My head is all full of Spike-thoughts, though. I blame CP. While she's the same virtual goddess who hustled down to Denver to loan me her tape of last week's episode, she's also the one who sat and talked Spike with me for an hour Saturday.
So, even though I didn't get a chance to actually watch the episode, I'm still all distracted.
I meant to watch the tape. I wanted to watch the tape. As it happens, though, at the same time I was out, getting the tape, buying two new pair of jeans, a ream of paper, some really cool folders that I'm not sure what I'll do with but that were on sale, etc., my roommate was falling off the gadget wagon.
After three years of hemming and hawing and looking and wishing, she bought one of those little, portable DVD players.
Heh. I, of course, get to be the virtuous one who didn't bring yet another gadget into the house and I get to play with the new toy. Hooray! for being me!
So, anyhow. Besides the usual laundry and some housecleaning, that's mostly what I did Sunday.
Which reminds me. I was watching my Jeeves and Wooster (Season Two) DVDs, and I owe torch a good kick on the shins. Until she wrote J&W slashy naughtiness, it never would have occurred to me to slash P.G.Wodehouse. And now every time I watch those DVDs, I see it.
She's a very bad girl, sometimes, isn't she?
Posted by AnneZook at 03:31 PMI'm always suspicious that this thing isn't on when I post something inflammatory and obnoxious about fandom and no one wants to argue about it.
It's snowing again, but no 30" in the forecast this time. Maybe an inch is all. Just enough to make tomorrow morning's commute messy, I'd guess.
So far, no outpouring of generosity in response to my desperate request for a copy of this week's episode of Spike BtVS but I just remembered that there's a local fan I can browbeat into loaning me her copy, so that's okay.
There's a party coming up in a couple of weeks. Bloggers from the Denver area, but a completely nonfandom group. I can't decide whether or not to go. I've made myself obnoxious in the comments section of one attendee's (political) blog more than once. I can't decide if that's a plus or a minus.
Also, strangers are scary. I'm not good around strangers.
Put me down in the "undecided" category for right now.
I really didn't have anything to say tonight.
Posted by AnneZook at 06:51 PMMy problem is that I have trouble getting past the concept of fandom as a "community." It's not a community and hasn't been one for a long time. Actually, it hasn't been one since the dawn of internet fandom.
(Later note: I didn't mean to, but I see I went off the deep end here and there. Be aware that my scornful references to "fans" refer to Them, not Us. We, of course, Do It Right, while They are hopeless morons. This is neither a fair nor a balanced view of fandom, which should surprise no one.)
(Admit it. If I were fair, balanced, and rational all of the time, you wouldn't even bother to read this, would you?)
(We now return you....)
Before the Internet (BtI), fandom was, more or less, a sort of community.
Conventions were small, run on a shoestring, informal, and cosy. (Beyond the Trek Machine that kicked in in the 80s, I mean.)
Fanzines were sold or passed from hand to hand. A few of these fanzines were discussion-based and included debate on stories and shows. Larger fandoms, or those with more passionate adherents, had their own discussion zines, but everyone was pretty much aware that they were a part of something larger, something known as "fandom" and it had a flexible but defined "shape" to it.
There were standards of behavior, too. There weren't that many people "active" publicly, so what you stood up and in public, or even via a round-robin letter discussion, was going to get around. (I'm not saying there wasn't a percentage of fans with no concept of acceptable behavior, just that they were fewer and farther between when there were, on the whole, fewer active fans. As is natural.)
BtI, bad behavior got you talked about, and not in the way most of us want to be talked about.
There were zines of dubious, not to say gawdawful, quality, but not thousands of them. Not many fans were willing to lose money in publishing something just as a vanity effort. Also, you didn't get much feedback on zines. Even if you sold a hundred copies, you weren't going to get a hundred loving feedback notes. (This was a Good Thing. It encouraged the talentless to stay out of writing.)
And then...the internet. In the very early days, things weren't much changed. On-line fandom was difficult to find and the "communities," while they tended to be more isolated within show-specific fandoms, were still largely self-policing.
The voices of sanity, at that point, still seemed to outweigh the lunatics. (I found on-line fandom via Highlander, BTW, just as a point of reference. There were some nutcases around, but we knew who they were and it was possible to avoid them.)
It was...you've all heard this before, but bear with me...The X-Files that really started the avalanche of mediocrity.
Suddenly (!) there were thousands of breathless little girls squealing over Mulder and Scully in lurrrve and they couldn't have cared less about quality, continuity, or the (really) ground-breaking nature of the show in the first season.
There were the conspiracy-theorists debating whether or not Chris Crapfest Carter knew something about our government that he was trying to tell us. (Absurd, but they made for some interestingly paranoid discussions.)
There were the science buffs, hotly debating the feasibility or otherwise of various gimmicks on the show. (They left first...TXF was anything but "science" fiction.)
And that was all well and good, as far as it went, but as with so many human endeavors, it went far too far. First, the media discovered and celebrated these "philes", attracting an avalanche of newbies to the fandom.
These weren't "fans" finding a new fandom, you understand. These were people who discovered the concept of fandom while in the throes of obsession, thus piling fanaticism on mania with just the results you might expect. Chaos. No rules, no boundaries, no restraints.
(That's good and bad, okay? I remember those early fanaticism days with bemusement...I can't remember a show that was as immediately addictive as TXF in a long time. Nor one that generated as much discussion and debate and breathless anticipation. But I, I hasten to point out, am not really prone to public displays of idiocy.) (Well, not often.)
(Don't even get me started on the decline of on-line fanfiction inspired by the reams and reams of truly abysmal "stories" posted by these clueless idiots, but I could make the same argument that the flood of unreadable garbage that TXF inspired has a direct relationship to the overwhelming FoUG most fandoms see these days.)
And, of course, as the show went downhill, the fandom changed. They always do. Enraged and disappointed fans, unable to take their ire out on Those Responsible, turn on each other like staving hyenas.
That, I think, set a pattern for on-line fandom in the years that have followed. There's the first rush of enthusiasm for a show then, when the summer re-runs go on for too long or a beloved character leaves or the direction of the show changes or whatever happens, the fans turn on one another.
There are fights, wars, and flames, and every day a fresh crop of "newbies" joins the throng. They see what's happening and assume that this is "what fandom is" and they mirror the behavior they're seeing. Because of how they were indoctrinated into fandom, they look upon it as an arena for bad behavior...for acting out in a way few of them would have the nerve to do in real life.
So, you see, in the end, it's all back to The X-Files. And it's all Chris Carter's fault.
(This is so not where I was going with this, but I always think that at the point where I'm able to blame CC for the world's ills is a good place to stop.)
I think it's important to establish that I haven't given up on the idea of either running the frenetic, over-emotional newbie fans out of town or of splintering off and starting a private party somewhere else.
I mean, I got distracted by two or three feet worth of snow and then there's Dimwit's war going on which is distracting even though I'm trying to avoid most newscasts because they give me bad dreams.
But. I was answering some survey yesterday evening about on-line fandom and fanfiction and naturally that got me to thinking. (Well, what passes for thinking with me, anyhow.)
Before we get to that, though. Spike! BtVS. I'm still taping and watching the repeats and pleased to see that I'm getting some different episodes this time around.
The other night I sat down with hot, buttered popcorn and a big, old gong to experience the Singing-And-Dancing episode because, after all, if a show is going to expose itself by putting on an episode like that it would be churlish of me not to gear up the laughtrack, right?
Except. You know. It was actually pretty darned cool. In fact, I enjoyed the heck out of most of it.
Who'd a thunk it?
(The shark-headed demon episode, and yes, I know he was a loan shark and I still maintain that doesn't make it all any less stupid, was shown right after it and that episode works better in context. Still stupid, but better in context.
It's annoying that the one show on the air that really does pay close, even constant attention to continuity is the one I'm seeing bits and pieces of.)
I'm still not looking forward to watching Spike become a love-smitten lap dog but I must admit that Marsters is sure selling me on the process.
So often one of these late-blooming relationships seems grafted onto a show, you know? But in this one, I find that I really believe it. I mean, I believe that Spike is in love with Buffy. (Nor can I imagine how anyone watching the way he feels about her could slash the character, but that's a different topic, isn't it?)
I still don't get why he's in love with Buffy since the charms of her character continue to escape me. It's no doubt some flaw in me that I'm unable to see any real depth in her, even in scenes where there might as well be a neon sign flashing, "angsty moment approaches!"
I'm seeing the plot-related rationale behind why she turned, even temporarily, to a relationship with him at this point in her life, though, which is a tribute to the excellence of the writing more than anything else.
Willow continues to charm me. As does Giles, of course.
