One Cartoon You Won't Be Seeing in the Local Papers

If you haven't been reading Chris Muir's Day by Day, it's time to start. He's been a daily read for quite a while now. Some lazy folks call it the "conservative Doonesbury," but it's obviously more than that. The fact that he does it on the web means he can comment on breaking news within a day, unlike newspaper comics which are done weeks in advance. Muir has used this speed factor to make a lot of great political points. He also "gets" blogging, and has used that for fodder, too.

Mark over at Conservative Zone has more thoughts.

Harold Ford, Jr.'s Soliloquy

To run, or not to run, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler for the candidate to suffer
The slings and arrows of campaigning
Or to take refuge against a sea of troubles in a safe House seat,
And by ducking again avoid them? To run: to campaign;
Once more; and by running to say we welcome
The heartache and the thousand political barbs
That candidates are heir to, 'tis a falsehood
Devoutly to be put forward. To run, to campaign;
To campaign: perchance to win: ay, there's the rub;
For in that endless campaign what difficulties may come,
When we have shuffled to yet another press conference,
Must give us pause. There's the "gotcha"
That makes calamity of political life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of Republicans,
The grand jury's wrong, the proud uncle's contumely,
The pangs of early polls, the national committee's delay,
The insolence of voters, and the spurns
That patient merit of unwashed crowds takes,
When I myself might my legacy make
With a safe House seat? Who would cable show hosts bear,
To blather and sweat under a hot light,
But that the dread of life as a private citizen,
The anonymous country from whose shadow
Few politicians return, puzzles the will,
And makes me rather bear those perks I have
Than work for others I might not earn?
Thus does indecision make wafflers of us all;
And thus the native hue of Harold Ford
Is made even paler with this endless uncertainty;
And campaigns of great and lofty platitudes
With this regard their volunteers turn awry.
And lose the name of Senator.

Not Dead Yet

I'm having to deal with some real-life stuff right now, which is why I haven't posted much this week. More real life at least through the weekend. (Although Saturday is all good stuff!) I'm also struggling with minor depression, which never helps.

Fear not. Be back shortly.

Thursday Night Weirdness

Can someone tell me what's going on over at Thursday Night Fever? I was reading that post this afternoon and there were two or three comments asking what was up with the new logo (robot with an on/off switch in a "provocative" location) and some other changes, like the Memphis blogroll disappearing. I looked in again just a while ago, and all those comments are gone. Very odd.

Is there some kind of overhaul in progress or have evil Communists taken over and begun disappearing stuff down the memory hole?

1860's Texting

Karen over at Dark Bilious Vapors passes along a great list of IM abbreviations of common Civil War phrases. Iawap:)

Happy Blog-birthday

It was two years ago today that AlphaPatriot began blogging. Stop by and leave your well wishes. I've had the pleasure of meeting him in real life and he's a nice guy, always friendly. And he's a damn good blogger, on my daily rounds.

Memphis v. Birmingham

Jamey has a couple of great posts looking at the Birmingham television market and comparing it to Memphis. Some good lessons for Memphis there. Part One is here and Part Two is here.

I'm from Alabama and lived in Birmingham'n'beans for five wonderful years. I can't remember, and don't want to recall, some of those years but that's another story! Memphis is my home, but Birmingham is still where my heart is. I used to live in the "UAB student ghetto" nestled up against Red Mountain, just west of Five Points. In fact, I lived in the literal shadow of the Vulcan. I could walk out my front door, look over my left shoulder and there he loomed. Reassuring in its own odd way.

Birmingham and Memphis have a lot in common. When I moved here in 1988, B'ham had had a black mayor for several years in Richard Arrington. It struck me as strange the way Memphis got all worked up about Herenton's election, as though no Southern city had done such a thing. I've since learned its the provinciality of the press.

Birmingham has its red-headed stepchild relationship with Atlanta up the road. Had B'ham not been such a racist bastion, it would have gotten the huge international airport that became Hartsfield. It had the better, more desirable location.

They had, while I was there, the same massive suburban migration. In B'ham's case, it was to the south, over the mountain, past a lot of smaller bedroom communities, into the Riverchase area of Shelby County. A lot of money and traffic were flowing south.

It also has the same small-town / big-city dynamic that is poisoning Memphis. The city blew up during the steel mill years, only to face terrible economic decline when steel went overseas. While there was a lot of talk of "world class" city development, what happened was a strengthening of communities and neighborhoods. While the downtown got an influx of redevelopment, their entertainment district (Five Points) was further out than Beale is to Memphis' downtown. It helped to spread out revitalisation, which helped everyone.

Birmingham and Memphis are both states' largest cities and both were transportation hubs -- river, rail and road for us; rail and road for B'ham.

