Tag Archives: Joss Whedon

Equality Now and the Monday Artist Blues

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I was more than happy to be a fill-in blogger this week, my imagination already percolating with a crock-pot of thought… Then I went and started a new job… the capitalist inside of me (and lets face it, the survivalist as well) is veeeeery happy to be (finally!  Hallelujah) earning a paycheck at last.  The artist inside is a bit nervous about the next two weeks of “project necessary full-time-ness.”

Even though I know it’s only two weeks of this 40-hour business, my little muse is shaking in her boots at all the writing she may not get done… and it’s not necessarily that she was projecting a wordsmithing windfall, it’s just that now, if she does want to bury herself in verbage, she’s going to have to do so late into the night…

(sigh)

And so it goes… the starving artist taking what she can, cobbling together a patchwork type of life made of imagination, tender typing, and hard-earned bread.

In any case, I’m going to amuse you today with this little gem a dear friend forwarded to me (see below for link) – it’s an acceptance speech by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Firefly) as he receives an award from Equality Now, an organization his mother founded to support women.  He is being honored for creating so many strong women characters, and I think the things he says about his choice in creating these wonderful roles are very moving and inspiring!  Just the type of fodder for a good Monday start.

~Tiffany

Joss Whedon’s Equality Now speech

This American Life

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Saturday I was listening to This American Life on KCRW, my favorite radio show since way back.  It was a re-broadcast of a live show that featured a variety of guests telling stories and being entertaining.  One of them was Joss Whedon, the uber-talented writer-director-mad genius behind such TV shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Dollhouse.  The reason for his radio appearance:  Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, his Web sensation – which may have caused computer servers to melt (or whatever they do when overtaxed) because 200,000 people an hour were trying to download it.  Joss-on-the-radio sang a very amusing song about doing commentary for a video release of this musical.

I knew Joss way back.  He was a young whipper snapper writer on a little TV show called Roseanne.  You may have heard of it.  I worked on Roseanne, too.  I was a writers’ assistant.  It was Joss’s first TV production job.  It was my first TV production job.  He went right out of there to a gig writing on Parenthood (the first TV version; why did they resurrect it recently?  Were there no original ideas this season NBC thought worthy of broadcasting?  Hmm, apparently not…) and then to the movie and TV versions of Buffy… and fame and fortune.  I did not.

I almost turned my radio off Saturday so I wouldn’t have to listen to the clever song – not because I wasn’t amused by the song and not because I don’t like Joss (he was a smart, kind, and funny guy when I knew him and still is, as far as I can tell).  It was because of the jealousy thing.  Joss’s professional life took off like a rocket and every time I see him or his work, I am reminded my professional life is more at a steady hum.  It’s a nice hum but it’s not a rocket and is not accompanied by the cascades of cash that one can have in Hollywood.  I sometimes just turn things like this off and get back to work.

But by keeping the radio on, I got to hear the next piece – a story by Dan Savage about his mom dying and his grappling with being a lapsed Catholic.  It was hilarious and sad and I sat glued to the radio, laughing and milliseconds later crying.  Stories like that remind me why I like to write – to connect to people, to move them. 

So THEN I turned the radio off… and got back to work.  Feeling inspired instead of jealous.  A much better place from whence to write. 

I’ve finished the first outline of my new full-length play this weekend.