Glenn Eichler's Rules

...for satire, from The Primary Source , which calls itself "the journal of conservative thought at Tufts University". Even though the header date is October 2003, the article states that it appeared in their 1984 issue. At that time, Eichler was the Managing Editor of National Lampoon Magazine.

All I can figure out is that the Primary Source got bashed with a parody magazine. (Happens all over colleges everywhere; the University of North Carolina would replace Duke's free student papers with satirical copies -- and vice versa.) Therefore, the need to set "high standards for satire", or whatever. At least, they asked someone good.

SFMB to Remain Down

Thea Zara posted a message on the PPMB, stating that the SFMB site is down. When attempting to access the page, a viewer will get the message that the site has "exceeded its bandwidth". Part of this was caused by the malicious hacking attempt, which necessitated site admins reloading a lot of material to the site. The site hopes to be back up soon.

Glenn Eichler Answers More Fan Questions

At the DVDaria Blog. So go there!

Richard Lobinske completed Part One of "Three".
Gregor Samsa completed "Attack of the Fifty-Foot Fashion Club".
Deref and Thea Zara have Chapter 14 of "All My Children" ready for beta.

Hidden in the "Falling Into College 31" thread in the Creative Writing Forum at PPMB is "Das Elendskuechen" (The Misery Chick) by The Angst Guy, the first part of a dark tale where Nazi Germany has conquered the world. German language speakers might want to give a hand with the idioms.

SFMB is down.

Artwork: by SRA

Plans for Everyone

A few looks into what the Daria Fandom Blog might become in the future.

Blogger is more or less kerfluffelt. There have been a few complaints about how Blogger isn't exactly the best format for blog posting. Myself, I've always been a big fan of free stuff. As one of my college professors said, his cardinal rule was "thou shalt not pay for what thou can get for free". (For an illustration of this rule, see The Green Sink on Geocities, a testimony to my misspent youth, and all absolutely free for me.)

Still, it is becoming more and more a pain in the ass. My wife stated that I should buy a domain on Go Daddy, and I'm beginning to see the wisdom in her words. However, there are a few questions in my mind:

a) One of the great advantages of blogspot.com is that I can access it at work. I can just log in, type entries in the What You See Is What You Get interface, doll it up with a bit of HTML programming (a small bit), and voila!

From what I understand, having a web domain requires that one be a bit smarter. One has to FTP new code onto the page and whatnot. I don't know if I can do that at work and frankly, working four 10 hour days without being able to update the blog means that the blogging comes to a halt. (My time away from work is social time with my wife.) If I lose the functionality to update the blog from work, it's not worth it.

b) Furthermore, I lose Haloscan comments. No big deal, actually, but a bigger problem is losing three months worth of posts. These posts could be transferred (probably laboriously) to a new blog, but frankly, I'd rather not. The only other alternative would be leaving the last three months of the Daria Fandom Blog sitting right here, with a link to the new site. I'm not in favor, however, of having three months of work as a tombstone, a dead internet site with tumbleweeds rolling by (see: Scorched Remnants Message Board, The).

c) The above two are just me kvetching about change. "Oh, CINCGREEN, things might be different and you might not like it!" However, there are some serious changes coming up in the future.

Sometime in the near (hopefully near) future, I'll be leaving my profession as a registered nurse. The only part of this equation that hasn't be solved is selling the house. It's up for sale. I hope to start college classes in June. That means I can regularly blog up to the beginning of June. I don't know how much time I'll have to devote to message board reading after that. I don't know how demanding the classes will be.

The problem of keeping the DFB could be solved if people don't mind serving as "guest bloggers" during those times when I can't blog. The line forms to the left.

Boy, the future's uncertain, ain't it?

Anyway, if we move to a new domain -- and it is looking likely -- here are some of the near future plans:

1) Call Alan (and anyone else who can) for some help in setting it up.
2) Award an Excellence in Fandom award sometime in July, beginning voting sometime in June.
3) Move what there is of the Daria Encyclopedia to the new domain and complete the project.
4) Get guest bloggers.
5) Work on missing transcripts of episodes.

And the Green Sink? It probably will no longer be updated. I probably won't move it to the new site; rather, I shall leave it to serve as a monument to a time that has now gone by.

Oh by the way...from around April 8 to April 11, I'll be on vacation....

SFMB Hacked

The SFMB suffered a hacking attempt yesterday. There were a few odd words on the site for a little while, but SFMB appears to be back to normal function. Hold off, however, on opening mail from people claiming to be SFMB administrators.

Richard Lobinske completed "Falling Into College 31 - Esteeming Lysistrata".

Fan artwork: various bunnies by Ranger Thorne:

About Writing

There's not much discussion about the craft of writing in Daria fandom, not even in the "Creative Writing" section at PPMB. I thought that this place would be as appropriate as anywhere else to post these thoughts which were stolen from the political blog commentator known as "driftglass":

Writing's weird.
You have to Not Care, even though you do.
You have to take "rejection" -- whatever the hell it means -- as the baseline, default position the world will offer you.
You have to know that 99.9% of everything you write will probably end up badly, blown off or forgotten.
Harlan Ellison said something about an Author being someone who gets his name on the spines of novels. A Writer, OTOH, is the poor fuck that can't help himself/herself.
A writer is a writer because they have no choice.

I kid friends that the reason that so many writers have traditionally been Men is that you have to be able to withstand being rebuffed with a chainsaw over and over and over again and still stand get right up and go charging back into the whirling blades singing "Bohemian Rhapsody."

So basically it's Dating, without the occasional Happy Ending…and a writer is a Stalker who can't be kept away from a blank page with mace and a Restraining Order.

Pity us :)

....

But I’d put it a different way: Writers write for Readers. If you don't, you're jerking off into a drawer.

