Common Or Not-so-common Sense? B&N Ratings for Tweens/Kids for Movies, Books and More

An interesting article on Common Sense Media, the group that brings parents who are too busy to read/watch everything with their kids quick interpretations.

Like many of those who have been blogging about it, Dessen's own feelings were initially mixed. "I'm not sure how I feel about this. I mean, I'm sure it's useful for parents. But I worry it's breaking a book down into these pieces that don't do justice to the whole. What do you think?" she asked. Many of those who were familiar with Common Sense praised the San Francisco-based nonprofit's work. "I LOVE Common Sense Media," wrote one parent. "I use it all the time to help me determine what is appropriate for my children (ages 11 and 14). I certainly don't have time to screen every movie and read every book ahead of time so they give me very useful information." Others weren't so sure. "I don't think the way it is broken down does it justice, because it focuses on what their system considers negative and takes everything out of context," commented another Dessen fan.

Sounds great, right? Ditch the wading through and understand in nanoseconds what is decent for "kids" to be watching. But being "safe" to children's attention - i.e. what "common" is it to make something like this:




But the listing doesn't do the items justice, especially at Barnes & Nobles.com.

At BN.com, Sassy Monkey noted, the reviews include only the negative information from the On What Parents Need to Know section, while fuller reviews on the Common Sense Web site shows ratings by parents, educators, and children, as well as topics for discussion.

The alarm bells that ring, though, are that these "common sense" guides are that what is "common" is never, actually, common, and though not technically a moral watchdog, the concerns sometimes seem silly; especially with the implementation on the B&N site.

NBC Fail: Why the Olympics are just the tip of the iceburg

With a $250 million dollar loss from their Olympic coverage, NBC doesn't seem to be doing so well lately.

According to Bruce Watson's article.

But even with these restrictions, NBC has little hope of recouping its losses on the Olympics. The network paid $820 million for broadcast rights to the Vancouver Games, a 37% jump over the cost of the last Winter Games. (And, as FanHouse wrote recently, NBC paid all that money for the rights and isn't even broadcasting the game in high-definition.) Even apart from the licensing fees, the cost of covering the Olympics is astronomical, requiring an army of reporters, cameramen, and producers. The network expects to lose $250 million.

With a block on their online resources, and coverage itself sketchy as NBC chooses what, and when, things will air, it seems to be irritating more and more of their audience.

If the Olympics doesn't make economic sense, why is NBC shelling out so much to broadcast it? Some analysts believe the network benefits from the "halo effect" of millions of viewers who tune in for the Games but stay for the network's other programming. NBC is ranked last of the big four networks, but an Olympic halo could help pull it out of that hole.

Yet NBC's stingy coverage is tarnishing the halo. An estimated 138 million viewers are struggling to watch their favorite events in the face of restrictions and time delays. The network's coverage seems more likely to taint its image than enhance it.

For a network that's rapidly sinking television odyssey is getting more kudos for their (rather awesome) web stuff, it's a question of whether they have any idea what's actually going on.

10 Rules for Writing: Or, 290 Ways to get Better

The guardian ran an article that was solely top ten ways to write - from some of the best writers of the times.

Part the first can be found here, and includes both Neil Gaiman ("Finish what you're writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.") and Margaret Atwood ("ake a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak.").

The second part is just as good. From Will Self ("Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea for ever.") and more.

Just a good set of rules - that have their own repetition ("just write!").

Guess the Classic: Envy is for Green

For those keeping track - the answer to last week's Guess the Classic?

Yeah. That's right. Captain frikken Planet. Y'all are jealous Ma-Ti has a better sidekick than Batman.



This week the question ages it up... a little bit.

Time Period: 2000s

Type: Adaptation. Of Adaptations.

Original Creator: A Canadian, apparently.

Oh, no she didn't: On the Ludicrous Cases of Plagiarism

Poor, poor J. K. Rowling.

It seems litigators just can't wait to sue her for... well anything.

Yet another case of plagiarism has come up. Perhaps this one will find more grappling, but doubtful.

Especially when you consider the fact that both sides have been discussing this since 2004, and nothing has happened.

Max Markson, who represents Paul Allen, the trustee of Mr Jacob's estate, said: "I estimate it's a billion-dollar case. That'll be the decision of the courts, obviously."
Last year Bloomsbury denied the allegations, which were first made in 2004, calling them "unfounded and untrue".
Bloomsbury has always maintained it had been unable to identify any text in the Potter books which had apparently been copied.

This continues to the execution level of justbecauseonewordissimilardoesn'tmeanit'sthesame (is that too long for a hashtag?)


- -

Also, in random news, Gordon Lightfoot not dead.

