THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY - Blog 9 of 10

Last time I spoke of my distribution and marketing strategy for getting "Crossing the Bar" out into the world. Let's go a little deeper.

Distributors

During production process relationships will be nurtured with the targeted distributors listed below. Rough edits of the film will be made available to the same targeted distributors in a public relations campaign that will contribute in a large way with the raising of completion funds (music, final edit, polish). The targeted distributors specialize in the rental and sale of DVDs to universities, schools, museums, community groups and businesses such as airlines and the Internet, i.e. Electonix Arts Intermix, Miracle Pictures, Red Distributions, Apollo Cinema, White Star Video, Nova Pictures, Omni Films, Filmmakers Library, On Deck Home Entertainment and Indieflex.

World Wide Ocean Film Festivals

"Crossing the Bar" will be submitted to the world's ten identified film festivals that have ocean themes. The producer has been invited to have the film's world premiere at the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival. The other ocean-themed festivals include The Santa Barbara Ocean Film Festival, The Alaska Oceans Film Festival, The Savannah Ocean Film Festival, The Connecticut Ocean Planet Film Festival, Alabama's George Lindsay Film Festival, Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary Ocean Film Festival, Rhode Island's Footprint Film Festival, Vladivostok, Russia's Pacific Meridian Film Festival, The Toronto International Film Festival and The Festival of Maritime Film in Toulon, France.

International, National and Regional Historical and Maritime Preservation Societies and Museums, and Maritime Academies

Open screenings, regional shows, traveling tours, retrospectives and multi-media exhibits access an audience that possesses one perpetual characteristic, namely they are drawn to history and the romance of the water. The intended audiences care about the sustainability of the nearest large body of water that speaks to them, gives them civic pride, a sense of community and in many cases a livelihood. The core audience is represented by 3,500 identified U.S. preservation organizations, societies and programs, 24 major maritime museums around the world and 250 prestigious international maritime academies.

FUNDING PLAN

FIRST STEP: Generate donations in the amount of $60,000. When documentation of fiscal sponsorship status is in hand the first step will be to announce the tax status to the public by a focused public relations campaign using print and the Internet. This effort combines the fundraising Website IndieGoGo's suite of online fundraising and a professional fund raiser on the team that will connect the project to people who will provide the film project with essential opportunities to get funded, made and seen.

Second and third steps to follow next time.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY - Blog 8 of 10

Since my last entry the first “defeat” has come and gone.

Through the San Francisco Film Society I applied last September for a $15,000 screenwriting grant from the Hearst Foundation. I anticipated the funds could be used, to a large degree, to fund my basic living expenses (room and board) during the eight to ten weeks required to successfully adapt the existing treatment into a completed first draft of the screenplay for “Crossing the Bar”. By some careful financial planning the grant could also cover the cost of a local script analyst (Jennine Lanouette), as well as to facilitate the formation of a small core team of three individuals that would put into motion our initial fund-raising efforts with the previously established partnership and assistance of IndieGoGo.com, a fundraising web site. When I learned that "Crossing the Bar" did not even make it to the short list of finalists, my first response was to question the viability of the project and the intelligence of continuing on. After all, wasn’t it true that I’d been unable to find the time to complete the '"Olive Us Olive U" script or its first 20-page adaptation into a novel? Now I have the time. This setback is a good thing.

However, after careful consideration the plan is to carry-on with "Crossing the Bar". After all, this is Show Business. At the moment only one unresolved item is left in the hands of the San Francisco Film Society. Back when "Crossing the Bar" was called "Pilots of the Golden Gate", the Film Society fiscally sponsored the project as a historical documentary. Now it is reinvented into a film that portrays the fictionalized biography of Aimée Tanneur and the influential role she played during the Twentieth Century’s “second- wave” expansion of the Feminist Movement on the Bay of San Francisco. I await the Film Society’s decision whether or not to extend a non-profit status to the film’s new persona. I will keep you informed as things progress along this path.

Meantime, let’s get on with it by beginning a conversation about distribution strategy to achieve worldwide distribution of this film. All my efforts are currently directed into three inter-related marketing areas. First, simultaneously with the start of production, a public relations campaign is initiated to develop ongoing liaisons with cherry-picked list of distributors and specialized online bloggers, newspapers, and newsletter editors. Second, upon completion of post-production audiences will access the program in a variety of film festival formats, such as thematic series and juried shows; and the film will gain high visibility in public venues, exhibits and websites created especially for those who have a keen interest in the subject matter. Third, International, National and Regional Historical and Maritime Preservation Societies and Museums, and Maritime Academies. This will create opportunities for open screenings, regional shows, traveling tours, retrospectives and multi-media exhibits.

But I hear the voices, “Haven’t you forgotten full use of the Internet? No, no. I get into that next time. The paradigm is changing and I am being vigilant.

Copyright 2010 G.Leo Maselli

THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY

Conclusion of the Treatment

Amy has, for the first time in her life, lost heart. She travels to Tahiti to be with her estranged mother. The emotional cost of her life choice has been great.

That's when she receives an urgent call from her Marine Academy classmate, Ella. Ella was on-board the Exxon Valdez when the oil spill of all oil spills took place in Alaska's Prince William Sound. As a result, Ella's career is at risk and she could even face prison time. Amy rushes to her side. Playing tit-for-tat, she and Ella get political with a vengeance during the Congressional hearings in Washington D.C. The two of them appear before several committees of the House and the Senate where their perceptions of the catastrophe and the possibilities of future such events are eagerly noted. Amy's brilliant career as mariner has placed her high in public view much to the displeasure of her employer. She is told she risks dismissal if she persist. Ella is not as confident and crumbles under the pressure and retires from maritime commerce all together.

Not to be beaten, Amy makes the decision to begin accepting the many invitations she's previously avoided to speak before women's colleges and international feminist organizations around the world. Her political status grants her continued employment
with Chevron but is treated with disdain by upper-management. That is precisely when she once again applies to become a member of the San Francisco Bar Pilots. They can hardly deny her a shot at their big prize this go-round. Her two-year training period is difficult, with little or no support from the other pilots. Despite this, she becomes the first female to be a certified pilot on the Bay of San Francisco. She is 35 years old.

In the last scenes to the film we watch her being forced to deal with rumors that she is secretly married to one of the 59 other pilots. It is a charge that, if proved, would expel both she and her husband from the roles of the SF Bar Pilots.

In the last scene we see Amy smiling as she steps out of the con and into a storm at sea. We watch her climb down a rope ladder in great peril. She hoots like a girl on a bucking bronco. (The End.)

The Audience

The world-wide core audience is best described as well-educated, avid readers and collectors with a strong interest in maritime heritage, including members of maritime museums and historical societies and the captains and crews of sail training vessels. A well-defined and targeted international audience will be enthusiastically engaged, educated and entertained on the subjects of commercial maritime history and women's relationship to business practices within the great harbors of the world. Via international public broadcast systems and cable television, maritime academies, societies, learning centers and museums, the goal is that the world's populations gain awareness that commercial success on the sea not be allowed to ignore the inevitable third and fourth waves of feminism.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY - Blog 6 of 10

The film portrays the fictionalized biography of Aimee Tanneur and the influential role she played during the Twentieth Century's "second-wave" expansion of the Feminist Movement on the Bay of San Francisco

The film's Treatment continues:

Aimee (now know as Amy to her friends) and her closest friend Ella are in their final year at the California Maritime Academy and are both at the top of their class. And yet they are learning that success in their chosen profession may well be determined by patriarchal men.

After a long day in class, Amy and Ella discuss what should be their strategy for success in this environment. They have each followed their passion to become mariners and now swear a vow to support each other in achieving every ambitious goal they have set for themselves. They are well aware that they face an all-male dominated, gender barrier that is pervasive in the world of maritime commerce. It appears that there is nothing but "white water" ahead for any female wanting to go to sea. That's when Amy's father dies and her mother instructs her to return to Port Revel or the family risks loosing the contract to operate the facility. Amy refuses to leave her career path despite the knowledge of the possible consequences, including her mother's loss of income and by necessity her return to Polynesia. In her anger at her daughter's arrogance, the mother refuses to pay any future tuition or living expenses in or out of her higher education. Amy is on her own.

Amy struggles on but upon graduating she is saddened when her mother refuses to attend the ceremonies. Amy takes a long shot my applying to join the Chevron Oil fleet, the world's largest, and is granted her wish. Ella signs on with Exxon. For the next ten years Amy overcomes countless trials and tribulations as a woman at sea, but the greatest danger comes at the hands of opium smoking pirates encountered off the coast of Africa. For her exceptional ability to negotiate with the pirates as well as her bravery under the most difficult situation when she calls in commandos at the peril of her self and her crew, the episode brings her once again into national view. Eventually she captains Chevron's biggest ships, traveling to all the deep water ports of the world. It is during this period of her remarkable career that she becomes involved in a huge explosion that throws her Antagonist, Captain Harl Buckridge, into the cold waters of San Francisco Bay where he must fight for his life. Amy dives into the water and saves his life and wins his everlasting support. Or so he claims.