Yes, yes, a writers needs to heed the Muse and please themselves and so forth, but the minute you Publish, you are announcing to the world as arrogantly as any Young God that what you are saying is worth listening to. Which is what makes writing so odd: you have to have this fundamentally egomaniacal ideal that People Should Read your work, and simultaneously, and sincerely, not care (much) whether or not anyone reads it or does anything with it.

The way to at least marginally feed both beasts is to work reeeeally hard at writing things that are, y'know, interesting, and quit pouting, 'cause here's today's Hot Yoda News Flash: Life. Fair It Isn't. Bitch It Is.

Daria in the News

An Evan Farmer interview here . Evan Farmer did "miscellaneous" voicework for Daria; his most well-known voice is that of Eric Schrecter.

PPMB Back Up

Gregor Samsa completed a new chapter of "Attack of the Fifty-Foot Fashion Club".
Renfield submitted a new work "Last Stage Out" to the major fanfiction sites.
Lawndale Stalker completed a new snippet of "Kidnapped".

The Angst Guy completed Chapter 18 of "Drive".

Fan art: A Photoshop by "Ranchoth".

Where Be the PPMB?

PPMB is down.

Added to Fanfiction.net:

"The Fear of Living Dangerously" by Renfield

Easter Egg

Gregor Samsa completed Part 3 of "Attack of the Fifty-Foot Fashion Club".

Fan art: Little Quinnie finds an Easter Egg, by Angelinhel:

Glitter Berries Update

Glitter Berries has updated. Click the link to find out what's new.

The Easter Egg Hunt at SFMB is completed. Go to the "Easter page" to see all of the Easter eggs.

Happy Birthday to "sleepless".

Richard Lobinske completed Part 3 of "Falling Into College 31 - Esteeming Lysistrata" on the SFMB.

Fan art: from Redleg Rick's "Shaken, Not Stirred"....

Happy Easter

At alt.tv.daria, svh wants to know if a transcript of "Is It College Yet?" exists.

The DVDaria Blog has updated.

At the PPMB:

Brother Grimace completed "The Thieving Pizza Fairies".
Lawndale Stalker completed another part of "Kidnapped".

At the SFMB:

Richard Lobinske completed Part 2 of "Falling Into College 31 - Esteeming Lysistrata".
Ranger Thorne started "Cynical Symphonies: Too Truant Students". He states that he needs help with an ending.

Get Well Soon

Deceleraptor is taking a trip to the emergency room today -- his legs are in a lot of pain. We hope here at the DFB that things turn out okay.

From The Daria News Archive :

Fans hoping to see DARIA in the Saturday 10am slot on the UK free-to-air digital channel TMF were disappointed today. TMF aired a sequence of 1991 pop videos in the slot recently occupied by DARIA.

New "Easter Eggs" have been added to The Sheep's Fluff. (You have to hunt around the site to find them, though.) They can all be reached through this page . If
you want to add new Easter Eggs (less than 24 hours to go), make your submissions (!) to mistress thea_zara over at PPMB or SFMB.

Reminder: think about the nominees for this year's Daria Fanworks Awards for 2005 (voting takes place in 2006).

The categories for both fan fiction and art are listed in the links to the left. However, a new "rule" has been added: no self-nominations, please.

Interesting PPMB threads:

A thread about Quinn, Daria, and "Lucky Strike" ( right here ).

Is First Fandom fair to Second Fandom ( right here )?

Added to the PPMB:

Isabelle Young-Johnson completed another part of "Kristen Through The Looking Glasses".
Greystar completed Part 6 of "Daria 3059".
The Angst Guy completed Chapter 17 of "Drive".
Gregor Samsa completed Parts 1 and 2 of "Attack of the Fifty-Foot Fashion Club".
Wouter Jaegers wrote two pages of an alternate "Murder, She Snored" comic here and here .

Added to the SFMB:

psychotol added a huge new pic for "Living Dead Girls".
Richard Lobinske completed Part 1 of "Falling Into College 31 - Esteeming Lysistrata".
Napalm Kracken completed Part 2 of "MTV's True Life: I Was a Marvel Anti-Hero".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"A Devil Named 'Fred'" by Ranchoth
"For You" by Ruthless Bunny
"Living Dead Girls 3: Baptism Of Fire" by psychotol

Fan art by tafka: "Pepe Le Chuck" and "Quinnelope"....

Open Thread

I almost typed "Open Threat". Back on Saturday, hopefully.

"No Updates" Friday?

Heading out to my Mom's on Friday and part of Saturday. So enjoy the updates while you can.

echopapa wrote a new chapter of "Daria and Jane Go to the Moon".
Richard Lobinske completed "John Lane 3 -- New Model Year".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"The Diogenes Group" by Ranchoth
"Turning a Page" by Ruthless Bunny
"The Lawndalenationale" by Ranchoth

Je m'appelle Daria

There is a fan listing called "Excuse Me!" on the net located at this link . The only requirements for joining a fan listing are joining the list and posting a link on your own website.

When I visited yesterday, the site stated that over 2,000 fans had signed up, and sorted membership by country. The results:

United States: 704
Mexico: 99
England: 69
Australia: 66
Canada: 59
Poland: 53
Argentina: 45
France: 41
Germany: 38
Chile: 34
Italy: 33
Philippines: 32
Spain: 30
Peru: 23

…and so on. Of course, this list might not be COMPLETELY representative for two reasons. Namely, that either a) someone might have claimed origin in some other country for a lark (Poland?), or that b) fan listings might have greater or lesser popularity depending on what the Internet culture is in your country.

Still, my impression is that the list is fairly representative: The bulk of Daria fans come from English speaking countries: approximately 45 percent of the fan base is English speaking. However, there are untapped fan bases in both Central and South America (7 percent of this list alone) and in non-English Europe (about 10 percent).

Here’s my question: where are the great non-English Daria fan sites.

France is clearly the leader in the category. They have three fairly extensive Daria fan sites, Cyberdaria , Planete Daria , and Triste Monde Tragique . Any of these sites, if in English, would be a major site.

