"There is no salvation in becoming adapted to a world which is crazy." - Henry Miller

3 Questions:

Q. Where does Pauly wish he was?
A. In the studio writing the second draft of his screenplay.

Q. What SIMPSONS or SEINFELD character best describes Pauly's mood?
A. Moe the bartender.

Q. What is Pauly enjoying right now?
A. He is enjoying the anticipation of his Tuesday writer's group, which meets tonight (Yankees start the playoffs tomorrow night). The writer's group is where he'll get the necessary feedback on the screenplay.

Project Greenlight Update: 107 Pages

I finally finished the first draft of my screenplay. As of last night at 8pm, exactly one week from the time I started, I was able to crank out 107 pages. I now have to tweak the final product and add/delete a few scenes. I hope to have a FINAL DRAFT 24 hours before the Mindnight Wednesday, Oct 2 deadline. More to come.

"Chaos is the score upon which reality is written." - Henry Miller

3 Questions:

Q. Where does Pauly wish he was?
A. In bed, sleeping off his cold.

Q. What SIMPSONS or SEINFELD character best describes Pauly's mood?
A. Morty Seinfeld, Jerry's Dad... he's cranky and tired and it's a bit drafty where he is!

Q. What is Pauly enjoying right now?
A. The writer's high. It's one of the only things getting him through his day. His screenplay is no less than 75 pages.

3 Questions:

Q. Where does Pauly wish he was?
A. A friend of one of Pauly's friends died in a car accident on Saturday night in Texas. He wishes he was there to make off-color jokes and lighten the somber and tense mood.

Q. What SIMPSONS or SEINFELD character best describes Pauly's mood?
A. Jerry Seinfeld... he feels a little cocky, smug, and nothing seems to bother him this morning.

Q. What is Pauly enjoying right now?
A. The rush and high that a writer gets after they lose themselves in the "zone". His screenplay is no less than 50 pages.

Dr. Thompson is BACK! Hunter S. Thompson has returned from his five month writing hiatus. He was in Beirut on some sort of reason. Read this week's article. Here's a bit: "Hi, folks. My name is still Hunter and I am still a fool for football -- or maybe just a fool, because last night I had a strange vision that featured Miami and New Orleans playing in Super Bowl XXXVII when (and if) it finally rolls around in February, and I think I saw the Dolphins winning it by a score of 31-17. "

In homage to Tampa Bay's star reporter Dave Simanoff, I decided to jump on the bandwagon and add a new feature to the TAO. I call it: 3 Questions (3 Qs).

The Daily Dave originally pointed out to me a similar addition to another weblog out in cyber world. And he added his own feature to his own blogspot, a daily question and answer session. Check out his orginal post: Heidi FAQ: Four Questions and take a peek at another Daily Dave Q & A. Thanks Dawg!

So let's getting things rolling... introducing the new 3 Questions:

Q. Where does Pauly wish he was?
A. A friend of Pauly's is in the hospital this morning and he wishes he could be there to lighten the tense mood by making off-color remarks and bad jokes, and more importantly, trying to steal good pain killers.

Q. What SIMPSONS or SEINFELD character best describes Pauly's mood?
A. Homer Simpson, because all morning he seems to be shouting, "D'OH!"

Q. What is Pauly enjoying right now?
A. The weather. It was mid 50s when he woke up this morning, a nice welcomed change from the hot & humid weekend weather. He is also riding a nice high after writing ACT I of his new screenplay, 30 pages worth in 2 days.

Project Greenlight

Project Greenlight is a writing contest, sponsored by HBO & Miramax. The winner gets a $1 Million budget to produce said film and gets a documentary made about the creative process and dealing with Hollywood suits.

My brother Derek, originally encouraged me to enter last year's contest (I didn't win) and this year I had decided I was NOT going to do it but after careful reconsideration, I decided, "WHAT THE FUCK??!?!?!?"

My brother is paying the entry fee for me as a birthday present and the least I can do is write up something kick ass to submit. And if they don't like it, fuck 'em. I've been rejected for almost seven years now, so I'm used to it.


