Off Topic!, For all our "general" off topic tendencies Options

[Rose Bush]

NETWORK PRIME TIME (salary per episode)
William Petersen, CSI $500,000
Zach Braff, Scrubs $350,000
Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU $350,000
Chris Meloni, Law & Order: SVU $350,000
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men $350,000
Hugh Laurie, House $300,000
Patrick Dempsey, Grey's Anatomy $225,000
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Old Christine $225,000
Eva Longoria, Desperate Housewives $200,000
Ellen Pompeo, Grey's Anatomy $200,000
Jeff Foxworthy, Are You Smarter… $150,000
T.R. Knight, Grey's Anatomy $125,000
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy $125,000
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters $100,000
Special guest stars per hour episode minimum $6,527
Stand-ins per day minimum $145
Background actors w/ special abilities per day $140
Background actors or "extras" per day $130

How sad--here's a two time Academy Award winning actress with 40 years of acting experience (starting on television) and she makes one-fifth of what Bill Peterson makes for his deadpan delivery. I'm sorry I read this list now.

[Rose Bush]

I thought of a couple more games I played as a kid: stone school (which we played on actual school steps next to that playground) where you guessed which hand the stone was in and went up a step if you were right and down if you were wrong. The other one I think was called statues and all I remember was having to freeze in place when told and the first one who moved was out.

I worry about all those sunburns I had as a kid too. I especially remember my nose and shoulders peeling until they were raw red skin. And I got a burn on the top of my legs on a 40-mile bike trip that left a tan line on my legs for more than one year.

I'm not a good example of surviving childhood unscathed; I had a broken nose, arm and ankle before I was 10 years old and had a bacterial infection in my eyes from swimming in a stagnant pond. I didn't get colds though. I have a lot of kids playing around me, mostly in their back yards or in the middle of the street, but I'm still in the inner city so I don't know what the kids in the suburbs do. I think less kids are out playing because of the perverts more than because of germs though. I get nervous when I see kids playing alone in their front yards or walking down the street--too many SVU-type perps out there. Every year kids in my city get attacked walking to school. It's sad.

On a lighter note, I remember about 7 of us little kids riding in the back of a station wagon going out to the country for a picnic one year and bouncing around on those country roads that weren't even paved so the dirt came flying in the back window. Now that was fun. Now the kids have to have a dvd player in the back of their SVUs. I'll take the good old days of counting cows and then burying them when you went past a cemetary or singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall...

[Flatpack]

At last! Ive been trying to get online for ages unsuccessfully. Forgive me folks if i ever appear not to appear! its not for want of trying.

Anyway im here now. Playgrounds are such evocative places,eh? My girls playground is like something out of enid Blyton,the small rickety gate and the mountains behind it. But i am fascinated by your description of New york inner city playgrounds.

JMI, the sound of "poles on the cement"; i get that. The sound of the rope turning and hitting the cement has been affecting me here. It takes you back through the years and the experiences.

Red rover I remember too, Hullbound. I think we called it something else but it was the same game.

redlight,greenlight prods a memory. how do you play it Abfirefighter?

Oh and mudpies Stefanl. you would be proud of us. When our back field was turned over and flattened it was half and acre of mud. the girls went out in the rain barefoot and slid all over it,mud everywhere. then they cooked with it and served it up on a tray!

And i agree Donna,no sickness. You cant control everything in life,you have to let go and get sick or make mistakes or make a fool of yourself.Im learning to let go of my oldest daughter as she begins to explore more. i have to trust that she will make good choices,and if she doesnt that she will learn from her mistakes. Life is dangerous and fragile but you kind of have tyo bend with it. otherwise you break!


JMI,your talking took me back again to this moment i had lying on my back in the playground as a child, closing my eyes and listening to the childrens voices, thinking they sounded like seagulls squeeling and the confusion in my mind between being in a playgound and being by the sea so that the playground smelt of the seaside. Childhood memories are so evocative,so sensual. Children really live in their skin,every bit of them is alive. i think adults who retain that ability become artists!

