I want to open up with a belated farewell to Larry Hagman. Apart from his success on I Dream of Jeannie, Mr. Hagman created one of the best and most iconic TV villains of all time with J.R. Ewing on Dallas. Thanks to nights spent at my Grandmother's house, J.R. is absolutely ingrained in my memory and I think he made such an impact that he influences my definition of a certain brand of villainy and smarm. My Grandmother loved Dallas and J.R. was, as the phrase goes, the man she "loved to hate." (In fact, I would be surprised if that phrase wasn't coined in reference to J.R.) You have to give credit to Hagman for turning the series into a phenomenon. He could have phoned it in and made all the obvious choices on this primetime soap opera, but instead his performance was as charming as it was slimy and he turned a character that could have been completely one dimensional into the portrait of a complicated, Southern oil magnate that kept audiences guessing and loving to hate. I'll say it again: we love 70s/80s TV here and Larry Hagman was as it big as it gets. Mess with J.R. and you get open-hand slapped.
Now for the WSF news. Last week was a mess. I know. I completely dropped the ball on Indie Wednesday and there was no edit update. But mark my words, we will make up for it this week. Oh, yes. We will make up for it. Here's how the week is going to break down...
TUESDAY: Come right back here tomorrow morning for the big advertising/business-changing opportunity announcement that I've been talking about. If you're a business owner, you're going to want to see it before anyone else does.
WEDNESDAY: Indie Wednesday will be back better than ever. I swear it.
WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY: Edit party. On Wednesday or Thursday we're having an edit party. Big time. And the whole gang gets to be there. Again, we might test the live stream of our edit party and if we do, you'll get a notice shortly ahead of time on our Tweeter or Facebook page. Also on the agenda for that meeting is some longterm planning. (Did that sentence have a dangling participle? ...I don't care, I dig it.) Todd, Allen, and myself will take the opportunity to lay out some major goals and make a WSF plan for the next few years. I'm excited. We're ready for it and it needs to be done. There may be some announcements that could come from it and, if so, you'll see them here.
So be sure to keep an eye on things here all week.
In other news, last week was big for us on the internets. Quite a bit of interest and some exciting correspondence from different folks and filmmakers and fans. One tidbit that I can go ahead and tease is that it sounds like Bizarnival may be part of a screening of short films in Lexington next month. It's a small program of shorts and one of the organizers reached out to us. Sounds cool to me. More on that as we hear it.
Have a great week and we'll see you tomorrow for announcement time!