My argument for popular vote is George Bush.

Dreamwidth

Sun, 03 May 2009 22:42:18 GMT

I've moved over there in case anyone cares. :) While I know most people won't, with good reason, I gave up on LJ a long time ago. For anyone who has moved, I'm jules over there.

I also have a few invites in case anyone is interested. :)

Dreamwidth Invites?

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:32:52 GMT

I'm curious. And I want one. Anyone care to share? Please? (If you've got two, even better. :D)

Rewatching season one

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 13:29:42 GMT

And I discovered this. This is the scene when Veronica is showing Keith the crime scene photo with Lilly's shoe. But look. That's clearly dead Lilly.

(I really really really miss this show. If this movie doesn't happen, I'm probably going to cry.)

Party Down

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:38:30 GMT

I figure more people here will be interested than anywhere else I might post. Rob Thomas's new show, Party Down, featuring just about every possible VM alum you can imagine, is already streaming at Starz.com Link

BACK UP!

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:43:26 GMT

For anyone who happens to still have me on their flist and sees this, back up your LJ entries. LiveJournal fired 20 of its 28 employees This place may not be around much longer.

(I never read my flist anymore, so if everyone is already talking about this, sorry!)

30 FUCKING ROCK!

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:00:55 GMT

YEAH! YAY! WOOT!

I'm happy happy. :D

Nostalgia: Or, why I shouldn't be allowed to watch movies

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 06:27:50 GMT

Warning: This is a post all about VM fandom, which barely even exists anymore. But I've only ever used this LJ for VM pretty much, and have gotten all contemplative just now and decided to write this.

It's strange how I can think of Veronica Mars and how much I loved it and be happy, but then something triggers a memory and for some reason I get all sad instead.

I just watched DiG! which was very good. It's about The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. Towards the end they showed The Dandy Warhols playing We Used To Be Friends. This just set me off. I'm not even sure why.

But it just somehow made me miss the whole feeling of community that once existed for me. Not that I don't have various communities in real life and on the internet now, but the feeling that there's one thing that I have in common with so many people is missing. And I really really missed that. It's weird because I have sworn not to get involved with another fandom, because in many ways fandom ruins your enjoyment of whatever the fandom is for. But there's something else that is just so wonderful about fandom that just can't be replicated by anything else.

I will never forget the awesomeness of getting in a car with two people I had only just met in real life (and one of whom I had only just met period) and driving for three hours and talking non-stop about VM. I'm actually about to go meet some friends from inside the computer for the first time this week, and so I've been thinking about Austin and Blowout. I just can't see how this can possibly compare. I'm going to go hang out in Disney World for two days with someone who I genuinely think of as a friend, but I just can't see it being as easy as meeting VM people was.

I'm not sure what my point is other than I miss the VM fandom, as much as I was ever in it. Anyone who reads this, that probably means I miss you, too. I think I miss that more than I miss the show. I actually wonder if I would miss that even if the show had come back. I just don't think the fandom would be the same fandom I am missing right now. It had already changed so much by the end of the third season. Yes, the show was probably at fault for that, and I can't say I blame anyone for hating what the show had become, so this is something that was long gone before the show was even gone.

So, anyway, this is me feeling sorry for myself.

Middle of the night, nothing to do

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:10:35 GMT

So what do you do? You blip.

It's sorta like Twitter but for movie/games/books/music reviews. You're limited to 160 characters. It's extremely addictive for some reason. And I'm about to get a whole bunch of invites to the beta, so anyone who wants in, just leave your email address here. (Also, it's so new that you can probably still get your first name as your screenname, which will be very cool when this becomes huge, which it hopefully will.)

Also, I can't sleep and need entertainment. Not enough Blipprs up at 6am on Sunday to keep me entertained. :(

My interview with Rob Thomas

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 04:53:33 GMT

So, I'm taking this class this semester called writing for TV, and we have to do interviews. We were told that it needs to be someone that has something to do with media and it's more fun if you get someone famous. So I emailed spectralbovine (thank you again, by the way) to see if he could find out if Rob Thomas was at all willing. And he was.

How did you get your start in TV? I know you started in young adult fiction, so how did that transition into TV?