"dirt flying in your faces from the truck"; i bet you can almost feel that now.


Ha! Stefanl,so how much is Richie in the Squad Room getting?

[DonnaLJo]

LOL! Speaking of Richie in the squadroom why isn't D'Onofrio's & Noth's cool $350,000 per episode mentioned on this list? Aren't they worthy? Or is it that it would upstage the SVU salaries?

Not that I think VDO wants his salary mentioned, I'm sure he would cringe if he saw it printed for gossip fodder.

William Peterson is also an Executive Producer of CSI, someone mentioned that on Board. That's why he makes so much, I guess.

[stefanl]

LOL! Speaking of Richie in the squadroom why isn't D'Onofrio's & Noth's cool $350,000 per episode mentioned on this list? Aren't they worthy? Or is it that it would upstage the SVU salaries?

Not that I think VDO wants his salary mentioned, I'm sure he would cringe if he saw it printed for gossip fodder.

William Peterson is also an Executive Producer of CSI, someone mentioned that on Board. That's why he makes so much, I guess.

Looks like they chose actors and actresses from the top 10 shows only. Although what Jeff Foxworthy is doing there is beyond me. Is that show doing that well?!

Read the rest of the stats in the article. The people working craft services also got a mention.

[DonnaLJo]

Looks like they chose actors and actresses from the top 10 shows only. Although what Jeff Foxworthy is doing there is beyond me. Is that show doing that well?!

Read the rest of the stats in the article. The people working craft services also got a mention.

Wonder how they came up with the figures for the behind the scene people? Those salaries would depend on location & company.

Fore example, my daughter's friend was just hired as a production assistant at Showtime here on Long island, right out of college. She started at $20 per hour plus benefits.

[CI fan]

Hi all !

Went to Mystic, CT for a few days last week. Dined at Mystic Pizza. Very disappointed. Not as many pictures of Vincent as there were last year. More pictures of other movie stars. But, the pizza was great, and there IS one picture of him I love - at JoJo's door with his pants down. I wonder how he would feel about that being one of the pictures they still have up! Walked where he walked in front of Mystic Pizza and on the pier where Bill's boat was.

Also did some shopping - very expensive. Liked a cotton vest with a ruffle along the front closure for a friend for her birthday, but the price was prohibitive - $239.00 !!! Fun to browse though. Food was great at Mystic Pizza, Abbott's Seafood (here you can actually eat at a table on the dock and watch the sailboats and yachts go by) - lobster, Sea Swirl - scallops, and Water St. Café in Noank (nearby) - trout. Visited a lighthouse museum in Noank too. Main attractions in Mystic are the Aquarium and the Seaport, but I have seen them so many times, I decided to pass on both this trip. Stayed at Hyatt Place hotel - very nice. First night there, saw a black Escalade parked in front - thought of you-know-who.

Now I'm home in my air-conditioned rooms, thankful that I don't have to go out in this oppressive heat and humidity today. Time to cook supper. Talk soon!

Sue

[DonnaLJo]

Hi all !

... there IS one picture of him I love - at JoJo's door with his pants down. I wonder how he would feel about that being one of the pictures they still have up!
Sue

LOL. Wonder if he's ever taken his kids to Mystic Seaport? It's a popular site for school trips - every year our 6th graders go. Don't remember if they went to the pizza place.

I think Vincent would be embarrassed if he brought his kids into the place & they saw the picture hanging. Imagine being a kid & having a picture of your Dad posted with his pants around his ankles?

[Not_saying]

LOL. Wonder if he's ever taken his kids to Mystic Seaport? It's a popular site for school trips - every year our 6th graders go. Don't remember if they went to the pizza place.

I think Vincent would be embarrassed if he brought his kids into the place & they saw the picture hanging. Imagine being a kid & having a picture of your Dad posted with his pants around his ankles?

Probably not.

and I can picture that sweet face all red .

his daughter looking at him saying that was you .

[CI fan]

LOL. Wonder if he's ever taken his kids to Mystic Seaport? It's a popular site for school trips - every year our 6th graders go. Don't remember if they went to the pizza place.

