Jeff Stahler for July 18, 2023

Not that there was any quality coming out, Is Mission Ridiculous up to 7 now? GGWAG and car chases are all they seen to throw up.

I don’t watch most TV, so ¯\ ̲㋡ ̲/¯ about the writers/actors strikes. But (aside from all that hair) that’s a portrait of how I spend my time when I’m not actually working at something or socially mediating.

The book will land on his head (OMG)

growing an attention span?

He still buys a news paper?

No way… as long as there are still sports channels! Why actually read when you can be a vegetable?

Good move. TV is still the boob tube. Read a book.

Been an avid reader for about 80 years. Literature has changed a great deal. Some time browsing at the library will show that, on the new fiction shelves, many of the plots, characters roles, and the language used are a reflection of modern tv programming and movie scripts. Finding a novel that isn’t is like panning for gold at a downspout.

I enjoy books and movies/TV, It’s the corporate fatcats who should be worried about the strikes, as they’re the ones who have their income based on a constant frenzy for “new.”

My main interest in the strike is to see how the “agreements” on the use of AI come out.

Some people swear by AI and even use it to write cover letters and resumes. I find that AI is a wonderful research assistant, but that its creativity is lacking and it SOUNDS like a robot. I do use it to assist me in my writing (it gives me good ideas), but I have to edit it heavily.

Now to use AI to generate an image or voice of an actor is another animal. Actors should be compensated for using their image or voice. Maybe something like “If we hired you to do this we’d pay you X. Since you don’t have to do it we’ll pay you a percent of X.”

Since CGI came along, model makers and stuntmen have been put out of work. The same thing happened to buggy whip makers when the automobile came along. What about firemen on locomotives? Sometime technology truly does overtake human labor.

It will be interesting to see what comes from these negotiations.

Back to basics and what’s really productive… this society needs a break from the violence, sexual, crude, filthy mouthed movies!

The scabs crossing the picket line will be A.I.

And so far I’ve haven’t noticed.

Starting to develop a life away from the TV. Strange, but kind of liberating.

Don’t watch new TV shows and only new movie I’ve seen lately was 3000 Years of Longing. Not too bad. I streamed it.

Guy: Wow, forgot how reading is so soothing and restful…..

There is tons of already existing content available to stream that a lot of people haven’t seen yet. Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, Paramount+. A person could spend years on all the things they have produced.

IMO, tv and movie production has too much control from people who have no artistic talent. They want to make sure they make tons of money, not produce quality art. (which has made money in the past, so they just copy, again and again and again.)

It’s hard to find sympathy for anyone making bundles of money wanting to make more. It’s easy to find sympathy for anyone being swindled by corporations. Good thing for me I’d rather read than watch most of the drivel that passes for TV and movies. I have tons of sympathy for the support people around actors-all of the crew and others who rely on the business to survive.

Who cares? Most of what Hollywood cranks out these days is garbage anyway. Should we really feel compassion for prima donnas who already make gobs of money doing little actual work? Perhaps if they stay on strike, independent studios will turn out a far better-quality product that will attract a bigger audience with much more reasonable ticket prices.

The only thing I’ve missed so far is Stephen Colbert’s opening monologue. They’ve been playing re-runs since the writer’s strike started and I’ve seen most of those already and, besides that, they are mostly no longer relevant to current events which was a big reason for watching him in the first place.

I still watch plenty of TV (over the air & streaming) and there’s more than enough existing stuff that I’m not bored at all. One example is that I’ve been catching up on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In. I missed most of it on the first run because my folks controlled the TV back then, plus I was pretty busy being a teenager when most of us didn’t live in front of the tube 8^)

Re-reading old favorites!

From Amazon TV to Amazon Kindle.

/s.

sandpiper: I am so going to steal your ’’downspout’’ comment but will give you the credit. You win best comment of the day.