Bryce Zabel's FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH

Got Green?

Charlotte Safavi is an Iranian-American journalist who writes for numerous publications, including the Huffington Post

Last week as Iran's Tweet-A-Thon raged on my Facebook, an unrelated post caught my eye from an American Facebook friend, "Green twitter pictures are stupid as f***." I knew my friend did not know what the green images meant. But his comment made me stop and think.

Since the disputed election results of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's win came out of Iran on June 12, 2009, green wheels started turning on the Internet. The clamp down on international press coverage in Iran only meant green-colored avatars spread faster than the plague on the social networking sites, now operating as de factonewsrooms.

I scroll through my Facebook friends' profile pictures. Among them, I see simple statements of protest on green backgrounds: Where is My Vote? Where is Their Vote? Free Iran. I see bold graphics on green squares -- a clenched fist, the black snail-shaped map of Iran, a splatter of red. I see recent photographs with green elements -- a pair of green-ribbon bedecked fingers and thumbs forming a heart-shape, green-painted fingers making the V sign, defiant Iranians demonstrating on the streets of Iran in green clothing and accessories.

I am most touched by my American Facebook friends, many of whom are not multicultural mutts like me, who have taken on green avatars, some by green-washing their regular profile pictures. Of course, I know those who have not changed their profile pictures -- I have not -- also support the Iranians. A plea for democracy in real time spreading throughout the Web is potent and addictive.

Color for a cause is also powerful. Think of the pink ribbon of breast cancer awareness, the yellow ribbon of wanting to see loved ones home safely, the red ribbon of AIDS.

Whither Newspapers?

L.A.-based entertainment journalist Kate O'Hare also blogs regularly on Hot Cuppa TV and The Accidental Futurist

As a journalist (that's the day job), every day I hear the question, "What is the future of newspapers?"

My answer is, "There isn't one, if you expect the industry to look like it does today."

One can wander far into the weeds of monetizing online content, micropayments, content cannibalization, etc., etc. Far cleverer folks than me, and those that have actually worked in a major-newspaper newsroom (I've always been either a freelancer or a wire-service staff writer), have tackled these questions and no doubt do a better job of discussing these topics than I can.

Some recent sources for views on the subject are linked at the bottom of this post. But, as a newspaper outsider who is also a journalistic insider -- and vested in the outcome of this debate -- I'll default to what I do best, ask questions.

I'll offer a couple of answers for each, but you may have a very different perspective, and I hope you'll share it with me. Here we go...

What is a newspaper?

Literally speaking, it's a pile of inky newsprint, a delivery system for information, advertising and photographs. But when people say "newspaper," they usually refer to what I call the newsgathering infrastructure, the people and technology that produce what winds up on the inky newsprint.

For the record -- not fond of inky newsprint. I went more than a decade without a newspaper subscription, because I just detest dealing with inky newsprint. I get a Sunday paper now...for the coupons. The inky newsprint generally gets tossed.

But, I consume vast quantities of news, both on screen and online, much of it newspaper and magazine content. That's partly because it's free but mostly because it's convenient. If I had to pay, I probably would, but hardly anybody asks me to. Which leads me to another question...

Why do people buy a newspaper?

You Can Become a Kindle Millionaire?

Lee Goldberg writes regularly on A Writer's Life

My friend author Joe Konrath has done extraordinarily well selling some of his unpublished books on the Kindle, making $1250 in royalties this month alone. That's very impressive. And since its free and easy to upload your book to Amazon for sale on the Kindle, I'm sure that Joe's success is very exciting and encouraging news to a lot of aspiring writers out there. But I suspect Joe's success is the exception rather than the rule. That said, he is encouraging others to follow his lead. He writes:

The average advance for a first time novel is still $5000. If Kindle keeps growing in popularity, and the Sony Reader opens up to author submissions like it intends to, I think a motivated writer will be able to make $5000 a year on a well-written e-novel. Or more. All without ever being in print.

[...]Robert W. Walker, has written over forty novels. Most of them are out of print, and the rights have reverted back to him. If he digitized and uploaded his books, and priced them at $1.59 (which earns him 70 cents a download), and sold 500 copies of each per month (I sold 500 of Origin and 780 of The List in May), he'd be making $14,000 a month, or $168,000 a year, on books that Big NY Publishing doesn't want anymore.
Even if he made half, or a third, or a fifth of that, that's decent money on books that he's not doing anything else with. Now, all of us aren't Rob, and we don't have 40 novels on our hard drives, especially 40 novels that were good enough to have once been published in print. But how long do you think it will be before some unknown author has a Kindle bestseller?

Joe is making a lot of assumptions based on the admirable success of his own Kindle titles. It's a big, big, BIG leap to think, just because his book has done well, that Robert W. Walker (or any other mid-list author) will sell 500 copies...or even 50 copies...of his out-of-print books on the Kindle each month. 

