John Mayer...Room For Squares Bjork...Greatest Hits Beth Orton...Daybreak Coldplay...A Rush of Blood to the Head Counting Crows...Hard Candy Score for The Two Towers
bubble gum tongue
Thursday, September 26, 2002
a note to the VLFN readers
so uhm, hi. waves sheepishly i keep trying to finish 610. i do. honest. i even took my laptop to the river with me. i opened it, even. i did. the problem was the large glass of Malibu Rum mixed with bottled Starbucks frappucino that was perpetually full. yum. it was calling my name. a LOT. so uhm, yeah. to avoid spilling my drink on poor Talyn, thereby frying his circuits and causing a party foul, i had to put Talyn away. but, uhm, so yeah, i started plotting it again today. i did. honest. flashes a big Crichton grin.
i need to finish 610. no, i mean i need to finish 610. red and i were actually just talking about how we need to be writing again. okay, the truth...actually, we were having a spontaneous discussion about a scene from a pending Farscape fic that we have on hold and Jul was laughing at us in her chair across the way in the actual Farscape War Room, which is, by the way, housed on the third floor of her home. yeah, Jul rocks. we were working out the scene and Jul was saying that somebody should just record us, or maybe, check it out, actually take notes on what we were riffing. *rolls eyes*. and how the frell does everything in my brain find it's way back to Farscape? must have my own Harvey clone. *shiver*
so yeah, back to VLFN. i've got work to do. **rubs hands together**
it's 0005 here on the Left Coast. i've been chewing on a couple of blog topics regarding Farscape, the Campaign, and Science Fiction fandom in general, but i'd like to comment first on something infinitely more important. hard to believe there is anything more important than Farscape, right now, huh?
SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001. TERRORISTS ATTACK THE WTC IN NEW YORK, AND THE PENTAGON IN WASHINGTON.
over 3000 lives were lost that day. stop right now, whatever it is you are doing, and remember them. remember the loss, the anguish, the heroism, the patriotism, the bravery and the courage.
Monday, September 09, 2002 help save Farscape from cancellation
ya know, i had this whole witty NASA launch rip off theme going in my head, but i'm too tired right now to include it here. maybe when i wake up.
cancelling Farscape has an impact beyond the fans
television is my future industry. okay, so i may not actually get hired before i'm 90, but so what, i can dream right? the cancellation of Witchblade earlier this week had the Right Brain and i mightily confused. top rated, award winning, popular. then comes the leaked intel from David, Ben and Ricky about SciFi exercising their out clause and cancelling season 5 of Farscape. their #2 show, award winning, mainstream hit, put SciFi on the map, blah blah blah. cancelling both of those shows is like telling a straight A student that they're going to fail their classes anyway. "i'm sorry, Bobby. i know you got A's on all of your papers, and you got 100 percent on every one of your tests, and you just got 100 percent on your final, but i'm going to fail you anyway. why? well, i guess, because i can.
the ramifications of these two cancellations is larger than the fans, though. think about it. ratings and ad money are how a show is judged. it gets good ratings, then advertisers want to buy ad space. higher ratings, more expensive ad space. this is the backbone of the unwritten rules of the television relationship. you, the network, give me quality programming to watch and i'll watch it faithfully. i'll also turn around and talk up the show to every one within earshot. i'll go out and give my disposable income to the advertisers i see while watching my favorite shows, the advertisers, in turn, will pay more money to the networks for ad space during my favorite shows. i watch, you program. it's the rule.
but now those rules are being broken. now the networks are saying, "hey, it's a fabulous show by all measures of industry success but we're gonna cancel it anyway." what the frell? if i were a showrunner, why would i want to work with that network? why take the risk when, by all the industry indicators, my show could still get cancelled unceremoniously when its got great ratings, wins awards and is a mainstream hit? if i were a writer or an actor, the cinematographer, hell, the key grip, why would i want to invest my talent and soul into a show on a network that would cancel its highest rated show? television is an art form and these people are the artists. why take the risks if you're going to be betrayed by the network that you strive so highly for?
