Yes, we’re caught up, after much travail, at least with the recent past. Thanks again for your patience. Everything that seems to have been posted since 31 October is listed and linked below, by author or artist nickname. (Erotica is only listed.) Serial works are complete unless noted.

(For Glitter Berries, Kem did a large catch-up update herself before going on hiatus for several months, so I didn’t try to determine what had been created more recently.)

We don’t plan on doing this kind of catch-up again, so look for more frequent updates throughout the month. If you would find a monthly collected summary helpful, though, do let us know in the comments.

Labels: Fanworks

These fanfics have been posted or linked to since 31 October 2006 at an active fansite or message board. Fiction is complete unless noted.

Angelboy: Diary Entries (Chapter 4, continued), Embers (Part 16)

The Angst Guy: Daria 2007: The Girl from Hope, Scarlett

Anonymous: The End of a Friendship

Atimnie: And Now, for No Apparent Reason (poem)

TheBadWolfDoctor: Culture Shock

Bgryphon: Death Rowe (Part 3)

BlackWolfhound: Much Ado About Laughing

BluePhoenix36: The Closet Body

Brother Grimace: Crusts of Pizza, The One Day We Forget, A Path of Roses and Thorns (Part 2)

CDM: Demon Princess Quinn 1: Quinn Anwnn (Chapter 6)

DariaPhantom: Danny Phantom and the Irony Maiden

DJW: Aw Nuts (Part 1), Open Windows 3: The Long Road to Camp Grizzly, Open Windows 4: Stuff Happens (Part 4)

DJW and RLobinske: A Little Help from Your Fiends

TheDramaticMonarch: Bedroom

E.A. Smith: Good Intentions (Part 4)

Eccles: A Daria - Pratchett Crossover (Chapter 1)

Echopapa: A Cynical Shade of Green (Part 8)

Edgardo Cruz: Daria’s Magical Interdimensional Bus

Emeraldstoker: Flu (partial)

Greystar: Daria 3059 (completed with epilogue)

James the Lesser: College Pains

Lawndale Stalker: The House On Space-Time Lane (partial), Naked Came the Cynic (partial)

Little Buddie: Reasons That I Hate School

Minkychanz: Smile, Trent’s Girl

Psychotol: Daria's Braincut, Hopeful New Start, Living Dead Girls 6 (Part 3), Reunion

Ranger Thorne: Daria's Web (Chapter 7), First Video from We3, Shadow of a Cynic (Chapter 6)

The Ranting Klown: Just Us Two and the Devil Makes Three (partial), North and South, The Rest of My Damn Life: Close and Apart, The Rest of My Damn Life: Confronting the New

Ray: Tyrannical Coronations

RedlegRick: Home Wreck

Reese Kaine: Daria GTS (poem)

RLobinske: Eternity (Part 5), Falling Into College 51: Mirrors, Falling Into College 52: Girl: Lost and Found, Falling Into College 53: Daria Went Down to Georgia, John Lane 21: Apocalypse Dance, John Lane 22: Valuable Experiences, John Lane 23: Cupid in a Nutshell, John Lane 24: Heart Flush, The New View, Tripping the Art Sarcastic (script)

Robin Sena: Sheep Go to Heaven, Goats Go to Hell, Why You Should Never Hire Brittany Taylor

Roentgen: Canon Fodder, John Wayne’s Horse, Legion of Lawndale Heroes (Chapter 8.4), Legion of Lawndale Heroes (technical thread), A Lie

Sailor Ranger: Embers (Chapter 16)

Scissors MacGillicutty: Daria in “Phlegm Noir” (at Commercial Break), Good Mornings with Daria and Jane: A Ficlet

Shane Greentree (GregorSamsa): Duck Day Afternoon, I Don’t (Like Landlubbers), Mother and Daughter, Nestor, Rime of the Auntcent Mariner, Selling Sarcasm

Shanejayell: There and Back Again

Sleepless: Broken Connections (Part 20)

TippedOver: Redneck Christmas

Vlademir1: Their Bond

Labels: Fanworks

These artworks have been posted or linked to since 31 October 2006 at an active fansite or message board.

Christ Oliver: Daria - Nutty, Nutty, Nutty World, Daria - Road Worrier

D-motors: Quinn, Stacy

Dreamweaver: Daria as an Angel, Daria’s Dream Day, Friendship, Helen Just for Fun, Jane of Arc, A Nightmare in Lawndale, Off to See the Wizard, Quinn, Quinn: Space Ranger, Stacy, Trent, What if Jane Joined the Fashion Club?

