I want to join a fight club for my birthday.

So...that Orphan Works Bill.

This concerns artists dealing with visual imagery in communications. Like film, animation, illustrators, graphic artists, etc. It might have to do with you, too, if you enjoy film, animation, illustrations, graphic art, and such.

I wonder if everyone here knows about that Orphan Works Legislation that died around two years ago? I didn't know about it then, but I recently read that the Orphan Works Legislation is up and running again. An orphan work is a copyrighted work where it is difficult or impossible to contact the copyright holder. The bill essentially takes orphaned works and puts them into the public domain, leaving it prey to theft, misused, and such.

There's no art associated with this post, but I just thought it was important for everyone to know.
If you do know about it, then you should probably try to do something about it because it threatens everyone in the illustration, animation, photography---pretty much most artists.

There's a couple of links and stuff if you're interested.

Animation World Magazine.
orphanworks.blogspot.com
Orphan Works|Public Knowledge

You could always just google it yourself, too.

One way you could prevent this from happening is by contacting your senator or something.











GET TO IT!

seacrest out.

So, maybe this time I'll be able to see Conan.

Unless someone kills the Mighty Conando.

I've really been eager to see his show again. It's been a couple of years, and maybe I can actually get decent guests this time!

Woo.

Art Game. Art Game. Well, it's being maintained. A lot more than say, last semester or the one before. I don't know if many people know about Ben Jones retiring next semester. Is he really going to do it? I think I've heard something somewhere that he always says he's going to retire, but it might be it this time. G'nna have to take Drawing Comp II in the fall. Sigh. I miss him anyway. He's been gone for almost two years, right? A retrospective doesn't mean that you have much farther to go, either.

Did I word that right?

I'm going to start an iPod fund.

I just emptied out my Super Smash Bros. Brawl savings today. Next Sunday, I will be an official Brawler. (That sounds so odd.) I've been saving up since January, I guess. If you want to smirk and sneer, I'll tell you that my method's better than dumping a quarter or a fifteenth of two week's pay in a day (depending on how many days I'm wage-slaving).

I was sitting on Wolverine this whole time.

My brother's eighth birthday was yesterday. He got many a gift. Including a complete X-Men set, a 12' General Grievious, and a Marvel Legends Dr. Strange action figure from Rai. Stephanie gave him a set of super-heroes and such and a sword and shield set. Very durable and smart.

I think I'd also like to point out that my eight-year-old brother could have been a leap-year child. Which would have been fun, I guess, aside from the every four year "real" birthday.

I don't know if I would have let it happen or held the child in another day.
Thank the skies I'll never know what that feels like. ba-dum-bum.

Anyway.

Last week, I accidentally read about Daniel Joseph Martinez. I found him to be a genuinely interesting artist. Really taking risks, and attempting to put a spin on what the people think.

The one piece he made that I thought was really amazing and riveting was one he did on the campus of Cornell University called The Castle is Burning. The artwork took the form of an eight-foot-tall, tar covered passageway between administration buildings and classrooms. The roof of the structure would be covered by saying like: "In the rich man's house, the only place to spit is on his face." This, in turn, sparked, not only responses, but racist epithets like "White Pride" and swastikas. The amazing part about Martinez's piece is the result of minority students marching and demonstrating in front of the administration buildings and holding sit-ins until negotiations were formed.

A Cornell Review opinion piece said this: "Mr. Martinez: we have a special message for you. You snot-brained fiend, you flighty, warbling, gallivanting, strutting, little twit. You whining, moaning, kvetching, sniggering, paste-and-construction-paper excuse for an artist. You puerile non-entity, you prattling babe in the woods, you slobbering lapdog of the putrid international art establishment. You've ruined our campus."

It may seem like something bad to the most of us, but that's just what Martinez wanted. To rigorously and violently wake up the people of Cornell University and the rest of the world to the evil uglies beneath our everyday events. This is essentially why I find his installations so amusing and interesting.

First of all, Martinez acts as his work is part of guerilla warfare, tricking or searching for loopholes in agreements for his installations to be present in an area. The smartest thing I've heard of really. Especially if you know that your work is likely to offend most or all of the people who view it. There's the select few who will be inspired greatly by it, and that's where you win. However, for Martinez, his pride takes place when the masses are enraged by his work.

Maybe they're angry because it's true.

The only part about Martinez that's kind of vague is whether or not he is doing this for the shock value, which can only go so far. I believe that he is sincerely doing work like "The Castle is Burning" to MAKE people THINK. His topics are important, and not cheap like Jesus slaying vampires. (Which is not a bad idea, totally.)

Seacrest out.

Spun.

Spun. Like shat. I guess. I'm not really sure if spun actually is a word.


I've been doubting my vocabulary or my ability to compose interesting sentences. Either one. I try to read as much as I can, whether it's Harry Potter and Dark Tower or AVA and Invisibile Monsters. I like reading. The problem is I like reading on the bus or on the Lightrail or train. You know. Motion sickness doesn't occur until you're aware that you're moving and not keeping track of the motion. Is that how sea-sickness works?


---
I'm trying to keep optimistic about this semester. Optimistic and busy. For example, with 3D Design and Media in American Society, there's a bit of reading and response involved, so I'm trying to keep up by remembering to read a little each day. That way, I don't mess myself.

Last semester was a sure disaster. At least, yeah, I think it was. Literature and Film was an interesting class and many interesting ideas were discussed and debated, but between that Contemporary Art, Painting Fundamentals, Creative Cartooning and Comics, and Illustration I---I barely made it through. I'm extremely thankful for cool professors and my good papers. I hope they were good. I never get back the final papers. I never know what I get on them, or any opinions the professors have on them. I have no idea as to what they think about my ideas. I'd like to know, because I like writing essays (in doses).

