[B5JMS] from jms: too damned much stuff

Sun Apr 24 06:14:31 EDT 2005

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2005 16:11:29 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 90

Okay.  That's it.  I give up.

Over the last few days, I've been trying to sort through the tons of
boxes that have for the most part been sitting in storage for the last
several years to try and find space for all this stuff, and there just
isn't any.  The floors are wall-to-wall with boxes, crates, palletes,
you name it, the detritus of decades of making shows and writing comics
and being a pack-rack.  It has literally grown to overflow two rental
storage facilities.

I have reached the point best expressed by Oscar Wilde's last words:
"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

There's just no room, and I'm going insane.

So I'm going to have a yard sale.

Now, understand, the majority of this stuff will never leaving my
hands, and for those I have set aside places here at the house...the
statue of the B5 station that sat for five years on the desk of every
commanding officer on B5...the actual prop Book of G'Kar...a number of
props and bits of memorabilia that have honored places here.

But a lot of the rest is going to go out the door, because either that
wallpaper goes, or...well, you get the idea.

It's going to be kind of a JMS retrospective in some ways, because as I
said, this stuff covers decades...from memorabilia and storyboards for
the Ghostbusters, He-Man and Captain Power series, original scripts
from Twilight Zone and Murder, She Wrote...but the bulk of it is B5
stuff.

There are the actual script books I used during production, into which
I shoved the script I was working on, the breakdowns, shooting
schedules, any storyboards that were needed...the whole thing, in one
book per episode, some of which still have my original notations.

There are episodic dailies tapes, with takes and bits not previously
seen anywhere, posters, publicity material, a ton of stuff.

Props from the show, from my personal collection, where I have doubles
or just no place for them anymore.

(One of the things I'm letting go traces back to the pilot.  Not sure
if the show would ever actually go, I paid the wardrobe department to
make me a B5 captain's uniform.  I know, I know, I'm the ultimate geek,
but there you are.  Suffice to say given the passage of time and
calories, there's no way on god's green earth that that uniform is ever
going to fit.  Not that I ever wore it past the initial fitting, but
for sure it ain't gonna happen now.  So that's on its way out.)

Another prime item is going to be one of two huge original art pieces
that the late Peter Ledger did for me to help sell B5 itself, big,
elaborate paintings, signed by Peter.  The one I won't sell is the
first painting of the B5 station itself from the outside; the one I
just don't have room for is the very first visualization/painting of
the Garden area, with the core shuttle, folks floating around, and in
the bar, a fight breaking out between humans and aliens, with an early
version of Garibaldi in the thick of it.

There's caps, and a disco-style prototype of a B5 crew jacket, a few of
the original blue key B5 symbol t-shirts made up before we did the
pilot and given out at a couple of conventions, an assortment of
souvenirs and some truly, truly weird shit, some of which nobody's ever
heard of before, let alone seen.

I'm still holding on to about 75% of the stuff, but the other 25% has
got to go.

So starting sometime probably next week, the week of the 11th, and from
time to time over the next month or so, keep an eye on Ebay.  (I'm
playing with the idea of doing this chronologically, from the earliest
stuff to the latter stuff, but I don't know if I'm disciplined enough
for that.)  I likely won't put this stuff up every day, only when and
as I think of it.  So you may have days pass with nothing, then a day
when four or five items go up.  The Ebay user ID is babylon5auctions.
Once I've cleared out enough room to actually see the floor again, the
auctions will stop and that user ID will go away.

Let the games begin.

jms

(Message content copyright (c) 2005
by Synthetic Worlds, Ltd.
Permission to reprint specifically
denied to SFX Magazine)

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 08:32:47 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 39

A follow-up on this subject....

Tomorrow, the Seeing Double auctions start at 1:00 p.m. PST

By "seeing double" I mean that I have two of these, and there's no
reason for me to hold on to both, so I'm putting one of them up in each
of these three auctions.

The first two are doubles of my complete He-Man and She-Ra production
archives, NOT the scripts, but a truckload of other stuff.
Storyboards, art, memos, series bibles, publicity stuff, you name it.

The third one...is the one that I debated about for a long time, but I
want this whole thing to be kind of special, to put something that I
would want to have as a fan, not just to clear out stuff from the
garage.  Something...special.