How Not to Get An Agent

Don't have your characters write your query letter for you. This will just make you seem crazy.

Don't laugh. It's happened.

Guess the Classic: Don't forget the Planet, kids

Obvious post is, well, obvious (though it, theoretically could go a few ways)

Animated TV show with a focus on environment.

Early 90s.

For kids.

Frakking Buzz: How Google Took Over Infrastructure

Google knocked the other people out of the water. Started doing things that people who said stuff like privacy issues and online hacking didn't even want to touch.

But they did it. And for that, they won. They own the Internet.

However, after the questionable success of Google Wave - which does none of the linking together that google normally does so well - buzz has become yet another part of the google warehouse of tools.

But there's been some questions about privacy around Google Buzz

You also can't hide your e-mail contacts without cutting them off from your Buzz network. But why should you have to choose between exposing your personal and professional relationships or connecting with people on Google Buzz? Facebook recently changed its privacy settings to allow you to hide your friends list; shouldn't Buzz do the same?

Should or shouldn't, the deal with the internet now is all about letting everyone see everything. A veritable reality TV show to wade through, it begs the question of whether you'd want to use buzz.

For some people, making your e-mail address public may not be a problem, but if you are using your Gmail account as a private address where you want only a few people to reach you, then you may want to think twice about using Google Buzz. I also have to wonder if Google Buzz won't end up creating the largest directory in the world for e-mail spammers. Sure, that information may be made available on other networks like Facebook and Twitter, but again you only expose your e-mail address on those networks if you choose to, while some Gmail users are not really given that option.

The question I have is that it suddenly appeared for me. A pop up I wasn't entirely sure I wanted.

But in quick response to all of the malaise of Wave, it seems Buzz is a sort of stepping stone program set in for full fledged addiction to wave.

In a lot of ways, Buzz is a halfway point between regular e-mail and Wave. For example, when you get an updated Buzz in your inbox or Buzz tab, it displays the various comments and media that have been shared as a list. As the Buzz develops, that list gets updated and edited, but you only ever have one copy of an individual Buzz in your inbox.

But, as an example of social media following through someone like Wesley Crusher, Wil Wheaton's current career (yeah, you knew those Romulans were all Wesley clones right?), buzz may be yet another step on the social media-to-wave communications that attempt to break down communication walls.

Even as a blog tool it's offering "real time" communication with friends-of-friends, especially in sharing news as updates appeared in my buzz today.

Then again, maybe it's just one Internet infraction before world domination.

Spy You Later: What a Pilot Season!

Burn Notice is still going hot (Heh. Get it? Hot. Cuz it's burning. Yeah, yeah. Moving on, nothin' to see here). Chuck keeps getting renewed, even though it's "always" on the bubble.

Spies are, after all, interesting fare. Just ask Matt Damon.

Spies are great fodder for storylines. All you have to say is shaken, not stirred and people can follow your character arc without even trying. But look at the CIA. Cloaked in secrecy, filled with more questions than even their operatives know, and, with things like black ops and gadgets, of course they're in.

Canada even has it's own spy show, though it's yet to air on family, Connor Undercover has all the earmarks of a great tween show. It's been sitting on a shelf for a while, but that didn't stop it from getting another season picked up.

See. Spies sell.

According to Variety, in admist the political bent of the pilot picks ups, there's also a bunch set at the C.I.A>.

And then there's the slew of C.I.A.-themed pilots in the works at the nets including Fox's comedy "The Station," about a C.I.A. field office in South America; CBS' Tom Spezialy-penned "Chaos," also set in the world of the C.I.A.; and NBC's J.J. Abrams/Josh Reims entry "Undercovers," about a husband and wife who are reactivated as, yes, C.I.A. agents.

Though they're great literary fare, it might be interesting to see if this reaches market saturation.

Spies could, easily, go the way of the Vampire soon. Though it might be time to start brushing off the Burn Notice spec you pretend you don't have. Y'know. Just in case.

Women Can't Write: AKA Friday, Less Than Fun Facts

Thanks to Amanda for the articles.

According to Baseline Research, Women Can't Create and White Men Can't Jump.

While they certainly show proof for the former; the latter apparently we're just going to have to accept at their word.

But the numbers, as they say, never lie.

Based on announced pilot pickups and using The Studio System and the Trades, I made a list of all the new pilots that had been ordered to production as of February 1 for the four major broadcast networks, as well as the credited writers, the production studio and the intended network. Of the 66 pilots I documented, 13 pilots had at least one female writer as part of the “created by” team; however, of those 66 pilots, only 7 of them were written entirely by women. You can do the math yourself, but this works out to a high of 20% involvement by women when writing alone and/or with men; and just 11% when written by women without male participation. A closer look at the all the names will reveal one writer of Hispanic origin, three Asian-Americans and an entire absence of African American writers.