Eccles: Daria - Keeler

TheEvilTwin: Sick Sad World, We Are the Men

HelpfulSkittlesExplosion: He’ll Come

Ioxmo: Jane Gets Another Car, Qane, Stane

JennaUsername: A Clip from “The Christmas Clip Show!”, Come Lie Next to Me, Daria and Co. in 2007, Daria and Jane: Cyber Goth Style, Daria: Barefoot and Pregnant, Daria Morgendogfur, Daria vs. the Lawndale Zombies (filmed-fanfic poster), The Fashion Club Paint It Black, Jane Lane as Amanda Palmer, Last Night in Lawndale (filmed-fanfic poster), Not Another Love Triangle, Trent Lane, Emo Rocker

KemicalReaxion: Brittany Taylor, Homeless Helen, Lane Wonka and the Rock Factory

Lachlansk: Daria Animated Avatar

MDetector5: Baywatch Quinn, Better Watch Your Back, Good for Them, Good for Us, Jane, Ming Dress Quinn, Pop My Top, Red-Headed Titan, Seifuku In Triplicate, Sexy Busty Daria

Minkychanz: The Fashion Club = Heathers

NapalmKracken: Quinn Cameo

NapalmKracken (coordinator) with other artists: Daria 1997 - 2007

Ranchoth: Daria in the Cockpit

Ranger Thorne: Mike Hunter, Our Heroine as an Actual Hero, What if I Were Her Father?

RedlegRick: Daria and Jane, Daria - Lisa, Jane Painting, Ms. Morgendorffer Goes to Washington, TAG’s Jane Collage, Trent-Jesse-Upchuck-DeMartino Charcoal, Young Ones

RLobinske: Daria Von Doom

Robin Sena: A Valentine Surprise, Homeless Helen

Sam the Smuggler: Stacy

S.C.: 3D Daria Physical Model (wallpaper), Urban Daria, Valentines

Shallow 15: Shego as Daria

Various artists (adaptations): Demotivators

Vlademir1: Cheap Colorations Redux (several images), Remember, Remember

Wouter: Daria as a Flying Ace, Daria in Pencil

Zackmolis: Quinn Maid

Labels: Fanworks

All of these fanworks have been posted or linked to since 31 October 2006 in the members-only hidden section of SFMB. Fiction is complete unless noted.

Angelboy: Repression and Repercussions (Chapter 11)

The Angst Guy: Terrible Tales of Tiffany

Atimnie: Did I Mention ...?

Dervish: Summer of 69

The Great Saiyaman (Wouter): Big Sister’s Christmas Carol (comic)

MDetector5: Dirty Devil (art)

Minkychanz: Andrea/Tiffany, Playful Helen, Trent Who?,
Tom and Trent (all art)

M Man: Something to Hide

Mr Orange: Nue Experience (Part 3)

NomadX: Nipple Ring

Psychotol: It All Worked Out Eventually

Reese Kaine: Daria’s Reaction to an AHP (art)

Sleepless: Walking the Dog (Part 7)

Labels: Fanworks

I’ve been informed that Thea Zara has now turned over management of the SFMB to Deref. I hadn’t known that, I’m glad she did so, and I’m glad he’s in charge. If any of my comments yesterday came across as having criticized Deref’s not keeping up with maintenance, they were not meant that way, especially with my knowing that he’s been short on time — and I apologize.

Nobody would be more pleased than I to see SFMB regaining fanworks and discussion ferment, and it’s far better to have two major forums with different ideas as to how they are moderated.

I don’t see it as proper, though, to ignore or gloss over how it’s getting left out of the creative and discussion loops. That’s more a matter of reporting than it is of criticism, really. Fan venues come and go, and we all know that.

And, lastly, SFMB’s Flame Wars. I’ve never been shy about saying how I see that forum, and I won’t be now. I still see it as being entirely destructive, and a long-standing danger to good relations among fans. It’s nearly driven several people away, including me. (Don’t all of you say “if only it had” at once, please {rueful smile})

I’ve long believed that any community which puts up with such a place for hurling personal abuse is only injuring itself. I’ve long said to Thea, Deref, and others privately what I’ll say here: If keeping the dwindling newcomers, and long-timers, in this fan community is important, that flame forum ought to finally be removed.

Labels: Fandom

... is more savory. We hope. Anyway, crock-pot thick-stock chicken soup is good for colds like mine. Thanks for your patience.

Here, have a Valentine from fan-artist S.C. ... what?! you've never had the florist deliver ’em late before? {g}

I’m trying to get links to about three months of the most recent fanworks corralled by creator. From PPMB and active fansites, as well as from FF.net.

Speaking of which, our left sidebar is updated and slightly rearranged.

~ “Active Fansites” have had updates in the last three months. (Or so. We know it takes time, look at us {g}) “Dormant Fansites” are definitely Out There, but have snoozed for a while. If your site has reawakened, tell us when and how in the Blog comments.

~ Links to fan awards have been updated. A link to the Wikipedia Daria entry has been added. (This has many links, in turn, to entries for other series characters and elements.) And the DFB archives links have been moved down.