DEADLINE is OCT 2...
Time Remaining: 10 days

The only catch? I decided that I will not submit anything I had previously written, so I am writing a whole new 100 page screenplay from scratch!!! I wrote ten pages last night. I can do it, if I write 15 pages a day for a week, I'll have over 100 :) Typical screenplays are 90-120 pages in length. (1 page = 1 minute of screen time.)

My goal is to make it into the Top 250 Screenplays. They will list the winners on their website.

OK wish me luck and if you don't hear from me for a few days... you know why!

Take a peek at their link: Project Greenlight.

Here's a preview of what I am writing:

---

FADE IN

EXT. GREEN TAVERN - NOON

CHARLIE, 30, a director/writer from L.A. is well dressed with sunglasses. He steps out of a cab and is talking on his cell phone. He pays the cabbie who hands him his luggage and he ends his cell call, stops and looks up at the awning of the GREEN TAVERN.

CHARLIE
I always hated that name.

Charlie opens the door to the GREEN TAVERN and walks inside.

---

Señor Update

I got this e-mail from Señor this morning:

McGrupp,

Holy Shit!!!!!

There is this Vietnamese chick that I am head over heels about. She has gone to spend three months in Finland because her father moved there years ago. I just recieved an e-mail from her saying that her father wants her to marry this Finnish guy so she can stay in Finland forever. She told me that if I don't want her to marry him she will not, but if I don't love her she will marry him. She is waiting for my responce before she answers this guy... this is INSANE!!!!!!!! This could be October's story for Truckin!!!!! I'll keep you posted!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness! Señor

THANKS to all for the wonderful brithday wishes from all of you... I really felt special. THANKS again. I am fortunate... from Señor's phonecall... to two separate birthday messages greeting me with snazzy renditions of "Happy Birthday to You" from Jessica and Boogie... a birthday meal from Jessica... to Simanoff's birthday blog & pictures (and a cool birthday card & stickers from San Fran)... and my brother, Derek paying the entry fee for the screenwriter's contest at Project Greenlight... and the best surprise of them all: Molly baked me chocolate chip cookies! Despite living 2,000 miles away in El Paso, she baked them and sent them express mail so they would be here in time for my b-day!

Well, I got shutout again trying to buy Phish tickets via Ticketbastard. :(

I was slapped down like a red-headed step-child at a family picnic.

If PHISH does a PPV concert or a webcast, you are all welcome to come watch it/listen it in my studio with me. We'll make our own Phishy fun. I'll have mock security at the door, they'll be taking tickets and doing pat downs etc. I'll have a bar serving $10 watered down drinks, and I'll make sure I import some really foul smelling crusties & tour rats trying to sell pharmies (all for authentic purposes). Of course before you enter my building, you will be greeted by half-baked, half-spun Phishy chicks wearing angel and butterfly wings, selling goo-balls, veggie burritos, and hemp jewelry. AND what's a Phish show without a random dog just walking around??

If Phish don't do either a webcast/PPV, you can still come and watch me get really high and act like a babbling moron as I scare everyone with my alien-unification-apocalypse theories, while tossing banana peels at my neighbor's terrace.

An Unexpected Phone Call... 5:45 am EST... it was just a fifteen minute phone call, but it really lifted my down trodden spirits on my birthday. Alas, I am always reluctant to answer my phone, and I was shocked to hear from none other than Señor! He called me from the beach in Samui, Thailand, via his cell phone, to wish me a happy birthday! Señor sends everyone his love and asked about most of you (lol). Recent gossip: he has a local Thai girl that is his steady ladyfriend and he has another woman that comes by every night to cook for him. Anyway, I can't believe he called me, and it was great to hear his voice and to talk to him, if only for a few minutes. I didn't realize how much I missed him until I hung up the phone. That unexpected call was a great birthday present!



I share a birthday with:

Alexander III
Upton Sinclair
Spohia Loren
Red Auerbach
Dr. Joyce Brothers
Dale Chihuly
Fran Drescher
Nelson Twins (Gunnar & Matthew)


And this day in history, on the day I was born, September 20, 1972: Police find cannabis growing on Paul & Linda McCartney's farm.

