On The Media: The Show Goes On

Over the weekend, I downloaded and listened to one of my favorite podcasts "On The Media" from NPR. Below is what I find to be one of the best analysis of the results of the strike and the proposed contract. My two cents and YMMV and all that.

The Shows Go On
February 15, 2008

The Writers Guild of America voted this week to end a 100-day strike that left many television shows in limbo. So did they get what they bargained for? NPR’s Kim Masters says the Guild has successfully spun the deal as a victory.

Transcripts available here.

WSC Show #102 - Interviews with Patty Lin and David Wyatt

In today's episode, I continue with a series of recordings made last week when the membership of the Writers Guild of America voted to lift the restraining order and end the strike while the proposed contract is pending ratification/rejection. Today I meet with writers Patti Lin and David Wyatt. Recorded Tuesday, 12 February 2008.

Credits
Producer/Host: Tanja Barnes
Music: "Ay Mambo" by Falik
available on Magnatune.com

Patty Lin, originally uploaded by NoHoDamon.

David Wyatt, originally uploaded by NoHoDamon.

WSC Show #101 - Interviews with Karen Harris and Charles Heit

In today's episode, I continue with a series of recordings made last week when the membership of the Writers Guild of America voted to lift the restraining order and end the strike pending the ratification/rejection of the proposed contract. Today I meet with writers Karen Harris and Charles Heit. Recorded Tuesday, 12 February 2008.

Credits
Producer/Host: Tanja Barnes
Music: "Ay Mambo" by Falik
available on Magnatune.com

WSC Show #100 - Interviews with Brian Hartt and Cathryn Humphris

In today's episode, I continue with a series of recordings made last this week when the membership of the Writers Guild of America voted to lift the restraining order and end the strike while the proposed contract is pending ratification/rejection. Today I catch up writers strike captain Brian Hartt (a former guest on the podcast) and writer Cathryn Humphris. Recorded Tuesday, 12 February 2008.

Credits
Producer/Host: Tanja Barnes
Music: "Ay Mambo" by Falik
available on Magnatune.com

WSC Show #99 - Interviews with Bobby Gaylor, Garrick Dowhen, and Janice Tidwell

In today’s episode I continue with a series of recordings made earlier this week when the membership of the Writers Guild of America voted to lift the restraining order, and end the strike during the ratification process of the proposed contract. Today I catch up writers Bobby Gaylor and Garrick Dowhen (both former guests on the podcast). Also featured is writer Janice Tidwell. Recorded Tuesday, 12 February 2008.

Credits
Producer/Host: Tanja Barnes
Music: "Ay Mambo" by Falik
available on Magnatune.com

Heroes Fans Check It Out!

I just received an e-mail from Heroes fan Monique Darling, a guest on the WSC podcast who supported the writers by hitting the picket lines several times. She drove with her sister and her son all the way from Utah -- about a 8 hour drive one way -- just to do this. And she did this more than once!

Anyway, here's a snippet of the e-mail I received:

"Tanja, we just found out Ronan needs over $1,000 in dental work so we have put up a picket sign on eBay that has been autographed by some of the cast and crew of Heroes. If you could pass it on that would be awesome."

So there ya go! So sorry to hear about that, Monique. A big hug to you and to Ronan. I'm sure the sign will fetch a high price and a happy bidder.

WSC Show #98 - Interviews with Michael Perry and Remi Aubuchon

In today’s episode I continue with a series of recordings made earlier this week when the membership of the Writers Guild of America voted to lift the restraining order, and end the strike during the ratification process of the proposed contract. Today’s guests are writers Michael Perry (who was a guest on the show a few weeks back) and Remi Aubuchon. Recorded Tuesday, 12 February 2008.

Credits
Producer/Host: Tanja Barnes
Music: "Ay Mambo" by Falik
available on Magnatune.com

love in a backwards world

This utterly charming short by filmmaker and graphic artist Chris Vincze, "EVOL" was shot in one day in the streets of London. Full credits here. And full story here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

WSC Show #97 - Interviews with Jeffrey Berman, Bruce Neckles and Alfredo Barrios

Today's episode features interviews from Jeffrey Berman from United Hollywood, writer Bruce Neckles and Alfredo Barrios recorded in front of the Writers Guild Theater when the membership was voting on whether to lift the strike action of picketing. Recorded Tuesday, 12 February 2008.

Credits
Producer/Host: Tanja Barnes
Music: "Ay Mambo" by Falik
available on Magnatune.com

Tip of the hat to Patric Verrone,
originally uploaded by NoHoDamon.

Comment Pending Approval.

David Plum of the New York Press recently posted the piece entitled THE CIEPLY SCENARIO with the description: "A New York Times reporter turned the Hollywood writers strike into a battle between good and evil." Entire article here.

A few days ago, I blogged that the TV Decoder, the New York Times blog covering all things television, recently cross-posted the original Michael Cieply piece.

I posted a comment on TV Decoder blog, asking them what Mr. Cieply's sources were in a media blackout and also asking if the NY Times had done a thorough fact check. I said the reason I was asking was because of the chatter I was reading on United Hollywood regarding this and actually posted in my comment a link pointing back to the UH discussion. Like the one I'm going to put here.

The comment was approved, but the link was editorialized and deleted for reasons I don't know why. I do not know what the NY Times standards and rules are for allowing links in a comment.

But, FWIW, it's worth noting that following my comment is a person who identifies themselves as "Citizen Kate". Citizen's Kate's comment contained a link to her YouTube channel and this link was allowed to remain in the comment.

