UK Prosecutors Target SickFic About Real People

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There’s a whole sub-culture of fanficcers who get off writing fantasies about famous people having sex with one another and others. You know, stuff like Leonardo DiCaprio giving Jude Law an education in male coupling or the Spice Girls re-enacting their favorite sex scenes from “The L Word.” The authors of this kind of SickFic argue that because they are writing and distributing stories about fictional sex between “public figures,” it’s okay. Well, prosecutors in the U.K don’t think so. They think it’s obscene and a violation of the law. The Register reports:

The legal world is buzzing at the announcement last week of the
prosecution of 35-year-old civil servant Darryn Walker for the online
publication of material that Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
believe to be obscene.

This is the first such prosecution for written material in nearly
two decades – and a guilty verdict could have a serious and significant
impact on the future regulation of the internet in the UK.

The case originated in summer 2007, when Mr Walker allegedly posted a work of fantasy – titled Girls (Scream) Aloud – about pop group Girls Aloud. The story describes in detail the kidnap, rape, mutilation and
murder of band members Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola
Roberts and Kimberley Walsh, and ends with the sale of various body
parts on eBay.

The piece was brought to the attention of the Internet Watch
Foundation, whose remit includes the monitoring of internet material
deemed to be criminally obscene: they in turn handed details over to
the Police.

The case goes to trial on March 16, 2009 in Newcastle. Other newspapers report that Walker wrote the story under the pseudonym “Blake Sinclair” and posted it on Kristen’s Collection, SickFic site that also includes a “Real Person Fic” about raping and mutilating Britney Spears.

I’m sure that the Organization for Transformative Works, which thinks that writing and distributing this kind of swill is a God-given “fannish right,” and Dr. Robin Reid, the creative writing instructor at Texas A&M who writes and champions “Real Person Slash” (her favorite SickFic fantasy is Viggo Mortenson and any male actor in Hollywood) will be watching this case very closely. A conviction could lead to a long overdue crack-down on this garbage.

Absolutely Scary

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The wave of British TV series remakes on American networks is continuing. Variety reports that Fox is developing a U.S. version of  "Absolutely Fabulous" set in Los Angeles. Christine Zander, a writer for "Saturday Night Live," will write the script and exec produce with Mitch Hurwitz, Ian Moffet and the original creator/star/producer Jennifer Saunders. This is not the first time a U.S. network has tried an Abfab redo.  Roseanne Barr and Carrie Fisher teamed up for a U.S. version ten years back for ABC but it went nowhere.

Selling My Signature

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89da_1
 I was on ebay tonight, listing some old textbooks for my daughter. Since I can't pass a search box without typing my own name into it,  I discovered  that there's someone selling cards with my signature on them at five bucks a pop. I can' t imagine who'd want it…especially since it's not my signature. It's not even close, as you can see from the signed copy of MR. MONK IN OUTER SPACE that somebody else is selling.Monkouterspace
 Which makes me wonder…why would anyone waste their time faking my autograph? There can't possibly be any money in that.

UPDATE: The guy has corrected his auction. It turns out the signature is my brother Tod's and that's worth at least five bucks. Maybe as much as  $5.25.

Mr. Monk and the Family Affair

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Richardsons
Reading MONK has become a family affair for the Richardsons of El Segundo, California,  who sent me this photo and this nice note: "Sorry to beat you out of book sales but we pass each copy from one generation to the next; Grandma, Mom & Daughter.  We are looking forward to Paris! Ellen, Susan, & Robin." They won't have to wait long — I am sending them a galley of MR. MONK IS MISERABLE.

They Say That Cat is a Baaaaad Mother

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Shaft
I can't stop listening to "The Shaft Anthology" while I write. It's an incredible, 3 CD collection of original soundtrack cues from "Shaft," "Shaft's Big Score," and the TV movies, brought to you by the terrific folks at Screen Archives.

The "Shaft" soundtrack that has been available up to now was actually a re-recording of the original cues. But this anthology presents the original score for the first time. Here's how Screen Archives tells it:

The original 1971 Shaft
was one of the seminal films of “blaxploitation” movement, as Shaft
gets involved in the Harlem rescue effort of a gangster’s kidnapped
daughter. The score by Isaac Hayes not only set trends in film music
but pop and R&B, with its spoken/sung lyrics, disco-era wah-wah
guitar and high-hat cymbals, and lush, soulful orchestrations. The
soundtrack was widely distributed on a 2LP set (later a CD) by
Enterprise (Hayes’s personal label on Stax Records) but that was a
re-recording done in Memphis. For the first time, this CD presents the
original Hollywood-recorded film score featuring primordial versions of
the source cues as well as all of the dramatic underscoring (little of
which was adapted for the LP). It is a fascinating glimpse into Hayes’s
creativity and an important archiving of this legendary work.

Being the geek that I am, I have been obsessively comparing cues between the original and the re-recording…and I definitely prefer the original cues. The anthology also includes the music from "Shaft's Big Score" and the never-bef0re-released cues from the half-dozen "Shaft" TV movies by Johnny Pate ("Shaft in Africa), who used the iconic Shaft theme in a variety of clever and entertaining ways. The collection also comes with surprisingly detailed and informative liner notes.

It's great stuff, a must for any soundtrack collector. But if you want to buy it, you'd better hurry. This is a limited edition of 3000 copies.

The Worst Spin-offs Ever

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AfterMASH tops Time Magazine’s list of the worst TV spin-offs ever. I don’t think they looked very hard. Yeah, BAYWATCH NIGHTS would certainly be at the top of any list. But how could they have over-looked FLO (from ALICE), CHECKING IN (from THE JEFFERSONS), SANFORD ARMS (from SANFORD AN SON), ENOS (from DUKES OF HAZARD) DIRTY SALLY (from GUNSMOKE), or GLORIA (from ALL IN THE FAMILY) or SONS OF THUNDER (from WALKER TEXAS RANGER)?