A bag containing dried eggplant fertilizer guarded high idyllic junior klansman, lounging maliciously, napping on porches, quietly reading Shakespeare to underage vixens with zest. After begging Cuban dogcatchers eloquently for Gus, his innocent jealous kitten lactating milk nugs, opposite Peter's quaint retreat spa, the unbalanced victim wished zealously.

"The world is the mirror of myself dying." - Henry Miller

"Failure is human's destiny" - from an unpublished French writer

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." - Albert Einstein

10 Hours...

At midnight Phish is offically to have told me whether or not I got NYE and Hampton, VA tix. Everyone I know (with the exception of 4 or 5 lucky heads) has been rejected already. EVERYONE. People I figured would get tickets would get tickets. I got replies from Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Canada, Texas, England, Singapore, France... and all over the country, each saying how they got rejected from mail order.

I think I got the finger. Well I already accepted that as my fate.

Why?

Cold cards.

It's a card playing term. When you are not getting good cards, it's called "cold cards". Recently I have been having a tough streak, a lot of cold cards coming my way. So I'm expecting to get dealt the death card from Phisdom.

It's OK though. I'm going to the NYE show. I'm going to the Hampton shows. It's that simple. So with that in mind, I'm not discouraged by a rejection. I am supposed to go to these shows and I will get tickets. Say it with me a couple of times. Say it. Own it. Do it.

"Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works." - John Keats

Jets suck. They got whoooped by the PATS today in an ugly game.

I've been driving
Thinking about you and me
And I'm thinking
Wonderin' 'bout the things I see

- Widespread Panic

The blind dog barked at the empty container on the kitchen counter.

Sometimes you get beat by the dog and he bites you on the ass, other days you win and you get to kick the dog's ass. Today... today we kick the dog.

When the rain dogs return home to the final destination of their month long journey, then and only then we will realize our true intentions were misinterpeted by the local union of turnip and cabbage farmers, who mistook religious fanaticism for simple lunacy. The farmers shrug their shoulders in unison, light their corn cob pipes and just stare out into the fields and rows of newly hatched watermelons with somber anticipation.

"The art of dreaming when wide awake will be in the power of everyman one day. Long before that books will cease to exist, for when men are wide awake and dreaming their power of communication (with one another and with what moves them) will be so enhanced as to make writing seem like the harsh and raucous squawks of an idiot." - Henry Miller

Emory Ranked 18th

I graduated from a Top 20 university! Emory University is ranked 18th according to US News & World Report: America's Best Colleges & Universities. The #1 college is Princeton. When I first entered Emory they had just cracked the Top 30, moving up 12 places inside of 12 years.

Top 20
1. Princeton University (NJ)
2. Harvard University (MA)
2. Yale University (CT)
4. California Institute of Technology
5. Duke University (NC)
5. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology
5. Stanford University (CA)
5. University of Pennsylvania
9. Dartmouth College (NH)
10. Columbia University (NY)
11. Northwestern University (IL)
12. University of Chicago
13. Washington University in St. Louis
14. Cornell University (NY)
15. Johns Hopkins University (MD)
16. Rice University (TX)
17. Brown University (RI)
18. Emory University (GA)
19. University of Notre Dame (IN)
20. University of California – Berkeley

We all have dead dogs hidden in our trunks. - Tenzin McGrupp

Sometimes people just need to be rescued. - Michael Chabon

The late summer rain fell erratically on the dead dog.

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." - Leo Tolstoy

Je pense à toi tous le temps.

One year later, I must seriously ask myself the question: Are things better? Have I given up a severe chunk of my civil liberties, patience and privacy in order to be a good citizen and follow our politicians and allow them to take us where we want them to? My answer is that I'm cautiously ambivalent. I do not think enough has been done to make our country and my city a safer place to live and alot of energy has been wasted pointing fingers at those to blame domestically and overseas, and the mindless media rallying everyone around the flag without focusing on alot of more serious personal privacy violations and anti-Americana sentiment that is growing out of control, and not enough time has been put into education and understanding and listening to what the people are telling our leaders. I say that the time is now for everyone to contact their leaders: local and national, and voice their opinions about anything and everything, specific to 9.11 to genral terms of societal unhappiness. Unless your thoughts are conveyed into words or your ideas said through a voice, nothing will be done to help get your thoughts, feelings, attitudes and emotions to the people that we elect each year to make serious decisions like what color of alert are we today. So get cracking, start thinking, start writing down those thoughts and questions, and then go get answers.