Labels: Blog, Fandom

(... alluding to the late, great Gene Saks in “A Thousand Clowns.”)

Has anyone used the Usenet newsgroup alt.tv.daria for genuine discussion in the last nine months? It’s filled solely with porn-site and bootleg-disc spam these days. We may remove the link, to avoid misdirecting fandom newcomers ... assuming we keep gettin’ ’em {sigh}

And let’s be honest, shall we? The Sh33p’s Fluff Message Board is effectively dead. (For anything but Dariarotica, and not much of that.) No real discussions are taking place. Out of the latest 200 “members,” I counted only one account that wasn’t a porn-site spammer. Flame Wars has become worthless-er ... yeah, Trent, it’s still in the “worthless” set ... as it turns into a spam sponge.

The only ongoing non-PPMB-posted, non-erotic fanwork I can find is “Legion of Lawndale Heroes,” and Roentgen is slowly getting that tale re-posted at FF.net.

It’s disheartening to see these venues losing focus and activity, but it’s been five years since Daria ended with “Is It College Yet?”, and broad net.nets will inevitably catch fewer new fans.

Labels: Fandom

So, one of the last portals anywhere for garnering new Daria fans is shut down. The show is no longer on line at YouTube. All of the fan-contributed seven-minute portions of episodes have been removed, both in English and in French. (Including the thousands of user comments. Fortunately, Cinc saved a few of them for your pleasure.)

Several fan creations from S.C., Eccles, a “release the DVDs” partisan, and others have also been removed. (Martin Pollard has said he’ll host multiple versions of such videos at Outpost Daria.)

Viacom couldn’t come to an agreement to share revenue with YouTube, as it had with the video division of parent Google. (Some Daria episodes, in single pieces, are still available at Google Video.)

It was inevitable, amigos. YouTube is too visible, and is too widely decried for building a content base upon copyright infringement, to have had the party last forever.

(I do get perplexed about all this talk of “copyright” by the legal suits, though, when a piece such as S.C.’s voice-enriched video is at issue. What’s being infringed, if anything, in all such fanworks are trademarks, not copyrights. “A Little Knowledge” used an original script, and took the character and setting names and designs from Daria. ... Ah, but I digress.)

What seems even more evident these days is that Viacom and MTV have pushed Daria further to the back DVD burner. Yes, the music clearances are a royal pain. Freaks and Geeks managed a full release, though, all songs intact, partly by the rights holder outsourcing the clearance grunt work.

And now, with consumer broadband creating new and viable distribution channels, they’re being remarkably unimaginative in what they put forward. Take a look, if you want to bother, at the new Viacom initiative for offering video downloads through Wal-Mart.

A more detailed report notes how constricted this will be:

[...] all downloads will be WMV [Windows Media Player files] with Windows Media DRM [“digital rights management,” copy-restriction techniques]. You can burn them for backup, but they’ll only work on a single PC, with an option to be moved to “three compatible portable devices.”

Only marginally more usable, and backup-capable, than Apple’s iTunes, in other words. Steve Jobs has already ably punched holes in the case for DRM restrictions on music. When will someone make the connection for video, as well?

This copy-restriction merde is really only to cover their legal backsides, in the long run. Every DRM scheme is or will be broken. DVDs, for a decade now. The high-definition HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc schemes, as of last month. Content will find its way to users, sooner or later.

Where the DRM gatekeeping comes in is to give some legal cover for the studios to prosecute and sue large-scale infringers, or large and inviting targets such as YouTube. They make an effort to erect digital gates. Breaking them becomes a federal felony, under the DMCA. This can be used to selectively smash anyone they choose.

Anyway, the Wal-Mart scheme is full of computer-clogging DRM, whether or not you have the new Hungry-Man portion of it dished out by Windows Vista.

It’s also not aimed at the geeks — face it, for many of us, that’s what we are — who have taken up Daria and other iconoclastic TV pleasures. You can only use the security nightmare of Internet Explorer to make downloads, not Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, Safari, or anything reasonably sane.

Here’s the relevant bit of puffery at Wal-Mart’s site for this still-in-beta-test service:

MTV needs no introduction. As the epicenter for anything and everything music and pop culture, MTV has produced more groundbreaking programming — like Beavis & Butthead [sic] and Jackass — than any other cable network.

In your dreams, guys. Not for over a decade has this even come close to possibly being true.

And their “groundbreaking” selection for download? Andy Milonakis, Beavis & Butthead: The Mike Judge Collection, Jackass, Laguna Beach, My Super Sweet Sixteen, Punk’d, and Two-A-Days.

You know what’s missing here. Someone at Viacom has to know what's missing — they pulled it off of YouTube, after all. Who among them is going to do something about it? Is anybody there? Does anybody care? I'm about ready to give up.

(Find out ten more good reasons for why these downloads bite the big one.)

