DramatistDreamer

@Soapsuds, you’re the ratings guy, do you know what the ratings were for the Finals?

A girl in my elementary school used to get teased by one boy who said she talked like an old lady, she was 9 years old at the time. Some people have nasally voices, some people have high-pitched squeaky voices, if people are going to pick, they’re going to pick and most times, there is really nothing to be done about it. Taking care with getting enough breath behind your words, making sure your thoughts are clearly heard and in proper context is the most important aspect of communicating to the public. Coming from the theater, I wish the U.S. invested more in theater because being on stage, knowing how breath works with your body to amplify your voice and the words is a skill and it can help everyone.

Sometimes a discussion can become a bit too “Inside Baseball”. From what I remember, the trade papers were really the only place where you could find any information about a series this far out from production. And let’s be real…Jane Q. Public doesn’t care about the trade papers. We might, but the rest of the public could care not less. In a previous post, I wrote that promotion before Labor Day is likely to be forgotten and lost in the shuffle—unless you are putting promo in a movie theater ahead of the latest Hollywood summer blockbuster, which is unlikely to happen with a daytime soap-they’ll never have the budget for this. Even if TV Guide were still relevant, I’d still say wait until autumn to start doling out promos, at the earliest. From reports in The Hollywood Reporter, network television is not only losing out to Netflix, both are losing attention due to YouTube and TikTok right now and during the summer, people are likely watch the least amount of network television (do people still watch Big Brother?). Also, I would rather the production focus on story projections, scripts, sets and ultimately, casting. Everything else is probably a distraction until most of those things are in place.

There is a famous actor who once talked about how he used to stutter as a child, I can’t remember exactly who and he said that it was as if his mind was moving faster than how he could form the words and his mouth was rushing to catch up to his mind. And he had to slow down and choose his words as his mother would often remind him to do. Biden is likely feeling like his has to get out everything he has to say or it might somehow get lost during the flow of conversation. I agree though that he should remember as POTUS journalists and interlocutors can and will wait for him to relay his message. And if they should shift and look impatient, in the words of King Jaffe Joffer from Coming To America …”well. Let. Them. Wait!”

Please excuse the typos in my previous post. My eldest sibling (who tragically passed away last year) went through cancer treatment and things like lab work may not be covered completely. As his caregiver, I know firsthand that someone undergoing chemotherapy, for instance, has to do frequent bloodwork to check red blood cell and white blood cell counts, to see if they are high enough for the person to receive treatment. It can be once a week or even more, depending on how often someone has to get treatments. Some people endure more than a dozen rounds of chemotherapy. Can you imagine the amount of labs? And the process is made more painful when you are back and forth with the insurance company regarding matters of coverage. My sibling was a Teamster and they are said to have excellent insurance but even after my sibling’s passage, after enduring the process of making funeral arrangements, I still had to be on the phone to his union to sort out the medical bills that were still arriving in his name. It’s very rough and my heart goes out to anyone who has to deal with matters like these.

An international story but an awful one nonetheless. I saw this on the BBC News this morning and was/am thoroughly disgusted. Baby ‘saved from traffickers’ was borrowed by charity for photos

Was anyone actually using Kapersky software? Wasn’t it always pretty much a back door for Russian intelligence? Russia antivirus firm Kaspersky quits US after ban

Her entire reasoning behind this is that Jack Smith as special prosecutor is illegitimate (sounds very Trumpian). Please keep in mind that two of her judgments in favor of Trump in this case have already been reversed on appeal and the reversals came from a conservative appeals court.

How in the world is anyone surprised that Vance was selected?! I figured it out well over a month ago, when I first saw the list of proposed candidates. It’s obvious it would be him…uh, think about it.

Someone probably knows the ins and outs of that situation better than I but from what I can recall, he was saying that she spent years paying for the insurance policy only to discover that it would not offer comprehensive coverage for her medical needs/expenses when she most needed the coverage to kick in. It’s a sad fact that this often happens with people from all walks of life and at various income levels. It also happens with home insurance too, where people pay for a policy and assume a certain level of coverage, only to be told that their policy won’t coverage certain things (water damage when they suddenly are informed that they live in an emerging flood zone).

