Mind Screw Sci-Fi

There have been plenty of sci-fi adaptations and nods to Shakespeare’s plays  but what if 20th Century contemporary writers had tried their hand at sci-fi? What if Charles Bukowski wrote sci-fi?

Wasted Space

a  screenplay by

Charles Bukowski and R. Douglas Burns

c/o Mirimax

Part 1

A1

Establishing Shot:

Space Station, the rotating wheel type like in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but this one is shabby and stained, like someone one has had a cosmic shit on it.

Text over: “There is a place in the heart that
will never be filled
a space
and even during the
best moments
and
the greatest times
times…”

A2

Int. Night. A smoky low-life bar. It’s like any mother-fuckin’ skid row bars anywhere, except this fucking low-life bar has a big quartz port window to the left and we see deep space and stars.  The camera pans around the room, a bit wobbly and as if from a tunnel, and we realize we are seeing this particular mother-fuckin’ skid row bar from the eyes of someone really stewed.

 A2

Angle On. Well sort of an Angle on, for we’re now standing at the edge of the bar checking out the other drinkers. Continue reading →

Patch, the farting cat

Going through my old files and found this picture of ‘Patch.’ The cat  would routinely come sit on my lap, cut the most horrible fart, and then look up at me as if it were my bad. He was the model for Stinker, the save-the-day cat in Unselfish Gene.

I’m waiting for the wingnut conspiracy theorists to start up about the recent Russian meteorite event. Also, coincidentally I’m re-reading “Colossus,” a 1966 novel about two strategic defense computers become aware, communicating, and ruling the world of humans by a nuclear fist. When people don’t obey, the computers  detonated nuclear missiles to bring them back in line. To prevent panic, world leaders come up with cover stories for the explosions: From the book: “Pan-World reports a large meteorite fell early today in Northwest Siberia. A small township was almost completely destroyed and casualties may add up to as much as two thousand. The full movie is on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRt-KHGLxMY