Just between us, today has been my most productive day in years.
Here’s why:
In other words, I voted and urge all other members of the WGA to do the same.
LYMI
THE REAL LB
LB: Live! From Paradise #234 – “Monday Morning Moment”
by Larry Brody
Hard as it may be to believe (unless, of course, you know me), there was a time when I was consumed by ambition.
My thoughts focused on the future. On what I would create. What I would become.
Who I would be.
And what it would take to win the prize and get from where I was—another aspiring writer—to the top of the word-slinging trade.
No matter my whereabouts, I wasn’t really in that place or time at all.
Sure, my body might have been eating dinner in my San Fernando Valley apartment. But my mind was envisioning a dinner down the line. A banquet, maybe, where I sat at the head table while other writers honored me. Or maybe another kind of meal, more intimate. Lit only by candles, at a small but breathtakingly beautiful place in Rome, where I’d never been.
Even when I was being practical I still was well outside the “now,” hearing the words I was going to write as soon as I had the chance race into my brain and scatter any conversation around me to hills beyond my awareness.
There were, in fact, times when the next words of my characters, and my own hopes and ambitions that fueled them, spiraled so far out of my control that I thought I’d never find my way back to the table.
Who says being a dreamer is easy?
But as I got older, and achieved pretty much everything I’d wanted to, I realized that constantly thinking about tomorrow was destroying my today. How could I enjoy anything as it happened when I already was anticipating what was going to occur next?
I felt empty.
Hollow.
Like a fake human being so lost that every night I found myself immersed in nightmares in which, no matter what I did, how hard I tried, it was impossible for me to find my way.
Luckily, it was at this time in my life that I discovered the Wind of Mystery. I found that if I talked, out loud, to the Wind and the universe behind it, I would get answers to the questions I asked. As soon as I recognized that the now was all I really had—all anyone really has because if you’re not fully aware of and deeply embedded in each moment as you live it you might as well not be living at all—wham!—everything changed.
I was whole.
Full.
And fascinated.
Since the time I first heard the Wind of Mystery, I’ve approached my life with a sense of wonder that boils down to, “Whatever happens now is golden because it’s unique. Each moment can only be experienced once and then it’s gone forever. The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly…it’s all special, and it all ends, so I’ve got to enjoy it while I can.”
It’s relatively easy to get into totally experiencing moments that obviously are special. Births. Deaths. Job promotions. Firings. Victories and defeats of all kinds.
But I like a challenge, which is why, in both my life and this very space where I write each week, I make sure I immerse myself in the “illuminated ordinary.” In other words, the little things.
One of the little things that means so much to me is the moment when I wake up each morning. I become aware of the physical sensations in my body. The sheets against my back, blankets on my chest. The pillow behind my head. The temperature and scent in the room.
And the wonderful warmth of my wife, Gwen the Beautiful, lying sleeping beside me.
This morning I got lucky. I got to see and hear and smell and feel more than usual.
This morning I turned to look at Gwen, as I always do, and I was flooded with the sensation of every other time I’ve gazed at her in bed. I reached out and caught memory after memory of all we’ve done together.
All we’ve been through for better and for worse. In sickness and in health.
I grabbed every one of those past moments and held them close in the present. I saw her perfect, sleeping face fifteen years ago. Ten. Five. Today.
And I thought of the future we’d set out to achieve on that first morning, and how that morning had led to this one.
We’re getting old together, I thought. Just as we hoped.
Gwen awoke, looked at me, puzzled. “What…?” she said.
“We win,” I replied.
WGA CONTRACT 2023
In case you’re wondering how the Writers Guild of America-Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers contract negotiations are going, the answer as of today, April 3, 2023, is:
Not very well.
Here’s the email I just received from the WGA West:
DEAR MEMBERS,
Your WGA Negotiating Committee, the WGAW Board and WGAE Council unanimously ask you and your fellow members to demonstrate your willingness to fight for the contract writers need and deserve by supporting a strike authorization vote (SAV). Online voting will begin April 11.
The survival of writing as a profession is at stake in this negotiation. Over the past decade, while our employers have increased their profits by tens of billions, they have embraced business practices that have slashed our compensation and residuals and undermined our working conditions. We’ve met and talked with thousands of you about our bargaining agenda and heard loud and clear that this negotiation can’t be business as usual. The compensation increases and protections we’re demanding are designed to restore what has been taken away from writers.
How have the companies responded to the WGA’s bargaining agenda? After two weeks at the bargaining table, they have failed to offer meaningful responses on the core economic issues in any of the WGA’s primary work areas—screen, episodic television and comedy-variety. They have listened politely to our presentations and made small moves in only a few areas, almost entirely coupled with rollbacks designed to offset any gains. In short, the studios have shown no sign that they intend to address the problems our members are determined to fix in this negotiation.
Now we need to demonstrate that determination. You can help by voting yes on strike authorization, to give your leadership the leverage to make the strongest possible deal before deadline or to call a strike after May 1st if the companies are unwilling to meet our reasonable demands. Throughout April, WGA negotiators will continue to work toward the goal of a fair contract for writers.
In this video, Negotiating Committee member Luvh Rakhe lays out the key elements writers need to know about the SAV, including the below.
Online voting will begin Tuesday, April 11 at 8:30 p.m. (PDT) and end on Monday, April 17 at noon. Eligible members will receive the ballot link via email and on our website once the polls open at 8:30 pm on the 11th.
Here is an FAQ about the vote. Here is a social media toolkit to communicate your support.
