the post modern christmas project

brittleblood

with the level + diversity of talent sitting about + shooting the breeze, it's only a matter of time before we stumble across "hey, why don't we do something?"

regardless of beliefs, christmas has a universal aspect to it that makes it an easy, first time thru theme. and it has enough lead time so we can dick around as we go and keep our even-keeled respect for the clock even-keeled.

i see a great pool of folks to work on writing content:

captW
madhatter
selfrisingmojo
tim mason
bluesboy
amclark

katrina - i'd love to have you available for snarky review.

i also know that xtrev is a master scissors + paper champion and has an artistic eye that has won more stare-downs than north korea. quitequacky also is a lay-out freak.

for the companion soundtrack (!!!)

nereffid
music lover
adam

techie stuff:

mutex
jelwood
xtrev

finished product: a christmas story - text + illustrations; bound + companion cd in sleeve
distribution: to each other for a year end gift
cost: i'll set aside my $20 a month that i had allocated for music - if a few others can clink in...i think it's doable.

we may need a writer's forum xtrev with a few extra's...

also, i'm listing folks who i know their skills - i do not know j-up-j, mommio, craig, etc. well enough to say "join us + write/drool/draw/etc." - if you want to contribute at any level, jump in + share in the glow.

also, if anyone can get a beer sponsor - woohoo!

Katrina

snarky is what you'd get. I freaking hate the holidays.

Nereffid

Let's put on the show right here in the barn!

I'm in.

xtrev

Sounds like an excellent plan!
I LOVE xmas tunes and stories unless they veer towards the religious.
Keep it secular (with a bit of pagan for fun) and I'm all over it.

But my techie skillz may have been somewhat overestimated.
What kind of thing did you have in mind for the 'writers forum with a few extras' ?
Might be easier to find one of those online document sharing/proofing/editing sites whose names elude me at the moment.

I'll look into it later on.
Really must do some work this afternoon despite the stupid sticky heat here :-)

xtrev

OK, screw work for a bit longer...

http://www.kolabora.com/news/2007/03/01/collaborative_writing_tools_and_technology.htm

On first skim through those listed, Writeboard looks interesting.

xtrev

...and I made a 'Diversions' category earlier but forgot to tell anyone.

mommio

I love Christmas music! I can be a groupie and drool. Have no idea what I can contribute, other than my share of the dough for the project. I will see as it proceeds if there is more I can do.

elwoodicious

xtrev, we use Writeboard on the job and find it to be a great collaboration tool as well as Basecamp for organizing media files.

amclark2

i'm in.

brittleblood

ok - i'm pinging a few folks in lieu of las vegas-like lure devices. hope to have a few more stretching this idea.

great early returns...+ with "early" in play it strikes me that early devil would be a great narrator to be added to the companion soundtrack - he has a voice to pull it off. of course if there is a scoury villain we'll have to recruit dbd.

say, anyone have a line on him???

cafreema

I'll gladly be a groupie with mommio. Sounds like a really interesting project!

Craig

xtrev

DBD has a myspace page and he's been banned from Last FM :-)

brittleblood

dbd should be appearing at some point. he's trying to make heads + tales of things...stay tuned.

Dead Ball Descendant

Right, what IN GOD'S NAME are you all doing?

What is this thing? Why have you summoned me? You have two wishes left etc etc.

(hang on, there's a pan of water boiling and I can't remember what I meant to put in it)

Dead Ball Descendant

Oh yeah, Last.fm. They're so bloody touchy.

thomnottom

How the hell do you get banned from Last.fm? Not that I want to try, I'm just curious...

Dead Ball Descendant

What are the rules on swearing here? It's relevant.

thomnottom

Haha. I'm hoping there are no fucking rules... Let's see how that works.

