3) I don't see the Safari driven finder either. It's just the normal finder window with a brushed metallic look. (I still haven't made up my mind on the metallic. I don't hate it, but it's not lickable like the rest of the OS)
I don't think that's a Safari-driven finder. I think Safari is the active app, and the rest of the apps are ghosted.
As far as the brushed metal look goes, there's a hack for OSX that lets users make all the windows brushed metal, or make none of them brushed metal. (I read about it in OSX Hacks, which is a really cool book, BTW.)
Given Apple's incorporation of 3rd party things into their own official updates, it wouldn't surprise me if Apple is letting users "brush" all their windows.
You may like my book, Dancing Barefoot. There's a really long story all about Star Trek (scifi) and me (geek) and Vegas (hackers, I suppose, if you count Bringing Down the House, which is a GREAT summer -- or anytime, really -- read.)
But I won't pimp the link for BDTH, because I'm only shamelessly promoting myself.;-)
Yeah, those apps are nice. However, my KEjectWarpCore always seems to crash when I need it most (although it appears to be running fine when not being used). Has anyone else experienced this problem in their enterprise?
Yeah. Upgrade to KPlotDevice 2.2a and you'll be fine.
That's awesome. I always try to be not a dick when people ask me for autographs and stuff . . . but when I was a teenager . . . well, I didn't just look goofy. I *was* goofy: insecure, awkward, and anxious. I could have easily let my insecurities get the better of me, and acted like some of the AC's here. I'm glad I didn't.
I was at Disneyworld then with my best friend Darin. It was for his 18th birthday. I was 16, and we thought we were SO COOL (nod to Teen Girl Squad) being all the way in Mysterious Florida . . . I have nothing but wonderful memories from that vacation (even though I lost my nerve and didn't kiss the cute girl while I was there.)
It's awesome to me that you have a good memory, and I'm part of it. Thank you for sharing it.:)
Gene's feelings on the haters.
on
Dancing Barefoot
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I wonder how Gene reacted to the public irritation with his characterization of Mr. Crusher.
It hurt him a great deal.
Wesley was Gene's idealized self. Wesley was the kid that Gene couldn't be, and he hated it that the fans, who he loved, hated this character so much.
I remember once, we were at the same convention, and there was a group of fans chanting someting like "kill wesley" or "wesley sucks" or something equally intelligent.
Gene, who was about a thousand at the time, and not exactly spry, stormed up on the stage, grabbed the microphone, and said something along the lines of, "All you people just STFU! I make this show the way I want to! I don't make it for you, I make it for me, and if you don't like it, you can watch something else!"
There was a stunned silence, and then applause from the few majority of people who didn't share the opinion of the haters.
It was awesome.
I know that Gene respected and appreciated the fans, just like all of us do . . . but there's only so much a guy can take, you know?
Just read this thread at 1, and you'll get an inkling of about 1/10E6 of what I put up with for 15 years . . . and I was just an actor on the damn thing. I didn't even create it.
I know now, as a writer, that criticism of writing stings much worse than criticism of acting. The writing is much more personal, you know?
And thanks for setting the record straight on my history with TNG.:)
I admit I didn't see all the episodes, but I don't remember seeing one where Wesley went around crushing boys.
You don't recall the show where Wesley sat in 10 forward, crouched in the corner behind a plant, and said,
"Oh look at the little Klingon kid! Oh, Alexander . . . I have something for you . ..I'M CRUSHING YOUR HEAD!"
Crush. Crush.
"Hahahaha! How do you like it now, flathead?!"
"Ohh . ..here comes Picard. I bet it will be hard for you to give me a speech about truth and duty when . . . I CRUSH YOUR HEAD!"
Crush.
Crush.
I think they show it on Trek Uncut from time to time.
Re:Why hasn't he posted yet?
on
Dancing Barefoot
·
· Score: 5, Informative
The guy posts [slashdot.org] all [slashdot.org] over [slashdot.org] slashdot [slashdot.org]--how can he leave this alone?