Indeed, I would have added one (or all) of these sites to the list on the left but for one reason – these sites infrequently update. TMT last updated in December 2004, I think that Planete Daria updated last in 2002 – and Cyberdaria seems to be down. TMT certainly counts as a major site with its screen captures and the other sites offer a wealth of information. However, all three sites are on stationkeeping; I suggest someone begin saving information now in case these sites disappear.

There are no major Polish-language sites. I’ve found at most a handful of Spanish-language sites, only one German-language site (by Ace Trax), and so forth.

Perhaps it has something to do with fan fiction. At FF.net, there are 923 Daria fan fiction stories, many with multiple chapters. There are THREE stories in French, and there is ONE story in German.

So…why doesn’t Daria have a stronger overseas presence, except in France?

Glenn Eichler's Current Project

From Kara Wild: Glenn Eichler is at work as creative consultant for O'Grady , currently on Noggin.

E. A. Smith completed "The Tempest" at PPMB.

Added to Fanfiction.net

"Nervous Dreams" by Richard Lobinske
Chapter 5 of "Fashion Club Crisis: Sandi's Secret Admirer" by Imaj Inaya.

Sick Sad World updated on March 19.

Art: An image from "O'Grady" on The-N, where Glenn Eichler is occupied:

Art at TDJC

The Daria-Jane Conspiracy has grouped its artworks together into a Daria Fan Artwork Gallery . Click on the link to enjoy the art.

At the PPMB: Scissors MacGillicutty posted "Exiles, Part 1".
Richard Lobinske completed Part 4 of "John Lane 3 - New Model Year".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"In Darnest Night" by Ranchoth
"Wayward Stacy" by Ronin
"Queen of the Machines - Chapter 4 - System Recovery" by Psychotol (NC-17)

Me Use Computer

My first use of Paint Shop Pro...EVER.

A tiny .jpg file called "surfdaria", cropped from TV Guide, expanded by 20 percent, with some background repainting:



I want my Daria Fan Works award right now.

Surfin' USA

From an old TV Guide cover. Say, who's the babe wearing the boots?

Belated Happy Birthday

A belated Happy Birthday to longtime Daria fan Chris Smith.

From "Scissors" in the thread below:

Regarding Daria's origins in Eichler's life: FWIW, the economic journalist Doug Henwood (publisher of the newsletter Left Business Observer and author of Wall Street: How it Works and for Whom and After the New Economy ) claims to have meet Eichler and his family socially on several occasions, and is of the impression that Daria was based on Eicher's son!

The link is here .

More Glenn Questions (?)

From Kara Wild: Glenn Eichler, creator of Daria, is actually open to receiving questions about the series -- as long as he's not deluged with them. If you have a question about Daria (the show) or Daria (the characters), e-mail Kara Wild and if it's a good question, she'll send it on. (See my 21 questions below.)

At PPMB:

Richard Lobinske has an interesting take on "Tom By The Numbers" in the "Deep Thoughts" Forum.
sleepless completed Chapter 25 of "Yuki-Onna".
Richard Lobinske completed Part 3 of "John Lane 3 - New Model Year".
E. A. Smith completed Part 9 of "The Tempest".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"REALLY Guilty Pleasures" by Ranchoth
"The Part NYDTQT is never going to write (or admit he or she wanked to)" by Psychotol (NC-17)
Friday, March 18
"Queen of the Machines - Chapter 3 - Excuse Me, Your Teeth are in my Ass" by Psychotol (NC-17)

My Questions to Glenn Eichler

(assuming he gives a damn....)

1. What was your idea behind Andrea? Was she meant to play a larger role, or did the limitations of producing the series keep Andrea getting air time?

2. I believe that Mack was voiced by three different voice actors. Why did you have such a hard time finding a voice actor for Mack?

3. Did MTV put any pressure on you to add a romantic interest to the show at the end of Season 3 and 4? Did anyone at MTV express a concern that Daria or Jane might be considered gay by viewers if they didn't have boyfriends?

4. Why were the Season Five episodes only aired one time, without reruns, by MTV?

5. Was the ending of "Fat Like Me" a use of the "reset button"? What was the reasoning behind your decision to return Sandi to her former weight?

6. Was the use of Kevin and Brittany a mistake? Many fans felt that "A Tree Grows in Lawndale" wasn't that great, because this episode was used to develop a character that most fans felt was one-dimensional and beyond development.

7. From my imperfect understanding, MTV offered a "Season Six" which would have only been about five or six episodes long. Also, from the same understanding, you didn't want to go forward with that, preferring to wrap up the series with a movie tying loose ends and moving on to other projects. Did you have any ideas for these "Season Six" episodes, if they existed?

8. If either MTV or any other cable network offered to supply you with the finances and backing to bring "Daria" back to the small screen with original episodes, would you do it? Or do you not wish to return to the same ground?

9. From my imperfect understanding, you had a hand in the editing of all episodes. Was your editing limited to making comments or did you add dialogue to a script? Were there any instances where you were dissatisfied with the contributions of a free-lance writer and had to rewrite the episode substantially?

10. Did MTV tell you that there were any topics that were taboo in "Daria"? If so, what were they? How much creative freedom did you have at MTV?

11. Outside of Daria, which character was most like you? Some fans believe that Tom Sloane is modeled after you.

12. Was MTV ever dissatisfied with an episode? Did they ever demand cuts, and if so, what ended up on the cutting room floor?

13. What was the funniest story that happened during the writing/production/voicework of an episode?

14. You were lucky enough to have Carson Daly, Bif Naked, and Dave Grohl as guest voice actors. Was there any other famous guest voice actor that you ALMOST got, but didn't?

15. Were Jane or Quinn ever sexually active? We know that Jane made out in the laundry room with Bobby Bighead during "The Invitation" and that Quinn talked about her "movie-burger-backseat" escapades in "Esteemsters".