Dead Ball Descendant

Well then, we had a Last.fm group (cupwinkcook) made up of people who were, in no uncertain terms, cunts. When one of them went on holiday, another group was set up: RobbieEdmonstoneIsACunt. Anyroadup, some moderator called Hairmetaladdict issues all its members with a warning for cyberbullying or somesuch nonsense. As a consequence of this, the girl who set up the RobbieEdmonstoneIsACunt group then set up a group called "myspace fucked my wife" the group's avatar being HairMetalAddict's pic with "PUSSY" written across his head. So, she gets banned. By this point, we're really cross and drunk so we all pick the shortest song in out libraries, rename it 'Hair Metal Addict is a Cunt' and play it over and over.

So you get a playlist that looks like this:

mentski – HairMetalAddict is a CUNT 4 minutes ago
mentski – HairMetalAddict is a CUNT 4 minutes ago
mentski – HairMetalAddict is a CUNT 5 minutes ago
mentski – HairMetalAddict is a CUNT 5 minutes ago
mentski – HairMetalAddict is a CUNT 9 minutes ago
Elliott Smith – Ostrich & Chirping 9 minutes ago
mentski – HairMetalAddict is a CUNT 10 minutes ago

Dunno how Elliott Smith got in there, like.

AND GUESS WHAT? He bans everyone.

thomnottom

That's hysterical. Honestly the Elliot Smith appearance makes it even funnier.

brittleblood

bravo!

BRAVO!!! (wipes tears away)

well, i think you have passed the examination with merit. you shall be teamed with tim mason to create the paradox...the delicate conflict that gnaws at each of us as much as our christmas hero/heroine which must be confronted. in turn, (post confrontation) it will mark our existence moving forward. (let me reach into my bag and throw out some stock in trade devices: here's a crow sitting on a crossing sign...the ship's captain being forced to walk the plank, and snow falling on a homeless man sleeping on a park bench - mash-ups are encouraged)

tim will be here in time, he's prolly taking that beer sponsor thing a bit too serious.

TimMason

There is beer?

xtrev

Great to see you again DBD. I thought you might have either died of boredom over the whole Ronaldo transfer nonsense, or shame over not hanging on to Tevez :-)


And you can swear as much as you like.

---

<quietly whistling Blue Moon>

Dead Ball Descendant

Hey you. Ditto. Apart from everything you said, you bastard. Apparently we're 'talking' to Michael Owen.




yay

brittleblood

ok - we'll need to mark this as "the beer thread". dbd - tim's worth a 2nd beer and another, so grab time with him when you can. i don't believe you two have any overlap. tim - dbd is worth the price of admission. when he drops the ball IT'S IN PLAY.

still need to figure out how to rightly ping a few folks - bluesboy + selfrisingmojo...quacky.

stay tuned.

brittleblood

ok day 2 - you can't spell "rouse" without "ruse" + nothing says that better than dbd's return from the dead. good stuff.

frogkopf next to appear??? add him to the writer's bucket.

jackedUPjazz

Not really sure what this is all about but apparently it involves two of my favorite things, beer and Christmas so I'll bite.

brittleblood

here's a re-cap for snicks...having been around you guys for some time, you have demonstrated a level of knowledge, creativity and pitch that is exceedingly high/unique. by example, nereffid's guide + lists point to a lifetime of knowledge that few capture and he's right here alongside us. tim mason, for those of you who have not peaked at the site he hosts, plays at the same level with the dial being set for literature...again, right alongside us. i can go on + on...(xtrev's design + production work is pretty damn engaging).

collectively, we sure as hell have the ability to create a unified something...i offered up a "deliverable" as post-modern christmas story (to save alot of blah blah blah, read the initial post).

at the end of it all, we should be able to have our own copy with companion soundtrack as a collective gift to each other.

but this is early - we'll work thru ideas and hopefully chart a course in the next 2 weeks.

great to see you on board, j-up-j...

captwhiffle

I'm in. A postmodern xmas story sounds like a cool (heh, heh) idea.

It would be useful for me to explore one of those collaborative writing sites like Writeboard, too.

brittleblood

woohoo - great to see you on board...if anyone starts getting familiar with whiteboard, take the lead. i s'pose we can lure jelwood with a promise that he won't end up in the credits as "third thug with lisp"

Dr. Mutex

Have Smoke & Mirrors, Will Travel