I Think I'd Rather Watch This On TV

And I don't mean "oh this was paradise built by the mob!"  I was walking thru the casino floor of the Venetian looking at all of these people desperate to give their money to all of these other people who...didn't look like they really cared.  Suddenly I wanted to see those stories.

Why do so many people choose to get married in a place called Sin City?  Why are they there to celebrate the end of being single, the beginning of holy union and the monotony of the end of their lives all in the same place?  Everywhere you turn are Brides and weird couples and solitary old people.  I mean when you see the military folks you kinda understand, they want to blow off steam and be as far from "Regulated Order" that their own lives represent.

But what brings everyone else back?  And why hasn't anyone documented that question and maybe some answers?

Then there is the other side.  The facilitators.  The dealers, the cabbies, the limo guys the ARMY OF BARTENDERS and the supply line of sex workers/"advertisers".  I know a lot of them train in the area and generally have chosen to be there.  You have these dealers who have 17, 18, 19 years listening to jackasses like me ask them what the rules say about hitting that 12 against a possible 16.  What are they getting out of life that a postal worker isn't?  Why aren't there more Casino Worker killing sprees?  Cocktail waitressing is something I always hear sucks?  Yet there are a bunch of them?  What is holding these people here?  It isn't like Los Angeles where you can fool yourself into thinking that you might still be discovered...I mean i suppose that you might marry some rich d00d that youmet when you brought him that Irish coffee during the hottest streak in his life.  I suppose.

I have no snappy finisher to this.  Just something I was thinking about all weekend, while Vegas was reminding me I was too old to be hanging out there.

But not old enough to be playing slots and kino all day.

I really need to do some writing but I am off to Vegas for the weekend. 

I have no real comment to make beyond that.  Well I do but it is nothing that I need to say on a public forum. 

So i have done almost a full year of not blogging.  I have to admit that my last blog kinda put me off the whole thing.  I still miss Rory.

Enough about that, though. 

So nowadays I have a crazy 2 year old.  I am writing pitches

Wait. 

I was writing pitches.  Then some d00d busted my car window at high noon and stole all my writing notes and my laptop.  I am sad to lose the laptop but it is devastating to lose my writing notes.  i had one of those 3 subject spiral binders with notes about everything from learning basic japanese to scheduling and producing TV movies to sketched out ideas for animated and kids shows.  No back ups for handwriting.  I guess I could start scanning pages after I write on them and then i would have backups in iPhoto.

I have gotten into some other pretty cool music, mostly thanks to NPR's All Songs Considered and My man Han

St Vincent's "Actor" is getting good play on my iPod as is Silversun Pickups and Autolux which inspired me to write two different tv show ideas.

Writing is weird.  Trying to see if I can really write for comics.  Working up some pitches now.  Then throwing out some emails and see if I can land me some of those fancy meetings at San Diego Comicon.  Taking a class at UCLA by Nunzio Defilippis on how to write comics.  I never felt comfortable with the format and I hope this helps me out. I haven't forgotten my TV writing but I hate talking about TV ideas on the Internerd.

Guess that is a good start.  Going to Vegas this weekend, which should be full of stories I will never re-tell until my deathbed.  heh.

Check out:
MUSIC
"The Strangers" - St Vincent
"God Is Love"  - Eleni mandell
"TIA" - K'Naan
"Here Comes Everybody" - Autolux ( I know this is an old track but I just got to it.)

TV
Southland - NBC - I can't sayitis great but I am surprised how much I love following the stories of the beat cops.  If the detectives disappeared (maybe not Regina King) I would not be sad.

The Unusuals - Argh more cops.  I think ABC felt burned by all their quirky shows and are hammering out the weirdness of this show.  But dammit the cast is so good I have to give it a chance.

Harper's Island. - CBS - I have no idea how this got on but it is such a faithful homage to 80s slasher movies and so goofy it is fun that I can't stop watching.  It's either the mother or everyone is killing everyone.