The WGAW, as part of their diversity program, instituted a “Writer Access Project” to try to draw attention to underrepresented groups – considered to be “minority writers and writers with disabilities; women writers; writers age 55 and over; and gay and lesbian writers.” Their proactive response…a contest? Why is there no outcry? This isn’t a glass ceiling, it’s a White Boys’ Club brick wall. Showrunners often staff their shows with friends they can trust, even if those friends aren’t the best writers available, and since the vast majority of Showrunners are men, so are their friends, and therefore so are their staffs.

These numbers aren't look at who is staffing the rooms, remember. We all know Jane Espenson. She's got shows, sure. But most of those female-only shows are for things like Liz Tigelaar's Life Unexpected (Juno meets Gilmore Girls) or Amy Sherman. Shows that target a female-only demo.

Something that seems to persist is this idea that while women can create shows that women only like, men can create shows that both men and women like. This, of course, is another numbers game; but if these stats are right, could it be that it's really a question of opportunity and not actual fact.

The chance to get into some of these rooms, though, if the same friends are being staffed time and time again, may answer a question of just who is getting the experience to craft something that's good enough to get put to pilot.

Then the question becomes who is choosing these scribes?

But who is it that’s picking these pilots for production? Studio and network executives, of course. And who are these studio and network executives? Who has the power? It might surprise you. Network Chairmen are overwhelmingly male; there are no women within those ranks. Network and Studio Presidents, however, are almost evenly split with 4 men and 3 women. As far as creative executives with a title of Vice President or above, the tale becomes more interesting and perplexing because the vast majority of these executives are women, 42 female creative execs compared to 28 male executives. Is it possible that women are discriminating against women?

Then the power dynamic in the US is, much similar to Canada, focused on a tight knit group of people; many of whom are women.

So why the bias? Or is it even?

A research study had been conducted in an effort to find out whether women playwrights were under represented on stages across America and the answer was yes. What was more interesting was why. Women artistic directors and literary mangers, the people who chose the plays to present, discriminated against women playwrights. Emily Glassberg Sands, a Princeton Economics student, “conducted separate studies to analyze this problem. One study considered the playwrights themselves. Artistic directors of theater companies have maintained that no discrimination exists, rather that good scripts by women are in short supply.” This she discovered was true – there was a shortage of good scripts by women compared to the number by men. There are twice as many male playwrights as female which accounts for some of the discrepancy. This may also be the case in television as there are far more male writers than female (usually for the reasons elaborated above).

In another study, Ms. Sands “sent identical scripts to artistic directors and literary managers around the country. The only difference was that half named a man as the writer (for example, Michael Walker), while half named a woman (i.e., Mary Walker).” When female artistic directors and literary managers judged the scripts, Mary’s scripts “received significantly worse ratings in terms of quality, economic prospects and audience response than Michael’s.” When judged by male artistic directors and literary managers the scripts got equal ratings.

There's the rub. The answer here is that a female name on a script apparently warrants that the script be ten times better on the stage. Is it in the same on screen?

The numbers, after all, never lie.

Perhaps we should all move to initials instead of names to see if that changes the number game up at all.

Telefilm 360 Whut?

According to Alex Epstein, Telefilm is now requiring a TV 360 angle to any shows with funding from, well, the New CMF.

This, of course, implies that anyone making TV in Canada will be required to have iPhone apps, social media (like Crushing It this week), or even just another multiplatform concept to extend the world of your show.

This will be required as of March 1 - and, theoretically, all those details will be coming out then.

Alex had a lot to say on the topic - both good and bad.

1. Multiplatform apps can be a creative opportunity. They’re a chance to tell stories that don’t fit into a conventional 22 minutes with commercial breaks. Writers can expand the “world” of a show, flesh out a story thread, or spend time with characters who don’t get a lot of screen time. 30 ROCK, for instance, has on-line webisodes starring some of the show’s most hilarious minor characters.

2. Multiplatform is a foot-in-the-door for newbie TV writers, because there aren’t many old timers in the field, and the demand for multiplatform content is going to explode on March 1.

3. There’s money falling out of the sky. If you’re Canadian and your multiplatform idea is any good, you should be able to get funding for it.

The Bad News (these are my personal observations, not the party line):

1. This is one more hoop that a Canadian TV series has to jump through to get a green light. They already need a US or foreign sale. And it could potentially slow down the development process of timely, in-the-zeitgeist series.