There are a lot of lessons Memphis could learn from Birmingham. It's always surprised me how the paper looks to St. Louis and Nashville instead, or even New Orleans. Of course, as goes the paper so goes the television news media. Too bad.

Project Vote Smart

Mark over at The Conservative Zone has a link up to Project Vote Smart. It can benefit you, too! Head on over and take a look.

Make sure to read around on Mark's blog while you're there. He's a real life friend, as well as a blog-buddy. Mark lives with mental illness, as you'll see, and is very upfront on his blog about his troubles. With the TennCare situation in flux, he struggles with his conservative principles and his personal reality.

He doesn't blog as much about Epic: Armageddon though. He introduced me to this table-top wargame hobby (using 6mm figures) and I really like it. I just wish I had the money to build an army. Ah well.... One day, my Black Sun Legions will leave a swath of terror and victory across the galaxy!

There He Is

An academic from McGill University in Canada has a proposal to help end the illegal download of songs:

Pearlman proposes putting all recorded music on a robust search engine -- Google would be an ideal choice, but even iTunes might work -- and charging an insignificant fee of, say, five cents a song. In addition, a 1 per cent sales tax would be placed on Internet services and new computers -- two industries that many argue have profited enormously from rampant file-sharing, but haven't had to compensate artists.

The assumption is that if songs cost only 5 cents, people would download exponentially more music. Daniel Levitin, a McGill professor also associated with the project, said that a simple computer program, such as those already in use on Internet retail sites, could track people's purchases and help them to dig through what would become a massive repository of music on the Web.

The extra windfall for musicians and those who own the publishing rights to the songs could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, or more, Pearlman said his study predicts.

There are numerous hurdles and obstacles to this idea, too many to get into. Likely enough to sabotage the proposal, although it has merit. The Big 4 record companies, their distributors and the entertainment industry are too wedded to the old business model. Read the article.

But what really caught my eye was that this proposal comes from Sandy Pearlman, former co-conspirator with the Blue Oyster Cult back in their heyday. Albums like Tyranny and Mutation, Secret Treaties and On Your Feet or On Your Knees bear his stamp. I still listen to them.

Little known fact: they are the band for whom the phrase "heavy metal" was coined, by writer / reviewer / lyricist Richard Meltzer.

Set Up, Knock Down

Right Wing News has a short'n'sweet look at the front running possibilities for the 2008 Republican Presidential nomination. Condi Rice has already taken herself out today.

So who does this leave? Is someone from the pool of Republican governors laying groundwork? I've heard Mitt Romney of Massachusetts is, and maybe one of the Carolina governors, though I can't recall which one as I'm writing this. Even Mike Huckabee of Arkansas has fans.

I've also heard former Virginia Senator George Allen's name mentioned. Any other ideas?

UPDATE Monday Morning: Mick has an exhaustive look at the possibilities. I can't believe I forgot Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota. Or is that a sign of just how obscure he is? It's also a sign, as Mick notes, of the extremely short and selfish coat-tails of President Bush.

A commenter there also mentions Newt Gingrich, who was making public noises about a run a couple of months ago. What became of that?

Democratic Hysteria

That Pesky Fly Guy has a post about something that happened at a downtown coffeehouse Thursday. Read his post for Fly's description.

One anonymous call equals "fascism." By his third paragraph, he's already talking "Rethug," "Mussolini." Then, in the update, it's become "Brownshirts" and "Nazis." And why exactly are we supposed to take things like this seriously? Because it's the slippery slope. Like this kind of thing hasn't happened before, many times under different administrations.

Then read the comments for the hilarious reaction. Almost immediately it's "furhrer" and "jackboots." Watching the knee-jerk spasms of mindless reactionaries would be funny if it weren't so pathetic and chilling. The mob has its torches and are on their way to the castle! The historical ignorance on display is troubling, as much of it seems to be willful blindness for partisan advantage. If so, its the most despicable kind.

It takes a while, but some sense is restored in the comments by sober-minded people who point out some basic facts that can be investigated, and some courses of action that will result in clear answers pointing to the next level of action, if called for. It's an admirable effort to restore some sense of proportion and thought. But the largest number of commenters just want to screech and rattle their cages like upset chimps.

I pointed out an actual real-life case of "jackbooted thuggery," when President Clinton sent in military troops to remove Elian Gonzalez from his home to deport him back to Cuba. Remember?



You need only look back at the recently passed Presidential election season to see plenty of examples of Democratic intimidation tactics. Look here, or here. There were union goons who intimidated protesters in Pennsylvania at rallies (I searched for this through Google with no luck.), and Republican headquarters that had unruly mobs swarm their offices and trash the place. Shades of Krystallnacht, yes?