Well, I didn't have anything to add to the conversation . . . but since you asked, I'll see if I can put something worthwhile in here.
I read at 5, so forgive me if I don't bite on a particular troll.
Someone asked if this is a "fresh perspective" on anything.
I don't know. It's my perspective on several things:
accepting the loss of somone who is very dear to me
enjoying the things in my life that come with being a husband and stepfather
recalling some of the joyous days when I was a teenager, and the world was so simple (a fact to which I was oblivious)
accepting my place in the Star Trek world, and putting to bed some 17th level daemons (all with 4d12+5 Whips of Self Doubt)
Should you buy it? I don't know. Only you can make that choice.
Who is the anticipated audience? Well, people who read my weblog (about 500,000 a month, as of last week) will certainly enjoy it, because all the stories I pulled from the blog are ones that have been very popular with readers. Star Trek fans will probably enjoy the Saga of Spongebob Vegas Pants -- I can say this with certainty, because I've read it at conventions, and the crowd always loves it.
Is this just a cut-n-paste from my site? A "dead tree" version of WWdN?
No.
I took the stories from the weblog, and I rewrote them. I think I've matured as a writer since they were first written, and I've rebuilt them. I had the technology to make them faster, better, stronger.
They are also illustrated by my pal Ben, who is an OUTSTANDING artist. The illustrations really lend an extra dimension to the reading experience.
If you're one of those people who has some sort of primal need to hate me, and everything I ever do, (please note: Wil != Wesley Crusher) I doubt anything in this book is going to change your mind about anything. (As a matter of fact, I doubt that anything I do at all will change your mind. That's why I read at +5.)
But if you are curious, you can always take a look at my website, and read some of the stuff there. If you like what you see, there's a good chance you'll like this book.
Of course, here is the ObBuy link, and, uh, I guess I'm supposed to scream "OMFG DANSIG BARFUT IS TEH FUTAR!!11" for some reason that currently eludes me.
. . . but back in my day, we would have said "0/\/\fG! |>@/\/c!nG b@r3f00+ !5 +3h/~0Xx0rX, d00d!!!11"
I remember flying into New York city, playing Tetris on my Gameboy (Marina Sirtis played Tetris on her Gameboy back then, and we'd play head to head. Sadly, I was too young to suggest strip Tetris at the time) on my way to a Star Trek convention.
As the plane passed by the skyline of Manhattan, I looked out the window at the buildings, and visualized how many blocks I could 'drop in' to make a solid line across the top.
I do think the Borg have been done to death. They were at their best in Next Generation, and I still give props to whoever thought them up in the first place. Definitely one of the most original sci-fi enemies ever.
It was Michael Piller who created the Borg, and it was he who made them the terrifying badasses that they were in Best of Both Worlds I&II.
On the DVD for Season 3 or 4, Michael says that he was planning to leave TNG after he wrote Best of Both Worlds Part I, so he went ahead and made them so bad ass, and so undefeatable, because "someone else would have to figure out what to do with them."
Then Gene convinced him to stick around another year, so he ended up being "someone else!"
I think this is awesome, and it's a good lesson for writers: get your characters into trouble. Put them in a place where REAL death is certain, and then let them figure out how to get out of it. Michael wrote those stories without any hesitation or fear, and that's why they are two of the best TNG episodes ever.
For the record: In my opinion, Michael Piller is responsible for some of the best stories -- well, some of the best everything -- on The Next Generation.
"It's dead Jim. But this is StarTrek, so we can solve the problem by 'modulating the frequency'."
More like, why don't YOU modulate the frequency, NERD? (only funny if you are a regular reader of the Strongbad Emails, particularly this one.)
For everyone else:
Speaking from experience, I can tell you that the best way to fix any problem is to modify the sensor array to emit an inverse tachyon pulse into the heart of the anomaly.
Or go ask Data, but ask him while he's in the Holodeck playing Sherlock Holmes.
Even if this ep bombs, there's still some potential here. (Note: I'll never forgive Voyager for pussifying the Borg.)