I think Vincent would be embarrassed if he brought his kids into the place & they saw the picture hanging. Imagine being a kid & having a picture of your Dad posted with his pants around his ankles?

I think Vincent would be somewhat embarrassed too. But if my dad looked that good in his underwear, I'm not so sure I'd be embarrassed ! (Who said that? What a shocking thing to say! Slap my face!)

[abfirefighterchi...]

Wouldn't you be MORE embarrassed if it was your dad, and he didn't look like VDO?

My father once got swimming trunks that were lt. blue, only when he went into the water it turned into bright flowers, LOL!

[stefanl]

Wouldn't you be MORE embarrassed if it was your dad, and he didn't look like VDO?

My father once got swimming trunks that were lt. blue, only when he went into the water it turned into bright flowers, LOL!

My dad was outstanding when he was younger. Arms like Popeye. Tall, great smile, real lady killer look to him. He wasn't still lookin' that way in his 70s. Why did he still insist on wearing the same summerwear?! Worse than the most vain woman imaginable.

[hullbound]

Awwww, I'm sure that he thought he looked good. Lucky for me I guess that my Dad didn't like to go in the water so he never wore a bathing suit.

My husband bought a white bathing suit once when we were on vacation. Going in the water-Big Mistake! It made the thing practically transparent-talk about being embarrassed by your parent. Needless to say that while I was laughing my son was mortified! Ahhhh-famiy memories they're a precious thing

[Not_saying]

How is everyone today ?

Awwww, I'm sure that he thought he looked good. Lucky for me I guess that my Dad didn't like to go in the water so he never wore a bathing suit.

My husband bought a white bathing suit once when we were on vacation. Going in the water-Big Mistake! It made the thing practically transparent-talk about being embarrassed by your parent. Needless to say that while I was laughing my son was mortified! Ahhhh-famiy memories they're a precious thing

I would probably be mortified and laughin if it were me .lol

[Flatpack]

Well you could swim in the weather here at the moment!! Dreadful summer!
Yesterday we were in and out of a music festival,pouring down with rain,people standing in it dripping,undeterred. Nothing stops the music! So in one corner of the village square was a 20th century rock band blasting out Green Day etc,and in the other corner were the Mummers from Armagh,enacting the earliest forms of drama,the Mummer Plays. Extraordinary isnt it? Where else do you get that combination and the same aufdience watching both together,young and old,accepting and enjoying both.

Sometimes i think all these statistics falsely force us into catagories and division when it does not really exist. In this square was a mixed audience enjoying mixed entertainment, all together and enjoying each other,all seeing the same thing but from different viewpoints. Now thats integration!

Mummers by the way are probably the first actors bringing us the first stories of heroes and combat to the people. But i also find the name curious because of it association to the other meanings of the word Mummy!!!

The whole thing is a spectacle. the mummers arrive as ordinary people with bundles of clothing and straw costumes. they dress up and joke about with the audience. They start to beat saucepans with a stick and drum up attention.They move amongst the audience...then they start to break into rhyme and begin their play. they break off into prose to tease the audience and pretend they dont know what they are doing. then they play music,the Uilleann Pipes and fiddle...then they pick up the rhyme again and the play goes on. Some of them are in these strange straw costumes with masks that cover their faces. there is something sinister and something ridiculous in this form of drama,and you never know quite how to respond. fascinating. This all goes back to the market squares of the 11C. bet they didnt take ratings then but its still going strong!!!!Hows that for longevity? tThey were tapping into something far more enduring than coca cola!!!!

[abfirefighterchi...]

Mummers make me think of the Mummer's Day Parade in Philadelphia. My fire company did a float to commerate the first anniversary of the September 11th attacks. It was the scene with the fireman raising the flag. We went into great detail, building a rubble pile of rebarb, concrete, etc. We even used a smoke machine to reproduce smoke rising from under the pile. Beside the three FF that were there, myself and one other FF were on the back with our helmets in our hands, kneeling in mourning. Then we played a mix of patrotic songs and interviews from people as it happened.

