Losses
1) This radio story on AO3's nomination for a Hugo award singled out the Buffy fandom specifically.
2) The fight between the Writer's Guild and agencies definitely needs to be had.
"[G]uild leadership reached out to writers, via survey and group meetings, to find out what professional issues and concerns they faced. According to WGA sources, leadership was surprised to discover that writers - ranging from top showrunners to those fighting for staff jobs - overwhelmingly pointed to the “Big 4” agency (CAA, WME, UTA, ICM) practice of packaging as negatively affecting their careers." That's probably because "The WGA estimates that close to 90 percent of scripted series in the 2016-2017 television season were packaged, with WME or CAA involved in 80 percent of those packaged series." (Emphasis mine)
That is astounding, and I can only imagine how many actors and other workers lose out due to packaging, not to mention how likely this is to affect women and minorities in the business.
3) More signs of corporate confiscation (and indifference): Google Play Music is kicking out thousands of songs as its Artist Hub closes:
"the fact that hundreds of thousands of songs will no longer be available on Google Play Music but won't be automatically available on YouTube Music is a kick in the teeth for artists and subscribers alike…That gives rise to the question of what will become not only of purchases but also the 50,000 song upload locker that Play Music currently offers."
Also: Microsoft announces it will shut down ebook program and confiscate its customers' libraries
(And as someone pointed out, MS did the same to its customers in 2006 when they shut down the MSN Music store, and customers were unable to migrate their libraries to Microsoft’s zune ecosystem.)
4) This was a new one on me, but it makes sense - the celebrity scammers. Apparently there's a lot of it, and Patrick Dempsey was one who alerted fans to reports of funds being gathered for his charity.
And on a different front, shady Political Action Committees are scamming people into donating. "They will make it sound like you are giving a donation to help support the police, firefighters, veterans - whoever - but it turns out the donation is going to a PAC."
Given the unethical way they're gathering money, you can be sure it's not going be spent on anything ethical either.
5) I watched Bad Times at the El Royale this past week and realized I'd completely forgotten it was written and directed by Drew Goddard. That certainly explains why I was reminded of Cabin in the Woods.
Mind you, these were quite different genres of movies with quite different messages. But the moment I saw the corridor and the one-way glass, I thought about it. It wasn't until the credits that I realized it wasn't a coincidence. Given that we never learn in the film who has been gathering all the blackmail on the guests (besides the FBI) and who owns the El Royale, it's easy enough to assume that it's Wolfram & Hart, Rossum Corporation, or any one of the corporate evil from other franchises. Lisa Lassek also edited.
Of course, Chris Hemsworth played quite a different character in this one. I noticed in the "making of" extra feature that Jon Hamm acknowledged his character here had similarities to Don Draper, in that they were both playing a part while hiding their true identities. But really, other than a bunch of people trapped in a much nicer cabin, the story was quite different.
I found though that in the end though I had a rather "so what" feeling about it. There was a very muddled message about how it was best to be what other people needed you to be, while at the same time you had to know you were playing a part.
View poll: Kudos Footer-35
Comments at Dreamwidth
.
2) The fight between the Writer's Guild and agencies definitely needs to be had.
"[G]uild leadership reached out to writers, via survey and group meetings, to find out what professional issues and concerns they faced. According to WGA sources, leadership was surprised to discover that writers - ranging from top showrunners to those fighting for staff jobs - overwhelmingly pointed to the “Big 4” agency (CAA, WME, UTA, ICM) practice of packaging as negatively affecting their careers." That's probably because "The WGA estimates that close to 90 percent of scripted series in the 2016-2017 television season were packaged, with WME or CAA involved in 80 percent of those packaged series." (Emphasis mine)
That is astounding, and I can only imagine how many actors and other workers lose out due to packaging, not to mention how likely this is to affect women and minorities in the business.
3) More signs of corporate confiscation (and indifference): Google Play Music is kicking out thousands of songs as its Artist Hub closes:
"the fact that hundreds of thousands of songs will no longer be available on Google Play Music but won't be automatically available on YouTube Music is a kick in the teeth for artists and subscribers alike…That gives rise to the question of what will become not only of purchases but also the 50,000 song upload locker that Play Music currently offers."
Also: Microsoft announces it will shut down ebook program and confiscate its customers' libraries
(And as someone pointed out, MS did the same to its customers in 2006 when they shut down the MSN Music store, and customers were unable to migrate their libraries to Microsoft’s zune ecosystem.)
4) This was a new one on me, but it makes sense - the celebrity scammers. Apparently there's a lot of it, and Patrick Dempsey was one who alerted fans to reports of funds being gathered for his charity.
And on a different front, shady Political Action Committees are scamming people into donating. "They will make it sound like you are giving a donation to help support the police, firefighters, veterans - whoever - but it turns out the donation is going to a PAC."
Given the unethical way they're gathering money, you can be sure it's not going be spent on anything ethical either.
5) I watched Bad Times at the El Royale this past week and realized I'd completely forgotten it was written and directed by Drew Goddard. That certainly explains why I was reminded of Cabin in the Woods.
Mind you, these were quite different genres of movies with quite different messages. But the moment I saw the corridor and the one-way glass, I thought about it. It wasn't until the credits that I realized it wasn't a coincidence. Given that we never learn in the film who has been gathering all the blackmail on the guests (besides the FBI) and who owns the El Royale, it's easy enough to assume that it's Wolfram & Hart, Rossum Corporation, or any one of the corporate evil from other franchises. Lisa Lassek also edited.
Of course, Chris Hemsworth played quite a different character in this one. I noticed in the "making of" extra feature that Jon Hamm acknowledged his character here had similarities to Don Draper, in that they were both playing a part while hiding their true identities. But really, other than a bunch of people trapped in a much nicer cabin, the story was quite different.
I found though that in the end though I had a rather "so what" feeling about it. There was a very muddled message about how it was best to be what other people needed you to be, while at the same time you had to know you were playing a part.
View poll: Kudos Footer-35
Comments at Dreamwidth
.