Reading
getting Things Done - I am all unorganized.  I find that when i follwo a chapters advice I feel a sense of relief.  then I mess everything up again and the anxiety returns.

the Road, No 1 Ladies Detective and Audacity of Hope - Books that have been sitting on my beloved Kindle for a while that i thought I should finally read.  Weirdly they all kinda flow together into a big meta story...

 

Honestly that is how I will always remember Rory.

We figured out that we had met when I was in college at UC Berkeley.  I had moved to a North side apartment and was working at a Copymat just down the block from him so I start going to Comic Relief  It turned out to be a pretty great store even back in the late 80s.  They did pull lists which I never had seen before and the staff was good about recommending books.  So I would go in every week and Rory said that we probably talked to each other a lot.  After all we were both Legion fans.

I really didn't become friends with him I started working in TV.  I had started up a relationship with Warren Ellis and that of course meant becoming part of his online community.   So I was trawling for interesting books for possible kids  shows.  I got some decent suggestions and some TERRIBLE ones, Then I got an email from this retailer, Rory Root.  He wanted to know if I would be coming to San Diego.   When I got there I started what would be come the other constant in my relationship with him.  Rory pulls out stacks of books  but before he lets me look he check to make sure if this would be my money or the companies.  Then he smoothly seperated me from said money and replaced it with great books, all the while making sure I would stop to be introduced to creators that ALWAYS stopped by to say hi to him.  He was always ready to talk about any kind of reading material or new show he just got into.  But the guy was never rude.  He always made everyone around him feel welcome.

He knew everybody.  He knew every comic shop I ever went to and the owners.  He knew the staff of I think the top 40 comic companies.  From the president down to the guy who got coffee. 

Anyway, I would always make an effort to talk to Rory whenever I was in the Bay or at a Con.  I was pretty quick to catch on that as often as he was at the booth helping someone find some new book, he would be standing just outside a door smoking and talking to someone about something.  So at the big cons I would usually
 start outside then head to his booth.  Hell after a while I would just always volunteer to help set up.  Didn't care if I had meetings the rest of the day or not.  We had a ritual of always buying each other  an egg sandwich at the start of APE.  Or discussing the best place to grab some food during the day.  He would always know the gossip on the floor but he would never talk shit about anyone...although he could make it clear when he didn't approve of something.

When I was finally talked into doing a comic, he was the first guy I talked to.  He always had a minute for my stupid ass questions and two or three ideas about how to get the sales up.  He once gave a me a pretty long talking to about opportunities I could take to get the book out there but totally was sympathetic about events in my life that were interfering.  When that turned around and he was having problems with his store I didn't hesitate to throw any help I could his way cause I know he would have for me, but would never ask me otherwise.

I can't lie.  I am really broken up about his passing because he was always there.  I always thought I would be lifting his heavy ass shelves for APE, debating whether Levitz would ever make us both happy and put out the Legion archives of his run, eating egg sandwiches and talking about up and coming creators.  I just thought I would always have time with that friend.  Now he is gone and the last thing I said was that I would call him in a week and I forgot to get back to him.

And I am pretty sure he didn't mind that I forgot.  I hope he at least went out thinking about something fun.

Rest In Peace Rory.

I am reposting this to go along with the start of the new fall season.  Cuz you know it is important to understand the process.

I was roaming the Internerd, and ran across a conversation that I see a lot about how the networks are keeping the good shows off the air for the purpose of the big hit.

While that is sorta true, I mean who doesn't want a big hit, people don't take into account the whole process of TV. For one, it isn't free. It is paid for by the commercials you don't watch. Because of that economic restriction you have to play pretend. Pretend that the audience IS watching the commercial, we the network will guarantee that so many 18-35 year old eyes will watch it during the Wacky Adventures of "Soon To Be In Rehab". Of course when the audience sees thru the "talents" of the star of STBIR, then the network has to make up for the lack of audience for those commercials. Hence it is cheaper to rerun the show "That Put Her in Therapy", then to show even 3 episodes of STBIR

So you are saying that it is impossible for anything new to get a chance?

