This will be good news for Hollywood North, too. We’ve seen 5,000 layoffs (self-employed and regular workers) in Greater Vancouver alone because of this strike.

Yay, Bill and Jon and Stephen will finally get their writers back 😉

I guess I’m just old and jaded. I can’t for the life of me fathom why anyone would celebrate the return of television writers. There are, after all, plenty of reruns to watch, some of them stretching back 50 years. And to my eyes, they’re pretty much indistinguishable from one another.

Hollywood is biased left. If I were President I would send in tanks and special forces and have the anti-American traitors rounded up and imprisoned for aiding and abetting the enemy during a time of war. And before you lefty turds accuse me of not providing evidence for my accusations of Hollywood aiding and abetting the enemy, that anti-American piece of garbage Redacted is all that needs to be said.

no turds for you, Jammies, but you aint President, you’re some bozo in a basement.

Chris, myspace is calling you.

I admit that I don’t care. I don’t watch television anymore and I don’t miss it. Hollywood movies also suck. I assume there are good writers out there, but they apparently weren’t working before the strike and won’t be working after it ends.

Bigoted Troll says:

“Hollywood is biased homo. If I were President I would send in tanks and special forces and have the anti-American homos rounded up and imprisoned for aiding and abetting the enemy during a time of war. And before you lefty homos accuse me of not providing evidence for my accusations of Homowood aiding and abetting the enemy, that anti-American piece of garbage Heath Ledger is all that needs to be said.”

Commenters here have been banned for racist and eliminationist statements. I can’t believe the bigoted evil of Kevin/saul/bastion/St. James can be tolerated.

When will the statement “homo=baby-raper” become taboo enough to ban this/these assholes?

Hey Chris. You could still find the society you want in Iran, or NoKor or even Kazakhstan. But I need to give you some bad news.

America has this thing we call the constitution that doesn’t allow authoritarian, autocratic totalitarian government. And it wasn’t a whole lot of years ago that the republican party was fully in agreement with that.

You’re more along the lines of an East German Aparatchik, a Stasi functionary, than you are an american patriot. I suggest you think about that…

mikey

Douglas said, February 3, 2008 at 6:21: Yay, Bill and Jon and Stephen will finally get their writers back 😉

Actually, I’ve watched Jon & Stephen every single night since they came back and I think both of them have shown their brilliance, writers or no writers. They are both at the top of their game. Obviously, getting the writers back will let them sit back a little and get some rest — you can see the strain occasionally — but for wit, clearheadedness, intelligence (including emotional intelligence), humor, and the priceless ability to show up phonies and bastards for what they really are, you can’t beat either of them.

Oh, and Viva Esteban Colberto!

Chris St. James is obviously a leftist, since what he advocates is fascism.

I watched no television in the 80s or the 90s, didn’t have a tv in the house. Now that it’s possible to watch on the computer without the ads I’m catching up. There are/have been a few good shows. Deadwood, The Wire, Intelligence, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, The Daily Show. British television has had some gems: Prime Suspect, Extras, The Office, QI.

Steve EVFuture,

I just watched the new episodes of Doctor Who and Torchwood.

Fucking awesome!

There is good entertainment out there–you just need to be clever enough to find it, bitch.

Sorry, still tripping on the earlier flame war. You’re not really a bitch.

You’re missing it. There’s some incredibly literate TV going on from Lost to Heroes. You’re missing a Golden Age of artistic expression.

Fuck! I’m an old guy and I like it.

Day-umn.

I had the good fortune to interact with the WGA in December over a business transaction, and let me tell you, even though I’m a sympathetic union-represented person, they certainly do exhibit a siege mentality. And that was in December.

I really hope they work this out before March 1, because they’re still in touch with me for my business to provide them services, but we can’t do it until March 1. I’d just as soon send them a “congrats” e-mail in February, than deal with them in March when they’re even more besieged.

watched no television in the 80s or the 90s, didn’t have a tv in the house.

I spent about 6 years in the 70’s without having ever seen TV, and I remember how weird and surreal it looked when I finally saw it again.

“And before you lefty turds accuse me of not providing evidence for my accusations of Hollywood aiding and abetting the enemy, that anti-American piece of garbage Redacted is all that needs to be said.”

But if it weren’t for “24”, what would you have to masturbate to?

Chris St. Jammies has probably never set foot in Hollywood. And if he did, he’d probably get his ass kicked by the Spiderman guy at Hollywood & Highland. And his wallet stolen by a midget.

Actually during the Second World War President Roosevelt had the Japanese Americans rounded up and put in detainment camps out of fear they would conduct terrorist attacks on American soil and otherwise aid and abett the Imperial Japanese enemy. During the Cold War a number of communist sympathizers in Hollyweird, government and acadameia were imprisoned. In those two instances I mentioned our nations leaders followed the Constitution which states that it is the responsibility of the Federal government to punish treason. So what I propose is not un-Constitutional infact the Constitution mentions the Federal crime of treason as aiding and abetting the enemy during a time of war which is exactly what Hollyweird is doing.

True, they’re doing great, but IMHO they’re below their normal level. And, nearly as important, it would mean no more picket lines, and therefore we’ll get a bigger variation of guests (I would’ve loved to hear John Edwards or Paul Krugman on any of them – poverty and the situation of the middle class are so ripe for any of them to take apart (Jon with his typical irony, Stephen taking the Republican talking points and leading them to there natural conclusion and Bill Maher with his panel (and the New Rules would’ve helped as well – he’s talked about the obscenity of it in teh past… John Edwards, Paul Krugman and, dunno, Bradley Whitford?, on a panel focussing mostly on the economy… heh, that would be something.) )

Some of my favorite new gems: “Burn Notice” and “Life”. “Burn Notice” reminds me a lot of the great tone and well-written story of vintage “Rockford Files”, and has scenes-stealing favorite Bruce Cambell. While “Life”, in addition to being a sharply written cop drama, actually has a lot of value to say about life.

They’re both directed great, and “Life” in particular is shot and directed brilliantly and has some of the best music choices I’ve ever seen on a show.

They both got to finish their first season before the writer’s strike, too, fortunately.

And yeah, can’t wait for full new seasons of “Battlestar Galactica” and “Lost”.

Chrissie just seems to forget the part about a trial and – you know – that little technical detail, the conviction by a jury of one’s peers.

but you can excuse him, be cause he’s only 14 and hasn’t learned that part in Civics yet.

Great examples, Chris. Internment is one of the biggest shames of FDR, and the McCarthyite witchhunts is one of the biggest shames of the Eisenhower era. These should definitely be shining examples of our current behavior.

Chris:

Yeah, and Ronald FUCKING Reagan aplogized for it.