Based on all that Amy has seen and experienced, she remains convinced that she can achieve every goal she sets for herself. Until, that is, she confronts the male dominated world that was, at the time, a fact of maritime life here in our bay. Through all the proper channels she has asked to be allowed to earn a position as a San Francisco Bar Pilot. Her multiple bids to even apply have been rejected three years running when her so-called guardian angels (the original eight SF pilots she met as a kid) are forced by political circumstances to betray her. And then when her first romantic relationship that she was certain would last forever falls apart because of her feminist attitudes, she loses heart and escapes to be with her estranged mother in Bora Bora. The emotional cost of her life choices has been great and for the first time in her life she feels defeated.

The final section of the Treatment will be continued next time.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY - Blog 5 of 10

The Film's Treatment Continued

The dashing ship pilots from the Bay of San Francisco have just arrived for their twelve days of advanced training at The Port Revel Centre in Viriville, France. After watching them celebrate their arrival with too many bottles of red wine and all the carousing they can muster, they are harshly reminded that this is not at all a holiday they're on. Classes begin early the next morning and continue 24-hours a day no matter the weather conditions. Each day becomes endless hard work followed by constant proficiency testing. Their days become all about stern and rigorous instructions, hustle, hustle, with very early morning sit-ups, running and rowing.

During their two-week training (interspersed with a long weekend of R&R in Paris) the pilots have a chance to work along side Aimee and the rest of the first-rate staff of instructors and crew. They are particularly impressed how Aimee totally loses what is taken to be her shyness when she's at the con of a ship. She handles boats like a master. Their admiration grows until on the third day they make her their mascot because she is always in high spirits and amazingly talented at moving heavy objects through the water safely and with ease. It's suggested that she has a great career ahead of her piloting ships. However not everyone is on board with that notion. San Francisco Bar Pilot, Captain Buckridge actually lobbies his fellow pilots to leave the girls alone and, rather, encourage her to avoid anything maritime and instead to seek her parent's goal of becoming a doctor. Buckridge admonishes, "The sea is no place for woman."

During the two-weeks of training, Aimee has many occasions to sit outside the men's circle and listen to the pilots and her father as they enjoy after dinner cigars and brandy, and speak philosophically of a life at sea. From time to time the conversations touches on the historical record of sexism in the Navy.

The night before the pilot's farewell breakfast, she dreams that she is a working ship pilot mounting a rope ladder up the side of a mammoth ship during a storm. When she awakens she makes a decision that will change her life. At breakfast that morning she proudly and confidently announces to the SF pilots that she will be the first female ship pilot on the Bay - and that she will achieve it more quickly than any man ever has. And finally, to her parent's surprise she adds, "Will you please support me in my goal by donating to my maritime academy tuition fund that I am establishing here this morning?" Nearly all the pilots stand to cheer and applaud her. Many checks are written that morning. With these eight men acting as her guardian angels it would seem that her future is assured. And yet her father along with Captain Buckridge suggest that she must forget such goals, "For two hundred years the pilots on the Bay of San Francisco have always been men. And before that, for thousands of years."

The film then cuts to the California Maritime Academy. We meet again Aimee at age twenty and now referred to as Lieutenant Amy Tanny at the prestigious maritime academy in Vallejo. Ranked first in the her class set to graduate in just two months, she stands before 199 male and other female cadet dressed in their formal whites and commands them to dig deep to strive for honor and country. She reads aloud a poem by George Bernard Shaw: "This is the true joy life. The being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one." The cadets respond with tears and cheers. Later, she is in the dinning hall that has become a set for her first television interview which is to be broadcast nationally as part of a story on the international expansion of feminism. Her unconventional responses revolve around the subject of maritime commerce from the woman's angle and the reality of choosing it as a viable career choice.

The Treatment will be continued next time.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY - Blog 4 of 10

The Treatment

Did I hear, "What's a Treatment?" For sure it's an important part of the process (the making of). The textbook definition describes it as a narrative, abridged script consisting of each major scene, descriptions of significant characters and may include snippets of dialogue. It reads like a short story.

"Crossing the Bar" opens to reveal a 1946 South Pacific military supply base that is preparing to close now that World War II has ended. Located on Bora Bora, the base of nine ships and nearly 5,000 men is under the command of Rear Admiral Bernard Tanneur. When we first encounter Admiral Tanneur we hear him reciting marriage vows with his beloved Polynesian wife, even as she is giving birth to their first child. Despite pressure from the military to avoid such cross-cultural commitments, he takes his new daughter, Aimée, into his arms and tells how much he loves the island and the people so much that he will retire from the Navy and find a new career piloting freighters throughout the South Pacific.

The film then cuts to The Port Revel Centre, Ship Pilot’s Advanced Training Facility in Viriville, France during the mid-fifties. Adjacent to the facility’s large lake is a spacious villa dating back to the middle ages and the highly rated Hotel Bonnoit. This is where we meet the girl named Aimée at age ten. She is tall and gangling for her age, and in her demeanor we immediately observe that she is an inward looking young woman as she rides a horse bareback across the rolling green hills towards the lake where her father is now the Commandant of Port Revel. Under his command are a dozen young seaman and sea scouts who make up the Operations Team of Port Revel.

Aimée works along side the operations team as an equal as they rebuild ship engines for the manned scale model ships used for training at the facility. Her father reminds her that their most prestigious clients will be arriving the next morning and that they must likely work well after dark or all night if necessary to be prepared. She assists the team launching the ships and tugs. She and a young seaman, who will remain a life long friend, test the wind, wave and fog systems. Before collapsing into bed, she stoically finds the energy to assist her mother in programming the curriculum. Besides being brilliant, handsome and athletically built, she’s a genius with organizing and operating things. She comes across as an amazing young woman which often results in making her seem scarcely approachable. One thing seems clear; she appears destined to excel no matter what path in life she may follow. We already have great expectations for her.

For this reason alone, it is somewhat difficult to watch as she gets an innocent school girl crush on all eight of the good-looking and dashing ship pilots from the Bay of San Francisco in for their 12-day training session. They arrive in the early morning in three, large black, SUVs speeding onto the property. They roar along the dirt road in tight formation. They roll to a full stop in front of the hotel. When the dust clears the all-American, all male team of ship pilots exits the SUVs. In swagger they resemble the likes of Russell Crowe, Matthew McConaughey and Ashton Kutcher: white, macho, almost certainly, pathetically sexist, albeit charmingly roguish and romantic to boot. They shake hands with male staff and hug, rather too playfully, all the female staff who greet them from the Hotel – kitchen help, chefs, servers, hotel maids, gardeners and the like. One of the pilots speaks Japanese to the gardeners. Another speaks Spanish to the kitchen help. It should be noted that the parts of each of the eight ship pilots are written to represents one of the eight primary characteristics or personality traits of the featured mariners the writer-producer encountered during his time with the pilots, specifically heroic, charismatic, intelligent, brave, educated, wise, fearless, and archetypical American.

Treatment to be continued.

Copyright 2010 G.Leo Maselli

THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY - Blog 3 of 10

A Mine Field Revealed

My on-going studies of the vast and prickly topic of feminism has lead me to conclude that I am technically a humanist, not a feminist. With that in mind, let's plunge-in.

Feminist scholars have found it useful to think of the woman's movement in the U.S. as occurring in "waves." The history of the modern feminist movement is divided into three "waves," each describing different aspects of the same feminist issues. The First Wave refers to the movement of the 19th through early 20th centuries which concerned itself mainly with suffrage. The Second Wave occurred from the 1960s and ran well into the 1980s. This is the period in which "Crossing the Bar" is set. This wave dealt with the inequality of laws, beyond the early quest for political rights, to fight for greater equality across the board, e.g. in education, at home and in the work place. Third-wave feminism began in the early 1990s, arising as a response to perceived failures of the second wave and also as a response to the backlash against initiatives and movements created by the second wave.

The female protagonist in "Crossing the Bar" encounters a world in which women actually lost ground. Despite the gains made by women over the first half of the 20th century, the essential problems of discrimination, inequality, and limited opportunities reappeared after World War II ended and men returning from combat re-established their previous positions. Consequently, the gradual emergence of a new feminism after World War II was referred to a Second Wave feminism, to reflect the hiatus the war had created and the new directions taken following women's experiences during and after that war.

Historical Importance of a Ship Pilot

The value of a ship pilot is well understood by those who own and operate the ships that have always been considered massive over each maritime generation and borne her increasingly valuable cargos. Key to this understanding is to grasp the fact that a ship is always safer at sea than she is when near or surrounded by land.