Yeah but here's the thing you are forgetting:

Heather Graham is perceived as a huge star draw. SO the ad sales (not to mention the endless promotion) were huge. then it comes back with a number that makes the WB look like it is running new episodes of "ER vs CSI" SUPA INSTANT FLOPU! As much as people complain, smaller shows will get given more of a chance if they are:

1. Cheap, like Seinfeld and Cheers. those were easy to produce set shows with a cast of largely unknown or "don't care abouts"
2. Show some kinda growth from episode to episode...All I can think of at the moment is Dawson's but that is a bad example. OH! 24 and The OC!
3. do HUGE numbers demographically. Buffy was never a true ratings winner but it had great teen girl numbers. this is actually the case for most of the WB shows. So from there the network could guarantee specific marketing and charge bigger ad money.

Once you start screwing around with lots of stars or expensive producers (Arrested Development I am looking at youuuu) or huge casts and lots of OUTSIDE locations (Still looking at you AD and EYES, you can't hide either) then the only thing that will save a show is if it gets a high placed exec behind it to champion the show (and risk her/his career).

Huh, that was kinda informative...

I actually wrote this three years ago.  Apparently my rage did not change the industry one bit...

Looking over the New Fall Season is usually like sneaking a peek at Xmas presents for me. So imagine my surprise when I looked into the back of the closet to find that i am getting the same presents that I got last year!

I can't believe I am saying this but WHAT HAPPENED TO MAKING SITCOMS???

Used to be that networks knew what a sitcom was. It was a COMEDY derived from a SITUATION. Now I know the pendants among you will bristle at my next comment but BEING AT WORK OR HOME WITH  FAMILY IS NOT A SITUATION...unless one of the family is a robot, monkey or alien.

We used to watch shows about martians and witches and genies living among us. We would stand around the water cooler discuss the folly of liberals living in peace with bigots and how similar the slob on TV was to the husband of the neat freak we know. I admit I never knew any hillbillies that hit it rich nor reading about the leading scientist of coconut technology being stranded on an island with the 3rd richest man in the world but it was fun to watch.  Now we have gotten to uppity to enjoy the weekly antics of one ethnicity living with another richer ethnicity.

Personally I blame the Bradys for blurring the line. I mean, yeah it is crazy bananas to see kids and a maid in a house with one bathroom and four bedrooms, but beyond that nothing was really happening that you couldn't do with just two or three kids. I mean look at Diff'rent Strokes, which continued to erode the comedy barrier while setting a record for the damage an innocent entertainment could do to the lives of children.  You have to admit it was life changing.  At least for some kids who had nothing but a dream.  Meanwhile the rest of us learned to NEVER GO NEAR A BICYCLE SHOP!  But the next thing you know we are watching Cosby and Seinfeld and people forgot that people really want to see folks put into wacky, yet slightly plausible situation to comfort them in their own grey lives.

How do I know this? Because the oneline for every  reality show is frighteningly similar to a sitcom description. Dammit stop wasting all the good set ups on Paris Hilton and people named Fantasia and let's get back to answering the question of how to live with talking animals or inanimate objects!!!

Cuttin'

I'm at the shop this week and my barber and I are debating the merits of the movie I, Robot when another customer gets a bit loud.

"Dammit i have been in the barber business for 45 years. Dale [My barber] was in grade school when i was starting my haircutting. So when I say this I know full well of what i speak" (seriously that is how he spoke)

"The Japanese, the Thai and especially the KO-reans have all learned to cut hair. They are driving Black barbers out of business"

ME:Um...I have never seen a korean cut black hair

"Man, you just a youngster. You don't know. They are running us out"

My barber, said to pay him no mind as he was crazy. Considering the shop is named after the barber who is in jail for shooting someone in the buttocks, on two occasions, I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the clientele.

So I wrote the above in 2004, and I now go to a new shop to get my cut and sure enough, there is a Korean guy cuttin' .  I still think that guy was a fruitcake but `i lost my notes on his other grand theories of the World.