, while blogging and preparing for a major overhaul of bestmusicandbooks.com, I've had playing on repeat "Airstream Driver" by Gomez.

The video has a candid immediacy with Ian Ball staring into what is likely a web camera as he sings the song in one take.

Business Manager at 360 Magazine and 360FOCUS Festival

I'm now the business manager of 360 Magazine and the 360FOCUS Festival in Los Angeles, California.

The film festival takes place on September 12 and is presented by Red Bull in partnership with 360 Magazine and FocusGroup Entertainment.

The one-day festival will showcase a collection of 30-minute or shorter films and new media projects containing racial and sexual ambiguity.

Among the judges are Roy Campanella II (director of Knight Rider, Baywatch, Boston Public and The Company We Keep), Nick Lippman (manager of George Michael, Matchbox Twenty, Rob Thomas and Ryan Cabrera), Rosie Niku (owner of bleumodels.com ) and Joe Moller (executive director of the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk).

More updates to follow!

Bob Mizer at Invisible Exports

Avid fans of the Athletic Model Guild already know Bob Mizer (1922 - 1992) took 10,000's of photographs in his youth and twenties on all sorts of subjects before becoming famous as a physique photographer.

He took these images in the 1940's at boardwalk beauty pageants on Venice Beach. These and many more photographs from his collection of more than 1.000.000 negatives, photographs, slides and films are on display at Invisible Exports from December 14, 2012 to January 27, 2013.

You can purchase very high-quality prints at the gallery, where I would certainly be every day if I lived in New York.

Holland Cotter writes an excellent article on Mizer and the exhibit in the New York Times.

When you jump to this post on the blog, you can read my interview with Dennis Bell, the current owner of the Athletic Model Guild and founder of the Bob Mizer Foundation.

You can help support the Bob Mizer Foundation by donating directly at its website. There you will find more information on Bob Mizer, the Athletic Model Guild and the Bob Mizer Foundation, including its mailing address for your donations and updates on gallery shows, screenings and lectures.

M. V. P.

Here is the first half of my feature-length, female-lead dark comedy/thriller, M. V. P.

Its logline is

M. V. P. is about a young woman who must discover the connection between a spree of socialite murders and her walking tour of San Francisco's unsolved murders before the killer can murder her and her friends.

I enjoy writing screenplays with strong female leads, and M. V. P.'s heroine is one of my favorite characters I've created to date.

You'll have to ask me for the rest of the script to find out whodonnit and see if/how the lead saves the day.

"You Can Have It All" by Yo La Tengo

While bookkeeping for the San Francisco Bay Times, scanning photographs for my book project, One Man's Collection, with Zach Augustine, or building text in HTML for my blogs and websites, I like to play on repeat Yo La Tengo's version of "You Can Have It All," a gorgeous song that to me is an affirmation of the plenty in the world.