Friday is just happy the week is over - so ...food, a kitten saga & television nerdiness

[shadowkat]

1. I've been following the Scalzi Kitten Saga - where Scalzi's daughter and her friend found four kittens behind her friend's apartment, living in his old car. Eventually one of them (black tuxedo kitten) expired due to the hazards of living outside, so they chose to snatch the remaining trio and put them somewhere safer - namely Scalzi's basement guest room. So Scalzi is asking if anyone wants them, or they'll most likely try to find homes for two of them, send them to a no-kill shelter, and possibly adopt the third.

I don't know they don't all look like kittens in those photos, they look like cats. The only one that resembles a kitten is the calico.

The Scalzi Kitten Saga

One person wanted the calico, and was arranging transportation to pick it up. But the rest were stating - eh, can't get to Ohio, or they have enough cats already, thank you very much.

I'm glad he's in Ohio. I do not need the temptation. Those kittens would be miserable with me. I have no space for cats. Or any pets for that matter.

2. Well, Eatly was a disappointment

Today was lovely, crisp blue sky, warm with a cool breeze, in the low eighties. I most definitely did not require the jacket that I was wearing. It had been in the upper fifties low sixties this morning, hence the jacket. I decided to get a salad at Pret (spinach, white bean pesto, walnuts, red onion, cherry tomatoes, and avocado), with a gluten free tiramisu for desert from Eatly. I first went back to my desk to eat the salad, and then took off for Eatly - basically for a walk, and to see what they had. I got back around 1:10pm, left at 12:27 pm. It was a 15 minute walk. But I also spent at least 15 minutes in the store, then took ten minutes to get back at a brisk pace. I got a denim tote with space to hold a wallet and phone, also the aforementioned tiramisu. It is ridiculously hard to find gluten free tiramisu.

I was disappointed in Etaly. It did not have gluten-free fresh pasta. It has fresh pasta, just not gluten-free. And lacked much in the way of gluten-free items overall. There were no gluten-free baked items, no cookies. A few pastries were gluten free - but they were of the flourless variety. I may someday, come back to sample, but I wasn't in the mood. They have a lot of specialty chocolates - which I had no interest in (yay!). It's taken a while to wean myself off of my chocolate addiction - I think matcha lattes and decafe cappuncinos have helped in this regard.

I couldn't find any pastas dry or otherwise that was gluten free, and only found the same stuff I can get elsewhere. Being gluten-intolerant does have its advantages though - it keeps me from sampling or buying things that will sky-rocket blood sugar or make me fat. So there's that.

The store did have a good fish, produce, and gelato selection - but I can get all of that at home, and cheaper, why cart it from work? I wanted the freshly made pasta, but alas, they won't make it gluten free. Assorted health food stores near me are much better bets in this regard. I can get from them, and well Whole Foods, and Trader Joes.

Spent more than I should - but I liked the denim tote bag with the inside pocket. Very useful. I could use that for work.

3. How to get a television pilot for a historical series about a 16th Century Indian Harem made, when you are a fifty-something self-published writer and have just written your first television screenplay?

Ex-college roommate - you know the one who self-published the chronicles about the 16th Century Harem? She's now written a screenplay with help from a screenwriting mentor.

" So we finished writing a screenplay for the pilot. We have the whole pitch deck. An executive read it and gave us her feedback. Basically, she said it would be a hit, if anyone had the courage to produce it, which no one has (in mainstream media). Her suggestion - make it ourselves. Put it out on social media. Okay, then...next stop... Angel Investors!"

I considered advising her to try a Kick-Starter campaign, but decided against it. Everyone and their dog plus a few cats have attempted that to date. There's too many of them.

She has a web site, a blog about 16th Century practices and the research she's done on 16th Century India, and a couple of short stories if you want to check it all out for yourselves.

I can't really comment on the books or the blog or the stories - since I've not taken the time to read any of it? I did get the first book. (See? I've been supportive of ex-college roommates creative endeavor.) I haven't read it - because it's a genre that doesn't interest me. Historical period drama isn't a genre that I have much tolerance for. I need a mystery or something to pull me into it. The history itself, I'm skeptical of. I'm a frustrated historian's daughter. My father taught me that history is often in the eye of the historian and embellished or rearranged to meet their personal agenda. I honestly think we have no idea what happened in the distant past.
And can only speculate based on the scant items available to us.

I'm also not sure she can get away with a series about 16th Century India, when she's never been to India, is not Indian, and isn't from that culture?
India writes about 16th Century India and has a vibrant and successful movie and television industry.

But what do I know?

I do know that it is close to impossible to get a television show adapted and produced from a book or series of books. Successful writers have tried and failed. (And unsuccessful, self-published ones - like my Dad). Maria Doria Russell to Dorothy Dunnett have tried. So too has Janet Evanovich, who is a best seller, and Jim Butcher - also a best-seller. It's frigging hard to do. You have to have someone with a lot of money and more importantly connections, get interested in the property to get it off the ground. Someone who knows the right people. Hollywood is an insular town and a brutal one.