Has the NRA put out a statement yet? The difference between the statements put out by Representative Steve Scalise versus the statements released by Nancy Pelosi and Gabrielle Giffords are vastly different, in intent and tone. Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee issued a judgment to dismiss the classified documents case? Ooh, let me put on my surprise face. Even Cannon said that Smith had the ability to revive the case. I guess it will be up to him and the Justice Department.

People may say many things about her, but everyone knows to acknowledge that Doherty was a fighter and it is sad that she is no longer here to fight another day but here’s to the hope that she is now at peace. If only all the various entities would stop fighting each other and summon the resolve to fight for and against what really matters, defeating these life threatening diseases!

Does nobody check these articles before publishing them? https://www.tennis.com/news/articles/barbora-krejcikova-jasmine-paolini-jana-novotna-wimbledon-final

A weird choice to the “flight or fight” query. I’m no conspiracy theorist. It just seems like an odd response in a crisis situation. Reminiscent of January 6th 2021. Someone at the rally reportedly declared him a martyr. Another claimed this would win him the election. His fans are nutty, for sure. The shooter’s motives did come to mind, if those rally goers’ exhortations played into motive at the risk of speculating, which normally I am loathe to do in such situations. Maybe the information will reveal motives, maybe not.

Apparently Trump shouted “Fight! Fight!” and threw up his fist. What was his intention in doing that? The Secret Service kept trying to usher him away from the scene to safety and he kept resisting and talking about let him get his shoes. Obviously stunned and not in crisis mode.

In an article, it was reported that one of the few people in the bleachers area who knew instinctively to duck (it was bizarre to me that so many people were standing) after hearing the shots was a teacher, which says so much about the state of gun violence in America.

Yes, I just saw two critically injured. I have been trying not to focus too much on the chaotic news churn but I can’t help seeing the dripping of details. The news cycle that usually caters to right-wing interests will ignore the obvious concerns about access to weapons in favor of obsessive coverage with no particular focus on long term solutions to the violence.

Oh, so it was the shooter who was killed? Apparently shot by Secret Service?

Whoa, there is too much going on today. Those photos…he looks a mess. Many of those people who attend his rallies are carrying and are unbalanced. Some people are expressing doubts that it was an actual weapon, some are saying pellet gun? Who knows? Oh well.

Oh man, Dr. Ruth and Richard Simmons too?! There was a snippet about Simmons working on a project based on his life. Pieces of an era chipping away.

No, I haven’t seen the movie (but I take it the reviews were not good) but I caught a glimpse of the trailer and I am pretty open minded about unorthodox storytelling devices but it seemed scattered and odd. The article reminded me that she released a movie, a documentary and an album and then plans for a concert tour? That is a lot of saturation. Who advised such a thing?

Nah, I doubt it. If the GOP/TFG is focused on a daytime soap among so many other issues that would be an indictment against their priorities. The only thing I remember were those promos that would air during the mid show bumpers of the other CBS daytime soaps. I don’t remember those promos ever airing during prime time. TV may have had print ads from stills of those same television promos but I don’t remember so I am not sure. Also, from a writer’s perspective, I would put the smack down on anyone trying to leak anything right now. Folks would just have to sweat out the summer before any clues begin to emerge.

It might be a little bit too early to predict and I am just going to try keep an open mind. If by Thanksgiving, I see scant promotion, then I will know something is wrong but I would give to at least Labor Day before citing a lack of effort. And for people who might complain that it might get lost in the attention given to prime time television debuts, if promotion starts too early, people can start to ignore and eventually forget about it anyway.

The NYT published a seemingly sympathetic Opinion piece on Jennifer Lopez that was accompanied by a deeply unflattering photo of her. Geez, did they have to go there?! I may read the article but wonder what the purpose was of having it accompanied by this photo. EDT: Just read the piece and ooh-wee! It resurfaced some very controversial things that I had forgotten about, the use of a word in Spanish that is connotes insensitivity toward Afro-Latinas and those ghost singing and cultural appropriation allegations. This is one of those “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” type of pieces though the title claims that the author “Can’t Revel In J-Lo’s Fall From Grace”. She may not be reveling but is sure isn’t a testimonial.

It’s especially sad since the attacks have been occurring for years now. I can remember trying to report threats to her made on Twitter, which Twitter only pursued investigating a handful. It was disgusting. And that was years before Musk bought Twitter. Since 2019.