Miller Time

UNITED STATES—Oh yes, Beverly Hills at night. To my delight, based on an exhaustive sampling of three people encountered walking an a recent Friday night, there predominates a single category of walker: the tipsy kind. In contrast, the people I have encountered during my morning walks break down into three main categories, and they reinforce a harsher vision of humanity: --The...

UNITED STATES—The house on 1514 Manhattan Place was emptying out, prelude to its new career as a sober living facility. As part of the Wylie team, we already had the wife of the handyman Lorenzo staying in the long windowless room that opened onto the cathedral ceilinged living room. After the meek postman, the next tenant out was the relative...

UNITED STATES—In Danny’s coffee shop Uncle John looked at me levelly and said, “Someday you are going to hit it big.” He said it so jauntily, so casually—like a fact of nature. My uncle secretly implied that it may not happen right now. But it will happen. That’s a nice thing to put in your pocket and travel with. I...

UNITED STATES—The filmmaker Everett Lewis with whom I was collaborating on “The Strawberry Butterfly” used to peer down and say “yep yep yep” when a scene in the screenplay clicked. The pages mounted, almost effortlessly; the Brother Word processor kept humming. Finally, come December, Everett took one last look at the batch of pages, now over 105, and said...

UNITED STATES—As 1991 matured from spring to autumn, Ahmet, the Turkish husband of Dee had his second job in Santa Monica, in addition to the car wash. And he needed a lift to the record store. With the Subaru I went into uncharted territory west. Afterward, he insisted on buying me a hot chocolate, thus exposing me to another...

UNITED STATES—Regrets, I’ve had a few, but not too few to mention. In fact, regret has been a dynamic force for change and improvement. I will even go so far as to say that it is one of the secret secrets of success: of course you must put shoes on regret and walk forward with the knowledge so painfully acquired. One...

UNITED STATES—Two thousand dollars was an unusually small amount for a trust deed. For that amount I had sewn up as collateral the whole ramshackle six-unit apartment house on 47th St. The payments came from Gus Morales as regular as clockwork, thus vindicating my faith in Gus and his family. There came a time when I would leave Los Angeles...

UNITED STATES—Money in the bank--that's what this new iteration of the screenplay way.  Confident, buoyant, even a little cocky. It was heady to be working on it with an accomplished filmmaker, and it gave me something to talk about at parties. But I just realized something: because of my native thrift I had plenty of money now, thanks to property...

UNITED STATES—I have friends in high places. One of them is Jesús of Hollywood. He recently told me I was due a big payday. That reminded me of a motif running throughout the house management days. That would be the seductive idea of having it made. The quixotic idea of 'having it made' comes from gazing hungrily and enviously at those...

UNITED STATES—I get steamed when radio DJs start chirping about resolutions, usually a couple days before people put on the funny hats and start getting drunk. "What are your resolutions for the coming new year?" they ask disingenuously. It gets my goat. I hate those glib radioheads who catch me unprepared, and make me feel dumb--which is something I...