This was good. Would you consider cross posting at a few other blogs? Im sure that there are many who would like this, maybe DailyKos for starters. there are a few diary's there supporting the writers, and it should be an important issue in the politics of the left. I noticed that pro-union Edwards hasnt mentioned the strike, as far as I can tell

I loved the clip, very important message, and cool sound/visual effect with the ancient typewriter ribbon.

One thing I don't get though...and its a little funny, given the topic regarding content, and who gets credit and whatnot.

I don't know who created this video? Is it UM, or are you just posting it? I'm sure net-savvys know. But I'm not sure. Am I supposed to go to youtube to find this kind of thing out?

not UM. (trust me i always put my logo/URL on my vids). sorry i didnt put attribution into the post, i should have so people dont think i made it. i'll fix that, thanks.

*if you click any youtube vid (not on the arrow) you get to the page of the video posted, and this one is posted by "strikingwriter2007."

A couple of things:

It's not right to cheat people of their fair share, but at the same time I have a problem with a lot of the product these writers create. Way too much formulaic violence, TV shows about people you want to avoid in real life (doctors, lawyers, cops)--but maybe this is all the big networks will pay them to produce. For the percentage that actually contributes something positive to the society (I think of John Stewart and Steven Colbert's writers here), I hope they prevail. But if it is going to be business as usual in the entertainment world I think it's better that we regular folks try to entertain ourselves. Hence I come to read you Nez~!

then there is the issue of the quality of society that does not support its artistic class. The arts are supposed to be how we learn empathy and humanity, so if we lose that we become further distanced from the very things that help us be social. We already see that in the public schools. And certainly when dictators seek power the intellectual class is one of the first to be neutralized. So even if they do produce artistically questionable products,perhaps it is better that then nothing at all...

i agree, jena. the mainstream rots the brain most of the time...but here i'm just talking about the issue of paying the creator of a work their due and not using them. and if we begin only allowing content we approve of...well. i'm quite against censorship, so, ugh, we must make room for the rot.

and are you saying that if i ever end up catching a current into the mainstream, you won't pay attention anymore? you'll get all Early Metallica Only on me? "hell, nez was great back on the little blog, but now, it's like he has to drag the wah-wah pedal onto each track!" ;]

the arts ARE so important for humanity. we do so much through our experience of art and story and song. we get so much from it, and it does so much for us as individuals and as a People. you are defintiely talking my language on that one. that has been a long standing issue of mine. we reduce it to trivia, to formula, we negate its makers, we negate their importance in the weave, we make monkeys out of them, robots, assembly line workers, faces. and in part, its why we are so often blinded as a people. to what has come, to what is going on, to what it means. we just want another profit system, we reduce this spiritual potential to a commercial one and gauge its success accordingly.

goodbye kitty, i really do appreciate the propz and the request to spread the post further, but honestly, i dont have the time to crosspost, and thats why i dont do that anymore, if i did i'd throw my stuff up at a few places.

hey...i just realized. maybe my assistant compañera de xolagrafik.com can help me with this. crossposting notion. anyway, thanks goodbye kitty. i'll see what i can do regarding crossposting. but before i did Dkos i'd probably do culturekitchen, correntewire, jesus' general, and oh who knows. the laundromat. there's a fat telephone pole sits wot right up in the sunny corner of the street. somehow i can see my posts appearing there daily. that would be fun. i need to get a printer.

Anda Nez, I'm a purist but if you caught that wave and rode it to easy street I would be all for it~ just remember me when 'k? The fight is all for the sake of those few who have the right energy, it's just so much chaff and not so much wheat nowadays. If the money was in the hands of the right people in the first place we wouldn't be in the pickle we are.

Click the link that Nez put in the article, Goodbye Kitty. Edwards is right there with the strikers at NBC studios in Burbank.

jena, i dont think anything will bring me to "easy street." not as long as i am in this world. and paying attention. how could i forget you jena? you are a sincere and kind person. who has sent me fotos of beautfiul faraway lands. and museums.

yeah, we do need different media makers out there. i have a good link ive been meaning to post on. taking back the media...

Thanks for posting this. I keep seeing people criticizing the writer's strike because writers make so much money already that they don't need the income, and the strike disrupts our entertainment. But this is about ethics - being paid for work done. This doesn't just affect the current writers, but future writers as well. It's important, especially as more online content is developed commercially.

and making money from writing is a chance in a million, just like from music and acting etc. If they have a successful program they want their share of the royalties because what if they never get another program like that again?

