Sesame Street

Happy 40th Sesame Street. And still have my favorites... Sing it with me. Imagine the old animation and that trippy ball: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... (YouTube)

Forget Kanye

Forget Kayne. Norman Borlaug died. One of my true heroes (and yes, he's in the heroes book i'm doing).

Penn & Teller on Dr. Borlaug

Summer Books And Movies

Finally back from two weeks away, and just need to recommend one book and one film that're worth checking out.

For the book, it's Stitches by David Small. Yes, I read it months ago, but I think it's so douche-y to talk about a book no one else can buy -- and it's now finally on sale. It was the only book I brought back from BookExpo in May. Yes, it's a comic. And yes, I wish the ending were a hair more self-examining, but man, I promise you will be blown away. Just heartbreaking and wonderful in all the right places.

As for film, for sure, go see the Basterds and District 9, but when you're ready to really get king nerd going (and here comes the douche-y part because you can't buy it yet. God, I'm a hypocrite), go see the independent movie Last Son by fellow Jerry Siegel obsessed Brad Ricca. It'sf packed with never before seen footage/images/facts about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and the creation of Superman. And to totally steal from him: There is just "an Earth-2 (and 3) level of cool that two Brads were at different times in the same library having these big OMG moments in seeing this stuff. And (ready for this?) In the EXACT SAME ROOM where Joanne Siegel spread out her mail from her newspaper ad and chose Joe's to answer."

How's that for a benefit? Watch this film and see proof that another Earth exists.

That's the summer catch-up. Novel is coming along. First Buffy script is in. Art is just starting to show up. And big news coming about the non-fiction book, which is now coming out in May.

Back on Topps

They're my friends so I plug for them. But this is good stuff. So here it is, season 2 of the Emmy-nominated original online series, Back on Topps starring The Sklar Brothers.

Back on Topps

Old Jews Telling Jokes

I am now going to do you a favor. I used to hate Father's Day. It was a fake holiday. Until I got presents on it. So take this link, send it to your Dad, and wish him a Happy Father's Day with it. He deserves it.

Thanks to Jason S. for finding it.

Old Jews Telling Jokes

Weekend in Pop Culture

Just back from a beautiful weekend in Charlottesville, so thanks to all who came to the Virginia Festival of the Book and introduced themselves. Was one of my favorite events in a long while.

On the plane, was submerged in pop culture, which really just seemed to be peeking since I was eating it all at once:

• The end of Battlestar Galactica - Loved and felt totally satisfied (even ignoring my minor geek tweaks), and made me wish more shows ended before they overstay.
  
• My MacBook (yes, made the switch 10 months ago), but this was the first time I felt it, when, in the airport, I realized I'd only downloaded half the Battlestar ending on iTunes and had to get the final half before I boarded the plane. Love the internets.
  
• Favorite new show to replace Battlestar: Friday Night Lights. Football, jocks, remake of a movie -- all of these things kept me away from the show, but (and I'm halfway through season 1, so don't ruin it), this is clearly the best written show on TV for me. I love it. I love it. It shouldn't work, but it all does. Amazing that I love this like I love The Wire. (I said it).
  
• Wrote the intro for Absolute Promethia (such goodness)
  
• And just digging the hell out of Kings, by my pal Michael Green. Go support him!
  

Lego

For any conversation about how awesome Legos are. This is the awesome.

I LEGO N.Y. (New York Times)

And this is the spaceship Lego I was OBSESSED with when younger. By the end, I could build it by heart.

The Worst Seats

The other night, in Florida, I had the fun of going to see the Broadway show Avenue Q with my pal (douche-y namedrop time) Jeff Marx, one of the creators of Avenue Q.

I'd seen it before. I love it like candy. Good candy. Like Chaleston Chew when those were the best.

But there was something about getting to see it with the guy who dreamed it up -- with his parents and family and friends and all of us there. Broadway and the Tony are nice. But at intermission, we were talking about the beauty of having YOUR play come to YOUR theater in YOUR hometown.

And as I mentioned this beauty to Jeff, he turned to the back of the theater, pointed up to crappy seats up in the balcony, and said, "That's where I used to sit when I came here years ago and saw Phantom."

Let me be clear here: most people, when they find success, never want to think of those days when they had the suck seats. But we should never forget those seats. Those are the best seats we'll ever have in our lives.

What you see below is the picture Jeff took -- of his Tony-award winning play -- from his old seats up in the balcony.

I love him for never forgetting. But I love him more for leaving our amazing center-orchestra seats to take in the view from way back.

PS - Other best part? When the 99-year-old lady usher shooed him (and us) out of the theater, threatening that, "The show's over, young man, time for you to get out."

Halloween!

I love Halloween. I really love it. And not just because my wife pulls out the Wonder Woman costume that she usually just saves for my birthday. (I know...you just can’t help wondering if that’s a real joke or not.) But beyond the magic lasso, I love the memories of dressing as Batman for that one night...and then wearing the cape for the rest of the year(s). See below photo.

So a treat for you: this list of the best and worst candy.

It’s true. Don’t argue. But do add additional items if you please.

