Hi, this is my first blog.  Let's see how it goes.

So I was just at the California Theatre on First Street in San Jose to see screenwriter/memoir author Diablo Cody talk about her rise to fame, answer questions, and accept the Cinequest Film Festival's Maverick Award.

One big problem, however:    the discussion moderator was UCLA's "screenwriter emeritus" professor Lew Hunter, and this dude was toasted like bread.  Never before in my life had I wanted to see James Lipton suddenly pop out of nowhere and take over.

Hunter was first to take the stage, and did so with wobbly legs, pushing a suitcase on wheels, inside which a tiny chihuahua stuck its head out.  As he walked toward his chair center stage with mic in hand, he engaged himself in a private conversation with, I think, his wife sitting in front row, saying something like:   "Pat!  Pat!  She's nervous!  She wants to go home. Ehhhh..... you wanna take her for me Pat?  Ohhh, I think she's afraid!"

I immediately got a bad feeling.  I'd only spent 15 bucks for this show, but if I'd seen this guy on the street I wouldn't have even given him a quarter.  At least street performers use lively monkeys, and all this guy had was a frightened chihuahua.

Performer he was, though.  Before calling Diablo out he discussed his own life and career a little like some legendary poet on his deathbed, probably imagining naked women laying onstage, hanging on every word.  OK, a slight exaggeration, but this guy seemed really off and wasn't taking his job seriously.  He introduced Cody, she walked onstage looking very modest in inexpensive skirt and buttoned sweater (for days before I was wondering how she would look because she was once a stripper), and to sum her up as briefly as possible, she was gracious, polite, honest, and I liked her.  I don't really care that she was a stripper, and actually never considered myself a fan of hers, but was intrigued when I saw the ad that this recent Oscar-winner (for writing Juno) who's about the same age as me was coming to San Jose to make us feel special, and strangely enough I did feel special.

Lew Hunter, from the beginning of his questions, was attempting to interrupt her and find connections between her writing and his own so he could tell us about himself, and it yielded bizarre results (I'm quoting as best I can from memory but man I wish I brought a tape recorder!):   "...you wrote something about being naked, and it reminded me of writing once about being naked in the rain, and (jibberish) and (more jibberish) and it was very exciting."

Diablo responds:  "Wow, our lives have so much in common."  Audience laughs.

You could see from her facial expressions throughout how much she wanted to say "what the hell are you talking about?!" and start laughing.  But she was a trooper.  In fact at one point he asked if her experiences had taught her to suffer fools.  She said "I guess.  I guess you could say I have the patience of a saint."  Audience laughs and claps hard.

A very good thing came out of this.  Years ago, the first book on screenwriting I read was Lew Hunter's own Screenwriting 434.  At the time I thought 'hey, maybe I should go to UCLA and take his classes.'  But I ended up going to SJSU and paid many thousands of dollars less in tuition.  I now realize I probably got just as good an education there as I could have at UCLA.