Dude, Voyager didn't pussify the Borg -- Next Gen did it.
Remember when we first saw them, and they were all bad ass? They were adjusting their shields for different phaser frequencies and stuff?
Then there was that whole Locutus thing . . . man, that sucked for us.
But through it all, the Borg were kicking ass, and not even bothering to take names . . . until some last-season Next Gen episode (forgive me or not knowing the title) where all it took to kill a Borg was popping the little tube out of its face.
What?!
From certain death for all humans, to falling down in a spray of liquid nitrogen just like that?
I'll just add a couple cool gambling books to the list:
*Bringing Down the House
*Poker Nation
*Telling Lies and Getting Paid
If you wanna learn how to play:
*Doyle Brunson's Super/System
*Mike Caro's Poker Tells
*Hold 'Em Poker for Advanced Players
And of course, make sure you watch Rounders and The Sting.;)
Re:Schools of fish swimming toward Las Vegas
on
Positively Fifth Street
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
If there are any regular poker players out there, either in home games or casinos and card rooms, can you comment on whether this has brought a tide of newbies into the game? If so, have these fish provided any sort of windfall for the more experienced players?
I play in a couple regular home games, and I do pretty well. Over the year, I usually win a little bit more thn I lose, but I've never gotten the balls to go play at a card casino.
This recent surge of poker in media, really beginning back with the film Rounders, has brought new people to the game, many of them very willing to part with their money.
The trouble is, these "fish" can be hard to play against, because they think they're playing video poker, and call way too often. When I'm holding Cowboys, and the flop comes suited 4-6-A, if a guy bets heavily into me, I put him on A-something, or maybe a flush draw (which he should have mucked anyway) . . . so I'll muck more often than not. But when it's some noob holding crabs, hoping to river the straight . . . and then he does (!) it throws the game off.
Doyle Brunson (I think?) said "Play the man, not the cards," and that's a great bit of advice, that can be hard to effectively use when playing against total noobs that get lucky way too often.
Man, I want to play now. Is it Saturday night, yet?;)
How much were people paid? Did you meet guild rates and all that? What, more generally, did things cost?
Well, SAG makes several contracts available for producers who wish to use SAG actors, but don't have a lot of money. They are all listed at the SAG Indie website (warning: it's flash hell) http://sagindie.com/flashFS.html
For those two movies I mentioned, I worked for the SAG minimums, and took some profit-participation incentives. I did it because they were both great scripts, and I wanted to work with the people involved.
I'm very conflicted about actor's salaries. On the one hand, if an actor is going to be "opening" a movie, he or she should share in the massive profits that movie will be bringing the studio. On the other hand, because of this phenomenon, we're looking at one actor getting a multi-million dollar salary, while all the other actors work for scale.
In Sydney Lumet's book "Making Movies," he talks about those stupid actor bonuses, and how money that's spent on those things doesn't end up "on the screen," and the audience gets cheated because of it.
I'm not sure what the crew and department heads got paid. I'm sure you could get an idea for that stuff by tracking down some indie film makers . . . they usually like to help out aspiring film makers.
Having to work around writers and executive producers and other people in the industry is a drain. You will never find a group of folks more full of shit. I completely agree with the article in that all the movers and shakers in the industry run on fear, constantly looking around to see what everyone else is doing.
We're discussing this at Fark. Here's what I had to say there:
Ben's experience matches up EXACTLY with what I've known to be standard industry practice for as long as I can remember.
We used to joke that there was one guy, who'd get drunk at a restaurant and spout out movie ideas (it changes as things go in and out of style -- in the 80s it was Spago, in the 90s I think it was the Viper Room. I have no idea what it is now, as I attempt to claw my way back up to the "b" list.) The joke went that there were execs from all the major studios, and they'd only hear flashes of the conversation, like ". . . asteroid . . . earth . . . big summer movie . .." and we get two or three movies that are exactly the same.
