MY URBAN KVETCH

Conan, Andy and Max Weinberg Sing to Orrin Hatch

Rumor has it that this bit was pitched after one of the writers saw Hatch's video on a Jewish blog. If I manage to dig up details on that, I'll share it here first - but in the interim, watch the clip below and read my post on Beliefnet's Idol Chatter.

'Perdidos': The 'Lost' Season Six Promo en Espanol!

We last had a new episode of 'Lost' last May, which left us with crazy questions and cliffhangers to ponder during the rest of the spring, the entire summer, the entire autumn, and part of the winter before we got to our month of promised new episodes in "January" - which we all now know means "February 2."

Some people are going to great lengths to avoid spoilers for the upcoming season, eschewing all promos lest some essential moment be spoiled. Others are taking this opportunity to go back and review everything that happened since Jack first opened his eyes to find he had survived Oceanic 815. Me? I want new 'Lost' episodes as much as Benjamin Linus probably wants bandages and healing ointments (which is probably a lot: that guy gets a beatdown nearly every episode - and pretty much deserves it every time). 

So if you're not among those who are avoiding anything 'Lost'-related until February 2 (dude, that's two whole months, come on...) then maybe don't watch this Spanish-language promo. But my opinion is that it's mostly review and dramatic representation of the characters with little-to-no real footage, so it wouldn't constitute a spoiler for anyone unless you haven't finished Season 5 yet. 

But what do I know? Listen to me or don't. After February 2, it's all the same. Or...it's all DIFFERENT. I guess it depends on whether the Constant and the Variable get nosebleeds, or whether What Happened, Happened, or if Jughead really exploded, or if baby Miles and adult Miles existing in Dharmaville led to some space-time continuum paradox precipitating Doc Brown to jump out of a Delorean, or whether Hurley becomes the writer of "Empire Strikes Back."

 Another theory? 'Lost' is Jack Shephard's Flash Forward. Witness the Oceanic Air billboard, the kangaroo (representing Australia, point of origin for flight 815, the presence of Penny and Charlie, etc...)

Oh, just watch the promo.

This Post Will Not Be 140 Characters: A #140Conf LA Recap

[Picture: Billy Bush speaks at the 140 Characters Conference in Hollywood, October 27. Credit: Jason DeFillippo ]

I've just spent the last two days at a conference about Twitter held at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, also known as "where the Oscars are held." You can feel free to insert your own joke here, like "Did people actually go or just attend online?" "Were all the responses 140 characters or fewer?" or "Did anyone thank the Academy?"  Yes, ha, ha. Of course there was "thanking of the Academy" or agents, or some other showbiz cliches that showed up. (Rumor has it that there was even a Jack Nicholson cutout sitting in the front row.) 

People attended in person, but Tweeted the whole time (or at least for as much of the time as they had reception/wifi signal). It was basically like a giant classroom, with 140 teachers rotating in and out over two days, and with all the students passing Tweets back and forth. Only difference is that the teachers can view the passed notes, too. 

For this reason - the transparency of the Tweets and their association with both real names and (because it was an in-person conference) real faces - I'm not sure that the tagged Tweets are taking a critical look at the conference's highs and lows. 

"Writing for Hollywood" - A Contemplation

Ever since I moved here a year ago, people have been voicing their predictions/assumptions about what I'd come out here to do. "You're totally moving out there to write a screenplay, I know it," some opined, while others were convinced I'd write the next "Friends" ("It'll be Jewish! And set on the Upper West Side! And instead of going to Central Perk, they'll go to shul!") One of my friends is convinced I'm destined to be the lady version of Judd Apatow, and yet another keeps reminding me that "if Matt Damon and Ben Affleck can write a screenplay, so can you." 