No. Most of Fly's commenters never got to my final paragraph before their outrage muscles started twitching uncontrollably. I pointed out that problems like this are endemic to American politics of all stripes: Democrat, Republican, Communist, Know Nothing, Whig, etc. It's nothing new. It's just that those who are prone to emotionalism over rationalism can't be controlled or deflected by cooler heads. All strong political movements engender this reaction. It's human nature.

It happened here. Rather than investigate first and then report, Fly Guy strapped on his rocket pack and blasted off to fight evil, not quite sure what or where the evil was. As one of the commenters noted, it's easy to look into this and get the facts. Having the facts, we can all look at the situation and decide what to do.

But no. There was even one commenter who did the newly developed political double back flip and labelled this a brilliant bit of Rove-fu. Ol' Karl (Hey, his name has a K in it just like the KKK! They're linked! It can't be an accident. And hey, isn't Karl Rove a German name? Ah HA!) carefully set up the situation so that Democrats look bad no matter what happens. Sheesh.

When Democrats leap to the Nazi and facsism comparisons so quickly, easily and happily it does no one a service. It diminishes the true horrors of the Third Reich, and the lessons we must never forget. It demeans the millions of deaths of the innocent. It overshadows the grim numbers of Communist oppression and murder. It is appallingly facile. It takes a common political problem -- zealotry --that can be addressed and throws it into an extreme posture that defies handling. How can we correctly address fools and criminals if we look at them with the loathing we reserve for true monsters? We can't. That's the point. Demagoguery tramples the issue and those with other agendas slip along behind.

It is the "destroy Bush by any means necessary" agenda, in this case. No, it is not correct to say the Republicans did the same thing to Clinton, as a justification. That, too, was wrong. I used to belong to that "destroy Clinton" crowd, but saw the erors of my excesses. Now, I fight political leaders and political ideologies in order to defeat and discredit them, not just to mindlessly flail and maim.

Authoritarianism is human nature. Too many humans need someone in control other than themselves. True freedom is terrifying. The Founding Fathers knew that. They didn't expect the government they'd launched to last a generation or two. That we're still as free as we are more than two hundred years later is nearly miraculous.

But everything the Founders recognised and fought to block is still with us. By slow accretion, laws and bureaucracies pile up, generation after generation. People who want political power for their own uses deform the structures and processes of government, sometimes maliciously and sometimes unknowingly. But it happens. And it must be combatted.

The surest tactic against tyranny, authoritarianism and fascism? Personal maturity and small government. A small government cannot intimidate its citizens. A mature, fully adult citizenry doesn't crave a Mommy to take care of them; it scorns those who seek to place themselves over others. True adults take care of themselves, their families and friends, and their community.

Calm down. Get the facts. Publicise those facts. Let the criminal justice system do its job. Feeding and pleasuring your emotions is not problem solving. Displays like that over at The Flypaper Theory aren't the way to go.

UPDATE: Saturday, 7PM. Already nearly 60 comments at the Flypaper Theory! The tide has turned now. Instead of howling for Bush, they've moved on to the "lone phoneman" theory, digging up every applicable law, planning strategy to SMASH THIS MISCREANT FLAT! A slight case of overbombing? Likely so.

These folks don't even know what's going on yet, but they're already thristing for blood, ready to start hurling stones, or torch the castle.

UPDATE: Saturday midnight Chris has now interviewed the business owner and gotten some details, though others remain elusive. Money quote:

Gasquet and others who have received similar calls will be discussing their polite, but unnerving calsl with Sam Seder (sitting in for Randi Rhodes) on Monday afternoon. Gasquet has also been interviewed by NPR, and Salon.

No word on contacting the police, the FBI or the phone company, but yeah, the media interview rounds have begun. I'm glad to see priorities are in order here.

UPDATE: Sunday 2PM Another voice heard from, as new-to-me blogger Autoegocrat, blogging at River City Mud, comments on both Flypaper Theory's and my posts. S/he also looks at one passage from President Bush's talk on Friday.

I'm already liking this blog because, even though our politics differ widely, Autoegocrat uses facts, links and sober analysis to advance arguments. S/he respects reader intelligence, which is always nice to see. River City Mud is already on my daily bloglist.

UPDATE Sunday 7PM And Chris responds! Not very nicely, but hey, what were you expecting at this point? Apparently my resistance to authoritarianism was too implicit for him to catch. Maybe if I use profanity, scream bloody murder, use outrageous characterisation in place of pointed questions, put hysteria ahead of facts, play to the lunatic fringe and shout down my opponents, do you think he'd understand that?

Give Me Slack or Give Me Death

Via Len comes this quiz:


Which OS are You?

Uhhh...OK, as Butthead would say. What tickles me about my rating, though, is the "Dobbshead" they use.

