Word Salad II

If you have a smartphone or other device that's running the Symbian OS as S60 third edition, take a look at this website. The Italian gentleman who runs it does very polished and handsome themes.

www.PiZero.net

From Nikki Finke's blog (which seems to be under the surface at the moment, possibly its server having been hammered by so much attention):

"URGENT! Peter Jackson And Bob Shaye Settle; Jackson Will Exec Produce 'Hobbit'

After nearly three years of legal battling and public bad-mouthing and six months of settlement talks, it's all over. Even better, it's back to Middle Earth for all parties. Today's big news is that JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit and its sequel will finally be made back-to-back for New Line and MGM the way they should be -- [...]"

(that's all we have at the moment.) Check the blog for more / better news.)

(EDIT: The NY Times article adds:)

The untitled sequel is described as bridging the 60-year gap between the end of J. R. R. Tolkien’s "Hobbit" and the beginning of the “Rings” trilogy.

Definitely not your usual LOL...

 

 

(snortz) Courtesy of the excellent Michael Drout at Wormtalk and Slugspeak.

And who's that supposed to be, divebombing the human figures in there? Hedwig?

..The screams when you pick it up and shake it are amusing, though.

Bluetooth Vibrating Alert Cell Phone Bracelet with Proximity Warning for the Absent Minded (from Nexus404 via Prylfeber (where there are entirely too many cool things: good thing I have no idea what most of them are, since the site's in Swedish))

I saw it for the first time about twenty minutes ago and laughed until I wept.



(For those of you unfamiliar with Irn Bru, the soft drink allegedly "Made In Scotland From Girders" (roll those R's when you say it!), click here for the Wikipedia entry.)

We are heartbroken to report that despite our best efforts, including sending them a muffin basket, making them a mix CD, and standing outside their window with a boombox blasting Peter Gabriel songs, our talks with the WGA have broken down. Quite frankly, we're puzzled as to why this happened. We talked about it all the way home – after we walked into their hotel room, slapped our list of demands on the table and abruptly left the negotiating session – and none of us could figure out what went wrong.

While we're not going to point fingers or assign blame, we do feel justified in saying that they are entirely at fault. The AMPTP has successfully concluded 306 major agreeements with unions since its founding in 1982, and there has never been an incident like this. Except for that writers' strike in 1985. And the directors' strike in 1987. And that other writers' strike in 1988. Aside from three isolated incidents, however, this strike is completely without precedent.

We believe our New Economic Partnership™ proposal – under which the average salary for writers making between $220,000 and $240,000 would be $230,000 – is the single greatest document since the Magna Carta. And we have proved, over the last five months, that we want writers to participate in producers' revenues. Mostly by repeatedly saying, "we want writers to participate in producers' revenues." Still, we must be clear: Under no circumstances will we knowingly participate in the destruction of this business. If we destroy this business, it will only be through accident and incompetence – that's the AMPTP Pledge®!

Heh.

...Just a note in passing to the Irish LJ community. Per the website of the Irish Playwrights' and Screenwriters' Guild (via Strike News Digest):

When your kids want to know "Where were you in the great Writers Strike of 2007?" you'll be able to say that you walked the line with writers from all over the world in support of the principle that, if they use our work, we get paid for it and that, however modest, you contributed to the victory that's coming for our fellow writers in the Writers' Guild of America.

This strike will define the nature of the relationship between writers and producers the world over for the foreseeable future. Every writer in the world knows it and we have got together to organise demonstrations of support to take place around the world on November 28th.

You can contribute by arriving at the Guild offices at Art House, Curved Street, Temple Bar in Dublin on Wednesday 28th November at 3.00 pm.

We'll have t-shirts and placards, a photographer and a videographer and with colleagues in Sydney, Auckland, Paris, Mexico City, London, Brussels, Berlin, Toronto, Montreal, and who knows where else we will be demonstrating world wide support for the WGA.

This Carlsberg ad has started turning up on Irish TV recently. Three Irish guys walk into a bar in Rio... and one of them, challenged to "Do something Irish", improvises a poem. Of sorts.