The Xander-Anya relationship continues to bore me. Anya seems to serve no purpose except to give Xander a girlfriend he can dither about and since I don't really find Xander interesting, the whole relationship is just a waste of screen time in my house.
Pause.
Sorry...Buehler's monthly beer shipment arrived and I had the usual argument with the delivery guy about how come he never brings a case of beer with my name on it.
Now, where were we?
Oh, yeah, I remember. Fandom. (You thought I'd forgotten entirely didn't you?) Presumably I had something to say when I started this.
Let me think about it and get back to you, but in the meantime, let's all ponder how odd it is that I haven't been on public lists for three or more years now and thus have had almost zero contact with the kind of "newbie" fans I'm always bemoaning and yet I have no trouble constantly ranting about how they're ruining fandom.
Pause for pondering.
As I said in a previous post, I'm a dork sometimes. But I'm an elitist dork, and don't you forget it.
"Ficcies." Bleah.
Posted by AnneZook at 03:16 PMMore reasons to buy more movies on tape.
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (SCI FI) - Edward James Olmos is close to signing on as Commander Adama while Mary McDonnell is on board as the president of the futuristic society in the cable channel's mini-series/backdoor pilot remake of the 1970s series.
Nah. I'm willing to wait and see what they do with the premise since I don't have fond memories of the original (too cheesy to watch) but I'm not excited.
THE BREAK (FOX) - Kris Kristofferson is set to co-star in a recurring role in the Hawaii-based pilot. The actor, who lives on Maui, will portray Izzy Patterson, father of lead character Dane (Dylan Bruno). The Izzy character is serving time in a Honolulu prison when Dane returns to Hawaii from Detroit and brings his son to meet the grandfather. Brooke Langton will co-star as Dane's sister, with whom he and his son live on Oahu's North Shore.
NOT. Grim, stupid, and boring are the words that come to mind. Exactly how do they intend to turn this premise, material for a short story at best, into a series?
CASINO EYE (NBC) - James Caan is set to star in the Peacock pilot about a surveillance expert in Sin City. Caan joins the previously cast Nikki Cox and Josh Duhamel.
NOT. I'm thinking organized surveillance of unaware people is going to be a touchy premise for a show during the era of "Patriot II." (Especially since the recent revelation that the FBI already has 80 "black helicopters" making nighttime and covert surveillance fly-overs of cities searching for terrorists and other evil-doers.)
COLD CASES (CBS) - Justin Chambers ("Hysterical Blindness") is set as the male lead Mel Winkler ("Doc Hollywood") has joined the cast of the Jerry Bruckheimer-Meredith Stiehm drama pilot, about a detective (Kathryn Morris) who works on cold cases. Winkler will play an experienced member of the homicide division.
NOT. More psychic forensics. Surely the public will have a surfeit if this one actually lives to hit the airwaves? We've got Dead Zone, Monk, and CSI. That's an abundance of good stuff. Although, if the Dead Zone guy quits in a huff over being sued, we might lose that one.
THE DA (ABC) - Bruno Campos ("Jesse") and Aunjanue Ellis ("MDs") have joined Steven Weber in the drama pilot.
Yawn. More lawyers.
FAMILY FRIENDS (WB) - Holly Robinson Peete ("For Your Love") is back at the Frog as the actress has attached herself to the comedy pilot. The project tracks a down-in-her-luck woman and her teen son (both yet to be cast), both of whom must move in with her African-American best friend's family (headed by Peete).
And what makes this funny?
THE PARTNERS (ABC) - Mary Catherine Garrison ("Moonlight Mile") will star opposite Liz Vassey in the project, which centers on a pair of mismatched female undercover cops. Rick Hoffman ("Philly") has been cast in the role of detective Terlesky in the drama pilot. Marc Buckland is directing with Nena Rodrigue, scribe Kerry Ehrin and Jim Parriott executive producing. Richard Gunn ("Dark Angel") has been added to the cast of the drama.
Oh, yeah, because that's a new premise and an idea complex enough to build an entire show around.
SCREWBALL HOMICIDE (LIFETIME) - Robert Wagner ("Hart to Hart") has signed on to the cable pilot. Wagner will play father to Julie Warner's character, a woman who still solves crimes with her ex ("Mysterious Ways'" Adrian Pasdar) despite their marriage not working out.
The last time I saw this one, it was with Ryan O'Neal and whatshername...his wife with all of the hair. It lasted about three episodes if I remember correctly. I really like Pasdar, though.
SLICE O'LIFE (ABC) - The comedian stars as a newsmagazine segment producer charged with developing light human-interest stories.
Bored now.
THE STREET LAWYER (ABC) - Hal Holbrook is on board the drama pilot based on John Grisham's novel on the same name. Holbrook will play a senior partner in the Touchstone drama's law firm.
Shrug. Love Holbrook, don't like lawyer series. Dunno if I'd try this one.
SUBURBAN SLEUTHS (LIFETIME) - Sharon Lawrence, Marsha Mason, Yvette Nipar, Marco Sanchez and Brett Cullen have joined the cast of the drama pilot. The series follows two sisters (Mason, Nipar) who solve cases with their mother (Lawrence).
Bored, bored, bored. Even the title shows a lack of creativity.
111 GRAMERCY PARK (ABC) - The roster for the modern "Gosford Park"-ish drama is slowly filling out. Joining the previously cast Frank Langella are three actresses: Brittany Daniel ("That '80s Show") and Erica Durance as nannies Brynn and Maddy respectively as well as Joanna Going ("Cupid and Cate") as a soon-to-be-divorced family member. Emmy winner Peter Strauss has joined the cast.
Hmmm...dunno. (Langella? Is he still around?)
THE BROTHERHOOD OF POLAND, N.H. (CBS) - Randy Quaid (late of "The Grubbs") has been tapped to star in David E. Kelley's latest drama. Quaid will play one of three brothers living in a small New Hampshire town. Actor-comedian Brian Haley has been cast as the third and final brother (the other two being John Carroll Lynch and Randy Quaid).
Yeah, well, that's an exciting idea, isn't it? Wake me up when it's Christmas.
THE MULLET BROS. (UPN, New!) - Move over "Joe Dirt," UPN has greenlighted a pilot for a comedy about two good ol' boys named after the redneck hairstyle. The series will rely heavily on the usual stereotypical rural traditions: beer and wrestling. The project (from Warner Bros. TV) comes from scribes Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein ("The Simpsons"), who will executive produce with Eric and Kim Tannenbaum.
Yeah, because what the world needs today is more reinforcement of stereotypes. Lacking any sense that this one is going to use the premise as an excuse to debunk and educate the way, for instance, All In the Family did, I'll pass in a big way.
ALLIGATOR POINT (NBC) - Nathan Fillion ("Firefly") has been set as the lead in the Peacock's comedy pilot from Kelsey Grammer's Grammnet Productions. The comedy has been described as "'Cheers' in a Florida oyster bar." The series, from Grammnet Prods. and scribe Robert Peacock, is set at a restaurant in the Deep South and focuses on the lives of a fisherman, his ex-wife and an eccentric cast of characters. Jaime Pressly ("Not Another Teen Movie"), Jim Rash ("The Naked Truth") and James McDaniel ("N.Y.P.D. Blue") are set to join the NBC comedy.
Okay...this one I'll try.
DICKS (WB) - Rhea Perlman ("Cheers," "Kate Brasher") has signed on to her husband Danny DeVito's drama pilot for the Frog. Perlman will play Mrs. Wabash, a teacher to four kids who go to junior college and learn how to be private investigators. DeVito and Jersey TV regulars Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher and John Landgraf are executive producing the pilot along with Sony Pictures Television. Judy Greer ("Jawbreaker") had previously been cast as one of the four kids.
I dunno if Perlman can carry it or not. DeVito would have been good. Ummm...no.
THE LYON'S DEN (NBC) - Elizabeth Mitchell ("ER," "The Beast") is on board lead Rob Lowe's drama pilot "Lyon's Den" from Brad Grey TV and 20th Century Fox TV.
I thought he was doing a remake of 'Salem's Lot'? I guess he has time for a series, too. Still, without any idea of the premise, I'm not marking it on my calendar.
SKIN (FOX) - Ron Silver ("The West Wing") is in final negotiations to star in Jerry Bruckheimer's latest which centers on the daughter of a porn industry mogul who falls in love with the son of a district attorney, whose quest is to take the porn king down. It is not known which role Silver is up for.
Good grief.
UNTITLED FLETT-GIORDANO/RANBERG PROJECT (ABC) - Reid Scott (of last year's failed pilot "With You in Spirit") is set as the lead of producers' Anne Flett-Giordano and Chuck Ranberg's ("Encore! Encore!") comedy pilot about a man from a conservative background who is betrothed to the daughter of a gay couple. Andy Cadiff, who is already directing two other Alphabet pilots - "Platonically Incorrect" and "My Life With Men" - is on board to direct.