i can't imagine the depth of betrayal, shock, anger, anguish, sadness and confusion that the cast and crew of Farscape (and Witchblade) must be feeling. Ben and Anth talking about the sets being taken down as eps are still being filmed. walking into the fourth season knowing you had a contract for 44 more eps worth of employment, then finding out at the close of filming that you're unemployed as of the beginning of the following week, one season too soon.
the Right Brain and i sat nearly speechless for the first couple of hours late friday night after finding out about the cancellation. we were both physically sickened by it. i can only imagine how that feeling must be exponentially magnified for the cast and crew. i have nothing but complete and utter contempt for Quintus Moronus Duplicitous, aka Michael Jackson the head of Universal Entertainment, aka that ratfucklizardsonofabitch that called the shots on this greedy little sham. if i were him, i'd be looking for ways to reverse that kind of bad karma...like becoming a Buddist monk and taking a vow of silence...or working with the poor, forever, in Somalia....or finding a way to die and come back as an ant, in order to be crushed over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
keep the faith for the fight is long
we the fans of Farscape cannot give up. we need to pummel the SciFi channel until they comply. "Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.''
just a mini blog for the moment. i'm working up to a full-on Fury, but that'll be later today. i need to let it stew some more.
THANK YOU, GENTLEMEN. YOUR COURAGE HUMBLES ME
David, Ricky and Ben gave us, the fans, the greatest gift last night, the irony of which doesn't escape me in light of the last ep aired...they gave us TIME....a 3 day headstart.
WE CAN, QUITE LITERALLY, SAVE THE CREW OF MOYA
it's up to us. no one else has the power to save Moya and her crew but us. the fans. the viewers. this is the ONE TIME that we can affect change on the industry. let our voices ring clear and now! DO NOT CANCEL FARSCAPE we *can* stop this from happening. we *can* give Ben and David and Ricky and Claudia and Anth and Gigi and Raelee and Lani and Wayne and David their jobs back. do it now. repay the gift they've given us for the last four years. call SciFi. fax SciFi. email the news outlets. email your friends. get them to call SciFi. do it right now.
did it? did it touch you at all? stir your soul? then return the favor. pay it forward. help SAVE FARSCAPE. the AWARD WINNING show that the SciFi channel JUST CANCELLED. help Anth, and Gigi and Paul, and Lani, and Wayne, and Ben and Claudia stay employed. help Sikozu find her way. help Grayza be a good bad guy. hell, help Braca find his backbone. just frelling do it yesterday!!!!!!
this is different for me than La Femme Nikita, and i won't go into why right now. it's more visceral. my stomach is in an unbelievable knot right now and if i let myself think about how utterly betrayed the cast and crew must be feeling right now, i'd burst into tears.
David Kemper immediately snarked any fans that were being malicious of the decision makers, and he's right. this is not about who made the decision. it doesn't matter who made the decision. what matters is we have ONE WEEK to get someone's attention. one week. that's it. the sets are scheduled to be destroyed at the end of the week. a fact that i find UNBELIEVABLY disturbing.
find a phone. any phone. hell, steal one if you have to. CALL SCIFI CHANNEL IN NEW YORK at 212-413-5000. be reasonable. be polite. be succinct. but be punctual. they need to understand that the fans will cease to be fans if dren like this keeps happening. why should we continue to invest in shows, and by extension in advertising and spending of our disposable incomes, if the shows we invest in, award winning shows that receive high Nielson ratings are cancelled? quite frankly, i'm confused. the message that sends to me is that being successful, getting awards, getting good ratings, having lots of fans in the prime demographics ranges simply isn't enough for networks to keep a show on the air. i'm sorry, but i thought that was the benchmark? if it isn't, why bother?
HELP SAVE FARSCAPE. YOU HAVE LITERALLY ONE WEEK. DO IT NOW. NOT YESTERDAY. NOT TOMORROW. RIGHT FRELLING NOW.
