The Latest From Toronto

It's a sunny and cold Saturday, perfect weather for sitting back with a cup of Folgers and staring at the Sean Connery print in my hotel room's living room.  Production continues at lightning speed on Hemlock Grove as we near the production finish line.  Episodes are being cut, scored, mulled, discussed while otherwise rocketing toward completion.  I visited yet another lovely graveyard yesterday (seems like a running theme!) where scenes were shot and actors acted.  They happened to be performing an episode written by yours truly, and I hope I never ever ever get over the thrill of seeing really great performers speak "my" words. 

Anyway, I'm sure you will be hearing much more about all this very soon...

While most of my time has been spent on the show, I've been winding down in the evenings reading some kindle-ized books.  Most recently, a new biography on Mr. Bruce Springsteen (another surprise!) that digs deeper than some of the earlier attempts I've perused.  I'm actually loathe to read biographies of folks who do work that I appreciate, because sometimes you discover they aren't always the nicest folks.  That can color my appreciation of their material going forward.  This new Springsteen bio presents a few warts, but overall it's the story of a talented and extremely driven guy who focused on his dream and achieved incredible success.  People who only know the politically astute multi-millionaire who flies to concerts on his own private jet may be intrigued by the younger,  apolitical Bruce who played hundreds of shows for $35 a week.   

But as life lessons go, what you learn from this bio is that making a living in the arts is mostly hard work, with no guarantee of financial success regardless of talent.  But the rewards, even if a private jet isn't in the cards, always outweigh the negative...