Also, would love to hear what you’re going as. Cori and I got invited to an actual superhero party. Oh the irony. I so wanted to pull out all the stops, and try for an amazing Power Girl or Hawkgirl and Red Arrow. Or even get back into our Wondertwin costumes we made years ago. (It take a real man to wear that much purple.) But instead, we’re doing Supergirl and Lex Luthor. Yep. Shaving the head totally.

Safe tricks and treats for all.

Love each other. And vote.

Back On Topps

Okay, here’s the fun stuff. I’ve plugged my pals Randy and Jason Sklar on here before (and not just because they wrote the first bit I ever did on stage. Sock puppets. For Real!). But here’s their new series, all on the web, all free, all goodness.

If you don’t laugh at the photographer in the 2nd episode, you have no heart. Or smile.

Please do check it out here, new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday and culminating in a big end at the end of October:

www.backontopps.com

Last Lecture

Yes, you've probably heard the story. And yes, it's everywhere. But that doesn't mean it's not still a great story.

Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture" was put together and chronicled in book form by my pal Jeff Zaslow, who is a true nice guy. And on those days when you start stressing over the crap stuff of life, this is the thing that reminds you what really matters.

So take a look at www.TheLastLecture.com and enjoy the message. It's a vital one.

Mamet Gets Older

I'm passing no judgment on this. But that sound you just heard was a cultural icon admitting he's getting older. It's easy to ride him for it, whatever your politics are. When babyboomers whine, I just can't wait to take potshots. But I admire David Mamet. I admire his self-exploration. And I just love love love the idea that at base, he thinks everything in this world is always wrong. He's wrong (taste the irony there?). But absolutes are wrong. And can't wait to see how this affects his writing.

David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' (Village Voice)

Best Readers Ever

This was the nicest letter I got this week from reader Deni. I liked it so much, I needed to share (and recommend a book in the process).

Considering the familiarity of your blogs, your writing, your seemingly-approachable self, I just finished reading The Airman by Eoin Colfer. Always nice to refer good read to others who may appreciate.

You may already know Eoin Colfer. His Artemis Fowl series is very well known (love it).

But his break from Artemis to The Airman is what great classics are made of. Like a Marvel hero in the swashbuckling 1800s.

Stuff White People Like

I take such joy in this site. Good stuff.

Sci-Fi vs. Literary

This one was just fascinating. I love the theory.

Also, trying to finish a first draft of the new novel here. So close and so far far away.

Why "Reality Fatigue" Has Made Science Fiction More Interesting Than Literature [Rant]
via io9 by Annalee Newitz on 1/21/08

One of Wired magazine's brainiest writers, Clive Thompson, has a great essay in the latest issue about why science fiction novels have become more philosophically rich than literature. He points out that scifi often gets the short shrift in literary circles, partly because it's perceived as just so generic. And yet so-called realistic literature is just as generic. In fact, there is a kind of poverty to literary fiction that refuses to bend the rules of social (or material) reality -- one can only describe the world in such books, not suggest ways to change it.

Argues Thompson:

There are, at the risk of sounding superweird, only so many ways to describe reality. After I'd read my 189th novel about someone living in a city, working in a basically realistic job and having a realistic relationship and a realistically fraught family, I was like, "OK. Cool. I see how today's world works." I also started to feel like I'd been reading the same book over and over again.

Here's my overly reductive, incredibly nerdy way of thinking about the novel: Consider it a simulation, kind of like The Sims. If you run a realistic simulation enough times -- writing tens of thousands of novels about contemporary life -- eventually you're going to explore almost every outcome. So what do you do then?

You change the physics in the sim. Alter reality -- and see what new results you get. Which is precisely what sci-fi does. Its authors rewrite one or two basic rules about society and then examine how humanity responds -- so we can learn more about ourselves. How would love change if we lived to be 500? If you could travel back in time and revise decisions, would you? What if you could confront, talk to, or kill God?

Teenagers love to ponder such massive, brain-shaking concepts, which is precisely why they devour novels like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, the Narnia series, the Harry Potter books, and Ender's Game. They know that big-idea novels are more likely to have an embossed foil dragon on the cover than a Booker Prize badge.

I wonder if reality fatigue is going to affect television-watchers, too. With the writers' strike forcing studios to roll out so many awful new reality TV shows, maybe there will be a much greater hunger for speculative and scifi series.

SciFi is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing [Wired]

Most Pirated Movies And TV Shows

Sad part? Still haven't seen Transformers.

Movies

Ranking Movie (downloads on Mininova)

1. Transformers (569.259)
   
2. Knocked Up (509.314)
   
3. Shooter (399.960)
   
4. Pirates Of The.Caribbean At World’s End (379.749)
   
5. Ratatouille (359.904)
   
6. 300 (358.226)
   
7. Next (354.044)
   
8. Hot Fuzz (352.905)
   
9. The Bourne Ultimatum (336.326)
   
10. Zodiac (334.699)
    

TV-Shows

Ranking TV-Shows (downloads most popular episode on Mininova)

1. Heroes (2.439.154)
   
2. Top Gear (1.217.923)
   
3. Battlestar Galactica (706.209)
   
4. Lost (705.724)
   
5. Prison Break (608.487)
   
6. Desperate Housewives (457.805)
   
7. 24 (524.303)
   
8. Family Guy (522.839)
   
9. Dexter (435.670)
   
10. Scrubs (427.420)
    

Top 10 Most Pirated Movies and TV Shows of 2007
via Digg on 1/1/08

TV-shows are by far the most popular files on BitTorrent sites. On Mininova alone, some episodes are downloaded more than 2 million times. Movies are a good second, with over 500.000 downloads for the most popular titles.