The film's audience will experience this dramatically as a vessel gets close to land and see the story change before their eyes. The story now become one about the mounting risk to the cargo, vessel, crew and environment (in that order of importance). Where 98 disastrous shipwrecks have occurred on the Bay of San Francisco over the last 150 years, the pilots have to contend with narrow channels, sharp turns, strong tidal currents, reefs and shoals. A watchful pilot instinctively grasps that quarters are close and there is no time to think or consider action to be taken. Solutions must be instant and intuitive. Traffic may come from all directions and a moment's delay may court disaster. The audience will witness times of poor visibility when all the radar blips must be correctly interpreted and proper decisions made immediately. Only an expert can properly cope with the drama of these dangerous variables. The ship pilots of the Bay are such experts. To this filmmaker "Crossing the Bar" represents not only the outward appearance of Bay Area ship pilots, but also the inward significance of all ship pilots, both male and female, on the great upwelling of commerce in North American harbors that continues today.

Synopsis

This is the moralistic story of Aimee who journeys from Tahiti where she was born as World War II ended, to France where she grew up on a ship pilots training facility operated by her parents, to the Bay Area at age 20 to attend Vallejo's California Maritime Academy. Only with unyielding persistence and unexpected bravery is she able to forge a brilliant career and ultimately pierce into an elite, male clan of mariners as California's first state-certified ship pilot.

By the way, a local newspaper has contacted me with an offer to publish a column on the subject of local feminism. Think I should do it?

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY - 2 OF 10

The Writer-Producer's Background

The first goal of this writer-producer is to gain the attention of the San Francisco Film Society and to be chosen as one of their fiscally sponsored film projects. It seems to me that the goal will only be attained by convincing the Society that I have found a story that (a) has never been told before, and that (b)only I am able to tell it. Such are the facts.

You see, eight years ago, after a long career in banking and securities, I left the financial services industry during the "dot-com bomb" to become a filmmaker, which had already been an avocation of mine for ten years. My initial, some say audacious, move was to position myself as closely as possible to a San Francisco based maritime organization that was founded in the early 19th century. I became a driver for a male dominated team of sixty, state commissioned ship pilots - The San Francisco Bar Pilots.

As I continued to write and produce my other film projects, what transpired was a 36-month access into their personal and professional lives that originally sparked the idea of producing a historical documentary film set in San Francisco about the little known and highly influential gang of state commissioned mariners. Even though I have now reinvented the story as a work of biographical fiction, I am no less committed to telling this story through the eyes of the ship pilots because of my strong, well-informed and opinionated connection with the subject matter. "Crossing the Bar" reveals the historical demands and consequences of a male-dominated maritime enterprise that, since its beginnings, has sought to continue its unchanged expansion.

This tale is told from the point-of-view of Aimee Tanneur who provides the film's narrative voice. She learns first hand that all the world's elite societies of bar pilots, that repeatedly reject her and her sisters inclusion into their ranks, could not be in a more powerful position to do so. The very fact that they alone are charged with getting many billions of dollars worth of cargo to the final destination as quickly as possible has given them unquestioned authority to operate with limited oversight, such as here in the backwater of California governance for over 150 years. I recognize, as do they, that things are changing - and it galls them.

Genesis of the Film's Title

For four or more years one version or another of the film had been called "Pilots of the Golden Gate." But I needed a fresh name along with the fresh, new approach. I struck pay dirt when I came upon a 1889 poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson called (begging your pardon, sir) "Crossing the Bar." Tennyson used the metaphor of a sand bar to describe the barrier between life and death.

My film project draws upon the poem's title to describe the inexorable social change that occurred with the Second Wave of feminism. It must be noted that sand bars are a fundamental presence in the life of a pilot. In great part, sand bars are the reason ship pilots exist.

Next time we'll investigate the Second Wave of feminism. I was nearly swamped during that unrelenting surge, but rose from the depths. And I'm here write about it.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

Conception and The Importance of Foreplay - Blog 1 of 10

It's universally accepted that film production occurs in five basic stages: (1) Development - The script is written and drafted into a workable blueprint for a film; (2) Preproduction - Preparations are made for the shoot, in which a cast and crew are hired, locations are selected and sets are built; (3) Production - The raw elements of the finished film are recorded; (4) Post-Production - The film is edited, production sound is edited, music tracks are composed, performed and recorded, sound effects are designed and recorded, and any computer-graphic "visual" effects are digitally added, all sound elements are mixed then married to the picture and the film is fully completed; and (5) Sales and Distribution - The film is screened for potential distributors, is picked up by a distributor and reaches its cinema and/or home media audience.

I'm adding a sixth-stage called Conception, and I'm adding it to the top of the list where it rightly belongs. For me the conception stage sparked somewhere in the right side of my brain as nothing more than a fanciful thought way back in 2006. It was the beginning of a chain of events that I will begin to describe in today's first edition of the new blog.

It was in June of 2007 when the now defunct San Francisco Film Arts Foundation announced its fiscal sponsorship of "Pilots of the Golden Gate," my historical documentary film about the history of ship pilots on the Bay of San Francisco. (The coveted fiscally sponsored status means that that individual filmmakers enter into an agreement to gain access to funding sources who only want to give money to organizations with tax-exempt status.) In 2008 the San Francisco Film Society assumed stewardship of my sponsored film project and brought to the program a new energy and an increased reach within the funding community and the film industry. Or so I anticipated. I naively forgot that an old institution like the San Francisco Bar Pilots does not like to be profiled, abhors change and that they have very deep pockets.

When originally conceived the film was to be an inspirational story about the unheralded heroism of ship pilots on the Bay over the better part of 200 years. But who would guess that when I took the project to the SF Bar Pilots they would stone-wall me by denying me any funding or cooperation. Because of my friendships inside the organization I remained optimistic concerning access to retired ship pilots and the organizations extensive archives. However, when the November 2007 oil spill occurred on the Bay the SF Bar Pilots organization reacted by threatening me with two lawsuits and summarily denying me any and all access to their premises, pilot boats, personnel and archives. At the time I wondered, "What on earth are they hiding and want kept secret, and how can I overcome their resistance?" Time will tell. Or rather, I will tell you over time.

Check back next week. More skulduggery will surely be afoot.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

Hesitant Hedonism (10 of 10)

My second series of weekly blogs is a fictionalized description of six closely linked and austere lives that come to recognize disillusionment with feeling happier and more fulfilled in their workplace than they do in their own homes. Each personality will come to terms with their feelings of guilt about whether or not they have earned the right to dip a toe into the pleasure pool for pleasure's sake alone. We will witness the large emotional stakes they wager on such an unanticipated adventure. Above all else these stories will be about reinvention, feature endearing characters and the promise of provocative endings.

The original idea for this story was to use the production of perfect olive oil as a metaphor for finding balance in life. First, I could draw upon all the memories of my father, uncles and all the gumbahs in the olive processing business that filled my world growing up. Second, I had a strong sense of the protagonist being a young woman who'd been tucked away in a French convent since adolescence, resulting in what I deemed to be a compelling virginal innocence. All I knew was that she was going to California to be reunited with her father and that she had one goal in mind on this trip. At age eighteen she wanted to have her first sexual experience.

On what turned out to be Sarah Kay's last day at the ranch, it was two o'clock in the morning before she was certain her father was asleep. She looked out her bedroom window into the backyard as she slipped on her jeans. She saw a faint light burning inside the caboose and wondered if Chuck (he of "pure pleasure is no longer my cultural paradigm" fame) really was waiting for her. She also saw that the greenhouse had a light on and that there was the movement of a shadow inside.

When she got to the backyard she peeked through the greenhouse glass and saw Squint pruning his bonsai olive trees. She tapped on the glass.

Squint was about to light his ganja pipe but politely asked if she would mind, "Not at all. Go right ahead," she said. Minutes later Squint was talking philosophically about the calming power that olive trees, even his bonsais, have always exerted on humankind. "I think of the olive as a central component of an idyllic ideal. Like wheat leading to bread, like grapes leading to wine, like the honeycomb, olives signify something of nature and human cultivation. The olive and its oil are surrounded by an aura of myth and romance. Like you, Sarah Kay, olives came as an immigrant from the old world to the new world. Its journey and your journey seem like a chance of a lifetime."

She asked, "Does that come from your head or your heart?" He pointed to his heart. Then, out of the blue he asked, "Will you have a romance with Senor Risconi tonight?"

"How do you know about that," she asked.

"When you rejected the advances of my nephew Cesar, it was then I knew," he offered. "Be on your way. The sun rise is not long from now. Enjoy the love you feel." She gave him a hug and left for the caboose.

She found Chuck waiting for her on the porch. When he stepped out of the darkness she immediately slipped into his arms before he could object. There were no words spoken. They kissed.

Suddenly her father's voice yelled, "Get away from her, you son-of-a-bitch." Jesse leaped onto the porch of the caboose, shoved Sarah Kay aside and punched Chuck hard in the nose that landed him square on his ass. "I thought you and I had an understanding."

"We do. I just... She just... We do - we do."

"Good. Sarah Kay, get him a wash cloth and see if you can stop that bloody nose and then get in the house." With that, feeling quite self-satisfied, he walked back to the house and went back to bed and fell contentedly to sleep.