16. Is DeMartino a good teacher, or a bad teacher?

17. Why do most fans consider you the sole creator of Daria, and not Susie Lewis Lynn as at least a contributor?

18. Many fans railed at the airing of "The New Kid". Were you ever aware of the fan outroar? Were you taken aback by it?

19. Would you do a commentary track if Daria finally comes to DVD?

20. Why do Jake and Helen manage to stay together? We know they have a lot of sexual chemistry, but the impression is that Jake is clueless and contributes little to the running of the household. Helen appears to be the major breadwinner and household manager. Jake seems to have it easy.

21. Why aren't there any great male characters in the show? There doesn't seem to be a single strong male character on Daria, whereas many of the women are very strong-minded.

New Daria Fan Site

By "ioxmo". Right here .

Some fan art by "ioxmo":



And with some of the files on Daria's Domain, I've finally updated some information about Daria's first appearance on Beavis and Butt-head. Her first line was NOT "Anal electrocution -- 50 thousand volts up the butt!" Here is the scene from "Sign Here" where Daria first appears.

(Bell rings. We see an exterior of Highland High School.)

Van Driessen: "Now people, do you know what I mean when I say that animals are sentient creatures? Daria?"

Daria: "They think and feel just like us?"

(Beavis is hitting Butt-Head with a ruler. He goes "Aaaah!!" and tries to hit Beavis with a book, but misses. Beavis giggles. "Mweheheheh!" This action goes on back and forth for some time, without stopping.)

Van Driessen: "Well, just like most of us, anyways. And that brings us....

(video interrupted: sorry. JRB)

Van Driessen: "Who can tell me how they kill these poor little animals that they use to make those furs? Anybody?"

Daria: "Anal electrocution?"

Van Driessen: "That's correct."

Beavis: "What's that mean? Heh mweheheh!"

Van Driessen: "Tell the class, Daria."

Daria: "Fifty thousand volts up the butt!"

(Daria smiles, contented as the rest of the class ooohs and aaahs. Beavis and Butthead cackle.)

Butt-Head: "That'd be cool!"

Happy Birthday, Don-O....

From The Daria News Archive :

Fuelling suspicions that their scheduling process is to pick up any handy tape from a nearby box, the UK free-to-air digital channel TMF, who recently showed several episodes from Season Five of DARIA in their Saturday morning slot, yesterday showed PARTNER'S COMPLAINT, the first episode of Season Four.

At the PPMB:

Happy 41st Birthday to Don-O!
Richard Lobinske completed Part 2 of "John Lane 3 - New Model Year".
E. A. Smith is up to Part 8 of "The Tempest".

At SFMB: Roentgen completed a new chapter of "Legion of Lawndale Heroes".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Crisis in Infinite Lawndales" by Ranchoth
"John Lane 1 - John" by Richard Lobinske
"Queen of the Machines - Chapter 2 - The Plans of Mice and Men" by Psychotol (NC-17)

Pleasant Valley Sunday

At PPMB:

E. A. Smith has added Part 6 of "The Tempest".
Richard Lobinske has completed Part 1 of "John Lane - New Model Year".

At SFMB, The Great Saiyaman added five more pages to his erotic comic.

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Roofies Roulette" by Psychotol
"The Space Between" by Ruthless Bunny
"Queen of the Machines - Chapter 1 - Can't Shoot, Won't Shoot " by Psychotol (NC-17)

Fan art: an Easter Egg preview by Thea Zara....

Interesting fan art page found by The Angst Guy: at this link (art doesn't fit on blogger very well).

Happy 14th Birthday, Daria!!

Today is the 14th anniversary of the very first appearance of Daria in any cartoon. She appeared in the Beavis and Butt-Head episode "Sign Here" on March 19, 1991.
From CF's essay, "Beavis and Butt-Head and Daria":

Mr. Van Driessen is attempting to keep a furrier out of town, and asks Daria how they kill animals:

Daria: "Anal electrocution. Fifty-thousand volts up the butt!"

Daria is characteristically pleased with the discomfort this graphic description causes.

Outpost Daria has updated just in time for the celebration. Newly updated material can be found here .

At PPMB:

The Angst Guy completed Chapter 16 of "Drive".
E. A. Smith completed Part 5 of "The Tempest".
Mike Xeno completed Part 7 of "Sarcasm at 1600".
Richard Lobinske completed "Falling Into College 30 - A Part That's Gained".

At SFMB: Roentgen completed a new chapter of "Legion of Lawndale Heroes".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know" by Ruthless Bunny
"The Slacker Without" by Ruthless Bunny
"C'est La Vie" by Ronin

Note: The Angst Guy sent an interesting fan site to me by mail, but I didn't bring it to work. So I'll post it later.

One More Day

Greybird has some excellent advise regarding the subject of obtaining Daria tape collections/DVD collections on eBay. No one can say you were not warned:

~ Check the feedback comments. The first, last, and most important rule of using eBay. They, along with the percentage of negatives (never deal with someone under 95% positive), are the most revealing tool you have.

~ If they've gotten over 5 positive comments and have been members of eBay less than a month, beware. Check some of the recent sales listings in their feedback report. Some trade "sales" of a pie recipe or a piece of Windows wallpaper graphics for 1 cent each to build up false feedback.

More generally, keep in mind that the tracings and prosecutions almost always go toward the copiers, not the buyers. Those that copy systematically are the ones bending or breaking the laws.

Finally, I have to note that making backup copies for your personal use is entirely legal, but bartering those copies -- even if no money changes hands -- is not legal. No more so with copies of TV shows or CDs than with thus trading your backup copy of, say, Microsoft Word, where the license agreement also specifically forbids your doing it. So even when trading, be cautious about where and with whom you deal.

Richard Lobinske completed Part 2 of "Falling Into College 30 - A Part That's Gained".

The Great Saiyaman added two pages to his Daria erotic comic on SFMB.