That is an extraordinarily strange story. When I was writing my first novel, Rat Saw God, I was working for Channel 1, which is an LA based news show that is beamed directly into high school classrooms across the country. And one of my jobs for Channel 1 was to run what was called “Student Produced Week” where we would fly in 15 students from across the country to take over the show for a week. One of my duties was to solicit and then sort through audition tapes from kids. Of the 2000 entries or so that we got that year, only one of them came directly to me, like, to Rob Thomas. And it was from the then president of CBS Television, Jeff Sagansky, recommending his niece for a position. I didn’t actually pick who made it in, I just sort of weeded down the 2000 tapes into the final hundred, but this particular niece of Jeff Sagansky did get a position on the show. So a year later after I’d finished my first novel and Simon and Schuster had bought it, I sent a letter to Jeff Sagansky saying, “Hey, you may remember writing me about your niece. Gosh, she was great, we loved having her. Would you mind taking a look at this young adult novel I wrote.” Actually, that’s not even what I wrote. What I wrote was, “I’m interested in writing for television. Can you pass along this manuscript to any shows you guys have involving teen characters?” And I really didn’t, you know... Even at the time, though I knew nothing about the TV business, I assumed this was a hundred to one shot he ever even saw it. I just sort of figured it would get thrown in some pile of unsolicited material. And then a year later I heard from him, sort of out of the blue, and he said that he had read my novel and asked me if I had written any screenplays. I was, first of all, in shock that I had gotten the call, then very embarrassed that I had never written a screenplay, though I was asking to pass along my manuscript to television shows. He said two things at that time. One, that he had just done Legends of the Fall with Ed Zwick, which is one of the executive producers of My So Called Life, and that if their show got picked back up that he would recommend me for it, which would have been great, so I spent that year praying that My So Called Life got a second season, which it did not. And then he said, “If you do write a screenplay, let me see it.” And, so, probably a year after that, I’d written a romantic comedy screenplay for a guy who’s a USC film school graduate, living in Austin, where I was writing my books, and he read my first novel and asked me to write this screenplay for $1000 for a movie that he was going to try to make for $100,000. And he needed very few characters and very few locations. And I wrote this romantic comedy called Fortune Cookie and when I finished it, even though I had already sold it, I sent it to Jeff Sagansky, and this time I heard from him in about two days. And he said come up to New York and pitch me romantic comedy ideas for television. And so I flew to New York and pitched several ideas, one of which was Cupid and in the meantime, he passed my screenplay to the producers of Dawson’s Creek and I ended up being the first person they hired on that show. So that’s the crazy way I got my first job in television.

Basically, it was: You used whatever connections you’ve got.

Yeah, so, that was barely a connection. But, yeah, I used a connection I didn’t have.

But, basically, you’re telling me that the only way you can really get into TV is if you have some -- if you can make up some sort of connection.

Oh, no. I’m not telling you that at all. I mean, there’s a much more normal route to go. I would say that my story is the exception to the rule rather than the rule. The more likely scenario is the come out here and initially try to hook on with a show as an unpaid intern and then try to get a position as a production assistant. Try to get onto a writer’s desk, either serving as a showrunner’s assistant or a writer’s assistant on a show. And doing that you get a lot of... You get a lot of things. You get a lot of experience, see how scripts are done, see how the business works. And you meet a lot of writers who are willing to read your work and pass along to your agent and stuff -- Ah, pass along to their agents. I would say that’s the more usual way of getting a job in television writing. I mean, and then there are people who come and just, you know, write really good spec scripts and start sending them to agents until they get an agent who will represent them.

You mentioned Cupid. What’s the remake going to be like?

Ah, it will be a lot like the original. I’m not... Ah, I mean, I’ll completely rewrite the pilot. But the premise will be the same. The idea will be the same. The reason they want me to redo it is because they, the network, likes how the show works. The idea that this guy is... claims to be the banished god Cupid, sent to earth to relearn his craft, would be really the cornerstone of the new show as well. And the actors will change and the scenes and stories will change, but the way the show is set up will look quite a bit like the original.

Will it still be set it Chicago?

Doubtful. I mean, one of the things that we... A primary reason I want to set it in LA, or at least film it in LA, is, uh, is it’s more difficult to get top name guest stars to go anywhere if it’s not LA. And it’s a show that could really do well with guest stars if we keep it here.

