WNYC-FM
Loveline
CBS-FM
 
 

hue and cry greatest hits
 
 

Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion
 
 

Loverboy, Victoria Redel
(The Dune series is over, blissfully so.)
 
 
 
 
 

don't get me nothin', just take a look at my lovely list.
 

"Naturally the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."
- Hermann Goring

On the other hand, life keeps ticking along and events occur: 

• a fan club luncheon for the soap I cover, complete with snub by one of the actresses due to (at least, I assume due to) The Ban, still in place. Meanwhile, the rest of the actresses and actors greet me as per usual like I'm a long lost friend. High point: Sitting at a table backstage between Laurence Lau and Ty Treadway. Talk about a sandwich I wouldn't mind making. 
• I've been given The Most Boring Articles in the Universe to write for the Reporter, but hell, it's money and as I have been called before, I'm a writing whore. (The subject: New York City Real Estate, Commercial and Residential.) 
• The thing about boring articles is they eventually turn into cash, and one of those in addition to my tax refund check means I'm once again debt free barring the money owed to me by my godmother (who bothered me about it in late December after assuring me there was no great hurry and will now get paid as fast as possible so I never, never have to think about it again).
• Attended a book club/wine tasting group. The first group met a month ago to discuss Brave New World, which I never got around to reading and so opted out; I put more effort into this one and re-read the supremely beautiful but awfully lacking in plot The God Of Small Things. It is important to do new things and meet new people. I met three new people, all certainly younger than me in age but much younger than that in terms of maturity. Token Male: "I wanted to join this book club because it would make me read." Oy! Red-Headed Leader: "You have Smurf glasses! I grew up on Smurfs!" Er.... and Only Interesting Person Who Won't Be Around For Three Months Because She's Interesting Enough to Go to Thailand to Study Meditation. I liked her, but she was fairly passive. She's a person I would like to turn into a character -- she's got angry, puffy pink scars on her leg and arm from a motorcycle accident ("It wasn't my fault") and was inspired not long after her recovery to become a photographer, using black and white dark surreal imagery of abandoned houses in Maine to help her get accepted to a school of fine arts. Oh, and she's going to Thailand for three months to study meditation. I like her. The book club was annoying, though; Red-Head and I had an alpha-female clash and she was awfully pert in her mannerisms in a way that annoyed me in ways I couldn't understand.
• I've had weeks of frustrating "will you please clarify what you want in these major stories you're asking me to write" conversations with my Reporter editors. Note plural. Usually it's one woman (rarely a man) who has a clear picture of what she wants, tells me, sends some contacts, and I'm off to the races. Not so with these "Original Cable Programming" pieces, which has given me newbie Noella (nice, but unclear and powerless, yet in charge); managing editor Christy (nice but unclear despite taking charge from Noella); Paula (big cheese, totally out of everything until the email below). So I turned in the pieces weeks ago, and got this email on Wednesday:

 

 
 
 
 
 

From: <nhueso@hollywoodreporter.com>
To: <randeedawn@earthlink.net>
Cc: <pparisi@hollywoodreporter.com>; <cgrosz@hollywoodreporter.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2002 8:07 PM
Subject: Cable TV Preview stories

Hi Randee,

Paula had some thoughts regarding your lead story and your money story. Please note her comments below and rework the stories as necessary. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Paula directly. If at all possilbe, I'd love to have them back by this Friday, April 19.

[...]

LEAD STORY
1. The idea that "series are out, movies are in" and using it as the basic premise of the story doesn't really work. [...] The trend needs to be defined a bit more succinctly...

2. It will be more effective to have heavy-hitting quotes placed up earlier in the story, perhaps another from a Showtime or an HBO exec....

