lebaneselove
A wealth of resources for fans of the Lebanese entertainment world.

Tags: foreign, language

scenebyscene
This collaborative screenwriting community will accomplish an entire film script--each scene by a different writer--over the course of one year. It's destined to be crazy. Along the way, a slew of smaller challenges will be offered.

Tags: foreign, language

add_foreign_ljs
Looking to practice your language skills? add_foreign_ljs offers users a way to find journals written in a language other than their own.

Tags: foreign, language

Got the news on the Bullsh*t program. As some of us feared, it was another lame "expose" on those nutcases who like the faire scene. And, apparently I was one of the major figures quoted (completely out of context) establishing how big nutcases we are.

I should have known better (actually I do know better, actually had some formal training on how to deal with media and how they can screw you over anyway). So, general apologies to one and all for having been a patsy.

(Friends are already sending me clips so I can see what actually aired)

Current Mood: aggravated

Confirmed news: The Showtime show, Penn & Teller's "Bullsh*t" will air the episode "The Good Old Days" this week, August 21. Check your locality for times. (Showtime being subscription, I won't even get to see it).

This leads to musings of all sorts: Last year, a TV crew was interviewing people during Pirate Weekend at the Carolina faire. Over the course of the weekend, I, faireraven, Norm, and a lot of folks were actually on camera--during and after hours. Now, by itself, this is rather insignificant--golly gee whiz, right? Well--

Given the amount of stuff about faires in the media (including cartoons) which shows faire folk as either out of touch oddballs or downright crazy, this could be a chance for some more or less factual publicity about faires in general. On the other hand, the show has an interesting history and premise: It's basically a debunking effort, in which several sides of an issue are presented--and, thanks to careful editing (not to mention interviewing techniques) one side looks like total idiots, and the other looks like dupes, or, alternately, bunco artists. On the other hand, Penn & Teller have a history with faires.

After my interview, I found out the "documentary" was actually a setup for "Bullsh*t", but I went ahead and signed the release form anyway. And then, thanks to faireraven efforts, found that the program isn't supposed to be so much about faires, as about nostalgia. Apparently the theme is to show that people who do modern reenactments (including "serious" ones along with faire, etc.) would like to live in the past, and thus are nuts.

So, with mixed emotions, I await the results.

(My own best soundbite, which was deliberate, was in response to the question "why do you do this"-- along with the other reasons, I did state "of course, I'm also in it for the money" (being , as far as I know, the only vendor/merchant interviewed, figured I ought to get that in. I have some minor background in media, and I am fully aware of how that could get edited into other stuff--but i stuck my neck out).

Here's hoping for a good image for us all.

I am not promoting myself, at the moment, but a friend. Emily Nee is a Guild member working the Bristol Renaissance Faire, a cast-approved-quality seamstress, a dedicated Rennie-mom, and beyond that, a fabulous human being. So whether faire season is yet to come, in your area, or is nearly done, here's a suggestion -- instead of the mostly-inevitable rush of last-minute sewing to make sure the whole family is well garbed, consider commissioning Emily to make you some custom garb, mini-garb...or heck, one of those nifty period dolls even the BRF's Queen knows her for, now.

Emily made my son a set of mini-garb for him to wear this year (though it'll probably fit him for another year or two), and he was the poster child of the Sterling Renaissance Faire. We didn't get three feet through the gates before people started snapping photos, and we had patron, playtron and cast alike, coming up to compliment us on how fabulous he looked, and asking/suggesting that the three of us work there. Honestly, he wasn't just the best-dressed kid...he was better dressed than the majority of the adults, too.



Not only did he look great, but he was comfortable, and the garb survived what he put it through. He even kept the hat on! He NEVER keeps hats on!

( Emily's contact info... )

All that said, I highly recommend the tactic she chose, when it came to making mini-garb for a wee rogue, that's going to serve for more than one season. The waistline of the pantaloons was left with a sort of backwards, inside-out drawstring effect, but with elastic, so that on/off is easy for diaper changes, but it's adjustable from year to year. Also, he's not going to grow out of the length of pantaloons as fast as he would from full-length poof pants, and little girl tights are the right texture for faire-wear, and easily replaced. A baggy, chemise-style shirt with elastic at the neckline and cuffs, is also going to take longer to outgrow...if his arms outgrow the length of the sleeves before he grows out of the rest of the outfit, I'll just add panels to drop the shoulders a bit. The doublet, like the sleeves, might be outgrown in length before he outgrows the rest (especially since my son is the gangly sort), but the styling with the V's of black leather splitting up the fabric makes for the more subtle addition of extra length, in the future. The hat was done from a bucket hat pattern, so it sits on his head well, without being uncomfortably tight, and it, too, leaves room to grow.

DO NOT ORDER FROM TENTSMITHS Want to know why? Click here to read about my experience.

Development Goals and Basic Accounts

Last week we updated our development goals for 2008. Generally we noted a number of cool enhancements and investments to LiveJournal that we are working on, including improved search, usability, and site development.

We also wanted to let you know how we hope to accomplish all these things, and how we plan on paying for them. In order to accomplish our stated goals for this year and beyond, we need to increase the revenue gained from both groups of LiveJournal accounts: paid subscription accounts and ad-supported accounts.

As of August 28th, all users will be able to choose to downgrade their account to Basic through their Manage Account page. Additionally, we will start showing advertising to visitors who are not logged in to LiveJournal when they are looking at Basic Account journals and communities.

Basic Account users themselves will not see ads on any Basic journal or community while they are logged in to their account. If you want more information about this, take a look at our new post on lj_2008 where we outline our reasoning.

Indian Flash Fiction Contest

In other news, we are excited to tell you we've launched "Quick Tales" LiveJournal's first initiative for users in India, in celebration of India Independence day, August 15th. "Quick Tales" is a flash fiction writing contest in which we're partnering with Caferati.com, one of India's largest online literary communites. The contest's winners will receive some great prizes and it is open to anyone with a mailing address in India. We hope that users with an interest in Indian writing or just India will watch LiveJournal's india_writing community. That's where the finalists and winners will be announced, so keep an eye on it towards the end of September! If you're in India then enter the contest - if your story is slick and quick (under 500 words) then you could be the lucky winner!

Meanwhile, back at LiveJournal Inc.

We have updated and redesigned our corporate site. The goal of the redesign was twofold: first, to update the look and feel (Dystopia users will appreciate it!); second, we want to provide a destination for prospective employees, partners, and members of the press where they can access important information about the company. Kudos to our design team.