If the world we are forced to accept is false and nothing is true than everything is possible... On the way to discovery what we love we will find everything we hate, everything that blocks what we desire... Comfort will never be comfortable for those who seek what is not in the market... A systematic questioning of the idea of happiness... We will cut the vocal cords of every empowered speaker. We will yank the social symbols through the looking glass with the values society carries... To confront the familiar... Society is a fraud... To interupt the continunum of everyday experience and all the normal expectations that go with it... To live life as if something depended on one's actions... To rupture the spell of the ideology of the committed consumer scoiety - so that our repressed desires of a more authentic nature can come forward... To demonstrate the context between what life presently is and what it will be... To immerse ourselves in oblivion of actions... To know we are making it happen... Will be an intensity never before known in everyday life to exchange love and hate, life and death, terror and redemption, repulsions and reflections... An affirmation of freedom so reckless and unqualified that it amounts to total denial of every kind of restraint and limittaion. - Richard Linklater

"I saw the errors I had made and assumed full responsibility for everything. You know, instead of being a man who would say, ‘Well, it’s a rotten system we live under,’ and griping about politics, economics and the social condition, I said, ‘Despite all that, I could have acted differently, I could have come out,’ do you see? And I saw that as being the fault of my own nature, character and temperament. I accepted it, and once I did that, a great weight fell off me. I was liberated. I was able to really enjoy myself." - Henry Miller

Orange Alert

If Jack Sprat ate no fat, and killed the cat, and finally smoked a rat... then that fat Fuck, with the bath mat and weathered hat could care less if I, a stoned hack with a black sack of Julio's freshly cooked crack, went over to his kitchen with a mini-bus load of retired tailors and ate up all of his perishable items, like breads and fruits and maybe an onion or two. Fuck that, let's haul ass. And as Royal Tenanbaum said, "I'm half Hebrew and the children are 3/4 Mick-Catholic."

"When words lose their meaning, people lose their freedom" - Confucius

Sorority Life

It's finally over. Last night marked the last episode of Sorority Life. It was final decision time and the Sisters were ready to initiate their pledges, that is until the last moment a few of the girls (Candace, Jordan, Mara & Amanda) had reservations about joining an organization that hated them. I won't give away the ending because I know 99% of you have not seen the last episode. Jordan Crying Count: 4 Times.

Read: Jordan's Commentary: Part 1 and get her side of the story.

Interesting SL stat of the week: Jordan uses a new bottle of hairspray every 6 to 8 days.

Man, watching Sorority Life is like watching a car accident. I am horrified by the events, yet I am unable to look away. This past weekend, MTV aired a SL Marathon, and Jessica Lapidus and I got sucked in and watched a good chunk of it. We came up with a funny chart that gives you the lown down on all the pledges. (See Below)

Pledge	Oral Skills	Spits or Swallows?	Toker?	Drinker?
Candace	Chugs	Swallows	Tokes	AA Member
Jordan	Chugs	Spits	Toked Once	Lush
Amanda	Chugs	Swallows	Never Toked	Alkie
Dede	Hand Jobs Only	N/A	Tokes	Mormon
Mara	Chugs	Swallows only if she's in LOVE	Toked Once in HS	Lush
Jessica	Chows Box	N/A	Never	Sips

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anais Nin

Madden pops painkillers...

Señor News: New British TV Star and His Top 5 Stresses

I got this e-mail from Señor this weekend:

To: McGrupp
From: Señor
Re: I'm a British TV Star!

Remember 80's British pop star, Kim Wilde???? She came to my Chi Gung class yesterday with a camera crew. They are doing a special for British TV to be aired prime time nation wide in December... Señor is gonna be famous!!!!! SEEYA!!!!!