Chris! Jack Bauer’s on. Go get the vaseline before there’s a commercial.

Does ending the strike allow us to get some better trolls? The Saul/Bastionbot got old a long time ago. I figure S,N! Mgmt. tolerates him ’cause he’s either a nasty little child, or has the mentality of one, but that eliminationist shtick is not funny.

As long as Hollyweird continues to promote its godless, anti-American, anti-moral, homosexual agenda there will be Patriotic Americans to resist them. I personally haven’t seen or been to a movie in I can’t remember how long. The best thing us average Americans can do to change Hollyweird is to use the power of the purse and deny them our money by refusing to attend, watch or rent movies until they clean up their immoral anti-American act.

I spent about 6 years in the 70’s without having ever seen TV, and I remember how weird and surreal it looked when I finally saw it again.

I pretty much d/l everything to avoid the Christly awful advertising. Recently I was out of town and watched some shows on a television set. The ads killed it for me. Back in the sixties, an hour long show had ten minutes of advertising. Now there’s twenty minutes of the crap. I also can’t see the point in paying through the nose for cable and having to watch all that advertising on top of it. Movies are like that too. Paramount has almost 30 minutes of advertising before the main feature. Ugh.

Homosexual agenda? I knew there was a “gay agenda”, but what is the lesbian agenda? And does it involve ancient religions, prophecies, mecha, virgin shrine maiden and 8-headed monstergods?

Hey, Chris, ever considered being a stand in for Pastor Swank when he’s on vacation? Gramps ‘d be happy, I’m sure, to help a wingnutchild get his first paying gig.

Does ending the strike allow us to get some better trolls?

Yeah, it’s really rough, having the talking points written by scabs.

The best thing us average Americans can do to change Hollyweird is to use the power of the purse and deny them our money by refusing to attend, watch or rent movies until they clean up their immoral anti-American act.

I’d love to know what would be an acceptable film for Chrissie.

“As long as Hollyweird continues to promote its godless, anti-American, anti-moral, homosexual agenda there will be Patriotic Americans to resist them.”

Hear hear. Agreed. If and when Hollyweird is ever doing that, Hollyweird should stop immediately.

Hollyweird should switch gears, and immediately start promoting a god-full, pro-American, and moral homosexual agenda. So patriotic gay Americans need no longer resist them (unless they want to).

“what is the lesbian agenda?”

I almost don’t care what it is, just so long as I get to watch.

g:
Passion of Christ?

Also, pssst, don’t look, but there’re some gay pornos there… but you didn’t hear that from me

“The best thing us average Americans can do to change Hollyweird is to use the power of the purse and deny them our money by refusing to attend, watch or rent movies until they clean up their immoral anti-American act.”

Sounds good.

How’d that so-called Family Values boycott against Disney go? (Hint: not so well.)

“lesbian agenda…And does it involve ancient religions, prophecies, mecha, virgin shrine maiden and 8-headed monstergods?”

Dude! Now’s your chance! Before the writer’s strike is settled, you’ve GOT to put that into a synopsis.

Passion of Christ?

Also, pssst, don’t look, but there’re some gay pornos there… but you didn’t hear that from me

Umm…same thing. SM porno.

“As long as Hollyweird continues to promote its godless, anti-American, anti-moral, homosexual agenda there will be Patriotic Americans to resist them.”

A’Yup!

You’ve allowed this species of hated multiply.

Stop this now!

another jim: uh, I stole that from an anime/manga. Besides, I don’t think Hollywood would produce something like that 😉

personally haven’t seen or been to a movie in I can’t remember how long.

So, Chrissie, what do you do for fun?

Oh, was that, what was the name – “Uretsokidai” or something like that?

I think Hollywood *would* do something like that. At least, the Hollywood that I love. 🙂 Look at “Grindhouse”. Or “Cloverfield”.

You might have to put a male character in the middle of the lesbian fun, though, just to secure some funding. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.

For fun I go to Church, read the Bible, go to the shooting range, plus I also enjoy hunting, fishing, camping and sailing.

g:
Well, there are a few options, based on our previous experience with his type:
[_] Gay Hookers
[_] Meth
[_] Gay Hookers AND Meth
[_] Boys
[_] Secretaries
[_] Daughters
[_] All the above

Gay meth-addicted secretary boy-daughters?

another jim: You mean Urotsukidoji? I wasn’t aware that it HAD lesbian scenes, but heh.
Anyway, it’s Kannazuki no Miko – a pretty good series, IMHO, though it is REALLY cheesy (it also heavily implies lesbian, uh, nonconsensual activity, though it’s not really an ero-anime like Urotsuikidoji&co – they don’t show anything more explicit that kissing and breasts).

Saling, eh? You live on one of the godless coasts, then?

Oh, and it has a male character as the third verticeof the love triangle consisting of the main heroine who is utterly pure and lacks self-confidence (who is also one of the shrine maidens who need to defeat teh evil god), the other heroine who is pretty much a princess and best friend of the first one and battles with her feelinsg for the other heroine (and also is the other shrine maiden) and the hero, who is supposed to be one of the bad guys but vows to protect the first girl (whom he also loves)

For fun I go to Church, read the Bible, go to the shooting range, plus I also enjoy hunting, fishing, camping and sailing.

And, apparently, troll a bit online at left-wing sites. So where else do you surf online to? Do you troll at bit at other sites where you are “opposed” to their views? How about the sites for those who advocate the things you find offensive? Are you up late, when your parents/wife are asleep, or are doing things in the other room? You’re sitting there by yourself at your computer, trolling at gay sites, porn site, sites where people advocate degenerate practices?

I’m hoping this will mean that It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia will be back soon.

I’m surprised to hear you sail, Chris. I’m thinking a big powerful wingnut like yourself would be into noisy, gas-guzzling speedboats and yachts when you’re not shooting wingless quail from your hummer window.

You’re sitting there by yourself at your computer, trolling at gay sites, porn site.. So it’s called “trolling” nowadays? 😉

Isn’t sailing something that leftists like the Kennedy family do?

g, like this guy you mean? *any excuse to link to my favourite renditions of IRC trolls*

Steve EV, I think others have done a good job defending the existence of well-written TV, but you also bemaon the quality of the movies. Yes, there’s a lot of crap, but good films are still made on a regular basis. Have you seen Juno? I thought it was brilliantly written.

For fun I go to Church, read the Bible, go to the shooting range, plus I also enjoy hunting, fishing, camping and sailing.

I think he’s a boyscout. I bet he likes boyscout movies.