I'm not too proud to say it was very moving. At one parade some FDNY ff were there and they came up to us and told us how very much they appreciated it, and eeiry accurate it looked.
We were in 11 parades in three counties, winning 10 trophies.

Anyway we were invited to be in the Mummers Day Parade, in fact we were leading the entire thing! Then on New Years Day it SNOWED, GGGRRRRRR!!! So it was held the following week. Well let's just say that there were more homeless people watching than anyone else!! No one was in the stands, no one. Then we thought at least we will be on TV! Turns out that the officals started us off 3 MINUTES BEFORE they started showing it live on TV! Yeah well, at least we were given the chance, and we won a trophy for best float for non-commerical or something like that.

[Rose Bush]

We're dry as a bone here in Upstate New York. Too bad Flatpack can't send some Irish mist this way. We're having our music festival in two weeks, so we'll probably get rain for then. I don't think the Mummers are coming but we'll have everything from Bluegrass to Alternative Rock, but they won't all be playing in the same area so we will have segregation.

I always wondered where the Mummers came from--11C. England, eh? Maybe one of them came over on the Mayflower. I know the local Mummers adapted the Native American headresses and drums.

I finally watched Rescue Me from 2 weeks ago and there was one scene at a hockey game where the bleachers were full of LOCI perps, victims and witnesses. Many moons ago I wrote that I'd like to see a reperatory company doing different genres, and it looks like that's what they've got in the New York acting community. I wish Vincent, Katie and Chris had time to guest star on Rescue Me for one episode as someone completely different. Damaged is another one filmed in NY and it has a lot of familiar faces too. And ABC has ads running for one of their Fall shows and the ad had Croydon and the street artist in it. It's so great to see New York City on television so much.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Summer. Write soon.

[Flatpack]

Yes,I love watching all this New York City stuff,even though I have never been there. I would send you mist if i could, JMI. Let us know all about that music festival when you go.

I was chatting to the Mummers,to get their side of the story,because although Ive researched back the history its always interesting to hear it from different angles since all knowledge filters through the subjective mind,even scientific knowledge (Eh,Stefanl!?)...anyway it concurrs that....

...Mumming goes back to ceremonies all over Europe celebrating the turning of the year,fertility celebrations to do with Mother Earth,so the wearing of straw costumes,the play between Good and Evil, the death and revival of the hero in combat,the forces of life and the forces of death,thye stock characters all over Europe,a sense of fun combined with a sense of fear,lots of noise to galvanise courage...etc etc...

Interesting story there Abfirefighter. That sense of ceremony is always powerful,makes the hair on your neck stand on end!!

[stefanl]

...Mumming goes back to ceremonies all over Europe celebrating the turning of the year,fertility celebrations to do with Mother Earth,so the wearing of straw costumes,the play between Good and Evil, the death and revival of the hero in combat,the forces of life and the forces of death,thye stock characters all over Europe,a sense of fun combined with a sense of fear,lots of noise to galvanise courage...etc etc...

The Mummers Parade on New Years Day actually goes back historically to the ideas of the European Mummers. Of course "our" Mummers aren't very well known outside of the immediate vicinity of the Delaware Valley part of south NJ and most of eastern Pennsy.

My sister went to school with a person from Philly who dressed in his Mummer costume one year for Halloween. He was a member of one of the Fancies and played in their string band. Did the whole Mummer Walk, which I'm sure Angy will know about. He didn't live down that walk for a very, very long time. Near me? Not a problem, we know from Mummers. Folks from the rest of the state? Oof!

Here's a link to their website.

[Rose Bush]

The Mummers Parade on New Years Day actually goes back historically to the ideas of the European Mummers. Of course "our" Mummers aren't very well known outside of the immediate vicinity of the Delaware Valley part of south NJ and most of eastern Pennsy.

Here's a link to their website.

I saw the Mummers at a festival in southern NY but it was many years ago. Maybe they were trying to recruit or expand their tribe. I knew about them from when I lived in Delaware so they didn't seem strange to me, but now that I think about it, that one time was the only time I've heard of them in New York State. Thanks for the link.