phazedout@o2.ie wrote:
> I was thinking about starting a podcast to discuss all things
> Straczynski, and just wanted to check with you if it was Ok if I
> called it Straczynskicast, and registered the url
> www.Straczynskicast.org. I;m just running this by you as I don't want
> to use your name without your permission. I've never done podcasting
> perviously, so ti'll be a little rocky to start with. I've reported
> below a brief overview of my intentions from jmsnews.com.
> I'll not kick off without your OK joe.
>
> from jmsnews.com:
> "Inspired by the Babylon podcast, and Aaron's solo effort with sci-fi
> dig, I'm giving serious consideration to recording a Straczynskicast.
> The plan is to just chat about all things JMS.
>
> I was going to record an initial 10 - 15 minute small cast, and seed
> it out there and see what reactions there were. Obviously I'd be
> covering Bab 5, but also his comic book stuff, other series he's done
> and anything else ye can supply me with. The initial cast will
> probably just be me, indicating what I hope to do with it and
> soliciting for material for regular stuff.
>
> What I'm looking for is, if I do put the thing up, will ye give me
> feedback on it . If I do get up and running I'm hoping to feature
> guest submissions (from ye of course) and I'll porbably stick a
> message up in the B5 newsgroup once I'm up and running.
>
> Hoping to have my initial (cast #0) done in some acceptable format by
> 14th June, but I need to look into stuff like setting up a web site
> for it, and the various ancillary things associated with podcasting.
> All help appreciated, please either PM me, email the address
> associated with this ID, or reply to the thread.
>
> Any and all feedback on what ye think, or if ye would like to help is
> appreciate"
> Phazedout
> on the "hoping for a response" ID


I appreciate and get the compliment inherent in this idea, but I'll
have to say that I'd rather not see this go ahead, for a reason that
will seem unbelievably dumb, but it's the only one I have.

Since the very beginning of B5, I've resisted having a jms website,
despite many offers by fans and others (many of them on this group) to
have it done completely free. (The cafepress/b5 scripts site is of
course a different kettle of fish in that it relates to the books and
even then it's B5 not jms.)

Pretty much every writer and artist I know has their own website, their
own message boards, blogs, podcasts, you name it...which is great, and
more power to them...but for me it just goes farther down the road of
the cult of personality than I'm really comfortable with.

Do I maintain a public presence? Of course, but it's always in terms
of, and through the prism of, the work. I'm on the B5 news group, I do
the Newsarama column, that sort of thing, but it's not *J*M*S* if that
makes any sense.

I don't have a straczynski website for the same reason that I only do a
handful of conventions each year, when if I chose to I could easily be
at a con literally two or three times per month, every month...it
should be about the work, not about me standing on a stage, or having a
website, or in this case, having a podcast oriented around me as an
individual. It's the same reason I don't employ a publicist, which
I've been informed many times is a drawback in an industry where you
*need* to maintain that kind of constant visibility to keep ascending
the ladder.

This may seem wholly arbitrary, but we all have to draw our lines
somewhere, and this is where I've drawn mine.

Besides, who the hell could ever manage to spell straczynskicast
anyhow?

jms