Lee Goldberg writes regularly on A Writer's Life

My friend author Joe Konrath has done extraordinarily well selling some of his unpublished books on the Kindle, making $1250 in royalties this month alone. That's very impressive. And since its free and easy to upload your book to Amazon for sale on the Kindle, I'm sure that Joe's success is very exciting and encouraging news to a lot of aspiring writers out there. But I suspect Joe's success is the exception rather than the rule. That said, he is encouraging others to follow his lead. He writes:

The average advance for a first time novel is still $5000. If Kindle keeps growing in popularity, and the Sony Reader opens up to author submissions like it intends to, I think a motivated writer will be able to make $5000 a year on a well-written e-novel. Or more. All without ever being in print.

[...]Robert W. Walker, has written over forty novels. Most of them are out of print, and the rights have reverted back to him. If he digitized and uploaded his books, and priced them at $1.59 (which earns him 70 cents a download), and sold 500 copies of each per month (I sold 500 of Origin and 780 of The List in May), he'd be making $14,000 a month, or $168,000 a year, on books that Big NY Publishing doesn't want anymore.
Even if he made half, or a third, or a fifth of that, that's decent money on books that he's not doing anything else with. Now, all of us aren't Rob, and we don't have 40 novels on our hard drives, especially 40 novels that were good enough to have once been published in print. But how long do you think it will be before some unknown author has a Kindle bestseller?

Joe is making a lot of assumptions based on the admirable success of his own Kindle titles. It's a big, big, BIG leap to think, just because his book has done well, that Robert W. Walker (or any other mid-list author) will sell 500 copies...or even 50 copies...of his out-of-print books on the Kindle each month. 

'Round, 'Round, I'll Still Get Around

L.A.-based entertainment journalist Kate O'Hare also blogs regularly on Hot Cuppa TV and The Accidental Futurist

I'm sitting here watching the 1996 movie "Twister," as storm chasers zip around the backroads of the Midwest, dogging tornados and hashing out their romantic and professional differences.

One the one side are the good guys, driving a motley caravan composed of pickup trucks (including a red one that executes some fairly sweet maneuvers, including driving through a house) and a battered station wagon. On the other side are the "corporate kiss-butts," piloting a sleek convoy of big black SUVs.

It's car heaven. Can you imagine this movie shot with a Prius, two Smart cars and a vegetable-oil-fueled minivan that smells like a taco stand? But that's where we're headed. If you thought the teeny-car chase in "Demolition Man" was the greatest thing ever, this auto future's for you.

(By the way, if you've never seen "Demolition Man," get it. It's prophetic, only I suspect that in many ways, its future is now.)

The Reluctant Blogger Bites the Hand...

Lauren Kessler is an author, narrative journalist and director of the literary nonfiction graduate program at the University of Oregon. 

“My name is Lauren Kessler, and I am a blogger.”

“Hello, Lauren.” 

Had anyone told me a year ago that I’d be blogging, I would have cringed.  I am not a fan of blogs.  I find most to be self-indulgent drivel and fervently wish that the people who spend their time writing them didn’t have quite so much time.  I am sure there are important community service projects they could be doing.  Volunteering at the hospital.  Collecting soup can labels to fund music classes at their kid’s school.  Something.  

Yes, there are a few interesting political blogs, and a few interesting insider blogs, and occasionally a really smart person will start a really smart blog or an important and worthwhile idea will be blog-supported.  And then there are those obviously brilliant blogs that take note of my books.  But of the – gasp – approximately 113 million blogs out there, most are written by every day folks with less-than-fascinating lives about which they have less-than-noteworthy insights which they freely express in less-than-competent prose.  Hooray that people are writing!  Writing is good.  Hooray for citizen whatever.  It’s publishing the stuff I object to.  

I know the internet is infinitely expandable, but just because there’s space doesn’t mean it has to be occupied, does it?  Some of us out here in the west like wide open spaces.  Technorati, the site that tracks and rates blogs, claims that a new blog is created every 5.8 seconds. That means that in the time it took you to read this far, seven new blogs came into existence.  Wired magazine reports that 2.3 content updates are posted every second.  Is there really that much to say?  

Movie Smackdown presents. . . NEW YEAR'S EVE AT THE MOVIES

That clock is counting down to New Year's Eve but there's still time to watch a film or two to get in the mood. We have two Smackdowns for you over at MOVIE SMACKDOWN! -- that's a whopping four films, all with something to do with New Year's Eve.

Our Oregon-based SmackRef, Mark Sanchez dives into a couple of romantic comedies that both have scenes bringing in the New Year in his Smack, Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) -vs- When Harry Met Sally (1989). Plus, as an added bonus, it's a chance to remember one of the most famous scenes on film, the time when Megan Ryan fakes a, well, you remember...