Do you have any ideas about casting this time around?

I don’t.

Yeah, it’s early.

Yeah, it is. It’s really early. All they’ve done right now is just order a pilot script, so, you know, over the last decade I’ve learned not to put too much emotional investment in any pilot script order. You know, it will just break your heart.

And what about your other pilot?

The other pilot is a remake of a New Zealand show called Outrageous Fortune which is sort of about a family of lower middle class criminal. It plays as a pretty funny family drama. It’s, uh... In the first episode, the dad gets sent away for five years and the mom decides the family is going to try to go straight. And that proves to be a pretty difficult mission for this family. The thing that I’m really excited about is it’s gonna have the best role for a 50-year-old actress written this year. For one thing there’s so few, but this is really phenomenal role, so hopefully we can attract a big star for that.

Yeah, that’d be great.

Yeah.

And are you thinking of anyone in particular?

Oh, you know, Rene Russo, Ellen Barkin, Susan Sarandon, any of these people would be high on my list.

Ok, so shifting gears a bit, everyone right now is talking about the potential writer’s strike. Do you think it’s going to happen and how do you think it would affect TV this season?

I think it will happen, and I’m not sure anyone knows how it will affect TV. It depends on how long the strike lasts. You know, if the strike is a couple of weeks, no one will even feel it. If it’s three months it means, look for a lot of repeat and reality on television.

Do you think that there’s any way that they would allow it to go that long?

Um... Yeah, I mean, we are far far far apart on the issues. It could be pretty contentious.

And what exactly are the issues? I know it has stuff to do with the online rights and stuff.

Yeah, you know, their -- the studios’ current position is that writers would not receive any residuals for any new media, ala iTunes and downloadable content. And they want to rollback our already miniscule DVD residuals. And then there are other issues like bringing reality under the Writers Guild tent, which, strange as it sounds is actually good for writers because people are certainly writing reality shows and constructing stories on those and yet they get paid so much less than we do, which makes those shows cheaper and it also makes it easy for networks to overwork and underpay those people.

Ok, so now let’s move on to Veronica Mars.

Sure.

So what’s the latest on the movie?

Um, there is no latest, really. You know, the truth is I... I probably regret mentioning that I would like to write a feature screenplay. Not so much because I’ve lost any desire to do it or any energy in that direction, but I get asked continually and it always makes me feel bad that I’m not working on it, but I’m not working on it because right now I have to sort of take paid jobs. And I hope to find the time, and, you know, more importantly, I mean I would find the time, it’s finding someone interested in bankrolling a Veronica Mars movie. That would really spur me into action.

So is it the same story on the comic?

Ah, yeah.

So if the movie doesn’t happen, do you hope that you can work with the rest of the cast at some point in time again?

Oh, yeah, I would love to, you know particularly if Cupid goes to TV, I’m sure you’d see most of the Veronica Mars regulars appear at some point on that show. And if the New Zealand show goes, I’m sure you’ll see Francis Capra pretty early. [Laughs] I think I could find space for him in that show. Um, but, uh, yeah, no, I love those guys. In fact I just bumped into... I just saw a couple of them a couple of nights ago. Jason Dohring and Ryan Hansen were at the premiere of a movie that our Veronica Mars director of photography shot, so, I got to see them the other night. And then Ryan was in a TV pilot that we filmed here at my house with sorta my own cash this summer, that we’re going to start kicking out in the next couple weeks, that I’m really really excited about.

What’s that one?

Uh, it’s called Party Down. It’s a half hour comedy really kind of... How do I want to put it. Uh, kinda of sad isn’t quite the word. It’s a comedy with a lot of pathos in it. And it’s, uh, it’s about cater waiters in Los Angeles. If The Office is a show about people who have given themselves over completely to the rat race, this is a show about people who have descended off the rat race well into their mid-thirties, past the point that perhaps they should have joined it. So people who came out to make it as writers, actors, musicians, comedians, and find themselves in their mid-thirties still holding down temp jobs, you know, waiting for their big break. So the notion is each episode is a different catered event where they are working. And there are several Veronica Mars people in Party Down. Ken Marino, who played Vinnie Van Lowe is one of the leads in it. And, uh, and Jane Lynch, from all, who is in all those Christopher Guest movies who played Mrs. Donaldson, the student council sponsor in an episode in season one, is in it. And then Adam Scott, who played the teacher who... Veronica’s favorite teacher who had the affair with the student, is really kind of the lead in it. And then James Jordan who played Lucky and then Tim Foil is in it. Enrico is not... uh, Rico Colantoni, whose not-- wouldn’t be a regular in the series, but has a huge guest starring role in which he does full on nudity [laughter] is in it. And Paula Marshall plays his wife in it. So, yeah, we had quite a few Veronica Mars people in it. It’s really, I’m really proud of that, so I have high hopes that we sell it, you know, ideally, you know Showtime would be great, HBO would be great.

