Rob Long's New Blog

Remember what I said, just two days ago, about "rarely" putting up a midweek post? It's true -- I rarely put up a midweek post. But "rarely" doesn't mean "never", and here's the exception that proves the rule.

One of the great things about the blog-o-net is the way it connects readers to writers and websites they might otherwise never stumble upon. Back when this blog launched, I tried to spread the word about Rob Long, a veteran writer/producer with nearly two decades of experience he draws on for his weekly radio commentaries on KCRW.

(There's a link to these commentaries on my Industry Blog List labeled "Martini Shot" -- the archives of which can be streamed even by Luddites like me, still tied to the horse-and-buggy of dial-up.)

Having spent so many years working below-the-line, I'm fascinated by his commentaries on life above-the-line: dry, pithy stories of a world that functions as a parallel universe to those of us who do the heavy lifting. We don't get to go through those doors upstairs, but Rob Long does. The man knows what he's talking about, and shares his knowledge in a manner that sheds considerably more light than heat.

But wait, there's more...

Rob started an interesting blog quite a while ago, but it sputtered to a halt when he pretty much stopped posting. At one point, he didn't put anything new up for three or four months, issuing some lame excuse about being too busy "working for the government" -- but whatever the real reason, a blog without fresh posts is like a slice of pizza left in the fridge for several weeks. Nobody's interested.

All that is now in the past. Rob Long is back with a new, infinitely better blog, to which he posts with some frequency. Anyone -- civilian or Industry veteran -- curious as to how the Industry works above-the-line will find these posts interesting.

Check it out: http://www.roblong.com/


Disclaimer: I've never met Rob Long, and am not shilling for him. We did work on the same show once -- a good, but ill-fated 12 episodes-and-out sit-com called "Love and Money" -- but since he was one of the executive producers, while I was a lowly juicer working on my second sit-com at the time, our shoulders did not rub. I had no idea who he was until checking his IMDB page a couple of years ago, whereupon I discovered that we had indeed pulled oars on the same ship.

Well, I was the one pulling oars below decks, while Rob sat in the captain's chair, hand on the wheel...