Because that's almost half the fun...knowing these things are going to
get good homes, appreciated and shown off.

So what's item number three?

Nothing less than one of the two Medals from the Battle of the Line
seen in Sinclair's quarters in the pilot.  Both were used on screen,
interchangeably.  I'm keeping one, and letting the other one go to a
fan who can appreciate it.

Yep.  THAT medal.

The one that changed everything for the Babylon 5 storyline.

jms

(Message content copyright (c) 2005
by Synthetic Worlds, Ltd.
Permission to reprint specifically 
denied to SFX Magazine)

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From: Chris <pelzo63 at earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 10:01:07 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 22

In article <1113985927.047156.211400 at g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
 jmsatb5 at aol.com wrote:

> So what's item number three?
> 
> Nothing less than one of the two Medals from the Battle of the Line
> seen in Sinclair's quarters in the pilot.  Both were used on screen,
> interchangeably.  I'm keeping one, and letting the other one go to a
> fan who can appreciate it.
> 
> Yep.  THAT medal.
> 
> The one that changed everything for the Babylon 5 storyline.

sooooo, um, joe?  for those of us too damned poor to even have a shot at 
winning any of these auctions(ahem, not even a certain pad kept up in 
the figurine auction), is there any chance of trying to convince some of 
the winning bidders to, oh, say, post a little note here? or at least 
trying. :-) just, you know, so we know they're going to a good home. :-)

...Chris

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From: "The Cardassian Scot" <cardassianscot at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 13:50:52 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 36

Chris wrote:
> In article <1113985927.047156.211400 at g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
>  jmsatb5 at aol.com wrote:
>
> > So what's item number three?
> >
> > Nothing less than one of the two Medals from the Battle of the Line
> > seen in Sinclair's quarters in the pilot.  Both were used on
screen,
> > interchangeably.  I'm keeping one, and letting the other one go to
a
> > fan who can appreciate it.
> >
> > Yep.  THAT medal.
> >
> > The one that changed everything for the Babylon 5 storyline.
>
> sooooo, um, joe?  for those of us too damned poor to even have a shot
at
> winning any of these auctions(ahem, not even a certain pad kept up in

> the figurine auction), is there any chance of trying to convince some
of
> the winning bidders to, oh, say, post a little note here? or at least

> trying. :-) just, you know, so we know they're going to a good home.
:-)

Again, attempting to speak for those of us who are way too poor to be
able to afford any of these items, is there any chance you might be
persuaded to use some other sort of critera to help give you more space
in your house, that would be more open to us poor fans. Please.

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From: Amy Guskin <aisling at fjordstone.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2005 14:24:00 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 55

>>On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 09:50:52 -0400, The Cardassian Scot wrote
(in article <1114001459.061394.159900 at l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>):

> 
> Chris wrote:
>> In article <1113985927.047156.211400 at g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
>> jmsatb5 at aol.com wrote:
>> 
>>> So what's item number three?
>>> 
>>> Nothing less than one of the two Medals from the Battle of the Line
>>> seen in Sinclair's quarters in the pilot.  Both were used on
> screen,
>>> interchangeably.  I'm keeping one, and letting the other one go to
> a
>>> fan who can appreciate it.
>>> 
>>> Yep.  THAT medal.
>>> 
>>> The one that changed everything for the Babylon 5 storyline.
>> 
>> sooooo, um, joe?  for those of us too damned poor to even have a shot
> at
>> winning any of these auctions(ahem, not even a certain pad kept up in
> 
>> the figurine auction), is there any chance of trying to convince some
> of
>> the winning bidders to, oh, say, post a little note here? or at least
> 
>> trying. :-) just, you know, so we know they're going to a good home.
>> -)
> 
> Again, attempting to speak for those of us who are way too poor to be
> able to afford any of these items, is there any chance you might be
> persuaded to use some other sort of critera to help give you more space
> in your house, that would be more open to us poor fans. Please.<<

You know, I posted this elsewhere on the thread, but it bears repeating now.  
Let's say that JMS agreed with you and other fans who have been weeping over 
not being able to afford the high prices the items have been going for; let's 
say he decided to give all of his items away for $50 a pop, and choose the 
winners by lottery.  And let's further say that the lottery was held, winners 
were chosen, and you _still_ didn't get anything.  Would that make you feel 
any better?  And if so, why?  I'm really curious to know why people think 
that having money makes someone less validly a fan.  That can't really be the 
issue; I know that some of the complainers would probably have been delighted 
had Peter David won the auction for the dolls.  So, what's with the contempt 
for ordinary, anonymous fans who happen to have a lot of disposable income?

