NaNoWriMo Update

The logo for NaNoWriMo

I am trying to keep a little bit of an update going on this.

Here we are so bold and optimistic at the beginning of the month.

And Here is at the end of Week One.  Clearly this is going to be a struggle.

You'll note no update on Week Two.  Yeah, a struggle.

Well now Week Three is in the bag.  And I have to face some grim reality.

I'm not going to make the 50,000 word goal.  Right now getting half way there will be a struggle.

And that's OK.  This has been a tough month.  Tough on the writing front and tough in the real life front as well.  Lots of time on the road.  Which means I'm not anywhere that I can write and I get home wiped out.  Not a good writing place.  So I haven't put up the kind of numbers I'd like.

But what's come out of this has been something else.  I have no intention of quitting.  I will write when I can.  I'll put up as many words as I can.  What I have managed to produce has been pretty good.  I'm filling in holes that need to be filled.  I'm getting closer to finishing this book.

And THAT is the real goal.  The rest is just for fun.

Current word total - 16,093

NaNoWriMo Update, Oxford Commas and Double Spaces, and The Christmas Music Rant

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of November 3, 2013


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

Christmas Music Rant                                                                                        

Every year I have a private little rant about Christmas music.  It goes back to the days when I was the Music Director at a certain radio station across town.  Normally this rant takes place, like clockwork, right around Thanksgiving.  

But not this year.  Oh no, I’m going public with it and I’m going public with it right now.  While I was driving in Buffalo this weekend I heard a promo for a radio station that announced they were going all Christmas music beginning November first right through Christmas.  (I am not mentioning their call letters because I don’t want you to encourage them by listening to this abomination)

Remember I said that this silliness usually begins on Thanksgiving weekend.  Well these folks decided to get started on HALLOWEEN weekend!  And that’s just too much for me to bear.

Back when I was Music Director I refused to play Christmas music before December 1.  Let me tell you I got some very angry phone calls and more than a few glares from some of the air staff.  I didn’t apologize for it at the time and I make no apologies for it today.  It’s stupid.  It’s vile.  It’s abominable.  It trivializes both Thanksgiving and Christmas and is an utter sell out to everything wrong with the “holiday season” by giving into the complete commercialization of Christmas.

First, that offends me as a person of faith.  Different story for a different day.  Second, it offends me as a radio person.  It’s stupid, lazy programming.  The reality is that there are only about 37 Christmas songs all told.  There are 100 versions of each one.  Out of all those versions there might be 20 that you want to hear over and over.  For a couple weeks tops.  Instead you are going to hear every awful, idiotic, low rent version of “Blue Christmas” because they have 24 hours a day to fill.  Pop stars singing awful, maudlin arrangements of songs that more often than not are even less musically complex and compelling than the pop drivel they normally record.

Don’t get me wrong.  I love Christmas.  I love Christmas music.  Part of what makes the holidays special is that they’re, well, special.  As the saying goes “Christmas comes but once a year”.  Seems like we’re headed towards Christmas all year long.

That’s just stupid and wrong.  And this is my line in the sand.

Oxford Commas and Double Spaces                                                                   

I need to acknowledge up front this week that I’m going to offend some people.  Not many, mind you.  But some people take what I’m about to discuss very seriously.  And I think it’s utter rubbish.  But it gets a fair amount of discussion around the Interwebs.

You will probably not be surprised to find out that I have a lot of friends who are into words and writing.  Birds of a feather and stuff like that.  Some of these people take the whole language thing quite seriously.  By and large they are people of good humor who can discuss the issues of today’s commentary jokingly.  OK, mostly jokingly.

The center of this great debate are two.  They are the Oxford comma and double spaces following periods.  Yes, I’m serious.  People argue about these things.

I am also aware that more than a few of you have no idea what I’m talking about.  So let’s review.

First, the Oxford comma.  Also known as the serial comma, this is the punctuation which you may insert at the end of a list of items and just before the word “and”.  So you would say “item 1 comma, item 2 comma and item 3.  Except that many of us would omit the comma before the “and”.  Which is perfectly acceptable.  Unless you are a fan of the Oxford comma at which point you enter into long debates about its use.  I will note that there are times when that comma makes a difference in clarity.  At those points it should definitely be used.