Something like that.
I shouldn't be blogging. Though, I do enjoy it (when people respond).

Seacrest out.

So, I get this call from NBC/Universal Studios...

Well, at least, I figured it was NBC. I don't know that anyone I know has a '212' area code.

'Cause I don't know anyone that lives in New York City. I think.

Anyway. On Monday, Noel, David, Stephanie, and I were supposed to go to Rockerfeller Center in New York City to see Late Night With Conan O'Brien. Obviously, I was excited. Little school girl excited. This would be only the second time I went to see Conan. The first time I got to go, with Krissy and some of her cousins, I had a good time. I never experienced that sort of thing. It was a good experience. Even if the guests were P. Diddy and I don't remember. I guess Richard Gere and maybe Straylight Run. Some group involving a piano.

I don't remember.

Well, I think you know where I might be going with this.

If you haven't been buried ten-feet deep in a coffin with a bag over your head, then you must know that the entertainment industry is in a bit of a tuffle. Whatever a tuffle is. The Writer's Guild of America is officially on strike, and I believe that the guild has been on strike now for several days. Cast members from programs like The Office are joining the picket lines and Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane announced that the November 11th episode is the last fully-produced episode and that he's not crossing the picket lines.

Brian K. Vaughan, a comic book writer and now a writer and co-producer on Lost illustrates the entire situation best:

Because writers believe we deserve a fair share of the revenue generated by the stuff we helped to create, crazy as that sounds.

There’s an excellent summary of what I consider to be our very reasonable demands at this blog, which has been a consistently dependable source of good information about the strike: http://www.unitedhollywood.com/

But basically, writers are looking to negotiate modest residuals and protections for use of our TV shows and movies on the internet, where most of us will likely be getting the majority of our entertainment from in the not-too-distant future.

We’re are also asking for a share of about 8 cents--that’s eight stinkin’ pennies--for every DVD of our work sold, as opposed to the criminally insane 4 cents we receive today.

I read that Warren Ellis was concerned about possibly being barred from writing for animation (which is largely outside the jurisdiction of the WGA) during the strike, and while I think his concerns were absolutely valid (the strike rules have since been amended), I believe those initial guidelines were born out of the fact that this negotiation is also about fighting to extend the same health benefits, pension, and other protections that writers like I enjoy to our equally important colleagues in animation (as well as those in “reality” television, which employs more writers than you can imagine).

I got to hear firsthand how hard the Writers Guild worked to negotiate a fair deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but after more than three months of talks, the AMPTP still hasn’t come close to even meeting the WGA halfway on its most important proposals.

It sucks.

For more on BKV's detailing of the Writer's Strike, go.
Ultimately, I felt the writer's strike in full force today, when I listened to a voicemail detailing the cancellation of the Late Night with Conan O'Brien show I was s'posed to attend.

As a creative person, I think we should support the writers, even though most of them have sold their souls to Hollywood. Because, if we don't, how are we going to get to watch The Office?

Seacrest out, true believers.

Silly Hollywood.

I don't know if I'm just going to be commenting on some topics that most nerds would be concerned with. I do have a lot of problems with myself and the world.

Well, the title of this blog is called Nerdcore...


Bad box office sales blamed on Halo 3

It's been the worst October for North American movie ticket sales in years, and industry executives are pointing the finger at Master Chief.

Total cinema ticket sales in North America for the weekend of October 5 were a relatively meager $80 million--the worst results for an October weekend since 1999, reports Advertising Age.

Industry executives are wagging the finger at blockbuster game Halo 3, which was released in the US on September 26, made $170 million in its first day on sale, and at the last count, had made its creators Bungie and Microsoft more than $300 million.

But Bungie's gain is apparently the movie theatres' loss. Mike Hickey, an analyst at Janco Partners, commented, "The audience on this game is the 18-to-34 demographic, similar to what you'd see in cinemas. This could last for several weeks."

The Advertising Age article continues to warn that another box office drought may be ahead, as the release of Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV looms in the distance--current ETA the first quarter of 2008.

Don't blame the Chief.

Not a lot of movies were good, Hollywood. Across the Universe was a beautiful musical film, imho.

The game is so good.
Seacrest out.

Oh man. Here come the Fanboy Wars.

Yesterday, which I believe was Thursday, October 11, 2007, Marvel Comics released an image.

A couple of images, actually.









Sorry, folks. Steve Rogers is still dead.

This is someone different, which could reflect the new design. I'm sure that Steve might not alter his uniform.






I'm sure someone has something to say.
Seacrest out.

Bungie Leaves Microsoft.

Among other things, I should be writing a term paper comparing the film Alpha Dog and Kafka's The Trial, but I'm here. I'm actually blogging.

For now anyway.

(Because I'm tired from work--I need new shoes. At least I have a vacation this week. Hopefully there's a whopping vacation check, 'cause the manager's a dumbass.)

Working on cartooning homework during the weekend. Hopefully I can start writing something for that term paper.

So, I just read that Bungie, developer of the widely known Halo trilogy, is leaving Microsoft. Not too much of a shocker. I wonder if anyone else really cares.

Here's hoping for a Halo DS. (HAH!)














Wow. This post is all over the place.

Seacrest out.

Sigh. Another blog.

I haven't really held a good blog in two years. I'm going to say I held it really well on Xanga before I graduated from high school. I don't know if I really miss blogging. I don't know if I didn't like doing it anymore or, if I didn't have time for it.

I think I do like the idea of blogging, but if I go back to Xanga, no one really listens, which makes it more of a diary if anything. At least, for me.

Maybe I can get into it again. Blogging.

Maybe not.

I'd like to know how I can get into Area 221. Unless, there's a No Narciso's thing going on.
(You know. Like No Homers.)

I will keep one quirk I had on Xanga.


Seacrest out, true believers.