( Here's the translation... )

 

 

Remember this concept?



It's about to be revisited. In a slightly different idiom, and in spades. Via Nikki Finke's blog at Deadline Hollywood Daily:

On Thanksgiving Day (November 22), a group of Writers Guild Of America members will begin posting Public Service Announcements featuring A-list Screen Actors Guild talent as part of an independent WGA membership's "Speechless" campaign conceived by director/writer George Hickenlooper and writer Alan Sereboff. For the first time in the TV and movie industry, high-profile SAG actors will be taking their talents directly and exclusively to the Internet -- the very medium which is at the center of the current WGA labor strike against the Alliance Of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

The spots will begin appearing on Thursday morning which will begin posting Thanksgiving Day and run exclusively on DeadlineHollywood.com through Sunday night. Beginning Monday, they can be found on SpeechlessWithoutWriters.com with links on UnitedHollywood.com and every day thereafter during the duration of the strike.

Included are SAG talent such as Sean Penn, Holly Hunter, Laura Linney, Alan Cumming, Jay Leno, Harvey Keitel, Kate Beckinsale, Tina Fey, Tim Robbins, Gary Marshall, David Schwimmer, Patricia Clarkson, James Franco, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Martin Sheen, Josh Brolin, Susan Sarandon, Andre 3000, Chazz Palminteri, Jason Bateman, Christine Lahti, Patricia Arquette, Jenna Elfman, Olivia Wilde, Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, Eva Longoria, Justine Bateman, Joshua Jackson, Rosanna Arquette, Diane Ladd, Rebecca Romjin, Minnie Driver, Nicollette Sheridan, Robert Patrick, Matthew Perry, Ed Asner, and America Ferrera and the cast of Ugly Betty. Arrangements have been made to also shoot Woody Allen, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jane Fonda, Marisa Tomei, Ethan Hawke, Jason Alexander, Charlize Therone, Minnie Driver, Philip Seymour Hoffman. Many, many more are also in the works.

Much more info at Nikki's blog: follow the link.

Wow.

Not having Thanksgiving over here, there is no Irish or European equivalent of "Black Friday". But for those of you who're US-based and are planning a little retail therapy / shopping attack for Friday, you might like to check out this useful resource:

TGIBlackFriday.com

They're trying to list in one place all the major online (and many offline, bricks-'n'-mortar) sales. They say:

The list just keeps growing! We just posted the black friday ads for JCPenney, Kohls, Radio Shack, Toys R Us as well as the Meijer Thursday Ad. Here is the current list of opening times....

They even have an RSS feed.

***

Meanwhile, due to our private household T-day celebrations, I won't be blogging tomorrow. Everybody in the US: have a super Thanksgiving!

Here's the official announcement:

***

The First North American Discworld Convention will be held September 4-7, 2009 (Labor Day weekend which includes a Monday holiday) at the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel in downtown Tempe, Arizona (near Phoenix). It will be a celebration of the Discworld universe created by our Guest of Honor Terry Pratchett. Other guests will include Diane Duane, Peter Morwood, and Esther Friesner, with more to be announced. During the weekend we will have many panels, presentations, readings and other activities for Discworld fans. We are also planning to have a Maskerade, a Banquet, a Marketplace (dealer's room/art show), a Charity Auction to benefit the Orangutan Foundation, a Hospitality Suite, and other activities for attendees. The North American Discworld Convention is being sponsored by Leprecon, Inc., an Arizona non-profit volunteer corporation.

Our Guest of Honor, Terry Pratchett, is the international best-selling author of the Discworld novel series, which began in 1983 with The Colour of Magic and most recently continued in Making Money. His young adult and children's books, including the Johnny Maxwell series and the Tiffany Aching Discworld YA books, have been well received, and he was awarded the 2001 Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. He also co-wrote Good Omens with Neil Gaiman.

Our additional guests are fans of Terry's work and good friends of Terry's. They are also excellent convention guests in their own right and we're looking forward to having them join us.

Diane Duane and Peter Morwood have written many novels, comics, and screenplays, both singly and as collaborations. They co-wrote The Ring of the Nibelungs miniseries (aired in the U.S. on SciFi as Dark Kingdom: The Dragon King), and each has several new novels and projects in the works.

