Because, I sure as hell need some brightening.

The previously mentioned illness has yet to leave, and now I’ve come down with the pink eye that the daughter had earlier this week. Yesterday I was actually forced into leaving work because my boss didn’t want me infecting anyone else. All in all that was fine, because a couple hours later it felt as if someone had rammed three baseballs into my ear canal. The doctor at urgent care said that it was simply the pressure from my sinus cavities moving into the back of my head.

At least now I have actual medication, and eye drops. The pressure has moved back into the front, though, so my face feels as if it is being squeezed by a madman with a vice. The wife’s office holiday party is tonight, but I’m confident that, aided by both prescription and over the counter medications, I will attend said festivities. As it is, I’m sitting in an eatery/bakery trying to work on one of my novels…

But seeing as I feel like crappycrapcrap, I needed a spiritual pick me up, if you will…

Besides being a nice song, both lyrically and musically, that is one astounding video. I didn’t realize until I watched it a second time, but that’s ONE SINGLE SHOT…I can’t imagine how many f*ing takes that must have taken…

And now on the other side of the spectrum…

That is a LOT of editing people!

Huh, kinda feel like a hippie now, with all the feel goodyness…

I had promised that today would be the first in a series of “regular featured” articles relating/pertaining to a specific, as yet unrevealed, topic. But guess what? I’m a big fat liar.

I’m so tired that I’m starting to say sentences without, you know, verbs and nouns. Last night I slept for nearly four hours, which is about double what I’ve gotten the last three nights. The book is done. I’ve actually written the words “The End.”

OK, I didn’t actually write those words because I don’t know how I feel about writing them since it seems pretty obvious where the end of the book is…but you get the point.

I’m about 1/5ish through revising, which is good, but I have six hours of class tonight, which is bad, and the deadline is tomorrow…so no sleepy for me!

In an attempt to keep myself awake I have been listening to the same 10 songs over and over again…here’s a few in no particular order…

The Dropkick Murphys - The Dirty Glass
…because I loves me some bands with either bagpipes or a mandolin, but both is just the definition of awesomeness…

Feist - I Feel It All
…the more I listen to this album the more I realize what a ridiculously good songwriter she is…and the more I realize I need to invest in a parka because I imagine it’s pretty easy to catch frostbite while waiting all night in someone’s trashcan when that someone lives in Canada…

The Pink Spiders - Modern Swinger
…I’m willing to take flak for this (I’m looking at you c) but we are all well aware that catchy-psuedo-punk-pop is one of my major weaknesses, and in my defense this video offers something for gilgrim (the band wears black and pink striped ties), me (chicks in pink wigs) and our hardcore sexual deviant fanbase (one word: FURRIES!)…

Muse - Map of the Problematique
…this latest album might be one of the greatest rock albums of all time from a purely musical perspective…and what I mean by that is the more you listen and understand what is there, the more you realize that they didn’t just write songs, so much as compose a series 4 minute masterpieces that are so complex and layered, it really blows my f*ing mind, plus the drummer is flat out amazing, I played the drums for a number of years and I have a soft spot for any band (probably why I liked Blink-182) with a drummer who is artistic as opposed to a guy who just sits behind the rest of the band and bangs on shit…

NOFX - The Separation of Church and Skate
…well, when did punk rock become so safe, seriously? it’s a valid question…

One last item…there is a new poll up in The Polling Place…vote and be rewarded with the pride that comes from doing some community service…

First off…let me just say to Spookymuffin that I would dance around like a freak to that Feist song if that were the type of thing I did…which it totally is NOT…seriously, there is no incriminating video of my attempts to recreate that video in my backyard while wearing nothing but a snorkel mask…so don’t even try to find it…

Here’s a version of the song that is, I think, even better than the one on the album…

And to c, I’m not sure where you live, but here in Southern California, as you might imagine, the WGA strike is a pretty big deal since most of the WGA members live and work here (yeah, yeah, New York, calm down). I suppose you could live here and have totally ignored it, but I get the sense that is not the case…In any event, here’s the basics:

