WGA Writer's Strike

WGA Writer's Strike - The Office Is Closed

What do you have when you combine a strike with highly creative entertainment oriented people?

In the age of Youtube you have a series of fascinating short films which allow those on the picket lines a chance to explain why they are on strike, and the consequences of being on strike.

Writers Guild of America members are striking due to their concerns that as their industry is moving increasingly into the digital age the residuals they would receive from their works viewed via the Internet will be limited to $250 per show per year. That's right, no matter how many times a movie or television episode is viewed over the Internet during the course of a year the residual would be limited to just $250.


Why We Fight - An Entertaining Explanation Of Why There's A Writer's Strike

Before we go any further let me explain that we're not talking about illegal copies posted to Youtube, or other video sharing services from which neither the studios or the writers receive compensation. No, the issue here are the made for theater, television, and increasingly made for the Internet movies, and shows. These are the programs which the entertainment industry itself are offering via the Internet, and selling advertisements for, and therefore earning a revenue with. Those revenues are expected to grow into the billions as the television industry moves onto the Internet. Despite this growth in revenue the studios see it as a means of destroying the writers union.

While there are some millionaire writers out in Hollywood, and New York, the vast majority of those responsible for writing all the shows we watch at the theater, and on television, struggle to make ends meet in their highly competitive industry. WGA members rightly argue that as the entertainment industry migrates to the Internet that some of those profits in the form of residuals, need to be shared with the writers.


Studio Heads Admit Huge Profits But Won't Share With Writers

The WGA members are in fact looking at the future of the entertainment industry, and argue that under the current compensation agreement that they will see less income for their creative works as more of that work appears exclusively on the Internet.

Their argument makes perfect sense, and in fact if it wasn't for the studios short sighted greed this would have been settled long ago. I've included some Youtube videos with this post as they are both informative, and entertaining.

As a blogger I appreciate the time, and effort it takes to create using the written word. Writing is work, and those who write professionally need to be compensated fairly.

Visit www.unitedhollywood.com to learn more, and to sign their online petition!

The Pale Blue Dot

Earth from Four Billion Miles Away (Edge of Solar System)

The Pale Blue Dot
by Carl Sagan

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”



The Pale Blue Dot Video

Does God Use Transdimensional Nanotechnology?

If so, then what is God?

Mercury Mountaineer A Sweet Ride

Mercury Mountaineer Rap

If you read my last post it's easy to guess that just about any car would have been a step up for me, and that's true, but I'm glad I made the decision to buy a Mercury Moutaineer.

It's definitely a lot of SUV to handle at 215 horse power. The V8 growls with power, and it's loaded with nice features, leather seats, and lots of interior space. If it was a female, which it may very well be, it could be argued that I'm in love - or is it sex? Oh well, whatever it is, it works for me.


Mercury Mountaineer Making Use Of Those 215 hp.

Did I mention it can haul over three and a half tons, or that its AWD (all the time)?

1988 Plymouth Horizon Donated To Charity

Youtube Video Of Plymouth Horizon

I was actually sad to see my little 1988 Plymouth Horizon go, but after nineteen years in service to my family it was long past time for a change. As I've said in other post either hatefully, or sentimentally, the little 1988 Plymouth Horizon very much reminded me of the story of the Little Train That Could. While it is only an inanimate object the fact that it was so small yet played such an important role in taking me, and my family where we needed to go for so many years it was like a member of the family.

Do you believe that the little hatchback hauled not one full sized Christmas tree, but two full sized Christmas trees on the inside? It also helped my wife (before she was my wife) move, and my brother in law move, and my family move.

Just a few hundred here, and a few hundred there and the little Plymouth Horizon will be off and running again. It may turn out to be some teenager's first car! Or it may just end up sold for parts - who knows?

I donated it to a local charity - for the tax write off.

If you surf to the Youtube page that host the video I link to you'll see some rather positive comments about the car. It's very close to being an antique, and its odd look may end up making it a beloved old relic - I mean the model, not my particular car, but that's six to ten years into the future. For now they have a value of about two hundred dollars - LOL!