Esther Friesner is a science fiction and fantasy writer best known for her humorous stories and anthologies (such as Alien Pregnant by Elvis and the Chicks in Chainmail series) and her fantasy novel series (Majyk, Demons, New York by Knight, and Gnome Man's Land). She's recently embarked on a young adult series featuring a young Helen of Troy with Nobody's Princess and the upcoming Nobody's Prize.

We will be hosting other guests with connections to Terry and Discworld in addition to those above and will announce them as they are confirmed.

The convention will run from early afternoon on Friday, September 4th to late afternoon on Monday, September 7th. There may be some limited activities available for pre-registered members on Thursday night, September 3rd, depending on the travel schedule of our guests. Tentative plans for major events include a special event on Friday night, the Maskerade on Saturday night, and a Banquet in the early evening on Sunday. We will have special panels with our guests including a spotlight talk/interview with Terry Pratchett, probably on Saturday afternoon. Outside of the major panels and events we plan to have more discussion panels, presentations, readings, demonstrations, games, and other activities that will make this a fun and memorable weekend for everyone.

The Charity Auction will benefit Terry Pratchett's favorite charity, the Orangutan Foundation, and will likely be held on Sunday afternoon. There may be some additional fund-raising activities during the weekend as well.

Our venue is the Tempe Mission Palms Hotel in Tempe, Arizona. Leprecon, Inc. has recently hosted the 2004 World Fantasy Convention and the 2006 Nebula Awards weekend at the Tempe Mission Palms and it has received acclaim from fans and pros at those events. The hotel is located in the heart of downtown Tempe with a varied selection of restaurants, shopping and nightlife nearby. It is a short distance from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and is accessible via the Phoenix Light Rail system, which will be opening in late 2008. Our room rates are US $119 per night S/D, US $129 T, and US $139 Q with a US $9.75 per night hospitality fee that includes airport shuttle, valet and self parking, internet access, a fitness center, and more. The online booking code and the reservation phone number will soon be available on our website.

The initial membership rate will be US $60 for a full weekend membership, or US $30 for a supporting membership. Children 6-11 will pay US $30 with kids 5 and under free with an adult membership. These rates will be in effect until March 31, 2008. This rate includes all regular convention events, panels and presentations. The Banquet and a possible VIP event/charityevent will cost extra and will be announced when details are finalized. Payments can be made via the mail or online via Paypal. Full details are on our website. We are planning to cap membership in the 900 attendee range to ensure that all attendees will be able to be seated at the major functions in our ballroom.

For those wanting to mix in some tourism around the convention we will be looking into making arrangements with local touring companies for trips before and/or after the convention with the possibility for some special excursions being arranged for attendees. Keep an eye on our website for details.

We're looking forward to hosting a fun weekend for all of our attendees and our guests. Please be sure to visit our website at http://www.nadwcon.org and join in the discussions on our message board and livejournal community.

Lee Whiteside

2009 North American Discworld Chair

http://www.nadwcon.org

***

Let me add as a side issue that the Tempe Mission Palms is a really lovely hotel in a great neighborhood. Within walking distance are: a microbrewery, a branch of Coldstone Creamery, various terrific restaurants (including a great Greek one and an Irish pub with super food) and one of the best used bookstores I've ever seen. Also:  the conrunners are extremely nice and competent people, and I look forward to a super convention.

So Yay!

(does a little Tempe dance)

Which is just what you would expect.

(Though, alas, his version of events does not contain the hundred-foot-high tyrannosaurus.)

...Oh, yeah. Remember that writing/calling campaign I mentioned: Here's an early response. (From UnitedHollywood.com via WGA Strike News Digest.)

Which of five networks is said to have been forced to hire extra people to handle all the calls flooding in from angry fans demanding a fair deal for writers? Our source says an assistant to the CEO of the network's parent company contacted a fan site that posted the CEO's phone number and pleaded, "What do I have to do to get you people to stop this?"

...Heh heh heh.

