Tag Archives: Jim Arnold

A bit of the old Ashokan Farewell

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51p17wIpebw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

I wanted to see how the built-in camera records a little movie and and how it sounds. Passable? I suppose so. I set the laptop up on a counter and then just played a bit.

Sorry for the hesitations, I was trying to not make mistakes. Obviously, I need more practice! Still, I’ll try to do some pieces in the upcoming weeks to alternate with the otherwise feverish rants from the depths of my increasing paranoia.
You might take some time in locating a trustworthy pharmacist but wait clever chemists can take advantage of the order levitra without prescription Internet marketing and get their websites rank high on search engine result pages. Do not have cheap viagra foea.org before the consultation of your doctor as you may require dosage adjustment, since Penegra 100mg will not work same for every individual, since dosages required varies from person to person. Its main competitors are fast delivery cialis and Vardenafil or viagra.on line viagra is used for treating erectile dysfunction (e.g. male impotence). cialis properien It is also advised that it should be taken only during the sexual spur.
The piece, by the way, is the Ashokan Farewell by Jay Ungar, used in Ken Burns’ PBS Series “The Civil War.” Best to not fund any of that dreck from taxpayer money, right? It’s all so… worthless… unlike, what are we on now, war #3?


Share

Benediction – podcast

Jim Arnold Podcast interview about “Benediction”

ADL 1 - Version 2Awhile back, I did a podcast interview with Reader Views about the writing of “Benediction,” the motivation behind it, and also talked about other kinds of writing projects.

Application of testosterone patches, topical application of testosterone gels and intramuscular injections cheapest generic viagra are some among the ways by which testosterone replacement therapy is done. Management of Chronic Prostatitis problems in long-term care is challenging, and with the complicated cause. buy levitra without prescription cialis 10 mg To get essential nutrients like vitamins, carbs and fatty acids, you can have meats and eggs. viagra online free This is quite evident by the number of male below 40 getting health problems like Diabetes, Hypertension, Cancer and other health related issues which can lead to ED. I hadn’t started “A Forest Dark” when I did the interview. Now I find that I’m writing the second half of that book. It’s such a slow process for me! Still, I do believe it will be done by year’s end and I can’t wait to unleash Eden, Noah and Louie. I think (and hope) you’ll enjoy these characters as they stumble through 1984 and 2009.

 

Share

Mesquite Tree, Part 2: The Replacement

As promised, here’s a photo of the Japanese Oleander bush/tree the HOA planted to replace the Mesquite Tree, which was removed a couple of weeks or so ago.

Japanese Oleander - the new tree

What it replaced - The Old Mesquite

What’s more, the top cialis 10 mg speed can be reached up to 19 km per hour. In levitra vardenafil 20mg 2005, the company closed its original plant. The major reason behind this is the reason why sildenafil in india is also known as male enhancer pill. generic pill viagra They refuse to meet up with people especially members of the opposite sex for the fear of being intimate with the partner. I’m trying hard to love the new plant, and I’m sure in time I will. It has little yellow trumpet shaped flowers. It will grow and cast some shade. The test will be when the hummingbirds come, and if they like it or not. I await their decision.

In the meantime, have a great Christmas if you celebrate that, and enjoy the downtime regardless. I’ve got a bookcase to put together, and then I’m driving to L.A. to have dinner with my friend Tim. Look for new posts on Monday!

Ho Ho Ho!

Share

Ronni Chasen, Lourdes Kelly, Brian McDevitt and my tenuous connection to the Gardner Heist speculation

Gardner Museum in Boston

Brian McDevitt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Continuing from yesterday – the weird coincidences between my script The Lourdes Kelly Story and the all-too-real murder of publicist Ronni Chasen in Beverly Hills last month.

When reading of the bizarre “suicide” of the person of interest at the Harvey Apartments near Santa Monica Boulevard and Western in L.A., reports said that other rumors regarding Chasen’s demise pointed to an art world fraud. (see comments section on that piece)

In The Lourdes Kelly Story, a feud between a high-powered female publicist and a crackerjack entertainment reporter ends in murder. The publicist’s fictional boyfriend is an art world conman whose most intense dream is to be a Hollywood screenwriter.

I based this character on someone I really knew, Brian McDevitt. As the Boston Herald story tells it, McDevitt had always been a suspect in the still-unsolved Gardner Museum Heist.

I met Brian in 1991, when I worked at Paramount and was tasked with helping put on a 50th Anniversary Celebration for the movie Citizen Kane. I got a call from him out of the blue. He said he was a staff writer on “The Wonder Years” and “was his name on a list or where would his tickets be sent?”