What awoke him was Chuck's DeHavilland float plane as it slowly flew over the house rocking the wings as a sign of goodbye. The plane then turned and headed east into the rising sun. Jesse instinctively knew his daughter was on board. He smiled and spoke aloud the poem, "Don't be like most people who instead of searching for happiness, rather, they live avoiding the risk of unhappiness. Don't allow the fear of pain to be stronger then the delight of life you feel."

THE END

Copyright 2010 G.Leo Maselli

Hesitant Hedonism (9 of 10)

Unaware that a fly problem is manifesting at the ranch, Chuck and Jesse are taking a leisurely stroll through the packed Artisan Market building. When Chuck spots Lilli preparing to mount the elevated kitchen set to do her cooking show, he gives Jesse a nudge. They exchange knowing nods as Jesse heads over to say hello. After last night's rather unexpected tete-a-tete in the caboose it seems the least he should do. He'd like to see her again.

Chuck stands alone in the crowd slowly turning to see what he might see. That's when he sees Carla behind the counter of her booth that features the "Olive-U" brand of olive-oil based cosmetics. After air-kisses she invites him to come along with her to the nearby town square where she takes her cigarette breaks. He gladly joins his old high school friend who has maintained her sparkling personality, not to mention her bodacious figure, even if he is susceptible to the urges that will ensue. After all, hasn't he re-invented himself? He's trust worthy. Right?

Within minutes of hilarious conversation they discover that they have something surprising in common: each has become celibate by preference. Carla made the decision three years ago when she arrived back in Oroville. Chuck's decision was more on the order of thirty-six hours ago when his plane touched down and his resolve was immediately tested by Sarah Kay's tempting presence. Carla is surprisingly open about her history of sex addiction, "I was on an endless quest for fulfillment that took me from lover to lover, night after night. Let me tell you, there is no bleaker moment in life than when you cross the boundary between those who have not slept all night and those who are just going to work." Encouraged by her eye-opening revelation, Chuck describes his own sexual addiction that manifested in Atlanta where he became a serial dater via the Internet, averaging 38 different dates each year. They agree that their decision has brought them unexpected joy and how disappointed in themselves they would be if they didn't try something they've always admired in others: the being in control of your life, up to and including a celibate life-style.

Jesse has a front row seat at Lilli's televised cooking show. He loves what he sees: she's got an engaging personality and has obviously found a new joy and new freedom back in their hometown. Employed, gorgeous, happy and single, now that's an attractive package. It's mid-afternoon when Jesse's cell phone rings. It's Sarah Kay with a message for Chuck from his mother, "Get home as soon as possible. There's an infestation of olive flies and she needs his plane to spray the groves immediately, if not sooner."

Once back at the ranch, Squint, Cesar, Jessee and Sarah are assisting Chuck with the operation. Tanks for the fumigant have been strapped to the rear section of the aircraft and a rusty old tanker truck is transferring the spray to the tanks on the plane. Sarah Kay asks if she can ride along with Chuck. Jesse gives his permission but once out on the lake they are waved off. It's rapidly becoming too dark. It's decided that Chuck will be taking off at first light. In a private moment alone with Sarah Kay, Chuck suggests that she sneak down to the caboose as soon as her father is asleep - just so they can get a head start in the morning, of course.

We must assume, mustn't we, that Sarah Kay is bursting still with a desire for pleasure and that this invitation only fans the flames. "What evil lurks? The shadow knows."

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

Hesitant Hedonism (8 of 10)

If a flock of starlings can strip a vineyard of a single year's crop of Chardonnay grapes in days, imagine the greater fear to olive ranchers when the presence of the dreaded olive fly can signify years of devastation. Since medieval times, to scare away the starlings, falconers are brought in to protect the juicy wine grapes. However, once the presence of the fly is detected a different kind of immediate action is required. Chemical controls must be implemented at once and aerial applications can be the fastest way to get the job done. Who on earth has an airplane available without a reservation on a festival weekend?

Chuck, Lena and Jesse are in the reviewing stand along Oroville's parade route. It's the morning after the Olive Festival Gala and the main street is lined with the citizens who've come from miles around for the annual parade of bands, floats and antique tractors. At the very moment the high school marching band drums signal the start of the parade, workers back at the Risconi ranch find an insect trap with several of the nasty little flies inside. One of the workers, with the trap in hand, rushes to his pickup truck and heads to town.

Chuck, Lena and Jesse grin and wave as Sarah Kay and Squint clatter by on an antique tractor driven by Squint's handsome nephew Cesar, a third year aggie at the university. Sarah Kay sits beside him looking happy. "Appears she's found a guy her own age," ruminates Chuck. "And a damn good thing it is, " says Jesse as he jabs his friend in the ribs with his elbow. "Nuff said?" asks Chuck. "You are only human, my friend," assures the young lady's father.

At the end of the parade all the floats and farm equipment are being stored in a huge warehouse. In the happy confusion Squint and Cesar explain the secrets of making olive oil to Sarah Kay. Squint offers that, "grapes can be manipulated enough to make different wines from the same fruit. This is not true of olive oil. The oil will taste solely of the olive that was used to make it." Cesar continues the thought, "You will consume the place, the micro-climate, the character of the soil, and too, the character of the human who produced it, and the care with which it has been handled and pressed." Suddenly the worker from the ranch rushes in and does nothing more than show the trap of flies to Squint. With that, they all rush out.

Over at the Artisan Market, Chuck instructs Jesse on the proper way to conduct a formal oil tasting. "Go ahead. Pour a little into a clean wineglass. Cup it between your fingers the way you would a brandy snifter, warming it, and then cover the top with your other hand. Swirl it around a few times. Now remove your hand and smell the aroma. That's it. Now, take a tiny sip. Consider the viscosity. How does it feel on the roof of your mouth? Suck in air through your teeth so that the flavor is distributed throughout your mouth. Consider the taste and the feel. Consider what flavors are invoked. Are there whispers of almond nuttiness, cucumber,freshly mowed grass, apples green pepper or raw artichoke?"

It is silent inside the pickup truck as it races through thousands of acres of silver tipped olives trees. Sarah Kay breaks the silence by softly musing, "For thousands of years, the olive branch and olive oil have been symbolic of all that is good and noble in mankind, and of permanence and perseverance." Everyone nods their agreement as the truck kicks up a rooster tail of dust behind it.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

Hesitant Hedonism (7 of 10)

The scholar, writer and teacher Joseph Campbell gained international fame by deconstructing the great mythologies of mankind and revealing the simple truths and profound themes behind history's greatest tales and legends. It was Campbell who said, "We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." Check it out.

Sunset is rapidly approaching as the elegantly dressed guests begin arriving at the grand Risconi estate home for the Olive Festival Gala. Greeting the Escalades and limos are six young Hispanic males under the command of Squint, Lena's elderly Mexican ranch foreman, himself looking mighty fine in his tux and perfectly groomed ponytail. Two hours later hundreds of the areas most successful and beautiful are milling about drinking champagne and eating a variety of the olive based canapes. Inside, a quartet plays cool jazz, while out by the pool two Spanish guitars do the entertaining.

From an upstairs window Sarah Kay watches the activity just beyond the area of the pool where a meticulously restored railway caboose sits. It has been converted into a guest house currently being occupied by Chuck Risconi. Chuck stands on the open rear platform drinking scotch and smoking cigars with her father, Jesse.

With considerable self-contempt, Chuck describes how he recently hit bottom while traveling solo aboard a cruise ship to the Greek Isles. He confesses that he was quite publicly and quite accurately accused of being a sexual predator and threatened by a small but passionate mob of protective husbands. Needless to say he was escorted off the ship at the next port. Before he can elaborate on the gritty details, Carla Pinetti and Lilli Bowen approach and request permission to board the caboose. These are the two gals who were their secret high school partiers when Jesse and Chuck were popular upper classmen. Despite the many years that have past and their enchanting ball gowns the guys recognize them immediately and invite them up for a cocktail to celebrate the reunion. From her perch upstairs Sarah Kay watches with a pang of jealously.

Squint, who is monitoring every aspect of the staff's activities both inside and out, suddenly comes into Sarah Kay's gaze. He signals her to come down. Minutes later she joins him in the hot house where he grows bonsai olive trees along with seedlings for the ranch. He describes to her that true life of the ancient tree is hidden, as is the true nature of a human, in the root system that exists underground and out of sight. His example is his own perception that most "whites" are odd. "They are always seeking something. What are they seeking? What do they want? I do not know what they want. I do not understand them. I often think that they are mad." Sarah Kay asks why he thinks that. He replies, "It's said that they think with with their heads." Sarah asks, "What do you think with?" "I think here," he says, indicating his heart.