Meanwhile, down here in Hollywood, Sherry Coben takes us back to New Year's Eve 1959 with her Smack, Diner (1982) -vs- The Apartment (1960). That's right, both of these films go back to a simpler New Year's and it's a trip down memory lane that's not to be missed.

It's been a busy month over at the Smack. We have film-on-film competition with almost all of today's films like Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader, Frost/Nixon, Revolutionary Road, Valkyrie, Milk, Defiance, Marley & Me, The Wrestler, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Twilight, Doubt and Gran Torino. It's your last chance to check it out this year!

To see an entire site devoted to Movie Smackdown Comix! like above, go to www.MovieSmackdown.tv.

MOVIE SMACKDOWN! - Two Reviews... One Film... No Holds Barred!

READY TO BELIEVE: Free MP3 of Obama Fight Song!

Last January, while we were still on strike as members of the Writers Guild of America, my wife Jackie and I sat down in a Los Angeles coffee shop with our good friend, musician Cherish Alexander.

Before the coffee was cold, we decided, improbably given the time frame -- as a couple of striking screenwriters and a singer-composer -- to write, produce and distribute the song you'll soon hear.  It happened over a five day period and we released it immediately before the California primary.

So far, "Ready to Believe" has cumulatively had its video versions viewed close to 100,000 times on YouTube.  Plus, it's available on iTunes.  You, however, don't have to buy it in the closing days of the 2008 campaign.  We want you to download it for free and to send it to your friends.

It was written to stand-up for Barack to the Clinton campaign's charges claiming he wasn't ready for the presidency.  We find that the need for this song is as solidly right-on today as it was last February (only Clinton is on the team now and the argument's being made by John McCain).  It needed rebuttal then, and it needs rebuttal now. 

Please give it a listen.  Click the link below to just hear it.  Otherwise,right-click to actually... we'll say it again... download "Ready to Believe" for free.  Again, you have our express permission to download it and to give it away. 

Download_Ready_to_Believe_Song.mp3

Some have asked for a PDF of the actual lyrics.  Here you are:

Download_Ready_to_Believe_Lyrics.pdf

Here's the You Tube version:

Please also visit the web-page of singer-composer Cherish Alexander (http://www.cherishalexander.com/ready_to_believe/) where all the goodies are also available.  She and fellow producer Damian Valentine did an awesome job with this project as you can hear for yourself.

We know the hour is late but if you support Barack Obama, we'd urge you to join us and expose as many people as you can to this song.  Especially Obama volunteers.  We've received a good deal of email from campaign workers who thought it was like an anthemic "fight song" for the cause.  That's certainly what we intended it to be.

Remember to vote.  Even if the polls say he's ahead, you have to vote.  Take nothing for granted. 

Still fired up and ready-to-go for Obama!

Cherish Alexander, Jackie Zabel, Bryce Zabel

Movie Smackdown Comix presents... WITHOUT LIMITS

"Without Limits" was released ten years ago, on September 11, 1998, the second film about Steve Prefontaine's life in as many years.

To read the full review, go to Without Limits (1998) -vs- Prefontaine (1997).  A reader's poll now has over 100 votes and has been tied many times, although currently "Without Limits" has a slight lead.  Express your own opinion.

MOVIE SMACKDOWN! - Two Reviews... One Film... No Holds Barred!

Review and Comix by Bryce Zabel.

Writing on the Wall?

Fighting Words

The program I write most of my scripts on is "Screenwriter."  It's got a great look and feel.  They have a new program they're marketing now called "Streamline" which, without cheating, gives writers input and tools about changes they might make to shorten their scripts.  This is good news because most methods of making a script shorter also make it look crammed and unreadable and, the truth is, anyone who knows anything about scripts knows it's been cheated anyway, so what's the point?

I digress.  In the mailing today about this new product are some words that could strike fear in the halls of Microsoft.

"Streamline 1.0 is available for Macintosh only.  Streamline for Windows is in development, but no release date has been announced."

That's right.  The program is built for Macs first.  Windows is the afterthought.  Wow.  Maybe that says something about how screenwriters favor Macs, but it struck me as the thought for the day.  "Macintosh only."

How to Throw a Pitch

You Will Be Creative in the Following Steps or Else! 

This essay was originally published by Lee Goldberg in A Writers Life. 

I'm going in to a major studio next week to pitch a TV series.  In advance of the meeting, the studio wants you to send them a very short log line of the concept, sort of the equivalent of a TV Guide listing. Assuming that they like the log-line, a few days before the meeting they will send you the "Drama Series Pitch" format that they expect you to follow for your verbal presentation. Here it is: