Saturday, July 30, 2005
The Homestretch
Coming into the last week of school (Finals) and then a week of vacation in sunny Las Vegas. If anything here has been duplicated by Greybird, many apologies.
The Daria Shrine updated on July 22. Click here to see what's new.
Outpost Daria updated on July 25. Click here to see what's new.
The guestbook at Glitter Berries will become moderated due to the arrival of guestbook spammers.
Ranchoth has created "The (Mostly) Non-Smutty Daria Slashfic Page" at this link. (We hope it is updated frequently, and if it is, it might get added to the left list of links.)
A new International Forum is being planned at the PPMB, which would be a place where foreign-language speakers could have Daria discussion in their native languages. However, Ms. Wild is looking for some help with moderation issues.
At the PPMB:
Scissors MacGillicutty wrote a short ficlet based on "Darkness" by The Angst Guy.
The Angst Guy completed Chapter 12 (Part II) of "Darkness".
Richard Lobinske completed Part 5 of "Falling Into College 37: Refrieze".
At the SFMB:
The Great Saiyaman completed Page 12 of "Party at Lindy's" in the hidden section.
Napalm Kracken completed Part II of "Daria Disenfranchised".
Added to Fanfiction.net:
Chapter 4 of "The gettogheter of Hell" by evy29.
Friday, July 29, 2005
Three Unexplained Mysteries
For some of us, anyway:
~ Why did Quinn feel, when seeing the guys' bare chests, that she had to go to the bathroom? (Apart from Deref's alternate explanation.)
~ If Lawndale is (per Glenn Eichler) on the East Coast, how did Jane and the band manage to get arrested by a Texas Ranger only 100 miles from home?
~ Who's Nick?
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Use No. 47: Skeet Shooting
at the Sloanes’ Country Club
Outpost Daria updated on Monday, 25 July. (James will soon note this at left.)
At PPMB:
~ Some vocal reactions to the "Darkness" serial by The Angst Guy provoked so much comment (see DFB comments, 24 July) that the thread has gone over 300 posts. A second thread has begun, and one more chapter is said by TAG to remain. The serial has even inspired a spin-off "ficlet" in another thread.
~ Eric Smith has posted the e-interview with Brother Grimace about his incest-and-angst story, "The Winters of Those Gone Before."
~ A popular "General Forum" thread asks what PPMB users do for a living.
~ Ranchoth just now announced a "collection of (mostly) non-smutty Daria slashfics." The page is here. ... I noted the link because I'm still not sure, under the PPMB rules for this kind of link, whether or not it will be allowed to stay posted over there. I'm sure Kara will tell us.
~ A link to a "how old do you act" quiz brings to mind Jane's relevant query, "Who's Eunice?" I'm 46, by the way, but act 33. (Take note, Thea {g})
~ A new Iron Chef asks for exploring kindness -- and "no good deed goes unpunished" -- among "Daria" characters.
~ Another, more whimsical Iron Chef asks what the "Daria" characters would do with the mountains of America Online CD-ROM discs we all receive.
~ "Daria 3059" by Greystar (no relation, by the way) is up through Chapter 10.
~ RLobinske's "Falling Into College" 36, "Christmas Melody," has finished, and 37, "Refrieze," has reached Part 4. His "First Summer" 3, "Fun on the Fourth," also proceeds.
At SFMB:
~ NapalmKracken posted a "'Daria' live action movie" script, "Disenfranchised," starting from Our Heroine's Highland days.
~ Another Tafka redo-this-one art challenge uses a screen-grab of Jane in a fetching blue dress -- shame on Nathan for being so dense -- from "Life in the Past Lane."
~ Psychotol has begun "Living Dead Girls 5: Chaos."
Stylings
The SFMB "Fan Art" thread with a creative-redo challenge (noted 19 July) is bearing fruit. Take a look at two of the entries, from BeatnikShaggy and TerraEsperZ:
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Vonnegut’s Rules
Note: there will be no more updates as to what is going on in Daria fandom (unless Greybird wants to lend a hand) until at least Friday afternoon. I apologize.
However, since a) the DFB was inspired by someone's initial suggestion that there should be a Daria writer's blog, and b) the recent "Darkness" brouhaha, I stumbled across Kurt Vonnegut's "Eight Rules for Writing Fiction". Pay close attention to #6.
Eight rules for writing fiction:
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
-- Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1999), 9-10
Discuss / fight.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Things What I Did
1. Got rid of the broken counter on the left hand side. (I reserve the right to put in a new counter.)
2. Fixed the attribution, so that new posts are automatically attributed to the person writing them.
3. Procrastinated yet again on studying for these damnable tests.
Friday, July 22, 2005
More Disc-tinction at Paramount?
New Paramount studio head Brad Grey is shaking things up. A profile of him appeared in the 18 July Los Angeles Times.
Two items that may be encouraging to long-waiting "Daria" fans (and remember, he's also in charge of Paramount Home Video):
One of the first complaints Brad Grey heard when he took over Paramount Pictures in March was about DVD prices.(The story link may not last beyond 25 July for non-registrants at latimes.com.)
