New Internet Venture

Hey guys.

What have you been up to? Not much has been going on over here. Same old, same old. Since I'm not publishing the Star Tribune or Pioneer Press anymore, I've been looking for things to do. I can only spend so much time helping my wife redecorate our house or work on my screenplay.

My buddy Kevin and I were talking over beers the other day and he said I needed to get back in the game. We were talking about my screenplay, The Deadline, and he said a screenplay was fine and everything, but I need to get back in the saddle and do what I love and that's business, mostly publishing. And I think Kev is right. Why not try to get back into publishing?

But you know what I've learned from this blog? Paper publishing is the past. The internet is the future. You can say whatever you want and it doesn't matter. You can even just take the articles that other people write, put them on your web blog and act like you're reporting, especially with politics. Kevin thinks I should start my own internet paper and do the publishing for that. Maybe I will, who knows. I just need to find something to do with my free time.

"The Deadline"

With everything that I've got to do as Publisher I haven't had time to tell you about some new developments with my screenplay.

First off, I've come up with a title. "The Deadline". It's like you can just picture someone saying at the end of the preview, "we have to make the deadline!" And then it just cuts to a black screen. When I came up with the title I told it to one of my buddies. He said, "Dude, there's got to be a movie called Deadline already." I hadn't thought about that because the name is so good. I had my secretary look it up on the internet and yeah there's a bunch of movies called Deadline. But it's cool because I added "the" in front of the title to set aside the name of my screenplay from the other Deadlines.

I'm also wondering if part of the film should be set in Europe. Right now I don't really have it set anywhere except a really gritty city that takes a strong character to survive, especially in the journalism business.

And to tell you the truth, I was thinking about dropping Elle MacPherson from the project. I found out that she's kind of old to be a lead and I hadn't seen a picture of her lately. But then my buddy sent this picture of her to me and she's still smoking hot. Having an older actress play Emily Scott will also give the movie some drama cred.

Screenplay Idea

It's been pretty hectic around the Star Tribune since the 35W bridge collapsed. I haven't really been able to update my internet blog with all the chaos. We've been updating the website and sending out reporters to cover the bridge and working the numbers on maybe some more resizing of the staff. The bridge collapsing also affected traffic downtown by our building. Anyway, it's been busy.

Today is the first day that I've had some free time to myself. Remember when I mentioned that I might want to write a screenplay? I think I might start to work on it. Here's the idea.

A young manager works for newspaper in a mid-sized city. Maybe Philadelphia because it's gritty. The manager finds out that one of his reporters who is working on an explosive story goes missing and the manager discovers some clues to the disappearance on the reporter's work computer. While he's investigating the clues, he runs into an editor from a rival paper who is also working on the same explosive story. She's also smoking hot, but really smart. The manager and the hot editor form a team and try to find the missing reporter. Along the way you can feel the tension between the two and the suspense as they get deeper into the investigation.

That's what I've got so far. There also needs to be some comedy in there somewhere, like some comic relief. And I'm not sure who would play the danger loving manager, but someone like Elle MacPherson could play the competing editor that falls in love with the manager and defects to his paper.

I also need to think of a title.

Paul Magers House Into A Home

We're still re-decorating of Paul Magers's house. I can't believe it either. My wife's designer told her that maybe I should work on furnishing a home office. That would make me more supportive of buying all the new stuff for the house. Getting rid of all the ear marked Crate & Barrel and West Elm and all the other home catalogues, that's what would make me more supportive.

But a home office isn't a bad idea. We have one now, but it could be updated. Also, if Avista promotes me out of the publisher spot at the Star Tribune, I might want to work partially from home like a lot of reporters do. I could get two monitors on the computer or a sweet laptop or something. Actually, I could get a wi fi and take the laptop to the pool when the wife was out.

With a home office, I could also write a book or different editorials for the Wall Street Journal. I don't know what they would be about, but it could be topical. Can you imagine that? Sitting by the pool with beer, writing articles or a screenplay? That's the life right there.

I'll have to think about this screenplay idea more.