A one-note joke. It's practically a sequel to "Birdcage" but without the star talent.
UNTITLED RON WHITE PROJECT (FOX) - Melinda McGraw has been cast as the female lead in White's comedy project, which follows the exploits of Ron White's character and his girlfriend (McGraw), who run a pottery factory in Mexico. Brent Sexton ("A.I. Artificial Intelligence") and Yvonne Delarossa have joined the cast of the project.
What? Are we going to get ethnic jokes? Why am I not surprised this one is coming from Fox?
THE EDGE (UPN) - Nicholas Gonzalez ("Resurrection Blvd.") and Paul Wasilewski ("Wolf Lake") have nabbed lead roles the UPN project which concerns two recent FBI grads who pair up with a DEA agent to handle crimes on the Mexican border.
Why is Mexico under fire all of a sudden?
HARRY'S GIRL (CBS) - Catherine Taylor ("The Brady Bunch Movie") is board as the lead in the CBS comedy about a woman who's life is narrarated by her dog. Andy Richter is set to voice the pooch.
Stupid beyond conceivability.
KAREN SISCO (ABC) - Carla Gugino ("Spy Kids") has landed the title role in the ABC pilot, based on the character played by Jennifer Lopez in Steven Soderbergh's 1998 movie "Out of Sight."
Never heard of it and it would be hard to care less.
KID MAYOR (a.k.a. UNTITLED HAPPY MADISON PROJECT) (WB) - Newcomer Ben Feldman ("Kissing Jessica Stein") has been tapped as the central character in the Frog comedy from producer Adam Resnick. Samm Levine ("Freaks and Geeks") has also been cast. Harry Groener (also the mayor in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") has joined the cast of the comedy. Sony Pictures TV is producing the laffer, which comes from Adam Sandler, Doug Robinson, Adam Resnick and Jack Giarraputo.
Bored, bored, bored. Also sick of references to "the Frog."
THE LAW AND MR. LEE (CBS) - THE LAW & HENRY LEE (CBS) - Bill Smitrovich ("Life Goes On") is on board the Danny Glover led project from Spelling TV and Cheyenne Enterprises. The actor, who will continue his recurring role on "The Practice," plays Sgt. Bobby Pasternak, a vet homicide detective and Glover's partner. D.B. Woodside ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer") has joined the drama.
Like Glover, but nope.
THE LEGENDS OF BUTCH & SUNDANCE (NBC, New!) - Western icons Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid will reunite on the small screen for a two-hour movie/backdoor pilot for NBC. The project comes from Once Upon a Time Films and Viacom Prods. starts from the time they first met. The leads, played in the movie by Paul Newman and Robert Redford, have gone to newcomers David Rogers (Butch) and Ryan Browning (Sundance).
Heh. Maybe.
RAVENS (WB) - Moira Kelly, Craig Sheffer, Paul Johansson and Samantha Shelton have joined the cast of the WB drama. The series stars Chad Michael Murray as a young man who gets recruited to play on his small-town basketball team -- and become teammates with his estranged half-brother. James Lafferty ("Emeril") will play Nathan.
The other description of this one is...wait for it...they fall in love with the same girl. Everyone who didn't see that coming, go away.
UNTITLED RONN/SCHERICK PROJECT (ABC) - Samantha Mathis ("Broken Arrow") has been cast as the female lead the untitled comedy about a group of close male friends. The news marks a firm greenlight for the project to produce a pilot. The sitcom, which had previously been in development at NBC via Touchstone Television, has moved to the Alphabet network.
Okay, they've got a woman, now they can make a show? I guess premise is irrelevant.
VIOLENT CRIME (CBS) - Jennifer Esposito ("Spin City") and Matthew Rhys ("Columbo Likes the Nightlife") have joined the cast of the CBS drama pilot. Espositio was previous attached to the CBS comedy pilot "Harry's Girl" but bowed out of the project (Christine Taylor has since been cast). She will portray a Boston detective, who along with her female partner (as yet uncast) is at the center of the show. Samantha Corbin, Ian Sander and Kim Moses are the executive producers. Robert Pastorelli ("Murphy Brown") has joined CBS drama pilot which revolves around two female detectives in Boston.
Boredom continues.
EDDIE'S FATHER (WB) - Ken Marino ("Leap of Faith," "First Years") had landed the lead role in the WB's revival of "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," now being called simply "Eddie's Father." Marino's character is a San Francisco widower with a 9-year-old son.
A charming story whose time has passed. I don't look forward to seeing this one "updated" for the 21st century. (Although "Sleepless in Seattle" touched on the theme with grace and delicacy.)
FEARLESS (WB) - Rachael Leigh Cook is poised to make her TV series debut with "Fearless" from uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Cook ("She's All That") will portray a woman born without the gene for fear who is recruited by her godfather to join the FBI specialized crime division in New York.
Okay, stupid is bad enough, but this goes over into babbling idiocy.
THE GONG SHOW (WB) - "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire's" Michael Davies (through his company Diplomatic) has come on board to produce the pilot in association with Sony Pictures Television.
Another thing the world really needs more of today. Organized meanness.
A MINUTE WITH STAN HOOPER (FOX) - Penelope Ann Miller has been tapped as the female lead opposite Norm Macdonald in the FOX comedy pilot.
Like her, but experience suggests sitcoms with long titles will fail. (I made that up because I think the title is dumb, okay?)
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT (FOX) - Jason Bateman (of the upcoming "The Jake Effect") has signed on for the lead role in the FOX comedy pilot where he will play Michael, a straight-laced man who must take over his family business when his father goes to jail. Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, David Nevins and Mitch Hurwitz are the executive producers.
I trust Ron Howard, but not this far.
FUTURE TENSE (NBC) - Christopher Titus ("Titus") is set as the lead in the science fiction drama, which revolves around an elite law enforcement unit in the future.
Hmmm...maybe. I'd need more details.
HEROINE (FOX) - Shawn Reaves ("Auto Focus") has joined the cast of the drama, where he'll portray the brother of the central character (Eliza Dushku), a woman who graduates from college and discovers that she's able to save lives by changing the course of events.
That's what I love, a spanking-new premise. I'm so glad we don't already have psychic detectives and angels come to earth and people who get copies of tomorrow's newspaper to compare this disaster to.
MERGE (LIFETIME, New!) - Lifetime has tapped Lisa Rinna to host a pilot for a new reality series which aims to come to the rescue of newly married couples who are trying to decide which of their personal possessions they should trash or stash in their new household.
OH. MY. STARS. Please tell me, please, that this is actually the bottom of the barrel?
UNTITLED J.A.G. PROJECT (CBS) - Mark Harmon ("Chicago Hope," "St. Elsewhere") has nabbed the lead in CBS' untitled "J.A.G." spin-off, centering on Navy criminal investigation. An upcoming episode of the Tuesday drama will serve as the pilot for the series, similar to "C.S.I.: Miami's" backdoor pilot episode of "C.S.I." last season.
Adore Harmon, not impressed with the whole J.A.G. concept, but I'll probably give it a try if it makes it to the screen.
EXPERT WITNESS (CBS) - Matthew Modine ("What the Deaf Man Heard") and Sasha Alexander ("Presidio Med") are set and Enrico Colantoni ("Just Shoot Me") is in negotiations to play the leads in the drama, about forensic psychologists. John McNaughton has come on board to direct the pilot. Anna Deavere Smith ("The West Wing," "Presidio Med") will have a recurring role. Hart Hanson and Keith Ablov are executive producers.
Well, gosh. Forensics. That's new.
HAPPY FAMILY (NBC) - Emmy winner Christine Baranski ("Cybill") is set to star opposite John Larroquette in NBC's comedy pilot.
I don't like family comedies, but I have to admit this is impressive casting. I'll try this one.
STILL LIFE (FOX) - Morena Baccarin ("Firefly") has joined the cast of Fox's drama pilot, a family drama told from the point of view of their recently deceased 20-year-old son. She will play Maggie, the girlfriend of the dead young man and a love interest for his brother.
How macabre.
ABOUT A BOY (FOX) - Patrick Dempsey ("Once & Again") will star in FOX's adaptation of the Hugh Grant film. The project, which has a pilot presentation commitment, comes from Tribeca, Working Title and Universal Network TV. Matthew Carlson ("God, the Devil and Bob") will write and executive produce. Dempsey will play the lead character of trust fund slacker Will, who winds up befriending an unusual 12-year-old. Producers are still scouting for an actor to play the boy.
Cute movie, but only the U.K. could have made it work. In our hands, this is going to be lame.
Da Dum!
I've found it. The actual bottom-of-the-barrel show concept!