So it’s mostly a Showtime and HBO type show?

It is, though, uh, we’ve cut down a little three minute trailer that makes it look a little brighter than the actual show that we may show to ABC, NBC. I mean certainly if somebody asked us if we’d be interested in the slot between 30 Rock and The Office, I’m sure we could modify our vision a little bit. [Giggles]

With season three, the show changed in a lot of ways. One of the things that I really noticed was that a lot of the secondary characters weren’t getting as much play. Was that just scheduling issues, or... What was that about?

No, I don’t think it was scheduling issues, I think, just owed to different directions we wanted to go. I guess we’d have to get into specifics.

Well, like Wallace. Wallace had only like two or three episodes where he really played a big part.

Yeah. It wasn’t... It was less a mindset about going away from Wallace and it... I dunno. We became very fond of writing for Tina Majorino, and sort of that friendship started to occupy equal footing with Wallace over the course of the season. And then Francis was ill for a good part of the season, so we didn’t get to use him as much as we would have otherwise. In fact he got... A couple of episodes suffered because he had to be written out last minute. But you know, I don’t think... While I think certain non-Veronica characters got less play, I mean I think it... How do I want to put this? Veronica Mars was sort of designed, you know... How do I want to put this? The initial design was for a one year show really. You know, I populated the series with the people who would play a major role in the mystery of season one. And then it creates this odd dynamic as you go into new seasons of how do you... It gets silly if you keep wrapping up your series regulars in a huge murder mystery. Like, how many times can, you know, Logan still be a suspect in said crime. And so I keep the same cast going into season two, but I have a new mystery so I can’t attach everyone to it or I think it will look silly if the same six people are all wrapped up in the mystery, and so you do have new characters come in, both season two and season three, who do take some of their space away from them.

I read in an interview you gave with Kristin from E! that the network got much more involved in season three and started changing things. Other than taking away the season long mystery, what were certain... Anything in particular that they came in and just said, “This has to go”?

No, I think... The network didn’t bully us into doing anything we didn’t want to do. I can’t remember what I told Kristin specifically. We did get new creative execs on our show in season three who were much more involved. Um, they were much more involved in the macro of the show, whereas previous administrations had been a little more intent on the micro. But, you know, we were never in that three year run, we were never in the situation where I was having to go into battle on a weekly basis to get the show on that I wanted to do. In season three, you know, it felt like people were watching us more closely, but it wasn’t like I was losing creative battles to the network.

This might just be the bitter fan in me, but do you feel like the network could’ve done more promotion and stuff like that to get more viewers aware of the show?

Well, yeah, absolutely. If I have a complaint about the network it’s that, because creatively they treated me and the show very well, you know, particularly, you know, a show that was not getting the ratings they would’ve liked. Generally in those situations they try to fix the show. And they really didn’t ever try to fix our show. So, um, yeah, any complaints I would’ve had had to do with marketing and promotion, though I felt as though we were in the same boat as most of their shows. I mean, certainly in season three, you know, the only things that got pressed were Top Model and, uh, Gilmore Girls. Everything else they did sort of, you know, it wasn’t like Smallville was getting more than we were or Supernatural or whatever, so I didn’t think we were being singled out for, you know, lack of promotional dollars, but they just decided their strategy would be to promote the network and promote their two biggest shows and then everyone else kinda had to fend for themselves. Certainly I would’ve loved more promotion. The other thing that’s tough is I felt like Veronica Mars is a show for people who weren’t otherwise watching the CW, so they could do all the promotion they wanted on their network and it wasn’t really reaching our audience.

Though they could’ve put something on maybe CBS or something like that?

