Sweet Catastrophe

Nope, Britney’s not pregnant again, but her 16 year old little sister, Jamie Lynn is! She’s 12 weeks along! I’d link you to an article but it’s really all over the place.

She’s still working for Nickelodeon…I wonder how they’ll deal with it.

Her mom was initially in shock because Jamie Lynn’s always been so level-headed…I mean, “She’s never late for her curfew.” <—-ahaha! ‘Cause you can’t possibly be having sex if you’re home on time. Sex can only occur after curfew.

Oh man the media is going to have too much fun with this one.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Mom was working on a parenting book for a Christian publisher…not so sure that deal will be sticking.

Last Monday night, an employee at a gas station in Wisconsin changed their gas price to $.329 and left for the evening. It was supposed to be $3.299, but the final 9 got left off. At this gas station, gas can still be purchased after closing–pay at the pump only, of course.

42 people “stopped by” and purchased 586 gallons of gas at the 33cent price! Police saw the crowds at the pumps and contacted the store owner, who pushed the emergency stop valves.

She called the people who purchased gas at that price dishonest.

I call them broke. If the average price in my town is $3.30 and I’ve got a chance to buy gas for $.33 cents, you better believe I would. People make mistakes, yes, but accepting that doesn’t mean we think they don’t have to suffer the consequences of those mistakes!

No, purchasing the gas isn’t the most honest thing to do, but how many people are going to pull in for gas and then decide to go elsewhere to pay more? How many people are going to be told they can get gas so cheaply and just pass it up? It’s gas! We’re being overcharged for it, and we know it, so why not take advantage when opportunity knocks?!

Source

I’m still getting people who think the strike is about already rich people wanting more money. Let’s see if Mike Schur’s words make any more sense to you.

It’s sometimes hard to explain to people that we are not striking to make sure Aaron Sorkin doesn’t have to fall out of escrow on his eleventh vacation home, but rather for the vast majority of our union who work sporadically, who average $62,000 a year, and who often find themselves undesirable hirees around age 40 if they never managed to land a job on a hit show.

So how do we get our point across, to people who don’t understand why we’re doing this? The best way I have found, is to say: everything on the internet? We get zero. They get everything. They get millions and millions and eventually billions and billions, and we get zero. And the “they,” here, is basically six of the biggest baddest companies in the world, run by men who annually receive salaries and compensation well north of 50 million dollars.

Almost there? No? How about a number you can really understand.

…well, over time they will end up reducing my salary by something like 85%.

Get it now? This isn’t about the rich kids, so drop all the crap about Condo Hotels, Ferraris. and 3 vacation homes. Those aren’t the people we’re talking about here.

There’s very little job safety for these people. When they’re in a slump, or out of work altogether, they rely on residuals to get them through. What they’re making this year may have to cover all their bills next year as well.

Basically they’re bottling urine and feces and placing a balloon over the bottle opening. They leave it out in the sun for a few days, or even a few hours to ferment then they get high off the gases that have separated.

It’s supposedly similar to a cocaine high, but the hallucinations are even stronger. It takes only 10 seconds to sink in, with the strongest hallucinations occurring around 20 minutes in. All those who discussed the use stated that it leaves the taste in your mouth for days.

Click for larger:

Aside from sounding like some Mr. Fab would get a kick out of, I’m disgusted. Seriously, can’t you find anything better to do? I’m sure at the very least, you could find a better drug to do–one that wouldn’t leave the taste of shit in your mouth for a week…I can’t believe the crap they’ve come up with.

I guess this all came about at the appropriate time considering everyone’s now talking about 2 girls 1 cup….and if you don’t know what that is, you don’t want to.

So from talking about it at work and with neighbors and everyone, it seems some don’t quite grasp what the strike is about. Jenna Fischer (Pam–The Office) has been blogging about it and she tells it in a way that’s pretty easy to understand.

Who benefits from the strike? Who are we fighting for?

Some people have asked if everyone will benefit from the strike or if only the writers benefit. The Writers Guild only negotiates for writers. However, they are the first union contract to be up with the studios. The Actor’s Guild contract is up in June 2008 and you can bet we will be fighting for the same residuals. It is important to support the writer’s strike because the results of this strike will trickle down to the other union contracts…just like how a court ruling effects future rulings. We are a union show and hire union crew members.

And, as James put it in his blog: “This is for middle-class writers – your regular TV staff writers and people who may have done one or two small feature films. Residuals are a way they can make perhaps a few thousand dollars a year between gigs. This is a way they can put food on the table and pay the rent during downtime – and downtime is something almost all writers (and actors and directors) have.”

