Lev Raphael's Blog, page 50

The Lesson of Russell Crowe's "Noah": Always Wear Your Galoshes

Sometimes I avoid controversial movies until the brouhaha has died down, dried up and blown away like a tumbleweed in an old western.



I like to watch those movies with a fresh eye, but with Noah, it turns out the fuss last Spring was actually much more entertaining than the film.



I'm not sure how it was pitched to the money men, but it comes across as Close Encounters of the Third Kind meets Transformers meets Apocalypto meets The Lord of the Ring meets Braveheart. And man, wouldn't it have be...

New Year's Resolutions? Not for Me, Thanks

I haven't made a New Year's Resolution in many years, because they've always struck me as somewhat desperate. A bit like lines drawn in the sand: bold and dramatic and exciting. That is, until the tide comes in and washes them away.







I see plenty of writers resolving this and that on line. But I don't need New Year's Resolutions to motivate me because New Year's Eve and New Year's Day aren't any different from any other days in my writing year. Well, except for the champagne, which might eithe...

Learning From Adversity in 2014

2014 was one of the worst years ever for me in many ways. It opened up lots of unpleasant doors, but as the cliché goes, for a writer, everything is material, no matter how awful. Even when we're suffering, part of us is observing the situation and thinking, "This would make a great story." That perspective is often what helps keep us centered and happy in the face of adversity, because we know we'll eventually rise above it.









Here's just one example of the year's dark gifts.



I was in a car acci...

I Don't Need More Inspiration to Write--I Need More Time!

Writer Dinty Moore recently posted a pithy Jack London quote on his Facebook page: "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."







That made me chuckle. It reinforces the popular notion that writers are effete and dreamy types and maybe that's how London thought of his peers. The whole subject strikes the general public as mysterious, because over the years as I've done hundreds of invited readings around the country, people always ask, "Where do you get your ideas?"



The...

Who Needs Inspiration to Write? I Need More Time!

Writer Dinty Moore recently posted a pithy Jack London quote on his Facebook page: "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."







That made me chuckle. It reinforces the popular notion that writers are effete and dreamy types and maybe that's how London thought of his peers. The whole subject strikes the general public as mysterious, because over the years as I've done hundreds of invited readings around the country, people always ask, "Where do you get your ideas?"



The...

See Into the Woods, Without Delay!

I've been in love with Into the Woods for years. I've seen it performed several times, watched the DVD of the original Broadway production many times, and lost count of how often I've listened to the original cast album.



As a writer, I'm awed by Sondheim's trademark wit, his long elegant vocal lines, his surprising rhymes, his dark humor, his complex music. I was worried that the Disney musical would be too cute, but I was wrong; it's fairly true to the spirit of his work. Disney's found ways...

Into the Woods, Without Delay!

I've been in love with Into the Woods for years. I've seen it performed several times, watched the DVD of the original Broadway production many times, and lost count of how often I've listened to the original cast album.



As a writer, I'm awed by Sondheim's trademark wit, his long elegant vocal lines, his surprising rhymes, his dark humor, his complex music. I was worried that the Disney musical would be too cute, but I was wrong; it's fairly true to the spirit of his work. Disney's found ways...

4 Ways Writers Can Deal with Rejection

Back before email, there were days when I would get several rejections from magazines in one day, which meant big fat manilla envelopes in my mailbox. If I happened to be there when the mailman was filling the boxes in our apartment building, it also meant pitying looks from him. That was almost as bad as the times when I'd open the mailbox and the envelopes would spill out onto the floor of the mail room with people watching me bend to pick them up. Humiliating.



I'd had a dreamlike start. I'd...

Guess What Else Mark Twain Never Said?

I recently blogged for HuffPost on viral quotes supposedly by Mark Twain, George Eliot and other famous authors. I tackled some of the most common (and ugliest), but I missed one that's arguably more egregious than those I listed:







Newsflash: Twain never said it, and it leads the list of the ten most famous bogus Twain quotes.



Why would anyone with half a brain or any ear for the English language think this could be by Mark Twain -- or even any other American novelist? It has no humor, no rhyth...

Choking on the News of The Eric Garner Grand Jury Farce

Is the U.S. a police state? Sometimes it feels it's headed that way. Reading the news about the Eric Garner grand jury decision coming so soon after the Ferguson grand jury farce left me breathless and shocked.



The police have felt out of control for years. There are 45,000 SWAT team raids every year in this country -- many of them doing what used to be ordinary police work: serving warrants. Groups on the left and the right think this is a major problem. Police killings of American citizens c...