ATTN JMS: Thanks, comments, and some mild disagreements

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: GS Lees <GSLees at ix.netcom.com>
Date: 23 May 1998 00:42:21 -0600
Lines: 23

First, let me add my voice to the thousands of others expressing their
gratitude to you for all of your work. Babylon5 has been an incredible
experience. From the creation of the arc, giving us a series more like a
novel, rather than a group of mostly unrelated episodes,
to the blending of a group of incredibly talented actors, who have
become our family and friends. Thanks for enduring the onslaught of a
handful of self important fools, and remaining available to the fans.
     That said, I do disagree with a few things. As a Las Vegas
resident, I was disappointed a few months ago when you said that you
didn't feel that Las Vegas was a suitable place for a B5 Theme
attraction. Las Vegas is a fabulous place for such an attraction. Star
Trek the Experience is incredible. With the addition of a multitude of
attractions, we're a family destination as well as just a gambling
mecca. And, having driven through LA, I find Vegas much less offensive.
     My other disagreement is in music. After seeing numerous posts
about the group "PortisHead", I broke down and bought an album.
Fortunately I had a gift certificate. Sorry, but I find loose fan belts
more enjoyable. Oh well, everyone's taste is different. In the future,
when it comes to music, I'll stick with my Buffett discs. But if I see
Joe Straczinsky's name on anything associated with sci-fi, or any
television or music project, I'll know to expect the best.
Thanks for a great ride, Joe.
Graham Lees

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 24 May 1998 11:30:43 -0600
Lines: 86

First, thanks for all the nice things.  >That said, I do disagree with a few
things. As a Las Vegas
>resident, I was disappointed a few months ago when you said that you
>didn't feel that Las Vegas was a suitable place for a B5 Theme
>attraction. Las Vegas is a fabulous place for such an attraction. Star
>Trek the Experience is incredible. 
>With the addition of a multitude of
>attractions, we're a family destination as well as just a gambling
>mecca. And, having driven through LA, I find Vegas much less offensive.

On the other hand, Las Vegas as a family destination is made possible by and is
a subset of the gambling.  Take it as read that a great many families and nice
people live and work there; that ain't the issue.

Vegas exists for one reason: to separate you from your cash as fast and as
efficiently as humanly possible.  You feel it the moment you get off the plane.
 Gambling is a real problem for a great many people, otherwise there woudln't
be so many billions of bucks floating into Vegas every year.  At minimum,
you'll leave Vegas a few hundred bucks poorer.  But at worst, particularly with
compulsive gamblers, it provides a venue for the destruction of lives, the
bankrupting of families, the sacrifice of college funds and pensions.  I've
stood there and watched rows of people at the slot machines, most of them women
(I don't know why the slots tend to attract more women than men, as opposed to
other forms of gambling, but that's my perception of it), none at a glance much
able to afford it, dropping dollar after dollar into the slots, from huge
buckets, a buck a minute, minute after minute, hour after hour after
hour...frankly, it creeped the hell out of me.

See, I *know* what it is to be an obsessive-compulsive personality.  I get
addicted to stuff real easy, which is why I have made it a painstaking process
to stay away from drugs, alcohol, smoking and gambling.  I'd be lost if I EVER
got into any of those things.  Writing is the ONLY addictive activity I allow
(well, that and chocolate).  So it's extremely easy for me to put myself into
that mindset, to know how it must feel to get lost in the activity of pulling
the arm, listening to the whirring slots, the clicks, drop another dollar,
pull, watch, drop, pull, watch....

I've seen it destroy people.

Yes, there are now many cool exhibits in Vegas...but if you pulled ou the
gambling tomorrow, could they be self-sufficient?  They exist to pull in
families, so the kids can play *here* while their inheritance is being placed
on Red Seven over *there*.  If anything, it makes the whole place even MORE
cynical, if that's possible.

A while back, a license for B5 shot glasses slipped past me in an overall
glasses-licensing deal.  I couldn't cancel the license legally, but I asked WB
to intervene and ask the licensee to stop making them as a courtesy to me
(which they did).  They sold out their inventory, and that was that.  They set
a tone that I could not support morally.

Similarly, I cannot morally justify any B5 association with Vegas.  I know a
lot of folks don't find Vegas offensive, as you note above, and a lot of others
thought the stance regarding shot glasses was overkill...but I have to follow
my own conscience.  It's okay not to agree with it; it only has to keep me on a
straight line, your straight line may vary.

Sometimes it gets into some very grey areas.  For instance, one licensed shirt
has "The Zocalo: Our Last, Best Chance for a Stiff Drink."  I puzzled over that
one for almost two weeks before I finally decided whether or not to let it go
ahead.  On this one, I felt it would be inappropriate to pull it, because in
fact that's what one DOES in the Zocalo, I do show drinking there, and no one
on Earth currently can get to the Zocalo to get a drink there.  (And if you
*can* get to that Zocalo, you've had one too many.)

If the Zocalo was a real place, or if it mentioned a real name of a drink, then
I think I couldn't have approved it.  This is a reference to the activities
that take place in a fictional universe, so it made it through on a
technicality...though I'd be lying if I said I was still entirely 100%
comfortable with that decision.  I go back and forth on ths one on an almost
daily basis.

(My problem is that I can argue 9 sides to any 8 sided argument.)

>My other disagreement is in music. After seeing numerous posts
>about the group "PortisHead", I broke down and bought an album.
>Fortunately I had a gift certificate. Sorry, but I find loose fan belts
>more enjoyable. Oh well, everyone's taste is different. 

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.  Trust me on this.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
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