The other argument I see my word loving friends having these days (yes, the people need to get lives.  What can I say?) is about the number of spaces following a period at the end of a sentence.  Back in the day when I was learning to type (on an actual typewriter, children!  Can you imagine!) we were taught to use two.  Today the conventional wisdom is that one is sufficient.  The argument seems to center on the difference between proportional and monospaced type fonts.  What does that mean?  Do you really care?  I didn’t think so.  And I doubt you much care about how many spaces are placed after the period.  I do it automatically, without thinking because I’ve been doing it that way for decades.  If for some reason it absolutely must be changed it’s simple with the “Find and Replace” function available on any word processor.

These are things that word nerds argue about.  Pity us and please, go live your lives.  Maybe we’ll follow.

NaNoWriMo Update                                                                                                                   

Week One was not a great week but it wasn't a total disaster.  My total word count for the first week was just over 8,000 words.  That was several thousand behind the curve (to make the 50,000 target you need to average over 1,600 words a day).  My best day was 2,800 but my worst was one day when I wrote nothing at all.  The good news is that I'm still just a couple really good writing days away from catching up.  But Week Two is always the worst.  So we'll see.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

Mea Culpa, NaNoWriMo13, and War of the Worlds

 "The View From the Phlipside" is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY.  It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM.  The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program.  Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice.  WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed.  You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com.  Copyright 2013 by Jay Phillippi.  All Rights Reserved.  You like what you see?  Drop me a line and we can talk.

Program scripts from week of October 28, 2013


My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside. 

NaNoWriMo13                                                                                        

Much to my surprise I note that I have not talked about National Novel Writing Month, known as NaNoWriMo, in almost three years.  With November knocking on the door, that is the month in question, I thought this would be a great time to mention it again.

If the name rings no bells for you let me review.  NaNoWriMo is an annual opportunity to live the dream.  The dream of writing your own novel.  The goal is 50,000 words in 30 days.  The core idea is to worry less (in fact, not at all) about the quality of your writing.  The goal is to get you to create a habit of writing, to try something you’ve never tried before.  Or even better to help you finish what you have tried and failed at before.  Last year 341,375 people started the challenge, 178,211 completed the challenge.  The great thing is that you don’t have to do it alone.  There are online forums where you can compare notes, ask for help, look for or offer encouragement and find a shoulder to cry on when you hit one of the tough spots.  Many regions of the country even have write-ins, opportunities for folks taking the challenge to get together, hang out and write.  It is one of the more amazing events I’ve ever done.

And yes, I’ve done it.  In 2009, at my daughter’s urging, I gave it a shot.  My certificate from the Office of Letters and Light proclaiming that I had achieved the 50,000 word target in the month hangs proudly near my desk.  The goal had been to do it again the following year but my stroke intervened.  I’ve never managed to get it together again since then.

However, once again at the urging of my daughter, no let’s be honest, at the outright command of my daughter, now a Masters of Fine Arts Candidate in Creative Writing at Carlow University, I am trying it again this year.

It’s really NOT about whether or not you are the next Ernest Hemingway, Anne Rice or Dan Brown.  It’s about pushing yourself to try something new.  It’s about finding a new way to express your creativity.  NaNoWriMo says of itself that it is about “...Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline...”. 

So what about you?  Are you up for a challenge?  Have you ever thought that you might have an idea for a book in you?  There is still time to get ready.  Who knows you may start November as an auto mechanic, a store clerk, a middle school English teacher or a talking head on the radio.  But you could end it as a novelist.

(It's not too late to start!  Check out NaNoWriMo.org)

War of the Worlds                                                                                                 

75 years ago this week an event took place that dramatically changed my life.  Now that’s several decades before I was even born but the lingering legend of it thrilled me, inspired me and as much as anything brought me to where I am today.

October 30th, 1938 the radio series “The Mercury Theater on the Air” offered up a dramatization of H.G. Wells novel “The War of the Worlds”.  The production was the work of a then up and coming star Orson Welles.  He had made his mark already as a stage director and his career in films was still in front of him.  This was the event that made him a star.

That Halloween broadcast, with its use of fictional news reports “breaking into” the programming, was a sensation.  It’s hard for some to remember what radio was like in those days.  Where we watch TV or the Internet for amusement these days radio held the stage then.  But there was no way to know what exactly you were listening to as you scanned up or down the dial.  Since “Mercury Theater” ran commercial free there were no breaks in the action which probably added to the confusion between fact and fancy.