Long after the party ends and the cleanup crew has gone home, Sarah Kay creeps out to Chuck's caboose living quarters. When she hears a woman's laughter from inside she heads,quite disappointed, back towards the house. That's when she discovers Chuck sitting alone on the diving board smoking a cigar. He calls her over for a bit of a chat. The question at hand may be which reinvented self will dominate this unexpected encounter.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

Hesitant Hedonism (6 of 10)

It is of course my view that it's never too late to learn anything for which we have a potential. In the case of our protagonist, Sarah Kay, we find a girl of eighteen, raised for the last five years in a Swiss convent and gravely traumatized by the loss of her mother when she was twelve. Suddenly dropped back into California culture, she longs for the love that has been absent for so long. We trust that she has the potential for love but quickly sense that she possesses little knowledge of what love is. Countless studies and numerous research papers suggest that love is a learned response, a learned emotion. How Sarah Kay will learn to love is directly related to her ability to learn and to those in her environment who will teach her. She possesses the potential for love, but potential is never realized without work. This does not mean pain. Love, especially, is learned best in wonder, in joy and in living. And then, as D.H. Lawrence says, "Things will happen to us so that we don't know ourselves. Cool, unlying life will rush in." And so it shall be for Sarah Kay.

In the early morning's dim light she wraps her towel around her waist and quietly slips out of her room to creep downstairs to the pool for a swim and to investigate the elderly couple sitting on the diving board drinking coffee and sharing the very herb that she abused as a girl of twelve and thirteen. In the kitchen she finds her father drinking coffee and observing the same couple out the back window. He signals her to follow him out the front door where the car is parked. She can join him going up to the lake to pick up his old friend, Chuck, who will be landing his float plane within the hour.

Thirty minutes later they are at the dock where Chuck will tie-up. Jesse walks out to the end of the pier to keep a sharp eye on the horizon while Sarah Kay heads over to a nearby swimming area and dives in. Five minutes later Chuck's plane kisses the water so smoothly there is hardly a wake. After he's tied up, he greets his Jesse with a hug. The pals of more than 30-years then walk over to fetch Sarah Kay. When she climbs out of the water the very sight of her takes Chuck's breathe away. It has to be her wet cotton, athletic, figure hugging, 1920's style tank suit that causes Chuck to begin to jabber, prattle and stammer non-stop. And that's when, for the first time in five years, her father's protective instincts kicks in. He realizes that his old friend's childhood flair for evasion and distraction is still operational. Chuck is attempting to bury the realization of lust for his old friend's daughter. Jesse quickly hands Sarah Kay her towel and announces they'd better head back to the house. A tailor will be waiting there to fit Chuck for a tuxedo. That evening's official Olive Festival Gala Ball taking place there at the Risconi Family's Estate.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

Hesitant Hedonism (5 of 10)

As the introduction of this series states, above all else these are stories of reinvention. In this case, having committed themselves to retiring their old personas for the new, our six featured characters, Jesse and Sarah, Chuck and Lena, Carla and Lilli, are becoming totally vulnerable whether they are aware of it or not. In a frenzy of well-intentioned hedonism they will undoubtedly speak of their new convictions and feelings as well as be obligated to live with the consequences. By doing so they are automatically exposing themselves to praise or ridicule, acceptance or rejection which is by definition the first requirement of reinvention. Bully for them. As philosophers have long said, our vulnerability is the only thing of real value that we can give to other people. Let the games begin.

Sarah's plane lifted up through the clouds over Zurich at 0800 hours. By the time she touched down in San Francisco she had been flying for 19 long hours including a stopover in Philadelphia. Her journal that day describes, in detail, how she flirted shamelessly with one married man and two helpless college boys all of whom became quite discombobulated when she coyly confessed to still being a virgin.

At SF International, their physical changes notwithstanding, she and her father recognized each other immediately. It was as if they had seen one another just the other day. After a somewhat awkward attempt to bond they loaded her luggage into the back of his car. As they pulled into traffic, Sarah fell quickly and deeply to sleep. Next stop Oroville to revel in old friendships and the annual Oroville Olive Festival.

Sarah Kay slept during the entire four-hour trip to the Risconi olive ranch and adjacent processing plant. Later she recalled being groggy even as Lena, the gray haired matriarch of the old Italian family, and her father guided her up to her private bedroom on the third floor of the big house. She remembered nothing more until she finally awoke into an already warm predawn of a new day. She climbed out of bed to find herself wearing only an over-sized t-shirt with a large martini olive on the front worn over the large cotton panties she'd be issued by the Swiss convent. Looking out the window she saw a rather grizzled but distinguished old Mexican ranch hand sitting on the diving board of an Olympic-size swimming pool rolling what she imagined to be a marijuana cigarette. Sarah heard the back door slam shut and Lena appeared in a long night gown carrying two large mugs of coffee and joined the man on the diving board. The man, actually the foreman and Squint by name, kissed Lena pleasantly on the lips before lighting the hand rolled joint. After each had a long drag and exhaled with great relish they tapped their mugs together and settled back to watch the sun come up.

Sarah quickly dug through her suitcase and pulled out her 1920's athletic tank suit that she'd also been issued at the convent. Slipping it on and grabbing a towel she headed for the pool

This is, please understand, a story set in California's olive country and is meant to be a study of the humorous roles people play in their everyday slippery existence and what can happen when life throws them an unexpected, extra-virgin curve ball. Places everyone.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

Hesitant Hedonism (4 of 10)

Mark Twain, certainly one of the patron saints of hedonism, said that all our journeys have secret destinations of which we travelers are yet unaware. As a teller of tall tales myself, I consider that full of intriguing possibilities.

Before I report on Sarah Kay and Chuck traveling home together on separate airplanes, as well as explore Twain's core idea, we should come to agreement about the definition of what exactly an hedonist is. Isn't it as simple as one who seeks pleasure and avoids pain above all else? But somehow this lovely and charming premise has been twisted and perverted to the point where it is actually negative. Balderdash!! Twain advises that twenty years from now we'll be more disappointed by the things we didn't do than by the ones we did. "So throw off the bowlines," he says. "Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

When Sarah Kay's taxi pulls to a stop in front of the Swiss Air Terminal at Zurich Airport, it's her long bare legs swinging out of the backseat that are our first experience of Jesse's young daughter. She's headed back to California after five years away from her father. He will hardly recognize her given she's not 13-years old anymore. She's now tall, lean, remarkably voluptuous and especially gorgeous. Males of all ages turn to watch her pass as she heads inside to board her non-stop Airbus for San Francisco. We catch a quick glimpse of her A340 aircraft through the terminal window. It sports a colorful and flowery design together with striking "San Francisco" lettering as a tribute to the West Coast city's famed flower power past. Once she's cruising at 30,000 feet, if we were able to look inside at her window seat, we'd witness the young lady flirting with a man twice her age across the aisle.

Headed for the same final destination, Chuck is at the controls of his privately owned, 1956 DeHavilland Beaver - a meticulously maintained float-plane - as it rises from Lake Tahoe, his last stop before touching down on Lake Oroville and home after a decade away. He has gray, thinning hair that is in a carefully maintained Afro (yes, that's right, an Afro)and never is seen to wear anything but cut-offs along with black shirts and gold chains. Generally speaking, one's first impression of Chuck is a tragically hip, two-dimensional, rich guy struggling to retain his youth. If travel is the frivolous part of serious lives, and the serious part of a frivolous one, we wonder which he intends his travels to be.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

Hesitant Hedonism (3 of 10)

A recent study has found that just six months after winning a large lottery prize, even millions of dollars, people reported being not much happier than they were before winning. Shocking, don't you think? Plus, social scientists find that happy people tend to do what they love for a living or a hobby. Bottom line, it seems to me that the happiest among us are people feeling in control of their lives. There is a Brazilian poem that admonishes us not to, "... be like most people who instead of searching for happiness, rather, they live avoiding the risk of unhappiness. Don't allow the fear of pain to be stronger then the delight of love you feel."

To illustrate, I introduce Carla Pinetti and Lilli Bowen. These two gals were both lowly freshmen at Oroville High when Jesse and Chuck were popular upper classmen. There was some elemental social interaction between the four of them from time to time back then in the form of dragging the main, beer bingeing, and brief moments of under-the-ol'-angora petting. Then both guys went off to college and went out of touch. A few years later the girls left town to what turned out to be unbearable lives and careers in big cities: Carla to Chicago as the creative director for a strategic marketing and branding firm and Lilli to Miami as the head of sustainability strategy for a software company. Ultimately both sought and found the freedom of life without a dominating husband or a fool for a boss, back in their hometown.

Jesse's love interest in elementary school was Carla who tried desperately to kiss him in the first grade and finally succeeded in doing so by the third grade. Today Carla has developed a popular line of olive oil based cosmetics being successfully sold under the label "OLIVE U." Regionally it has already become a popular line of erotic love oils, body lotions and hair products that seems poised to take off nationally. The goal is to sell it for $5 million. Today she lives modestly, but is not wanting due to the entrepreneurial instincts she inherited from her father.

