Courtesy Kung Fu Monkey:
Friday, November 30, 2007
Where Dreams End
Twelve year old Justin Fleischer falls into a coma when a side of beef falls on his head in his father's butcher shop. Ten years later, the day his father dies, Justin wakes up, faced with taking over the family business that has been mortgaged out to pay for his long term care.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Mbui & Jane
Jane, 63, nurse, unwed, recently retired, flies with a friend to Kenya, for some fun on the beach. There, she meets Mbui, 29, mostly unemployed, turning to escorting women like Jane for some ready cash. What neither expects from the transaction is that, across the divides of race, class, age, continents, xenophobia, power, and suspicion, they find in each other the ones in whom their hearts can rest easy.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
The Last Wilderness
An abandoned infant is adopted and raised by a flock of wild turkeys in Inwood Hill Park, the last wilderness in... Manhattan. Discovered by science at age 12, she survives research and enculturation to emerge as a figure of the traditional American values embodied in the birds who raised her: she won't shut up, she won't be pushed around, and she sticks together with her kind.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Thanks for Nothing
A wealthy Madison Avenue dame, a vegan bicycle messenger, and a schizophrenic homeless man get locked in Fairway overnight on Thanksgiving.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Tom Behind Bars
Representative Tom Teakens -- "When I see crime, I swat it out" -- sends himself to prison for a week to prove how humane and useful the county corrections system is. It's all hilarity, weight-lifting, and remedial reading until Rep Tom "swats out" the corrections officer who beats another prisoner, and finds himself behind bars for real.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Rise Up
Gerry Chandler, of Bloomfield, Illinois, wins a bake-off sponsored by a major biscuit company, only to see his winning recipe become a means for the company to dispose of undesirable byproducts. Turning on the corporate god that raised him up, this Prometheus with a spatula vows to use his power as spokesmodel to return baking to the people.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Go East Fast
NYC is full of murderous robots. A hot dog vendor, a Java programmer, and a model struggle to escape.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Just in case you were curious...
... both of you. Yes, that includes me.
It's not that you can't make this stuff up; it's that you can't make it up, and get paid for it.
It's not that you can't make this stuff up; it's that you can't make it up, and get paid for it.
Bacikstok
When an Israeli scientist invents a device that will allow him to travel backwards in time, he uses it to return to the village in Poland where his parents were murdered before his young eyes, with what he hopes is enough gold to persuade the partisan family who sheltered him to hide them, too.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The Sands of Fort McMurray
When a village elder dies, drunkenly prophesying the end of time, several of the younger generation are afflicted with dreams of the lake awash in dead fish. Finding each other, theyu attempt to stop the expansion of tar-sand refining, 100 miles upstream, on environmental grounds -- despite being nearly all employed in the same operation.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Road to St. Ives
At 64 years of age, Roger Lett, retired, widower, father of four, fit and sharp, devotes his energies to fulfilling a dream he's long deferred: play shortstop for the St. Ives Kitts, his local minor-league baseball team.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Cosmic Ray
When Ray Chaffee was 13 and going in for his first kiss, a cosmic ray hit him, knocking him flat, igniting in him a lifetime's passion for particle physics, and a reflexive terror of romance. Now, on the eve of his study of an unprecedented storm of the high-energy particles, his colleague, fellow physicist Belinda Nutt, wants a piece of his action -- but penetrating Ray's atmosphere is a trial of intergalactic proportions.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Cooking from Memory
Antonio Villahermosa receives word that his mother has died. Pursued by INS, and lacking legal ID, money, or means of transportation, he works his way slowly back to the Mexican village of his birth by cooking his mother's recipes for the people who host him along the way, keeping her memory alive meal by meal.
Labels:
death,
family,
food,
immigration,
mexico,
motherhood
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
New Wheels
Led by a rogue designer and backed by an unconventional financier, a group of laid-off auto workers bands together to design and build a prototype of a better car -- more comfortable, more fuel-efficient, more stylish, and more reliable -- that their employers would never have made, and have it ready in time for the Detroit Auto Show; but corporate resistance, personality clashes, and the realities of building a complicated product stand in the way of getting their message to the people.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Market Rate
Shane Gombrowski might have the cheapest full-sized apartment left in Brooklyn, and his whole life revolves around it; but when his 90-year-old landlady passes away, he stands to lose everything. Now, her son and heir is on his way back from the old country to visit, and it's up to Shane to give her the appearance of life -- and keep himself off the street.
Monday, November 5, 2007
Cafe Scioppero
Ten Guild writers, stymied by the WGA strike, now in its sixteenth week, face a terrible choice: find other work, or starve. Starvation is off the table, so they get together with some striking Teamsters, two grips, and a some sympathetic Craft Service workers, pool their cash, max their plastic, and open a restaurant. So much hilarity ensues, that a prominent TV producer wants to make Cafe Scioppero a (non-Union) reality show.
The Balance of Kindness
Sasha Delaney wakes up one morning sure in the knowledge that there is a balance of kindness in the world, and that it is her job to help maintain it. Unfortunately, she's a 14-year-old suburban vampire.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Suicide Jack
Stand-up comedian Jack Boggs is in his third year hosting the Thursday night comedy jam. He's also on his thirty-second suicide attempt, a fact attested to by his friend Manny and the other EMTs presenting him with a Frequent Diers Club card. Now Jack's about to get his big break -- a shot at guest-hosting a cable show -- if he can find the material, and if he can stay alive.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Police Escort
Not only is rookie detective Jimmy McGinn in way over his head posing as a male escort to help crack a diamond-smuggling ring run by a ruthless New York society dame, a regular customer at the service where he embeds; he's also head over heels for the dragon lady's daughter.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
From Washington, I'm Heather Mulvaney
Heather Mulvaney, 13, star reporter for her hometown newspaper, wins a contest to interview the President in the Oval Office. When she asks him what "disingenuous" means, and he can't answer, she gets picked up as a correspondent by an alternative news outlet and lands smack in the middle of a developing crisis -- one created by the failure of elected officials to say what they mean.
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