Yes indeed, that pipe-smokin', all-American face is none other than the Slackmaster himself, J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, revered figure of the Church of the Subgenius.

I was pretty into Subgenius in my twenties, but when X-Day came and went with no aliens, I definitively lost interest. It was kinda like when Garrison Keillor came back to Minnesota after his humiliation in New York. You failed, it's over, what's the point?

I still have a copy of Arise! on videotape (somewhere, I think) if anyone wants to buy it. Very trippy and funny propaganda / recruitment film. As Dobbs himself prophetically said, "You'll PAY to know what you REALLY think."

The View From the Secure Seats

President Bush did his Social Security Tour stop in Memphis on Friday morning. Lots of the usual media coverage, but you can get an up close and personal view from Mick over at Fishkite. He even has photographic proof! He and Bush, although separated by about twenty feet or so. It's a great write-up that's well worth your time.

Mick has been blogging a lot lately. I'm sorry not to have tossed up a pointer / reminder sooner. He's just redesigned things and the blog looks good. It's "the Blog between Church and State," though until recently it was "Grafitti on the Wall Separating Church and State." Either way, good descriptions of Mick's point of view. He's been on my daily reading list for quite a while now. Based on talking with him at previous blogger bashes, a nice young man, too; calm and thoughtful and considerate.

So go, already. Read!

After Action Report: Blog Panel

Sorry for the delay in posting this report on what happened Thursday. I was one of two panelists at the BusinessWire event. Mark Dunn was my contact, but Micky Pace was the onsite organiser and moderator. She did a splendid job in setting things up and running the proceedings, professional and pleasant.

I tried to enter through the front of the Pink Palace, but learned the Club Room was in the back. It kinda had the feel of a church basement meeting room, but was plenty spacious and comfortable. A woman named Carolyn was handling the breakfast part and really laid a nice spread across the back wall: donuts from Howard's (Yeah!), some ham and cheese breakfast sandwiches, lots of coffee and OJ, plenty of fruits in various styles, cheese, etc. I didn't get her full name or catering service, or I'd tell you. Believe me, she did a great job. I took home a bunch of those sandwiches. (Hey, they were drizzled with a hot mustard vinaigrette! I'm eating some now, in fact.)

Turnout was a disappointment, really the only one. About a dozen folks attended, though we had room for four or five times that many. Micky suspected that the date coming during Spring Break was the big problem. Peg, the other panelist, felt that so many Memphians not having computers or access was a factor. I thought it was just that most Memphians really don't know what blogging is or what the power of blogging can do. We both agreed that more information needs to get out. This survey backs that up. Micky said they would look into it and maybe try again in a different way.

The folks who were there were pretty sharp. The three big question topics were about blogging accountability and the First Amendment, using blogs in a corporate environment, and how to generate revenue with blogs. I was surprised to learn that the two most active questioners were from FedEx! I saw quite a few of the attendees taking notes. Every time Peg or I mentioned a site or blog, pens scribbled away.

Peg and I spoke in turns, bouncing answers and comments off each other's answers and the audience's questions, even going back to revisit previous questions and comments. We spoke from 8:45 until just past 10:30! We could have easily kept going for another hour or so.

One question I really liked was about accountability. Several wanted to know what prevents bloggers from printing outright lies? I said, "Libel laws." Which are the same laws that apply to mainstream journalists. Someone else worried about blogs turning into "paparrazi," or printing rumors and gossip. I asked her if she read People magazine. She and the rest seemed to get the point. There's a place for everything; reputations and credibility will have to be built.

Micky had passed around a hand-out of a story from the Nashville Tennessean about the evolving world of corporate blog policies. We batted that one around. One of the FedEx people seemed to want to have controls in place right away. He was worried about harm coming from blogs. I reminded him that corporate policies came about because someone made a mistake first, leading to the need for policies.

I enjoyed myself tremendously, even if I was just "a guy with a website," as I told them. Initially, they seemed to direct more to Peg, but given her corporate status, and my utter lack of corporateness, that's fine. I punctuated my comments with a statement: "Never underestimate the power of an angry customer." I talked about my frustrations with the local media and newspapers leading to the blog path. Afterwards, Micky brought up that blogs are a great way for companies to learn what their customers really think about their products. If I do this again, I hope she remembers to bring that back up. I think the PR types at the panel would really perk up at that.

A couple of folks I should mention. I got to meet former television newsman and current blogger Jamey Tucker. He's a lot taller than I thought -- 6' 2" at least -- and much thinner. On television, he appears a youthful late 30s - early 40s but in person he could easily pass for late 20s! Very friendly guy; it's a shame I didn't have much time to talk with him personally. Let's do lunch sometime!