Lawyers Ruin Disney World

When I was in Disney a few weeks back, I saw this and almost fell over. Sad part is, they used one of our jokes: What's the mountain's brother's name? Cliff.

Now the bastards own it forever. There goes the toy line and the Macy's parade balloon I envisioned.

Disney lawyers enstupidize ride with dumb legal disclaimer
Posted by Cory Doctorow, November 20, 2007 10:13 AM | permalink

Louis sez, "The Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor in Walt Disney World lets you text in jokes to be used in the ride, a comedy club where CGI characters voiced and choreographed by castmembers backstage do standup and interact with the audience. Disney's lawyers shoehorned this lengthy, decidedly Un-Magic disclaimer into all the signage in the ride, letting you know that Mike Wyzowski, Monsters Inc and, now, your jokes are owned by Disney. Now go have fun, kids!" Link (Thanks, Louis!)

Mego Superheroes!

In my 10 years of writing, I've only blurbed I think six books. Here's the seventh. Yes, it's written by a pal (c'mon, you think the other 6 blurbs weren't for friends?), but I so heart this book. When I was little, on New Year's Eve, my grandfather would line up all my Megos and action figures on the kitchen table like they were all celebrating with us. I had Batman and Robin. They were the only ones I was really celebrating with. And I never lost the gloves or boots (for more than a few days). When I graduated college, I used to hunt comic conventions for more Megos. I found Batman. I found Robin. Then I found eBay. It was no fun. I didn't buy a single one online.

And so, here's Ben Holcomb's book: Mego 8" Super-Heroes: World's Greatest Toys!. It's obsessive and beautiful and insane. Just like us. He did this sucker all himself. How do we not support it?

There is a 32 page preview below. And buy away. Best holiday gift/coffee table book this year.

• FREE 32-Page Preview
  
• TwoMorrows.Com (Publisher link)
  
• Order From Amazon.Com
  

Sesame Street - Adults Only

Sesame Street - Adults Only

This saddens me so damn much. Are we really that sheltered?

Sweeping the Clouds Away

By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN

From the New York Times

Sunny days! The earliest episodes of “Sesame Street” are available on digital video! Break out some Keebler products, fire up the DVD player and prepare for the exquisite pleasure-pain of top-shelf nostalgia.

Just don’t bring the children. According to an earnest warning on Volumes 1 and 2, “Sesame Street: Old School” is adults-only: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.”

Say what? At a recent all-ages home screening, a hush fell over the room. “What did they do to us?” asked one Gen-X mother of two, finally. The show rolled, and the sweet trauma came flooding back. What they did to us was hard-core. Man, was that scene rough. The masonry on the dingy brownstone at 123 Sesame Street, where the closeted Ernie and Bert shared a dismal basement apartment, was deteriorating. Cookie Monster was on a fast track to diabetes. Oscar’s depression was untreated. Prozacky Elmo didn’t exist.

Nothing in the children’s entertainment of today, candy-colored animation hopped up on computer tricks, can prepare young or old for this frightening glimpse of simpler times. Back then — as on the very first episode, which aired on PBS Nov. 10, 1969 — a pretty, lonely girl like Sally might find herself befriended by an older male stranger who held her hand and took her home. Granted, Gordon just wanted Sally to meet his wife and have some milk and cookies, but . . . well, he could have wanted anything. As it was, he fed her milk and cookies. The milk looks dangerously whole.

Live-action cows also charge the 1969 screen — cows eating common grass, not grain improved with hormones. Cows are milked by plain old farmers, who use their unsanitary hands and fill one bucket at a time. Elsewhere, two brothers risk concussion while whaling on each other with allergenic feather pillows. Overweight layabouts, lacking touch-screen iPods and headphones, jockey for airtime with their deafening transistor radios. And one of those radios plays a late-’60s news report — something about a “senior American official” and “two billion in credit over the next five years” — that conjures a bleak economic climate, with war debt and stagflation in the offing.

The old “Sesame Street” is not for the faint of heart, and certainly not for softies born since 1998, when the chipper “Elmo’s World” started. Anyone who considers bull markets normal, extracurricular activities sacrosanct and New York a tidy, governable place — well, the original “Sesame Street” might hurt your feelings.

I asked Carol-Lynn Parente, the executive producer of “Sesame Street,” how exactly the first episodes were unsuitable for toddlers in 2007. She told me about Alistair Cookie and the parody “Monsterpiece Theater.” Alistair Cookie, played by Cookie Monster, used to appear with a pipe, which he later gobbled. According to Parente, “That modeled the wrong behavior” — smoking, eating pipes — “so we reshot those scenes without the pipe, and then we dropped the parody altogether.”