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"The Love Nest" by Ronin
"Daria Night Fever" by Ronin
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 29 - Turkey Day" by Ruthless Bunny

The Apocalypse

From "ipswichfan" on alt.tv.daria:

The N thinks it's OK to show an episode of "Degrassi" where two teen boys
kiss (this past Tuesday). But a cartoon character saying "Dammit" is
unacceptable?

On PPMB:

The Angst Guy completed Chapter 15 of "Drive".
E. A. Smith completed Part 4 of "The Tempest".

I always swore that when people started dressing up in Daria costumes, it would be the end of the world. It seems that "Under Sedation", the Sacramento Rocky Horror Group (last website update in 2001) has beaten us to it. I'll show you the pics, and the labels on the January 22, 2000 performance....

"Next, on Sick Sad World...."

Daria and Jane

"Hey Jane, let's go for pizza!"
...
Deviants.

Glenn Eichler Answers Fan Mysteries!!!

Go to DVDaria to get the scoop! MAJOR QUESTIONS ANSWERED!!!

From The Irony Maiden :

The THREE MINUTES FOR DARIA project now includes support for fans in North America. A new pre-formatted letter is now available for download, for fans to complete and send to the publisher who issued the Region One DVDs of the two DARIA movies.

E. A. Smith is up to Part 3 on "The Tempest".
Richard Lobinske completed Part 1 of "Falling Into College 30 - A Part That's Gained".

The Sheep's Fluff has updated. Fan author pages have been updated, and psychotol has been added as an author.

Roentgen completed a new part of "Legion of Lawndale Heroes".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Trent's Girlfriends" by Ruthless Bunny
"Freakin' Friend" by Ruthless Bunny
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 28 - Home Sweet Home" by Ruthless Bunny

Fan art: From Ranger Thorne -- Jane as Helen:

Afternoon

Some results of the new survey at The Irony Maiden have been released at alt.tv.daria.

Fan art: by Caitlin Deering.

Three More Days...

At the PPMB:

Wraith completed another part of "FBCB".
Deceleraptor completed "A Rift in Time".
E. A. Smith completed Part 2 of "The Tempest".
sleepless completed Chapter 24 of "Yuki-Onna".
The Angst Guy completed Chapter 14 of "Drive".
DJW completed Chapter 1 of "The Dammitall Run".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"The Secret Life of Jake Morgendorffer" by Ruthless Bunny
"Jane Muyo (No Need for Jane)" by Ruthless Bunny
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 27 - Career Day" by Ruthless Bunny

There is an interesting thread called "Why I'm Here" started by The Angst Guy on the PPMB where The Daria Fandom Blog gets a mention!

Fan art: Jane as a pin-up bunny, by Isabelle Young-Johnson:

Daria Storyboard

sleepless completed Chapter 24 of "Yuki-Onna".

Art: an actual Daria storyboard.

"Alien Heritage" Completed

At PPMB:

E. A. Smith started "The Tempest", the sequel to the "Love's Labours" trilogy.
Richard Lobinske completed "Alien Heritage".
The Angst Guy completed Chapter 13 of "Drive".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"The Beauty and the Brain - Chapter 05 - On The Fifth Day" by Ronin (NC-17)
"Falling Into College 27 - Lost Eagles Found" by Richard Lobinske
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 26 - Everyone Goes To Trent’s" by Ruthless Bunny

Added to Fanfiction.net:

"A Most Favored Man" by chubby redburn

Fan art: Jane, from Alexandria A. Lee-Goldman. The original image is here .

Daria and Jane

Ranger Thorne posted two parts of his "Baby Lane" story on SFMB.

Fan art: Daria and Jane from "sharon". The original pic is here

The Weekend Is Over

Deceleraptor completed another part of "A Rift in Time".
Richard Lobinske completed Part 18 of "Alien Heritage".
At SFMB, The Great Saiyaman completed two more pages of his erotic Daria comic.

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Falling Into College 26 - Boston Baked Band" by Richard Lobinske
"The Beauty and the Brain - Chapter 04 - On The Fourth Day" by Ronin (NC-17)
"The Beauty and the Brain - Chapter 03 - On The Third Day" by Ronin (NC-17)
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 25 - The Last Waltz" by Ruthless Bunny

Added to Fanfiction.net

Chapter 3 of "Fashion Club Crisis: Sandi's Secret Admirer" by Imaj Inaya

More Fan Fiction

Interesting discussion at the DVDaria Blog.

At the PPMB:

The Angst Guy completed Chapter 12 of "Drive".
Greystar completed another chapter of "Daria 3059".
Richard Lobinske completed Part 17 of "Alien Heritage".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 25 - The Last Waltz" by Ruthless Bunny
Artwork by Ranchoth
"Living Dead Girls 2: Corporate Seizure" by psychotol

Added to Fanfiction.net:

"Fashion Club Crisis: Sandi's Secret Admirer" by Imaj Inaya
"Relazations Come in Time" by crazed spyromaniac

Critic's note: "Fashion Club Crisis" by Imaj Inaya on Fanfiction.net is definitely worth reading. It's a good story, and the author should be encouraged to write more. Please give it a look and make comments.

Saturday Morning Updates

The DVDaria Blog has updated.

At the PPMB:

Greystar completed another part of "Daria 3059".
Richard Lobinske completed Part 16 of "Alien Heritage".
The Angst Guy completed Chapter 10 of "Drive".

At the SFMB:

Roentgen completed a new part of "Legion of Lawndale Heroes".
Ranger Thorne completed a new part of his "Daria's Web" sequel.

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"The Brain and the Beauty - Chapter 02 - On The Second Day" by Ronin (NC-17)
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 24 - Giant Saturday" by Ruthless Bunny
Artwork by Richard Lobinske

Awake

Snow advisory for Friday and Saturday in Kentucky. So I'm back at the control panel. The plan was to buy my mother a computer, since she was interested in getting online. However, I discovered my mother was about to use a free AOL DISK. If anyone has a good idea for a non-AOL ISP, let me know.

