Dateline: Oblivion

By Si DunnOnline sites such as Lulu, CreateSpace and Amazon’s Digital Text Platform for Kindle now make it easy to publish your own book at affordable prices.What is not easy is figuring out how to sell what you self-publish, particularly if it is fiction, without paying hundreds of dollars—and up--to...

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The book Art & Fear is a compact work with only 122 pages. But it lives up to its tagline, "An Artist's Survival Guide," and to its official subtitle: "Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking."The book's co-authors, David Bayles and Ted Orland, describe it as "a book about...

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The Austin American-Statesman gets it, and that newspaper doggedly is staying on the Texas Legislature's case, even if many Texas politicians and entertainment people seem to be paying scant attention."State officials shouldn't be cast in roles of movie producers, scriptwriters or fact checkers, yet that's exactly where Texas legislators have...

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One essential point –- fiction -- keeps getting missed as criticisms and free publicity continue for the screenplay for Entertainment 7’s Waco movie project.No matter how “accurate” anyone thinks it should be, a screenplay –- any screenplay -- is a fabrication, a “play” for presentation on a “screen.” And any...

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Do not be fooled by how simple a screenplay appears on the printed page. You may spend up to a year or more writing and rewriting a feature-length script.Be prepared to rework each new screenplay several times. And get feedback from others -- friends, relatives, strangers, actors, script readers --...

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According to "The Lede," the New York Times blog, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has cited the 1993 Branch Davidian standoff in Waco, Texas, as a reason for rejecting American criticism of Iran's response to opposition protests.In a translation posted by Iran's Press TV, Ayatollah Khamenei stated at the...

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Anchoring, my second book of poetry, is now available through Lulu.com. Anchoring is a collection of poems that previously appeared in a wide range of publications, such as Rolling Stone, the Texas Observer, the Denver Post and several literary magazines. My first book of poetry, Waiting for Water, is still...

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It's pretty much a cinch now that Entertainment 7's movie Waco will not be shot in Texas.It could never pass the Republican-inspired legislative clause that denies Texas state incentives to any kind of film, TV or game project that contains "inappropriate content or content that portrays Texas or Texans in...

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One of the producers involved in the controversial movie project Waco has resigned her post as head of international sales for Entertainment 7 and contends that political "pressure from above" the Texas Film Commission caused state incentives to be denied to the $30 million production, which focuses on the 1993...

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Texans and outsiders hoping to produce moving-image projects (movies, TV shows, documentaries or video games) with state assistance are beginning to wake up to the realities of a legislative restriction that some now decry as "censorship." A statute signed into law with little fanfare in June, 2007, established the...

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"We can tell the story, 'The Scoundrels of Texas.' We have scoundrels. As long as we portray our scoundrels accurately, then those projects, you know, will be able to be included in the program," Texas Film Commissioner Bob Hudgins recently told News 8 Austin.Hudgins was responding to questions about his...

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By Si DunnEmilio Ferrari, described on the Internet Movie Database website as "one of Hollywood's busiest independent producers," is hopping mad. Ferrari, an executive with Entertainment 7 in Sherman Oaks, Calif., is vowing to "never ever shoot" another movie in Texas.The Austin American-Statesman reported May 20 that Texas state tax...

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Texas Senate in Action (April 29, 2009)(Photograph copyright 2009, Si Dunn)"Record Low" Temperature (May 15, 2009)(Photograph copyright 2009, Si Dunn)...

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WAR OF WORDS: A True Tale of Newsprint and MurderBy Simon Read(Union Square Press, $24.95)You think the newspaper business is tough now? Competing newspapers in mid-19th-century San Francisco sometimes fought each other—literally—for circulation and advertising supremacy in a rough-and-tumble city fueled by Gold Rush money, whiskey and gambling and ruled...

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One weekend, I really, really wanted to make a no-budget science-fiction short movie set in outer space. But all I had available was a kitchen table, a digital video camera, a webcam, a few still photographs of the moon, some ski clothes, several pieces of outdated electronics gear, some Christmas...

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Well, actually, I was just one of several hundred people standing in a big room at Troublemakers Studios in Austin, April 23. We were watching filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and Texas Governor Rick Perry enjoy a well-earned Big Moment in the media spotlight as the Governor signed legislation that will boost...

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I came across a very telling article recently while cleaning out some old piles of my journalism. In January, 1999, I co-authored a piece, "IT careers for sale," that appeared in Computer User magazine. The subhead stated: "If you have computer skills and a pulse, recruiters want you on the...

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That's right. Social media (or Social Media, as its practitioners and aficionados so importantly emphasize it) is dead.You have killed it by overdoing it--day and night, endlessly posting and re-posting. You now stay online so much that you have become antisocial in real life.Families? Friends? Co-workers? Don't need 'em.You tweet,...

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Why third-chance book reviews? Well, why not? Authors work hard to create their books -- sometimes one, two, three, or even more years. Then their books are published, put on display in bookstores, only to be unceremoniously yanked from the shelves a few weeks later to make way for newer...

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Things now are officially so bad in the Great Recession that those of us near the bottom of the economic food chain need to start doing something--anything!--to try to fuel a recovery from the bottom up.President Obama and the Democrats on Capitol Hill--with almost no constructive help from the Republicans--are...

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WASHINGTON (D:O) -- While their party leaders proudly unveiled the presentation folders for their details-to-follow "Road to Recovery" budget alternative, anonymous sources within the Republican Party quietly conceded today that the GOP soon will move "lock, stock and barrel of tax cuts" to a separate universe "where no one can...

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According to CNN Political Ticker, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is defending Republicans who want President Barack Obama to fail. He has joined conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh in wishing aloud that the President's efforts to rescue the American economy will flounder, so that millions upon millions of people will suffer...

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The Associated Press has reported that the health insurance industry is offering "for the first time to curb its controversial practice of charging higher premiums to people with a history of medical problems." If you've ever had a medical problem, then lost a job or started a small business and...

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My 65th birthday rolls around tomorrow, and I still feel as if I am 35. Or younger.Inside my head, at least.Yeah, some of my moving parts now grind, click and rattle. And I've had some issues that a few bits of surgery (okay, a couple of BIG bits) have been...

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New York Times columnist Frank Rich got it exactly right when he stated:"As the nation’s anger rose last week, the president took responsibility for what’s happening on his watch — more than he needed to, given the disaster he inherited. But in the credit mess, action must match words. To...

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