Which brought Parente to a feature of “Sesame Street” that had not been reconstructed: the chronically mood-disordered Oscar the Grouch. On the first episode, Oscar seems irredeemably miserable — hypersensitive, sarcastic, misanthropic. (Bert, too, is described as grouchy; none of the characters, in fact, is especially sunshiney except maybe Ernie, who also seems slow.) “We might not be able to create a character like Oscar now,” she said.

Snuffleupagus is visible only to Big Bird; since 1985, all the characters can see him, as Big Bird’s old protestations that he was not hallucinating came to seem a little creepy, not to mention somewhat strained. As for Cookie Monster, he can be seen in the old-school episodes in his former inglorious incarnation: a blue, googly-eyed cookievore with a signature gobble (“om nom nom nom”). Originally designed by Jim Henson for use in commercials for General Foods International and Frito-Lay, Cookie Monster was never a righteous figure. His controversial conversion to a more diverse diet wouldn’t come until 2005, and in the early seasons he comes across a Child’s First Addict.

The biggest surprise of the early episodes is the rural — agrarian, even — sequences. Episode 1 spends a stoned time warp in the company of backlighted cows, while they mill around and chew cud. This pastoral scene rolls to an industrial voiceover explaining dairy farms, and the sleepy chords of Joe Raposo’s aimless masterpiece, “Hey Cow, I See You Now.” Chewing the grass so green/Making the milk/Waiting for milking time/Waiting for giving time/Mmmmm.

Oh, what’s that? Right, the trance of early “Sesame Street” and its country-time sequences. In spite of the show’s devotion to its “target child,” the “4-year-old inner-city black youngster” (as The New York Times explained in 1979), the first episodes join kids cavorting in amber waves of grain — black children, mostly, who must be pressed into service as the face of America’s farms uniquely on “Sesame Street.”

In East Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1978, 95 percent of households with kids ages 2 to 5 watched “Sesame Street.” The figure was even higher in Washington. Nationwide, though, the number wasn’t much lower, and was largely determined by the whims of the PBS affiliates: 80 percent in houses with young children. The so-called inner city became anywhere that “Sesame Street” played, because the Children’s Television Workshop declared the inner city not a grim sociological reality but a full-color fantasy — an eccentric scene, framed by a box and far removed from real farmland and city streets alike.

The concept of the “inner city” — or “slums,” as The Times bluntly put it in its first review of “Sesame Street” — was therefore transformed into a kind of Xanadu on the show: a bright, no-clouds, clear-air place where people bopped around with monsters and didn’t worry too much about money, cleanliness or projecting false cheer. The Upper West Side, hardly a burned-out ghetto, was said to be the model.

People on “Sesame Street” had limited possibilities and fixed identities, and (the best part) you weren’t expected to change much. The harshness of existence was a given, and no one was proposing that numbers and letters would lead you “out” of your inner city to Elysian suburbs. Instead, “Sesame Street” suggested that learning might merely make our days more bearable, more interesting, funnier. It encouraged us, above all, to be nice to our neighbors and to cultivate the safer pleasures that take the edge off — taking baths, eating cookies, reading. Don’t tell the kids.

Points of Entry

Caveat teletor: Volumes 1 and 2 of “Sesame Street: Old School” are available on DVD, which you can sample and buy on Sesameworkshop.org. With a few episodes, extras and celebrity appearances by the likes of Richard Pryor and Lou Rawls, “Old School” sounds harmless enough. But are you ready to mainline this much ’70s nostalgia?

The Way Old: YouTube is great for performance art. If 1969 is not far back enough for you, how’s 1935? The Oscar-winning short film “How to Sleep,” by the Algonquin Round-Tabler Robert Benchley, can be found here in sumptuous black-and-white; search for his name and the film’s title on YouTube.

Come of Age: Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the men of “My So-Called Life” and “thirtysomething,” have at last introduced their online-only young-adult series, “Quarterlife.” It started Nov. 11 on MySpaceTV.com, and it marks the first time a network-quality series — a long indie film, really — has been produced directly for the Internet. If the old times unnerve you, welcome to the new times.

Writers Strike

I love this email. Reminds me why it's so damn great to have writers on your side.

The WGAE and the WGAW issued this statement in response to the AMPTP's misleading newspaper ads:

Nice try, AMPTP. In the words of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. The AMPTP's paid and patronizing advertisement in yesterday's New York Times and Los Angeles Times is guilty of what most charitably could be called sins of omission.

The AMPTP maintains, "It is important to make clear that writers currently do receive residuals for digital downloading (regardless of whether the download is temporary or permanent)... The Guild is seeking at least a 700 percent increase over what writers currently receive, and more than a 200 percent increase over what they receive for Internet 'pay per view.'"

FACT: In our abandoned negotiations, the AMPTP insisted that the residual rate for digital downloading be pegged to the current rate for DVDs, a penurious third of one cent on the dollar. Let's repeat that: A THIRD OF A PENNY!!

The 700 percent increase they refer to roughly translates as 2.1 cents, the 200 percent as 2.5 cents. The AMPTP, as the saying goes, uses numbers the way a drunk uses a lamppost - more for support than illumination. Do the math and you'll see what we're asking for is nothing more than a small, fair respectful share of revenues.