Yeah.

If you had been able to keep doing the show how would you have ended it and were you satisfied with the ending it got?

Um, you know, I don’t know how I would’ve ended it. I guess because the... I honestly don’t know. I do know this. I honestly would’ve preferred... You know, the notion of going... taking Veronica to the FBI and jumping forward in time was a desperation move on part. Because I knew we were dead in the water as is. So I was trying to pitch the network a show they already wanted me to do with other characters. And, they love Kristen and really wanted to keep her on the network. And, so, my first preference would’ve been to come back and have Veronica season four be her sophomore year at Hearst. And we felt like we had set up some really interesting story telling for season four. She was going to go and take that FBI internship then have a big case follow her home from the East coast. Logan was going to get entangled in that Russian mob kid’s family in a pretty big way. And we were really, the whole writing staff was pretty psyched for where we were taking it for next year. So it was... we were all, I mean we were bummed on a whole lot of levels but one of them was that we were really excited about where season four was going.

Speaking of Logan, I am a shipper, but not one of the militant ones. I didn’t think the show lived and died according to their relationship. But how is it as a showrunner to know that there was such a huge fanbase that really did feel that way?

You know, it was tough in the sense that I always felt like I was damned if I do and damned if I don’t. The thing about the two of them, you know, the thing we picked up on in season one, because... Whatever their status was romantically, I knew we had to play them on screen together, because they’re just so good. I mean, you know, Keith and Veronica and Logan and Veronica were my favorite moments of the show and I liked the show when they were, when Veronica and Logan were not together... I liked the two of them when they weren’t together and I liked the two of them when they were together. So, I just wanted to play a rocky road for them. It was tough sometimes because I would have the feeling that, and this went across the board for Veronica, but the people wanted her issues sorted out and fixed now. Which is not something I wanted to do midway through season three. I couldn’t give Veronica a happy healthy relationship. You know, what’s she going to do, get married? It was the fodder for interesting drama for me, and sort of the same thing was true of her personality. The desire to warm her up that I didn’t want to go to. So, you know, it got to point where largely I felt whatever choice I made I was going to disappoint a portion of the fanbase and it was just go with the one that entertained me the most.

And then he had a meeting so we had to go. It was a very pleasant experience despite the fact that I'm pretty sure I was completely horrible. And that I now have to figure out how to get 1:30 out of this for class. I don't think I can fit a single answer into 1:30.

Look how talkative I am!

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:26:24 GMT

I thought I'd post a link here to my new site, RiO. http://www.realityisoverrated.net/ It's extremely barebones right now, but I have big ideas, if my brother ever gets off his ass to complete them. Otherwise, I'll have to learn Ruby on Rails myself and that sounds like a bad idea. So right now it's basically just a general tv forum, but I have ideas of it one day being more than that. We'll see. So go on over and register. It needs users to be successful!

I must break my self-imposed silence to say...

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 04:54:07 GMT

OMFG!!! MARK SHEPPARD POSTED ON MY LJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Linkage

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Help me out, please

Tue, 22 May 2007 19:01:09 GMT

Can someone tell me how to change the settings so that all posts made by anyone to a community are flocked? Or do you just have to remind everyone to flock all posts? If I have it set to moderated posting, can I change the flock status?

At Stef's request...

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:56:10 GMT

My nephews.

Ari was born July 1st and Tristan was born August 30th. I think. Somewhere around those dates. So they're like 5 or 6 months. I guess. I miss the days of my nieces when they practically lived in my house as babies. I never get to see these two. :(

So I'm sitting here cleaning out my Stickies...

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:45:21 GMT

And I discover something I saved a long long time ago, but never posted. It is now more than a year since Marsathon, and I never posted a recap. Crazy. So here is as far as I got, and the panel that I filmed from the second night, which I recently posted on YouTube.

So, finally, I present to you the OMG OMG OMG I WENT TO AUSTIN!!!! I TOUCHED JASON DOHRING!!!!! I HUGGED MICHAEL MUHNEY!!!! I TALKED TO ROB THOMAS AND KRISTEN BELL!!!! post."

