Daedalus Howell

I’m not one for omens, signs or symbols, particularly when they fall outside the realm of my creative work (the early, sad voyages of which were often across a veritable sea of Joseph Campbell soup). I ‘ve noticed in waking life that foreshadowing only works in retrospect, but occasionally, when I’m not paying attention, a little synchronicity seeps in and I cannot help but construe some meaning. Connecting such dots is, historically, the purview of either genius or paranoid schizophrenics, or as often both, depending on the veracity of the constellation in question. I’m none of the above, but I’m hopeful that the following string of minor events betokens something more than superstition.

Is it not somehow auspicious that the Sonoma International Film Festival should begin the same day as ScriptFrenzy, the online screenwriting community qua support group which that goads its members to pen feature in 30 days? Yeah, it’s a stretch, but seeing as collaborator Raymond Scott Daigle has been nudging me to write up a notion that’s been circulating our gang for a spell, I’m game for the grind. Especially since I ranted about doing so in the local press (as well as calling RSD a monkey). I signed up ? as a pledge to RSD ? since it’s high-time we did a feature (in the salad days Jerry Rapp and I could knock out a 110 page high concept comedy in two weeks). I’m only mildly embarrassed that I needed a novelty website to provoke me.

When RSD and I went to the film fest’s Will Call to retrieve our press credentials, we reflected on an erstwhile gig that permitted us to incubate our shtick before the axe finally came down with enough velocity to split an atom (a mushroom cloud of opportunities resulted and RSD and I have been aglow ever since). As I was riffing on this tortured metaphor a film fest volunteer presented us with our, what he termed, ?film badges.? Is it not more that mere coincidence that ?film badges? are also used for monitoring exposure radiation? I think not.

After a beat, RSD and I were trading quips with screenwriter Robert Kamen who’s hosting a panel at the fest. What’s germane is that RSD and I often invoke Kamen’s ?Karate Kid? as part of our cross-pitch for the flick I’m to write these next 29 days. Moreover, Ralph Macchio’s character in the ?Karate Kid? transplants from New Jersey to Malibu ? RSD transplanted from Mechanic Falls, Maine to Petaluma, California. The distance between Mechanic Falls and New Jersey is 426 miles. The distance between Petaluma and Malibu is 429 miles! Now consider this, there is a ?three mile? disparity in the respective distances. You know, three miles, like ?Three Mile Island,? site of the worst domestic nuclear meltdown in history. Thank goodness for those film badges. Clearly, success is imminent, or I’m a genius.