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Aug. 11th, 2024 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatStill watching the Olympics - finished watching the Team Synchronized Rhythmic Gymnastics, I may attempt to see the individual at some point on Peacock. On Peacock, I can see replays. (China, Israel, and I think Italy won.)
And the artistic swimming, which China also won. It makes sense - this is the sort of thing that is embedded in China's culture and Japanese culture. It would be more shocking if they won the races - they don't tend to excel in the swim, equesterian, marathons, and track and field events. It's why they don't have as many medals or athletes as some other smaller countries do. They also don't tend to excel in ball games - it's not really their cultural thing.
The way the world has embraced Breaking, which was started in the Bronx in the 1970s, to the extent that the winners were people in countries like Japan, China, Canada, Netherlands...kind of ironic. I guess you could say they misappropriated the culture? But that's a stretch considering most sports have been borrowed or changed from another culture.
I'm waiting to see what Los Angeles, California, USA does with the closing ceremonies. That's basically Hollywood. Something tells me they'll do a better job than Paris did with the opening, which was kind of all over the place and difficult to follow. I don't know if the Olympics were quite as wonderful as they are proclaiming. I enjoyed them, but I also got burned out about ten days in. And I work full time.
Sigh. Tom Cruise zip lines in, takes the flag and hops on a motorcycle to drive it all the way via airline - parahute, runs, then , trades it off to a cyclist, after turning the Hollywood sign into an Olympic sign. Reminds me of how Paris did the trade off from Tokyo. Then we end up with the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing a concert on the beach. (The Closing Ceremony appears to be just a rock concert? Yup, the LA Closing Ceremony Bit is just a rock concert with various pop performers on the beach (Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Billie English, and Snoop Dog...not even favs - that was...nothing like Paris's closing bit. Hollywood - really?). I preferred the Paris and Japan ceremonies. Disappointed. I may turn this off and go and watch the surfing. See if I can find the whale? Or maybe the individual rythmic gymnastics as replay on Peacock. Although the final French singer who is singing "My Way" is amazing. Best singer they've had on by a mile.)
I jumped to the French vs. US Gold Medal Basketball game, where the US won the gold. (It is a US sport. I mean, come on. Rugby it isn't.)
"As an editor, how do you handle personal character biases in your writers? I'm guessing you've always had to - because comic book writers usually start out as fans of the books they are writing, and most likely have strong opinions on the characters, pairings, etc. Also I know the writers have personal biases on characters they personally didn't create and are taking on from another writer. For example? How would you handle a writer who disliked Tony Stark, and was writing the Avengers? Or Captain America? Or say a writer didn't like Jean Grey or Wolverine or Cyclops? Do you just keep the character away from them, or out of their sand box? And what if you can't? Also, if the writer is brilliant in other respects, it seems like something that can be just be....reigned in?"
[This would have gone better, if my name didn't misspelled by Substack, which decided to remove a letter. It may just not like that particular letter or that name? I noticed a name similar to mine had the same thing happen.]
Response: "As a general rule, ________ (I’m spelling your name this way because that’s what your comment said, but I feel like it ought to be ______, yeah? Maybe I should have just said (last name)) the whole reason that you hire somebody is for their perspective on the characters, and part of that is going to be their biases, what characters they like and which ones they don’t. I think it’s unrealistic to expect any creator to have exactly the same perspective on each individual hero and villain that I do. So I articulate what I think when and where that is called for and appropriate, and if people want to do something that I think is out of bounds for a character—say, have Nightcrawler teleport some bad guys into the airless void of space and leave them to die—then I step in and tell them that that seems to be out of character to me. And then, the creator and I talk and negotiate and compromise. But in most cases, writers who don’t like a particular character aren’t going to be looking to write them. So if a writer didn’t like Tony Stark but wanted to write AVENGERS, it’s entirely possible for them to do so, provided that the editor is fine with eliminating Iron Man from the roster. If not and they still take the gig, then it’s down to that creator to come up with some take on the character that they like and can be invested in. That’s a part of the job as well."
Didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. But it's nice to have confirmation, I guess? I'm not responding back - this was part of his Sunday Q&A blog post.
He's really upset about the last editorial/writing team letting Nightcrawler kill evil humans. I'm surprised he's not upset with them for what Kate Pryde was doing.
To date, I've read four of the new regime's X-men comics. Along with two of the unlimited character specific ones. I'm enjoying them. I wouldn't say they were better than the prior regime, so much as different - and feel more like a call back to the mid-00s. I kind of Hickman's speculative sci-fi take, even if it was a bit above the heads of most comic book fans, which was the reason it didn't last and kind of lost steam.
Also, Hickman seems to get bored easily and jumps to other things. I've noticed scans daily isn't that into it - since they barely talk about the new comics.
****
Conversations...
Wales: I shouldn't tell you this...
ME: Okay.