Dr. Mike at The Daria-Jane Conspiracy is moving the site back onto a server. His comments:

Two bits of bad news though. While I'll have nearly unlimited bandwidth, the amount of traffic will be capped at 3 megs/ sec. Not sure how that will effect people visiting the sites. Also I get to spend the weekend moving over 140 websites. Manually. And having to run a convert program on each backup since we're moving from a CPAnel server to a DirectAdmin one. Lots of fun.

Sites may be up and down this weekend. Just wanted to let everyone know.

At PPMB:

Richard Lobinske completed Part 15 of "Alien Heritage".
Lawndale Stalker completed four more parts of "Kidnapped".
Deceleraptor completed Part 4 of "A Rift in Time".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Living Dead Girls" by psychotol
"The Brain and the Beauty- Chapter 01" by Ronin (NC-17)
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 23 - Power Play" by Ruthless Bunny

Fan art (?): Unknown image (fan art? screen capture? video game?) from Daria's Domain . (Warning: site is probably dead.)

Blogger Lives....

...but right now, I don't. I'll be heading out of town on Friday and Saturday, so the Daria Fandom Blog is going to sleep for a bit.

We now return you to the open thread already in progress.

Three Minutes for Daria

From Martin Sylvester's Daria News Archive :

A new phase of the campaign to get DARIA on DVD began today. The THREE MINUTES FOR DARIA project is aimed mainly at fans living in the UK and Europe, and asks them to spend three minutes downloading, printing, and completing a pre-formatted letter to post to the UK distributor which published DARIA videos.

At PPMB:

Wraith completed another chapter of "FBCB".
Richard Lobinske completed Part 14 of "Alien Heritage".

There is an interesting thread on PPMB called "If Daria Had Been Created By Someone Else". The idea is "what if a famous author wrote a Daria episode?" We've been treated to Ayn Rand, the Bronte sisters, Arthur Conan Doyle and Fyodor Dostoevsky so far.


Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

More work by Ruthless Bunny
"Talil" by Guy Payne
Daria AIM Chat Instructions by Dr. Mike

mouse art

Dr. Mike added Daria wallpapers from "The-N" to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy.

DJW completed "Chapter 0" of "The Dammitall Run".

Fan art: More art by "mouse", this time of Jane:

Sequelalia

Deceleraptor completed Part 3 of "A Rift in Time".

Lawndale Stalker completed two more parts of "Kidnapped".

Richard Lobinske complete Part 13 of "Alien Heritage".

Ray completed a new part of "Tyrant's Coronation".

Ranger Thorne added two new parts to his "Daria's Web" sequel.

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy: More work by Ruthless Bunny.

Fan art: Daria, by "mouse":

Deref Dariacon

Australian fan Deref will be making stops in Ohio, Illinois, and Georgia. If you want to join other Daria fans in a meet-up in any of these states, go to PPMB and find the appropriate threads in General Forum.

Slow Roll

The Angst Guy is at home recovering from pneumonia. We wish him the best here at the DFB.

Deceleraptor completed Parts 1 and 2 of "A Rift in Time".

Richard Lobinske completed Part 12 of "Alien Heritage".

Ranger Thorne completed another part of "Daria’s Web: The Burglar in the Black Tight-Tights".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy: a lot of work by Ruthless Bunny.

Daria's Web

Ranger Thorne has started a new installment of "Daria's Web" called "The Burglar in the Black Tight-Tights".

Fan art: Jane "Wild One" Lane by Ranger Thorne:

Daria Chat Channel Changes Settings

Daria International at The Irony Maiden has been updated.

The current IRC Daria Chat Channel, hosted at #daria+ on IRC, is changing its server settings from cookie.sorcery.net to iuturna.sorcery.net. Change your server settings if necessary.

Martin Sylvester's old survey on alt.tv.daria usage can be found here . There is a new survey from Fr. Martin located here , so cast your votes now!

Kara Wild has updated the DVDaria Blog and given readers a new mission. And I will say that this mission will be a difficult one.

The Angst Guy completed Chapter 9 of "Drive".

Richard Lobinske completed Part 11 of "Alien Heritage".

Lawndale Stalker completed another part of "Kidnapped".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Twenty Minutes into the Future" by Ruthless Bunny
"Dear Tom" by Ruthless Bunny
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 19 - The Sweetheart of Sweet Oak" by Ruthless Bunny
"In the Moonlight - Chapter 03 - Sealed With a Kiss" by Ruthless Bunny

MTV UK Starts Showing "Daria"

Copied right from The Daria News Archive :

In a blaze of obscurity, pay channel MTV UK today started showing Season Five of DARIA, bringing to three the number of UK channels presently showing that season. Alert fans spotted DARIA on the Sky Electronic Programme Guide: listings services, relying on information supplied to them by MTV, had no indication that DARIA was to be shown this morning. Even the online listings at the MTV UK website gave no hint that DARIA was to return.

Update: A DariaCon has been arranged in Atlanta, GA for April 29th and April 30th. Contact Jeff Gregory (ahmygoddess) on the thread at the PPMB devoted to Deref's visit to the United States.

Wraith completed another segment of "FBCB".

Richard Lobinske completed Part 10 of "Alien Heritage".

Lawndale Stalker completed two more parts of "Kidnapped".

Roentgen completed a new part of "Legion of Lawndale Heroes".

Ray completed a new segment of "Tyrant's Coronation".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Beneath the Giant Strawberry" by Ruthless Bunny
"A Change in Plans" by Ruthless Bunny
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 18 - Get Real" by Ruthless Bunny
"In the Moonlight - Chapter 02 - The Long Hot Summer" by Ruthless Bunny

Fan art: "Darius", this time by Ranchoth.

Ten "Fandoms"

Funky thought exercise: If you put the phrase below in quotes along with the word "fandom" in a Google search, you get the following number of hits. I claim that these numbers are a fairly relative representation of the strength of each fandom. (I would enjoy hearing dissenting opinions.)

