You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Residuals
YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR RESIDUALS....My friend Jay Jaroch, a writer for Bill Maher's HBO show Real Time, is braving the harsh 60-degree weather in Studio City today to man the picket lines in the WGA strike. He files this report:
Kevin, ever the champion of the working man — even when that work isn't the type that inspires John Mellencamp — thought it'd be fun to get a report back from the front lines of the writers' strike.
Now, I'm not on the actual front lines. Those are in the negotiating room. I was simply one of the thousands of writers in New York and Los Angeles who held a sign outside a studio yesterday.
But oh, hold a sign I did. And walk in a circle for four hours, which is probably the most exercise any of us have gotten in years. And we'll be out there again today, even though the news channels have already gotten everything they need — namely footage of us holding signs and walking in a circle, which they can then replay ad nauseam whenever they cover the story again. (Think terrorists and monkey bars.)
But it was a good day for two reasons: one, because turnout was incredible (3,000 strong in Los Angeles, though I'll skip the part about how it's virtually mandatory) and two, because there wasn't much in the way of chanting. And it's not because we're not serious. It's just that writers are a universally cynical bunch, and getting them to chant something that rhymes with "Hey-hey, ho-ho" is like sort of like trying to get Ann Coulter to eat. But that doesn't mean we don't want to be out there, or at least on strike. It just means we've got some fucking dignity left, for Christ's sake.
And who among us wasn't touched when regular Americans started rising up and joining us outside the studio? Okay, those were just fans of Dancing with the Stars getting in line, but still.
Now, if you're really interested in what the issues are....