One Great Thing... George Harrison and Martin Scorsese

HBO has many ways to prove its value.  Every time I begin to think... "But I don't want to watch a dramedy about a man with a huge penis... why am I paying for this...?" something comes on that makes me really glad I subscribe.  And that it's a tax write off.

The past two nights I stayed up late watching parts 1 and 2 of Martin Scorsese's 4-hour documentary on the life of George Harrison.  You know... the third most interesting Beatle.

The documentary is called "George Harrison: Living in the Material World."  I am too young to know anything about Beatlemania that I can't learn from documentaries, but you know what?  The third most interesting Beatle is still plenty fascinating.

It's a very long story, filled with anecdotes both familiar and surprising.  So I'm going to mention just three things I learned while watching it.

1.  Great people are great for a reason.  People don't just fall into lives like Harrison's.  They bring something special to the table when they enter the world.   The record of such a life is more like a vapor trail behind some brightly burning, wondrous thing.

Laird Hamilton doing his impression of Beatlemania
from George Harrison's POV.

The secret of living well has often been compared to surfing, learning to ride the waves as they come, etc...  Much of the beauty of this film comes through watching the powerful but naive young Beatle ride such titanic waves as came his way, as have famously damaged or outright crushed Elvises and Michaels in the past, only to reach the beach, and smile.

The life-as-surfing analogy is about balance.  Inner life balanced with outer.  We know Harrison's outer life.  Scorsese gives four hours of his best work to offer us a strong hint at an indescribable counter-weight, the inner-life that afforded George Harrison such remarkable balance.

Through the narrative of the film, you can literally see it on Harrison's face as the intelligent, talented, but arrogant young man grows into the visage of a master, a sage.  It's a slow motion jaw dropper.

--->>>

Harrison - taunting me. 

2.  Even as a remarkably handsome bald man, I guess I really am jealous of hair like that.  Harrison looked awesome even with 70's Jesus Hair and managed to not look like a complete tool in the 80's.  A truly amazing feat as those of you who came of age in the 80's already know (and if you don't know, look at some old pictures of yourself - you looked like a tool).

And finally, the last thing I think I learned and the reason for this blog post.

Harrison was a spiritual seeker.  The good kind; the kind that leads by the example of their life, that doesn't tell other people what they are doing wrong, but seeks to slake their own insatiable curiosity, driven by the same desires we all seem to have been given at birth, but guided by a degree of control that lets desire lead to accomplishment, and ultimately to wisdom.   This is the wisdom to realize that no matter how great the accomplishment (or the failure), it's really not a big deal in the grand scheme we all seem to be a part of.  It's the wisdom to know we can all just relax, because there is really only one thing to do here that is important, and it's not as hard as surfing giant waves or being a Beatle.

From the story of George Harrison's life as presented by Martin Scorsese,  I think I learned this...

3.  If you want to know God, learn to love other people.   Even if it's just one.  That person is God.  This is why we have friends, why we marry, why we have children.  And it's probably why we have enemies too.  Everyone is a gift to help us learn.  And we are all in a position to do it.   So keep practicing.

King's X Movie Update + King's X Now Available as Complete Novel

Things are happening fast with King's X.  Here are some updates...

King's X was optioned this past April by Full Slate Media as a potential feature film.  Since then I have been writing the screenplay, receiving notes, writing the screenplay, receiving notes, writing the screenplay... you get the idea.

Well, guess what.  No more notes.  We're done.  The script is ready at last and, even if I do say so myself, it's pretty damn awesome.  I'm a big believer that brains and heart are the secret ingredients to really good action movies, like the first 2 Terminator films and the first Matrix.  And Full Slate pretty much gave me free rein to say and do everything I wanted in this script.  I'm very proud and happy with the result.

The next step for Full Slate will be to sell the script and package the movie.  You know... the "easy part" (ha, ha).  So, my part in King's X: The Movie (no, that's not really the title) is largely done for the time being.  We should know more about what the future holds in the next few weeks.  Yes, I'm very excited about it.

In the meantime, it is time to move on with the next step for King's X.  The full length novel has been published, is now available for Kindle and Nook, and will be coming very soon in paperback.

That means that it is time for the 8 month experiment with King's X as a serialized story to come to an end.*  It was an interesting experiment and we learned a lot from it.  The idea was to take full advantage of the fact that short (100 page) ebooks could be sold for the amazingly affordable price of 99 cents.  This of course would be impossible with paperback books, which is the reason King's X has not yet been available in that format.

This seemed like an excellent idea, and certainly worth a try.  King's X itself also seemed like a perfect candidate for serialization because within the larger story, virtually every chapter is a cliffhanger.

However, there are problems with the idea as well.  Just yesterday, in fact, I saw a post on Kindle Boards where author Blake Crouch asked the group if they would be interested in the same concept - a thriller offered in 99 cent installments "like an episodic TV show."  After 8 months of "research" the response on the boards did not surprise.  People who love to read and read all the time just want the whole thing.  They don't want to be enjoying something then stop in the middle and need to look for more somewhere else.

All totally understandable, and all reflected in my experience over the last 8 months with a book that evidence seems to indicate could draw a much larger audience.  Case in point,

The four episodes of King's X garnered a combined 30 Reader Reviews on Amazon.  The reviews broke down like this:

5 Stars:  27
4 Stars: 2
3 Stars: 1

And that's it.  From these numbers, and the generally very insightful and even passionate comments in the reviews, one might conclude that people really love King's X, WHEN and IF they are willing to read it.  It seems that, based on all the reasons mentioned on Kindle Boards, not enough people were willing to take a chance on the odd format to make it the success I was looking for.  I don't blame them at all.  Nor do I even disagree.  It was just an experiment, seemed like a good idea at the time.

In the meantime, with the screenplay finally put to bed, I am returning to novels.  I've got a lot up my sleeve and a lot more coming in the next few months, including a sequel to King's X and a top secret project I'm working on right now and hope to have out by (or around) New Years.

*For anyone who is in the middle of the serial version of King's X, don't worry.  Episodes 2-4 will remain on sale so no one will be left in mid-stream.  Or, if you prefer, you can now find the whole thing as one 424 page novel on Kindle, Nook, and soon in Paperback.  Visit Kingsxbooks.com for more.

Here's another look at Danielle Eubank's gorgeous  oil painting on the cover.