I'm going to skip the boring stuff like getting strip searched at the airport and such and head right onto Lambathon. So julielb67 and I had rented a car and showed up at the Corner Bakery at 11:30. We get in and are trying to figure out just how the hell this is going to work. I mean, it was very crowded, and we just couldn't figure out where everyone was going to fit. While we were contemplating this, I noticed someone with luggage, sitting with someone who looked familiar. Of course, there's no way I could remember who is who after seeing about 100 pics of ppl in 2 days. Then we noticed the VM dvds on the table. So we go over and introduce ourselves. It turns out that they are chaotic4life, who has my Saturday ticket, and roz_mcclure, who I'm giving a ride back to Austin. So, perfect!

Anyway, we sit around for a while. Some other people show up. I couldn't tell you who, though. Ooops. Shoulda taken better notes. Or any notes. For a while we were sorta sending secret "We're here to see thewizrd" signals to a table of people who looked like they might be looking at us. And they were, but they didn't get the signals until after about half an hour or so.

Michael shows up at 12:30 with a little girl. We're all, "Awwwww!!!" He brought his sister and two nieces. So we all settle in and are taking up about a quarter of the place. And hardly anyone is actually eating. I think the staff hated us. It takes forever to get through introductions because Michael keeps stopping us and going off on tangents.

After the intros, Michael answered questions for like 2.5 hours. There are tapes of that that will eventually make it onto the internets, so I won't get into that too much. Some top secret stuff went on, too, but it's top secret, so I won't tell. All I can tell you is, if Michael ever asks you to pick a number between 1 and 100, pick 7. We also tried to do a trivia thing, but we know more than Michael, so then it we tried "Stump Michael". Yeah, that worked great until we got into a fight about when Aaron Echolls birthday is. Dude, if he has a son born in 1988, it is not possible that he was born in 1985. So I seriously don't know what the hell that was about.

And then we got pictures. Oh, and my dad tells me that he knows if my brother is having a boy or a girl and then hangs up on me without saying.

We got into Austin and checked in and spent an exhausting, boring night at Stubbs. But we did get a parking spot right out front. So, w00t. Oh, and Rob finally showed up and we just sat there staring at him from like five feet away for a while. And then beppergirl, who we had met up with there, thanked him for an email. Oh, and mplsmuse had come practically straight from the airport to be bored with us. Oh, well.

It was beginning to look like Lambathon would be the highlight of the trip. We were the poor outsiders. The non-TWoPers. Worse than that, we were the FFers. But we were there anyway, so we figured we would at least show up for the episode 11 premiere and such. So we went to bed and got about 5 mins of sleep. Actually, I got 4 hours which is better than I did for the rest of the weekend. Or the night before. Also, notice that I haven't mentioned any food yet? That's because all I ate Friday was the banana bread they had on the plane and two bites of a cookie because I didn't realize it was raisin oatmeal.

So up at 9:30 in time to start panicking that I was going to miss breakfast. So mplsmuse and I go down to breakfast. We see lots of people who we figure are with the Marsathon. Geeks are easy to spot. A friend of hers from home comes and says hi. The guy with her is wearing a Diesel Sweeties tee (and think it was "Monkeys are people, too.") and they notice my Spoiler tee. See, webcomics are like a fandom of their own. We talk Megatokyo for a minute.

After breakfast, we move over to the table where everyone is signing maxymama's shirt. I wrote something that may have been witty, but I can't remember it now. Oh well. I do remember that I wrote very neatly. Then, we were introduced to the person across the table. It was sadiekate. Which was so cool. I mean, love her. Then I got my computer and beppergirl and I sat there filling in the OT gang on what was going on.

titaniabelle (at least I think that's what her LJ name is) and her mom showed up and we talked for a while. Then they all left to find a card for Jason. mplsmuse and I decided to hang around the hotel and skip the lunch thing at Magnolias. Because, after all, we were "the others". At about 3ish we left to go to the flea viewing. This was when I began thinking that the hanging out with people stuff would be fun, too. Met up with chaotic4life again. And some other people. Saw the fleas, which were adorable. And the tees. Had a yummy mousse thing. Then we decided to go and get online so we could get good seats.

We got to the Alamo at 4:45. Since everyone had been talking about getting there at 5:30, we figured we would be one of the firsts. Uh, no. People had started showing up at 3:30. The stairs were already full of people. We were the second people outside. We waited around talking and admiring the really cool t-shirts that they were selling. And I discovered mplsmuse has never seen Donnie Darko. Which is like a crime against humanity. So she totally didn't get the Sparkle Motion tees.