Let’s say you write a movie script and you sell it for $100,000…that’s GREAT money! Your movie gets made and yada yada. You start churning away writing more scripts. But it takes you 4 years before you sell your next script. That $100,000 windfall is now stretched to $25,000 a year for 4 years. (And, I’m not even counting the 30% that goes to taxes and 25% to your agent/manager.) If during that 4 years they sell your movie on DVD or run it on Pay-per-view you get little residual checks for $1,000 here or $2,500 there. That money is essential for getting by. This scenerio is what the majority of writers, actors and directors in Hollywood face. You have a few flush years and then a big drought.

The future of media is the internet. In a few years it is more likely that you will download a movie or television show than buy it on DVD. But as it currently stands, those downloads produce no residuals for the creative types that made them. All the profit goes to the studio.

This is a great video with snazzy graphics that helps explain the strike. The studios stand to earn a projected $2 billion over the next few years from internet downloads. But they dont’ want to share.

So yeah, it’s a big deal. For instance, I pretty much always work the nights my shows air, so I watch them online. This season, I’ve spent countless hours on NBC.com watching shows. They generally have about 4 ‘commercials’ within an episode, all on the same product. Those ads are paid for. That’s money the network is making, that no one else is seeing.

I mentioned not knowing what I want to do about DMI–the writers create content for that site as part of ‘promotion.’ Ads are sold to be run on the site and they don’t get compensated for that.

I keep seeing this argument that networks are saying that the internet media is too new to gauge what would be appropriate–that really doesn’t trump the idea that if you’re making money from it, they should be too. I think the idea of doing a percentage is perfect.

And yeah, right now this is about the writers, but in less than a year, the actors will be facing this same problem, and if they don’t give anything to the writers, the actors won’t be getting anything either. It just happened that the writers were first up to bat.

After this next set of episodes, I’m thinking about killing my tv schedule until all this is clear.

if fans want to help, they should write letters to NBC at this address:

Jeff Zucker
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112

ETA: the West Coast address, from killersharky:

Jeff Zucker, President and CEO
NBC Universal
3000 W. Alameda Ave.
Burbank, CA. 91523

According to Michael, bombarding the studios with lots of mail is a good way to get the message across that we won’t put up with going without quality, scripted shows. So if you were wondering how you could help, here’s a suggestion from the writers themselves.

I’m considering this letter as well. I can always pick back up when this all settles and catch up on old episodes, so it won’t kill me. In the meantime, I’ve gotta find some old shows to watch or something!

The strike is still going strong, with most nighttime talk shows such as Leno, Letterman, The Daily Show and Colbert report all going to immediate reruns. Leno even showed up at a picket to bring doughnuts to the group.

This is the first walkout since 1988–the 1988 strike lasted 22 weeks and cost over $500 million in losses for the industry.

This time around, only a few days into it, large ads for sweeps have already been pulled.

They’re still saying the internet marketing of shows/movies is still too new to gauge proper compensation for writers. Writers are just asking for a percentage. That way, if it works out, they make money, if it doesn’t, they don’t! Gosh, what a concept.

Daniels Pickets ‘Office’ Production
TV Week.com

“The Office” showrunner Greg Daniels has joined the picket line at his production company’s Van Nuys location in an attempt to shut down production of his show.

“We’re trying to shut down ‘The Office,’” Mr. Daniels said. “We have the star of our show and the entire writing staff behind us.”

Mr. Daniels says he arrived at 4:15 this morning and none of the show’s actors have crossed the line. “The Office” cast includes several performers who are also writers on the show, like B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling and Paul Lieberstein. “Office” star Steve Carell is a WGA member and is not showing up for work as well, he said.

Ouch. I think Kristi was right that they only have 2 episodes that have been shot, so who knows where my Thursday will be going. *sigh*

This is shaping up to be an interesting season, to say the least.

Anyone remember that song from Rocco’s Modern Life? It was the episode where they went to the movies–I think this was a preview for some movie about garbage workers on strike–they were singing rats, I believe.

Anyhow, the writer’s strike is officially under way. The part of me that enjoys drama can’t wait to see these daily shows feel the burn, but at the same time, I really don’t want to see the impact on my beloved shows. I’m not even so much worried about the risk of running out of material, but even the shows they’ve got written, but not taped will be affected. There’s so much re-writing during shooting to change things that don’t work, and cut for time, and write in things to make sure it all makes sense when you have to cut something for time…I just hope it doesn’t all go downhill. I’d almost rather see a bunch of re-runs than a bunch of botched episodes.