Labels: Downloads, DVDs

Visual Works   (Full list of nominees with links)

Favorite Overall
A Little Knowledge* [medium] [large] by S.C.

Favorite Original
A Little Knowledge* [medium] [large] by S.C.

Favorite Comedy
Burger World by S.C.

Favorite Alter Ego/Crossover
Goth Chicks by S.C.

Favorite Single or Multi-Panel Comic
DVDaria Campaign by Kemical Reaxion

Favorite Erotic
Party at Lindy’s by Wouter

Favorite Visual Inspired by the TV Series or Official Books
On the Set of “Good Mornings with Daria and Jane” by S.C.

Favorite Visual Inspired by a Fan Written Work
Daria and Quinn Fighting by SRA

Favorite Image Manipulation
Asylum by vlademir1

Favorite Digital (completely computer generated)
3D Daria by S.C.
Daria’s Dungeon by S.C.

Favorite Traditional (pencil, ink, paint,
no computer manipulation)
Sleeping Daria by Beatnik Shaggy

Favorite Mixed Media (multiple artistic media used,
includes computer-manipulated traditional)
Dominion by SRA

Favorite New Artist
S.C.

* The low-resolution YouTube version was removed at Viacom’s instigation, with their claiming copyright infringement. (Details and discussion here.)


Written Works   (Full list of nominees with links)

Favorite Overall
Card Games by Kristen Bealer

Favorite Comedy
The Dammitall Run! by DJW
Daria: The Mona Lisa Smile of Fate by CDM

Favorite Drama
Accidental Future by Richard Lobinske

Favorite Dramatic Comedy
Card Games by Kristen Bealer

Favorite Melodrama
Accidental Future by Richard Lobinske

Favorite Romance – Straight
Trent’s Girl by Minkychan

Favorite Romance – Gay/Lesbian
Writes of Passage — Forest Primeval, Part 2 by Deref

Favorite School-Centered (Lawndale High)
Goodnight, Morgendorffer by Angelinhel

Favorite Jane Story
Writes of Passage — Forest Primeval, Part 2 by Deref

Favorite Helen Story
Falling Into College #50: A Matter of Priorities by Richard Lobinske

Favorite Jake Story
Breakfast with Dad by Lawndale Stalker

Favorite Quinn Story
Falling Into College #43: Four Friends, Four Winds
by Richard Lobinske

Favorite Use of a Background Character from the TV Series
Misery’s End by Richard Lobinske - for Amy Barksdale
Trent’s Girl by Minkychan – for Monique

Favorite Pre-“Esteemsters”
Card Games by Kristen Bealer

Favorite Post-“Is It College Yet?”
Crusts of Pizza by Brother Grimace

Favorite Character Development/Redevelopment/Growth
The Longest Year #8: The Facts of Life
by Greystar - for Daria, Jane, and Tom

Favorite Alternate History
Misery’s End by Richard Lobinske

Favorite Crossover
The Dammitall Run! by DJW

Favorite Movie Parody
The Dammitall Run! by DJW

Favorite Science Fiction
The Pact by Richard Lobinske

Favorite Supernatural or Fantasy Horror
Pristine by The Angst Guy

Favorite Supernatural or Fantasy Non-Horror
Uranium in the Drinking Water by The Angst Guy

Favorite Weird Idea
Anything for Jane by The Angst Guy

Favorite Ongoing Series
Et Jane? by Yerno (French)
Falling Into College by Richard Lobinske

Favorite New Series
Open Windows by DJW

Favorite New Author
Hey

Labels: Awards

Looking at my Sprite Zero. Yep, aspartame. Tastes pretty good to me. Your personal experience, though, might vary from mine.

This is why I try to avoid posting in PPMB’s “Nick’s Corner.” (Although I’ve posted there more than once or twice in my alternate identity — but never as a regular.) Topics like politics, and “Flame Wars” over at the SFMB, are just buzzsaws waiting to happen, to chew up and spit out the unwitting Daria fan. Didn’t Robert Nowall leave over some foolishness at “Nick’s Corner”?

Can’t post more about it, because I never read the thread in question until after the fact. But boy, I wish I were there for the blowup! What I love more than just about anything is good old-fashioned gossip, and seeing the meltdown in progress would have been compelling.

In general, things that should not be talked about without knowing what you’re getting into: politics, religion, and class/money. That’s just one of those general lessons of life that applies across all message boards.

Oh yeah, and where’s my update post? At the bottom of a “to do” list that has included phone interviews, cleaning the house for a party on Wednesday, and a nasty back muscle strain that has left me virtually immobilized. Selah.

Also: new policy at PPMB. The next time you scream “I’m leaving!” expect to find the door locked when you get back. I don’t know what this policy actually serves, but it’s their board and we just live there. Me, I want to know what happened to Thea Zara and who is going to fix SFMB.

Labels: Blog, Fandom