Tomorrow you will receive an invitation to in-person and Zoom member meetings where you can hear directly from the Negotiating Committee and fellow members and ask any questions you have.
Time after time, this Guild has shown that it is unafraid to fight for what it deserves. Now, that time has come again.
IN SOLIDARITY,
WGA NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE
David A. Goodman, Co-Chair
Chris Keyser, Co-Chair
Ellen Stutzman, Chief Negotiator
John August
Angelina Burnett
Kay Cannon
Yahlin Chang
Robb Chavis
Adam Conover
Travis Donnelly
Ashley Gable
Hallie Haglund
Eric Haywood
Eric Heisserer
Greg Iwinski
Luvh Rakhe
Erica Saleh
Danielle Sanchez-Witzel
James Schamus
Tom Schulman
Mike Schur
David Shore
David Simon
Patric M. Verrone
Nicole Yorkin
Ex-Officio
Meredith Stiehm, WGAW President
Michele Mulroney, WGAW Vice President
Betsy Thomas, WGAW Secretary-Treasurer
Michael Winship, WGAE President
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, WGAE Vice President, Film/TV/Streaming
Christopher Kyle, WGAE Secretary-Treasurer
WGAW BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Meredith Stiehm, President
Michele Mulroney, Vice President
Betsy Thomas, Secretary-Treasurer
Liz Hsiao Lan Alper
Raphael Bob-Waksberg
Angelina Burnett
Robb Chavis
Adam Conover
Marjorie David
Travis Donnelly
Ashley Gable
Justin Halpern
Dante W. Harper
Eric Haywood
Deric A. Hughes
Zoe Marshall
Dailyn Rodriguez
John Rogers
Nicole Yorkin
WGAE COUNCIL, FILM/TV/STREAMING (MBA)
Michael Winship, President
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Vice President, Film/TV/Streaming
Christopher Kyle, Secretary-Treasurer
Monica Lee Bellais
Kaitlin Fontana
Gina Gionfriddo
Josh Gondelman
Tian Jun Gu
A.M. Homes
Liz Hynes
Greg Iwinski
Erica Saleh
Sasha Stewart
Tracey Scott Wilson
LB: Live! From Paradise #233 – “Cyberwar in Paradise?!”
by Larry Brody
Aargh!
I’m under attack.
As the superheroes in Marvel Comics put it when the forces of evil close in:
“…Mind reeling…can hardly function…must find a way to break free….”
I’m not talking about a physical threat. No one’s got The Mountain surrounded.
Not a super villain in sight.
Instead, it’s even worse.
This attack is in cyberspace. The attacker is a computer virus, the victim my beloved new Dell XPS quad core super fast, super cool, red-and-brushed-aluminum-cased baby, which until now was as healthy and powerful as only a top of the line computer can be.
Two days ago, all was well. When I pushed the power button my XPS hummed to life, blue LEDs flashing around its fascia, Windows Vista booting up as quickly as Vista can boot.
All my start-up applications came on in the order in which they always came on. All my desktop icons appeared where they were supposed to. When I clicked on my browser it opened and took me to my start page. Clicking on my bookmarks took me where I wanted to go. My todo list appeared at Google Office.
All was right with the world.
When you get down to it, how could anything be wrong as long as my Big Mean Gaming and Word Processing and Gossip Hunting Machine was racing like a finely tuned sports car?
Back when I cared about finely tuned sports cars and even could afford one (with some help from the bank), my emotional well-being in many ways was tied to my car. It was a macho thing, pure and simple, a man and his vehicle, masculinity overflowing within me as long as the spark plugs sparked and the 5-speed gearshift moved smoothly, and the engine growled and howled like a mountain lion crossed with a banshee.
Back when I cared about finely tuned sports cars, my well-being would be crushed, ground into the dirt, as soon as the spark plugs clogged or the shifter started grinding or the engine began gasping and skipping like a sick prairie dog.
When the day came that I no longer could indulge my obsessive love and compulsive need for a Porsche or an Alfa Romeo or a Corvette, I knew what I should do. I knew it was time to stop hiding from reality by throwing my soul into mechanisms that were nothing more than conveyances. People movers. Transporters.
Did I rise to the occasion? Did I embrace my newfound awareness? Throw myself metaphorically naked and unprotected into the world as I knew I should?
Of course not.
I’m a guy.
And macho is as macho does.
Or, more specifically, as macho owns.
I looked around, and there it was. The perfect sports car substitute. Not only for me but for hundreds of thousand, maybe millions of other men.
The computer.
Why do PCs outsell Macs by 9 to 1 even though Macs are more efficient and reliable machines?
Because Macs come fully set up as they’re supposed to be and then stay that way.
But PCs! Ah, PCs are infinitely configurable. You can change the case. You can change the innards. You can soup up the ram and the video card. Add monitors. (I use two.) Fancy sound systems. (I’ve got 5 speakers. Front. Rear. Middle.)
A man can make his PC into just about anything he has the time and patience and funds to create, and even the most extreme and expensive computer costs a mere fraction of the price of an average, totally unexceptional car.
Now computers accomplish the same thing.
Together, we roll.
Except right now we’re tumbling and bumping instead. Half my applications won’t apply themselves. My hard drive creeps. My icons keep vanishing. My browser opens at random intervals and shows me web sites that would make Larry Flynt blush, while refusing to budge when I type in my own home page.
“…Must disconnect…take PC to Don the Computer Repair Genius…admit I’m not the man I thought I was….”
Aargh!