Here’s a boyscout site and a song for Mr St Jammies:

http://www.cubbobwhite.net/songs/worms.htm

I swear I went looking for these lyrics to post on a thread over at T Bogg’s site. I hadn’t been there for a couple of months. The FDL crowd doesn’t seem to be warming up to T; most of his postings only had a few comments. Random 10 had almost 40 but Thursday Bassetts only had 5! What a goddamn shame. He had a site that was a great neighborhood bar and he moved it into a suburban strip mall. Even if he’s at top form no one will get it.

Oh, glad to hear that the writers may be going back to work, but I’m with the crowd here that hasn’t watched TV for 20 years. Once you’ve lived without it for a while, it’s too horrifying to ever go back. I hope everyone got out of their groove during the strike, got a nice dose of normal real life, and can find some way to write about it in a way that will get past their bosses and managers and focus groups and marketing departments and product placement specialists and etc……

I personally haven’t seen or been to a movie in I can’t remember how long.

But you know all about what’s in Hollywood movies anyway?

Sounds like a typical conservative, what with the assumptions and the talking points and the ignorance in general.

bob the hog, that clip really really sucked. ☟ ☟

The FDL crowd doesn’t seem to be warming up to T; most of his postings only had a few comments.

I used to post on Tbogg all the time; now you need to register at FDL. That doesn’t bother me much, altho it’s a pain to remember what fucking screen name and password I chose.

But the problem I’ve found at Tbogg and FDL is that their comment application is all fucked up. I’m registered, I log in, and I still can’t post. Fuckem.

gbear’s showing off his ascii skillz. how do type those in?

&#143 ?

it displayed in the preview…

i miss grassroots tbogg. now that it’s registration-required-to-comment and endless “read more” buttons it’s not the same. he said one of the reason he moved was to expand his readership. It doesn’t look like he’s gained many new readers and he’s lost many of the readers he had on the old site.

Yeah, I’m bummed about tbogg

Lesley, I just learned it today on the ‘Vampires’ thread. Try your code again with a semi-colon at the end. That was what I kept missing when I tried the first couple times. Here’s a link to the codes that J posted earlier:

http://www.bigbaer.com/sidebars/entities/character.entity.reference.htm

David Cross and Bob Odenkirk have a project for HBO they haven’t been able to work on because of the strike.
So this is awesome.
And hell yes, tbogg needs to ditch the read more links. Especially because you don’t even know whether there’s more post to come underneath them.

¢

Thanks gbear!

I just learned it today on the ‘Vampires’ thread.

some retro liberal fascist vampirism for your enjoyment.

I don’t think TBogg has any control over the ‘read more’ buttons. (I can’t see the Bogg liking those buttons much.) My impression is they are built in to the template because mouse clicks=hits=cash. One of the advantages of being in FDL is getting paid for blogging. I have no problem with that but wish he’d slapped up google ads and a paypal button on his old site. With the number of visitors he had on his old site, he’d be doing pretty well.

I haven’t gone over to read Tbogg since he went to FDL. I miss him, the man had a way fer sure, but FDL almost always crashes Firefox. Annoying, because I’m usually doing more than one thing at the time….

mikey

Chris, I’m working on a reality TV show right now about a flagwavin’ Republican chickenshit who is shamed by the commenters at a satirical leftwing website into signing up for a tour of duty in Iraq.

Sadly I’ve informed by the suits at all the major networks that they loved my story idea, but they were totally unable to find any flagwavin’ Republican chickenshits who’d be willing to sign up.

Don’t suppose you might be available to prove them wrong?

Yup, ‘nuther former Tbogger here. It’s a shame.

“..wish he’d slapped up google ads and a paypal button on his old site. With the number of visitors he had on his old site, he’d be doing pretty well.”

Hey, maybe if we put on a show….

PS – Orcinus has the tin cup out.

Ditto on the TBogg. Been over to his FDL site three times, been put off by the surfeit of Read More links (I like to load page and scroll, thank you) and not been back. I too miss reading him, but I resent having to jump through hoops for it (it’s bad enough with the read more links on S,N!).

mikey,

You might try the Flashblock extension, if you haven’t already. Sometimes the annoying flash ads can screw with FF. I block them on principal, as they use processor time even when not in an active tab/window. FDL didn’t crash me today, so maybe that’s it.

I hadn’t been over there for quite a while, I guess. Goodness, they’ve changed a bit.

I have noticed that I can’t load Drudge without crashing FF no matter what I do. “And Nothing of Value Was Lost.” I’ll just chalk that up as a gift from bog.

Also, apropos of nothing in this thread, but what else am I going to do… for g, here’s my take on the “Kill It” bumper Sticker. I took a small liberty with the wording, sorry. It seemed a touch redundant, and I needed the space. I wouldn’t have been able to put in the pooping elephants otherwise.

Here

Lost has writers? I thought it was a stab at Improv, for TV. I don’t watch, just see the commercials, how come the fat guy is still really fat, after being stranded on an Island for a couple of years now? Seems to lend credence to the theory that it’s not diet, it’s genetic. McDonalds should introduce this in the next Class Action brought against them by FAT (Folks Against Tubbies).

I like “Vote GOP in 2008”, justme.

It makes a firm connection to just which years we’re talking about.

I’m glad to see the writers’ strike will be over, but it looks like some actors still found a great script to work with here:

http://www.dipdive.com

Hm, gotta try that too:

神無月の巫女

Hm, you need to add a x after the hashmark for hexvalues.

Orson Wells, not going to get into a long detailed discussion of Lost here, but in my view it’s really more of a LARP than straight up improv. And the writers are actually quite good when they’re on their game. But it’s pointless to argue the merits of a show you’ve never watched, and as always, everyone’s mileage is likely to vary.

As for Hurley’s weight… Well, first off they haven’t been on the island for years. You know how each season of 24 takes place over 24 hours, even though the season goes on and on and on in real time? It’s the magic of television. Same thing with Lost. Secondly, the island life they have is pretty cushy overall, not a lot of exertion required most of the time, and Hurley has some mad food finding/hoarding skills. Third, suspension of disbelief.

Oh and fourth, he’s big-boned.

The local (Portland, OR) paper had a “survival guide” to help people get through the strike. Seems like a lot of people here have the same problem as does that columnist – not one mention of PBS.

Great stuff; 90% of my viewing is PBS. Sure, I love Mad Men and Battlestar but I keep finding myself tuning into the local PBS station.

How do ya like that Saul St. Citadel Smegma? Don’t you hate PBS and NPR ’cause they’re so liberal and fascist and everything? I *do* hope so.

Karen Hughes can haz new job. kthxbai!

I’m glad to see the writers’ strike will be over, but it looks like some actors still found a great script to work with here:

http://www.dipdive.com

Damn that’s good.

