Writing
The Basics is a webseries about a group of twenty-somethings who shake up the world of NYC indie comedy and challenge the notion that they don't belong there. Don't underestimate the basic girl you know, she just might surprise you.
Harris Glenn Milstead, aka Divine (1945-1988) was the ultimate outsider turned underground hero. Spitting in the face of the status quos of body image, gender identity, sexuality, and preconceived notions of beauty, Divine succeeded in becoming an internationally recognized icon, recording artist, and character actor of stage and screen. Glenn went from the often-mocked, schoolyard fat kid to underdog royalty, standing up for millions of gay men and women, drag queens and punk rockers, and countless other socially ostracized misfits and freaks. With a completely committed in-your-face style, he blurred the line between performer and personality, and revolutionized pop culture.
Michael Gavin and his partner Daniel trade the rat race of New York City for the idyllic charm of the Connecticut shoreline, with hopes of a simpler life and time for Michael to finish his first novel. All that changes when one of Michael's high school students accuses him of 'inappropriate conduct', and the town rushes to judgment.
In the mid-1950s, Dickson Hughes and Richard Stapley, young composers and romantic partners, are hired by legendary silent film star Gloria Swanson to write a musical based on her film Sunset Boulevard, directed by Billy Wilder in 1950.
Two security guards, Paul and Grady, are hired to guard the grave of dead rock legend, Colin Fitz. Through the course of one bizarre night, these two opposites learn a lot about life, death, and the magic of Colin Fitz.
Charlie Bradford, an aspiring filmmaker in his 30s, is doing the best he can to distance himself from the chaos of his childhood home. But his eccentric mother Linda, a compulsive hoarder who suffers from depression punctuated by spells of manic consumption, has a tendency to keep the people and things she loves close at hand. Charlie's younger sisters still live at home with Linda: Lisa, the older of the two has a history of petty theft and works as a home healthcare aid, and Penny, who is trying to overcome her agonizing shyness is starting a a new career as a home stager in a beleaguered real estate market.
A fascinating and unlikely reinvention story, The Royal Road simultaneously explores cinematic spiritual channeling, the conquest and colonization of Mexico and the American Southwest, fading historical Californian urban landscapes, and the passions found in butch identity to achieve an achingly beautiful and poetic defense of remembering. Probing roads from El Camino Real, to the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, to the road right outside the front door, Olson crafts a deeply intelligent and transcending observation of the human condition that reaches for redemption in the embrace of history, nostalgia, mindfulness, and sheer beauty. If you give yourself over to it, it will crack you wide open.
Who pays for dinner? A spark ignites when musician Steve and recent divorcee Mindy first encounter each other in the hallway outside their hotel rooms. Suddenly, Mindy’s eleven-year-old daughter Julia and her single sister Jess barrel onto the scene and Steve unexpectedly invites them out to dinner. A bet is made and Julia is caught in the middle as mother and aunt collide over who should pick up the check.
