RECENTLY I read an article about famed film director Stanley Kubrick’s “cool precision.” Not long after, I read about the conflicts Kubrick had with actor Marlon Brando during the filming of the 1961 Western, “One-Eyed Jacks,” which resulted in Stanley Kubrick leaving and Brando taking over as director of the project. Which started me thinking about approaches to writing, and to art in general.

Kubrick, like Hitchcock, Spielberg, and other well-known movie auteurs, was a control freak who saw every shot beforehand, down to the actor’s lines and expression, in his head. Brando wanted a more spontaneous, instinctive approach. We have no idea how Stanley Kubrick’s version of the film would’ve turned out– but we do know that Brando pulled career-best performances from the cast, from Karl Malden, Pina Pellicer, Ben Johnson, Slim Pickens and others, by not asking them to follow perfectly the script, but instead to bring something of themselves to their roles. My thought: That in this robotic age, perhaps in literature as well as in cinema, we need to emphasize the human aspect of life and art.

Which brings us to our new feature, “The Wrong Crowd” by Lyn Michele Stevens. Focus is on the humanity of the two characters, who appear to us as characters, in both senses of the word. Fully-rounded, flawed, real, with back stories which reveal how they came to this point in life. Distinctive, all-too-human personalities which pop out to us from the page. Maybe just a little out of control, not following perfectly an intended script. -KW

Sex aside, the rush of freedom was exhilarating. Everything was a dare. Allie landed a job as a receptionist. Pete played open mics all over town. High on weed and booze, they went to concerts on the pier, museums, the zoo. Anything for free. A year later her body turned on itself.  Bladder dysfunction, numbness in her legs. The vertigo was the worst, this wild pulsating city spinning out of control. Pete stayed on, blending protein shakes and snorting coke laced with speed but once she started using the chair because her balance was so unpredictable, the disease took over life.