Jeff Benedict's Blog

 


 

 
For the past three months I've been working on one of the best stories of my career.  It appears in Sports Illustrated today and is called "Straight Outta Compton."  It's about a boy, his parents, and their quest to make it out of one of the most gang-infested areas in America.  

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON


 


 

 
For the past three months I've been working on one of the best stories of my career.  It appears in Sports Illustrated today and is called "Straight Outta Compton."  It's about a boy, his parents, and their quest to make it out of one of the most gang-infested areas in America.  

 

If I could be someone else for five minutes, I'd be Van Morrison so I could sing 'Someone Like You' to my wife.  


 


I've been all around the world


Marching to the beat of a different drum


But just lately I have realized


The best is yet to come


Someone like you makes it all worthwhile


Someone like you keeps me satisfied


Someone exactly like you

 

Penn State head coach Joe Paterno.
 
In law school I spent a summer working as an assistant to the chief prosecutor in a child sex crimes unit.  One of our cases involved a man in his 50s who raped a little girl that lived next door.  Using a tripod, the guy had also filmed himself in the act.  My task was to watch the video and document each element of the rape statute.  It was an exercise that helped push me away from becoming a sex crimes prosecutor and toward journalism.  
 
That was fifteen years ago.  But those images remain in my memory.  They came to mind this week when I read the 23-page grand jury report detailing the child rapes attributed to Penn State former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.  He's facing 40 counts of child molestation involving eight boys over a 15-year period.  More victims surfaced this week.

Ray Brown and Steve Jobs

 
Remember Ray Brown?  He's the 86-year-old bookkeeper that I wrote about back in July after he was diagnosed with cancer and ended up in a nursing home.  Ray's story generated more reader mail than any blog post I've written. 

 

 
Over the summer I encountered a woman so stunning that I couldn't look away.  It happened at the Majestic Theater on Broadway.  I was there with my wife watching Phantom of the Opera on a hot, sticky June night.  At intermission Lydia headed for the ladies room.  I went the opposite direction in search of a cold beverage and some pretzels, my mind preoccupied by the scene of the deformed genius Erik kidnapping Christine Daae in hopes that she'd fall in love with him.  

 



Painting by: Ed Vebell
 
I like looking at the world through other people's eyes.  To a certain extent, that's my job.  But I'm also hopelessly curious.  I just want to see.
  
Lately my curiosity has been on steroids, thanks to an artist I've gotten to know.  Artists by nature tend to see things that most of us miss.  But the artist I'm about to introduce you to has a way of turning paint brushes and pencils into instruments of light.  
 
I met him the way I meet so many strangers – by following my nose.  One afternoon I found myself in Westport, CT, once home to some of the greatest American illustrators of the past century.  My son Tennyson was with me and he has an interest in art. So we ducked into the public library to check out an exhibit featuring local illustrators.  I was surprised to find a painting of Brigham Young leading the Mormon pioneers across the Plains.

 



Justice Richard Palmer
 
Sometimes I find myself in some pretty unusual situations.  All right, make that most of the time. 
 
Take last month, for example.  In the midst of a vacation with my kids at a beach in Connecticut, we experienced an earthquake and a hurricane in a five-day span.  Something more pleasant happened in between the quake and the storm.    
One morning we left the beach and headed up to Hartford for a private visit with one of the justices on the Connecticut Supreme Court – Judge Richard Palmer.  He had agreed to give my children a private tour of the court and spend some time teaching them what goes on there. 

On Monday my publisher will officially announce that Lifetime is making a movie based on Little Pink House, and Brooke Shields, who is currently on Broadway playing Morticia in The Adams Family, will star in the film as Susette Kelo.

 Clancy and Jeff Benedict 
Last week I took a business trip to Salt Lake City. Mark Willes, the CEO of Deseret Management Corporation, asked me to conduct a writing seminar on the elements of storytelling for the folks at KSL TV and KSL Radio. 
I brought along my apprentice, my 11-year-old son Clancy. He's a promising photo journalist and a whiz when it comes to gadgets and technology. So I put him to work taking pictures (see some of the photo credits for this blog) and helping with music.
What's music got to do with writing? In my case, a lot.