Dan Someone said,
February 3, 2008 at 16:27

Third, suspension of disbelief.
This is the reason I don’t end up watching much of what’s offered on TV. I really don’t want to get in the habit of suspending my disbelief.

In the case of Lost it was in the first episode when the engine sucked up a guy then blew apart, kiilling some (more) survivors. Really. Folks would just hang near a still-running jet engine, eh? That’s leaving aside the highly improbable event of an engine remaining operating through a crash. Knowing this was the level of “reality” this show was set in, I was on another channel less than 10 seconds later.

I’m a sciency guy, and the real world is fascinating enough to keep my interest. I have very little need for fiction.

I’m a sciency guy, and the real world is fascinating enough to keep my interest. I have very little need for fiction.

Of course your tastes are your own, and that’s all well and good, but being interested in the real world and being interested in fiction are not mutually exclusive.

In a sense, fiction is part of the real world in that the creation of narratives that do not always correspond to the lived experience of existing (or once-existent) humans is something one finds across cultures. It’s part of the cultural milieu in which we all live.

What Linnaeus said.

Good fiction can often reveal truths in a much more powerful way than a simple recitation of scientific facts.

This is not to diss non-fiction in any way, shape, or form…in fact, my reading list is pretty evenly split between fiction and non-. I find, though, that the non-fiction writers I most enjoy are those who are first and foremost storytellers, just as the best fiction writers are.

But I’m pretty sure my life would be a lot poorer without Salman Rushdie, John Irving, Gunter Grass, Mario Vargas Llosa, William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez….just to name a very few.

Well, there is another side to the coin of fiction revealing truth: The “truth” depend on the view of the author, and just because something makes complete sense in a book (or movie or TV series) might not reflect the actual facts of life.
That should be obvious, but apparently its not – back in 2005? when the Dean of West Point visited the producers of 24 asking them to tone down the torture, what struck me wasn’t so much that the producer snubbed the meeting (he’s a rightwing douchebag, so thats expected) , but that (some) cadets believed a f*cking TV fiction show over experts who actually had experience with the matter – I somehow was under the impression they had already graduated high school…

True that, Jennifer. As Picasso said, art is the lie that makes us realize the truth. I have students who are so literal-minded that they simply can’t handle literature (“But that baron couldn’t really live in the trees, right? Why do we have to read this?”). I even had a student a couple of years ago who convinced administration to let him drop my class in the last week of the quarter, have the existence of the class scrubbed from his records, and receive a tuition refund because we were reading Beloved and there’s no such thing as ghosts.

We’re still sort of dependent on creative production (fiction, non-fiction, performance, poetry, etc.) to explain what’s going on in the human mind, because right now science hasn’t even managed to reach the “simple machines” level of understanding of the workings of human consciousness.

And it’s certainly possible that it might remain that way for an awfully long time, since science is not teleological and cannot flatly proclaim what it “will” do in a certain period of time.

II seem to be the literalist spoiler in my family as regards fiction and movies. If I point out something in a film that strikes me as being unlikely, I’m always told to lay off, it’s just a story or a movie or whatever, and can’t I suspend disbelief and enjoy it?

Well, yeah. I can. I can absolutely believe that Prospero landed on an island inhabited by a monster and some fairies.

What I can’t believe is when in a heretofore realistic presentation, suddenly the laws of science are suspended.

Or when a character who’s been steadily revealed to us over the narrative, suddenly behaves in a way that is totally uncharacteristic, without a shred of motivation, just for a “plot twist”.

Or when a societal institution (the church, government, the police, a corporation, a college) behaves in a way that totally defies my experience of how those institutions behave, just to provide a plot device.

As long as you create an alternate reality that remains true to its own rules, I’m there.

g, that’s fair and I’m the same way, but the world is full of the other kind of literalist movie-ruiner. See the Cloverfield backlash for numerous instances of failure to suspend disbelief when it’s perfectly warranted (“Why would you KEEP FILMING?!”). I still haven’t found a better example than my brother, and I quote: “So they lived long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away and they speak colloquial English? Riiiight.” But then, his favorite show is Star Trek TNG, so I guess he’s comfortable with a universe that tends toward hominidism as long as the various species speak different languages (with their mouths that unfailingly contain molars, canines, and bicuspids).

Jeez. I never even gave it a moment’s thought.

Fiction enriches experience. It’s role isn’t a direct understanding, but rather a more conceptual, richer grasp of the human experience.

Heller explains war just exactly as well as Salsbury. He does it differently, and he explains different aspects from different angles. Neither depletes the value of the other, and they really don’t overlap.

Can’t imagine deciding to go with one over the other. It’s like saying, ‘Y’know, I like me some photography, but paintings have no value in my world’.

Whatevs. As me crazy old mom used to say, “Your loss”….

mikey

True or apocryphal Hollywood story:

A writer is pitching a screenplay to a producer. He says, “You’ll love it. It’s like Die Hard, only it’s set in an office building.”

Producer says, “Uh… Die Hard is set in an office building.”

Writer replies, “Only the first one.”

Damn,that dipdive.com site made me cry.

Ya know,2008 isn’t turning out so hot for my little family. My husband may lose his job to a fucking corporate raider’s takeover. My son is being harassed and bullied at school to the point of damn near failing. And I am so tired of hearing that this is”normal”behavior for teens,to be nasty and disgustingly brutal to one another. NO IT ISN’T. It’s only”normal”because we’ve let it be that way. What if it wasn’t acceptable anymore? What if we could change it? What if we told kids it could be better,that damn it,it IS better,we ARE better than that?

Fuck,I don’t know what the answers are,but I do know this shit ain’t right.

borehole –

Yeah, that “universal hominidism” thing in so much filmed sci-fi has always kinda bugged me. One of the things I like about Dr. Who is the greater variations in life forms (B5 was also above average in this regard). Also, one of the things that makes BSG so spooky is the nearly complete absence of other life forms. Seriously, where are all the frakkin’ aliens, dude?

What I can’t believe is when in a heretofore realistic presentation, suddenly the laws of science are suspended.

