Busy Political Week

Posted by Bob Greenberger on July 14, 2006

Been a busy week for government work and boy, am I ready for the weekend.

Monday night we had our monthly Democratic Town Committee Meeting. As usual, the district leaders met for an hour and we debated many of the same items we debated the previous month. After two meetings’ worth of discussion, we essentially punted on the decision between holding our November fund raising dinner and a December holiday party or combining them. Rather than lead, we handed it off to the Fund Raising committee, hoping they can succeed where we dithered.

The rest of the meeting had representatives from the key local and state races come visit. All that is, except someone from the DeStefano for Governor campaign. While I prefer DeStefano to Dan Malloy, Malloy clearly has a better operation in place that may prove the difference during the August 8 primary.

I also spent time this week on getting our Ordinance Committee organized. I had been misinformed that our organizational meeting could be private but was corrected. We have to publicly notice it complete with Agenda. Thanks to the Town Clerk, I took care of all that and we’ll spend 10 minute formally organizing after our RTM meeting on the 24th, making a potentially late night that much later.

Then last night, I attended my first meeting as a member of the Cable Advisory Council. A subcommittee on Government Access issues (dubbed GAT) was meeting and by coincidence the state DPUC issued a ruling yesterday that set tongues wagging, making the debut meeting something to behold.

Essentially, a portion of our cable fees are collected and devoted to Public, Education and Government public access channels. In 1998, Cablevision was found deficient in its attention to these channels and subcontracted the business to a firm called Sound View. Sound View took the position that centralized Area 2 programming made the best sense and has crammed the three channels with stuff no one watches (a lot of religious meetings and non-Area 2 specific programming).

Refranchising hearings have begun and the general consensus is that Sound View sucks and should be removed from the equation. Meantime, the town of Milford petitioned DPUC to regain control of their G channel so Town Specific programming could run. DPUC’s interim ruling yesterday granted permission but attached a bunch of provisos that showed they didn’t clearly understand the issues at hand.

Given the way state laws run, all parties have until the 24th to file responses so everyone from Milford’s Mayor to Cablevision is scrambling to figure out how best to object. Nothing like hitting the ground running…

No sooner did I get home then I spent 20 minutes on the phone with the RTM majority leader reviewing the Agenda for the month since we have our Committee meetings next Monday.

And tomorrow I’ll be walking part of the district with our State Rep Tom Drew.

Who knew local political life could be all consuming?

Things That Aren’t

Posted by Bob Greenberger on July 11, 2006

Writers, it has been said, are a superstitious and cowardly, lot. As a result, most of us refuse to submit anything to anyone without having some trusted peer review it. Many writers belong to small groups that meet in person or on line and trust one another to be brutally honest with their feedback.

I’ve never belonged to such a group, more through happenstance than design. Still, I have come to rely on selected folk for their feedback for most of my work and return the favor whenever asked.

Back at DC, maybe a year or so ago, Michael A. Burstein, good friend and frequently nominated writer of short stuff, showed me a link to an article that caught his fancy. He thought it would be an excellent jumping off point for a story. I agreed and he went off and wrote something and showed it to me. I gave it a read, offered a series of constructive comments and he thanked me.

Time passed and Michael got busy and did other things and never quite got back to the story.

When he learned that Stanley Schmidt at Analog was looking for novellettes, Michael remembered the story. By then, he had a day job and other projects he was working on, and he couldn’t seem to find the time to get back to it. He then surprised me by suggesting I take a crack at the revisions using my old notes.

This came during those long, lonely months in the basement office so I grabbed at the chance to work with a pal. I did a quick draft, he tweaked, I tweaked; his delightful and patient wife Nomi then edited it. Michael dubbed it swell and sent it in.

Weeks passed and finally Stan wrote back that he was pleased with the story and wanted to buy it, but it needed some more tweaks. Michael asked me to take a stab, which I did. I rewrote, he tweaked. We mailed it off.

Last week Stan deemed himself satisfied and confirmed that he was buying the story, “Things That Aren’t” for a future issue of Analog.

He then wanted to know what we had in mind for the sequel.

“Sequel?” we asked one another in shock. Then I had an idea. Then Michael had an idea. Now we have to figure out which one works best.

News on the publication date to follow but as you might imagine, I am thrilled and delighted Michael thought enough to invite me to share in the creation. Additionally, getting into one of the most respected SF magazines around is something I never imagined happening. Trés cool!

Back from Shore Leave

Posted by Bob Greenberger on July 10, 2006

As usual, Shore Leave was a wonderful weekend, that left the family, entertained, elated, and exhausted. There was not enough time to see everyone or attend all the interesting discussions. We saw some surprise people and indulged our wackier sides (at least 2 of us did). Details follow.

WAIT! There is more to read… read on »

Emmy Complaint

Posted by Bob Greenberger on July 7, 2006

So here’s the thing: I know awards of any kind are entirely subjective. Still, when there’s a general consensus among the public, you tend to expect certain things. For example, everyone knew Brokeback Mountain was a superbly made movie and deserved an Academy Award nomination.

I also know that people watch way too much television. That should, I would think, include members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Still out of all the major (and even minor) awards shows, the one that seems most out of step with the public consciousness remains the Emmy Awards. I find that odd given how much television we all watch and talk about.