I just posted a follow up comment asking the folks at the TV Decoder blog why my link was deleted. I also asked for a public posting as to what the blog's guidelines are for posting comments so that readers and the blog's participants may know what to expect to happen to their comments after posting.

So far, in my experience, TV Decoder has permitted one comment to feature a link pointing back to another site. But when I posted a comment with a link pointing back to United Hollywood, it was deleted. Draw your own conclusions, but I will wait and watch this blog post to see if a) my follow up comment was approved and b) what they have to say.

It's worth noting that in my follow-up comment on the TV Decoder blog I signed off with the following:

Tanja Barnes
http://www.strikechronicles.com

So, I'm curious now if that link will remain or not. I'm also curious what the TV Decoder bloggers answer is to my podcast questions "Legacy notwithstanding, what is the more powerful invention: the Internet or the printing press"?

Just sayin'.

Oh, and hello TV Decoder bloggers if you're reading this. Please feel free to leave a comment here. My TOU is clearly stated when you go to post a comment but I'll copy and paste it below for everyone's benefit and so that you may know what to expect from me:

"Feel free to comment. I am a proponent of free speech and you may express your thoughts, feelings, views, and opinions relevant to the topic in whatever manner and any language you wish.

Here is my TOU: My goal is to create a respectful and considerate community. You may not post pornography sexually explicit content, racial and/or hateful comments, or anything that violates a copyright. I also reserve the right to delete spam."

UPDATE - 13 February 2008 23:08 -

Well it looks like my follow up comment was approved with the link intact. However, so far there is no formal reply to my question as to what the NY Times' TV Decoder blog's comment policies are. Perhaps they're reviewing it now and maybe they'll post a response later. I'd like to think so. Otherwise, why the hell have a blog if the precepts of Web 2.0 and the promises of new media are not utilized?

A long time acquaintance of mine, Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing.net put it so well when she said: "It's important that newspapers not launch blogs for the sake of launching blogs. There had to be a purpose to other than to have the ability to tell the world that you have a blog. What's the point of interacting with your audience? Is the point just to leave snippy comments on the blogs of your critics? Or is the point of interacting to provide bits and pieces and nuances of information that traditional newspaper reporting doesn't lend itself to?"

A note from Steve Leiva

Patrick Varrone, left, president of Writers Guild of America-West,
with writer Steven Paul Leiva, after announcing the end of the
14-week strike. (By Kevork Djansezian -- Associated Press)

Steven Leiva, a gate captain at CBS Radford and a writer who's been a guest on my podcast sent the following out to his list:

To my team and the good friends,

I made "On the Line" -- where you'll see a photo of yours truly with WGA president Patric Verrone!

I was asked to be a ballot counter last night after the vote. It was an incredible evening, calm, business-like, yet with an underlining emotion of happy, for some giddy, satisfaction. I counted ballots with Robin Swicord, Nick Kazan and Larry Gelbert, not to mention D.C. Fontana of the original Star Trek. It was an honor to sit at the table with these talents. As I was counting ballots I came upon one on which the voter had written HELL just before the YES box. And in the upper right hand corner the voter had written, PATRIC VERRONE IS A HERO! I could not agree more.

I then got to watch the press conference where Patric announced that the strike was over.

It was all a rather incredible experience. As the whole strike has been, especially as I -- and I think many of us -- came to the realization that we are all part of a community, and that that community is strong!

To all of you I wish the best of creative futures -- good writing, good pay, good times!

Best,
Steve

Harvard Faculty Debates Publishing Online

It's a little late and I'm burnt out so my fact checking may not be super sharp at the mo, but them good ol' boys Patric Verrone and John Bowman, aren't they Harvard graduates?

Well, looky here: I'm reading in the NY Times a piece by Patricia Cohen entitled "At Harvard, a Proposal to Publish Free on Web" about how Harvard faculty members are putting to a vote on whether to publish on the Web for free. Below is a snippet:

"Faculty members are scheduled to vote on a measure that would permit Harvard to distribute their scholarship online, instead of signing exclusive agreements with scholarly journals that often have tiny readerships and high subscription costs....Under the proposal Harvard would deposit finished papers in an open-access repository run by the library that would instantly make them available on the Internet. Authors would still retain their copyright and could publish anywhere they pleased — including at a high-priced journal, if the journal would have them."

Read the entire article here.

I've been aware for awhile that disruptive technology was opening up higher education. Last fall Yale University announced they were offering undergraduate courses freely available to anyone in the world with access to the Internet. But now the Harvard vote seems kinda coinky dinky with the strike and all.

And it sorta all dovetails with a conversation I had with some friends at my salon this weekend in which the topic was ""Intellectual Property: Art vs Ethics In An Era of Mashups". One concept I hadn't really heard before came from a librarian who said "information wants to be free". Of course, two i.p. attorneys in attendance argued against this and did so in quite entertaining ways. But here's the thing:

"On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it's so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other." -- Stewart Brand

It just kinda got me thinking because so far, so much content on the Internet is free including many forms of entertainment. Not to mention news and information, which is totally killing the newspapers. So like, now higher education, too? This should be really interesting. I mean, if information really really wants to be free, then who the hell is going to pay for it? Just sayin'.

It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

Just a note to my listeners to say that I'm taking the night off from podcasting. After uploading the ninety-sixth consecutive episode with Patric Verrone (that's currently live right now) I just hit a wall. I did manage to get at least a dozen recordings today from former interviewees of the podcast as they were exiting the guild's theater after voting. It's my plan to upload them in the following days leading into the membership's vote on the contract, so be sure to stay tuned. But tonight...I'm out. G'night!