Amy

-- 
http://www.zongoftheweek.com
Free and legal downloads of fun, original songs

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From: Chris <pelzo63 at earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 07:14:04 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 22

In article <0001HW.BE8E81510330602EF04075B0 at news.verizon.net>,
 Amy Guskin <aisling at fjordstone.com> wrote:

> You know, I posted this elsewhere on the thread, but it bears repeating now.  
> Let's say that JMS agreed with you and other fans who have been weeping over 
> not being able to afford the high prices the items have been going for; let's 
> say he decided to give all of his items away for $50 a pop, and choose the 
> winners by lottery.  And let's further say that the lottery was held, winners 
> were chosen, and you _still_ didn't get anything.  Would that make you feel 
> any better?  And if so, why?  

err, you weren't calling me one of those weeping over not being able to 
afford it were you?(as my post was quoted by the previous guy, but also 
included by you in the re-quote and jms was re-quoted too)  cause i am 
totally capitalist on this. i just was asking for the winners to post a 
note here saying what they plan to do with it etc.(and maybe bring them 
into our community here.)  would i love to have these? yes, can i afford 
it? no, am i crying about it? nope. 

...Chris

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From: Amy Guskin <aisling at fjordstone.com>
Date: Sat, 23 Apr 2005 13:07:29 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 46

>>On Sat, 23 Apr 2005 03:14:04 -0400, Chris wrote
(in article <pelzo63-DEBFED.00132723042005 at news1.east.earthlink.net>):

> In article <0001HW.BE8E81510330602EF04075B0 at news.verizon.net>,
>  Amy Guskin <aisling at fjordstone.com> wrote:
> 
>> You know, I posted this elsewhere on the thread, but it bears repeating 
>> now.  
>> Let's say that JMS agreed with you and other fans who have been weeping 
>> over 
>> not being able to afford the high prices the items have been going for; 
>> let's 
>> say he decided to give all of his items away for $50 a pop, and choose the 
>> winners by lottery.  And let's further say that the lottery was held, 
>> winners 
>> were chosen, and you _still_ didn't get anything.  Would that make you feel 
>> any better?  And if so, why?  
> 
> 
> err, you weren't calling me one of those weeping over not being able to 
> afford it were you?(as my post was quoted by the previous guy, but also 
> included by you in the re-quote and jms was re-quoted too)  cause i am 
> totally capitalist on this. i just was asking for the winners to post a 
> note here saying what they plan to do with it etc.(and maybe bring them 
> into our community here.)  would i love to have these? yes, can i afford 
> it? no, am i crying about it? nope. <<

No, no.  There is the normal kind of good-natured "Dang!  I really wanted 
that bit of memorabilia, but I'm not Bill Gates! <g>" reaction, but then also 
on some of the fora (and a little bit here) there has been another level of 
disappointment that seems to encompass a feeling of resentment.  I wasn't 
tagging you with that.  What set me off over here was the comment "Again, 
attempting to speak for those of us who are way too poor to be
able to afford any of these items, is there any chance you might be
persuaded to use some other sort of critera to help give you more space
in your house, that would be more open to us poor fans. Please."  Which I do 
not think was of the good-natured "Dang!" reaction category (more of a 
desperately whiny plea), and which I also think unfairly guilts JMS who has 
_absolutely no reason_ to feel guilty for auctioning off his own property.

Amy

-- 
http://www.zongoftheweek.com
Free and legal downloads of fun, original songs

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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 04:07:12 +0000 (UTC)
Lines: 12

Because there are a lot of folks who've said that the items currently
on ebay are kind of beyond their reach, I just put up a dutch auction
for multiples of the "V" script that I've never let anyone see before,
all autographed, at a ceiling of $200 (this is a FOUR HOUR miniseries,
remember), so it can't go any higher, and anybody who wants something
special can have one.  I'll run this for two auction cycles and that's
it, so those who get 'em will have something that won't be available
again from me.

jms