Blog Posts for Christopher Meeks

The Great L.A. Chili Dog Debate: Pink's or Carney's?

Christopher Meeks — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:34:22 -0800

THE GREAT LOS ANGELES DEBATE: PINK’S VS. CARNEY’Sby Chris TattuIn my English composition class at Santa Monica College, I had my students write a comparison-and-contrast essay, and I suggested, among several choices, comparing two restaurants. One young man, Chris Tattu, compared the chili dogs at two restaurants, Pink’s and Carney’s. If you know Los Angeles at all, you know how inspired ...

"WHO LIVES?" PRODUCTION WINS OVATION NOMINATIONS

Christopher Meeks — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:44:43 -0700

The production of my play "Who Lives?", which was performed in Los Angeles at the Pico Playhouse during the month of March, has earned five Ovation Award nominations. The Ovations are Los Angeles' top theatre awards. A play can earn nominations if enough L.A. Stage Alliance members see the production and then vote for the play. I'm stunned the production has earned so many ...

SHAKESPEARE AT MY AGE: The Richards Come to Roost

Christopher Meeks — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:25:25 -0700

I never took a full-fledged course in Shakespeare. Rather than pine for something interesting I missed, I'm taking a class at UCLA Extension, taught by the knowledgeable Dr. Russell Stone. I thought I would be one of the older people in the course, but there seem to be many older than me. They may have had my same motivation, which the clown Touchstone offers in As You Like It:"It is ten ...

“CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY”—AND A WAY OF LIFE AT BACKWORD BOOKS

Christopher Meeks — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:33:00 -0700

I've been trying to wrap my head around Michael Moore's new movie Capitalism: A Love Story. The film is highly involving and tugs at one's intellect and emotions--and afterwards makes viewers consider where they fit in economically in America. As I've mentioned before, I'm part of a consortium called Backword Books. We're seven independent authors who have banded together to pool our marketing ...

Theatre in Los Angeles

Christopher Meeks — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:05:24 -0700

"Theatre in Los Angeles" is not an oxymoron. There is so much theatre here that I embraced it to the point of writing plays (I've had four productions) and reviewing theatre for Daily Variety in the nineties. The people who create theatre in Los Angeles are passionate--even if it's difficult to make a living at it.While my own creative interests have moved into writing fiction, plays ...

GRAM PARSONS and ROOM 8

Christopher Meeks — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:15:28 -0700

This weekend, we slept in a desert death room. Let me explain.If you don’t recognize the name Gram Parsons, he was known for his work in two bands, the Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, both in the late sixties. In the early seventies he recorded two solo albums, known for their duets with Emmylou Harris. Parsons is credited with creating country-rock, and Rolling Stone magazine ranked him ...

A View Into the Future

Christopher Meeks — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:22:55 -0700

I continue to be amazed by readers who use the Kindle. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, people who use the electronic reading device clearly are voracious readers. Most of them had been avid readers of books who either travel a lot and don't want to carry books or are people who simply find that books are less expensive on the Kindle. The books also arrive instantly using cell phone ...

"Inglourious Basterds:" The Ugly Beneath the Beauty

Christopher Meeks — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:15:16 -0700

Today I happened to be reading a New York Times theatre review by Charles Isherwood. It began, "When it comes to acts of murderous vengeance, bread baking cannot compete with scalp collecting in terms of lurid allure. On the other hand, the toxic loaves that figure in Daniel Goldfarb's play The Retributionists can lay claim to some factual history, in contrast to the bloody deeds visited ...

BOOK CONTEST: Win Books

Christopher Meeks — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:25:04 -0700

As you may know, a few independent literary authors and I formed a book collective called Backword Books. It's not a publishing company but a way for us to gather our marketing talents together and see if we can get the word out about our books. One of the members noticed that a lot of book reviewers give away books to draw readers to their literary websites. We thought we'd try the same thing ...

Sometimes the Magic Works

Christopher Meeks — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:39:28 -0700

"Sometimes the magic works," said the theatre impresario in Shakespeare in Love. As much as I muse on the subject of marketing in this blog, I can't always explain things. I can't explain my ranking today.Probably the worst habit many writers have is checking sales rankings on Amazon. It's as if our self-worth is on parade. My last two books have done particularly well during the ...