Wait for it!
Are you ready?
Are you sure?
Here it is!
HOMELAND SECURITY (NBC) - Actor-model Ben Youcef has been added to the cast of NBC's two-hour pilot, about the workings of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He will play Josef Adel, an Arab-American college student with a secret.
Kill. Me. Now.
Posted by AnneZook at 10:16 AM
Lights! Cameras! Darned little entertainment.
Hey, the mockery can start early this year! I'll get back to work on that work ethic thing tomorrow, but in the meantime, I'm "working from home" today. (We have about 8" of snow here with another 3-6 expected today and up to 10 more overnight, so I'm treating myself to a Snow Day. You'd be surprised how rarely we get those here in Denver.
Mostly I am working, but in the intervals, here are the show concepts that impressed someone enough to get at least a pilot filmed in anticipation of the 2004-5 seasons.
Mostly, since Im prone to half-baked, impulsive decisions, I've already decided if I like the sound of them or not.
ALL ABOUT THE ANDERSONS (WB)
About a struggling actor (Anthony Anderson) with a young son who moves back in with his parents.
No, no, no.
ALL GROWN UP (CBS)
A group of long-time friends deal with the fact that two of them are about to become parents. Starring Jay Lacopo and Michael McDonald. Produced by LivePlanet (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck).
No, no, no.
COME TO PAPA (NBC)
Comedian Tom Papa as a wannabe comedy writer who thinks he's better and bigger than the small New Jersey town where he lives. Co-starring Hal Linden ("Barney Miller") as his father.
No, no, no.
EXIT 9 (WB)
A new family comedy for TheWB starring Ian Gomez and Robin Rikker.
No, no, no.
HAPPY FAMILY (NBC)
John Larroquette in a new comedy about parents who'd like to be empty-nesters but whose kids keep moving back home.
Nope.
HARRY'S GIRL (CBS)
Christine Taylor (Zoolander) as a single gal in the city. The show will be narrated by her trusty canine. Co-starring Willie Garson (Sex And The City).
NO!
HENCH AT HOME (ABC)
Michael J. Fox wrote the pilot and is exec. producer of this new comedy about a newly retired professional hockey player adjusting to life back at home with his wife and kids.
Not a chance.
I'M WITH HER (A.K.A. UNTITLED HENCHY/PENNETTE PROJECT) (ABC)
A regular guy schoolteacher (David Sutcliff) finds himself dating a celebrity (Teri Polo - "Meet The Parents").
I'm thrilled for both of them.
KID MAYOR (WB)
Adam Sandler's production company presents a new comedy about a 19 yr old who gets elected mayor of a small New England town. Starring Harry Groener, Ben Feldman and Samm Levine.
Pass.
MR. AMBASSADOR (NBC)
Rupert Everett ("My Best Friend's Wedding") as a somewhat eccentric and quite proper Englishman who is appointed ambassador to the United States and has difficulty adjusting to America's more informal culture. Co-starring Sir Derek Jacobi.
Yep.
MY LIFE WITH MEN (ABC)
Centers on a woman struggling to raise her four sons, her father, and her husband all at the same time.
That's so 80s.
ONCE AROUND THE PARK (NBC)
A comedy pilot for NBC starring Heather Locklear about a divorced couple whose children are intent on keeping them that way.
Don't let me get in the way.
PLATONICALLY INCORRECT (ABC)
A new comedy revolving around a man and a woman who work together and are best friends but have kept things strictly platonic. Starring Tom Everett Scott (ER).
And the point would be....
SIXTEEN TO LIFE (WB)
Sprague Grayden ("John Doe") will portray the teen lead at the center of this WB comedy pilot that follows a 16-year-old (Grayden) who takes care of her dad a la "Pretty in Pink."
Not in my house.
SPELLBOUND (NBC)
Richard Ruccolo (Two Guys and a Girl) as a male witch who falls in love with a mortal. Co-starring Fred Willard.
This is the "Bewitched" remake
SWEET POTATO QUEENS (WB)
Comedy about a Southern mom (Delta Burke) and her teenage daughter.
Burke = Shrill.
THE HELP (WB)
"Married ... with Children" creator Ron Leavitt will take on the rich in a show described as a modern comedic update of "Upstairs, Downstairs."
Why not just watch the original?
THE LUNCHBOX CHRONICLES (CBS)
Monica Potter and Andy Richter. Richter will play Joe, a sweet, adorable man who's best friend and confidant to Kate (Potter), a widowed mom raising two young kids.
I distrust a pilot that insists upon its characters being "sweet" and "adorable." That's for me, the viewer, to decide, is it not?
Let's give her some privacy.
THE MALLARDS (FOX)
Greg Germann and Kat Dennings star in this comedy about a party guy living with a blue collar guy with an unjustified sense of entitlement.
A thrill-a-minute premise.
THE RIPPLES (NBC)
Adam Arkin and Diane Farr in a new NBC comedy about a couple that's been married for 4000 years.
Surely there's more to it than that. Are they from Ork?
THE STONES (CBS)
Chronicles what happens to a family of baby-boomer parents and grown children when the parents decide to get a divorce. Starring Jay Baruchel ("Undeclared")
Again, so little premise.
THESE GUYS (ABC)
Tim Allen narrates the show, which follows four men as they conquer marriage, parenthood, divorce and dating.
Could be funny but narration is like being read to. I'll pass.
TITLETOWN (FOX)
Curtis Armstrong in a new FOX comedy from "That '70s Show" producer Linda Wallem about several families who live in Green Bay and are devoted fans of the NFL's Packers.
Imagine my anticipation.
TOUCH'EM ALL McCALL (NBC)
Tom Selleck as an ex-baseball player who returns home after his celebrity has dried up and starts coaching a homegrown farm team.
Always enjoy Selleck, but I doubt it.
TWO AND A HALF MEN (CBS)
Charlie Sheen in a new comedy about a bachelor who's forced to change his ways when his brother and young nephew move in with him.
3 Men and a Baby. No, wait, it's Two Men and a Teenager. No, of course, it's Two and A Half Men! Ugh.
UNTITLED DAN FINNERTY PROJECT (ABC)
An average guy finds himself as the star performer at his family's lounge.
Excitement unrestrained.
UNTITLED HOWIE MANDEL PROJECT (NBC)
Mandel as himself - a standup comedian who produces hidden-camera pranks for a latenight talkshow. Co-starring Eddie Jemison ("Oceans Eleven") and Julianne Phillips as his wife.
They're making a "behind the scenes" of "Candid Camera"? Who cares?
UNTITLED JENNY McCARTHY PROJECT (ABC)
About the spoiled daughter of a business tycoon who's tossed into the real world when her dad goes to jail and the family's money disappears.
No, she'll be tossed into the arms of wisecracking but care-giving friends of the blue-collar variety who will teach her what it means to be a Real American. Blech.
UNTITLED LUIS GUZMAN PROJECT (FOX)
Luis Guzman (Punch Drunk Love) as a hardworking donut shop owner in Spanish Harlem.
Donuts are inherently funny but, not.
UNTITLED PHIL HENDRIE PROJECT (NBC)
Radio personality Phil Hendrie and Laurie Metcalf in a new NBC comedy about a security guard at a senior community in Florida.
Potential. Never heard of these two, but it has potential. (Hey, geezers can be funny!)
UNTITLED RONN/SCHERICK PROJECT (ABC)
Samantha Mathis in a new comedy about three adult siblings - two brothers and a sister - at different stages in their lives.
Bland. Beige.
UNTITLED TOM HERTZ PROJECT (ABC)
A man from a sophisticated, unemotional family marries into a large, exuberant Midwestern family.
I wonder where they got that concept?
UNTITLED TRACY MORGAN PROJECT (NBC)
SNL star Tracy Morgan in a new comedy as a blue-collar dad with big dreams.
Nah.
UNTITLED WHOOPI GOLDBERG PROJECT (NBC)
Whoopi plays a washed up singer living in an old hotel with her brother and his 4yr. old child.
I've never been disappointed by Whoopee. I'll probably try this one.
Bummer. I look terrible in orange.
Okay, 48 hours and then we become the first country in quite a long time to deliberately target a city full of people in a country that has made no overt act of aggression against us.
Welcome to Hitler's Bush's world.
It was worth upgrading to the Pro version of Blogger! They claim to have found and restored my previously erased posts! If you scroll down, there they are! Amazing.
Heh. Not that anything I say is all that interesting, but if I'm going to dink around on company time, at least I should be getting results, right?
Posted by AnneZook at 04:33 PMI don't know what it is with the comments, but I don't suppose it matters that much. Since Honeybunch posted an agreement that Spike was better when he was evil, an idea I heartily agree with, no one has had anything to say, so that's okay.