Wales: Don't tell anyone...
Me: Uhm, okay...
Wales: My firm represents Trump..and its horrifying whats in some of his agreements. He uses the word servant. Can you imagine? He calls his employees servants.
Me: My Aunt worked for one of the sponsors of the Apprentice and handled all the NDAs, as a paralegal - she told me the same thing. Also she saw him in person - and he had insect eyes, and in his NDA - they couldn't disclose anything.
The stuff I know about that man's horrible business practices would make your hair stand on end. Every horrible story you've heard about your favorite writer, artist, etc - pales in comparison to what this guy has done. And people elected him to the Presidency of the US, worse, they made him a candidate two more times. And voted for him. Every time I hear that some writer/artist/what not did such and such, I think, well...Trump? Trump basically trumps it all. Pun intended.
Me: How was your vacation to Europe? Where did you go?
Chidi: Paris, Rome and Venice. Rome was like being a cartoon character in this insane city with huge buildings that are centuries old. Big buildings little tiny cars.
ME: I think of it as NYC on steroids.
Chidi: Well, it's different in buildings - they are bigger, and it's kind of faster in some ways - but yeah that's a good description. Venice was by far my favorite. I didn't think it would be - but it was - it's only pedestrians and boats, no cars, no bikes, no scooters - none of that. It's really peaceful as a result and quiet. I loved it.
[Okay, Venice is on the bucket list. I may go there after I retire and just stay for a few months, paint, write and learn Italian.]
Me: And Paris?
Chidi: It's weird - I was most looking forward to seeing Paris with my friends - but it was my least favorite. Just like London was last year. They are kind of just like New York. Edgy. The French were rude in ways I've never experienced.
Me: They have that reputation, but honestly so do areas of the US and so does England...
AA: It may be the language thing? We assume everyone speaks English and they are proud of theirs.
Me: True. And we butcher their language when we try to speak it, because we learn textbook French.
[The US has a horrible language program. Languages weren't made available to me until I was in Junior High School - and we learned text book French, no one speaks text book French outside of people in US classrooms. It's not immersive. It's parrot. And close to impossible to learn for anyone who doesn't have an ingrained facility for languages. (A lot of folks take that for granted. People? Assuming everyone can learn a language as easily as you can is akin to assuming everyone can do the high jump, throw a javelin, swim the butterfly, sing in an opera, or draw. Don't assume such things. Be grateful you can do it and share that gift with others. Sorry, that's a long-running pet peeve of mine.) AA agreed with me - that US does have a horrible language program, he hails from St. Lucia and can speak three languages.]
And the artistic swimming, which China also won. It makes sense - this is the sort of thing that is embedded in China's culture and Japanese culture. It would be more shocking if they won the races - they don't tend to excel in the swim, equesterian, marathons, and track and field events. It's why they don't have as many medals or athletes as some other smaller countries do. They also don't tend to excel in ball games - it's not really their cultural thing.
The way the world has embraced Breaking, which was started in the Bronx in the 1970s, to the extent that the winners were people in countries like Japan, China, Canada, Netherlands...kind of ironic. I guess you could say they misappropriated the culture? But that's a stretch considering most sports have been borrowed or changed from another culture.
I'm waiting to see what Los Angeles, California, USA does with the closing ceremonies. That's basically Hollywood. Something tells me they'll do a better job than Paris did with the opening, which was kind of all over the place and difficult to follow. I don't know if the Olympics were quite as wonderful as they are proclaiming. I enjoyed them, but I also got burned out about ten days in. And I work full time.
Sigh. Tom Cruise zip lines in, takes the flag and hops on a motorcycle to drive it all the way via airline - parahute, runs, then , trades it off to a cyclist, after turning the Hollywood sign into an Olympic sign. Reminds me of how Paris did the trade off from Tokyo. Then we end up with the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing a concert on the beach. (The Closing Ceremony appears to be just a rock concert? Yup, the LA Closing Ceremony Bit is just a rock concert with various pop performers on the beach (Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Billie English, and Snoop Dog...not even favs - that was...nothing like Paris's closing bit. Hollywood - really?). I preferred the Paris and Japan ceremonies. Disappointed. I may turn this off and go and watch the surfing. See if I can find the whale? Or maybe the individual rythmic gymnastics as replay on Peacock. Although the final French singer who is singing "My Way" is amazing. Best singer they've had on by a mile.)
I jumped to the French vs. US Gold Medal Basketball game, where the US won the gold. (It is a US sport. I mean, come on. Rugby it isn't.)
"As an editor, how do you handle personal character biases in your writers? I'm guessing you've always had to - because comic book writers usually start out as fans of the books they are writing, and most likely have strong opinions on the characters, pairings, etc. Also I know the writers have personal biases on characters they personally didn't create and are taking on from another writer. For example? How would you handle a writer who disliked Tony Stark, and was writing the Avengers? Or Captain America? Or say a writer didn't like Jean Grey or Wolverine or Cyclops? Do you just keep the character away from them, or out of their sand box? And what if you can't? Also, if the writer is brilliant in other respects, it seems like something that can be just be....reigned in?"