"Star Wars" -- 133,000
"Star Trek" -- 105,000
"Harry Potter" -- 76,400
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" -- 23,200
"Smallville" -- 15,600
"Doctor Who" -- 14,800
"The Prisoner" -- 7,430
"Rocky Horror" -- 4,340
"Bullwinkle" -- 2,250
"Daria" -- 2,200
"Super Friends" -- c. 350

It appears that 4,000 is at least the threshold for public recognition. (I'm sure more people are familiar with Rocky Horror than Bullwinkle.) Rocky Horror fandom is notorious for its excesses, but not really for the strength of anything except audience participation and throwing toast. 7,000 seems to be the threshold where a fandom can hold conventions. (The "Six of One" society holds a convention of Prisoner fans in Wales each year.) 23,000 seems to be the threshold where you can bring a series back to life, re Buffy. 70,000 seems to be the point where you can command an enormous cash flow and can make movies.

We have a long way to go.

Up to Season Five

UK free-to-air digital channel TMF today moved on to Season Five of Daria. They recently showed several episodes from Season Four, and today they skipped the Season Five premiere "Fizz Ed" and showed "Sappy Anniversary" instead. (Big thumbs up to The Daria News Archive .)

Richard Lobinske completed Part 9 of "Alien Heritage".

Lawndale Stalker completed two more parts of "Kidnapped".

The Great Saiyaman is up to page 17 of his erotic Daria comic on SFMB.

Napalm Kracken completed Part 1 of "MTV's True Life: I Was a Marvel Anti-hero" (a Daria/Punisher crossover).

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Spiraling Out of Control" by Ruthless Bunny
"Shipping Out" by Martin Pollard
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 17 - Bonzo Goes to College" by Ruthless Bunny
"In the Moonlight - Chapter 01" by Ruthless Bunny

Is 'Burnout Girl''s Real Name 'Jennifer'?

The Angst Guy speculates that 'Burnout Girl' often seen in Daria episodes (long blond hair over face) might be named 'Jennifer' based on information seen in 'Cafe Disaffecto' (Episode 104).

Some credit was given to the Daria Encyclopedia. "Version 0.0", which is only complete up to 1/2 of "Art Burn", is temporarily stored at dariaencyclopedia.blogspot.com . (Note: this is a huge file and takes a long time to download, even with DSL.)

The Great Saiyaman completed Pages 14 and 15 of his Daria erotic comic over at SFMB.

Roentgen completed a new chapter of "Legion of Lawndale Heroes".

Fan art: Illustrations by psychotol of the above at this thread on SFMB.

Tiffany's World

SteveBlumDeckler has called for beta readers for "Tiffany to the Rescue", the third work of fan fiction under the "Tiffany's World" tent.

Dr. Mike wrote Chapter 4 of "Cynic Hood - The DVD Version".

Richard Lobinske completed Part 8 of "Alien Heritage".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Next Time, This Time" by Robert Nowall
"The Lawndale Tango" by The New Kids on the Cell Block

Fan art: The Angst Guy's "Darius" by Richard Lobinske

The Hunt for Ashley Albert

For the eighth anniversary of Daria going to air, I decided I would look up what the cast is up to right now. The best place for that, of course, is the Internet Movie Data Base .

I noticed that the Ashley Albert entry had been updated. Ashley Albert (formerly known as "Echo" and "Petunia") did two voices for Daria, those of Mrs. Barch and Tiffany Blum-Deckler.

Supposedly, Ms. Albert is now doing the voice work for "Hey! Spring of Trivia" on Spike TV. She is dubbing the voice of Megumi -- see the 6th photo in the Flipbook on the "Hey! Spring of Trivia" page . If you can't get to the flipbook, Megumi is the female in the lower left hand corner.

This is the second of two Japanese series purchased by Spike TV. The first is "MXC", which is simply an endurance game show redubbed with funny lines instead of the original dialogue. "Hey! Spring of Trivia", on the other hand, is a Japanese trivia show where the dialogue will be dubbed accurately.

The next episode is very early in the morning at 1 AM EST on Sunday, March 6th. I don't know if Ashley Albert is dubbing the voice. I'll tape the show, and check the credits. It's very likely, since Spike TV is headquartered at 1515 Broadway along with MTV.

Happy Eighth Anniversary

In honor of the eighth anniversary of the airing of Daria, the Blogger Gods were angry -- they ate my entire summary after I posted it. It seems that the only ones who love Daria are Daria fans. Let me see what I can remember....

...there were new things posted at TDJC and fanfiction.net. Go there.

ahmygoddess returned to PPMB.

There is a new Daria fans site at dariapage.com .

New installments of stories by Lawndale Stalker, Wraith, The Angst Guy, sleepless and Richard Lobinske.

I linked to an article in Salon , written March 1997 (maybe the Blogger Gods just don't like Salon). I post the last paragraph, without comment:

There was a stinging scene in the "Daria" pilot in which Daria and Jane recited for the self-esteem teacher the correct thinking on body image: "There is no such thing as the right weight or the right height. There's only what's right for me. Because that's who I am." Their contempt for this P.C. Pollyanna-ism was so thick you could almost see it oozing out of the screen. They know it's bullshit. They watch MTV.

How to Find Dirty Daria Stuff

Someone in the comments wanted to know how to find Daria erotica. I don't know if they really didn't KNOW where to find it, or just wanted to know if I'd say where it was.

Technically, this is a PG-rated blog. Maybe PG-13. I reserve the right to say "f**k" when I want to without using the asterisks (I'm typing at work -- the walls have eyes).

But I won't post hentai art. I'll link to it in extreme cases, or point out where to find it (for example, the current work by The Great Saiyaman can be found at SFMB).