The big surprise was Joe Larkins. That's right, retired Channel 3 morning show anchor. Asked what he's doing now, he said, "Growing a beard." Which was true! He had a really thick, full beard with stylin' shots of grey mixed in. With his turtleneck and tan leather jacket, and charm to spare, he seemed very relaxed and happy. He said his move from television was largely just a decision to try something different; that he'd gone about as far as he was going to go in television. I didn't get any hints of rancor, just relief at leaving the grind behind. He's an incredibly voluble guy too. You can't shut him up! (I kid. He told a lot of great stories about his career. Ask him about broadcasting in shorts during the Hurricane Elvis aftermath.) With his self-deprecating humor, you can really see why he's been such a popular and well-liked newsman.

There was one of the FedEx people whose name I didn't get, but she seemed really knowledgeable about blogs. I made sure to buttonhole her afterwards and she said she'd been interested for a couple of years. She's exploring ways to use blogs internally in corporations. She asked several very good questions.

So, I had a blast and seemed to have informed a few people. I made the mistake of answering a question from Jamey, where he compared blogs to talk radio in the 80s, by saying a better comparison was to 17th century pamphleteering. I know... too highbrow. Woosh! right over their heads. But I came back a few times to the fact that the Internet is equally as revolutionary as the printing press. Just as we couldn't have predicted universal literacy, or representative democracy becoming the standard of good government, from before the introduction of the printing press, so we can't predict the shape of our future from the early days of the Internet. Near universal access to vast libraries of information was a science fiction staple since at least the 50s, but the reality today looks a lot different than the single massive databases of then. Incomprehensible interconnectivity wasn't predicted, nor was the elevation of individual voices to par with mass-media corporations. The future is still very much an unknowable country.

Thanks to Peg, my co-panelist. (her comments here.) She was about to start vacation, so she was bubbly and having a great time. She spoke very openly about blogging from a corporate viewpoint, the pitfalls and dangers, but in a positive way. We made a grand pair.

So, thanks to Mark and BusinessWire for the invite. I hope they ask me again. Memphis really lags in taking advantage of the possibilities of the Internet, especially politically, and I'd like to help change that. If you have the chance next time, you should come! Especially if you're a blogger, but also if you work at a corporation and want to learn more about the potential of blogging to help your company.

Thanks, Unc

Half-Bakered has its first-ever blog ad running right now, courtesy of Say Uncle. It's up in the right hand corner. He's decided to institute advertising and offered a few free ads to the first folks to asked. I got lucky!

Make sure to go read his blog, which you should be reading anyway, then click on the ad to come right back here! Help a fella out, OK?

When I move off Blogspot, I'll be instituting some ads as well. One or two, no more; one at the top of each side column. I'm not sure if I'll manage them myself or sign up with a company. It's solely to pay hosting fees and bandwidth.

OK, and maybe the odd book from Amazon or DVD from Poker Industries or DVD Empire if there's enough revenue in it. I don't review books here, because I'm a slow reader these days, but I do DVD reviews. Not as many as I'd like because they take a while to write. I have to watch the movie at least twice -- once for enjoyment, once for the commentary (if it's there), then once again with a notebook. I enjoy bringing these unknown or obscure films to people's attention. A great many beat anything you'll see at the multiplex.

Anyway, thanks to Say Uncle for the free promotion.

Communists For TennCare

Half-Bakered is getting enough daily traffic, and a wide enough linkage, that it's fruitful for me to regularly scroll down through the referrer logs to see where folks come from. That's how I discovered Black Women for Rice, a blog dedicated to Condi Rice in '08 and the support of black women in her campaign!

This morning, I found another one: Communists For TennCare! What a concept. Go and read it right now. The genius of this is that you can't really say if it's truly pro- or anti-TennCare, although I suspect it's anti.

The design is awfully sharp, too. Check out the big blue circle, taken from our state flag, but with the three stars replaced by hammers-n-sickles. I'm a little jealous....

And they were nice enough to place me with the "Neo Con Capitalist Swine," too. Thanks, y'all!

Batman and Fan Films

[UPDATED I forgot to link to the film above! The image is from a discussion thread that included production photos, about the movie Batman: Blackout. Sorry not to give credit there.]

I was just playing around last night and came across the background image above. It's from a fan-made Batman film. I tinkered around some, taking a partly visible character out of the background (Bane), then adding the Batwing logo (from a GIS, Google image search) and the text. Pretty spiffy, eh?

While Star Wars and Dr. Who are the most popular subjects for fan films, Batman gets more than his share of the superhero fanfilms for one simple reason: he's only human. Granted, he's got superior athletic ability, superior detecting and critical thinking skills, a massive pile of money, and a dark rage to avenge his parents' murder, but he is still only a man. That makes filming his adventures quite a bit easier than those of Superman or the Flash or Spiderman. Although the costume isn't cheap....

