Me? Eccentric? Update on Moth Infestation...and fending off evil acquisition editors..

[shadowkat]

Still archiving...I've made it through May 2011 and am now onto June 2011. Dear god, I wrote a lot of meta and reviews on television shows, films, books, and sometimes musicians.

Me? Eccentric?
On Twitter - they had a meme asking - "what is the craziest thing anyone said about you?"

Well..."she's like an encyclopedia".

I've never been sure if I should be flattered or insulted? I wouldn't describe myself in that way. I just think analytically and was trained to analyze stories - all stories, and art from an early age. I have an undergraduate degree in it. And I have a visual memory - if I've written it down, discussed it and seen it (more than once) - I'll most likely remember it. But if you tell me your name multiple times - forget about it.

Other things?

"She is eccentric." (This was my sisterinlaw - and it was conveyed to me by mother. My sisinlaw didn't necessarily say it directly to me. Keep in mind - sisterinlaw got married to my brother when she was 8 months pregnant, in a swimming suit, in a Manhattan swimming pool at the tip of Manhattan, while her mother was "Squatting illegally" in a beach house in Florida and trying to convince her daughter to do the same. Also sisinlaw was a disco roller skating queen as an adolescent in NYC in the 1980s. I'd say pot kettle... Actually I did say that.)

"You are too aggressive for this company." (Which I guess said something about the company? It was, to be fair, a library reference company on the verge of bankruptcy and located in the Bronx.)

People have the oddest perceptions of each other. Don't they?

I've decided mirrors are odd things. Whether they be people, cameras or made of glass. And they tend to lie.

At any rate, in regards to archiving...I ran through the BattleStar Galatica, Lost, Caprica, Dollhouse, Angel the Series, Buffy, Doctor Who, and Vampire Diaries stuff and moved on to The Good Wife, Game of Thrones, and The Wire.
***

Update on the Moth Infestation. (For those who are behind - "wait, moth infestation? what moth infestation?" My brother came home from his trip to Italy, to a moth infestation most likely caused by niece.)

Anyhow..according to mother, niece denies being responsible. Although it could have come from a blouse that she picked up somewhere or other and forgot to wash. (Niece reminds me a lot of my brother at times.) My brother's reaction - yeah sure.

Me: Did niece help in the clean up efforts?
Mother: No, when I talked to your brother - she was still paddling about in pjs.
Me: I read about it last night - some poor guy had it in an apartment and was traumatized. So, my poor brother - is he okay, how's he holding up?
Mother: well, he has fresh produce from his garden, he apparently spent the weekend working on it - and didn't notice the moth infestation immediately.
They are taking no prisoners though - now.
Me: Yeah, from what I read - you need to go hog-wild on this sort of thing.
Mother: They are. They threw out their living room rug, which they decided was old and not needed any longer. Also her turkish rug is in the barn - so it's okay, they think. He's gone down to the baseboards on his cleaning.

I told a few unwary co-workers about it - they weren't pleased with my tale of woe.

***

The barrage of bad news from the papers and news media - has caused me to stop reading or watching the news for the most part. My blood pressure went down.

Mother is decidedly pessimistic. I can't blame her.

***
Fending off Evil Acquisitions Editors

Anywho...taking tomorrow off - so have another four day weekend. I plan to clean out the fridge, and hopefully a closet. We'll see. I did laundry tonight. Also work on my revisions for my novel.

Mother told me that marketing/publishing folks keep calling her with proposals for my Dad's books. Someone sends his book to them - as a possible option, and they call her. "Oh we were sent Beach Walk and Hostile Takeover" and "We think this could do really well, it just needs to be re-worked a bit and updated."

Mother: How much would it cost me? (Mother wasn't born yesterday - I should hope not, she's almost 80.)
Acquisitions Editor: Nothing.
Mother [skeptical]:Really? [As she tells me later - everything has a price. Mother is a bit of a social darwinist.]
Acquisitions Editor: We would just need him to rework a few things..
Mother: He can't travel or market his work -
Acquisitions Editor: Oh we'd do all that.
Mother: My husband has Alzhiemers - he can't rework it -
Acquisitions Editor: Oh we could hire someone to do that -
Mother: I think not. We don't want to do that, but thank you for the offer.

They keep calling her. Every few months. It's annoying. She was complaining about it at Christmas Time. And mentioned it to my Dad again today, at first he was interested, then when he realized they wanted to "update" and "rework" his books, he decided no, he didn't want to do that.

See? This is my difficulty with blending art and business or doing art for money. I picked up on it watching The Offer - Francis Ford Coppola had to fight tooth and nail to protect his artistic vision, and if it weren't for Al Ruddy who believed in that vision - he'd have failed. The Godfather is a brilliant film because Coppola, Ruddy and Bettaye fought to keep the business men and evil marketing people from ruining it or repackaging it.

Marketing should promote art - get it out there. It should not be involved in the creative process at all. Just spread the word. That's it. The Acquisition's editor's sole job is to market the work or get the word out to people. A line editor edits it. The two should not be combined.

Marketing often kills art. It turns it into cheap processed food or assembly line fare. Keep the marketers and business folks out of the kitchen or the art studio. They don't belong there.

Anyhow, it's why my Dad independently published, I did, my cousin did, my uncles have, and various friends. The people I know who went the traditionally root - had their work dumbed down or gutted by acquisitions editors who should be smacked.



**
Everything is made better with good music

I won't bore you with work. Instead, I'll post a rather cool video I found on Twitter - that I listened to while at work.

John Lennon Sweet Toronto 1969

In 1969 - at Toronto, John Lennon introduced Yuko Ono and Ono Plastick Band to the heroes of his childhood - Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Bo Diddly, Jerry Lee Lewis...

[This may explain why I'm not miserable at work - I listen to music all day long.]

Comments

[mtbc]

I quite liked Caprica, would have liked there to have been more of it.

[shadowkat]

I agree. It kind of went off the rails though towards the end - Moore, who did it, is obsessed with religion and likes to use sexual violence as a plot point - which hurt the show. I think if he hadn't gone the religion route - it would have worked better.

[mtbc]

There are many shows that I think would've been better without whatever sex they introduced and coercion can easily make them unwatchable. Definitely seemed some ongoing scope for exploration of introducing Cylons into social (mis)uses.