Streets of Gold

     Nearly twelve years ago, I sat down with a friend to write a show we called, Streets of Gold.  The show would be a comedy about Persians living in the United States.  It would be funny, daring, entertaining and powerful.

      We wrote a total of three scripts and they were funny as hell.  Now after a dozen years, over a hundred and forty-four months, this project is finally going to be shot.  It's ready to be shot and it needs to be shot.
     Usually I don't talk about projects until they are nearly done because it has proven to be a deadly practice in the past.  After a while though; you get tired of worrying about what could go wrong and just get down to putting it out into the universe and seeing what comes back to you.
      We did a full cast rehearsal a few weeks ago in a 99 seat theater in Hollywood.  I invited a few friends to critique.   The actors did a fantastic job.  It was a good time.  Since then I've written two more revisions of the scripts with my partner and tonight I got to hear the two leads do their lines.

     Sitting there in that room with the two actors who will bear the responsibility of not ruining this show;  I realized that I'm glad we waited this long to do this project.  Independent of the subject matter, independent of the horrors of 9 / 11 and independent of the revolutions in the Middle East, it's time to do this show.  Now.
      Recently I was sitting at a Starbucks and I overheard a guy talking about how it had taken him a year to raise the money to do his project.  A whopping five grand that he raised from his mom and dad.  He was talking about how tough it was to get the financing in place and now he had to finish the script.  I was thinking, 'Fuck this guy.  One year?  I've been waiting twelve and you don't hear me standing in line for a latte acting like I just beat Spielberg out for an Oscar.'

     By the way, this guy wasn't a kid, he was a grown man begging off of his parents and he didn't even have a finished script.  Don't get me wrong, there have been times I wish I could go to Mom and Dad and pull a little something out of their accounts to play producer / director but that wasn't in the cards.

      At any rate, he's doing his project and I'm doing mine, no matter how they come about; I guess that's all that matters.  The reason I'm writing about it now is I realized that no matter how long it takes or how it gets done, you've got to get it done.
     One year, twelve years, five thousand or five million, investors or mom and dad, who cares?  In the end, it's all the same, did you do your project?  Did you take the chances?  Did you give yourself the chance to succeed?

      Will these streets turn out to be Streets of Gold?  I don't know.  No one does but we're going to put everything we have into it.  And I hope when your turn comes up, you'll do the same.  We'll keep you posted.  Until then, Filmmakers First.  Thanks for reading.

(Please note, I do not know the Persian woman in the berka, this is not my Cast, this is not my Starbucks Cup, these are not the parents of the guy in line at Starbucks and these dice, well, I don't like craps but it looks fun.  The rights to these photos are exclusively those of the folks who took the photos).  Thanks  D