2. Viable TV shows don’t necessarily lend themselves to other platforms. Right now, most multiplatform/TV pairings are in animation and kids shows – the sort of programs that also lend themselves to Happy Meal toys. I can easily imagine a video game app for ANIMAL MECHANICALS, but how about for THE RON JAMES SHOW?

Alex went on to mention the question of funding - if a multiplatform pitch splices into the already beleaguered budget for the TV show is it going to make it even more fractured?

It's a solid question - and one that bears some thought.

Promotion of our own materials in this country is generally poor at best. Sure Toronto gets banner wrapped with the new CBC shows around January each year - but how much is it really doing for the shows when the numbers keep dropping? Would that promo banner (and does it even extend beyond the major cities? I've lived across this great country in many places and never seen an ad off the CBC for, well, the CBC) do better as a webseries that's got a proper marketing apparatus behind it?


Overarchingly, the industry is good at fingerpointing. Producers blame bad writing. Writers blame bad acting. Actors blame bad directing. Directors blame bad producing. Everyone blames the government for not giving enough funding. But at the end of the day, there's brilliant writers, amazing actors, fantastic directors, incredibly dedicated and hardcore producers that make sure everyone is on the same page, so the question falls - where's the problem?

Not to point fingers, but there's only so much people can do with nuthin' and when you have an ability to promote - on the cheap - online this can only do get things in tandem with awesome shows.

That is, after all, what the internet is there for.

Oh. And other stuff, of course.

Guess the Classic: Gamer Style

There's something long lived about Square Enix. They just keep making the same game, and no one seems to notice.



Really, it might have something to do with how pretty it all is.

But Final Fantasy VII is, arguably, the best game the company has ever produced. Spawning an anime, film, two direct sequels and a few more games where characters were poached, it's easy to see it as a huge international success.

It's actually easy to see it as the biggest success of most video games out there.

The question is, then, what does this way too complex game offer as a narrative study. The game itself is filled with confusing redundancies that are nifty - but generally just have giant plot holes attached. It's a linear story, however, and one that can be understood in grand sweeping themes - the arch of anti-hero and hero, the stark questions of identity, the fairly traditional Japanese tragic hero sort of tale.

But it still made international headlines (and still does). So what is it, exactly?

Crushing It Live: Everyone's Dysfunctional. Even on the Internet

There's a new kind of story in town. A kind of story that doesn't need a TV. Nor does it need anything but a good internet connection.

What makes it fun is the chance to interact.

Jill Golick, Story2Oh, started Crushing It.

Wanna follow everyone? Of course you do! Here's the information from the site.

Meet Barbara (@barbology) and Laurence (@about2bhitched), a lovely couple. If you make friends with them, perhaps they’ll invite you to there nuptials. Yes, they’re engaged and the wedding is this Friday at 6 p.m.

Standing up with Barbara is her bff, Lily (@lottalily). Lily is very pregnant which is a wonderful quality in a bridesmaid because by comparison the bride seems slender, even if she has been binging on chocolate and bacon in the lead up to the big day.

Also attending the wedding is Laurence’s college roommate, Brad (@soon2b_single) whose marriage is wrapping up. And sending regrets is Barbara’s old pal, Peter (@hollingpete) who is too busy with work in New York to make it up to Toronto for the wedding.

Now let’s turn our attention to David (@BigD4Dave) and his gf, Carmela (@findcarm). Theirs is a turbulent relationship. David’s not the type to lay blame, but Carm thinks all their troubles stem from how much time David spends online. You see David is a Gary Vaynercuk fanatic. Gary's book Crush It is his bible and he truly believes he can use the social media tools to capitalize on what his passion… if only he knew what he's passionate about. Until he does find his passion, David’s happy to spend his evenings online, crushing it Gary Vee style.

Crushing along with David are two other Gary Vee fans, Gam3rgurl and Neal (youngneal) who Dave’s only ever met virtually. They meet online every night to talk social media and cheer each other on.

The newest member of David’s online posse is unexpected. David’s mom, June (June_H_Tetley), feeling a little lonely over in England, has just joined Twitter the better to monitor her son’s life.

If you have time, before the Twitter action begins, check out our character’s websites. Lily blogs at Babybumping, Barbara and barbology, Gam3rgurl posts at RE:thinking, Carm writes about weddings at Carm's Wannabe Wedding, Big Dave just set up It's ALL Cheese and YoungNeal has a YouTube channel, but hasn’t quite gotten to posting anything on it.

The show begins Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 1 p.m. Watch from right here, search Twitter for our hashtag -- #cistory -- or follow the Crushing It Story Twitter list.

Crushing It runs this week for Social Media Week.

I'm covering @gam3rgurl and she'd love to talk to you. No really.