The worst thing about this article is that Hollywood will see it, and they'll add Ben to the "we hate him because he doesn't play by our rules" list, and Bringing Down The House will never get made.
Which REALLY sucks, because I was hoping to score a part in it.
A friend of mine (who is now an indie director) worked on "Batman and Robin."
The horror stories he told me about the insane wasting of money on actor crap would make you explode.
The budget for actor garbage -- workout rooms, personal chefs, personal assistants, personal drivers, groomers, and all that useless shiat -- was THREE MILLION DOLLARS.
We made Neverland for less than 50 grand, and even THAT was a ton of money to me. (I'm not an investor, just an actor, in that picture.)
Jane White Is Sick And Twisted, which is coming out on DVD in just a couple of weeks, was similar in budget . . . and I'd wager that both of these movies are more entertaining, and more watchable than Batman and Robin.
Yeah, Hollywood is fucked. Royally. The big media conglomerates (you can't even call them 'studios' any longer) have co-opted "independent" as a marketing device . . . but there are some real indie studios out there, with people who love the material, love the process of bringing it to life, and create great work. It's just hard to find right now, is all.
As for Ben's movie? I'd DIE to play Kevin, but a part that big will go to someone who is currently "established," who can "open" a movie. (By "open," I mean that they can get people into the theatre based on their name alone.)
Kevin's character is asian in Real Life, IIRC, but they'll change that for the movie, and you'll see someone like Matt Damon (if Hollywood is smart, which they're not so we'll probably see someone who's a lousy actor, but on a "hot" series right now. I leave it to you to fill in the blanks on that one) in that role. Which he probably won't take, because it's too similar to "Rounders," which leaves it wide open for me!
. . . to lose out to some guy who's hot right now.
Slashdot Mirror
3) I don't see the Safari driven finder either. It's just the normal finder window with a brushed metallic look. (I still haven't made up my mind on the metallic. I don't hate it, but it's not lickable like the rest of the OS)
I don't think that's a Safari-driven finder. I think Safari is the active app, and the rest of the apps are ghosted.
As far as the brushed metal look goes, there's a hack for OSX that lets users make all the windows brushed metal, or make none of them brushed metal. (I read about it in OSX Hacks, which is a really cool book, BTW.)
Given Apple's incorporation of 3rd party things into their own official updates, it wouldn't surprise me if Apple is letting users "brush" all their windows.
Gates can fire Ballamer, and Ballamer can't fire Gates.
Owning stock trumps a title.
It certainly doesn't hurt Gates to have The One Ring, either.
You asked about a "scifi-geek-hacker book".
;-)
You may like my book, Dancing Barefoot. There's a really long story all about Star Trek (scifi) and me (geek) and Vegas (hackers, I suppose, if you count Bringing Down the House, which is a GREAT summer -- or anytime, really -- read.)
But I won't pimp the link for BDTH, because I'm only shamelessly promoting myself.
Yeah, those apps are nice. However, my KEjectWarpCore always seems to crash when I need it most (although it appears to be running fine when not being used). Has anyone else experienced this problem in their enterprise?
Yeah. Upgrade to KPlotDevice 2.2a and you'll be fine.
Did Picard endorse this?
Yep. The new apps "KPolarityReverse and KSensorArrayMod" are awesome.
Oh, crap. I gotta go. I have a runaway "KNanite" process.
Their logo looks very like the Nintendo Gamecube logo.
Yeah, well, as long as they don't call it "firebird" they should be fine.
FINALLY! I can win in an online game.
I challenge any of those 14 year-old kids who own me in CS to face me in . . . Tetris!
Muwahahahaha!!!
Okay.
I still don't understand this.
Why is this such a big deal? There can't be a browser and a database with the same name?
Is this some sort of intellectual property argument? Doesn't this sort of go against the "spirit" of the OS community?
I remember noticing this really goofy guy . . .
:)
Heh. Some things never change.
You made a teenage geek very happy. Thank you.
