STRIKE! STRIIIIIKKKKE!

... ahem.

Craig Mazin --

FUCKING STRIKE YOU LUDDITE FUCKERS STRIKE!

-- Craig Mazin, as a very smart Guy Who Understands Contracts has put up a primer for newbie writers on our upcoming contract negotiations. How our union works, negotiates with the Studios, a quick explanation of the magnificently awful residuals deal we get, etc. I particularly like this part ...

Not much. We lose our protection against a lockout, and certain grievance provisions go away, but other than that, our 2004 contract remains in effect. The idea of working past the deadline is simple: we try and get closer to the expiration of the SAG contract (June 2008), and then we use their strike threat as leverage to get us both a good deal on internet downloads.

The danger of waiting?

The DGA could always leapfrog the WGA and SAG and make an early deal (which they did in 2004) ...

... what a nice way of saying the DGA screwed us. The man is nothing if not tactful. Then again, our fault for not nutting up when we should have.

My feelings aside, well worth the read.

My feelings not aside -- I could give shit that I'm now on the daily call sheet, and I have to be included in publicity. I don't want special-ed style gestures of respect, I want that goddam money that's in residuals, because frankly what's now defined as "residuals" are going to be the primary source of income for all writers from now on. A better "residuals" deal is well worth a long, multi-year strike. We should be behaving and planning, right now, for a multi-year strike. Start saving your pennies.

Never Bring a Knife ...

Went to the Kings game last night, so in a hockey mood. Recently, I walked into my office and found my manager's assistant and the receptionist looking at hockey fight videos on YouTube. Or, rather hockey "fight" videos. ooo, look, shoving. tee. hee.

On a lark, and with little hope, I entered a name into the search bar.

"Terry O'Reilly"
Their amusement quickly transformed into fascinated horror. My favorite bit in every O'Reilly fight is the moment where it turns from a fight into "Oh God get him off me GET HIM OFF ME!!" That left hand -- MAN was he fast.

This post is also for the Aqua Teen hunger Force "bomb scare" -- just to remind everybody that Boston wasn't ALWAYS for wee little girly men.

Clarkaggedon

Rumor is he's in. More posts later. But get used to constant Clarkage, because the General is the shit. Go take a look, do some reading, and find yourself nodding. A lot.

Bue Beetle #11

Preview up at Newsarama. Jaime and some New Gods team up in space to fix a planet.

New Blogger

Just upgraded, and so it'll be a while before the sidebar is reconstructed. If you're one of my regular sidebar inhabitants, drop a line at kfmonkey@gmail.com and remind me.

... Ninjas

I am completely convinced I will never write anything even vaguely this interesting again.

My Ninja Tale -- Einstein and Feynman vs. Ninjas. And it gets weirder. Available from finer comic shops. Please, go forth and exchange filthy monies for it. You will enjoy.

Scrivener Software

I've been a bit giddy since I downloaded Scrivener, the "writer's workspace" software. Are my pdf's on tactical nukes now linked to the Apocalypse essay? Yes. Do I now have reference photos as I design my storyboards? Woo yes. Did I just break my new screenplay outline into segments, write the individual scenes, then rejoin them effortlessly when exporting? Oh yes.



The screenwriting functionality is primitive at best, but I'll tweak it a little and see how an export to Movie Magic Screenwriter goes. Report on that in a day or two. But generally, this thing has me giggling like a 12 year old girl sucking on a My Little Pony hash pipe.

Check it out here.

(h/t Lifehacker)

STFU SOTU

Did some of those claims of success during the State of the Union sound a little ... odd? The fine fol at, surprisingly, the Washington Post take you through the speech and point out where the President may have been, errr, stretching things a a bit.

In his speech, Bush argued that "free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies -- and most will choose a better way when they are given a chance." He also said that terrorist groups "want to overthrow moderate governments."

In the two of the most liberal and diverse societies in the Middle East -- Lebanon and the Palestinian territories -- events have undercut Bush's argument in the past year. Hezbollah has gained power and strength in Lebanon, partly at the ballot box. Meanwhile, Palestinians ousted the Fatah party -- which wants to pursue peace with Israel -- from the legislature in favor of Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction and is considered a terrorist organization by the State Department.

(h/t AmericaBlog)

Hagel-heads

And hey, let's never say we at the Kung Fu Monkey aren't bi-partisan ... gotta love the Chuck.



If you've read Petraeus' new COIN Manual, the escalation is not enough to make a difference (you need 120k troops just in Baghdad). That is, the manual written by the guy running the escalation contradicts the escalation. If you even read Kagan's original plan for the escalation, he said we'd need twice as many troops as we're sending, and they'd need to stay longer than they're staying. I hope I'm wrong, but once again we need to repeat the great truism of military history:

Hope.

Is.

Not.

A.

Plan.

Webb-head

Credit where credit's due, I bitched and moaned about Democrats constantly wearing the Frasier Crane mask. Webb brings it old school. Strong narrative, two and only two points, lots of emotional connection with the audience in order to fix those two points in their minds. It's like watching Yastrzemski hit.

And yeah, sure he's a "conservative" progressive. The man's practically wearing a "No War But Class War!" armband.

Dibs on coining "Webb-heads" as the moniker for the inevitable "Draft Webb" members, for those pushing for a VP slot in 2008 or his run in 2012. Hmm, I wonder if I can start making t-shirts now ...

(EDIT: To clarify, I don't actually support Webb in a run at this time or even 2012. I'm a big believer in "This is my rifle", and having Senators and Congressmen who stay Senators and Congressmen form part of the ideological fusillade is vitally important. A man with these priorities is desperately needed in the Senate, and I hope he enjoys a long career there.)