The AMPTP states that it "has offered to pay writers a percentage of the revenues the producer receives from licensing streamed content on the Internet."

FACT: The AMPTP "offer" would allow them to continue to air the streamed content FOR FREE for the first six weeks after its initial broadcast release. In other words, the time period during which there would be the most demand from the public and the most bang for the advertising buck. After that time is over, they would throw us a fraction of the bone of whatever's left.

According to the AMPTP, "No labor agreement in history has given writers, actors or directors a portion of advertising dollars."

FACT: As their own ad notes, technology is rapidly changing the way our business works. They themselves admit, "There's a paradigm shift in how entertainment is distributed and consumed." They offer streaming video for free, but make millions for the copious advertising that accompanies the content. It's only fair that the creators, the storytellers that make those revenues possible, get a tiny taste of the pie.

Stop spinning and wasting money on expensive ads, AMPTP. Come to the table and bargain.

Contents copyright 2007, Writers Guild of America, East. All rights reserved.

The Writers Guild of America East

Halloween Is Us

Judging by last night's costumes, Star Wars is slowing down, and the superheroes and pirates are going strong. Also, a big Harry Potter contingent. But the one thing I noticed more than anything else was the amount of adults in superhero costumes, especially moms as Wonder Womans and Supergirls. Is this just the insanity that is Florida? What'd you see?

Also, for the DC crowd, I'm at the JCC in Rockville on Sunday the 11th. See you there.

Also, after talking to lots of TV writers, when the writers' strike hits, guess where lots of those writers are going? Comics are going to benefit.

Video Games

I hope they catalog the old invisible dot from Atari's Adventure (still the first great Easter egg ever). Also, anybody ever hear of an old Commodore 64 game called Impossible Mission, with a hero who would do flips over everything? Even better than a night of bootlegged Zaxxon and Castlevania.

And just for the record, my old bulletin board name was Nightwing. Don't laugh. I was 13.

Library of Congress to begin cataloging video games
via Digg on 10/22/07

The Library of Congress is teaming up with major universities across the country to begin a 2-year initiative with the sole intent of figuring out just how institutions can preserve video games for years to come, while making the content accessible for use and study.

My Agent's Agent

Why do I love Randy and Jason Sklar? Because we went to college together? Yes. Because they helped me win "Mr. Greek Week" by writing a comedy bit for me made completely of sock puppets? Yes (swear). And also because they do genius stuff like Cheap Seats (ESPN Classic), and their new web series LAYERS, about a Hollywood agent who only represents other LA agents? Natch.

So please do go and check out LAYERS. The first episode was just posted on www.superdeluxe.com (which seems to be screwy with it's Adobe Flash, but is well worth it when you get through).

Time Out NY picked it as one of three web series to watch this fall, and Variety editor, Cynthia Littleton praised it too. Anything that screws with agents is beautiful.

Furries vs. Klingons

HOLY SH**! Who wants to go to Atlanta this weekend? IT IS _GAMEDAY_!!!!!!!!

Furries vs Klingons bowling tournament this Sat in Atlanta

via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow on 9/25/07

This Saturday, Atlanta's Midtown Bowl will see the second annual Klingons vs Furries bowling tournament, in a mighty subcultural clash. It's like Quadrophenia with furrs and trekkers instead of mods and rockers. Link (via Global Nerdy)

Living Biblically

Yes, I know him and yes he's a pal, but I wouldn't kiss his ass if the book wasn't spectacular. So do yourself a favor and go buy a copy of AJ Jacobs's new non-fiction book, The Year of Living Biblically.

He spends one year trying to observe all the laws of the Bible. Yes, it sounds like a bad movie (and I'm sure it'll be a bad movie), but AJ and the book are tops.

As an aside, I read this (real) headline today (really): "'Ninjas' Suspected In Two Orlando Jewelry Store Robberies".

PS here's a good Newsweek interview with AJ.

Geek As The New Cool

I hate being the guy who bitches when his favorite obscure band gets big, but I have to say, this just saddens me. Do I love the "geek as cool" thing in culture? Of course (means less of us get beat up). Do I love seeing comics and sci-fi and all the other goodies we love being embraced by the mainstream? Of course. But labels like the below just make me feel like we're a flavor of ice cream that ain't gonna be around in a few months.

NBC: "Geeks are the new cool" for Fall TV

via Digg on 9/24/07

And, "We are all gravitating towards the underdog." So, geek TV shows like The Big Bang Theory, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and a retooled Bionic Woman make up roughly 20 percent of the major networks' new prime-time programming for the 2007-08 season.

Ludlum Writes From the Dead & Comedy

I'm fascinated by this New York Times article below. And am always just amazed that people don't mind buying books that're written by someone beside the author. Or rather, and maybe this is all ego and fear, but what amazes me is that most people don't even know the author is dead.

Also, for those who like their comedy, Tom Franck emailed me and says he needs your votes for the finals. If he wins the 10K, he'll buy us all ponies.

Plus he can quote Rocky II, so that's good enough for me.

So please vote for him at Famecast.

The Ludlum Conundrum: A Dead Novelist Provides New Thrills

Ludlum books written by other authors.

