Writers Guild of America Supporter

When it comes time to putting your ideas from your head to the written page not many people can do just that. Some folks like the writers for many of the sitcoms and talk shows you watch every day do just that for a living. I’m just a blogger and my words do not reach a large audience but the writers on strike, their written work does. Every movie you watch, television show, talk show and Broadway play was created by individuals with the gift to write. They deserve a just compensation when the words they have written are successful in any media format.




I’m just one Blogger and I am throwing my full support and appreciation behind the Writers Guild of America. Papamoka Straight Talk is backing all of the writers on strike and all supporters of the WGA till the two parties come to a reasonable agreement. Somewhere in the middle is that possibility and both sides need to talk to one another. Till then I am supporting my fellow brother and sisters in the writing world.


Writers, studios to resume talks, sources say

Richard Verrier and Meg James, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
7:15 PM PST, November 16, 2007

Hollywood's film and TV writers have agreed to go back to the negotiating table Nov. 26 in hopes of etching out a deal with major studios that would end a bruising strike that began two weeks ago. - LA Times

Just a couple of links that are supporting or reporting the WGA strike…

Variety with tons of links and news…

New York Times Strike - TV Decoder… Lots of latest updates

Strike Points… A WGA writers blog with their side of the story

Writers Guild of America, West… Latest and greatest from the union

Supporting Unions everywhere is the only way to progress workers rights and benefits. The studios and the networks will only do what is right if they are forced to do so by this strike.

Shame on the networks and studios for trying to weasel out from what is right.

Papamoka

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Writer's Guild America ON STRIKE!

Picture borrowed from the LA Times

As a writer and a blogger I am supporting the WGA on their strike. Hollywood and New York where most of the prime time shows are created has to support its writers and offer a bigger piece of the pie that is the world we as a people demand in entertainment. The old TV is nothing without the people that actually write the material that the actors and show host talk about day and night. Average pay for an entertainment writer is about $60,000 per year. Good money but if your work is under a contract and the contract is busted… there might be a problem.

Just writing this blog here is invigorating for me but then again I love to write. I put a ton of hours in creating the work that you read here and I do it for me and for you as a reader. I wish that I could make a living from just blogging other than working for XYZ company doing ABC and writing for Papamoka Straight Talk on the side. That is not the reality of blogging today. My advertisers don’t pay any bills here so I write for the love of writing. One or two dollars in Google clicks does not make me a wealthy man. From the point in time of starting this blog and my contributions to all other blogs that I write for I have received nothing in compensation. I am cool with that becuase my voice has been heard on many sites like the Gun Toting Liberal, Michael Linn Jones and Bring It ON! My works have been linked to Crooks and Liars, Slate Magazine, Imus in the Morning and the list goes on and on. Far greater minds than mine but my voice was heard in the written word. I consider myself blessed for my friends on each of these sites. Blogging is far different than writing for the studios and networks though.

All of the writers on strike with the WGA make a living writing, a meager living, bottom of the food chain living for all the shows you see on television. Would it tick you off if your work was sold on line and you receive nothing for the work you have done? Would it piss you off if they boxed your work and sold it in sets all over the world and you received nothing for the work? The LA Times has a great following of the Writers Guild of America strike, if you are a union working person and support other unions on strike then this is the site for you…

Jim Earl is very frustrated. He says the media keeps giving out the impression that TV writers get $200,000 a year. "I don't make anywhere near that," he says. (He won't say how much he makes, but says it's less than that.)

The 48-year-old Echo Park resident has been a writer on Fox's "Talk Show With Spike Feresten" for the show's second season. It's been his steadiest gig since he left Manhattan for Los Angeles about three years ago. "I was a writer on 'The Daily Show' and I was making about $100,000," he says. "I was making a good living, but I couldn't afford to live in New York on that salary. So I came here."

He looks hopeful but yet a bit weary as he walked a picket line today, wearing a black WGA "Comedy Writer" shirt. Before he landed the late-night show, he had a small radio show, did some stand-up, and also did some freelance writing work. He and his wife live in an apartment -- "I can't yet afford to buy anything." - LA TIMES - Strike News

I’m looking at the argument that is the strike from the writers side just as I would as a published author. If my book is written and made into a movie, if it becomes a series, if it becomes marketable in any form then the writer should receive monetary gain from it. There should be no difference for products created by any studio by any writer. There is a difference with being a writer for a signed objection and project and that product produced being re-sold at a later date for more monetary gain for all of the rest of the people connected with the project. That is not the case for the original writers.

I’ll miss the episodes of House, Ghost Whisperer, and of course all of the late night television comedy. Oh crap! Comedy Central is busted too! I may go into withdrawal without my Colbert Report. Word on the street and on the air is that Jon Stewart of the Daily Show from Comedy Central is paying his writers their full salaries while the strike goes on out of his own pocket. I have not been able to confirm that as yet but that is the word on the street. Let’s see who else has the guts to back up the writers that make them look good on the old idiot box we call television. I’ll survive and so will you. Right is right and the writers deserve just compensation for the work they provide to make the stars of our world of entertainment look good. It’s just common sense when you really think about it.

Papamoka

Link to this post if you are a blogger and scream out loud on your site that writers deserve a better deal! As a blogger you are a writer and your work is just as good if not better...

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Shrek Rocks the Box Office!

Picture courtesy of the Boston Herald

We as adults will never understand the mentality of what kids think is truly funny simply because we have forgotten how to laugh. Just because all the news reports have said Shrek 3 kind of bombed does not mean that it is a true bomb. Kids love the characters and frankly, it is a kid’s movie.

When was the last time you talked to an extreme liberal or conservative that thought a fart joke was funny? Nope, that would be taboo wouldn’t it?

Then again, we as adults still talk about the Monty Python movies with very fond memories. Search for the Holy Grail is a classic for my generation. Life of Brian is another. Then there is the Mel Brooks classic gut busters of my youth such as Young Frankenstein or even better was Blazzing Saddles. History of the Earth was a gut buster as well. Need I say more other than Space Balls? And yet we as adults just don't get Shrek humor?

Rock on Shrek! Twenty years down the road the kids of today will be reciting lines from it just as we do today for the classics of our own youth.

Over at the Boston Herald they had this to say about Shrek 3…

‘Shrek the Third’ sets ’toon record with $122 million opening
By Associated Press
Sunday, May 20, 2007

LOS ANGELES - The big green ogre keeps getting bigger.

"Shrek the Third" took in $122 million in its first weekend, breaking the franchise’s own record for best debut ever for an animated film, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The latest adventure of the ogre shot past 2004’s "Shrek 2," the previous record-holder for animated openings with $108 million.

Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount, "Shrek the Third" was the third-biggest debut ever, coming in behind the $151.1 million haul of this month’s "Spider-Man 3" and the $135.6 million gross of last summer’s "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest." – Boston Herald

When it comes out on video the kids will beg Mom and Dad to buy it so they can watch it ten thousand times over and over and over. If you have kids, you will be assimilated into the Shrek hype...

Having five kids of my own I am Shrek bound eventually for the third time. This site is not affiliated with Dream Works or any media agency. No charge for the free shameless plug to Shrek the Third either.

Papamoka

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