Hollywood unburdens itself (while spiking your drink...)

...Let’s discuss how we’re all going to move on and away from writer-centric (Or as we in the industry like to call it, “gay”) television. You best believe your old buddy Hollywood has a plan for your hearts, mind, and precious, precious advertising dollars. God, we love your money. We love it. LOVE IT! PRECIOUS! BRING ME THE PRECIOUS! KILLS THE WRITERSES! I—

Oh, WOW. Sorry, America. It’s been a weird few weeks. Moving on...

(from The Morning News via WGA Strike News Digest)

...what you can do besides go down to the picket lines (useful and heartening though that is for the writers walking there):

Remember how a letter-writing / phone campaign saved Star Trek once? Time to revisit those tactics.

...Make a phone call [to the CEOs of Big Media]. Yes, that's it -- or write a letter if you prefer.

Don't wait and say, "okay, I'll do this later." Be an Organizer. Drag your eyes away from your computer now--right now (okay, for the West Coast numbers if you are living on East Coast time, phone the East Coast honchos now and, then, put the West Coast list on your list of "to-dos" before lunch or before your pre-lunch nap)--and dial...

Click here for the necessary names, addresses and phone numbers, and a list of "talking points" if you need them.

(EDIT: a similar campaign is being mooted / hosted at BringTVBack.blogspot.com.)

Don't miss the hundred-foot-high Tyrannosaurus.

Where To Put Your Hand During The National Anthem

Also: fellow writers: Are they dissing our babies? (OK, I am not biologically a mom. I've done all my mothering in bulk. Approximately 1500 babies during my stint of pediatric nursing.)

...That being, of course, the title of William Goldman's second book about the trials and tribulations of working as a writer in Hollywood. But today, the video below (courtesy of United Hollywood) puts the title in a whole different light.

Let's be clear: writers are professional liars. And the first lesson I learned in this business was the importance of keeping those lies (in a screenplay, or a novel, or a comic, or a computer game...) in order, organized, and noncontradictory.

Plainly Big Media (as we must now call them, the Producers' Guild having gingerly started to put some distance between itself and the Huge Media Companies: you can just see the producers lifting their garments up to avoid the muck as they tiptoe away...) ...anyway, Big Media are not real good at keeping their lies straight at the moment. Specifically, the one about how the Internet is Too New for them to know if it's possible to make any money off it...and of course they therefore can't promise to give us any of it. They tell us that across the bargaining table, doubtless fighting to keep their faces straight. And then they go on TV and do... this.

I mean, really. (exasperated sigh)

...There's another fun video under the cut, here, too.) "Studio Execs Protest Unfairness of Striking Writers." ("We're the aggrieved parties here! We're under threat! I could lose two of my five homes!")

(Oh, BTW, YW.net users: Sorry for the brief interruption in service. A bounced-credit-card-charge message from our forum provider got missed. The Forums should be back online within the next 24 hours. YoungWizards.com is unaffected.)

( Read more... )

In a gentle and limited way. As many of you have counseled me, I'm taking it easy.

Amusing things seen this morning: in the "It's Good to be King" dep't:

"Shut up!", King of Spain tells President of Venezuela

And he used "tu" instead of "usted." Whoa.

Also: How Mr. Burns Would Handle the Writers' Strike (Whoops! This link pointed back to the King of Spain story. Fixed now. Thanks, folks.)

(Heh heh. BTW, I found the link to this on WGA Strike News Digest. This is looking useful as a unified resource for strike-related news links and feeds.)

(...Oh, also, a note about the main "Out of Ambit" blog: For some reason it hasn't been updating correctly when I post here -- my present installation of WordPress seems to be broken somehow. It may take a while to figure out what's wrong. Apologies for the inconvenience. I'll get it fixed as soon as I can.)

I think another day in bed will see me well enough to get busy with work again. Meanwhile, I'm catching up on my reading.

Ran across the following this morning while surfing for reports on the huge rally at Fox yesterday:

The War for the Guild

Yes, it appears in a WGA publication. But the history is a matter of public record. And those who forget the lessons of history... etc.

(and here are some other links at MeeVee)