[This would have gone better, if my name didn't misspelled by Substack, which decided to remove a letter. It may just not like that particular letter or that name? I noticed a name similar to mine had the same thing happen.]
Response: "As a general rule, ________ (I’m spelling your name this way because that’s what your comment said, but I feel like it ought to be ______, yeah? Maybe I should have just said (last name)) the whole reason that you hire somebody is for their perspective on the characters, and part of that is going to be their biases, what characters they like and which ones they don’t. I think it’s unrealistic to expect any creator to have exactly the same perspective on each individual hero and villain that I do. So I articulate what I think when and where that is called for and appropriate, and if people want to do something that I think is out of bounds for a character—say, have Nightcrawler teleport some bad guys into the airless void of space and leave them to die—then I step in and tell them that that seems to be out of character to me. And then, the creator and I talk and negotiate and compromise. But in most cases, writers who don’t like a particular character aren’t going to be looking to write them. So if a writer didn’t like Tony Stark but wanted to write AVENGERS, it’s entirely possible for them to do so, provided that the editor is fine with eliminating Iron Man from the roster. If not and they still take the gig, then it’s down to that creator to come up with some take on the character that they like and can be invested in. That’s a part of the job as well."
Didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. But it's nice to have confirmation, I guess? I'm not responding back - this was part of his Sunday Q&A blog post.
He's really upset about the last editorial/writing team letting Nightcrawler kill evil humans. I'm surprised he's not upset with them for what Kate Pryde was doing.
To date, I've read four of the new regime's X-men comics. Along with two of the unlimited character specific ones. I'm enjoying them. I wouldn't say they were better than the prior regime, so much as different - and feel more like a call back to the mid-00s. I kind of Hickman's speculative sci-fi take, even if it was a bit above the heads of most comic book fans, which was the reason it didn't last and kind of lost steam.
Also, Hickman seems to get bored easily and jumps to other things. I've noticed scans daily isn't that into it - since they barely talk about the new comics.
****
Conversations...
Wales: I shouldn't tell you this...
ME: Okay.
Wales: Don't tell anyone...
Me: Uhm, okay...
Wales: My firm represents Trump..and its horrifying whats in some of his agreements. He uses the word servant. Can you imagine? He calls his employees servants.
Me: My Aunt worked for one of the sponsors of the Apprentice and handled all the NDAs, as a paralegal - she told me the same thing. Also she saw him in person - and he had insect eyes, and in his NDA - they couldn't disclose anything.
The stuff I know about that man's horrible business practices would make your hair stand on end. Every horrible story you've heard about your favorite writer, artist, etc - pales in comparison to what this guy has done. And people elected him to the Presidency of the US, worse, they made him a candidate two more times. And voted for him. Every time I hear that some writer/artist/what not did such and such, I think, well...Trump? Trump basically trumps it all. Pun intended.
Me: How was your vacation to Europe? Where did you go?
Chidi: Paris, Rome and Venice. Rome was like being a cartoon character in this insane city with huge buildings that are centuries old. Big buildings little tiny cars.
ME: I think of it as NYC on steroids.
Chidi: Well, it's different in buildings - they are bigger, and it's kind of faster in some ways - but yeah that's a good description. Venice was by far my favorite. I didn't think it would be - but it was - it's only pedestrians and boats, no cars, no bikes, no scooters - none of that. It's really peaceful as a result and quiet. I loved it.
[Okay, Venice is on the bucket list. I may go there after I retire and just stay for a few months, paint, write and learn Italian.]
Me: And Paris?
Chidi: It's weird - I was most looking forward to seeing Paris with my friends - but it was my least favorite. Just like London was last year. They are kind of just like New York. Edgy. The French were rude in ways I've never experienced.
Me: They have that reputation, but honestly so do areas of the US and so does England...
AA: It may be the language thing? We assume everyone speaks English and they are proud of theirs.
Me: True. And we butcher their language when we try to speak it, because we learn textbook French.
[The US has a horrible language program. Languages weren't made available to me until I was in Junior High School - and we learned text book French, no one speaks text book French outside of people in US classrooms. It's not immersive. It's parrot. And close to impossible to learn for anyone who doesn't have an ingrained facility for languages. (A lot of folks take that for granted. People? Assuming everyone can learn a language as easily as you can is akin to assuming everyone can do the high jump, throw a javelin, swim the butterfly, sing in an opera, or draw. Don't assume such things. Be grateful you can do it and share that gift with others. Sorry, that's a long-running pet peeve of mine.) AA agreed with me - that US does have a horrible language program, he hails from St. Lucia and can speak three languages.]