My personal pet peeve are tactics and ruses that are so stupid that your average tenyearold could see through them – especially when they come from characters who we’re told a great strategic geniusses.
Let’s send a unencoded message (against regulations) that we will arrive at that and that coordinate soon – the enemy will NEVER figure out it’s a trap and the discussion about football contained the actual meeting coordinates!
Or lets employ a tactic that would only work if the enemy behaved exactly like expect him – even though there is no real reason that the enemy should behave that way, and we’re practically dead if it goes wrong – and there are better alternatives! (Babylon 5 did that several times).
Or, uh, the entire Starship Troopers movie – was there anything that made sense at all? Infantry without any support except a few aircrafts who executed a bombing run ONCE, who stand in a circle and fire at a (big) enemy in the center; running towards the enemy screaming and opening fire at close distance ( the enemy lacks ranged capabilities, our side has assault rifles… lets get as close as possible!), removing protective clothing while at an outposts the enemy APPEARS to have deserted… without really checking it out first, not deploying scouts but walking through enemy territory in one big cluster and leaving a fleet (a) in orbit when its not needed anymore for now, and (b) leaving so little space between the ships that a.) the enemy has a much easier time hitting at least something, and b.) that if one ship is hit and spirals out of control, it will also take some other ships with it!
Cavalry of course also always needs to charge at the enemy front lines instead of, dunno, flanking, and melee infantry doesn’t need formations.
And, of course, Ninjas (or jumping, shieldsurfing elves).

Though it does serve as unintentional comedy at times 😉

And that above post should contain a few more words, like “are” :rolleyes:… guess I shouldn’t write comments when I’m supposed to learn for a test, heh.

Californication anyone?

I picked it up when I heard David Duchovny was starring in it and got hooked pretty fast. Some of the best American television I’ve seen in a while.

borehole, there should be a term (either official or on TV Tropes) for when the characters are speaking one language, but it is assumed (and sometimes outright said) that in Real Life, they are speaking another language. The language we read or hear them speaking is simply a translation of their Real World language. (But since there is no such thing as a perfect translation, this can be problematic)

My personal pet peeve are tactics and ruses that are so stupid that your average tenyearold could see through them – especially when they come from characters who we’re told a great strategic geniusses.

My personal favorite was when the fictional Bush Jr. administration kept askeerin’ us all about Iraq trying to get low-grade “yellow-cake” uranium out of Iraq, and people got all a’serious about it, and yet no one ever pointed out that (1), Iraq already had thousands of tons of yellowcake uranium, and what Iraq’s program had always lacked was technology rather than thousands of tons of low-grade uranium; (2) it would have been very easy to have detected dozens of heavy trucks in an armed country driving from Niger to Iraq to avoid the “no fly” zone; and (3) the Niger facility was French controlled.

Oh, I forgot, that wasn’t fiction so stupid your average ten year old could see through, that was U.S. foreign policy so stupid your average ten year old could see through.

My bad.

And (4), Yellowcake is essentially DIRT, about as lethal as Bauxite. The process to turn it into hexaflouride gas and then concentrate it is big, complex and impossible to hide. This is why Iran put the complex DEEP underground. They knew everyone would know what they were doing. They just wanted to harden it against attack…

mikey

re: Yes, we can

Don’t be fooled! It’s a Trojan horse to complete the Mexicanization of America. The slogan “Sí, se puede” originated with the United Farmworkers Union during Cesar Chavez’s 1972 fast. If Obama is elected, we’re doomed! The bald eagle will be replaced by the Huelga Bird, and the new National Anthem’s will start like this (pdf, scroll down for complete lyrics):

“Hasta Mexico ha llegado la noticia muy alegre que Delano es diferente”

If you don’t believe me, ask Pat Buchanan. He knows about these things.

One thing that gets me mildly irked is when the characters in movies live lives that are economically and culturally unrealistic.

I was watching “The Astronaut’s Wife” on TV the other night, and its kind of a silly movie, but the plot involves an astronaut who, after experiencing something weird in space, retires from NASA and works as an executive for an aerospace corporation, and his wife gets pregnant and suspects her baby might be…..whatever.

The whole film is shot in Manhattan; the couple live in an incredibly stylish bi-level loft apartment in downtown Manhattan.

How many aerospace firms make their home in Manhattan? How many former NASA employees choose to live in SoHo or the Flatiron? Do the producers know what real estate costs are in Manhattan? The setting seemed totally wrong, and arbitrary, and the whole movie seemed to be driven by the production design.

The funny thing about the film is it could have been equally chilling set in the sun-drenched suburbs of Houston or Phoenix with characters living in McMansions.

Equally, I’m sick and tired of all the family comedies that seem to be set only in parts of the country where homes cost upward of a million bucks.

Douglas —

Not snarking here . . . I thought part of the point of Starship Troopers was to depict an example of a “military” that had been completely taken over by inept, Neocon, wingnut types and guided exclusively by their version of “strategery” and “tacticalness”. Maybe I was reading too much into it.

Lots of misinterpretations of what I said driving much of the discussion.

First of all, I was only talking about myself and my preferences. I don’t expect others to do as I do. You watch Lost and CSI, good for you!

Second, I was talking about TV fiction, but it might extend to written fiction as long as you try not to include poetry, visual art, or music (audio art).

Third, nearly all the fiction I have read imitates life in some way. Yet there are stories that are real that are just as compelling as those in fiction. Ernest Shackleton’s odyssey is one no work of fiction could approach, IMO. Myriad real examples give me no compulsion to seek fictional examples.

Fourth, I do not agree that my limited exposure (I had said I had little need for fiction, not _no_ need, big diff) to video fiction or written works of fiction makes me less whole as a person. It’s hard to prove that here on the internet so my best shot would have to be “Nuh-uh.”

How many aerospace firms make their home in Manhattan? How many former NASA employees choose to live in SoHo or the Flatiron? Do the producers know what real estate costs are in Manhattan? The setting seemed totally wrong, and arbitrary, and the whole movie seemed to be driven by the production design.

What next? Are you going to tell me that Fred Flintstone didn’t really drive a green-friendly, foot-powered vehicle made of rock?

Add to those infinite supplies of ammunition. Sure, hollywood has gotten better about making people actually reload in firefights, but it seems in many cases they are carrying thirty pounds of loaded mags around with them in their business suits or casual clothes.

Handuns that go BOOM. A handgun fired in an open space like a street goes pop. It’s not friggin artillery, fer crissakes.

People, when hit by small arms fire being lifted and thrown by the impact. It’s a tiny chunk of metal that penetrates. Nowhere NEAR enough energy to move a 175 pound human.

People holding semi auto handguns in all sorts of weird grips and angles and never getting stovepipe jams for their trouble.

M16 and AKs that sound indistinguishable from one another…

mikey

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

that was U.S. foreign policy so stupid your average ten year old could see through.