My goals for myself were slightly more modest: I wanted to live somewhere other than New York, and, to paraphrase Buffy, "rain bad, beach pretty." But I did have some Industry inspirations: I imagined that being out here would enable me to get to know the Hollywood world a little better. I've been reading Entertainment Weekly and cruising entertainment sites, and commenting here and in other places about pop culture for years. But here, I could talk to the people out here who make it all happen, maybe visit a few sets and befriend some writers who were on different levels, from struggling (I've found a bunch of those) to successful (I've encountered a few of those, too, but they're harder to find in the Pico-Robertson Jewy Jewworld). Then I'd figure out what to do about the now geographical juxtaposition between my writing and that industry that's known both for slaughtering the souls of innocents and entertaining the hearts of millions. 

So that's what I've done this year. I've talked with writers for sitcoms past and present, forged a slightly strange relationship with one of the co-creators of "Arrested Development," and tried to learn content, political and creative lessons from showrunners for "Weeds" and "United States of Tara." I even managed to get to one degree of separation from Joss Whedon (all hail, He Who Conquers Television and Internet) on several occasions. I'm learning. 

Digital Hollywood: Publicists, Writers, Content Developers Talk Blogs, Celebs and More

For a woman like me, this Digital Hollywood conference is like a crash course in some things I know and some things I don't know, all at the same time. Obviously, being at a professional conference specifically geared for the entertainment industry in the town I moved to a year ago is a new experience for me: I don't know who the players are; how a TV writer hones her craft and makes connections; how a celebrity gets his or her press; or how Hollywood views the internet. 

And yet, I do.

Sure, there are some processes and politics that are specific to the industry of Hollywood and celebrity gossip. But publicity, whether it's for Spencer and Heidi (whatever) or for a name change at an umbrella organization of Jewish federations (see here), is about two things for a publicist: crafting the message and getting that message out. What the message is is situation-specific; and the modes used for distributing that message should be as well. One could point out a vital third component with two parts: relationship - both the relationship between the publicist and his/her client, and the relationship between the publicist/client entity and members of the press. 

Several ideas and experiences seemed familiar or intuitive to me, but were hailed as innovative by the audience, which consisted of an eclectic group of underemployed, self-employed, publicists, writers, editors, actors, producers, content developers, web designers, techie coder geeks, advertising representatives, lawyers, event planners and professional schmoozers. With a group that large and diverse, programming had to be similarly diverse in terms of appeal and approach, and in many cases it was. But it's hard to speak to a group with so many degrees of online literacy

For instance, if you didn't realize that making it in Hollywood was hard, well, you would after attending the conference - at one point I imagined Debbie Allen in the corner, leaning on a dance stick, giving her monologue ("You got big dreams? You want fame? Well fame costs...and right here's where you start paying -- in sweat." FAME!). Also, did you know that "Glee" was popular in part due to its premiere over the summer and then the anticipatory build until the season began in September? Or, that "The Office" didn't have that strong a following at first, but then built because of the online audience? Or that "Dr. Horrible" was financed personally by Joss Whedon? Or that the "Mad Men" characters have been Tweeting, but that they're not supported by AMC - they're a fan initiative? I've never been to a tech conference before, but I, in fact, did know all these things. But the oohs and aahs of the audience proved that not everyone reads Entertainment Weekly like I do.

There also seemed to be unrelenting criticism of bloggers as panelists and attendees seemed to alternately thank the bloggers for mobilizing fans online and condemn them for their unpredictability, and for not following traditional journalism's rules. This constant reference to all bloggers as unprofessional (which is not the same thing as calling them "not journalists") highlighted the fact that people don't get it: blogging is a tool, and all kinds of people use that tool to do all kinds of writing. (This disconnect is something those of us in Jewish journalism/commentary have seen before, if you remember "Jewish Bloggers Are Not the Enemies of Jewish Storytelling.")