All you need to do is look at all the properties Gellar is trying to get off the ground. There's another former friend/acquaintance, who did successfully get a series of novels published, and even had someone option the movie rights, Daisey Ridely did, and nothing happened.

It's not that it can't happen. Anything is possible. But it's very very difficult. We live in a world of too much content, too many distractions, and too many people trying to produce and promote similar and competing properties. And people have limited attention spans. Also, let's face it - how many people are really that interested in 16th Century Indian Harems?


I posted this - because I'm curious what other people think? What do you think about the possibilities of this working or taking off?

4. Department Q has been renewed for a second season! Netflix finally got around to renewing it.

Executive producer Rob Bullock said he had a "really wonderful response" to the news of the second series.

"It is going to be loosely based on the second book in Jussi's series," he said.

"And much like season one, we will take the book and the gold that's in that book but then go off and tell our own stories alongside it."

I'm happy about this. I liked the characters and wanted more story. It felt unresolved.

5. Mother informed me that the Australian Detective Series that TV Talk had rec'd and I couldn't find - has popped up on Hulu, High Country - I'm guessing this is part of Disney's distribution deal with the BBC, because they've picked up a bunch of other British BBC mystery series as well.
I'm happy, it means I don't have to stream Brit Box to see some of them.

And I really wanted to see High Country. They also have the Tunnel, and the Fall, and the Secrets of Mr. Whitcher.

6. Online - FB touted a new Disney Tween Buffy Series named Vampirina (not to be confused with Vampirella, which I, alas did) based on the acclaimed books, about a secret vampire girl who wants to go to a school for the performing arts to pursue music (yes, it's a musical). Accompanied by a 600 year old ghost. She's in secret. Uhm, how is this a Buffy show? It sounds more like Wednesday meets Hotel Transylvania by way of High School Musical? I don't see anyone over the age of 14 watching it?

Buffy was a show about a teen tasked with killing vampires and demons, while trying to juggle high school, but honestly, none of the cast were really teens (with the possible exception of 3 of them), and they only did high school for three years. So, it was about a young woman fighting vampires. It was targeted at teens, but since the writers were in their late twenties and early thirties, didn't really have kids or care, and were writing about their own nightmares - it was more twenty-something - thirty-something show about a young woman slaying her personal demons.

7. They cancelled Dexter:Original Sin on Paramount after one season. Not surprised. I watched an episode of that - it wasn't that good. Also, it's Paramount - which is undergoing a merger and shakeup. Also, Original Sin didn't do that well, and they brought back the original series - which did better, and had Michael C. Hall. Prequels are rarely successful. Let's face it - the audience isn't that interested. Also, in the case of Dexter, we already got the flashbacks in the Dexter series.

But, Gellar's television curse continues. Buffy to date is the longest series she's had on the air. Everything else she's tried since Buffy has either not flown/been picked up for full series, or was cancelled after just one season. The Crazy Ones may have made it two seasons? No, Williams committed suicide in the middle of it - it was one season. I don't have a lot of faith in the Buffy Revival entitled: Buffy the Vampire Slayer - New Sunnydale surviving, I may be wrong. Gellar's track record hasn't been exactly stellar. From the original cast? Boreanze has done the best, with Hannigan not that far behind. Everyone else, with the possible exception of Head, has stumbled. Let's face it - Television and Film are impossible industries. Few succeed in them.

***

It's late. Time for bed.

Comments

[brithistorian]

I'm also not sure she can get away with a series about 16th Century India, when she's never been to India, is not Indian, and isn't from that culture?

I was wondering about this, and after you said this, I was like "Nope. Not gonna happen." I mean, maybe it will, but it probably shouldn't. Not that I think people shouldn't write about cultures that aren't their own, but I think the bar should be really high. If she had had a book published and it had become a major best-selling hit and then she had written a screenplay based on it, that would be one thing, but the situation she's in sounds like something else entirely. Not that I would want her to fail, but it sounds like that's what she's set herself for.

[shadowkat]

I agree. And I was thinking exactly the same things. This sort of thing is really hard to produce to begin with - but if you don't already have an audience or heavy following - it's impossible. And that's a book which is a mystery, romance, etc, and not about another culture in another century.

I'm reluctant to tell her this on FB. She won't listen to me. And we aren't that close.

[kazzy_cee]

I wish your friend well, but her books haven't exactly sold in their millions, have they ...??

[shadowkat]

I think maybe a hundred people if that? She's self-published. Considering people who are best-sellers and sold in the millions and have huge followings have issues getting television and film adaptations made.

My father who was self-published, has had people try to option film rights or television rights or sell his books after his death, driving my mother nuts. She keeps saying no. LOL!