Most fanfilms tends to be on the short side, five to fifteen minutes long, but a few are feature length. Some are quite good. One that caused a stir a couple of years ago, Batman: Dead End was made by a wannabe Hollywood director as his calling card introduction. In it, Batman is fighting the Joker in a rainy alley. Just as he finally brings him down, another villain appears behind. From another movie franchise. You see this monster and wonder if Batman could possibly win this one. It's a jaw-dropper and tantalising.

The same director then made a "movie trailer" called World's Finest. It was the "coming soon" featurette announcing a new movie, but there's only the trailer. No movie will get made. That's becoming another trend: making the trailer alone. They're short and have only the highlights. World's Finest is, of course, the teamup of Batman and Superman. The trailer has Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White. Lois Lane is both hot and snarky. Batman fights in the alleys, Superman catches a dropped truck. They stand side by side against the sunset, discussing what to do. The production values are high, and so is the acting. Especially the actors playing Batman and Superman, who are pitch perfect. I remember the first time I saw this, as soon as the "Coming Soon" title appeared at the end, I was shouting "Yeah! I'd go see that!" only to realise that there would be no movie. Ever. Both of these shorts are more than worth your time. You can find them, and a lot of other genre films, here. The diversity, inventiveness and sheer exuberance of many of these films will surprise you.

And there's more. You can go here for screencaps, posters, trailers, reviews and links to a lot of other films: superhero, action, horror, you name it. Even comedies about a heartsick Superman who can't handle Lois Lane's rejection and so mopes are Jimmy Olsen's apartment, and "Cape Chasers," about the private lives of public heroes. I'd recommend you visit just for the delight of seeing what's out there and how good some of it is. You can also take a look at this article from Britain's The Sun, which also has some pictures, including a fan Lara Croft! Hubba-hubba.

That's the point. There will be no more Lara Croft movies, but fans want to see one. There will never be a movie teaming of Batman and Superman. Too much legal wrangling. You'll never see Spiderman fight Batman, no matter how exciting the prospect. Alien vs. Predator, the movie, only happened becuase genre fans drooled over the prospect for years, leading a comic book company to create a series. The success of that convinced studio heads to try a low-budget version. The failure of the movie has killed any chance of sequels, most likely. The people in control have other concerns than just the simple desires of the fans.

But back to the Batman. There's something potent in the mix of rage, vengeance, crime fighting, film noir and moral ambiguity that attracts so many back to him. He is iconic: the lone figure standing over the city skyline eternally on watch, the shadowy shape in the corner of your eye that makes you catch your breath, the righteous figure dealing justice to the criminal. No wonder we are drawn to him. Once you get past the expense of the costume (which can go into the thousands), making films for him becomes pretty inexpensive.

I truly believe that fan-made entertainment is the wave of the future. Just as inexpensive computers, easy to use software and the Internet led to the fan fiction explosion and then the birth of the blogosphere, so will cheap cameras and editing software lead to an explosion of fan movies and series. The tools get more and more accessible, then more people get hold of them. It's already happening, bubbling under the cultural radar and rising.

One newer variant is the all-CGI movie. Several folks have created Batman and Supergirl movies done entirely with computer-generated characters. Star Wars, too. Others have learned how to harness video game rendering engines to make the game characters "act out" their movie scenarios. Even MTV has caught on to this trend with their "music video mods," where videogames are turned into lip-synched music videos. Try Bloodrayne singing Evanescence' "Going Under." Whoo!

I mentioned the other day Channel 101, a fan-run "television prime time" made up of original pilots and episodes that are voted on monthly. People come to a theater, watch the new episodes of returning shows and the new pilots of hopeful series, then vote on what stays. The originality and creativity is astonishing, as is the number of people taking part.

Right now there are two blocks in the way of fan-developed fun. One is the lack of broadband connectivity. Once more than half of the country is on broadband, watch for fan entertainments to explode. Even short, five minute films are large downloads, ten to twenty Mb. Longer programs, like you find on Star Trek: Hidden Frontier run to 60 to 100 Mb! Full length features like Nightwing: A Knight in Bludhaven run even larger. Only with broadband can these be easily shared and we're just not there yet.

There's also copyright. At present the studios are treating fan films benignly. The general sense is that as long as you don't charge for, or sell, your creation -- don't profit in any way -- you're fine. Usually a legal disclaimer and props to the copyright holder are sufficient; maybe a linkback to the copyright holder's website. Occasionally, a cease-and-desist campaign will happen, as did with Harry Potter fanfiction when too many folks started writing pre-legal age sexual adventures involving Harry and his teachers, as well as Harry and Hermione.