Some bloggers write journalistically, others juvenilely.  And there's a continuum, of course. Many of us do employ a different tone than traditional journalism, and write in this tone because the medium's democracy and immediacy lends itself to the personal lens that most bloggers take to the subjects about which they're most passionate. But for the most part, I heard people blame bloggers more than thank them: for leaking stories, for lying, for being a source of negative press, for being uncontrollable, for being unprofessional, for ushering traditional journalism toward its deathbed...I was waiting to hear how bloggers were responsible for higher taxes, Michael Jackson's death, and 9/11, but I guess I missed that session. 

Digital Hollywood Content Summit: Initial Observations

So, in case I haven't mentioned it, I'm at Digital Hollywood's Content Summit this week in Santa Monica. This is exciting a) because I love learning about how technology has impacted the entertainment sphere and b) because this is the first conference in a while that doesn't feature the term "good for the Jews" anywhere in the program.

Here are some initial "shorts," just perfect for you short-attention-spanners for whom a 5-minute YouTube video seems too long:

• Jewish conference: "What? Food again?" / Hollywood conference: "Where's the bar?" (There was no food anywhere that I saw during this conference. Tomorrow, I bring sandwiches. And sell them.)
• One thing that Jewish conferences and Hollywood conferences seem to agree on? Sarah Lefton and G-dcast are awesome. Sarah pitched G-dcast to a panel of Hollywood tastemakers and content producers...and they liked it.
• There was some debate over whether, when it comes to viral video, it's better to be first than be best. Thoughts?
• Saw Justine Bateman within ten minutes of my arrival. She was already surrounded, so I chickened out of talking to her. 
• Several people predicted that online space would totally take over the entertainment world in the next five years. Others thought it already was taking over the entertainment industry, but that the money models aren't really set yet - we have to figure out when doing our projects what people are willing to pay for in order to monetize the product. I know my money models aren't set yet. :)
• In "We Live in Public," the film's subject - Josh Harris - made a ton of money in the dot com boom, and engaged in experiments regarding living in public, having every moment of their lives taped. He's alternately hailed as a visionary, an artist, and a genius (often all by himself), but the truth is that he's accurately foreseen the trends that today's internet users embrace: self-exposure, the need for community approval, connection to people without really connecting to them.
• Harris admitted after the screening that he had never experienced real "intimate love," despite the fact that one of his experiments was him and his girlfriend - or as he referred to her, his "fake girlfriend" - living together and being taped in every moment. And the moment when it all clicked that intimate love had evaded him? When he watched "The Truman Show," and saw Truman's wife in their wedding picture, with her fingers crossed behind her back. 

There's much more to say on this film and the issues it brought up, but that'll have to be tomorrow. Writer's Boot Camp starts early in the am...

Good night, Hollywood. 

L.A.nniversary: Could I Find a New Home in Digital Hollywood?

One of the reasons I moved here - yes, I'll admit it now, although I might not have last October - is that Hollywood - TV & film and the people who create meaningful or comedic content - interests me. At this particular moment in the life of Hollywood, there are more scripts than there can be network shows or big Hollywood productions. As it is doing in nearly every other field, the internet is throwing the industry for a loop. An excess of creative content, a recession, a lack of non-reality network opportunities, plus the limitless space of the internet combine for a perfect storm of innovation when it comes to content presentation. 

FunnyorDie, CollegeHumor, TheOnion, CurrentTV - all have proven popular and have created (or maintained) high production quality standards for online content. This realm - where pop culture entertainment meets digital life - seems to have been custom created for a girl like me.

I stumbled across Digital Hollywood: The Conference (colon and subhead added for dramatic effect) through a series of "just happened to"s: I just happened to go to the Mediabistro networking event, and just happened to strike up a conversation with Lana Rushing, and we just happened to be talking a week later on an unrelated issue when she mentioned Digital Hollywood. The more I looked at the list of sessions, the more excited I became about the topic. Then I saw the words "Hollywood Content Summit," followed by magical phrases like "pitch camp," "writing boot camp," "comedy master classes," etc  - within an hour I was signed up.