I don't think you can accuse Jimmy of trolling just because he's expressing an opinion contrary to the one all you asslickers* are expressing. If you want to disagree with him then go ahead and explain why, dismissing him as a troublemaker is just lazy, especially when he has taken the time to explain his position and has a history of decent posting.
Sorry if I'm getting heavy but I expected better from you two bozos*.
Alienating posters will leither lead to them leaving, resulting in a horribly homogonised, back-slapping board, or it will give that poster enough grievance to become a genuine troll. Either way it would probably be the end of life as we know it.
*Real trolling.
I dunno, Jason - JimmyKustes is entitled to his opinion, and I'll grant you that he's not actually trolling, and none of us want groupthink, but: there are a lot of really broad assumptions being made here, and he pretty much seems to have ignored everything John Junk and I said. The thing that pissed me off about it, and I'm addressing this directly to you, JK, if you would like to respond, is: what do you know about the backgrounds of anybody working in Hollywood, or living on the coasts, or hanging out on this board? I'm a welfare baby, I grew up in Jersey, paid my own way through a state school myself, and wound up in New York, not because I'm rich but because (1) I worked for it - isn't that what all you anti-communists are always going on about?, and (2) *because* of whatever remains of labor unions and social programs. Sure, the culture industry is populated by Harvard dudes and trust-fund babies, but the issue is not that they don't deserve to fight for their rights, but, like JJ said, that we're in such shit shape that the people who need the unions most are the least able to fight for them (and I'll be the first to admit that some of those unions are partially to blame for this). Try telling a family trying to get by on a retail salary that their lives are more "democratic."
Creative unions: they can be a pain in the ass (I had to cancel a performance last week because of Actors Equity, and the Broadway stagehands' union is second only to real estate when it comes to production costs), but the alternative is worse. If what you want is to shoot your own movie, wouldn't you want to be compensated for it? And if the only revenue model you have is going directly to consumers and asking people to pay a dollar or whatever to view your DV short, well, good luck making your budget back, buddy. The film industry is likely to go the way of the music industry eventually, but like Bobo said, the technology isn't there yet, and besides, film and TV aren't music. For all of the Clerks and Blair Witch Projects and Tarnations there are thousands of poor fools who have bankrupted themselves (and probably their families) making unwatchable movies that disappear down the memory hole (I should know, I was involved with one). It's also worth noting that neither the producers nor the WGA are talking about how digital is going to affect content, at least as far as anything I've read - they're talking entirely about distribution channels.
As far as hating on NY/LA, yeah, I buy that both of those cities have an overinflated sense of themselves, and I get particularly annoyed when some clown in the NY Times or The New Yorker spouts some idiotic middlebrow platitude and pretends that they're more sophisticated and cosmopolitan than all those rubes in the flyover states. And this is a conversation I have all the time with friends who opted to go with the easier but less ambitious lifestyle in places like Minneapolis, Philly, or Portland (or Lubec). But you know what? Own it. Not having to work all the fucking time to pay exorbitant rent so you can have access to a center of the culture industry is a choice, and a legitimate one, and it has its advantages, so live with it. But anyway, there's already culture in Louisville. A lot of it. The biggest new play festival in America happens at Actors' Theatre and people go from all over the country to see it and participate it. Instead of moaning about a strike that is unlikely to affect you (except perhaps as a TV watcher), go ahead and make that film. Submit it to festivals. Put it on YouTube. Whatever. For all I know you might be at it already. If you're such a believer in the free market, then go ahead and participate in it, but I don't see how the WGA is interfering with your dreams.
Also, I liked the other Andy Breckman chant, what was it? "One, Two, Three, Four, We're not done renovating our basement?"
