Accounting Gone Too Far
Ok, folks, the bean counters have gone too damn far.
Reportedly, Michael Jackson left behind an archive of about 100 songs that he recorded specifically for his children. He did not release them. ( http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6584011.ece )
Now, supposedly because his estate is likely to be severely in debt, these songs will most likely be sold at auction - and those children - *CHILDREN*, dammit, who had *NOTHING* to do with the poor man's life (and honestly, I do feel sorry for the way his life went - I don't know that he ever had the chance to properly grow up) - will have the bequest of their father to them stomped into the ground, over-commercialized and just in general fucked over.
Sure, *SOME* f'ing bean counter out there has estimated the value of this collection (say, 15 songs an album, 6 albums, "Michael Jackson - The Final Private Recordings I - VI") at $Shitload, more than enough to pay off any debts (and well, if they make a lot more than the debts, whoo-hoo! That's extra money in our pockets, eh, Boss?)
Doesn't matter that these songs have never actually been sold, so they have no real track record to say what a value for them should be. There's virtually no materials cost, minimal cost in labor (I suspect Jackson recorded these in a home studio arrangement, doing most of the engineering himself), and so on the face of it, the "value" of these recordings is maybe a few hundred dollars. Except that they're recordings of "The King Of Pop", and that makes them *VALUABLE*, and therefore we can shit on the wishes of this man, and tell his poor kids to fuck off, they don't count, because the Media Conglomerates can make insanely stupid amounts of money from his vocal corpse.
Just wrong. Completely wrong. I hope, if they *DO* release these songs, Jackson's fans will have the *HONOR* to turn their backs on them, sending a message to the Big Media that they did something *BAD*.
Of course, I suspect that if they did, Big Media, being as Big Media *is* the News Agency now, will spin it as Jackson not being nearly as popular in death as he was alive, and how the songs were just poorly recorded, and anything else they can think of to make it not *THEIR* fault for dishonoring themselves.
On the up side, however, there's word that J. Michael Straczynski is shopping around a screenplay for Doc Smith's Lensman series ( http://timesonline.typepad.com/blockbuster_buzz/2009/06/ee-smiths-classic-lensman-series-headed-for-the-big-screen.html ) He's about the only person I think could manage it (and no, I don't think Joss Whedon could - sorry, Browncoats, but it's just not his style! Joss does great Space Western, but Lensmen is Space Opera - you wouldn't cast Gene Autry for a role in Figero, now would you?)
Now, what we *REALLY* need is permission for JMS to do a say 3-year run of it, giving him 2 books per year. Now, if only he could find a manuscript or something for the reported 7th volume that Heinlein says was plotted out and just needed writing down.
And now for the really fun part! Who gets cast as who???? Admitted,half of the aliens would need to be CGI - there's no way to make Tregonsee or Worsel humanoid enough for a latex suit, and Zadrek is *RIGHT OUT*. But we've got Virgil, Conway, Kimball, the Admiral, Clarissa, the kids, Boss Townsend, and a whole lot of others that need casting! Who's Uber-Mensch enough to be Kimball? What about VanBuskirk? I'm seeing the guy who played Killian's guard in Running Man for VanBuskirk...
Reportedly, Michael Jackson left behind an archive of about 100 songs that he recorded specifically for his children. He did not release them. ( http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6584011.ece )
Now, supposedly because his estate is likely to be severely in debt, these songs will most likely be sold at auction - and those children - *CHILDREN*, dammit, who had *NOTHING* to do with the poor man's life (and honestly, I do feel sorry for the way his life went - I don't know that he ever had the chance to properly grow up) - will have the bequest of their father to them stomped into the ground, over-commercialized and just in general fucked over.
Sure, *SOME* f'ing bean counter out there has estimated the value of this collection (say, 15 songs an album, 6 albums, "Michael Jackson - The Final Private Recordings I - VI") at $Shitload, more than enough to pay off any debts (and well, if they make a lot more than the debts, whoo-hoo! That's extra money in our pockets, eh, Boss?)
Doesn't matter that these songs have never actually been sold, so they have no real track record to say what a value for them should be. There's virtually no materials cost, minimal cost in labor (I suspect Jackson recorded these in a home studio arrangement, doing most of the engineering himself), and so on the face of it, the "value" of these recordings is maybe a few hundred dollars. Except that they're recordings of "The King Of Pop", and that makes them *VALUABLE*, and therefore we can shit on the wishes of this man, and tell his poor kids to fuck off, they don't count, because the Media Conglomerates can make insanely stupid amounts of money from his vocal corpse.
Just wrong. Completely wrong. I hope, if they *DO* release these songs, Jackson's fans will have the *HONOR* to turn their backs on them, sending a message to the Big Media that they did something *BAD*.
Of course, I suspect that if they did, Big Media, being as Big Media *is* the News Agency now, will spin it as Jackson not being nearly as popular in death as he was alive, and how the songs were just poorly recorded, and anything else they can think of to make it not *THEIR* fault for dishonoring themselves.
On the up side, however, there's word that J. Michael Straczynski is shopping around a screenplay for Doc Smith's Lensman series ( http://timesonline.typepad.com/blockbuster_buzz/2009/06/ee-smiths-classic-lensman-series-headed-for-the-big-screen.html ) He's about the only person I think could manage it (and no, I don't think Joss Whedon could - sorry, Browncoats, but it's just not his style! Joss does great Space Western, but Lensmen is Space Opera - you wouldn't cast Gene Autry for a role in Figero, now would you?)
Now, what we *REALLY* need is permission for JMS to do a say 3-year run of it, giving him 2 books per year. Now, if only he could find a manuscript or something for the reported 7th volume that Heinlein says was plotted out and just needed writing down.
And now for the really fun part! Who gets cast as who???? Admitted,half of the aliens would need to be CGI - there's no way to make Tregonsee or Worsel humanoid enough for a latex suit, and Zadrek is *RIGHT OUT*. But we've got Virgil, Conway, Kimball, the Admiral, Clarissa, the kids, Boss Townsend, and a whole lot of others that need casting! Who's Uber-Mensch enough to be Kimball? What about VanBuskirk? I'm seeing the guy who played Killian's guard in Running Man for VanBuskirk...