Still, if you don't know where to look, here's a starting point:

a) Go to The Front Page of the Sheep's Fluff .
b) Click on the link leading to "Mistress Daria's Dungeon".
c) You will see an interesting picture of Daria. The Mistress will ask you if you are over 18. Only God and yourself know the answer to that. If you ARE over 18, you may proceed to the dungeon. There, you'll find your share of filth. ('Filth' being a value-neutral term.)

You can also find the scorched remnants of the FIRST Daria erotica site called "Lawndale After Dark". Don't go walking around after dark. You don't know what you'll find on the streets of Lawndale.

One Day Away....

Wraith completed another part of "FBCB".

The Angst Guy completed Chapter 7 of "Drive".

Lawndale Stalker completed another part of Chapter 4 of "Kidnapped".

Richard Lobinske completed Part 6 of "Alien Heritage".

The Great Saiyaman completed Page 13 of his new Daria erotic comic on SFMB.

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 15 - Logland" by Ruthless Bunny
"Iron Cynic - Chapter 08 - Once Upon A Time In Lawndale - Part 1" by DJW
"Iron Cynic - Chapter 07 - Deadpan Master" by DJW
"Like Father, Like ---" by The Angst Guy

Added to Fanfiction.net:

Chapters 1 and 2 of "Be Careful What You Wish For" by Angelinhel

Fan art: Daria, Jane, and Darren from Steven Galloway's "Visitations" (art by Wouter Jaegers):

In Two Days

In two days is the 8th anniversary of the first airing of "Daria" on MTV. "Esteemsters" first aired on March 3, 1997.

Serials With Roasted Nuts

The Angst Guy and Thomas Mikkelsen have pointed out two new trends in Daria fan fiction.

The first of these trends is that the stories have been moving from "canon" portrayals to what can best be called "science-fiction/fantasy". More and more of the new Daria fiction works are either set in the future, or in clearly alternate universes, or use science-fiction to move the story along. It's almost hard to think of a story in the past three months that DIDN'T have one of these hooks.

Undoubtedly, the reason this is happening is because the series is no longer open-ended. It's over, five seasons and we're all done. Everything that we're going to find out about the characters has supposedly been found out. As a result, writers are trying to step outside the bounds of the Lawndale High School universe and use the characters in other ways.

So what do I think? Well, I like some of the stories and I don't like others. A science fiction story can be great, but even science fiction can be tiresome after a while. There are still many unanswered questions from the series -- what is Andrea's home life like, how serious was Daria's "Montana Cabin Fund"?, did Quinn really give it away on dates (movie-burger-backseat) or were the Fashion Club virginal untouchables? I would like to see more "on canon" stories; what I want to see most of all is well written stories.

The second trend is what I call the "serial". For purposes of discussion, a "serial" is a story which comes in segments and for which the end date is unknown. The Angst Guy has explicitly called "Drive" a serial; I believe this is the first work of Daria fan fiction given that designation.

Serials have actually been around for a long time. The Look-Alike Series, The New Teacher Series, all sorts of episodic continuations could be called "serials". I would call these serials "open-ended serials" - serials where no end date is actually planned; the stories could theoretically go on forever. In which case, the "chapters" or "parts" are simply separate works of fan fiction and should be treated as such. "Bed and Breakfast Man" and "Falling Into College" are future serials that have at least 20 parts each and it is unlikely that either author has a definite, fixed conclusion planned.

I suspect, however, that we are entering the age of the "closed-ended serial". A closed-ended serial has actually been plotted out, the author knows how it's going to end. The only question is, "when will the author bring it to an end?" Examples could be "Kidnapped" by Lawndale Stalker and "Shadow of a Cynic" by Ranger Thorne, "FBCB" by Wraith, and I'm sure others can be named.

So are we to treat each chapter as a separate work of fan fiction? The chapters are released, sporadically, and readers are asked for feedback. Mr. Mikkelsen wanted to know, I assume, why writers had this overwhelming need for positive feedback (ego strokes) before releasing new chapters. The implication being, the reason that the story isn't released entirely intact is that the writer needs the ego boost.

Science-fiction fandom, in the story "The Enchanted Duplicator", has its protagonist look for the "egg o'boo" (ego-boo, or 'ego boost') at the end of his long allegorical travels. Comments are really one of the only tangible rewards for writing in fan fiction, and I don't think that it's ENTIRELY a bad thing to release a story piecemeal that isn't actually an open-ended serial. However, I would hope that writers were made of stronger stuff.

The problem is a "cheapening of the coin of the realm" -- giving good comments unreservedly results in a flood of bad fan fiction. This leads us into the entire murky water of "constructive criticism" -- what it means, and if such a thing really exists at all. No one writes to GET bad comments; the question is that if the writer is really writing for feedback (instead of just ego-boosts), then bad comments shouldn't be a problem at all -- they can only help the story.

My thought exercise -- what if some of the serials on both PPMB and SFMB got real criticism? Would the writers be glad for any feedback? Would they stop writing? How close to the bone are you permitted to cut when delivering critism? A very important question, particularly on PPMB, the most heavily moderated of the Daria message boards.

SFMB Temporarily Down

SFMB came up with some "Bandwidth Exceeded" messages on February 28th. The site is back up now.

There is an interesting thread about "Helen and Quinn's Future Relationship" in the Deep Thoughts section of PPMB.

Wraith completed a new segment of "FBCB".

Lawndale Stalker has completed two new sections of "Kidnapped".

Richard Lobinske has completed Parts 4 and 5 of "Alien Heritage".

Added to The Daria-Jane Conspiracy:

"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 14 - Dream House" by Ruthless Bunny
"Iron Cynic - Chapter 06 - One Day is All I Ask" by DJW
"Anatomy of a Tom Hater" by Kara Wild
"A Star in the East Window" by Guy Payne
"Bed and Breakfast Man - Chapter 13 - I Declare" by Ruthless Bunny

Added to Fanfiction.net:

Chapter 3 of "Switched" by Mirei Nochi
"Perfect" by Angelinhel
Chapter 4 of "What Happens Next?" by Kaimelar Feylove