And it worked just like in the movies!… … …

sxwarren: Never looked at it that way…
Hm, from “We’ll need equal or less ground troop presence to secure and stabilize a country as we need to beat its army, with the help of an highly advanced airforce and tanks (which aren’t that useful when you’re trying to restore/maintain peace and order, duh!)” and “Lets dissolve the occupied nations army which is more or less loyal to us for now, put all those soldiers out of their jobs and let them keep their guns” on a strategic level to “Lets form a circle and fire inwads so we can hit each other” on a tactical level isn’t so much… civilian appointees aren’t in charge of writing the tactical doctrines,right? RIGHT?!
Also, unarmored humvees (cheaper) -> no armored anything, no squad support weapons or support anything -> much much cheaper (and killing a wounded trooper instead of trying to rescue him = much cheaper).
If you look at it that way, it all makes sense… thanks 🙂

Smiling Mortician,
I haven’t seen Juno. The previews looked a little bit cliche, but maybe better than average. I do watch some movies, just not Hollywood blockbuster types – mostly indy and foreign stuff. I would say that No Country for Old Men was a well written movie, although it was an adaptation by a great writer. And to others who point out one or two shows of quality, you have a point. Unfortunately, I’m not someone who can just pick a few shows out of thin air. It’s like trying to find a couple of diamonds in a barrel of shit. Sure, I could try to do that, but there are other things I’d rather do.

Just noticing the TBogg comments. I liked the old TBogg better, too, and I wouldn’t mind the registration thing – IF I COULD F**KING REGISTER. I can’t seem to get on the site to make comments.

Steve, I experienced the same thing. I registered, but I couldn’t post.

If Fauconnier, et al are right we think by selectively (and unconsciously) mashing together elements of our experiences, resulting in conceptual “blends” which can themselves be used in future mash-ups. Consequently, those with a broad experience in art, music, literature, architecture, dance, etc. have a greater pool of intellectual resources to draw from when forming new thoughts even if those new thoughts have nothing to do with art, etc..

This is a rational, scientific basis for public school arts education (broadening the conceptual pool early pays huge dividends later) as well as the implicit rationale for a traditional Liberal Arts education.

Its also explains why we fiction readin’, painting lovin’, movie watchin’, poetry quotin’ show-me-something-i’ve-never-seen-before liberal islamomexicommienazis seem generally smarter than our poor unfortunate brethren in Wingnutistan– we are smarter. Not because our brains work faster but because all that book readin’ and sculpture peepin’ and such have given us a broader and richer set of blends from which to create new ideas.

My brother was a delivery guy for a bookbinding company in Los Angeles, so for several years he rode all over Los Angeles and he knows where everything in Los Angeles is, and where it isn’t. (Most Los Angelenos only know a few enclaves here and there.)

So we sometimes have some hilarious (to me) conversations about movies set in Los Angeles, where people drive forty miles to Marina del Rey for lunch and then go right back to the office during week day lunch hour, and nobody at work says anything about what was probably a four-hour absence.

My favorite is “Pulp Fiction.” We both love that movie. But I know enough about Los Angeles to know that Marcellus chased Bruce Willis about a hundred fucking blocks, based on the locations. And my brother can really go on about how ludicrous the driving scenes and various other scenes are.

I watched Reservois Dogs last week. I still can’t figure out where the warehouse is. Anybody?

My friends from New Orleans have a freaking field day with the locations in Angel Heart.

Unfortunately, I’m not someone who can just pick a few shows out of thin air. It’s like trying to find a couple of diamonds in a barrel of shit.

Can’t really disagree with you there, but I’m pretty happy with my solution. I pulled the plug on the cable in the early 1990s and never looked back (I live in a place where no cable equals no TV whatsoever). But my netflix queue is generously sprinkled with series that sounded interesting when others talked about them, and I’ve found several of them worth watching, especially given that I watch them whenever I want without commercials. So I can watch stuff like House MD or Slings and Arrows (and yeah, I admit to netflixing Lost) without any attendant bullshit. ‘Course, I’m always a season behind . . .

Hoosier X said,

February 3, 2008 at 21:31

My brother was a delivery guy for a bookbinding company in Los Angeles, so for several years he rode all over Los Angeles and he knows where everything in Los Angeles is, and where it isn’t. (Most Los Angelenos only know a few enclaves here and there.)

So we sometimes have some hilarious (to me) conversations about movies set in Los Angeles, where people drive forty miles to Marina del Rey for lunch and then go right back to the office during week day lunch hour, and nobody at work says anything about what was probably a four-hour absence.

My favorite is “Pulp Fiction.” We both love that movie. But I know enough about Los Angeles to know that Marcellus chased Bruce Willis about a hundred fucking blocks, based on the locations. And my brother can really go on about how ludicrous the driving scenes and various other scenes are.

I watched Reservois Dogs last week. I still can’t figure out where the warehouse is. Anybody?

My friends from New Orleans have a freaking field day with the locations in Angel Heart.

Yeah, most Hollywood movies are horrendous with location continuities. One factor is that not only do they sometimes film in different cities, but they don’t necessarily film in chronological order (eg: they might do a scene from the middle of the movie several months before filming the opening scene).

My wife grew up in suburban DC, and she laughed at one episode of The X-Files where Mulder was chasing a bad guy near the state highway running next to Dulles Airport, and then suddenly he’s in the middle of a thick pine forest that is reminscent of the Pacific Northwest.

Oh — and everyone is absolutely right about TBogg. His old place used to be one of maybe three or four required stops for me every day. I miss it but not enough to work around all the, well, to coin a phrase, attendant bullshit.

The only regular tv series that have ever captured my attention to the point where I cared whether I saw them or not were “Sports Night” and “Buffy”. But then, it’s hard to go wrong with Sorkin and Whedon…

Oh. I had a brief fling with “Ally MacBeal” reruns. But I think it was just that I had a raging crush on Callista Flockhart…

mikeyh

Attempt at diamond finding
~

Film locations are funny. I recall how friends of mine worked across the border on the location shoot for that great Jackie Chan film, “Rumble in the Bronx Vancouver.”

Hey – strikethrough worked in preview!

Ah, I forgot about Sports Night. That was a great show — which of course explains why it was so short-lived. I’m a sucker for Aaron Sorkin’s writing when he’s on his game. The first couple of seasons of West Wing were pretty hot, too.

And g, strikethrough works for me if I do [strike] instead of just [st] or whatever . . .

Testing

“Rumble in the Bronx Vancouver.”

g said,

Film locations are funny. I recall how friends of mine worked across the border on the location shoot for that great Jackie Chan film, “Rumble in the Bronx Vancouver.”

Not to be a multi-syllabic nazi, but [s] works in preview, but you need [strike] for real.

“My personal pet peeve are tactics and ruses that are so stupid that your average tenyearold could see through them”

I remember the first Star Wars movies. The stormtroopers would constantly be bumping into each other, front to back, in those hallway chase/gunfight scenes, as if the “actors” could not wait to continue whatever the hell they were doing in the trailers between filming.