Lilli is a food presenter at the Olive Festival's Artisan Market when Chuck reconnects with her. Currently she is a successful, local television cooking show host, cook book author, and touring food presenter, delighted to be back in California's charming, old world environment of the olive country. She often describes the production of perfect olive oil as a metaphor for finding balance in life. There's probably a book in there somewhere.

Next week the gang of four gets back together at last. They will learn that everyday life is a slippery existence indeed, where nothing is certain and what can happen when life throws them an unexpected, extra-virgin curve ball.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

Hesitant Hedonism (2 of 10)

For countless Americans the concept of work has evolved simultaneously to that which gives meaning to our daily lives and then strips its meaning away with the same all-encompassing gesture. The economic downturn has offered many of us an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reevaluate our relationship to work. We needed a pause and we got one. We've started to ask ourselves what the hell we're working so hard for. Could there be something out there, some lost key to the kingdom of happiness that is being over-looked? You bet your ass there is. It's called pleasure.

Case in point, Chuck Risconi, aka Castello Eros Risconi, age 43. Chuck graduated from Oroville High School back in the eighties where he established an ongoing friendship with his buddy, Jesse James Hart. Chuck is the only child of Lena, a beautiful Dutch woman, and Vic, an Italian olive grower and processor. When Vic died, without a moment of doubt or hesitation, Lena picked up the reins of the business and from that time forward it began to grow at a faster pace than ever before. When she needed assistance, Chuck quit college and went home to work with his mother running the front office as best he could. But they quickly determined that the long hours required were just not for him. And so Chuck moved from Oroville and created a new life for himself in Atlanta, Georgia as a new age entrepreneur. He opened the Oroville Olive Company's first brick & mortar retail operation and lives upstairs over the store. Unfortunately, in his view, the boutique business took off immediately in Atlanta's sea of upscale yuppies and then snowballed throughout the South with the onset of the Internet. He's been forced to open additional retail stores in Charlotte, Savannah and Nashville. Business is good but requires a 60-hour work week. Not what he was hoping to achieve.

Meanwhile, his mother remains robust enough to endure her own 60-hour work week rigorously managing both the ranch and the adjacent processing plant. But her doctor suggests she needs a change of pace. Feeling the urge to travel to, and perhaps even to retire to the Italian Alps, she's just closed the sale of the processing plant to Del Monte Foods. Now she wants Chuck to come home and take-over or sell the olive groves.

As the story begins, Chuck agrees to fly out to the coast for a "man-to-man" about the future of the family business. On orders from his mother he will be fitted for a new tuxedo upon arrival. It seems he will be escorting her to the many events taking place during the annual Oroville Olive Festival for which she has been chosen the event's honorary Grand Marshall.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

Hesitant Hedonism

As we all come to realize, life is full of surprises and there are no guarantees, but one thing is certain: A life lived without pleasure, beauty and a sensible degree of self-indulgence is a sad and wasted one. Despite the gibbering of religious activists, over-amped life coaches and cynical psychologists, isn't it okay to have some good times during our brief moment here on earth? Who was it that said, "This is no dress rehearsal, you know. This is it." I've always found some kind of solace in that maxim that was worth remembering.

To wit, Jesse, age forty-one. He reached the high point of his career as a software salesman for Tower Gaming five years ago. Since then life has only been challenging and gut-retching for that's when his wife, and the mother of their young daughter Sarah Kay, died of leukemia. The untimely death could not have been more damaging to their little family. Sarah Kay, now eighteen, shared the family home in Berkeley until after her mother's death when she began acting-out, first by endlessly running away from home and reckless experimenting with drugs. But in due course it was her numerous shenanigans with shop-lifting and petty theft that got her sentenced to a long-run in a state operated, residential treatment center for girls.

Neither could stop crying with sadness and guilt on the day that Jesse assisted Sarah Kay with the packing of her bags and was to deliver her to the treatment center at 6 o'clock in the morning. It was then that he became her hero again for the first time since she was in elementary school. You see, instead of heading for the treatment center, he drove directly to the airport and put his troubled thirteen year old on a plane for Switzerland that had been prearranged by his over-paid attorney. And so for the next five years she lived and worked, quite earnestly I might add, at a strictly run Benedictine convent/hospital high in the Alps. For his blatant contempt-of-court, Jesse was sentenced to six-months in jail and was happy to accept the guilt for his daughter's sins. Only Jesse's unscrupulous attorney benefited from their time apart. Today, as a hard working, dependable software salesman again, Jesse manages to present a happy, though inauthentic, face to the world around him. However, beneath his thin, jovial facade is very cheerless and miserable man.

But eureka - as this story begins both father and daughter are euphoric in anticipation of their upcoming reunion. She is no longer considered a minor by the state of California and can return home. Both pray for change in their lives for during their time apart both denied themselves any pleasure at all.

Copyright 2010 G. Leo Maselli

A Rare Tiger Day

WRITER'S NOTE:
This weekly blog is a fictional account of a 10-week long, so-called, Success Team as they flex their capitalistic muscles and learn to fly again. The story is about an enterprising group of three unemployed professionals and two struggling entrepreneurs all keen on major advancements in their chosen fields. They organize their enterprise as The Tiger Team. This blog will describe how the team was founded and fostered by the people who would come to benefit from it the most. It is about the emotional stakes for those participating, and the occasionally brilliant and ofter humorous ways they cope. Above all else these stories will be about reinvention, full of wonderful characters, provocative endings and non-tragic themes.

A warm and sunny morning catches us by surprise. As we arrive at the attorney's home on the island, he and his housekeeper are frantically moving the meeting outside to his formal garden. We all lend a hand. First thing you know we're toasting our hard work with mimosas (with just a dash of grenadine, we're told, to enhance the presentation). Toasted English muffins, marmalade, and sausages prevent us from getting noticeably tipsy. A nearby hammock did call to me as the meeting progressed, but being a trained professional, I resisted. This comes up a lot in my life.

First item on the agenda is whether or not the team will re-commit to another ten-weeks. Our original agreement, initialed by each member at our second meeting, stated that we would meet for a fixed period of consecutive weekly sessions and then just walk away the better for it. Completions are valuable, fixed targets are good and finite is just fine. Therefore, today is our last time together - unless we plan to get together socially or perhaps volunteering ourselves to a worthy cause as has been suggested. A discussion followed by a show of hands reveals, to my surprise, that we unanimously want to continue on with another ten-weeks meeting schedule.

Of course, the corporate VP will need to be replaced as soon as possible. He's off, with our fond good wishes, to Florida for two-weeks and then on to South America to set up the circus's tour that opens in all the capital cities in just twelve-months. Everyone else on the current Tiger Team is eager to get started anew with high intentions and purpose.

The attorney announces that he's picking up his Yellow Lab puppy in just one week and could not be happier. His other news is that his new law partners are encouraging him to run for public office in Sacramento. He admits he loved the power attained in the past as an elected official. We assure him our votes if he remains humble. Not much chance of that. The publisher and the entrepreneur speak of the value that the success team has provided them in terms of moral support, accountability, coaching, plan structuring and execution. After a one-week break we will be right back at it.

As for me and the Success Team Blog, my commitment was for ten-weeks and I've crossed the finishing line. I've enjoyed writing it and yet I feel quite excited to move on. For the writer as with the lover, the best aphrodisiac is a new area of interested. Oui? What has caught my attention is the challenging subject of mastering the lost art of leisure and pleasure. Statistically we Americans work harder and longer and more stressful hours than anyone in the world today. I do not hide the fact that I question that life style. The new blog will explore hedonism and my point of view that it means, not excess and a slippery downward spiral, but a lifestyle of enlightenment and enjoyment.

I trust that you will all continue to follow my work. Thank you so very much for your time.

Tiger On Your Tail

This morning the Tiger Team met at the home of the writer at its regular start time of 9 o'clock. No freshly baked cinnamon rolls today. No, no. Too plebeian we're advised. Instead we are treated to Chinese dim sum and jasmine tea. Lovely and delicious. The attorney bemoans not having access to strong, black coffee for the first time since he was twelve, but relents. As the munching begins the writer/facilitator puts the team on notice that we have but one more meeting scheduled and suggests we each consider whether or not to extend our ten-week agreement. By next meeting each individual member is required to go on record about continuing, adding or replacing one or more current members, and to delineate a new individual game plan. We are Tiger Team, after all, and our operating principal is to establish a clear goal and to attack it with the intent to achieve it by our final session.

The business man is ready to go and expresses that, after careful research and consideration, his conclusion is that because his lotion products and skin treatments are best sold with the help of live demonstrations, his distribution plan will have to include some way of conducting these demonstrations. He asks us to consider thinking outside the box and to listen to his MLM (multilevel network marketing) plans. We discuss the often negative things that are said about MLMs as well as the hard work that is apparently required to succeed. Ultimately we unanimously agree that because of his savvy (and beautiful) wife and business partner, and because of their shared enthusiasm, he has an excellent chance to succeed. We get samples of his lotions. By the end of the meeting I am smelling quite a bit like coconut.

