Entertainment

Girls, Cars, and Music

The first time I ever saw a leopard bikini was the summer of 1967. It was a long, hot summer that year. Cities like Atlanta, Boston, and Detroit were in full race riots. President Johnson, who inherited the job due to the assassination of John Kennedy, was anything but presidential.

The Vietnam War was in full swing, where over 11,000 boys would lose their lives, all while you watched it explode on television. Even the great Ali would lose his championship belt due to his refusal to enter the army based on religious beliefs. But above all, 1967 was the year I lost my mother due to cancer. Tough at any age, catastrophic at 13. And now my father would become a storm of anger, resentment, despondent, vioent, and detached. It would also be a time that fear appeared before me and has haunted me ever since.

1967 was also the year I entered Jr. High School on Long Island. It was a feeder school combining three grammar schools along with new families to the area. To say I was nervous would be a massive understatement. Along with being the world’s worst student and almost clinically insecure, it only added to my fear.

It was also a year rich in music. Bands like The Beatles, The Stones, Cream, The Doors, Beach Boys, and The Who, to name a few.

Cars were cool, and American cars were supreme: the 1967 Corvette, GTO, Ford Mustang, Pontiac Firebird, and the Chevy Impala. But the dedication of 1967 goes to all the girls I would discover that year. Still painfully shy and inadequate, I was mesmerized. Let me list for you now the way I felt. They were fascinating, dazzling, tantalizing, seductive, captivating, alluring, beguiling, bewitching, charming, sexy, adorable, beautiful, stunning, fetching, gorgeous, magnetic, provocative, enchanting, and simply put, the most heart-pounding, blood-boiling, earth-shattering creatures on the planet.

I would remember 1967 as the year I lost my innocence. It was the dividing line where hopes and dreams crumbled, and real life began with all its disappointments. Obsessions and beauty, I found myself chasing girls, cars, and music for the rest of my life.

Written by Stephen Appel

WRITING ON SCREEN

From 1939 to 1945 the US engaged in a secret project to develop a bomb that would be so devastating and the results so absolute, that American enemies would fold under the pressure of its use.

It wasn’t the only project.

The NSA, penned by President Truman himself, without witness, was born. This newly developed agency was working on its own.

FADE IN:

Repetitive haunting violins play louder and louder over a misty yellow screen that becomes a hazy yellow desert.

TOTAL ORCHESTRAL DOWNBEAT CRASHES

Approaching sandstorm. Wind. Two figures appear, but you cannot make them out. One points straight down to the sand as you get closer to them. The other one takes a long stake and pounds it straight into the ground. They are trying to hurry up and get the stake into the ground. The storm engulfs them and on the fourth pound…

CUT TO:

WRITING ON SCREEN

1939 Chicago University Laboratories

HEAR single Cello music playing while writing is on screen

FULL SHOT EXT. UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO — DAY

FADE into front door entrance.

Cello music ends

V.O.. “Is the subject ready?”

CAMERA CONTINUES TO ROLL UP CLOSER AND CLOSER TO THE DOOR.

V.o… “Is the subject ready?”

CAMERA PANS INTO THE HALLWAY, INTO THE LABS.

Laboratory is filled with old test tubes and primitive looki experiments.

Camera rolls up

v.o… “She’s only thirteen.”

V.O… “Peter, she’s thirteen.” V.O.. “I won’t ask again. Is the subject ready?”

V.O. (female) “She’s ready.”

THE CAMERA IS AT THE FOOT OF A STEEL ALUMINUM BED. CAMERA PANS OVER THE 13 YR. OLD SUBJECT WHO’S LEGS AND HANDS ARE STRAPPED TO THE BED. A LEATHER CHIN STRAP IS HOLDING DOWN HER HEAD.

CAMERA STOPS OVER THE GIRLS FACE. YOU HEAR A HUMMING NOISE.

Humming noise grows louder, louder and louder until her eye lids twitch, her lips twitch and humming noise becomes full blown vibration. Face twitching at an incredible speed at this point. Eyes start to tear. Saliva starts to come out of this girl’s mouth as the vibration grows louder and louder

CUT TO:

INT. CHICAGO UNIVERSITY LAB CAFETERIA – – MORNING

(ROSE, PETER)

PETER GATES, a 60 year old neurosurgeon with expertise in psychosis, is huddled at a cafeteria table talking to his assistant ROSE CARPENTER. ROSE, a 38 year old linguistics professor who specializes in language disorders.

ROSE

A hundred children. Peter, a thousand more they’re interviewing. When will this going to stop? We’ve been at this for two years. At this point, I feel we’re done. There’s nothing to do. We should bury, and forget, this entire project. IF I –

PETER

What do you expect me to do? They’re watching my every move. They financed everything. Maybe it won’t matter hear they’re close at Oakridge.

ROSE

What does that mean?

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After a successful 35-year career in the broadcast television space I’ve now turned my attention to cutting edge technology, story telling and environmental causes.

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