That's awesome. I always try to be not a dick when people ask me for autographs and stuff . . . but when I was a teenager . . . well, I didn't just look goofy. I *was* goofy: insecure, awkward, and anxious. I could have easily let my insecurities get the better of me, and acted like some of the AC's here. I'm glad I didn't.
I was at Disneyworld then with my best friend Darin. It was for his 18th birthday. I was 16, and we thought we were SO COOL (nod to Teen Girl Squad) being all the way in Mysterious Florida . . . I have nothing but wonderful memories from that vacation (even though I lost my nerve and didn't kiss the cute girl while I was there.)
It's awesome to me that you have a good memory, and I'm part of it. Thank you for sharing it.
I wonder how Gene reacted to the public irritation with his characterization of Mr. Crusher.
:)
It hurt him a great deal.
Wesley was Gene's idealized self. Wesley was the kid that Gene couldn't be, and he hated it that the fans, who he loved, hated this character so much.
I remember once, we were at the same convention, and there was a group of fans chanting someting like "kill wesley" or "wesley sucks" or something equally intelligent.
Gene, who was about a thousand at the time, and not exactly spry, stormed up on the stage, grabbed the microphone, and said something along the lines of, "All you people just STFU! I make this show the way I want to! I don't make it for you, I make it for me, and if you don't like it, you can watch something else!"
There was a stunned silence, and then applause from the few majority of people who didn't share the opinion of the haters.
It was awesome.
I know that Gene respected and appreciated the fans, just like all of us do . . . but there's only so much a guy can take, you know?
Just read this thread at 1, and you'll get an inkling of about 1/10E6 of what I put up with for 15 years . . . and I was just an actor on the damn thing. I didn't even create it.
I know now, as a writer, that criticism of writing stings much worse than criticism of acting. The writing is much more personal, you know?
And thanks for setting the record straight on my history with TNG.
You don't recall the show where Wesley sat in 10 forward, crouched in the corner behind a plant, and said,
I think they show it on Trek Uncut from time to time.
Well, I didn't have anything to add to the conversation . . . but since you asked, I'll see if I can put something worthwhile in here.
I read at 5, so forgive me if I don't bite on a particular troll.
Someone asked if this is a "fresh perspective" on anything.
I don't know. It's my perspective on several things:
Should you buy it? I don't know. Only you can make that choice.
Who is the anticipated audience? Well, people who read my weblog (about 500,000 a month, as of last week) will certainly enjoy it, because all the stories I pulled from the blog are ones that have been very popular with readers. Star Trek fans will probably enjoy the Saga of Spongebob Vegas Pants -- I can say this with certainty, because I've read it at conventions, and the crowd always loves it.
Is this just a cut-n-paste from my site? A "dead tree" version of WWdN?
No.
I took the stories from the weblog, and I rewrote them. I think I've matured as a writer since they were first written, and I've rebuilt them. I had the technology to make them faster, better, stronger.
They are also illustrated by my pal Ben, who is an OUTSTANDING artist. The illustrations really lend an extra dimension to the reading experience.
If you're one of those people who has some sort of primal need to hate me, and everything I ever do, (please note: Wil != Wesley Crusher) I doubt anything in this book is going to change your mind about anything. (As a matter of fact, I doubt that anything I do at all will change your mind. That's why I read at +5.)
But if you are curious, you can always take a look at my website, and read some of the stuff there. If you like what you see, there's a good chance you'll like this book.
Of course, here is the ObBuy link, and, uh, I guess I'm supposed to scream "OMFG DANSIG BARFUT IS TEH FUTAR!!11" for some reason that currently eludes me.
. . . but back in my day, we would have said "0/\/\fG! |>@/\/c!nG b@r3f00+ !5 +3h
I remember flying into New York city, playing Tetris on my Gameboy (Marina Sirtis played Tetris on her Gameboy back then, and we'd play head to head. Sadly, I was too young to suggest strip Tetris at the time) on my way to a Star Trek convention.
As the plane passed by the skyline of Manhattan, I looked out the window at the buildings, and visualized how many blocks I could 'drop in' to make a solid line across the top.