The stymied publisher admits little or no progress with her plans to become an eBook publisher - simply calling it inertia. A familiar state (evidently) and one she's just willing to be in. We remind her that the best cure of inertia and/or procrastination is a big brother or a drill sergeant or a guy with a whip and a chair - or a Tiger Team on your tail. It's depressing and yet at the same time fascinating to hear of other opportunities she feels she's missed in her life. Why the inclination now to just watch another chance go by is beyond us - but we convince her that the knowing of why may just be the booby-prize. We suggest that she just transcend the knowing and get to work.

Next week the final meeting is back on the island. Champagne and orange juice is requested by the writer (me). It is so moved and seconded. I stroll with the publisher out to her car. She smells deliciously like Tahitian vanilla. There seems to be a mutual attraction going on here. Is it pheromones or is it the tropical lotions? It remains best unspoken. But I digress.

Tigers Are Back

Last week's blog described a meeting at Peets with but three members: the writer, the corporate VP and the attorney/politician. Here below is describe a lunch shared by the remaining two members that same afternoon.

They meet for lunch on a census-work-day for both. The publisher is done at noon. The entrepreneur (wearing a beret) is due to report at 1:30 in the same area. Down near AT&T Park there is a very famous greasy spoon breakfast joint. It's sunny so they order and take a seat outside on the tarmac and wait to be served. It's warm and a chilled beer would be refreshing, I'm sure. Reports that filtered in say that, in fact, they had ice tea. The business man tells how they made him a Crew Chief as soon as he walked in the door down at the U.S. Census office. After two days of training, he was assigned a small team and managed to get them functioning quickly. He's a natural leader - a tough love kind of guy. Unfortunately he made a female enumerator angry and she reported him. The female in questions disappeared, but he's still enjoying the work - however now he's just a regular grunt with a bag over his shoulder. He does open up about his business enterprise as never before. He reports that he is broke but does own, free and clear, a warehouse full of organic lotions that he designed, formulated and contracted to have bottled. He boasts that his lotions are totally green, natural and sustainable, inside and out. Sales efforts are just getting underway and he must make a decision quickly regarding distribution models very soon. The publisher is ramping up too. ""Initially I'll be publishing hands-on learning guides on monetization and creation of interactive courses." She describes it as "targeting".

And now, this week's meeting. It is held at the home of the entrepreneur. It's been two weeks since we five have surrounded the same coffee table. We get right into it. First, we must assure the host that he is harmless, a sweet man and that he should continue to be just his usual, authentic self. I warn him that there will always be ladies who don't like him. So what? After bringing the rest of the team up to speed on his lotions enterprise, the ball is passed to the corporate VP. He uses his whole 15-minutes describing his childhood dream of joining the Ringling Brothers Circus. He reports to that in three weeks he'll be leaving for Orlando, his new home. He is the International Tour Manager. That is one week after Tiger Team is set to breakup after completing the ten consecutive meetings we signed up for. The writer can only wring his hands and describe all the work on his plate currently: two blogs generating no direct income, getting a completed script to the agent that requested it (with the promise of income), working with a paying client to adapt his story to screenplay format, and two screenwriting grants to prepare for. Nothing but white-water ahead. The publisher passes out her business plan summary to be commented on next week. The attorney/politician speaks of his dog ownership research. Will he or won't he? The dog drama builds.

Between Time

The stymied publisher and the entrepreneur are absent today's meeting. They got a call from the U.S. Census and as we speak are reluctantly sitting in a training class at $22/hour. Better than a hockey puck in the ear, I suppose. Thus only three of us are available to carry the Tiger Team ball, the corporate VP, the attorney/politico and myself. We decided a field trip is the way to go. We assemble precisely at 9am at a Peet's at the corner of Fillmore and Sacramento. It's apparent that we are authentically happy to see one-another. Tis old friends we've become.

As the struggling artist in the group, I report my dismay at find no short-term gigs to fill-in the gaps created by a less than regular cash flow. The U.S. Census folks never called. The Whole Earth Expo folks did not get back to me. Plus another eight bios or resumes or writing samples that went out generated no activity, i.e. interviews. What I did accomplish during the last week was to make measurable progress with my marketing plans designed to flaunt my services as a business communications specialist. My new Website for BC&C launches on May 27th. What are my goals for this upcoming week? I've got to get the requested 101-page script for Olives for Camille printed and mailed to the literary agent asap. Also, I have six days to write the outline for the first act of Between Time for my retainer, the ex-punk rocker. And so, I will go into a state of solitude for the next 6-days. Each Tiger Team member makes a note to watch and see how much can create in a week. I'm eager to see myself pull this one off too.

The corporate VP speaks of enthusiastically about the best experience of his week: three mock interviews at the JVS (Jewish Vocational Center). He's flying to Florida for interviews in two weeks and these mock interview sessions will allow him to practice his skills with a volunteer professional - and at no cost. Yes, Ringling Brothers is interested. Joining the circus - I'm so jealous.

The attorney/politico is pleased just to arrive on time at this morning's meeting. Seems he's been running late all week. He accomplished his first week of socializing with his new eight, law partners to-be. Big changes are headed for this man's life. He admits he's nervous and would not want to take all this on without the Tiger Team as support. When the meeting is over we head for the Pet Hospital/Kennel/Adoption Center. Unfortunately, the center doesn't open for another hour. So as it turns out, he is on his own. We are all on our own.

If Dog is the Answer, What is the Question?

The weather is cold. The sky is sapphire. The sunrise is brilliant. From my vantage point on this little island in the middle of the Bay, the great ships of maritime commerce move slowly about in every direction.

Being ten minutes late, I'm the last to arrive at the home of today's host and facilitator, the attorney/politician. The door is answered by the elderly Asian woman. With a respectful bow and a bright smile, she indicates I should follow her up the grand staircase. The entire ground floor and broad staircase remain as they were a month ago: devoid of furniture and the like. When we reach the second floor things change. On thick Persian rugs, we move silently past remarkable antique, Western European furniture and stunning Expressionist Art into a spacious, high-tech conference room/office. That's when I begin to feel as though I'm in a Bond film. There, standing in the sun that pours through a skylight. sipping their coffee, is the Tiger Team waiting for my arrival. I called ahead, of course. With a quick exchange of greetings, the host suggests we begin at once, given that we will be ending precisely at our usual time. As we take our seats, fresh coffee and croissants are made ave available.

The attorney/politician requests the floor. He dramatically leans forward in his chair. "I have a personal question. I'm a little embarrassed. How do you all get up early and ready to go each and every morning? I've failed at it miserably all my life. Lately I can't even come up with a good reason why to get up at all." We discuss access to alarm clocks, both high and low tech, and the importance of placement of the devices in the room. But it's the businessman who offers, "Well, I just have two dogs, and they have always set my days in motion bright and early." The entire Tiger Team looks at one another. It's the corporate VP who shouts out, "Get a dog!" The attorney grins like a kid getting his first puppy, "I've always wanted a dog." The entire process took less than five minutes and it's changing his life. That's why Success Teams work. The chance of paradigm-shift is always in the wings.

The publisher is on the edge of her chair. "Imagine this," she says. " A girl of thirteen sits on the floor in the corner of her bedroom, amid all the clutter, to begin her homework. She opens an electronic book. Her fingers move across the bottom and the pages turn and she begins to read. She does not know all of the words, but with a light touch of the screen she sees the definition and, if she so desires, hears the correct pronunciation. She reads on and when she gets tired, the book will help her sound out the words or even read the whole story to her - or tell it to her with moving pictures. I didn't discover this new world, but that's where I'm headed: online publishing."

The Tiger Team is rockin'. Next week, two of our members will be absent. And so there will be a field trip - our first. The corporate VP and I are taking the attorney out to find a dog. He hasn't signed off on this idea yet. But he will, don't you agree? Martinis at the Top of the Mark might be an inducement if one is required.

Half-Time in the Locker Room

After the fresh baked cinnamon rolls and Italian roast coffee are served, the meeting begins. As today's facilitator, I suggested that, given we have reached the half-way mark of our enterprise, it's a traditional time for each of us to pause and speak of our degree of success during the prior first-half of "the game," as well as our game plan during the second half. As with all games the goal is to win. What does that mean to each of us?

The former corporate vice-president reports that as he was trudging through the dark in Golden Gate Park looking for the homeless for the U.S. Census, enduring the drenching rain and his own terror of ill-tempered pit bulls, he had an epiphany. He's decided that his Degree in Business Administration could be better used with his seldom spoken about desire to join the Ringling Brothers Circus. Yes, he can juggle flaming objects, but that's not the goal. He wants to be Ringling's international tour manager. That is his fresh aspiration. Now that's news. Let the second half begin.