I’ve been looking through a lot of the articles on the whole situation and I think the most interesting idea that keeps popping up is about hyphenates–writer-producers, actor-writer, etc. The idea is for there to be a totally dedicated strike, meaning that even these hyphenates wouldn’t show up to work at all so that they’d really be strapped, but in their dual roles, they’re still under contract to show up in their non-writing capacity, strike or not. So not only do they have to struggle with the decision of what to do there, but if they decide to show up, how do they refrain from assisting on re-writes and such? How do they just stand back and let the show sink?

I definitely don’t envy the situation the hyphenates are in. I don’t think this bodes well for shows that have just started.

Oh! But I did read a tidbit the other day suggesting that news shows that really should’ve already been cancelled (*ahem* the Caveman thing…) are probably still around because networks wanted to prolong the amount of taped shows they have. Good to know they’re not completely blind to crappy material.

Two things, both within this same article from MSN.

LONDON — J.K. Rowling has completed her first book not to feature teen wizard Harry Potter — an illustrated collection of magical fairy stories titled “The Tales of Beedle the Bard.”

Only seven copies of the book are being printed, Rowling said Thursday. One will be auctioned next month to raise money for a children’s charity, while the others have been given away as gifts.

Rowling drew the illustrations herself and provided the handwriting for the five stories that make up the collection

“The Tales of Beedle the Bard” is mentioned in the final Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” as a gift left by headmaster Albus Dumbledore to Harry’s friend Hermione, and provides clues that help destroy evil Lord Voldemort.

“‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard’ is really a distillation of the themes found in the Harry Potter books, and writing it has been the most wonderful way to say goodbye to a world I have loved and lived in for 17 years,” Rowling said in a statement.

The volume, bound in brown morocco leather and mounted with silver and semiprecious stones, will be auctioned at Sotheby’s on Dec. 13 with a starting price of $62,000. Proceeds will go to The Children’s Voice, a charity that helps vulnerable children across Europe.

Wonder how long it’ll be before we can get our hands on these stories. I’m not overly excited, but I’m definitely intrigued.

On Wednesday, Rowling and the makers of the Harry Potter movies filed a lawsuit against RDR Books, a small U.S. publisher that plans to bring out a companion volume based on the Harry Potter Lexicon fan Web site.

Rowling has said she plans to produce her own encyclopedia of the wizarding world and says the book would infringe on her intellectual property rights.

I can’t believe someone even attempted this. It’s pretty widely known that Rowling has planned an encyclopedia. There’s bound to be incorrect, and improbable assumptions published if you try to do your own. Man, leave that up to the original author!

I really hope we don’t have to wait long for this encyclopedia. I know Rowling wants to wait a while, and who could blame her, but I’d love some extra insight!

I was entertaining the idea of re-reading the series sometime soon, but thinking now, I may wait until the encyclopedia…however long that takes to get here.

Echo (Eliza Dushku) [is] a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.

Kristi brought this to my attention earlier and all I could say was “squeeee!!” But as she not-so-gently reminded me, it’s on FOX, which means it’ll be prematurely canceled. Can this please not just be Tru Calling all over again? I loved that show, dammit!

I’m only a little wary of the fact that reminds me so much of the premise of The Island. Mostly I’m just excited to see what Joss has in store for us now!

Photo courtesy of E!

November is the month for National Memory screening day. Free screenings are occurring across the nation throughout the month–I took a look at some of the dates/locations and it appears they’re all 4+ hour windows for you to go in and participate.

You’ll meet in private with a clinician. A series of questions/tasks will take place to test memory, language skills, thinking ability, etc. The clinician will review your results with you and discuss whether or not a follow up with your physician is advisable for more extensive testing. Your results are confidential.

I strongly suggest looking for the nearest screening and taking your loved ones. I don’t think anyone realizes just how strong the impact of Alzheimer’s can be until it’s too late. We’re experiencing it all now with my grandfather, and it’s really like he’s two different people. He’s still in earlier stages, so he really slips in and out of it, but when he goes, he’s just not my papa and it tears us all apart. He even got so angry last week that he slapped my grandmother. I admire her strength. A few hours later he held up his hand to do it again and she didn’t move; she just looked at him and said, “Johnny, if that’s what’s gonna make you feel better, just do it.” Later on when he was back to himself, he remembered what happened and got so upset. I can’t imagine what it’s like to know there are times when you can’t control yourself anymore.

The successful aging tips located on their site are actually some I think everyone should take a glance at. They’re pretty good guidelines for anyone’s mental health at just about any age.

Seeking the cure for Alzheimer’s is important, but we can’t forget those already suffering. Consider a contribution to Alzheimer’s Foundation of America to aid in the care of those already afflicted.

My grandfather is still in a place where we can take care of him, but with his attitude towards life right now, I fear it won’t be long before we have to place him in someone else’s hands.