There was also a flap at last year's Comicon, in San Diego, California. This is the nation's largest comic convention and, in recent years, a launching point for promotional and "buzz" campaigns for science fiction, fantasy and horror films from the big studios. The stars come out to talk with fans, new trailers are released to huge hype, panel discussions with filmmakers are held. Tens of thousands attend. The studios threatened to withdraw all their support from Comicon when fan films started being shown. The convention holders, of course, had to acquiese, but fans were still angry.

That's the nub of this. Someone creates a hugely successful character or story (Sherlock Holmes, Bugs Bunny, Batman, Star Trek and Star Wars), fans immediately want more, more, more. Studios can't move fast enough, or bravely enough in some cases, so fans take it into their own hands to make more. Star Trek and Harry Potter fan fiction are both rife with romantic adventures the producers just won't take a chance on showing. People make fan films to revisit odd forgotten corners, or favored secondary characters, like Boba Fett of Star Wars.

It's the central issue in Henry Jenkin's seminal book Textual Poaching, which looks at the issue of the popular spread of literary (in the book's case, but it applies to cinematic as well) figures and settings into the wider culture, the appropriation of the specific into more generalised thematic uses. In precisely the same way that the stories of the gods and heroes of old have come down to us and been used in a hundred ways, so do the popular figures of today get taken up by this generation.

Captain Kirk became the symbol of manliness, virility and action. Luke Skywalker, the symbol of finding your destiny. Harry Potter, too. Superman became the embodiment of the American Way as Batman became the symbol of flawed men fighting the endless fight against evil. X-Men: society's outcasts finding new societies, and the struggle against bigotry. Star Trek: unbounded optimism, friendship over fighting, and the Kennedyesque New Frontier.

Normally, this would be a good thing as new generations take up the heroes of old, re-examine them, recontextualise them, take them apart to study them, then rebuild them in new ways. Look at all the ways Cinderella has been explored over the centuries. Or Hamlet, or Romeo and Juliet, for that matter. Shakespeare might never have imagined his play done the way Baz Lurhman did in the Danes/DiCaprio version (actually, I think he would have approved), but it reconnected with a new audience in a vital way.

A recent minor example? George Lucas has admitted he isn't interested in the Clone Wars saga of Star Wars. A group of fans (professional animators and writers) managed to get major studio backing and approached him to take that story up. Lucas approved and the Clone Wars animated adventures came to be, done in a non-Star Wars anime style. An examination of part of the mythology in a new setting! Lucas also resisted novelisations of his movies and characters, but once he finally gave in, we got the story of the Jedi Knights and the Rebel Alliance. People want what they want and creators who don't give it find their works taken and explored against their wills.

Where before these fan works existed in obscurity or out on the fringes, the Internet Age allows them to find their audiences much more easily and far faster. Star Trek fan fiction was a field only known to a few hundred before the Internet. Now hundreds of thousands read and take part. Now the producers of Star Trek use the tropes of fanfiction (Andorians live on an ice planet and have complex families.) in the actual series. It becomes a dynamic process rather than the one-way feed of the past.

The problem is that studios resist this appropriation. They will lose their copyrights and hence, their profits. Copyright used to extend only seventeen years past the life of the author, allowing popular images, figures and settings to enter the wider culture freely. But now, with changes in copyright, studios and estates can keep their copyrights up to one hundred years! For example, Mickey Mouse and a host of other Disney characters should have been public domain decades ago, but aren't. Only a few specific variations of the early design are at this time.

The public wants to take up these symbols, so the struggle is on. Studios must enforce their copyrights or else lose them, hence the cease-and-desist actions every so often. The issue hasn't really come to a head yet, but it will soon. And the public will lose out. So will the wider culture. As a natural activity becomes criminalised and more and more people flout the laws, so will respect for other laws erode.

The public is already voting. Downloading of songs, movies, anime, and other works is a major portion of traffic on the Internet. It's not going to stop, no matter how the studios and publishers try. Once broadband becomes the de facto standard of accessing the Internet, all bets are off. Already the MPAA and the RIAA are filing hundreds of lawsuits, trying to stem the tide. The puzzled and angry reaction of the public tells you how their campaign will fare.

You'll see an explosion of fan-made works based on studio-owned works. People will get used to making their own stuff and watching the works made by others, although there will always be a market for studio works too. (The idea of freely sharing your creativity versus expecting to make a living with it is a whole 'nother post.) It then only becomes a matter of creating sites to bring these fans together and getting the word out. The Internet is spectacular in that regard.

The future is just ahead, and I think it looks great.

You can find more stuff on Batman films and more here and here.

He Said It!