The publisher has installed her new computer, arranged her new filing system during one sleepless week and is now ready to investigate the new world of publishing with the advent of Google's I-Pad and the public's apparent turning away from ink print on paper. Let the second half begin. (How I long for the old days)

The business man (with the good ideas) informs us that his wife of 22-years is annoyed with his constant goal setting, i.e. daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, and calendar year goals. He believes that becoming rich would have been more rewarding if he had planned it, rather than just awakened each day with a new set of fires to put out and launches to perform. Nowadays, he claims to set only performance goals each day, not outcome goals. "You should take care to set goals over which you have as much control as possible. There is nothing more dispiriting than failing to achieve a personal goal for reasons beyond your control. In business, these could be bad business environments or unexpected effects of government policy."

It seems to me that, with my half-time sports analogy, these reasons could include poor refereeing, bad weather, injury, or just plain bad luck. I agree. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them. Even if your significant-other thinks you're over the top.

Next week - back to Buena Vista Island.

Is Compromised Ambition, Ambition?

The attorney and I were both to catch a ride, with the corporate-type, over to this morning's meeting. However, we each got word last night that he will not be attending due to a cattle-call from the U.S. Census folks about a temporary eight-hour gig. At $22.00 an hour, that is, I suppose, the good news. The bad news is that he had to meet his fellow census takers in front of the DeYoung Museum at 1:30 on this cold and rainy morning. Their assignment is to count the homeless in Golden Gate Park - in the dark. We can assume that that would be the folks living in the bushes with their pit bulls. The moment a flashlight is shined in their eyes, won't they yell something like, "Get 'em, Fido?" Film at eleven.

Left to our own devices, I take Muni and the attorney grabs a cab. We manage to arrive just as the meeting is about to get underway. I'm asked to get us started. You may recall that my purpose for joining a Success Team was to add octane to my plans of expanding my services from Screenplay Writer to Screenplay Writer/Business Communications Writer. At the moment I'm stalled at the necessity to create a website that describes my new services. Once that's in place the plan is that I will use Google Adwords advertising to herd those searching online for services such as mine to the website. In addition to that,just yesterday, I received a check to get underway on a treatment for a script based on the story by a former English punk-rocker. The first five-pages are due next Tuesday. That pretty much eliminates any free time over the upcoming weekend. And on top of that, I've also chosen this moment to continue on a script (a romantic comedy) set in California's olive country. It's about the humorous roles people play in their everyday slippery existence and what can happen when life throws them an unexpected, extra-virgin curve ball. My Tiger Team sees this as an unnecessary project that compromises my stated ambitions. Can't I do it all?

The attorney is next up to bat. Much to everyone's surprise he informs us that during the past week he has accepted a high-paying position with a prestigious law firm. He's to start in ten-days but is already having second thoughts. His obvious uncertainty about his immediate future reveals, the team suspects, that he is on the wrong path. Has he compromised (there's that word again) his true ambitions?

Next week we meet at my flat out in the Richmond District.

Paper Tiger

I arrive in No. Beach early with an expectation of smelling sour dough baking and hearing the Italian language being spoken. Coffee at Trieste is the place to start. At the counter I glance over to the corner table where Coppola sat, week after week, working on his Oscar winning film script "Patton." In his chair sits today's Tiger Team host, the publisher. She tells me that since becoming "idle" and being forced to live off savings, each day starts at Trieste. "Before coffee I agonize over what the end result of my day's efforts will be. Always my day improves, ever so slightly, after a visit here."

I'm reminded that a "paper tiger" is defined as someone who is outwardly strong and powerful, but is in fact powerless and ineffectual. I wonder what the opposite of a paper tiger is. It occurs to me that each of us on the Tiger Team is, to some degree, outwardly powerless and ineffectual, but is in fact strong and powerful. Is it precisely that self image that must be coaxed away from us? Do we seem to cling to it. Has it become our new identity?

We head for her apartment located down an ally up on Telegraph Hill. When the team is seated at her long dinning room table, the meeting starts when the business man eagerly asks to kick things off. Seems he's identified three ways that goals might affect his performance. This should be good. I implore him to continue. "One, goals narrow my attention and direct my efforts to goal-relevant activities. Two, goals can lead to more effort as I will work more intensely than I would otherwise in order to reach the goal. Three, goals influence persistence. I become more prone to work through setbacks or to work harder if pursuing a goal." Words to the wise from a new born, goal setting zealot. Well, it's a start.

The publisher declares that she will focus on her next career-building steps as soon as she completes the installation of her new computer system and the organizing of her extensive files. In response to the team's skepticism, she says, "I know time is flashing by. Each morning when I look into the mirror I wonder how long I can maintain a middle-aged status." I suggest, "For some time, my dear. For some time, indeed." She throws me a playful kiss from the other end of the table. The team chortles. We plow on. The Internet has changed the dynamics of publishing and her dream is to seize some new opportunity she trusts will magically appear. Probably not a good strategy. Find other options is the groups thinking. The laid-off corporate type suggests taking a specialized computer class.

We are growing closer as a group, and are more willing to trust as if we are old friends. Next week we head for the AT&T Park area. That's where the business man will host session number four. He lives in a loft. I love lofts. Americans love lofts.

Inside the Tiger

Sharply at 9 AM the team takes their seats around a large, round oak table inside a Civil War-era mansion out on Yerba Buena Island (next door to Treasure Island). The two-story building is revamped, redone, rewired, re-everything. The Hardwood floors are pristine. Oddly, there is very little furniture anywhere to be seen, I have the thought that there is probably a crazed wife who backed up a rented u-haul and emptied the place out. I've seen it before. Nasty business. The facilitator (the politico) steps forward to get us underway. First we deal with unfinished business, i.e. can someone new join the team after missing the first three sessions? Do we need a Team Contract? Is the Session Prep Form useful? Results: A new member will be invited to join us in two weeks; and both the Contract and the Prep Form go back into re-write (yours truly).

Then we plunge into the work there is to be done. Each of us feels the urgency as the clock begins to tick. There are only 15-minute blocks of time for each of us. A large watch is placed in the center of the table.

First up, the business man. Using an old version of the Session Prep Form as an outline, he shows an eagerness to "play" the game, as a Tibetan monk might say it. Most of his time is spent on his realization that he has never in his entire life had goals. A radical notion, I judge. I'd better keep my eye on this guy. His homework for next week is to practice setting goals.

Next up, the attorney/politician (our host). He shares that he lives alone in this big, rented house. As he talks, an elderly Asian woman seems to appear out of thin air to serve us fresh-baked pastries and coffee along with her lovely smile. Our host turns out to be a rather brilliant man: Harvard Law, Rhodes Scholar, West Point, and former mayor of a large community here on our bay. Seems he's stuck career-wise and pretty much otherwise-wise as well. He has no idea what to do next. He's been thinking about getting a job. He's also been thinking about going into business producing handmade mandolins. I'm not kidding. He's gone so far as to have created a business plan.

Next up, is the laid-off corporate whiz-kid. Smart and a real go-getter. I'll bet that he lands a job before this team dissolves in mid-May. He does seem to be somehow robotic. My initial take is that he's probably an alien from another galaxy. He mentions, in passing, that he likes the martinis at the House of Prime Rib. I make a note to buy him such a beverage while we are, so to speak, here "inside the Tiger" together. Just to pick his carefully wired brain.

Next session meets in North Beach at the home of the publisher. Ciao

Focus on Success

The first meeting of The Tiger Team occurred this morning in the San Francisco Ferry Building. Just inside from where the ferryboats come and go, adjacent to a Peet’s Coffee, is a large area with sturdy tables and chairs that became our first venue. I organized the first meeting. I am so ready. The gathered team of professionals consists of four men and one woman: An unemployed attorney/politician, a furloughed corporate type, a stymied publisher, an entrepreneur with a good idea, and a writer expanding his services. I’m the writer.

First order of business was to vote on some very basic ground-rules. It was unanimous that: (a) we meet for 2-hours, weekly, on ten consecutive Wednesdays; (b) we cap our team at five individuals but will consider a sixth in two-weeks; (c) we will have a rotating role as session facilitator; and (d) we assemble in the facilitator’s home (or a coffeehouse convenient to the facilitator). Our first assignment is to come up with a 30-second elevator speech and to be prepared to pitch it at the next weekly meeting. Here is what I have conjured up for myself thus far:

“My name is Leo Maselli. My shingle (gesturing) says BC&C – Bus. Comm. and Consulting. I specialize in the entertainment industry, namely business to business, business to consumer and internal communications. My know-how is in the area Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising. Say - how can I be of assistance to you? I’d love to send you my contact information. May I do that? (Offer a business card) What do you do?”

Next week we meet in a private home out on Treasure Island. Apparently the politico on the team lives in a mansion over there. Must be nice. It appears that I am becoming part of a new and interesting family. I was surprised to learn that there is a Muni bus that goes over there. I’ll do whatever I need to do to be there on time. I don’t want to miss a thing. It is my intention that our two hours are rigorous and meticulously focused on our individual career goals. I expect some discomfort as well as some growth. Last bit of homework: consider signing a team-contract and fill-out Session Prep Sheet. More about those items next week.

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