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: July 30, 2007

Robert Ludlum died six years ago, but that has done nothing to slow the release of books published under the name of the actor-turned-novelist who specialized in thrillers built on a foundation of paranoia.

Twelve Ludlum books have been released since his death, with a 13th due out in September. The business is deployed now as a kind of film studio, presenting books completed by others or new ones written using his name.

Since early 2006 there have been three alone: “Robert Ludlum’s The Moscow Vector,” the sixth in the “Covert-One” series of paperback originals; “The Bancroft Strategy,” and “Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Betrayal,” by Eric Van Lustbader.

Mr. Ludlum did not want to be forgotten or leave behind only an enormous backlist that started with “The Scarlatti Inheritance” in 1971. He had little reason to worry: he is now a brand extended far into his afterlife.

“This goes back to 1990 or ’91 when Bob had quadruple bypass,” said Henry Morrison, the agent for Mr. Ludlum. “One day we were talking about what would happen when he was gone. He said, ‘I don’t want my name to disappear. I’ve spent 30 years writing books and building an audience.’ ”

His estate has borrowed from the examples of V.C. Andrews, dead since 1986 but selling well thanks to novels in her name written by an uncredited author; Ernest Hemingway, whose estates issued several books after his suicide; and Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler (both quite alive) who diverted from their skin of solo thrillers to create series written in conjunction with, or solely by, others.

“People expect something from a Robert Ludlum book, and if we can publish Ludlum books for the next 50 years and satisfy readers, we will,” said Jeffrey Weiner, the executor of Mr. Ludlum’s estate. The estate’s post-mortem publishing game plan is reminiscent of licensing and other deals for dead stars like Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Babe Ruth, and the film industry’s comfort with familiar franchises.

“Publishing does look to the past to see what will work in the future,” said Sara Nelson, the editor in chief of Publishers Weekly. “Series and big-name authors have tended to work well. Publishers, like executives in other creative fields, want Nos. 2, 3 and 4 to work as well as No. 1. And instead of going off to find the new Ludlum, they figure they’ve got this formula and will continue to use it.”

Whether it is fair to readers to publish the Ludlum books posthumously — in the form of spruced-up old manuscripts or new novels written by others — is not a serious concern to the estate or to Grand Central Publishing, the former Warner Books, where the rights to all new novels moved from St. Martin’s Press.

“I don’t think anyone objects as long as you maintain the quality of the book,” Mr. Morrison said. “The Sherlock Holmes novels have been a business since ‘The Seven-Percent Solution,’ and some have been better than others. It’s the characters that interest people.”

Mr. Weiner and Mr. Morris have executed an aggressive plan that has perpetuated the “Covert-One” series of paperback originals that Mr. Ludlum created with the central character of Lt. Col. Jon Smith. He oversaw the first three (two by Gayle Lynds and one by Philip Shelby) before he died, but three more have been published since. A seventh, “The Arctic Event,” by James Cobb, the fifth writer in the series, is due in September.

Three other books have been polished by an uncredited writer (Mr. Morrison said he sought no credit) and editor (also unnamed) from unpolished manuscripts left behind by Mr. Ludlum, including last year’s “The Bancroft Strategy,” which sold 102,000 copies in hardcover, making it to the ninth spot on The New York Times best-seller list, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks about 70 percent of retail book sales.

That book, Mr. Morrison said, “sat around in the safe awaiting its turn. There are others that will be finished, as suitable.” He insisted that there are no ghostwriters in a bunker with a laptop writing books in Mr. Ludlum’s name.

Two best sellers by the veteran thriller writer Eric Van Lustbader have lengthened the troubled double life of Jason Bourne, Ludlum’s C.I.A.-handled assassin who had amnesia when readers first met him and whose memories have returned in glimmers like the scent of a certain Scotch.

Mr. Lustbader’s newest novel bears the title “Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Betrayal” in which the agency believes he has gone rogue by killing two of its own and orders him terminated. The title underscores the franchise and the hope that readers will buy a Ludlumesque book that he only inspired but which displays his name in letters twice as tall as Mr. Lustbader’s.

Mr. Lustbader, who was a friend of Mr. Ludlum’s and is a client of Mr. Morrison’s, was enlisted to refresh the literary Bourne after the success that Matt Damon had in playing the character in the 2002 film, “The Bourne Identity,” very loosely based on Mr. Ludlum’s first Bourne novel of the same name. That and the 2004 film, “The Bourne Supremacy,” have grossed nearly $500 million. (The third film in the franchise, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” opens on Aug. 3.)

The writers met at Mr. Morrison’s annual Christmas party in 1980, the year in which “The Bourne Identity,” and Mr. Lustbader’s “The Ninja,” were published. Mr. Lustbader said that they sat rapt in each other’s company in a corner at the party.

“We talked for hours about characters and story arcs and how to fashion a book in three acts, where one act outdoes the next one. We talked about being the only thriller writers who knew anything about characters and wrote about characters in our books.”