The writer’s are looking for two things, essentially. First, an increase in the residuals that they receive on the sell of DVD’s, and some sort of agreement on getting compensation for work produced for “new media.” Let’s take each of those points separately…

Under the current (or I should say, expired) contract whenever a DVD is sold, the writer of that DVD is given .04 dollars. That wasn’t a mistake, on a 20 dollar DVD, the writer gets 4 cents. The WGA would like this increased to the whopping amount of…wait for it…8 cents. A few points on WGA union history…That 4 cents deal was originally “sealed” in the early 80’s. At the time the studios were claiming that is was not possible to know how profitable (or, if at all…PALEASE!) the video market might be, so they convinced the WGA to take 4 cents a video. The WGA consented on the basis that they would take it as an interim deal, and after the video market had a few years to further establish itself, then the video residuals would be re-negotiated. This, of course, never happened. So the WGA took a deal, 20 years ago, they knew was a little bogus, in an effort to help stabilize the video market but never got the deal they wanted, and had been promised would come at some point. I think all sane and rational people can agree that the 4 cents to 8 cents jump is reasonable.

The “new media” thing refers, specifically to the internet. The studios are claiming that (just like with the original video deal) that there is no way to know how successful the internet will be in generating revenue for video content produced or distributed there. Several studio executives, however, have touted (on video, man are they dumb) how much money they have made/will make from internet revenue. Probably the most well known case of this crap came from The Office. A couple of years ago the show produced some 5 minute webisodes during the summer. These were written by the show’s writing staff, acted in by the actors, etc. The writer’s got paid 0 dollars for their work…that’s right, not a single penny, because the studio claimed it was some sort of promotional material, and therefore, they weren’t required to pay the writers for it. Of course, that didn’t stop NBC from force streaming a commercial to anyone who wanted to watch the webisodes in question….

Basically, the WGA is saying, money is being made on internet stuff and we deserve our share as the people WHO WROTE THE SHIT!

And the fact of the matter is we are going to see that, over the next couple of decades, more and more people are going to “consume” their entertainment online. So that, essentially, is the more important issue of the two.

Here’s something that tells it much better than me, and it’s got a great soundtrack (one point, the video states that a song writer gets paid anytime his song is performed…that is not, actually, true…any one can perform any song live, without having to pay a usage fee because congress, in a rare act of sanity, thought it sensible that if you wanted to hear a Barbara Streisand song at your wedding you didn’t need to hire HER to sing it, or pay an exorbitant fee, but could just hire the nearest cover band, but I digress…)

And here’s one on the more specific details surrounding the writers of The Office…

One last point, lest you think WGA members are all money grubbing, as the first video points out, about 1/2 of all guild members are usually unemployed (thus is the nature of the entertainment industry). One point it doesn’t make, however, is that the average salary of a WGA member is in the 35,000 dollar range (that’s including the residuals). There are some who are ridiculously wealthy, yes, but the overwhelming majority are solidly in the middle class.

As my previous post suggested, the book is done, the deadline has been met and I have a very real sense of…nothing. My wife asked how I felt and I couldn’t really respond. Not empty, per say, but not triumphant either. In reality, the book still needs some minor tweaking before it starts going off to agents and publishers all over, but for where it was going, it’s probably all right. That final 20 pages, that I’ve been meaning to get to for 2 1/2 years (hey, get off my back I’ve been in grad school) actually turned out to be 150, but what’re you gonna do? The ending certainly works better, I think, having gone in the direction it did…and I guess, as much as I hate to admit it, deep down…like, REALLY deep down…I’m an optimist…who knew?

And wouldn’t you know it, in this week where I was already sleeping about 2 or 3 hours a night, the kid runs off and develops an allergic reaction to penicillin. Currently, her face resembles a half squished melon, and this morning she could open her eyes about half way. According to the doctor, it can take up to three months for hives to disappear completely…damn does it suck to be 1 1/2! See what you have to look forward to gilgrim and april? Aren’t you so totally psyched!