At about 5:30 or so chaotic4life, julielb67, titaniabelle and her mom showed up and got on line with us. We waited around some more. And some more. And then finally got to go in. Their "We'll totally strip search you for cameras!" ended up being, "Anyone have any cameras?" as we went in. Totally decided not to leave our cameras in the trunk tomorrow. We got very nice seats in the middle of a row towards the front. Then we discovered we could've been in the front row, but oh, well. Our seats worked.

So then the music started. I think it was Fire Marshalls of Bethleham, but I wasn't paying attention, so I don't know. On the screen they were showing clips of VM on acid. When it got to the first kiss, the crowd went nuts. A little obvious what ship the crowd favored? chaotic4life decided she had to go to the bathroom. When she comes back, she tells me that all the VIPs are just standing out there. So I sneak out, because I, uh, totally have to go to the bathroom. Sure. That's it. I didn't stay and gawk or anything, though other people were. I just told Michael that he was at 54% on the TWoP poll. He was very pleased.

After the music, the VIPs were introduced. chaotic4life had whispered to me "How the hell is Kristen going to get on that chair?" (there were four very high director's chairs set up on the stage) and she did appear to have a bit of trouble getting up.

Rob starts by apologizing for Enrico's absence. Then he explains how when the suits found out about this, they had to cancel the marathon and then put a ton of restrictions on what clips could be shown. I think the rules were nothing over 2 mins and only showing the regulars.

And now my hiatus shall continue.

These aren't my shoes

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:11:52 GMT

Look! I'm actually doing NaBloPoMo still! And it's been a whole three days! So I should probably come up with something to talk about. I'm going to go with tv.

This is another episode that I'm going to have to rewatch a few times to really appreciate it. I enjoyed it, but I didn't love it, yet. (I always end up loving them after repeated viewing, and discovering all the little things I missed.) But one real complaint: I didn't like the two branches thing this week. I am absolutely loving the Stamford branch, and everybody in it, but the transitions they used, or something, made it feel very disjointed. It didn't flow. I'm not sure what was different this week, but it just felt off.

Oh, and according to my brother's friend who works for CW, there's "no way in hell" VM will be cancelled. (She's in sales, so she knows how the ratings are doing and how it's effecting ad sales, etc., so she seems like someone who would know.)

NaBloPoMo

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 16:07:30 GMT

So today is the first day of both NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo. I haven't signed up for either, but I'm at least doing NaBloPoMo, just for myself, with no chance of winning anything. I may take a stab at NaNoWriMo, but I doubt it. I can't get more than 10 words on the page for the one fic I've been contemplating writing. I have an outline and everything, but the actual story won't come out. At least not fast enough. I should probably start in the middle. That might help me.

In other news, I got some very nice anti-anxiety pills yesterday. I didn't tell my doctor this, but I'm really using them to calm my nerves about ratings. My other shrink was going on about why he thinks I'm so nervous all the time, and I failed to mention that I know why. I really should open up to him about VM. But our relationship is in that new stage where you can't just spring this sort of thing on a person.

I've been loving VM lately. So very much. And I'm so very happy that I'm no longer reading anything about it. My little bubble is so nice and comfy.

Well, shit.

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 06:35:30 GMT

I'm now really regretting renewing my paid journal, because I've come to the conclusion that I'm over LJ. I've decided that I'm going to stay far far away from most of the internet. It mostly pisses me off. Maybe I'll finally catch up on the past three years worth of webcomics that I haven't been reading. That will keep me busy for a while. In a completely un-pissing-off type way.

So, uh...

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 01:58:38 GMT

I'm going to stay far away from anything even remotely resembling fandom. Sorry, but I'm not in the mood to read the fall out from a great episode where Logan wasn't a prince, so therefore fandom hates it.

In other news, it appears they realized that the Aerie girls suck when it comes to VM, but still have them for GG. I fucking hate the Aerie girls.

Proof that I'm unique:

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 05:45:46 GMT

Stole this from afrocurl

HowManyOfMe.com

There is:
1
person with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

So I was thinking about the VM premiere....