Mr. Weiner suggested to Mr. Lustbader that he write a Bourne novel, but he didn’t take the offer seriously until the plot for “The Bourne Legacy” (St. Martin’s Press) came to him while showering. He admired Bourne and believed that he understood what motivated him; he agreed to a deal with the estate in which he had no obligation to copy Mr. Ludlum’s italicized style, although his pacing and plotting are eerily similar to Mr. Ludlum’s. “The Bourne Legacy” has sold 272,000 hardcover and paperback copies, Nielsen BookScan reported.

“I wanted to preserve the essence of Bourne and his sense of honor,” Mr. Lustbader said. He refreshed Bourne by killing off characters who were central to Mr. Ludlum’s creation and made him ageless, which conforms to the possibility of the Bourne films continuing. James Bond, after all, doesn’t turn into an on-screen geezer; he gets replaced by a younger actor.

Mr. Ludlum sent Bourne into action three times between 1980 and 1990.

“He never intended Bourne to be a series,” Mr. Lustbader added, “so he gave Bourne a wife, Marie, and kids, and made him older. But you can’t have that with continuing characters. So with the O.K. from the estate, I wanted to kill off Marie by natural causes and have the kids shipped to her family in Canada. He needed to start the next chapter of his life.”

Mr. Lustbader’s “The Bourne Betrayal,” has sold 86,000 copies through July 20, and is currently No. 8 on the New York Times hardcover best-seller list.

Mr. Ludlum worked with Ms. Lynds and Mr. Shelby on the “Covert-One” books but never met their successors, Patrick Larkin, or Mr. Cobb, who said that Mr. Morrison, who is also his agent, asked if he had any possible “Covert-One” plots.

“I had one drifting around the back of my head,” Mr. Cobb said by telephone from Tacoma, Wash. “I could file off the serial numbers and bend it to fit the structure. I banged out an outline, and in a few days, they accepted it.”

He added: “I do not pretend to be Robert Ludlum. That would not be fair to him and it would not be fair to me. I just hope it will satisfy readers.”

The estate, which benefits Mr. Ludlum’s heirs, will put that standard to the test with the planned revival of another of the Ludlum characters, Peter Chancellor, who first appeared in “The Chancellor Manuscript” 30 years ago in “The Chancellor Letter.” The first 100 pages of the manuscript — by a veteran science-fiction writer — must still be approved by the estate. In addition, a script based on the original “Chancellor” is being developed for Leonardo DiCaprio.

The estate is also looking at TV series deal surrounding the shadowy Treadstone agency in the Bourne books, but would exclude Bourne if it is produced. A Bourne video game from Vivendi is due out next year.

“It seems like more of a posthumous factory than anybody I can think of,” Ms. Nelson said. “And more of a well-oiled machine than V.C. Andrews’s.”

Harry Potter Spoilers

First, let's take a moment to point fingers at this article here which points out how they'll catch the people who put the Harry Potter manuscript online a week early. I'm all for the revolution, but have to say, I thought it sucked someone leaked it (though kudos for taking 700-plus photographs).

Now, onto the book. Loved the book -- loved seeing the world, loved when Ron left (and came back), love patronuses, love the elfs coming in, loved how outrageously clever J.K. Rowling is, love Neville even more (still my favorite character after Harry), loved that last scene with Harry and Dumbledore (who still is Rowling's best voice), and even loved the Lord of the Rings locket making them all Smigel.

Oddly, didn't love the set piece of the final battle, or Harry faking unconsciousness for so many pages, but that's the hardest part of trying to beat expectations: those damn expectations keep getting in the way. But I'm not complaining. I'm thrilled with the book. Do I have a few quibbles? Of course. Was the epilogue sorta sappy? Sure. Was the Snape origin sorta rushed? Yes. And did I want more comeuppance for Malfoy? Damn I am. But, bitching about those details is like bitching that they replaced the old Anakin with the new one at the end of Jedi: Fair point, but if that ruins it all for you, you've got bigger problems.

Most important, on my wish for Harry to die. I admit I wanted it -- still do becasue it's something I didn't think she'd do (and we all want what we can't have). But looking back (and ignoring my righteous bloodthirstiness, and even my love of dear Frodo): wanting Harry dead is cool. But it's unfair. And it comes from us wanting her to write OUR book. The book for us. And at the end of the day, as epic and beautiful and realized as the Potter world is, it's still a book for young people first. And as much as I love lessons of loss and sacrifice, I'm starting to backpedal and come to grips/rationalize that when I teach it to my children, the lesson still needs to be that Harry LIVES for being good, not that Harry dies. As I type these words, I'm already in my own internal debate, but y'know what? I don't care. Because the trip was that thrilling for me.

And so...I've decided to be thankful. Like the walk-to-death chapter says: That's what the world needs more of. So thank you, Ms. Rowling for handing us your world. We'll take good care of it.

Happy Potter (no spoilers)

Stayed up till 2am to finish the book last night. That's how determined I was to not have it spoiled for me. There is still nothing like the pristine reading experience that has true surprise.

Tomorrow, far more thoughts and comments. But man, do I love this character and this world Ms. Rowling has created. It's not that I want to belive in magic (though I do). What I want to believe in is simply that pure goodness and selflessness that is Harry. That's what I believe is in all of us.