I can't believe anyone, much less former President Bill Clinton, could make the following remarks and not cause an uproar:

Iran is the only country in the world that has now had six elections since the first election of President Khatami (in 1997). (It is) the only one with elections, including the United States, including Israel, including you name it, where the liberals, or the progressives, have won two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote in six elections: Two for president; two for the Parliament, the Majlis; two for the mayoralties. In every single election, the guys I identify with got two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote. There is no other country in the world I can say that about, certainly not my own.

Unbelievable. This story is only being sporadically reported in the blogosphere, and hasn't reached the MSM that I know of. This is how far disconnected from reality some parts of the Left are.

Unbelievable.

Unintended Consequences

The new, re-imagined version of Battlestar Galactica added a character not in the original: President of the Twelve Colonies Laura Roslin, played by actress Mary McDonnell. As you'll see, she's a self-described "progressive." But playing the part of a President who must make hard, sometimes lethal, decisions -- letting some die to save others -- has started changing her:

"Playing this part on 'Battlestar'," McDonnell says, "I've been in the position of having to make sometimes military decisions regarding life and death. It has been a huge stretch for my progressive little heart and soul. The first time I had to experience this in the miniseries, I was really disturbed, when I really got inside that moment.

"As the 13 episodes went on, and I got more and more in command, I started to notice the separation taking place, separating the perhaps compassionate person from the practical person that had to keep the bigger prize in mind. You start feeling yourself becoming more male in a kind of cliched sense, but in fact, you start relying on a different side of yourself more often to get through the moment and not experience some of that pain."

Rather than [her character's] cancer being a hindrance, McDonnell feels it's actually worked in Roslin's favor.

"It's fascinating to me," she says, "but the cancer has freed me up to become clearer, stronger and faster. I've got nothing to lose, personally. All I've got to gain is the survival of the people. That's all she has, to do the job well that destiny has handed to her. The sicker she becomes, the more freedom she's experiencing to get the job done.

"Do you know what the truth is? Women are carrying all of it anyway. It's delusion to think otherwise. We're carrying too much, and now we're being called into power in a male, worldly sense as well. So how do you do that?"

Playing the president has had a personal effect on McDonnell as well.

"Because I am a middle-aged woman, I was not raised from the first day of my life to be prepared for a position of power in the world. I was certainly raised to know that I could do whatever I want. I had a family filled with strong women, and a dad who said, 'Doesn't matter, go out and do what you want.'

"But my education, the information did not come to me to teach me how to be in the male world and take command. So it's the same with Laura Roslin, in that she was not prepared to be the president or any of this. Now she, under extraordinary circumstances, has to discover her own power. She's a very latently powerful woman. I think that's a very good thing to talk about right now."

Knowledge and experience are great teachers, aren't they?

BSG is a groundbreaking show in other ways. The producers have just put the first episode of the series (after the pilot) up on the website as a free download. More episodes may come. Executive Producer Ron Moore keeps a blog, where he talks openly about the show and behind the scenes. He's also doing a series of podcasts, where he provides real-time commentary on each episode for the series. And they are free downloads as well.

After a lot of initial skepticism -- the original series was camp, cheap and cheesy -- the new series has earned wide-spread praise from all quarters for its style, its grittiness (the anti-Trek, in a manner of speaking), its realism, and the maturity of its character conceptions. This is a show about the effects of a major cataclysm on a civilisation. That it takes place in a science fiction world is purely secondary. Watching realistic people live day-to-day under enormous, unending pressure with no real hope in sight is what BSG is about.

Star Trek was the trend-setter in its day. In fact, Moore comes from Deep Space Nine, Trek's most complex and gritty series. Many people had thought that the SciFi Channel's other groundbreaking series, Farscape, would be the next trendsetter. But it's turning out to be little ol' BSG. Watch for science fiction to become grubby, dirty and lower-tech in its wake.

Bolivia and Hugo Chavez

With all the events in the Middle East, South America is getting short shrift in the American press. That's too bad, as Hugo Chavez, the socialist dictator/President of Venezuela, is setting up a Cuba-style socialist paradise and trying to export it to other South American countries, like Bolivia and Brazil. He's trying, with some success, to assume the mantle of revolutionary heir to Castro. Venezuela used to be a major world economy and now it's close to collapse. Bolivia is now being torn apart and is also facing crisis. Brazil isn't far behind.

You can read a lot more about Bolivia here, and for the geographically challenged, here's a map.

The Bush Administration needs to start paying real attention to the transformation going on down below us. A very ugly situation similar to the mess in Central America in the 1970's is taking shape. Spreading democracy in the Middle East is great, but watching socialism destroy our next door neighbors, crippling these countries for decades to come, will have severe consequences for America's economy.