THX-1138 was a much better Lucas science fiction movie.

As for Tbogg, it’s too bad. The FDL and Emptywheel chicks can write, but they’re obviously not the easygoing types. Surely Tbogg didn’t sell his blogright just for extra Christmas shopping money!

The FDL and Emptywheel chicks can write, but they’re obviously not the easygoing types.

I like them. Why should we go easy into this eternal neocon dark night?

In almost every action film ( the Bourne trilogy immediately comes to mind) America is always portrayed as the badguy. In that other leftist piece of garbage staring George Clooneytoons Syriana, America is portrayed as the heartless villian while the real villians the jihadists are portrayed as innocent victims. In the mostrosity Munich the Israeli Mossad are portrayed as brutal villians while the real villians the palestinians are portrayed as “freedom fighters”. Even in the new Die Hard movie ( Bruce Willis whom I like is a Conservative) the villians were Americans rather than jihadists. If I were the producer of Die Hard 3 I would have portrayed muslim terrorists with a suitcase nuke in D.C. as the villians that would have made a much better and Patriotic film to have Bruce Willis kick the crap out of islamo-fascist terrorists. I could go on and on about Hollyweirds anti-American bias but there would not be enough room in this thread. Indeed all the threads in the world would not be enough to chronicle Hollyweirds leftwing anti-American bias.

Chris St. James: Shut the fuck up.

Chris St. James, you said earlier that you don’t watch movies.

So either you’re a liar or you’re talking about something you don’t know anything about.

In almost every action film ( the Bourne trilogy immediately comes to mind) America is always portrayed as the badguy.

No. No, it’s not. American assholes are the bad guys. “America” actually turns out to be the “good guy,” if catching the bad guys being bad and punishing them for their obscene violations of “American principles” counts for anything. Kinda like in real life, except of course the American assholes have been kicking America’s ass for a while now. Dipshit.

Or, y’know, what everyone in the whole world said.

So either you’re a liar or you’re talking about something you don’t know anything about.

I don’t see why we have to choose.

My solution is old tech: VCR. All I watch is the (A) Daily Show and Colbert, and skip the commercials. This ads for extra humor since I tape the first run version, which in our area is mainly supported by Girls Gone Wild ads, ads for local phone/singles hotlines, and best of all, during the recent National Stock Show, tons of ads for all the local strip joints. The boys had just gotten into Denver from the hicksville heartland they live in and were lookin’ for serious T & A apparently; so much for the heartland values our resident poopieheads were always going on about. Word is that the Stockshow period is when these joints make the best bucks of the year.

I grew up in a town so small we only had 1 TV station until the early 1970’s; I recall my mom keeping track of the miles of cable strung each day until glory be! we could start paying for TV! I watched it until my essential latter day hippieness came to the surface, and basically hated it ever since. Sometimes I go visit my parents and they watch all the truly violent dreck (which overwhelms me with how brutal and phoney it is) or they watch BilloLielly, which causes spontaneous vomiting unless I leave the room immediately. If it wasn’t for Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, I’d turn the damned thing off and quit paying the cable bill.

I have no doubt that the programs that folks here are saying are good, are actually, well, good. I just prefer reading or playing my bass when it’s dark out, or playing outside when it is still light in the evening (some childhood habits never change I guess). I suppose that makes me an elitist pig, but the time I don’t spend on TV gets spent being sucked in here and at Tboggs, learning an instrument later in life, or sweating my butt off (literally) on my mountain bike. I must admit I get a kick out of riding some 20 year old into the ground when I’m probably older than their mom; that’s more fun to me than TV is. I guess that makes me not only an elitist pig, but a evil old one at that.

It seems to me that chris st. saulbooger has never had an independent thought. He likes things that support his worldview, and he hates things that challenge it, thereby requiring him to “think” and perhaps adjust his belief systems accordingly.

It appears he does not feel safe outside his cozy little set of beliefs and prejudices. He likes Bruce Willis, not because he’s a good actor doing interesting work in challenging roles, but because “he’s a conservative”.

He likes films he deems are “patriotic”, not films that are good, or interesting, or that might cause him to reflect upon his view of the world and the value he brings to his community.

Oh, and of course, any kind of “tolerance” is bad, unless it’s for his eternal victimhood…

mikey

The CIA are defending our freedom. How dare Hollyweird portray them as the villans. I support the CIA and their mission. I understand that it is sometimes necessary for our national security for the CIA to support dictators like Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak ( who is pro-American by the way) in order to prevent the islamo-fascists or communists from coming to power. Recently for example the Bush Administation because of their principles of supporting democracy pressured Mubarak to hold free elections. Big mistake, the terrorist entity the Muslim Brotherhood won several seats in the Egyptian Parliment. I strongly agree that democracy is good for America and the West. But in Egypt for example it is not good as evidenced by the Egyptian peoples support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt is a very strategic ally in the Arab world and a pro-Western bulwark against terrorism that is why it is absolutely necessary for the CIA to support Mubarak even though he is a dictator.

mikey:
Sounds like an example of a High Right-Wing Authoritarianism personality:
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

Hey mikey, isn’t it nice when the topic of analysis shows up on cue to provide a big, shiny example of how right your analysis is?

By “nice,” of course, I mean crashingly boring and deeply depressing. But still.

I like BSG and can’t wait for the new season. I suspect the reason they don’t see and aliens is because it is fairly likely that’s how it will be if we ever become a space faring culture. I think there should be alien life out there but I don’t think they’ll be easy to find.

Lost I never got into. I saw the first 2 seasons I think but in order to watch TV I have to reserve time in the community room and it just wasn’t worth it to me.

I like 3D animation because that is what I am trying to teach myself so that I can move on. So I like anything by Pixar, Ratatouille was fantastic.

Yeah, democracy is evil, especially if those dirty commies hippies Islamofascists decide that they don’t to pay your taxes on tea.

I support the CIA and their mission.

Yeah, I’m sure you’re outraged about Valerie Plame being outed.

The CIA are defending our freedom. How dare Hollyweird Cheney, Novak, and the Scooter portray them as the villans.

Fixed your typo.

According to Chrissie, democracy is only good if the elections result in the winner YOU want.

Now you’ve done it g, I predict that within 5 minutes we’ll get the usual talking points that she wasn’t covert, etc. Proven to be incorrect of course, but that never stops the authoritarian Bush bots.

string, I’m sitting on the edge of my seat wondering how he’s going to reconcile his conflict.

Except, actually, he’s just never that interesting.

I’m making a big pot of soup to take to our friend ZK’s family, Squash and Sweet Potato soup garnished with Chile/honey puree and creme fraiche.

