I’m sorry you haven’t seen me much around here, but I am currently in Cologne, where I am writing, teaching, pitching and going on helicopter rides (my friends at Action Concept love their helicopters). Over the weekend, I was taken out by an experienced race car driver to Nurburgring, where we drove a BMW M5 on a winding track that’s considered one of the most demanding in the world. When I say "we drove," I mean I sat in the passenger seat while he sped at 240+ km around unbelievably tight turns. I loved it. I thought it was incredibly exhiliratiing. Unfortunately, before I got my turn at the wheel, the car completely crapped out. Somehow we managed to blow the transmission. We had to push the car into a parking spot, where we waited three hours for a tow truck to take us back to the nearest BMW dealership. It was great fun anyway and I got to see a lot of cool cars. Speaking of cars, I also visited the Daimler-Chrysler HQ in Stuttgart, which was fun, too.
But the best part of my trip so far has been all the conversations I’ve had with German writer/producers and network executives. I think I’ve learned as much from them as they have from me. The exchange of ideas, methods, and philosophies about writing, showrunning, and the television business has been every bit as exhilirating for me as my high-speed race around the track.
I’m jealous since I’m writing about the battle of the Hurtgen Forest east of there in Grosshau.