As a result, in looking over yesterday’s nominations I remain genuinely amazed at how clueless the membership appears. What’s worse, steps taken to correct the oversight (so credit to the Academy board for finally addressing the problem) didn’t work. This year, the top 15 nominations in every category were reviewed by a special panel to finalize the nominations.

The final list came out yesterday and it was received with a collective sense of surprise…at the lack of fresh names. As usual, anything deserving on UPN or WB or even Sci-Fi were ignored despite critics and audiences raving about certain shows or performers.

Personally, I was disappointed to see the brilliant writing and Lauren Graham’s work on Gilmore Girls got passed over for a fifth straight year. Battlestar Galactica has some strongly written episodes and some nice performances that might have deserved a nod, but it got technical nominations for things like costumes.

You also have to scratch your head how Martin Sheen, who had little work with this season, got another nomination for West Wing but Hugh Laurie got passed over for his superior work on House. Speaking of that show, Sela Ward deserved a guest star berth. At least the academy acknowledged Michael J. Fox’s fine performance on Boston Legal.

It’s getting to the point where I suspect the Academy needs to make certain the voters have actually watched any of these shows or perhaps instill term limits. Or, maybe add actual fans of television to aid in the nomination process. I certainly don’t want the Emmys turned into the People’s Choice Awards, but clearly something drastic needs to change.

Shore Leave Schedule

Posted by Bob Greenberger on July 4, 2006

The Shore Leave schedule is up and I’ll be both very busy and very tired.

For those keeping score:

Friday

10 p.m. Meet the Pros party. Come bring your books, or buy them from the dealers in residence, and get them signed by one and all.

Staurday

10 a.m. An hour of chat, movie trailers and stuff. (Valley Room)

5 p.m. Star Trek Authors: a stage crowded with authors vying to get the mike away from Peter David or Keith DeCandido (Hunt Room)

Sunday

10 a.m. Star Trek Novel Chronology: I’ll be mostly sitting off to the side, listening to Jim McCain and Alex Rozensweig explain how they make all the Bantam and Pocket novels fit in a consistent timeline. (I’m there largely because the comics material was first organized by me while editing the comics at DC.) (Salon B)

12 p.m. Star Trek: Corps of Engineers: Keith will discuss the series’ relaunch this fall and then Kevin Dilmore, Dayton Ward, Terri Osborne, Bob Jeschonek and I will tell him how it could have been done better, or something like that. (Salon B)

TBA: The Bob & Howie Show: the annual schedule filler where Howard Weinstein and I share news tidbits, discuss the current state of Trek, television and baseball among other oddities.

5 p.m. The Future of Trek Authors’ Panel: Whoever’s left at this hour will chat about the topic, keeping fans engaged until the con’s finale… (Salon A)

6 p.m. Mystery Trekkie Theatre: Peter, Michael Jan Friedman and I skewer yet another beloved episode. (Valley Room)

And the kids have their own schedules:

Kate

Saturday, 11 a.m: Boogie Knights performance (Hunt Room)
Saturday, Masquerade halftime: Boogie Knights performance (Hunt/Valley Room)

Robbie

Saturday, Noon: It’s Not Your Parents’s Star Trek, with Ariel David and Ethan Wilson (Salon B)

I’ll also be handling emcee duties throughout the weekend so they have me on the run. Also, the late finish means a long and late drove home since most of us have to be at work Monday morning.

Hope to see many of you there.

Week the First

Posted by Bob Greenberger on July 2, 2006

So, you wonder, how was it being back at work in the city? What’s it like sharing space with Bat-Boy?

First of all, you know how you feel after slipping back into the routine, coming back from a vacation. Instantly, the vacation feels like a long ago, distant memory when it was just 48 hours ago?

The six month hiatus from commuting felt the exact same way. Same train, same seat, some companions. Comforting in a way.

American Media, which owns Weekly World News is at 32nd and Park, directly across the street from where I started by career at Starlog, so it felt like coming full circle.

The offices are lots of cubes, clustered down different aisles and each magazine team tends to stay amongst themselves. As AMI shifts personnel between NY and their Florida HQ in addition to selling off some of the magazines they acquired from Weider, people are constantly shifting. I took a cube that I know to be temporary, separated a bit from my two colleagues on the paper. By the end of the week, one of them was moved next t me and we’re all going to be relocated to be together at some future point.

I have more space in my cube than I did at Gist, which wasn’t even a cube but a small section of a long work space. I started with a PC but needed a Mac, which didn’t arrive until Thursday. I’m still not connected with the network where the WWN files are stored so I’m doing everything via phone and PDF.

Essentially, I have been brought in to build systems to better track the work from between editorial in NY and production in FL. The goal is to expand the WWN brand and to do so, keep things streamlined and running smoothly. So far, I’ve drafted some schedules and charts, astonished that a newspaper in existence since 1979 had no set schedule except a due to the printer date.

The people are nice; some have gone out of their way to introduce themselves. It’s definitely a more relaxed, casual atmosphere than it was at DC or Marvel, which is amazing since most of AMI’s work is weekly publication.

With each day I’ve been a little busier which is nice. I find myself missing some of the writing for the paper but don’t mind being in on some of the brainstorming.

All in all, not a bad first week.