Then there’s the chicken wings to put on for the football game.

Excellent to know about [strike] (funny in the context of the thread). I had been resorting to & # 822 after every letter, which is awkward at best. The “it worked in preview” monster got me as well.

Locations, locations, locations. I laughed my ass off at “Tightrope” in New Orleans jumping all over the place, and the last time I saw “Dirty Harry” I seem to remember it going from SF to Marin in one short pan of the camera. I still enjoy picking out street corners in movies set in NY, though it has been so long since I’ve lived there that I’m not very good at it anymore.

ifthethunderdontgetya,
That sticker is overflow from a couple of other threads. It’s gbear’s line, so I didn’t want to screw with it much. The original comment is about the back of his truck during this year’s convention, so I doubt there would be much confusion. Someone else did a perfectly serviceable version elsewhere, but I just had to see it with squatting elephants.

Chris,

Just go back to chanting “Alan Keyes 2008”.

It’s a better match for your intellectual abilities.

Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008!

Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008!

Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008!

Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008!

Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008! Alan Keyes 2008!

Ok, someone must be posting as Christ St. James. There’s no way a credible conservative would really support a black guy.

“credible conservative”

Shirley, you jest.

It’s probably too late now to say stop calling me surely.

http://www.jesusoftheweek.com/

g said: Equally, I’m sick and tired of all the family comedies that seem to be set only in parts of the country where homes cost upward of a million bucks.

Well, most of those TV writers live in those parts of the country, i.e., NY or LA, and “write what you know” was the first thing anybody ever told them about writing.

I still treasure the memory of a show that lasted about a month back in the ’80s or thereabouts. It was about 4 strangers who found that they were actually the heirs to the throne of a faraway, magical kingdom — a kingdom where regular people could never go — called Glendora.

What made it funny was, Glendora happens to be the name of a McMansion-filled suburb of LA, about 20 miles east of downtown and 30 east of Beverly Hills. Clearly, to those writers, it might as well really have been a faraway magical kingdom where normal people never went.

Shorter Chris St. James:
“Bruce Willis betrayed conservative principles by implying anyone besides towelheads are capable of doing bad things. And that is why I want to put Sean Penn in a concentration camp.”

we sometimes have some hilarious (to me) conversations about movies set in Los Angeles, where people drive forty miles to Marina del Rey for lunch and then go right back to the office during week day lunch hour, and nobody at work says anything about what was probably a four-hour absence.

The movie That Was Then, This Is Now (don’t even bother trying to remember it) was set in the Twin Cities and we had the same laugh fest over the locations. The final act of the movie has a guy visiting his brother in prison and, as he leaves, the camera moves outdoors to show him walking down the steps of the MN Historical Society Building, right next to the state capitol (which is where the cameras were located).

justme, I saw the sqatting elephant version and I thought it was cool. I liked it. I do kinda miss the credits at the bottom though, ::sniff::

i am so sick of liberal blogs thinking that somehow they should be on the writer’s side, that somehow there is some “principle” involved other than “get mine before he gets his”.

there isn’t. the number of slimy shit that the writers did in advance of this strike, followed by the number of slimy things they have done during the strike is breathtaking.

and they’ve taken every liberal blog for a ride spouting their utterly contemptible bullshit. let me tell you something–when paul haggis says “we are just asking for 125 million more from the studios, which breaks down to 6,000 dollars per writer”, i will translate that from the original bullshitese into english:

about 115 writers will take 1 million extra each more or less, and the other 11,875 will split the tiny remainder. if they are lucky.

don’t get me wrong, i’d rather have my neighbors here in my super-fancy LA neighborhood continue to be mostly writers–maybe some of them need to put gun turrets on the third floor or whatever, and definitely better them then the studio types, but to think that anything else is going on here other than the rich getting richer…you just have to be naive and stupid.

really.

i’m…not happy to enumerate what has gone on in more specificity. maybe i’m just some producer hack or i’m jealous or i have an ulterior agenda. maybe. but i’m pretty well known around this here blog and i hope i’ve built up enough residual credibility (as opposed to residuals, us producers only get net points, aka unicorn fairy money) that my word will be taken seriously.

an anecdote: a writer friend of mine, one who has been showrunner on a couple of the biggest tv dramas of the past 15 years, has had the following deal over the past 4 years at a studio: he and his partner make 7 figures a year each in salary, plus a whole slew of support staff. they have made one pilot a year for those 4 years at an average cost of 7 million each. none of those pilots have made it onto the air. the studio has therefore lost on my friend’s company over 35 million dollars in four years. and what did the studio do when confronted with the end of my friend’s deal? they re-upped them with a raise.

hard times. it’s just like the janitors strike here in LA, or the supermarket strike (don’t worry, in neither case did the writers do fuck-all in solidarity with real working men and women–they just kept shopping at ralph’s because other markets were too far away). only it’s not, is the point.

gbear,

Better?

Too Far?

Just let me know.

Yeah writers! Go writers go! Get paid what you fucking deserve!

…then again, I have my own opinion about what *some* writers deserve after a friend of mine took me to see Doom.

master of logic–the writers of doom made, collectively, a couple of million dollars on it, maybe more. they did so without anyone being sure if the movie would be a hit, or do anything other than lose a lot of money.

if that’s the team you want to be on, just be aware of the players a bit more, is all.

having said all of this, my closest friendships are with writers, who are in general an interesting and intelligent group of humans, standing out all the more here in LA.

so, conflicted by all this. go giants! is easier to think about right now.

The friends of Eddie Coyle . Now there was a film spoken through Peter Boyle that would
satisfy your most intense fictional inner bush malignancy .
The streets are all different now so that part requires translation . We all have been told translation only gets higher the lower you go .
Away from me had a cute little DVD extra where the ?Director? railed humorously about fake snow pointing it out in !Deleted! scenes . Sehr cute

Chris St. James said,

Hollywood is biased left. If I were President I would send in tanks and special forces and have the anti-American traitors rounded up and imprisoned for aiding and abetting the enemy during a time of war.

Who’d all have head shots and resumes to submit to every stinkin’ agent on the Boulevard, shithead.

Please, I am trying to self-identify as a parody troll but none of you will put me out of my misery by recognizing this!

And my brother can really go on about how ludicrous the driving scenes and various other scenes are.

My favorite is ConAir and the plane landing on the Vegas strip. Flying south past the Stratosphere and somehow crashing through Fremont Street, which is quite a bit north of the Stratosphere. Plus some crazy non-existent tunnel that somehow take you right back where you started.

Please, I am trying to self-identify as a parody troll but none of you will put me out of my misery by recognizing this!

Did you want the troll fairy to appear and bop you on the head with her wand?