I don't required a ton of feedback anyhow. I have no objection to talking to myself. (A captive audience is a thing to be exploited.)
This weekend I made soup (Yes, McSwain! Soup! Evil vegetable-beef soup!).
I also made meatloaf. Owing to a misplaced faith in the recipe writer, I used a 12x7 pan when I should have used a 12x4 pan, so instead of "loaf" I would up with something more like "meaglob." Last night, my ungrateful roommate, for whom I undertook this arduous task (I'm not a big meatloaf fan), took one look at it and stuck a frozen thing into the microwave.
Kids today. No gratitude for the effort you make. It tasted right, okay? I tried it myself.
Lemme see...what excitement over the weekend? Friday I went to the grocery store. Apparently every working person in town stops by the grocery store on the way home on Friday evening but that's better than Geezer Thursdays.
Saturday...I can't remember. I remember that food figured largely into the day. I ate lunch and dinner out, but the reasons for such an unusual activity escape me. (Oh, yes, it was 75 degrees and sunny, so we walked about half a mile up the street to a restaurant for dinner. It seemed a shame to waste such a nice evening sitting inside.)
Whatever events took place in between the two meals are lost in the mists of forgetfulness.
The major chore I undertook this weekend was to get the bulk of the 22 hours of Spike BtVS I have on tape watched. I started Saturday evening and picked up again Sunday morning and I can assure you that by about 4:00 Sunday afternoon, I was sick to death of teenagers standing around bleating, "What shall we do?"
Some shows, and some subplots, are good in marathon and some aren't.
This whole "Glory" thing was probably great in first-run, but sitting down to watch it all at one go was amazingly boring. I haven't quite finished it. I have, I think, one more episode in the arc to finish up but I just couldn't take any more of it yesterday.
Spike was cute. Heh.
I may be suspicious of whether or not I'll like him once he's firmly in the throes of EnsoulledBuffyLove, but I like how he's getting there. I liked him having hotsie-totsie dreams and getting a RoboBuffy made and I liked the flashback bit with Drusilla.
I like the way that the more we see of "evil" Spike (at least, during the time frame covered by the show), the more he is revealed as the most "human" of vampires.
More than anyone on the show, he's totally ruled by his heart. When he was in love with Drusilla, he was as evil as he knew how to be, because that's what she seemed to want. From the bits I've seen of EnsoulledSpike, he seems to be trying to be the "normal, everyday guy" that Buffy has fooled herself into thinking that she wants. (Before he was Ensoulled and when they were doing the hokey-pokey was probably much closer to what she really wants, but her own inability to admit it destroyed their relationship.)
Even beyond Buffy, I think he has a true fondness for Dawn. If he lost his soul tomorrow and didn't have the chip regulating his behavior (I understand it's been removed), I'm not sure he'd attack Dawn. I think he might go after Buffy just because he's obsessive, but he's not Angel and he wouldn't take out everyone close to Buffy in an insane attempt to "impress" her.
Oddly enough, I'm not sure he'd go after Giles, either. Xander or Willow, yes, but I'm not sure about Giles.
And, regrettably, I'm not liking Tara any more than I did at first. The character gets on my nerves. Now that I've seen the episode with her family in it, I understand her better, but I don't like her. It's a pity because I still adore Willow and I'd like her to have someone. It's nothing against the actress, I just wish they'd written a different character.
I like Xander better than I did at first. The character does seem to be growing and changing. I understand that he's the touchstone for "normal" among the group, but that hasn't made his incessant whining any more attractive up until now. He's better as he begins to carve out a more-or-less normal life for himself aside from his SlayerSupport duties.
I loved the bit with the gang tromping through the cemetery, crunching potato chips and watching Riley do his SuperSoldierSneak from tombstone to tombstone. Heh.
I like Riley. (He's big, he's reasonably (ahem) buff, and he's willing to take his clothes off. What's not to like?)
Looked at objectively, the whole Initiative subplot had more holes than a Swiss cheese, but on the other hand, we live in a world where just a couple of years ago, the Department of Defense actually commissioned a study to find out whether or not coffee keeps you awake, so I guess the idea of them wanting to capture demons to try and create supersoldiers out of them isn't that farfetched. The military is pretty much dumb enough to try anything.
The whole chip thing they did to Spike never made sense. As clumsy as the Initiative was, the idea of capturing vampires one by one and making them unable to harm humans was a lot stupider than just figuring out better ways to kill them. Nor does it explain what they were doing with the other demons they captured, but whatever, okay?
I'm just saying. It's a pity that I'm going off the show right about the time I'm finally seeing the most Spike episodes, but I'm not sure how much more teenage angst I can take.
Plus which, the episodes just aren't as good. The whole thing with Buffy going catatonic once Glory snatched Dawn was just filler...it was something they did because they didn't have enough action to fill up the required 45 minutes and there wasn't anything for Buffy to do. On the grounds that it gave Spike some extra screen time, it was a good thing, but I found myself fastforwarding through the, "this is Buffy's brain" section of that episode.
That's about where I dropped out yesterday, so I'm not certain how they resolve the whole subplot. I might get to it this week.
Overall thought:
Spike: Yum.
Spike having hotsie-totsie dreams in which he appears nekkid: Yum, yum!
Posted by AnneZook at 12:57 PMIt's hot and it's Friday afternoon and I'd rather be at home and so I'm going to be boring.
This week I am practicing "talking to strangers." I don't know why. It just turned out to be the week for it. It's sort of an experiment in elevators thing. Whenever I get on the elevator and one other person is there, I strike up a conversation.
Today I met a woman who seemed to assume I knew who "he" was and what kind of "race" he was entered in and that she was somehow involved with "the parade" (St Patricks?) tomorrow.
Another woman confided to me all of the trouble her office has with the Problem Employee that no one can stand but whom management won't fire.
A man confided in my about how he fell down some steps at a wedding and now has permanent back problems and he is going to sue some city because he's not the first person who has fallen down those steps which appeared to have been located in a park or something.
I'm doing pretty well at "talking to strangers" but I wish I were meeting more interesting strangers, you know?
The JimByrnes-lookalike guy still doesn't speak to me. He shoots me sharp, suspicious looks when we meet. That's probably because back when I was first working here, I used to walk the stairs up to the third floor, then ride the rest of the way up. (I'm working on my butt, okay?) He got freaky when I always seemed to be on his floor. I'm starting to think that he's up to something, but I hope not because his compatriot/girlfriend/wife/whatever, Gillian, is charming. Jim-n-Gillian are almost always seen together and they make a cute couple.
I'm rethinking the language thing, though. Originally I thought they were speaking Russian or some Slavic language, but 90 percent of the visitors to their suite seem to be Mexican. And yet, I know Mexican when I hear it, and J-n-G aren't speaking Mexican. It's all very puzzling.
One good thing that came out of my upgrade to Blogger Pro is that I can now write blog entries in the evenings and "delay post" them until the next day. That's been a fabulous asset on my other blog. (I write there a lot more compulsively, but less interestingly, than I do here.) Sometimes I write three or four posts and "time-shift" them into the next morning so that they publish half an hour or an hour apart.
There's a certain surrealism about it that's hard to explain, but it's a joyful surrealism.
(I did write to the blogger people and demanded to know why the software had eaten my post and replaced with with an insult about me having a "big body". They didn't respond to the latter but have assured me that they're working on the former and that the post itself is honestly not gone, just not displaying. Hmph.)
As for this blog, well, I know I haven't written much recently, but I dedicated myself to spending a few hours each day this week working for the company. That and not having gotten around to watching any of my accumulated Spike BtVS episodes last weekend left me short of both time and material.
I'm going off Spike. I'm not sure why. I didn't have any inherent dislike for the idea of him falling in love with Buffy, but the few first-run episodes I've seen this year have shown that the character has been reduced to mooning around and looking wistful. Borrrring.
I understand that TVShowsOnDVD, or whatever the name of the site is, is collecting "votes" for whether or not The Sentinel should be brought out on DVD. I went ahead and voted for it. We'd likely buy it even though it's really not a very good show and the last time we tried to re-watch the tapes we have, we realized that we were skipping easily half the episodes.
Dum deed dum dum.
I really don't have anything to say. It's just that the last time I didn't post anything for five days, I got a stern note from a friend telling me that I was slacking.
So, here you go. I wrote.
And now that I've written, I'm going to go read my brochure on "how to create good newsletters and brochures" and try to keep from falling asleep. (And, just for kicks, I'm going to time-shift this post so that it doesn't show up for five minutes. Because, yes, I'm easily amused and because there's something about the process that I find oddly fascinating. I used to work for a company that was constantly insisting that, in our products, we didn't use "technology for technology's sake" and I never understood why they thought that was a virtue.)
