[newsletter]
Well, fellow followers and travelers with Galaxy Sailor, it was a great Sunday night for us over here GSP Headquarters. This past weekend was LAWeb Fest, a festival dedicated to web series from around the world. This was there second year of the festival, which was created by Michael Ajakwe, a twenty plus year veteran of television and film. When I found out last year about LAWeb Fest but couldn’t get in I vowed to make sure I was on it by the first day of applications. This year, The Last Stand made it in, and was one of the top twenty web series to be named by LAWeb Fest.
The award ceremony took place this last weekend, amongst a couple of days of panel discussions, viewing of other web shows, and guest appearances by industry folks. Unfortunately, I could go, but Shawn Mesman (aka Tenison in TLS) lives in LA now, and was able to use my tickets. He sat in for TLS and was there when they announced our victories!
In all, we won three awards. I won for best writing in a web series, and best creator/producer in a web series, and Ken Webster of Innervoice Studios won for best score in a web series. I consider this one little victory on the road to whatever the next victory is!
Now, on to the new camera. Yes, I did get a DSLR, after all the ranting I have done. Why, you ask, are you such a hypocrite? That may be a Nature/Nurture answer, but the better question is why did I get a DSLR. In my previous rant, I stated that my issue really lies in the DSLR owner who suddenly discovers he has the capabilities to shoot video footage with his camera. My complaint was that an entire industry of people are rising up and claiming to know and do video or film simply because they have a camera that can record video. There is a lot more to it than just hitting record, and I am, quite honestly, angry at the number of people that have come to me to ask me to either fix their footage or tell them how the do video/film work. It’s my job, and I’m not going to do that.
At the same time, I cannot deny that buying a Panasonic Lumix GH2 with the 14-140 lens gave me more flexibility and better results than if I went out and bought the comparable lens package for my XL H1a. It would have been at least another $1k to buy the lens that the Lumix package came with, and it shoots great full frame HD. It is a fantastic camera. By no means am I now a photographer. Quite the opposite, in fact. I am shooting pics with it for FaceBook, but if someone tried to hire me, I would tell them to go to one of my professional friends. If they want video, well, then I’m the right person to talk to!
Now, for my rant. If you are uninterested in my soap boxing, then this is a good time to step away. If you are also a Firefly or Serenity fan, you may want to take warning here. As I am a fan, I am also a realist in that the people on the show are characters played by real people. While I may enjoy the character of Jayne Cobb, and appreciate the performance put in by Adam Baldwin, I also think he is a ID-10-T (computer folks will get that one, Adam won’t).
So here is the deal. I followed Adam on the twitters. He is a very active twatter, because he is a very outspoken Republican Conservative Christian. He hates Obama and states so all the time. He battles against the Democrats from the comfort of his home at all hours of the afternoon. He rages against the Unions who enslave us, while comforting in the fact that his SAG card keeps him well paid. Baldwin sent out a tweet last week stating that Obama’s attacks on Libya are nation building tactics, and that this act constituted impeachment level responses from the Republicans. Now, I disagree. I saw our move as protecting civilians, and I tweeted that back to him, stating “It is unfortunate that we cant see the difference between protecting civilians & invading nations. I guess that is why we are still in 2 wars.” Baldwin’s response was multi-layered after this.
First off, I do think we are protecting civilians, but I also think it is in an oil rich nation. We don’t protect civilians in a lot of countries, and I wish the world (not us – the world) would protect them. The US has a less than good record with who we choose to protect, support, and even influence. The Taliban were once our allies, as was Saddam Hussein. Most of the Middle East was a land of nomads, waring tribes, and feudal lords. After WWII, we started to divide these properties with boundaries, something these people weren’t accustom to. We left weapons behind, or gave some of them weapons to boost their strength in the region, but only so much. We placed people in power that were suddenly Princes and Kings. We allowed them to take our money and give us their one resource: oil. We have never helped these countries join the 19th century, let alone the 20th or 21st century.
Anyway, Baldwin retweeted my response to him, which includes my handle on twitter, for those that don’t tweet. Everyone on his side of the political spectrum and follow him immediately knew who I was. My inbox and my respond box was inundated with attacks from people. Claims of anit-Americanism, telling me to seek god, telling me I know nothing of history, international relations, or political policy. Somehow, I was engaged with people that were masterminds at all of these things, and they all happen to be following Jayne Cobb, the savior of Canton.
Baldwin went one better though. I giggled it off and wrote: “Haha I finally get RTed by a Firefly hero & it had to be political. Ur still my big damn hero.” Thinking that we had opposing political views, but we could still be movie star and fan. But the attacks still came from his followers. Then his response finally came to my big damn hero reply. He said to me: “Sorry, but you should apologize for ur ignorant statement and move on.” My heart actually sank. It was now a personal attack. The RTing was a personal attack to get his followers to come at me. For no better reason than differing views. I stated back to him: “I just have a different point of view on things. Shouldnt apologize for different points of view.” To which Baldwin’s response was: “Ur point of view is ignorant & not worthy of respect. U should apologize.”
My heart sank even more. Wow, Jayne Cobb is coming after me. I had to block seventeen people would continued through the day to respond to and message me. I sat on Baldwin’s statement for about three hours, and on the final minutes before I went to bed, I responded to him. In the end I apologized. I said: “Im sorry I looked up to u, sorry I followed u, & sorry ur and idiot.” Then I removed and block Adam Baldwin, the man they call Jayne, from my twitter account.
Here’s the thing; he and I differ on where our policies lie, but our hearts are in the same place. We want what is best for our nation, our people, and the way we interact with the world. We can argue our points, but they should never be personal attacks. I am making a general statement here, but he and his followers made the point hard to argue: republicans attack people who don’t have their opinion. That makes no sense to me, but when you are that narrow in scope, that limited in understanding, I can see where you would allow your fear to rule as a cudgel, smashing down all things that could possibly break down your pillow fort of reality. Adam Baldwin and his minion attacked me because they could never want to try to understand me, or believe that what I want or that my view is just a different path than theirs. That is what freedom is supposed to be. It’s about difference, about choice, about mistakes, about possibilities. Freedom comes in different forms, and it has different safety nets and different risks, depending on the person. A porn star is going to have a different perspective on the world than a person who has never had sex. You can never expect two people to come to the same place at the same time with their views on the world. That would be devastating and catastrophic, as well as just plain boring.
Adam Baldwin. You’re kind of a dick. I’ll still watch Firefly and Serenity.