MONEY STORY
1. We need to have some numbers in the story that are relevant to the idea of program production.
? How much does a network invest in developing an original series?
? How much does a network invest on producing an episode (what's the range, high end to low)? How about in terms of a 13 series commitment (which seems to be the norm, at least at HBO)?
? And if it's a hit, how does a network deal with the star salary demands?
? Aside from customer satisfaction, how do they earn back their money? DVD is addressed a bit, but what about overseas sales? ? Please address the concept/payoff between off-network series and original series.
? We need something to acknowledge that while original programming is "hot" and brings value to a network, there have been many high-profile off-net sales of late. (It seems people like a mix: off-net shows to bring in new viewers and introduce them to original fare through on-air promo, and original to brand the net and give it personality. That's really all you need to say, just to some way acknowledge that off-net continues to go strong, maybe naming a few recent high-profile acquisitions. What would really be useful would be a financial comparison: the cost to acquire off-net far as compared to original production. What about promotion for both?

? Find some good sources who will level with you, off-the-record, about costs. An analyst can possibly do this.
Maybe someone at Kagan, whoever's doing TV there. Or perhaps Scott Collins or Cynthia Littleton here in our office can either suggest sources or contribute some of this info.

Please note date of the email. Then note date of when they'd like the info. I got this email at 11pm after the book club fiasco and after reading an article in Harper's about the death of the Aral Sea and burst into tears. When I got my period the next morning I felt much relieved, because I'd just experienced a mood swing so profound I'd literally thought, "Okay, the world's a toilet and I suck, too, so how about I just don't wake up tomorrow." That's a mood swing, man.
 

• My brother, who has yet to see fit to call and tell me any of this, has quit his job selling used cars and sold his house and is moving with his Internet Girlfriend Christy (who moved to Maryland from Arizona last November) to ... Tampa. Buddie says, "He's just like his father and he'll never be satisfied," and the sad thing is she's right on the money. I feel for Craig. I may have big mood swings but you know, most of the time, I'm pretty tickled with life.
• Speaking of high school reunions (see movie choice), my high school is organizing a 15 year reunion. I'm debating whether to go or not. If I do, maybe Lynda and I will claim we invented Post-It Notes.
• Having put all of my good efforts and cheer into dipping a toe into the dating pool again, I decided to try www.matchmaker.com. I got a few interesting, intelligent replies -- to which I certainly replied back -- and out of that has filtered one possibility. Another guy wrote me a neat note, I wrote him back and never heard again. How lame is that? But what was funnier and scarier were the individuals (I knew I should have saved these photos) like the guy whose entire note read: "looking for a slave boy?" Or the other guy who seemed perfectly nice but I know in my own shallowness I could never get past the matted long black haircut -- bald on top, long in back -- and clear 300 pound girth of the individual. I wish him luck, and told him so in my one and only "thanks but no thanks" email, but even if he had the heart and soul of Elie Wiesel, I couldn't do it. I have my depths, and I know just where the shallow end is. And then I got an email from "Jason," who claims to be 32 and a functioning member of society. Since he did directly comment on one of my essay questions (which is a requirement from me to at least prove the person has read the essays), I felt I should at least write him back, although he sounds narrowminded enough that we'd just yell at each other the whole date. Here's the reply. I have altered nothing. 

i am replying to your reply. i am claims counsel for a title company in the philadelphia area. i am sorry if i wasn't specific about myself  but i am not very good at these type of things. i find it incredible hard to meet decent woman now adays. i am a bit old fashion. anyway so you are  a writer, that is nice profession to be in, when i was in college i wrote some sports articles, and in law school i wrote a political column. i always love a good  political debate although i am a republican i am not a huge bush fan, and believe the party is way off base on some issues. anyway i love to cook it has become my favorite hobby, i also love reading, and learning more than anything in the world. i actually have been approached by some in my area to write a column for the local paper, which i would but i beilieve now adays you are branded things for sticking up for what you believe. 

anyway a little bit more about me. i am an only child, but find the family is very important, i also love this country very much and the events of 9/11 made me so angry. although i did not lose anybody in the wtc, or the penatgon or palne crash i felt violated. i had always supported israel, now i believe the u.s. had no right to tell sharon not to kill those terroist, thats what bush said we would do. one thing being a jew you learn to fight. i see anti semitism every day of my life in my work, and in the world and i hate it. 

i hope this tells you more about me, ask me anything you want i am open and honest jason
 

I think I have to meet this person just to assure myself that the educational system can fail this badly and still produce a functioning member of society. Who apparently is asked to write articles. Who seems to have written them before. I think I have to do this.

I think I've been at this job too long.