Workers were charged more to buy the discs on the studio lot than at a Best Buy or Target store. From now on, Grey decreed, prices would be wholesale.
"I didn't think it was necessary to make a profit on our employees," Grey said.
[...] Long term, Grey vows to build an aggressive specialty film group, churn out more DVDs from Paramount's film and TV library, and better enlist such Viacom networks as MTV and Nickelodeon to promote Paramount movies worldwide.
Posted by Greybird ... no relation, sorry (time in PDT below)
“It's me, Obi-Wan ... Dar”
At PPMB ...
~ Martin Pollard announced a planned Outpost Daria update, this Monday evening, 25 July. He asked for any current fan-works submissions by Monday "at the very latest."
~ An essay by DJW on "Daria and the Marvel Universe" expands upon her appearances in the Beavis & Butthead comic books (published by Marvel) and suggests crossovers, parallels, and all sorts of cosmic and publishing karma.
~ Richard Lobinske's "John Lane 8" is listed as being finished.
~ TAG's "Darkness" post-apocalypse serial is up to Part 10.
~ Yet another "Scenes No Daria Fic Should Ever Have" thread is about to close after 300 posts. (Kem, by the way, is archiving these at her Glitter Berries site.)
~ Mike Xeno has a new Iron Chef based on a British series that he says is akin to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in irreverence. "Red Dwarf" uses a "Better Than Life" story device that
doesn't give you what you say you want, or even what you think you want - it gives you what you really want, dredging the depths of your subconscious for your innermost desires, both subtle and gross.
At SFMB ...
~ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has no fewer than three discussion threads going in The Written Word. ... Would Daria have ever fit in at Hogwarts, I wonder?
~ Fan art from "SRA," who's asking for viewers to identify this setting from the "Star Wars" milieu:
(By the way, right-click and choose "View Image" or the equivalent to see the full-size graphic.)
Posted by Greybird (time in PDT below)
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
New Kid on the Blog
Well, let's see how this goes, shall we?
At PPMB ...
~ Congratulations to John Takis, whose third commercially published "Star Trek" short story (in the "Strange New Worlds" story contest) has now qualified him for membership in the Science Fiction Writers of America.
~ An intriguing thread on "Quinn's difficulty with physical contact" has been moved to Deep Thoughts.
~ A new Iron Chef, "Smoke 'em if you've got 'em" (characters committing suicide), and a revived one, "I guess it runs in the family" (based on "I Don't").
~ Richard Lobinske is up to Part 4 of "John Lane 8 - Killing a Legend."
~ "Where's Mary Sue When You Need Her?" is at Part 4.
~ A new poll asks: "Who Rules: Nurses, Lifeguards, Cheerleaders, or Barmaids?"
At SFMB ...
~ Tafka is running a challenge, wanting to elicit artists' distinctive styles from their creatively copying a piece of "Daria" video box art, from "The Old and the Beautiful."
(That VHS tape, by the way, "School Dysfunctions," was one of several sold only outside of North America, in PAL-standard format.)
Added to fanfiction.net ...
~ "Twisted Sister" by Janet Martini
According to The Irony Maiden, "Daria" has risen back to 19th place in the we-want-DVDs tabulation at tvshowsondvd.com, "after nearly a month at number twenty."
And finally, I hope to be able to help out frequently with Dariadom reports and some spurs to interesting discussion topics. It's a pleasure to do this with J.B.
Posted by Greybird (time in PDT below)
Sunday, July 17, 2005
A Day of Rest (?)
The Big Screen/Little Screen forum at the PPMB has been renamed "Weapons of Mass Distraction". Movies, television, and now books may be discussed there.
At the PPMB:
Scissors MacGillicutty continued "Where's Mary Sue When You Need Her?"
cyke completed "The Mighty Moronic Power Rangers!"
The Angst Guy completed Part 9 of "Darkness".
Various authors are working on "Daria's Popular", a round-robin fanfic.
Richard Lobinske completed Parts 1 and 2 of "John Lane 8 - Killing a Legend".
At the SFMB:
The Great Saiyaman completed Pages 9 through 11 of "Party at Lindy's", a comic in the hidden sections of SFMB.
psychotol completed "Living Dead Girls 4 : Fighting Machine."
Roentgen completed Section 5.1 of "Legion of Lawndale Heroes" and also completed "The Final March".
Fan art: an avatar from Scissors MacGillicutty.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Brief Update
Recent updates to both Glitter Berries and Outpost Daria have been added to the left hand side.
Sick Sad World also updated on June 13, 2005.
Catching Up
At the PPMB:
Dennis completed the first three parts of "Imperfect Circle".
The Angst Guy completed Part 8 of "Darkness".
cyke completed Part 5 of "Masters of the Universe".
Bubba Ho-Tep completed Part 2 of "Sever".
sleepless completed Chapter 31 of "Yuki-Onna".
Deref completed "Antipodean Daria, Part II".
Scissors MacGillicutty started a "Where's Mary Sue When You Need Her?" series.
Gregor Samsa completed "The Waste Lawn(dale)".