Posted by AnneZook at 02:05 PMI think it's time to eat lunch. Is it time to eat lunch? I think I'll have some lunch.
It's only 1:00, but that's certainly late enough for lunch, isn't it?
I did very little this past weekend.
I ate lunch once.
I watched no episodes of Spike BtVS, so nothing new to report on that front. I meant to watch at least some of the 8-10 hours worth of tapes I have backed up, but I spent a good chunk of Sunday (my usual Spike BtVS-watching day) in a different room than the one the television lives in.
Making space for a new bookcase, if you must know. And rearranging the books, of course. I am now the proud possessor of four empty shelves! Let the shopping commence!
Truthfully, until I get through at least some of the ten or fifteen books sitting in my "to be read" pile, I won't be buying any more books for a while. The only drawback to my current nonfiction obsession is that nonfiction, unlike fiction, has to be read very carefully. No joyously skimming through the pages, gulping down new ideas as you go, no, you have go read slowly and consider what the author is saying at each point. It's kind of a lot of work.
Especially if you annotate as you go and cover the pages with post-it flags pointing to "things to think about" or "things to research." (I have friends who consider writing in books to be a deadly sin, second only to that of throwing a book away but I disagree. I've thrown away books that were such crap I didn't want to be responsible for infecting anyone else in the world with their ideas. And I'm a compulsive highlighter in nonfiction.)
It took me two weeks to get through the last book and now I have to decide if I want to invest the two months it's going to take in researching everything associated with the 20 post-it flags currently protruding from the pages.
(The book probably wouldn't have taken two weeks if I hadn't kept stopping to read P. G. Wodehouse instead, but I don't care. When my but-I-already-ordered-them! new (used) books arrive, I'm going to read them, too. I'm not being paid to figure out what the heck went wrong with this country and while I don't mind pitching in, it's also a fact that there are days when Jeeves and Wooster are just a lot more important to me, okay?)
Actually, there are few things in my life that don't take a back seat to P. G. Wodehouse. Or E. F. Benson. I love E. F. Benson's stuff. If I were at home right now, I'd log off and go read Benson. But I'm not. I'm at work. (Not working, of course, but I'm taking my daily 20-minute pause for food that breaks up the 9-1/2 hour monotony of my day. If I didn't blog so much on company time, I probably wouldn't feel compelled to work a minimum of 9 hours a day, but I never claimed to be sensible.)
While I'm considering the point, I'm moving on to something else. (Book-wise, I mean, not blog-wise.)
(Well, blog-wise, too.)
(I'm excessively parenthetical today, aren't I?)
When I'm Ruler Of The World, I'm going to enact a few new laws.
#1 - Brainless idiots out walking their children in strollers who are wearing sunglasses but who have provided no protection for their children's eyes will be fined heavily and made to sit in a stroller, staring into the sun for an hour. They will be made to wear signs.
#2 - Clueless morons who suddenly discover that they're in the right-hand turn lane when they need to be in the left-hand turn lane will be required to turn right anyhow, go on down the street, and find a safe place to turn around. C.M.,s diving across four lanes of traffic in an attempt to get into the left-hand turn lane in front of the fifty cars zooming down the road behind them will have their cars impounded and be required to bicycle to work for 90 days. They will also be given signs.
#3 - Lazy jerks who stop at a drive-up ATM and sit there for fifteen minutes, doing a month's worth of banking business will have their ATM cards withdrawn. Also. A sign.
#4 - Dipshits who assume that cars pulling over to let an ambulance or police car go past are inviting said dipshits to hit the accelerator and pass all stationary cars will be killed. No sign required.
#5 - Also. People who look at you, see that you're reading a book, and decide to talk to you because you're "not doing anything"? So very dead.
I think that's a good start.
Posted by AnneZook at 01:35 PMIt's my journal. I can be an egotistical maniac if I wanna be one, okay?
I got two (count 'em, two!) notes, complimenting me on my blogs!
The late, and much lamented, missing rant on the ickiness of fandom these days generated a post from one poor soul (whom, partly out of love for the positive strokes but mainly out of sheer obnoxiousness, I will refer to as "Honeybunch") who thought they were alone in feeling this way.
Honeybunch, you are not alone. There are a thousand fans or more on-line who feel substantially the way we do. It's just that I'm the only person I know who is rude enough to keep calling the idiots, well, idiots publicly again and again.(*)
(* Purely my opinion, of course.)
My middle name is not "tact." It's something more like...well, I can't think of anything that strikes just the right note at this moment. I'll get back to you on it.
Still no flames on the subject have been received, though. Even though I was sure I'd offended dozens of people.
No one ever sends me flames. As I've repeatedly announced, you are no one in fandom until you've been flamed. I am resigned to being no one, but I'm not planning to take it gracefully.
The other feedback came from someone who stumbled across my political rantings and meanderings and decided I sounded intelligent. (!) Clearly someone who needs to get out more, but I'll take what I can get.
That's a lesson to all of us who do any writing. (It's not necessary to write, Honeybunch, in order to be active in fandom. Being a fan is about a lot more than churning out a few stories.) We may put the stuff out there, secure in the knowledge of what we were trying to accomplish, but when the reader arrives, it's up to them to interpret what they've found.
I have about six episodes of Spike BtVS stacked up to watch. I guess I really am losing interest in the show. I do have, as I noticed when cataloguing tapes last night, the episode where we learn All About Spike. I'm looking forward to seeing that one.
I'm still all thrilled about having been at Escapade. Rumor has it that most people blogging (or livejournaling, or diarylanding, or whatever) about the con are full of whining but as I can attest (having done so much random whining), it's a lot easier to find things to complain about than to compliment.
Me, I'm still pleased by the new location (restaurants! bars! bookstores!), the hotel itself (flaky bartenders and all), the panels I attended, and the discussions I fell into. I saw friends, met strangers, bravely walked up to people I barely knew and spoke to them (social anxiety disorder really is a curse), and made myself objectionable for a few seconds in at least one panel. What more could I ask for? I even got to ride a train!
I love trains. Some day I want to fly to San Diego and take that coastal train all the way to Seattle. And then I'll get back on board and ride it all the way down the coast again.
My love for trains is irrational, like my love for escalators. Unless I have more than three floors to climb, I'd rather take the stairs than an elevator, but if there's an escalator there, I'll ride it every time. Every evening I go for a walk. Half the time, my entire route is planned around a way to get to one door of the mall across the street from my house so that I can go in and ride the escalator up one floor.
There's a sort of "queen of all I survey" feeling about rising in a slow, stately manner above the heads of the hoi polloi. You can gaze down remotely upon the common people and think sorrowfully, but distantly, of their little lives and troubles.
If escalators went up more than one floor, I'd probably disembark with some kind of mental disorder. I'd insist that I was Charlemagne or Queen Elizabeth I or something and have to be locked up in a comfy padded room and have nothing but crayons to play with.
But they don't, so it's a fleeting insanity pleasure.
How did we get to escalators? I was going to write a long post about how Honeybunch suggested that I co-opt the BNF acronym, alter it so that it stands for, "Brave New Fandom" and begin to gather subjects members.
There will be a brief pause while I rid myself of certain delusions of grandeur.
[ ... ]
Okay. Better now.
Anyhow. Honeybunch petitioned to be allowed to join the Brave New Fandom but I suspect said petition will be withdrawn after Honeybunch reads this particular blog entry and finds how I've referred to them(*) throughout, don't you?
(*Personal pronoun hell strikes again.)
Anyhow. I would, except that I suspect the current BNF contingent would object to having their status-marker co-opted by someone who might not let them join the new group. Not that I care about most of them (I don't know them and they don't know me), but I do know a couple of people who have been slapped with the label and I'm not necessarily here to piss them off today. Anyhow, I like them.
Still, as Honeybunch reminded me, having a good acronym is as important these days as a catchy slogan. Now I not only have to find an appropriate synonym for "fan" but I have to find a short phrase that makes a good acronym, and then spell out the Brave New Fandom's Mission Statement in a catchy and memorable slogan.
Fandom is a lot of work.
Posted by AnneZook at 09:49 AM
The evil that lurks....
The Other Brother Darrell came up to me a few minutes ago and asked if I'd be here until 5 today. I said yes, of course. (I was here ten hours yesterday, I think I can make 8 today.)
Anyhow. He said he just wanted to "talk to me about the secret shopper thing I was asked to do" and I'm all, huh? Because no one asked me to Sekritly Shop for anything.
So...do I 'fess up that I know nothing, or do I evilly string him along and find out what the whole thing is about? (What do you think?)
I should know considerably more at 5:05 this evening.