I have a friend who is making a lot of money as a caterer right now and it's going to get busier and busier through the holiday season. But she's thinking of quitting after Christmas and taking a job that pays less per hour but she's guaranteed a certain # of hours per week. Her current hours are dependant on how many events her company gets asked to do, she has kids, and she's thinking "well, what if business slows down and I get told there's nothing for me to do that day..."

Writing is even more extreme than that, you can never tell when you'll be able to get a project that actually makes money, and even though the royalties from one show may sound like a lot, how long will it be before they see a check from something else? Also, many people use those royalties to fund their own projects that no one else will, so if you don't like the mainstream, just think there may be someone writing for CSI to pay the bills that may come out with some awesome script for an independent movie you love or something. If you appreciate the arts, you'd support the strike becase I do believe money shows what you value and not giving the writers their share of the royalties shows they're not valued by their employers.

well said, both lisa and malicia. great points.

and yeah, writers have always been undervalued. just as if you say "Taxi Driver," most people (unless they be film buffs) generally talk about de niro and scorsese (and maybe jodi foster, and/or harvey keitel) but how many talk about Paul Schrader? Because the brilliance was right there, in the script. Scorsese and especially de niro did fantastic, but without the script to inspire and set that original vibe and narrative, different animal.

yeah, and on the money tip, i'm not saying that its fair that a writer gets paid X and a meatpacker Z. that's a different conversation. its a good one. but its still a different conversation. i think its easy to spin off into a lot of side conversations from this incident, it brings ups class issues, the media's function, people's satisfaction level with their own careers, their ideas on what the function of a writer/artist/actor is, etc

" I am grossed out when I see systems where the distributors, marketers, or sellers of work cheat the maker of the work."

tis the nature of capitalism.

i guess that's why ya don't see many posts here praising our current system. it's easy to get grossed out around here.

YOU MAY UNKNOWINGLY BE IN A FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE AND YOUR CORRUPTION IS PREVENTING YOU FROM REALIZING IT!!!! IF YOU FAIL TO UNCORRUPT YOURSELF AND BEGIN IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION YOU MAY NOT GET THAT SECOND CHANCE VIA REINCARNATION OR BE REINCARNATED AS SOMETHING UGLY!!!
If you knew the truth you would have great urgency.
This tactic of "fairness", savoir and good (Christian) god-based hope is fucking you up.

...[edited by Nezua for length and sanity]

You have to take responsibility for your relationship with the gods.

wow. you are one crazy motherfucker. propz.

i hope "you may unknowingly" gets his writer's credit for that nutty ramble. :)

Thats one WTF script if I ever saw one, should get his own blog, who ever s/he is needs the space!

Yeah, it's how capitalism gets used, but that's exactly why it's necessary to protest it when it happens.

That guy above must think his message is important, given how often he posts it. :)

Hurrah for strangely woven and extremely long spam comments! :-p

I've gotten that spam at my blog three times in the last week. It's a full length novel!

I support any and all unionized workers. I wish we had more of them. My husband is unionized, he is an airframe/powerplant technician (aircraft mechanic), it's highly specialized work, has alot of rules and regs in the aviation industry that must be followed etc. Most of his work is routine, but if the shit hits the fan, you want someone like him with experience (21 years) and the knowledge he has to get your plane up in the air safely. My husband is concerned about rumors he hears in the airline industry, lay-offs of the mechanics with seniority so they can pay lower wages at some airlines, but this also means that they don't have experience, just a bunch of newbies who don't know what the hell they are doing. Another problem, management sometimes tries to save money getting planes up that need work done, a grounded plane is making no money, they coerce people like my husband into signing off the log when the work hasn't been done or done properly. My husband won't do it, first because he would never be able to forgive himself if something happened and he had any responsibility for the death of the pilots (no passengers, he works for UPS) or people on the ground, but also he can risk his job because he is unionized and the union would go to bat for him against management if they pulled this crap on him. So fly union airlines, they are safer.

it's a novel that will make you crazy should you try and understand it. holy macaroni. jeje :)

Donna, amiga, thank you for the great advice and for sharing that wisdom.

everytime money is it front of all other considerations....boom. and yet we do not learn it seems.

Nez, I wanted to post my novel here, too, and I will, just as soon as I have a plot, developed characters, some themes, and something to say. Stick with me, my friend, I think it wil be the Great American Novel! Really! Just let me post it here, and hog all your bandwith! Please!

jeje, okay SeattleDan, please include all footnotes and scribblings!

I heard that the Latin@ writers (and other writers of color) were chanting "si se puede" at the strike! the white writers looked on in bafflement! "is it May Day? What did they say?" teehee.

FOnny :]