Added to Fanfiction.net:
"Emot(i)onless" by Queen of Rants
"Spontaneous" by Janet Martini - a cute little work, nothing special, but worth reading and reviewing
Fan art: by HentaiJess
Friday, July 08, 2005
The Rebirth of Daria
For the last three years, fans have dreamed of Daria coming back on the air someday. And that might indeed happen, but not in a way we've imagined.
Most people see Daria coming back as a "sequel", where we pick up beginning with Daria's years in Boston, and presumably, an all new cast (except for Jane and some guest appearances).
However, there is the chance that twenty years from now, someone says, "Hey, why don't we bring Daria back on the air?" And they decide not to do a sequel, but rather, a REMAKE, in the same way that The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and other cartoons are perpetually remade and reimagined.
This might mean that we might see the "all-new" Daria someday in 2010. Certainly, there will be the cynical loner Daria, and her best friend Jane. Quinn has to be there for the contrast between Daria's cynical world-view and the world-view of her popularity-obsessed sister.
And really, those are the only characters who NEED to be there. One might argue that Helen is at least as important as the other three - but one could easily shift the focus away from Daria's parents and do more "Season One" type episodes, making Helen's role unnecessary or turning her into a foil for Daria. One might also argue that Quinn's role could be lessened in a reimagining, but you would have to have some other snotty, popularity seeking teenage chick (Sandi?) to give someone over whom Daria could have a sense of superiority.
So here's the discussion question: if you were in charge of "reimagining" Daria, how would you go about it? What parts of old series would be remade in the new? Which would be quietly forgotten? Which parts would be changed completely? And how would fandom handle the "Old Daria/New Daria" contrast?
Myself, I could deal with a reimagining of Daria. As long as she doesn't end up with a talking dog sidekick or the new show isn't called "Daria in Outer Space".
Daily Dirt, Part II
SteveBlumDeckler posted Parts Three and Four of Tiffany's World right here.
Various bits and pieces of incomplete Daria fanfics can be found here .
At the PPMB:
cyke completed "Masters of the Universe", Parts 3 and 4
The Angst Guy completed Parts 6 and 7 of "Darkness".
Mike Xeno completed Part 10 of "Sarcasm at 1600".
Gregor Samsa completed "The Love Song of Jake Alfred Morgendorffer".
Richard Lobinske completed "Falling Into College 36 - Christmas Melody".
At the SFMB:
atimnie completed Part 5 of "Daria's Christmas Carol" in the hidden section of SFMB.
The Great Saiyaman completed Pages 6 and 7 of "Party At Lindy's", his erotic Daria comic in the hidden section of PPMB.
psycotol began "Living Dead Girls 4: Fighting Machine".
Bubba Ho-Tep completed Part 1 of "Sever".
Fan art: theartistformerlyknownas as Daria, by SRA.
Direct Response
The DVDaria Blog has updated with new news about a possible DVD Daria release. Kara Wild reports:
Basically, the Home Video Department (of MTV) has just brought in someone who specializes in direct response, which involves ordering products over the phone. Think TIME-Life, which advertises its products in commercials with a number at the bottom of the screen for you to call...my source assured me that if Daria sold well through direct response, it could branch out into retail stores...direct response doesn't require as many units to be sold as retail in order to be considered a "success." My source told me that if it happened, MTV would advertise on various channels, including The-N, where Daria plays at 12 pm PST/3 am EST...(ny source) thought foreign fans could possibly buy DVDs through direct response if the DVDs were multi-regional.
Also, Kara Wild noted (from a link by John Takis on the PPMB), that Ain't It Cool News put up a link of the 10 shows most craved on DVD -- and Daria was there! Check out the link .
There has been some discussion as to whether forums in foreign languages would be useful on the PPMB. Click here for the discussion.
Further updates later today.
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Gone Missing?
Note: still in test mode. Test tomorrow, thus the lack of updates. Taking three core courses during the summer semester, doing well so far.
The DariaWiki seems to be down. Furthermore, drmike has not been posting either at PPMB, SFMB, or in his blog (his last blog entry was June 22nd). Has the good doctor disappeared? Anyone care to ask around at the blogs?
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Catching Up
thea zara is planning an update to The Sheep's Fluff . Click here to see what's being planned.
thea zara and Deref completed Chapter 15 of "All My Children".
At the PPMB:
Richard Lobinske completed "Claim Check".
Angelinhel completed "Still Life".
Gregor Samsa completed "The Bands of Summer Redux".
The Angst Guy completed Part 5 of "Darkness".
Brother Grimace and Greybird have had a little "exchange of opinions". A fan feud, perhaps? It has currently ended with Brother Grimace challenging Greybird to a fanfic writing challenge and Greybird declining the challenge. See this link for details.
Added to Fanfiction.net:
"Spring Breaks" by thea zara
A screen capture: Trent, in his room....
2005 Excellence In Fandom Award Winner
The 2005 Excellence in Fandom Awards are over. Information about the winner can be found here . I'll also list the winner on a left-side link.
And yes, Virginia, God help it there will be a 2006 EIF award. Nominees receiving at least 5 percent of the vote from this year will be seen on next year's ballot and the others will be dropped off. New names will take the place of the missing. I would like to thank all of those who did vote, and I hope to see in you 2006.