Beyond the fascinating work in the original broadcast (I own a copy of it and have listened to it multiple times) it was the stories of panic associated with it that first drew my attention.  For any art form to create that kind of reaction was thrilling to me.  Today we know that much of the legend around the panic is exactly that, legend.  While many people did call the radio stations, the police and the newspapers, very few barricaded themselves into the house or ran panic stricken into the streets.  Psychologists have noted that the world was in a stressful place that week, with fear of the war in Europe spreading to our country.

For me the radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds” remains a touchstone for all that media can be when it puts some effort into it.  “Mercury Theater on the Air” was a relatively small player in the media world at the time.  It was Welle’s attention to detail, careful planning of when certain events appeared in the broadcast and his commitment to making it as realistic as possible that took just another radio drama on an October evening to the status of legend.

I still believe the media can be that good.  Take the time this week and spend an hour with a classic.  75 years ago we were shown just how incredible imagination can be.

Mea Culpa                                                                                                                         

This week I need to offer a confession.  A mea culpa to try and make up for contributing to some stupidity earlier in my career.  It would be easy to make excuses but in the end what I can try to do it is make a change.

Do you remember the story from 1994 about the woman who spilled coffee on herself then sued the fast food restaurant that sold it to her and was awarded 2.9 million dollars?  Most of us do because it was a big story back then.  People were outraged and media folk like me had a field day with it.  There was much mocking of a person dumb enough to put hot coffee between their legs while driving and much outrage over the “ridiculous” amount of money this foolish person received.  It made us feel all smug and righteous and clever.

There’s only one problem.  Most of what I just told you isn’t true.

Stella Liebeck, the 79 year old woman at the center of this story, wasn’t driving the car.  She was a passenger and the car was parked at the time.  The coffee was between her knees because the car didn’t have a flat place to put it while she put in her cream and sugar.  When the top popped off the coffee splashed on her causing the burns.  The injuries put her in the hospital for 8 days, required skin grafts and two years of treatment.  She tried to settle out of court for medical costs, was refused and went to court.  The initial judgement from the jury (which actually reduced their award because they noted that Mrs. Liebeck did bear some responsibility for the event) was 2.8 million.  The judge reduced that to just over 600 thousand and the final settlement was reportedly below 500 thousand dollars.

That’s a different story, isn’t it?
What happened was that the story got edited down and edited down for space till the version most of us saw had only the minimal details.  Sadly the rest was filled in by people trying to fluff out the story.  In an age when more journalism seems to be aimed at reducing the footprint of the stories we see it strikes me as a cautionary tale.

Too often I see folks passing along stories that can quickly be shown to be incomplete or outright fabrications.  Our laziness in this regard allows falsehood to masquerade in the clothing of truth.  That’s something none of us should support.

Stella Liebeck deserved for the true story to be told.  It’s taken me 20 years but now I’ve done it.

Call that the View From the Phlipside

The View From the Phlipside - One Space or Two?

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, radio, the movies and more.  I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View from the Phlipside.
When it comes to communications media we find the spoken word at the very beginning of it all.  And for someone who's made his living in radio and the like that's probably a very good thing.  After that is probably graphic communication in the form of drawings and art work.  The first real communication technology would be the written word.  And that technology has been around a very long time.  The earliest forms show up starting about 4,000 BC in the Middle East.  So you might think that we've pretty much gotten the technology perfected.  It appears that such an assumption is wrong.

First let's jump back to the dawn of the typewriter.  While it's a quaint, old school technology now once upon a time it was every bit as revolutionary as the personal computer.  Standardized printing of personal or professional messages could be done in just a few minutes by people with only a minimal amount of training.  They did have one small problem at the time.  The early typewriters used what is called  mono-spaced type where every letter and punctuation was given the exact same space on the page.  So a capital D was given the same space on the line as the period.  And it's that period that is causing the problem today.

