A Writers Strike Love Story

I found this over at Collen Doran's site adistantsoil.comCollen is a talented artist/writer that has worked for all the major comic book publishers and is the creator of the comic series A Distant Soil. She had this up on her site and I just had to post it here, this is really funny. Really Really funny.

Speechless #16

A side note, the woman in the glasses is Patricia Clarkson who is from New Orleans. Her Mom is on the city council.

Writers Strike

According to United Hollywood site the producers have offered the writers a deal. This is the deal:

When an hourlong episode of television is streamed on the Internet, writers would get a flat $250 payment for one year of reuse. That's $250 as opposed to, for example, $20,000 per episode when it's reused on network television. They proposed nothing new on downloads, it's still the DVD formula for those (ie. two-thirds of a penny for an iTunes download). For theatrical movies, they're offering exactly $0.00 on streaming. Oh, and they want to be able to define any content they like as "promotional" -- for which they would pay zero dollars. Even if they stream an entire film or tv episode, and even if they sell ads on it, they can call that promotional and pay us nothing.

So the writers will be striking for awhile longer.

Christmas Music: Bing Crosby and David Bowie

This one has a little backstory for me. Back when he was alive Bing Crosby had an annual Christmas special on TV. I remember when I was a kid watching the special when David Bowie appeared on the show with Bing. This is the type of match up you would think wouldn't work, but somehow these two great singers make it work.

Bushisms of the Day

President Bush: "Peter. Are you going to ask that question with shades on?"
Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times: "I can take them off."
Bush: "I'm interested in the shade look, seriously."
Wallsten: "All right, I'll keep it, then."
Bush: "For the viewers, there's no sun."
Wallsten: "I guess it depends on your perspective."
Bush: "Touche.
--an exchange with legally blind reporter Peter Wallsten, to whom Bush later apologized, Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

BOOK FUN

What 20th-century muckracker spent the latter years of his life investigating ancient Athens for his book The Trial of Socrates?

Yesterday's answer: Winston Churchill's

ROCK N ROLL HISTORY

The classic "Reelin' in the Years" is from what Steely Dan record?

Yesterday's answer: Olivia Newton-John

WORD A DAY

POLLYANNA: a person characterized by irrepressible optimism and a tendency to find good in everything

In her 1913 novel Pollyanna, American author Eleanor Hodgman Porter introduced an orphan whose father had taught her "to find something about everything to be glad about." Pollyanna called her goodness quests the "just being glad game," and she played it to the hilt. The characters in the book admired Pollyanna's ability to look on the bright side, but in the real world people often find such excessive optimism a bit nauseating. That more cynical attitude toward extreme cheerfulness prompted people to start using the character's name as a term for anyone given to blind optimism and what some writers called "sentimental rot."

Christmas Music: White Christmas by Bing Crosby

Between now and Christmas I think I'm going to post Christmas music on here. This is from the movie Holiday Inn, a great movie starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. I really like this song.

Charlie Brown and Scrubs

This is the Charlie Brown Christmas special with the voices of the actors from Scrubs. Very strange.

Writer Strike News

Talks continue between the studios and the writers. I've read that things are going great and things are going terrible. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Carson Daly is back to work on his late night show. David Letterman has been paying his staff while the strike continues and Jay Leno is out on the picket lines delivering donuts. And Carson decides to cross the picket lines...

Speechless

Tune Up

I've worked on the blog some, dropping some stuff on the sidebars, trying to clean it up. I know I have a lot of stuff that probably makes loading it a pain, so I've tried to streamline it some. I've also dropped a few blogs and added some new ones. I've still got some more work to do one here, but it's going to be a little longer to get everything back to the way I want it completely.

Bushisms of the Day

"I've reminded the prime minister-the American people, Mr. Prime Minister, over the past months that it was not always a given that the United States and America would have a close relationship." George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., June 29, 2006

BOOK FUN

What statesman's six-volume series The Second World War opens with The Gathering Storm?

Yesterday's answer: The Annoyance Bureau

ROCK N ROLL HISTORY

Celebrating her birthday today, "I Honestly Love You" was a #1 hit for this female vocalist in 1974.

Yesterday's answer: The Partridge Family

WORD A DAY

CALUMNY: false and malicious accusation

"Calumny" comes from the Middle French word calmonie, which traced to the Latin word calumnia, meaning "false claim," or "trickery." The original Latin base was calvi, meaning "to deceive."

The 10 Best Books of 2007

This is according to the New York Times. Unfortunately I haven't read any of these books.

American Anthemn

This is from Norah Jones and the end of the Ken Burns' documentary THE WAR. A very moving song without having to resort to the jingoism that a lot of "partriotic" songs seem to.

Entertainer of the Year

Look who was named Entertainer of the Year by Entertainment Weekly! Well deserved. And this is a great magazine to keep up with the entertainment industry. They stay away from the majority of gossip and rumor and talk about what's actually going on.