An idea for a short story:

A Marxist revolution topples the government of a small Latin American nation. To curry favor with international creditors, the leaders of the new regime promise to honor the public debts of the state, but not the personal debts of the former dictator. The task of sorting and separating the two falls to an idealistic young accountant. Left alone in the presidential palace, in the chaotic early days of the revolution, he must open every cabinet, annotate every invoice, value every personal item, and, so doing, perhaps come to terms with where the private life of the tyrant ended and the public life of the state began in a nation ruled by one man's whim.

A dream

Last night, I dreamed I met Delia Derbyshire, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop engineer best known for her electronic realization of the Doctor Who theme. In my dream, she was a sullen and surly teenager, dressed in black, sitting Indian-style on her bed, fiddling around with Boss guitar pedals. We had an awkward conversation, in fits and starts, about the history of electronic music. Strange, eh?

Too much Dracula?

Though I'm surprised that the thought would ever occur to me, I have noticed lately that as I'm reading Gore Vidal's Burr, I've unintentionally started picturing Christopher Lee in the titular role; this is pleasant, to be sure, but a bit suspicious.

An idea for a sitcom

President Dracula: After a series of strategy gaffes in an unsuccessful national campaign, political advisor Jon Harker finds himself unemployable and unpopular. His future seems hopeless until he is approached with an astonishing offer - to direct the third-party presidential campaign of Count Dracula! With no other prospects, Jon accepts, and to the surprise of all, crafts a message that resonates with the American voter, delivering the Dracula campaign victory at the polls. Appointed White House Press Secretary, Harker finds himself swept up in the daily struggle to put a positive spin on the the administration of Count Dracula, 500-year-old vampire President of the United States!

Does anyone know?

...if an alternate-history fiction has been written wherein Burr defeats Jefferson in the presidential election of 1800 and the Louisiana Purchase never takes place, leading to a present-day North America where Mexico is the dominant power, stretching from Chiapas to Canada, separated from the 24 United States by a francophone Republic of Louisiana? Just wondering.

An idea for a cartoon

Dracula: The Animated Series - set 10 years after the events of Bram Stoker's Dracula, TAS chronicles the further adventures of Stoker's band of vampire-hunters: Jonathan Harker, his wife Mina and their son Quincey, scientists Jack Seward and Dr. Van Helsing, aristocrat Arthur Holmwood and Texas cowboy Franklin W. Morris (brother of the novel's Quincey P. Morris), as they battle to foil the dastardly plots of a resurrected Count Dracula and his nefarious league of gothic monsters (look out for special guest villains like Carmilla, the Wolfman, Mr. Hyde, Dorian Grey, Heathlcliff, Jack the Ripper and Baron Frankenstein)!

Things I have seen since moving to Los Angeles...

...that I have never seen before:

- Flocks of green parrots

- Palm trees growing up through the levels of a parking structure

- More independent hamburger joints, donut shops and professional psychics than anywhere else in the world, I think

- Hand-pushed taco carts looking for business in a residential neighborhood

- Shopping cart return entrepreneurs