In a few minutes I have to dash out and shop, by the way. But not sekritly. Just a run to the office supply store for envelopes and dividers. And we need stamps. And I need to figure out if the Office Max can take an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet and laminate it for me. (I know Kinkos can do it, but I'm not sure about Office Max.)
I'm a shopping fiend today.
Hmmm...the sekrit shopper thing can't be that sekrit. The Other Brother Darrell just hollered a question to Darrell about it. I suppose that, as usual, everyone knows what's going on but me.
I just had One Of Those Meetings with Buehler.
Without precisely dissing Alvin (okay, he dissed him, but I refuse to get into the middle of that catfight), he said that divorce or no divorce, we continue to have a responsibility to the clients we set up with the Original Company. Because we cashed the check, you see.
I don't disagree. In fact, I've been uneasy about just ignoring those people for the past two months. So, the next thing that happened is that I heard myself volunteering to resume my previous duties with regard to those twenty clients.
It's no big deal, of course. Those twenty clients consumed about 30 minutes a week of my time. (At my last job, I managed 500 client offices and still had time to write a novel and 40 or more shorter stories on the side. Re-adding those previous clients brings my current "load" up to about 27, so I'm hardly overworked at this new place, okay?)
Besides, in a fit of boredom at one point in December, I'd written out six months worth of newsletters for that account before hearing that it had become Someone Else's Problem. All I have to do for that part of the job is change the dates, and start mailing them out monthly again. (I know, I said I wasn't overworked. I'm not, but I have this blogging habit to support now.... It takes up all of the time writing fiction used to take.)
(Speaking of blogging, BTW, I upgraded to Blogger Pro which should eliminate the problems I've been having with missing graphics and disappearing archives and other annoyances. Time will tell.)
No one whined, complained, or called me a bitch about that last post. Why not? It was a pretty obnoxious, arrogant sort of post. I mean, if I'd read it in someone else's blog, I'm pretty sure I'd have had a few rude things to say to the poster.
Not even my friends, or some of the people I respect the most but who are also involved in some form of RPS wrote to diss me. What's wrong? Don't you like me any more?
(Okay, one person wrote, offlist, that "fandom is as fandom does" or some such nonsense, essentially advising me to live with the current situation but I'm all about not sitting around passively while the world falls apart. Even a hobby-based world like fandom.
If no one ever complained when they didn't like how things were going...well, just imagine how different history would have been.)
(Good grief. Checking the "new" page just now, I see that my rant has vanished into the electrons. I have no idea why or how. Nor do I know why, in place of that rant, I now see the word "BigBody" enclosed in brackets on the edit page. I may not be petite but I object to software I just paid good money to use passing judgement on my appearance, okay? The nerve!
Posted by AnneZook at 12:13 PMBuilding a better fandom. My way
Okay, so five minutes ago I decided on a new blogging strategy. It's sort of a tapering-off approach, like any addict might use. From now on, I have to stop blogging, no matter what I'm in the middle of, and get to work no later than 9:30 each day.
So, now it's 10:30 and here I am, writing a blog entry.
Oh, well. That deadline was supposed to kick in tomorrow, so I'm still okay, right? Anyhow, I worked yesterday. Quite a lot. I have a lot more to do today, but I can start in 15 minutes and still be okay. I think.
I forgot to set up Spike BtVS to tape last night. I hope I didn't miss anything crucial.
And, speaking of fandom...I have Rude Thoughts to share.
I've been thinking about this whole fandom thing, okay? I mean, thinking about it as it existed when I "discovered" fandom in the late 70s, when I rediscovered it as on-line fandom ten years ago, and what it is today. And, please be aware than unless I specifically state otherwise, "fandom" is synonymous with "slash" because I've never been active in gen fandom and don't know a thing about it beyond the prevalence of MarySue, author-insertion fic.
Anyhow. Fandom today?
We Are Not Amused.
What was once a fairly geeky but at least privately geeky pastime has become this huge, public farce. As I've been telling friends for years now, I'm embarrassed to be labeled a "fan" today in ways that I wasn't even embarrassed when standing next to the guy with the Spock ears at a convention in the 70s.
First, I accept that we're "out" as fans. The internet and the public have "discovered" fandom and slash and I'm resigned to the fact that a thousand new "fans" or more are going to be appearing each and every month. I don't like it, but this isn't one of the kinds of reality I intend to rail against.
Today's question (yes, we're getting to the point) is about what fandom is. Who defines fandom, and more importantly, slash, when there are (numbers rounded for ease of discussion) two thousand "old" fans who have been around for years and 200,000 "new" fans who have been around for weeks?
Is this a democracy? Does the majority prevail, even when they're steering us off the tracks and toward a ravine? Or is there an "old guard" who should be installed as hall monitors to make sure that everyone is coloring within the lines and no one is running with scissors?
If an "old guard" exists, could you pay them to try and monitor this group of lunatics? I think not, so that's not going to happen.
Who gets to define what "we" are these days? Do "we" even need definitions? Should anything and everything that some newcomer defines as "their kind of fandom" be scooped under the general fandom umbrella?
If someone wants to take the two prettiest dogs at the dog show and write slash fiction for them, is that acceptable? Is writing stories where the teapot and the candelabra from Disney's animated "Beauty and the Beast" film marry and have deformed appliance offspring a legitimate form of "fandom"? How about those Teletubby slash stories, mostly meant as satire? Are those "fanfiction"?
digression
Are we really willing to have the woman who stalked Adrian Paul and made his and his family's life a misery identified as, "one of us"? Are we willing to have the so-called "fans" of Peter Wingfield, the ones who sent his fiancιe death threats, as part of our group? Are we willing to stand up and be counted with the people who have moved beyond the core "fictional characters" part of our identity and who are now writing and posting graphic sex stories about actors?
Where do we draw the line between our playful obsessiveness with television shows, movies, and books and the fictional characters that populate them and the people who are comfortable dragging the private lives of actors and musicians into their public fantasy world?
With, in short, those who have given up on exploring characters and who are now obsessing only over "pretty faces" since I don't think any of the folks writing sex stories about real people are pretending they're doing any more than using attractive faces and bodies to populate their too-public fantasies.
Okay...this isn't the moment to get all distracted by my ongoing distaste of real person sex stories, I know.
(Just for the record, I'd totally support a movement to corral those folks and explain to them, gently, why they can't call themselves part of "fandom" and should find another word for what they're doing, though.)
/digression
Anyhow. Back to the topic. The RPS idiocy aside, let's stick with fandom and fictional characters. Mostly, as I said before, slash.
Slash: The exploration of a closer emotional and sexual relationship of two same-sex characters than is portrayed on-screen.
I think that's a pretty fair working definition. I know it leaves out the threesome fans and the m-f-m kink, and litfic, but I have to reduce things to some kind of basic standard or I'll go crazy trying to talk about everything at one.
(I am not!)
So, without denying the existence of the multitudes of kinks that abound today, let's stay with the basics. Two characters. One gender. The urge to Do The Deed with one another. Usually accompanied by feelings of emotional attachment.
Okay?
Well, there's one more requirement, but I'm not sure how to phrase it. Maybe it's implicit in that definition, though. When I speak of "two characters," I do mean that part. Characters. Those two characters who will naturally need to be placed in their fictional universe in order to make it a true exploration of their personalities. Because if you move 20th C. characters to the 17th C., they aren't going to be the same people. Different cultures and different mores will produce different personalities. Ditto on moving characters forward in time. Moving your guys from the Old West to 1996 eliminates most of the "ohmigod, I'm a homosexual!" conflicts, but if you're exploring the characters and not just writing out your fantasies of the guys' pretty faces you shouldn't be looking for such a cheap fix.
That neatly eliminates AUs and crossovers, doesn't it? Even though I don't care for either of those genres, that wasn't really my intent, but I'll let it stand for the moment. We're sticking with the basics, and I'm staying with the same line of thought for a few consecutive paragraphs if it kills me.
So...slash is about a further exploration of personalities that attract us, or the interaction between two personalities that we find interesting.
Where does that leave today's newbie fans? (See? Back on topic!) They make the right noises at first. "I'm a fan." "I love the ____ character." "____ and ____ are so doing it!"
But then...the stories start to come out and you're asking yourself, "who are these guys?" Because other than sharing names with the fictional characters, these story characters are complete strangers. They don't talk, act, or react in any way the on-screen characters do. These newbies post crossovers between live-action shows and anime and don't seem to have the slightest understanding of how mind-bogglingly weird it is. They claim to love the character, but the first thing they do is have him raped and pregnant. (Why? Not because they can "see" it, or because they wonder how the character would react because they have no clue about the character. Because this kind of crap gets tons of feedback and they're all about the feedback, not about the writing.)
Characters are twisted out of...well, out of character. Canon fictional universes are tweaked, twisted, and downright distorted because these writers and readers don't really care about "that kind of thing."