And here is another e-mail I got from Señor last week:

To: McGrupp
From: Señor
Re: Top 5

Top 5 Things Señor stresses out about on Koh Samui:

5) Which job offer to accept:

a) manager of new health spa
b) marketing director of spa/clinic
c) partner health food chain
d) none of the above!!!

** Why do I get so many job offers??? In Thailand they think learning English is very difficult, so if you speak English they think you are very smart and want you to work with them, even if you are from America!

4) Should I wake up at 6AM to see the NFL opening game live? (I'm usually up by 7AM anyway!)

3) Where should I go for a short holiday from my island paradise? Tibet? Bali? Malaysia? Japan? I just don't know!!!!

2) Where should I go for my afternoon swim? The ocean, which is 5 feet from my back porch? Or the beautiful brand new swimming pool they just finished building 10 feet from my house?

1) Who should I have dinner with tonight? Aa, the sweet, cute adorable 21 year old or Noi, the cool 28 year old who always gives me a 2 hour Thai massage after dinner???

Life is TOUGH!!!!!!!

Señor:)

David Wells Tooth Fight

Yankees Pitcher David Wells Loses 2 Teeth in Fight Wells was punched in the head when he was attacked by a man waving a butter knife at a diner at 5:50am, police said.

"I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true." - Dorothy Parker

"Pauly McGrupp -- a man I was too uptight to appreciate in the past, and whom I'm glad to know today." - Dave "Mad Dawg" Simanoff

US Basketball Team Stunned by Argentina The US lost it's first game since the inception of NBA players in international competetition after starting 58-0. They are still in the medal round of the World Championships, but will be getting a lower seed.

"When you get to the fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra

I got two job offers today. I have not decided what I will do. Shall I take it? Or decline and write for a while....???

Just talked to my buddy, Bob famous Phi from Chicago. We don't talk too often, maybe once or twice a year, but it's always great when we finally hear each others' voice. He's one of the funniest guys I ever met and we shared some of my wilder moments when I lived in Atlanta. I saw a bunch of shows with Bob, the likes of the Grateful Dead, Phish, and the Allman Brothers. I took two amazing trips with Bob and friends. One epic adventure was Spring Break in 1993. We went to Puerta Rico and stayed in San Juan at Mophy's place. The other trip was Mardi Gras 1994, when 8 of us rented a Winnebago and drove it to N'arlins for 3 days of shitty drunken mayhem. We parked in front of a church and stayed their the whole time. Good time, great memories. Bob gave me my first Dead bootleg: 9-3-77 Raceway Park with the first Eyes of the World ever performed.

It's Labor Day so the empty subway cars would have indicated to me early this morning, when on a Monday unlike any Monday, but today Labor Day, is a wet, cold, and rainy day which welcomed me to an empty subway car and a seat on the A-Train. Of course I am the only one I know going to work at the early hour, aside from the subway conductor, who is already on the job, in fact I sat and pondered writing this blog in his office, as it screeched and crawled its way down to the tip of Manhattan Island. Alas, I arrived to work not as rushed as you would expect on a wet Monday morning. The humid and testy temperatures of early August have retreated and been replaced with sporadic wet and damp weather, a splash of the Pacific Northwest, with East Coast attitude, and a tinge on the cool side with a nice cold spell that this overheated and rundown city welcomed gleefully with open arms. My arrival at work was more relaxed than normal, even my attire was less than the usual suit and tie. It felt like a weekend morning at the firm, the lights were all out, only a few computers were up and running, the trading floor did not smell like the typical morning office, with the pungent aroma of gourmet coffee and the scrumcious smells of fresh baked pastries and the occasional wafting of anticipatory greed. Not this morning. The office was empty, because nearly all the French staff were returning from Europe from their summer end two week holiday, and the locals were at home, or elsewhere relaxing for the Labor Day holiday. Although I get stuck working these days, I enjoy the empty trading floor, me alone in my trench, secluded from the next trench by rows of electronic screens, equipment, and data processing information bombarding all my external senses. I sit down check my messages, read my e-mail, and read all the recent news updates from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, then South America. Same shit really. War looms in Kashmir. Famine in Angola. Rebellion in Sierra Leone. Poverty in all of Central Africa. Economic Crisis in South America. Death in the Gaza Strip. Genocide in East Timor. Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Terrorism in Sweden. And Posh Spice had a baby. Same old shit, eh? I'll enjoy this peaceful day while it lasts.