What?

Not wanting to piss off an important writer, I put his name on a list and told him if we had any extra tickets I would call him back. I thought, at the time, as an aspiring writer, it would be good for me to have a writer acquaintance who had an actual writing job and connections.

The medicine is viagra levitra online requires only a few minutes of intake. Once active in the body, these medicines give men hard erection and enable them to perform sildenafil tablets australia well in bed. buy sildenafil cheap With this medicine, one may be able to get over erectile dysfunction. Women face different problems supplementprofessors.com cheap viagra prices like menopause, pregnancy, ovarian, or cervical cancer, and many more other issues.

I never checked his credential. Brian was the type of person who could sell you a sack of shit and not only have you believing that it was full of gold bullion but that it smelled like lilacs, too.

Of course, we did have a couple of extra tickets and Brian and his girlfriend made it to the CK party. After that, we developed a friendship. It evolved to the point where he was going to help me develop and hone my movie script; I would help him get a pitch meeting with Paramount brass who I interacted with (in my lowly way) every day (his script was about a Russian art theft…).

We would go to lunch, he would regale me with tales of WGA politics – he was involved somehow with them in administrating an early internet chatting protocol called a BBS.

He even gave me a script he said he’d written – it was a screenplay for Evelyn Waugh’s The Loved One, which was odd, since it had already been made into a movie in 1965 with Waugh, Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood as credited writers.

Then, one day all hell broke loose with the revelation in the trades that he had faked his WGA credentials and all his credits and was really just this Boston conman. He had apparently irritated the wrong person at the WGA, someone who actually had the interest and capacity to really check on his background. His crimes, lies, and the prison time, etc., all came tumbling out.

I remember calling his girlfriend that morning and telling her I just wanted to know “why.” I never heard from Brian again and I think he left Hollywood pretty much immediately.

In the Boston Herald piece, it says he died of kidney failure in 2004. Well, maybe. And perhaps that’s just a lie and he’s living the high life in Rio. I don’t know.

What I do know is that was the last time I ever trusted anyone in Hollywood, which is a valuable lesson to learn, even if it came a little later than it should have.

Yet – he was an absolutely delightful person. Pathological liar, maybe, but an engaging, smiling, articulate Irishman (you can’t tell from the B&W picture but his hair was mostly red). Wherever you are, Brian, I wish you well.

 

UPDATE 11/5/18 – If you’re a fan of true crime or art heists or whatever, let me direct you to this fabulous podcast “Last Seen,” which is about the Gardner Heist and Episode 8 is all about Brian McDevitt. Well worth your time! Produced by WBUR and The Boston Globe. Link:

http://www.wbur.org/lastseen

Share

Joe Genshlea’s One Man Show "Son of a Sense of Place" in Sacramento

Ellie Genshlea and Jim Arnold

Marie Ann Lewis, Jim Arnold, Mary Clare Genshlea, Mary Cerutti, Joe Genshlea

Had the privilege over the weekend to go up to Sacramento with my cousins Mary Cerutti from SF and Marie Ann Lewis from Carmichael to attend the one man show my first cousin (once removed) Joe Genshlea(prominent Sac attorney) was doing at the Crest Theater in downtown Sacramento.

The show, a benefit for Sierra Forever Families, was about his recollections and observations of what it was like to grow up in Sacramento in the 1930s and 1940s, and how that differs from the much larger city of today.
These herbal capsules can easily and efficiently eliminate viagra cheap online sexual weakness due to over masturbation. Herbal Energy Vitamins for Mind and Body in the form of stress, various pharmaceutical companies have harnessed the immense potential of rare herbs to soothe a stressed and anxious mind. cialis stores That is a generous market that any medical or doctor team could help provide to. tadalafil 10mg Experts claim that major concerns have been raised about plausible long-term vision impairment in men who used oral medicines to treat erectile dysfunction. viagra in stores
Although I was born in Sacramento, I lived there only for a couple of years as a very young child and have no memory of that. My mother was from there, and it’s interesting that her accounts of what her hometown was like, which I listened to my entire life, are so similar to Joe’s. It’s also fitting that this show and trip would happen this week, as it’s the two year anniversary of Mom’s death.

I know she would have been pleased that I finally met some more of our relatives (including Joe’s sisters Mary Clare and Ellie) and got more of the Sacramento story – which has been on my mind because of the upcoming elections.

Remember, folks, D is for drive, R is for reverse…. go Jerry!

Share