Wed, 04 Oct 2006 20:18:49 GMT

And this YouTube video popped into my head:

Think it means something?

Gay Rights

Tue, 03 Oct 2006 15:24:09 GMT

"Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?" - Ernest Gaines

We would like to know who really believes in gay rights on livejournal. There is no bribe of a miracle or anything like that. If you truly believe in gay rights, then repost this and title the post as "Gay Rights". If you don't believe in gay rights, then just ignore this. Thanks.

Crap. Must pay for my LJ and hope all my icons are automatically restored.

My delusional theories as a pseudo-ratings buff

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 19:32:06 GMT

Ok, so for some reason I think I know something about ratings and the tv biz. I don't, at least not yet, though that's what majoring in tv is going to change. But anyway, my theory on VM is that CW is desperate for any excuse to keep it on the air. Rob Thomas and his "80% retention" talk is just wrong. VM brings two things: critical acclaim and a cult fanbase. And do you know what cult fanbases are good for? Merchandising. You can't make action figures for just any show. It doesn't work. It has to be a show that people will actually want to rush out and buy them. Calendars are a bit more commonplace, but they're also cheaper to make and sell. But, anyway, the point is, with cult shows, the money is made outside of advertising, so the ratings aren't as important as with other shows. Not that they don't count at all. They do. If VM gets ratings as poor as Runaway, it will be gone. But I'm almost positive that somewhere in the high 2's, or at least low 3's, will be good enough to guarantee a full season and maybe more. Why do I think this? This is where my deluded thinking comes in.

Why didn't CW air Not Pictured on Tuesday after GG? Wouldn't it have been really smart to give the potential audience some background info before the premiere? The answer is because CW wants the season average to stay as high as possible. My theory will prove true if they don't air repeats every week during the hiati, particularly if going up against House once AI starts. Repeats count into the season average, and repeats are always lower than new episodes. So, to help justify a fourth season, they don't want that average hurt by repeats.

And so, it's obvious that I'm correct. :D

Best character of the night?

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 03:57:27 GMT

Creed.

The squee in my icon is because Veronica is back, and nothing else

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:12:19 GMT

I loved it. So very very very much. This premiere was much better than Normal is the Watchword. Soooooo much better. But I'm not reading anyone else's thoughts on it, because I've decided that I'm going to stay happy this season, and ignore what other people think. Because, seriously, I hate fandom. I have my peeps to discuss episodes with, and none of them have anything to do with the VM fandom, so they don't automatically hate something just because TWoP decides they hate it. And that will be the extent of my discussing it. (Discussing meaning back and forth conversation. I'll probably still put stuff up here.)

Anyway, I was sad to see no Lamb, but I think I knew that. Michael was like filming a movie or something. But I loved Dick. So very much. He's all tortured now! And Mac/Dick is totally going to be canon! (I mean, do you know how many Mac/Dick fics have started with that exact scene?) And, god, I love Logan. So very much. Sigh. Though I have to admit that I giggled when Logan first started comforting Dick. But that's because it reminded me too much of the "It's not me, it's Wu" scene.

The new characters: Piz was ok. His obvious Veronica crush was annoying. But I really can't see what about him Veronica would be interested in, so I'm not too worried. Plus, they totally played up the L/V stuff in the new credits.

Parker was, well, annoying. But I guess she's supposed to be, so, uh, ok. Maybe she'll get less annoying now that she's been raped. (That's pretty horrible of me, isn't it?)

The L/V post sex scene was weird. It seemed like they were just trying to make the shippers happy, and making it sort of parallel to the VD post sex scene. But when Keith called and Veronica was busy lying to him, I thought they looked very cute and comfortable together.

What else? Oh, right, Keith. I'm still a bit confused as to why Vinnie needed to bug Keith if Liam's brother (whatever his name is) was going to be taken to Kendall by Keith. Maybe it will be explained later.

I think that's about it. Wallace didn't get much of a mention, but he was good. I liked the MotW. And, um, yeah.

I happen to like the new opening. A lot. I don't mind the slowed down song. It's slightly jarring to fade out of the teaser and have the wrong tempo, but I'll get used to it.

Huh.

Sun, 17 Sep 2006 15:43:17 GMT

Am I the only one who can't get any communities to load?