Mark (that's me) is back in Columbus, Ohio. I drove back here last evening from Muncie — about a 2.5 hour commute, the first half of which was under heavy drizzle and the last half of which was with streaming H2O fighting to overpower my wipers. I'm not a big fan of driving in the rain but it's a lot easier here, where the roads and drivers expect it, than it is in Southern California where everyone's so utterly unprepared for the whole concept of water coming down from the sky.
My rental car contains the new Garmin GPS, which is quite good except that it has never heard of the street on which Jim Davis's office is situated. Last year in Muncie, I got around via a Hertz rental with their "NeverLost" system, which sounds like something Peter Pan would use to find his way home. It's a Magellan-brand Global Positioning System and it performed so well that I got one for my car when I returned home. The Garmin is superior in some ways — it speaks the names of streets, for instance, whereas my Magellan just says to turn in X miles — but I suspect the main differences are because the Garmin is new, whereas my Magellan is almost a year old.
Last year's Magellan GPS could find the street on which the Garfield office is located but this year's Garmin couldn't so I got briefly lost. I pulled over to the side of an unpaved road to figure out what to do next and a woman came by and asked if she could help. I told her the name of the street I was seeking and she said, "Oh, you're going to see the guy with the cat." She then proceeded to tell me exactly how to get to that street and I proceeded to drive exactly as she instructed…and within five minutes, I was exactly Hopelessly Lost, as opposed to my previous condition, which was only Hopefully Lost.
What I did at that point: The Garmin couldn't find Jim's street but I remembered a Burger King that was located not far from the office and I figured the Garmin could find that. Sure enough, it directed me there and then I used my own low-tech memory to find my way to the studio of The Guy With The Cat. Which is what I've learned you have to do with GPS units. They're not a substitute for thinking or even for knowing where places are. They're just to help you chart and follow routes. The best part is that you can keep glancing at the screen and think, "Yep, I'm still on the right road." Or find out quickly when you aren't.
This is turning out to be a great trip but I do regret not being in Los Angeles during two weeks of what's turning out to be The Great Writers Strike of '07 and Maybe Part of '08. I did picket (in the rain, no less) the Viacom building in Times Square but even if I'd brought a sign along, there's no place worth picketing in Muncie or Columbus. From all reports, the big mass picket/demonstration on Hollywood Boulevard the other day was a smashing success, proving that "the town" is behind the WGA strike and — of great importance — that it is widely understood that the disruption of the industry is due to the Producers' behavior and not to the Writers being unreasonable.
This concept seems to be lost on some. I am bewildered that it is lost on a man named Thomas Short, who is the current president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Mr. Short continues to blast my union, cursing our strike and writing things like, "The IATSE alone has over 50,000 members working in motion picture, television and broadcasting and tens of thousands more are losing jobs in related fields."
I expect Management to make such remarks but Mr. Short presides over an aggregate of unions that find the occasional necessity to strike and those strikes always, without exception, inconvenience others and often lead to layoffs and loss of employment. It is a regrettable fact of union activity. Even now, the Stagehands' strike in New York (which everyone back there except the employers seems to support, by the way) is creating hardships for innocent bystanders and causing non-IA workers to lose jobs. The strike was authorized by Mr. Short.
I'm currently on Honorable Withdrawal (I think they call it something else) from the Animation Guild, which is a division of IATSE. But when I was a member, I walked its picket lines and endured the same criticism from the companies we were striking: Our strike was hurting the business, it was causing Filmation to layoff secretaries and Hanna-Barbera to terminate contracts, etc. I understood why the heads of Disney were saying things like that to try and act like the strike was in no way their fault; like it was wholly because the evil/stupid union wouldn't just accept whatever it was offered and remain on the job. I don't understand a man who represents some very good, effective unions talking like that.
But he may not have much to complain about for very long. What I'm getting from "the buzz" is that while no one expects the WGA strike to end right after talks resume on the 26th, there's a lot of optimism that it won't last months longer; that the Producers have decided they'll lose way too much if they stonewall until the WGA starts to wobble. They seem to have realized that if they drag this out to April or May, they'll wind up with much the same terms they can get right now. More significant: The Screen Actors Guild is already ramped-up and determined to strike at the end of June '08 if they don't make the kinds of gains the WGA strike is all about. If the Producers settle with the WGA by the end of December, they stand a real good chance of getting scripts and shooting a lot of movies and TV episodes in January through June. So if there is a SAG strike (or even, God forbid, a DGA one), they'll be in better shape to weather and resist it.
Before every possible WGA strike of the past, there has always been the threat of "stockpiling" — the idea that the Producers would commission extra scripts, build up an inventory and therefore be able to better endure a prolonged WGA walkout. That hasn't happened much, this time or ever. They need us around to write and rewrite up to the point when filming or rehearsals commence, and even after that, so it's never very practical. On the other hand, there is an obvious advantage to the Producers to have a stockpile of completed shows and movies in case they can't make the deal they want with the Actors and/or the Directors. Right now, the WGA strike is an obstacle to them buildng up that stockpile.
So there are some big reasons for optimism. Which is not to suggest I'm optimistic quite yet about the strike ending. I'm just optimistic that we may soon have good reasons for optimism. Whatever, it looks like I'll still have plenty of opportunities to picket when I get back to Los Angeles.
Have a joyous Thanksgiving Day, everyone. I'm going to be thankful for, at long last, a real Internet Connection.