Hey CleverNickName, have you had problems with fan imposter porn being done of you or your charachter?
Sure, if you call getting a hummer in the turbo lift from Tasha Yar "problems," set your phasers to porn!
Heh. I've got 3 or so seasons (accounting for 4 years of my childhood and about 10 more years as an adult) that were ruined by fandom.
Strangely, the Internet was instrumental in restoring much of the joy that went with those years.
I do think the Borg have been done to death. They were at their best in Next Generation, and I still give props to whoever thought them up in the first place. Definitely one of the most original sci-fi enemies ever.
It was Michael Piller who created the Borg, and it was he who made them the terrifying badasses that they were in Best of Both Worlds I&II.
On the DVD for Season 3 or 4, Michael says that he was planning to leave TNG after he wrote Best of Both Worlds Part I, so he went ahead and made them so bad ass, and so undefeatable, because "someone else would have to figure out what to do with them."
Then Gene convinced him to stick around another year, so he ended up being "someone else!"
I think this is awesome, and it's a good lesson for writers: get your characters into trouble. Put them in a place where REAL death is certain, and then let them figure out how to get out of it. Michael wrote those stories without any hesitation or fear, and that's why they are two of the best TNG episodes ever.
For the record: In my opinion, Michael Piller is responsible for some of the best stories -- well, some of the best everything -- on The Next Generation.
More like:
"It's dead Jim, let's kick it around some more."
"It's dead Jim. But this is StarTrek, so we can solve the problem by 'modulating the frequency'."
More like, why don't YOU modulate the frequency, NERD?
(only funny if you are a regular reader of the Strongbad Emails, particularly this one.)
For everyone else:
Speaking from experience, I can tell you that the best way to fix any problem is to modify the sensor array to emit an inverse tachyon pulse into the heart of the anomaly.
Or go ask Data, but ask him while he's in the Holodeck playing Sherlock Holmes.
Even if this ep bombs, there's still some potential here. (Note: I'll never forgive Voyager for pussifying the Borg.)
Dude, Voyager didn't pussify the Borg -- Next Gen did it.
Remember when we first saw them, and they were all bad ass? They were adjusting their shields for different phaser frequencies and stuff?
Then there was that whole Locutus thing . . . man, that sucked for us.
But through it all, the Borg were kicking ass, and not even bothering to take names . . . until some last-season Next Gen episode (forgive me or not knowing the title) where all it took to kill a Borg was popping the little tube out of its face.
What?!
From certain death for all humans, to falling down in a spray of liquid nitrogen just like that?
Worst. Screwing up of a cool bad guy. EVER.
But with the blast shield down, I can't read the website! How am I supposed to sign up?
I'll just add a couple cool gambling books to the list:
;)
*Bringing Down the House
*Poker Nation
*Telling Lies and Getting Paid
If you wanna learn how to play:
*Doyle Brunson's Super/System
*Mike Caro's Poker Tells
*Hold 'Em Poker for Advanced Players
And of course, make sure you watch Rounders and The Sting.
If there are any regular poker players out there, either in home games or casinos and card rooms, can you comment on whether this has brought a tide of newbies into the game? If so, have these fish provided any sort of windfall for the more experienced players?
;)
I play in a couple regular home games, and I do pretty well. Over the year, I usually win a little bit more thn I lose, but I've never gotten the balls to go play at a card casino.
This recent surge of poker in media, really beginning back with the film Rounders, has brought new people to the game, many of them very willing to part with their money.
The trouble is, these "fish" can be hard to play against, because they think they're playing video poker, and call way too often. When I'm holding Cowboys, and the flop comes suited 4-6-A, if a guy bets heavily into me, I put him on A-something, or maybe a flush draw (which he should have mucked anyway) . . . so I'll muck more often than not. But when it's some noob holding crabs, hoping to river the straight . . . and then he does (!) it throws the game off.
Doyle Brunson (I think?) said "Play the man, not the cards," and that's a great bit of advice, that can be hard to effectively use when playing against total noobs that get lucky way too often.