Someone responded to ex-college roomate's post on FB, stating she should keep passing it around, after all it took the Beatles a long time to get a recording contract. And I thought, yes, but the Beatles had been playing gigs for a good ten years, they were a band, and that was in the 1960s - also it wasn't an album of songs from a different culture?

[oursin]

I can't help thinking that there's probably a whole genre of Bollywood movies about life in C16th harems, or maybe popular novels in Urdu. For all I know, Mogul court life is the equivalent of 'Regency'.

Though I daresay, if so, actual historians of the period cringe just as much as historians such as I cringe over the bloopers in historical dramas/novels set in British history.

[shadowkat]

Thank you.

I can't help thinking that there's probably a whole genre of Bollywood movies about life in C16th harems, or maybe popular novels in Urdu. For all I know, Mogul court life is the equivalent of 'Regency'.

I was thinking much the same thing. I have seen a few here and there, and I've seen Bollywood and Indian romances pop up here and there on Smart Bitches, so they must be out there. Most likely in Hindi or Bengali or one of the Indian languages. I live near an area of NYC that is basically little Bangladesh.

And it's my difficulty with the straight historical genre. Unless you are a historian, and this is your field of expertise, and culture, there's a lot of mistakes that can be made - many of which are unintentional ones. She wants to correct historical inaccuracies about how women were viewed in the period based on her research.

[yourlibrarian]

Interesting to know about the BBC series on Hulu. I'm still on Britbox but it will give me new things to look for when I go back to Hulu.

Yes, I was thinking recently about Gellar's career and the way it never went anywhere, while others of her contemporaries did better. It can be hit and miss, but I think the fact that she was starring in a genre show at a time when genre shows were derided, and it was a show aimed at teens and on the WB (which had a lot of good shows which never got recognition) really hurt her. Chances are if she was on the same show today it would not only be more widely recognized but it would give her a boost instead.

[shadowkat]

It didn't help that the only movies she did while doing Buffy were either "horror" or the underrated take on Cruel Intentions, where Reese Witherspoon was in reality the star. She did a lot of cameo roles in horror films while doing Buffy, Scream II, What I Did Last Summer, and then the Scooby Doo films. She just wasn't getting the roles, and being the lead on Buffy - was burning her out (they had 18-20 hour days plus weekends, that doesn't give you a lot of time to do other stuff?)

Hannigan fared better - because she did the American Pie movies, and get well known for those. She's not well known for Buffy, but American Pie - and that's how she got How I Met Your Mother (which she's also better known for). And Boreanze did a procedural with Angel, so it wasn't hard to grab another version of the same type of role, just not being a vampire. (and he's better known for Bones and Seal Team than Angel. He did over 140 episodes with Bones, it ran about 10 seasons? And 114 with Seal Team, which made it about 4-5 seasons. And was making close to $5 million per episode by the end of Bones run. Angel was nothing in comparison. )

So much of that industry is dumb luck. Actually so is the publishing industry. I was reading an article about KF Kuang in the New Yorker, and she stumbled into writing. No background in it. No courses. Na Da. Outside of maybe some fanfic. What she did was discover Scrivener (how many of us have tried that writing platform now and gotten nowhere with it?) and being a techie (she coded for a living), she decided to see if she could figure it out and wrote The Poppy War in it. It's great if you are a techie. Sending chapters to her father, who kept asking for more. When it was done - he asked what she'd do with it and she sent it out, and it got picked up like that. (snaps fingers). That's dumb luck. She was in the right place at the right time, and with the right property, and the type of writer that the publishers desperately wanted. It's basically a bunch of variable threads coming together at the same time. It rarely happens. And I'm sure there were other similar writers out there? But she managed to be a that convergence of the fates at the right time. Timing is unfortunately everything.

[shadowkat]

High Country is good - it's an Australian Detective series. Complete with Australian slang.
I'm trying to figure out if I should cancel my subscriptions to Hulu, Disney, and HBO and get the bundle. I don't know yet. I changed the Audible sub to annual saving about $45.

[yourlibrarian]

It should certainly save you money, and you can always alter the bundle at any time.

[shadowkat]

It's just cancelling everything is a pain. They do not make it easy.

[jesuswasbatman]

Yeah, I thought High Country was good as well.

For some reason, the line "your girl and my boy fucked off with my Falcon" and its delivery still seem hilarious to me.

[shadowkat]

I haven't seen that episode yet - but that is a very funny line.

I like all the characters in High Country, and it's interesting and well written.

[jesuswasbatman]

If you liked this the actor who played the Aboriginal father has his own detective series as a police detective called Jay Swan. There were two feature films called Mystery Road and Goldstone, and two seasons of a TV show also called Mystery Road. There have also been a couple of seasons (only seen the first one yet) about the character at a younger age, played by a different actor, called Mystery Road: Origins. They're all extremely good.