Today we have proportional spacing of our fonts.  In simplest terms the fat letters get more room than the skinny ones.  Under the old system it was difficult to pick out the end of the sentence because of the mono-spacing.  So at the end of a sentence you placed TWO spaces to make the break clearer.  And that's the argument that has suddenly popped up everywhere it seems.  The question of one space or two at the end of sentence.  Now I'm old enough that I was taught to hit the space bar twice.  But the current argument is that it's no longer necessary because of proportional spacing.  I've experimented and decided that it may be true.

I'm just not sure why anyone cares.  And they care enough that you'll find dueling essays on the subject at the Slate website and the one for The Atlantic.  Really, does it matter?  The first person who tries to convince me that dropping the second space will save them time over the course of their lives I just might do physical violence to.  Maybe this is a sign of just how mature this technology is that we are reduced to arguing about such trivial points.

Or maybe it really is just trivial.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010

View From the Phlipside - Jamestown Writes Update

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the Movies and more.  I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View From the Phlipside.

Almost two months ago a I mentioned a new media project that I was helping to launch and I promised that I wouldn’t make you listen to me talk about it every week through the project.  Well phase one of Jamestown Writes has come an end and I thought I’d catch you up on it.

Jamestown Writes was/is a project to bring together writers in the Jamestown area.  I partnered with my daughter Rachel as the facilitators and we used the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) as our center piece.  To be honest we had no idea how many people might be interested or really even how to go about running a writer’s group.  In true Phillippi fashion we simply decided to make it up as we went along.

As it turned out my stroke severely limited my ability to be involved at pretty much any level for more than half of the project.  Kudos to Rachel for stepping into a role with which she was not particularly comfortable and pulling it off.  Because my recovery covered the entire time of the project I did zero writing.  I’m happy to say that I am very much the exception in the group at large.

Jamestown Writes saw a total of 20 writers show up for at least one meeting.  The group  seemed to settle in between 6 and 10 regulars.  And we had at least 4 writers complete the NaNoWriMo challenge of writing fifty thousand words of a novel in 30 days.  We had several other writers make very serious runs at it  as well.  To be honest those numbers were much higher than we expected and it was a great start.

Because this little launch program was just a start.  The group has decided to continue on.  So if you’re a writer in the Jamestown area and you’re looking for a writer’s support group we’d like to invite you to join us.  The group is still feeling it’s way along as to an identity but we’ll certainly be looking at the both the creative side and the professional side of writing.  For the moment we’ll be meeting starting at 10 AM the first and third Saturdays of each month on the second floor of the Arts Council building on Third Street in Jamestown.  We welcome writers of all types, formats and genres.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010

View From the Phlipside - Jamestown Writes

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.

I had my daughter Rachel on the show last week to talk about a new project that we’re facilitating this year called Jamestown Writes. We talked a little about the how and a lot about the when but didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the why. So I thought I’d give it a shot.

Story telling is a fundamental part of the human being and all the societies we create. Most of what I talk about on this program every week is really nothing more than story telling. Books, movies, TV shows, all stories. Play video games? More stories. When you get together with friends what do you do? You tell stories. For me Jamestown Writes is about helping people to tell stories. To help people tell stories better.

Story telling is both a gift and a craft. There’s a scene in the movie “My Favorite Year” where two characters discover that you can teach the craft of story telling (it’s amazing how simple most of it is) but you can’t teach the art. I believe that a lot more people have that gift for the art than think they do. The great thing about writing your story is that you don’t have to worry about stage fright. Not everyone is as comfortable in front of an audience as I am. So writing, an essentially solitary endeavor, is a way that allows anyone to tell a tale.

If you’ve always wanted to write but can think of any number of reasons why you can’t come join us at Jamestown Writes. We’ll help you get past those obstacles you think are in your way. If you’re already a writer and you’re looking for community and support join us at Jamestown Writes. Come share with us how you approach the problems and the craft of writing.

Jamestown Writes will meet Saturday mornings from 10 till noon at the Wright Gallery at Arts Council building in Jamestown. There is no cost thanks to a grant from the Arts Council. You don’t have to make every meeting. On Saturday the 9th we’ll gather, introduce ourselves and see where we need to go, and what we want to do. Our hope is that folks will want to take a stab at the National Novel Writing Month but even that will be left up to you. We’ve scheduled meetings through December 4. Where we go from there is anyone’s guess.

If you’re interested call Len Barry at the Arts Council.

But first and foremost come tell your story.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010