Gene Simmons Reading Brad

Reader Mitchum S. sent this one:

So I am watching the newest episode of Gene Simmons: Family Jewels on A&E tonight (I've got a little crush on Nick), and lo and behold, during one scene Gene is reading JLA #5.

Anyone got a screenshot?

B

Just Like A Mini Mall

I know I'm the last on this bandwagon, but now that I'm here...this is my new obsession. I love this man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ3oHpup-pk

B

Prom Queen

I usually hate these web tv shows. But this one's from a friend (or at least his company), so I'll happily shill for him. Go, Scoop, go!

Plus, a girl in semi-underwear will excite many for all the silly reasons. And so...Prom Queen.

B

NASCAR Lawsuit!

It's the Nextel punchline that kills me.

B

From The Consumerist.Com

AT&T Sues NASCAR Over Cingular Car's Logo

AT&T would really like you to know that Cingular is now part of the new AT&T. In fact, they are claiming in a lawsuit that by not adding the AT&T logo to the existing Cingular car (driven by Jeff Burton) NASCAR is doing "substantial and irreparable" harm to AT&T.

From USAToday: "AT&T submitted a mock-up of the paint scheme in January that kept the car's orange paint scheme and Cingular's logo on the hood. The only AT&T branding was its trademark blue and white globe on the quarter panels. But NASCAR rejected the design. What's the big deal? Well, NASCAR is sponsored by Nextel, and what Nextel says goes. Sorry, AT&T." —MEGHANN MARCO NASCAR, teams rubbing fenders in bid for sponsors

Mego Action Figures -- Youth In A Box

In my nine years of doing this, I've blurbed five books. That's it. Here's number six -- and one that, if you're as equally insane as I am, you'll love. Ben Holcomb is so damn talented...I can't even finish the sentence. The first time I met him, it was at his college art show -- and he had a Mego Batmobile with him (with Batman and Robin action figures of course). It was love at first sight (and proof art shows were cooler in Ann Arbor than in New York).

Here're the details. This one's well worth it.

Mego 8" Super-Heroes: World's Greatest Toys by Benjamin Holcomb

http://www.worldsgreatesttoys.com/wgtBlog/

B

Andy Griffith loves terrorists!

So simple, but so eerie in a law school Patriot Act discussion way.

I bet you could get credit in class for writing about this today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CvoC551i2E

B

Scooby-Doo creator dies

Iwao Takamoto, the creator of Scooby-Doo and Muttley, died at age 81. As a mystery writer, I have to say, Scooby was the first true "mystery" I ever encountered -- even before The Hardy Boys and Agatha Christie. It was an easy first crush (I was hot for both Daphne AND Velma, explain that), and that episode where they met Batman and Robin? That's as gold as mint Mego toys.

So let's raise a Scooby snack to one of the true greats.

And I didn't even know he created Muttley. Catch The Pigeon was a HUGE favorite of mine. And I sadly rooted against the pigeon every time.

Thanks, Mr. Takamoto.

B

Masons go NASCAR!

Okay, remember The Book of Fate being launched as the first ever novel on a NASCAR racecar -- at the Freemason's Scottish Rite HQ in Washington, DC? So what do my pals there do? They get their own.

Everyone, go get your own NASCAR racer. It's the new 2007 accessory. Ugg boots and Wiis are for followers.

Kisses and all that,

B

TRUE PRESS RELEASE:

Scottish Rite Masons Announce Newest NASCAR Racing Team

Washington, D.C., January 4, 2007 - The Scottish Rite Racing Team will be officially announced and introduced by NASCAR, BC Motorsports, and the Frank Cicci Racing team at the Scottish Rite House of the Temple on Saturday, January 6, 2007, at 11:00am. NASCAR representatives, the Racing Team, and members of the Masonic community will be available to the media. The House of the Temple is located at 1733 Sixteenth St. N.W., Washington, DC.

The Scottish Rite racecar will be driven by veteran driver Brian Conz, who himself is a 32° Scottish Rite Mason. Brother Brian, who began his career in 1988 in the Street Stock Division, later moved to the ARCA/REMAX Series in 1996. Brian has 15 wins, 79 top fives, and 108 top ten finishes to his credit and will be in the running for the Raybestos Rookie of the Year honors.

Vegas, Bubbie!

I'm boarding on a plane to Vegas right now. Leaving from Florida. And the mix of lawlessness of Vegas combining with the Sunshine State...the swirl of dressed-up leather-jacketed people all looking like they're ready to hit the strip clubs...it's Con-Air come alive, but with more fake breasts and foursomes of guys from the set of Entourage.

Ever single group has a Turtle.

Oooh, there goes a group of 4 Turtles passing by me right now. All four with crooked baseball caps, but each one tilted differently. And just saw this woman in tight jeans picking out a wedgie, pretending she was adjusting her pocket.

I share because I love you.

B

David Copperfield is my hero

It's so easy to join the crowd and bash Copperfield. But reading this, I find new love for him. I heart him now.

B

More...

A little "October surprise" for you.

This is the second part. Trust me. It makes the first one look like...whatever it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4avfLAYYUno

Brad

Brad Dancing

This is the spookier than Casper, but the funniest thing I've seen all week. Oh, how I love this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx-NLPH8JeM&eurl=

Brad