B:
Production has officially begun on ROX #91. (It began some time ago, maybe January 2003, maybe earlier. It's hard to say exactly when production begins on any episode, which is why the production dates in our episode guide tend to indicate when a show was completed.) I had a phone conversation with J about it a couple nights ago, so this seemed like a good time to articulate a few thoughts.
This is going to be a show about property, both private and public, real and intellectual. The show will have an omnibus format, a bunch of shorts, hopefully by a bunch of different people representing a variety of perspectives and experiences. This is not to say that we are agnostic or that we will try to be objective. We have a perspective, and it is jaundiced. Thus, we're particularly interested in the alienating effects of property, critical perspectives which challenge the conventional wisdom. And of course we'd like it to be fun rather than overly serious.
This subject presented itself mainly because J & I are both homeowners now. Even though this is considered a cornerstone of the so-called American dream, we're both a bit surprised by this development, even a little skeptical. I have believed, with Proudhon, that “property is theft.” What business do I have owning property? We probably have more questions than answers right now; that may still be true when production is finished.
We'd like to more fully explore and exploit the potential offered by the Web as a platform for publishing video. Even after nine years on the Web, we have tended to be very old-school in our thinking about this television show. We want to start experimenting. For example, in the past we've waited until an entire show was complete, and then we released it on the Web in chunks or in its entirety. This time, we might try releasing individual segments as they are completed. (Indeed, I have to wonder what an “episode” of television really is in the fractured world of the Web, and if a show need ever be “finished” in the traditional sense.) I'd like to be putting up a short segment about once a week or so.