The only thing they care about is a labeling system that defines their particular kink (Talking teddy bears! Male pregnancy! Curtains!) so that they can find and wallow in it.
Forget bringing their brains to the story, they want to read with their gonads and nothing more. And as long as they have a screen capture from an episode to look at, they don't really require much more from stories than that the author use the same names, or something resembling the same names, in order to label something, "fanfiction."
Somehow this rant isn't going anywhere like I thought it would.
I was going to talk about fandom, what it is today, whether or not it should be as all-inclusive as it is, and whether or not the remaining intelligent, thoughtful fans should run away and form a new, "invitation only" clique.
Also, I had a lot to say about the current climate of fandom that I haven't even touched on. People who post stories and demand, "positive feedback only" and the multitudes of lists where the slightest whiff of a negative comment about a character or story draws inflamed responses from the legions of thin-skinned and all-too-involved list members. Sock puppets and cliques of like-minded ninnies who exist for the moment when they think they hear the clarion call of battle against those with differing opinions or tastes. Those over-identifying fans who take criticism of a fictional character as a personal insult. People whose idea of reasoned discussion is, "So's your mother!" We've all seen them in action. We know who we're talking about.
Is this a democracy? Has "my kind of fandom" been kicked out of office?
Fandom has always attracted a fair share of marginalized personalities. Any fandom has, whether it's stamp collecting or salt-and-pepper shaker collections or comic books. In every group there are those whose identities and lives are far too closely entwined with their hobbies, but I think it's only in this kind of fandom that the line between reality and fantasy has been so dangerously blurred.
I'm not here to psychoanalyze anyone. I've spent my fair share of time "hiding" in fandom as a relief from everyday life, so I'm not in a position to point fingers. (Okay, I'm pointing. But that wasn't really why I gathered you here today.)
Let's skip ahead and pretend I've laid the foundation for the idea of moving to a better neighborhood because I'm pretty sure there's no way I can stay calm for long enough to actually discuss how and why we'd want to do this and in any case I really do have to get back to work at some point and I've already been at this for an hour instead of fifteen minutes.
I'm sure there are fans out there who would revel in a return to in-depth discussion of canon, personalities, human interaction, and plausible storylines. People who would like to be able to open the morning paper, see an article about "fandom" and not have to cringe. People who are more interested in reading, or writing, better fiction than they are in collecting more, "It was great! Write more!" e-mails than anyone else. People who find the characters interesting and want to read or write more exploration of them. People who find the universe the show is set in is fascinating and want to read more stories set in that universe.
You know the kind of thing.
digression
No one who refers to fics, ficlets, ficcies, or eppies need apply for inclusion in this new group. We are not six year-olds, nor is actually typing the entire word, "fiction" too much work for our brains. I would accept, if pressed, the use of "eps" as shorthand for "episodes."
/digression
Anyhow. Is fandom a democracy? Are those of us bemoaning the disappearance of open and honest discussion that centered around the foibles and quirks of the characters dinosaurs? Are we doomed to be shouted down by the legions of "fans" shrieking in joy over a character who shows up wearing leather pants and sporting an obvious sweat sock stuffed in an unusual place? (I made that up, but it's probably happened.) Is fandom destined to become a place of sweetness-and-light with everyone's kinks accepted equally and everyone's "issues" treated with kid gloves? Is list-posting to be confined to, "I loved last night's eppie!" and "Loved your ficlet!" while we all pretend we're having real discussions?
I'd say, 'yes.' That's the way I see things going. There are still pockets of real discussion, what I think of as "real fandom," but they're getting fewer and farther between.
So I've been considering (I've mentioned this before) starting a whole new...well, a whole new thing for my kind of fans(*), so that they can separate themselves from the raving, incoherent lunacy that general fandom has become. We can leave "fandom" to the giggling, ATP-as-long-as-there's-a-sex-scene groupies.
(* Yes, I'm an elitist snob. No, I don't really have any issues with this fact. I'm quite comfortable with it, but thankyouforcaringenoughtoask.)
We can go back undercover, to a certain extent, and build a new playhouse. "No dorks allowed."
So, what other words are available that might carry some of the same connotations as "fan" but that don't automatically imply "raving lunatic"?
advocate Too judicial
aficionado Too pretentious
apostle Too biblical
booster Too sixties
connoisseur We're not really going to be that discriminating
devotee A bit pretentious
disciple Again, too biblical
fancier Sounds like an older guy who breeds cats, doesn't it?
follower Too stalkerish
groupie Too juvenile
habituι And my mind always goes to, rouι, so no.
junkie Unfortunate associations
lover Too fanatical
maniac This is what we're trying to avoid
monomaniac Too psychotic
partisan Too political
patron Hey! We're not sending money!
proselyte A bit old-Testament, don't you think?
rooter Too fifties
supporter - Bland
votary A bit too Ancient Egyptian or Ancient Greek
worshipper Too obsessive
zealot Too monomaniacal
Surely there are other possibilities, but my imagination (and thesaurus.com) aren't offering any at the moment.
What does that leave me with? Three potentials:
fiend - A touch demonic, but not bad. Implies devotion with an air of unreality. "Fienddom" is impossible, though.
freak A few unfortunate disco associations, but "freakdom" isn't bad. A nice sort of self-mockery about it, as well.
nut "Nutdom" is absurd, but the word itself has a sort of playfulness about it that might work.
Of course, the suffix itself isn't fixed, and "-dom" isn't the only thing that would work. There's always "-hood" or "-ist" or "-ism" or "-oid" or any of probably a dozen more that I'll think of later. I'd fight to the death to avoid, "freakazoid," though.
Maybe I should be looking more in the "dweeb" category, to find something playful. I dunno.
I guess we could always go back to the long form of the original and identify ourselves as, "fanatics" instead of "fans" but that implies a kind of single-mindedness that I'm uncomfortable with. I'm looking, as you might notice, for something that takes itself a bit less seriously.
Something that implies dedication without an edge of psychosis.
In some ways, the English language can be very limiting.
I guess the label isn't important, but if you're starting a movement, a name and a slogan really are critical for establishing an identity in the minds of the public. I love a good slogan, too.
We need a slogan that implies fanaticism, but under control. Obsessive, but leashed. Maniacal, but medicated. Loyal, but level-headed. Devoted but within limits.
Fascinated but sane.
Nothing is coming to me at the moment. I mean, "no dorks allowed" is a good slogan, but sometimes I'm a dork, okay? I'm all about exclusion, but I don't want to be one of the excluded. It's my game and if I can't play, no one can.
Except that now I'm bored with the whole subject.
Let's kick the morons in the seat of the pants, tell them to behave or they won't be allowed in the playground, and reclaim "fandom" as the crazy-but-loveable absurdity that it used to be. Tell the folks writing about real people to go away, beat the newcomers over the head and shoulders until they've memorized the definitions of "canon" and "characterization" and have promised to stop inflicting mind-bogglingly impossible fates on facsimiles of our beloved characters, and get down to the serious business of drooling, discussing, reading, and writing actual fanfiction.
Or, you know, not.
I'm pretty flexible.
Posted by AnneZook at 12:27 PMPsychos abound in all corners of the world.
Do you know what Wayne Newton fans call themselves? "Wayneacs," that's what.
I'm just saying. What is it about being a "fan" of someone or something that brings out the lunatic in people? What kind of person thought this up and shared it with someone else and then found an entire group of people who thought it was clever to refer to themselves this way?
Wayneacs. Huh.
Posted by AnneZook at 08:33 PM
You just wait!
I've spent a large portion of this evening worrying about The Mole and her hospitalized-again spousal unit. I got to talk to her for a while this evening and she's holding up as well as could be expected.
I also saw The January Man which I don't remember ever having seen before. Alan Rickman! Hooray!
Aside from that, I can feel some rude thoughts about fandom in general percolating in my brain. Should the percolation brew into anything worth sharing, or even if I just need something, anything to fill this space, I'll probably be posting at bitter length on the subject in the next 24 hours or so.
I always like to deliver a warning shot in order to let the room clear before the real fireworks start.
Posted by AnneZook at 10:13 PM
Nothing to say
Really. Nothing at all.
I may be going off Spike BtVS, not for any particular reason but just because I'm bored with the whole thing. I'll tape and watch the rest of this season's eps, just to see how it all comes out, but I find I'm less interested than I was.
C'est la vie, I guess.
Beyond that, I've been cooking today. Nothing special, just stuff for lunches for next week. I tidied up some papers, finished one book and started two more.
It's been a lovely, sunny day but I haven't been out in it at all. Bad me.
Anyhow. I'm going to go take a walk now.
Posted by AnneZook at 03:41 PM