Man, I want to play now. Is it Saturday night, yet?
How much were people paid? Did you meet guild rates and all that? What, more generally, did things cost?
Well, SAG makes several contracts available for producers who wish to use SAG actors, but don't have a lot of money. They are all listed at the SAG Indie website (warning: it's flash hell) http://sagindie.com/flashFS.html
For those two movies I mentioned, I worked for the SAG minimums, and took some profit-participation incentives. I did it because they were both great scripts, and I wanted to work with the people involved.
I'm very conflicted about actor's salaries. On the one hand, if an actor is going to be "opening" a movie, he or she should share in the massive profits that movie will be bringing the studio. On the other hand, because of this phenomenon, we're looking at one actor getting a multi-million dollar salary, while all the other actors work for scale.
In Sydney Lumet's book "Making Movies," he talks about those stupid actor bonuses, and how money that's spent on those things doesn't end up "on the screen," and the audience gets cheated because of it.
I'm not sure what the crew and department heads got paid. I'm sure you could get an idea for that stuff by tracking down some indie film makers . . . they usually like to help out aspiring film makers.
Having to work around writers and executive producers and other people in the industry is a drain. You will never find a group of folks more full of shit. I completely agree with the article in that all the movers and shakers in the industry run on fear, constantly looking around to see what everyone else is doing.
." and we get two or three movies that are exactly the same.
;)
We're discussing this at Fark. Here's what I had to say there:
Ben's experience matches up EXACTLY with what I've known to be standard industry practice for as long as I can remember.
We used to joke that there was one guy, who'd get drunk at a restaurant and spout out movie ideas (it changes as things go in and out of style -- in the 80s it was Spago, in the 90s I think it was the Viper Room. I have no idea what it is now, as I attempt to claw my way back up to the "b" list.) The joke went that there were execs from all the major studios, and they'd only hear flashes of the conversation, like ". . . asteroid . . . earth . . . big summer movie . .
The worst thing about this article is that Hollywood will see it, and they'll add Ben to the "we hate him because he doesn't play by our rules" list, and Bringing Down The House will never get made.
Which REALLY sucks, because I was hoping to score a part in it.
A friend of mine (who is now an indie director) worked on "Batman and Robin."
The horror stories he told me about the insane wasting of money on actor crap would make you explode.
The budget for actor garbage -- workout rooms, personal chefs, personal assistants, personal drivers, groomers, and all that useless shiat -- was THREE MILLION DOLLARS.
We made Neverland for less than 50 grand, and even THAT was a ton of money to me. (I'm not an investor, just an actor, in that picture.)
Jane White Is Sick And Twisted, which is coming out on DVD in just a couple of weeks, was similar in budget . . . and I'd wager that both of these movies are more entertaining, and more watchable than Batman and Robin.
Yeah, Hollywood is fucked. Royally. The big media conglomerates (you can't even call them 'studios' any longer) have co-opted "independent" as a marketing device . . . but there are some real indie studios out there, with people who love the material, love the process of bringing it to life, and create great work. It's just hard to find right now, is all.
As for Ben's movie? I'd DIE to play Kevin, but a part that big will go to someone who is currently "established," who can "open" a movie. (By "open," I mean that they can get people into the theatre based on their name alone.)
Kevin's character is asian in Real Life, IIRC, but they'll change that for the movie, and you'll see someone like Matt Damon (if Hollywood is smart, which they're not so we'll probably see someone who's a lousy actor, but on a "hot" series right now. I leave it to you to fill in the blanks on that one) in that role. Which he probably won't take, because it's too similar to "Rounders," which leaves it wide open for me!
. . . to lose out to some guy who's hot right now.
But Dealer #5 is all mine, baby!
The PATRIOT Act, or the Supreme Court?
Yes.
Whenever I turn on my iBook, this robotic voice says, "You are hearing me talk."
It suddenly makes sense, now.
If you need me, I'll be parked under the Sun Sphere.