Wake n' Bake

How Deadheads Ruined the Grateful Dead is written by Marc Weingarten. It is a very interesting article with some valid points, but my opinion is this: that dude ain't no head. It seems to me that listening to a few bootlegs, reading every book on the Dead and talking to a bunch of old hippies hardly qualifies you to make a bold statement the likes of: Deadheads ruined the Dead. Hey, I didn't kill Jerry Garcia. Society did. And yes Deadheads make up society (the coolest enclave of our insane Western culture), but they/us are no more to blame than the large media machines of record companies, TV, radio, merchandising, and concert promoting and not to mention the g0vernment and law enforcement agencies. Where are the articles: The MAN ruined the Grateful Dead? Will someone dose that Weingarten fucker, please?

Around the World in a Heady Daze is by Dan Rubinstein from Vue Weekly Here is a blurb: "Brian Preston is not a pothead. Okay, he won’t say no to a puff if there’s a joint being passed around at a party. He might even buy an eighth once in a while. But Preston is not a pothead. He’s a middle-aged Canadian writer who latched on to a unique idea. Why not travel around the world seeking out, smoking and talking pot with people in far-flung countries, then write a book about it?" Sounds like my first three novels.

Professor X Alexander Shulgi made millions for Dow Chemical.  Then he synthesized MDMA, realized his best test subject was himself, and became the godfather of Generation Ecstasy. Here's a bit: "I feel an incredible tingle when I look at a white solid I've just synthesized that I know has never existed anywhere in the universe before this moment." He stops himself.  "Oh, maybe someone on a planet around some sun way out there may have looked at it, but this is its first existence on Earth.  And I'll be the first to know what it does."

Reoprt on Safe Ecstacy Angers Brits Two British psychologists are at the centre of a row over the safety of ecstasy, claiming the drug may not be dangerous in the long-term. Who's got my rolls??

Media Awareness Project or MAP is a site you should definitely bookmark. I will be adding it to the TAO links. Here is what is says on it's website: The Media Awareness Project = A worldwide network dedicated to drug policy reform. We inform public opinion and promote balanced media coverage.

Phishy Poll Results: Chalkdust Torture!

Question: What song will Phish open up their NYE reunion show with?

Chalkdust Torture: 24% (8 Votes)

First Tube: 9% (3 Votes)
2001: 9% (3 Votes)
Harry Hood: 9% (3 Votes)
Down With Disease: 6% (2 Votes)
Get Back on the Train: 6% (2 votes)
Tweezer: 6% (2 votes)
A New Phish Song: 6% (2 Votes)

Songs getting 1 vote each:
Mike's Song
Destiny Unbound
The Boys Are Back in Town
NICU
Wolfman's Brother
Back in Black
Gumbo
Theme from Welcom Back Kotter

I voted Mike's Song. What could be better than a Mike's > Simple > Weekapaug Groove sandwhich to mark their return??

Señor Update

I just got a few e-mails from Señor! Here are the highlights:

McGrupp,

Well, I have finally done it, I've started my own business!!!!! First I almost invested in a Health Spa, but that was too much money. Then I almost invested in a Coffee House/Used Book Store/Thai massage Parlor, but the cheap property is cheap for a reason and the expensive property is too expensive. So instead I have started a language school!! Where I am there are tons of foreigners living and there are no schools that teach the Thai language. Thus far, I have one class room, one teacher and one student (other than myself!!) The classroom is located on the beach and we offer our student(s) coffee, tea and snacks!!! First we will only teach Thai to foreingers and if we grow we will teach english to Thai students as well.... know anyone looking for a teaching job in thailand???

Oh by the way, I think I might head ove to Japan for a few weeks to study with a famous reiki master... I will try to coordinate with any good bands that might be over there (ie, MMW) any chance of meeting me over there??? Planting the seed.... oh, I've also gotten into Fundalinni Meditation... from Osho, you know about this dude???? Wild stuff man... SEEYAAAA!!!!!!

Señor