A very interesting email...

[Kc]

So, I received this email today. It's the first time I've received contact like this before, and you know how I love sharing these things...

"
Hi,

I subscribed to 'We're Alive' a couple of weeks ago. *It's very strange -
while the actors are unbelievably contrived and...well, just _bad_....
and while the accents that some of them affect are perhaps the worst
I've ever heard (in most cases I cannot tell you what the accent IS.
Is it British...? *Hispanic? *Something else? *Come on, guys - you must
admit that the reading of the script is laughingly inept and affected and wooden...),
and while the one-week wait for a 20-minute episode is waaaay too long -
all of this and more - believe me, I could go on...for some reason I find
myself listening to it. *I'm not sure why, frankly - it's certainly not for the
production or the acting, which are amateurish beyond belief. Could
you really not find anyone who can read with a little more aptitude?

But - you're making the effort, and I applaud that. *And I would really
suggest that if you're interested in making this something to be taken
seriously as audio drama, you're going to have to find actors with
at least SOME degree of believability.

All best,
PJB/"

[Eviebae]

From an alternate universe? Bizarro World? Maybe it's Backwards Day where he comes from.

[nikvoodoo]

Kc was kind enough to not attach the resume and acting reel of the composer of this email. He also omitted the post script begging for an audition....

Hey....even the Godfather got some bad reviews.

[HaveCrowBarWillTravel]

meh!
The main problem with Social Media. Everyone and their daddy is a critic or feels the need to open their pie holes.
These are the kind of people you "accidently" want to spill hot coffee (Or in Nik's case.. tea) on.

See them standing on the curb and drive through the mud puddle at their feet...........
...eat half their sandwich from the office fridge and put it back with a note saying "oops!"

[nikvoodoo]

meh!
These are the kind of people you "accidently" want to spill hot coffee (Or in Nik's case.. tea) on.



It's true. I'd much prefer a nice jasmine tea to a cup o' joe.

[yarri]

So, I received this email today. It's the first time I've received contact like this before, and you know how I love sharing these things...

"
Hi,

I subscribed to 'We're Alive' a couple of weeks ago. *It's very strange -
while the actors are unbelievably contrived and...well, just _bad_....
and while the accents that some of them affect are perhaps the worst
I've ever heard (in most cases I cannot tell you what the accent IS.
Is it British...? *Hispanic? *Something else? *Come on, guys - you must
admit that the reading of the script is laughingly inept and affected and wooden...),
and while the one-week wait for a 20-minute episode is waaaay too long -
all of this and more - believe me, I could go on...for some reason I find
myself listening to it. *I'm not sure why, frankly - it's certainly not for the
production or the acting, which are amateurish beyond belief. Could
you really not find anyone who can read with a little more aptitude?

But - you're making the effort, and I applaud that. *And I would really
suggest that if you're interested in making this something to be taken
seriously as audio drama, you're going to have to find actors with
at least SOME degree of believability.

All best,
PJB/"

Seriously????? OH MY GAWD... *face palm* what an idiot

[yarri]

It's true. I'd much prefer a nice jasmine tea to a cup o' joe.

Screw wasting a good cup of coffee or tea on him. I say kick his chair out from under him and then drop his lap top from a very tall height.

LOl

[Grognaurd]

Probably parroting some inane dribble from a correspondence course on method acting. Give him the ol’ Groucho Marx and tell him that

“you would not cast anyone with the poor taste to like your stuff.”

There is also the “When I am good I am good. When I am bad, I am better.”

[Adventureless_Hero]

PJB...I so want to make fun of these initials by saying something like that it stands for Peanut Jelly and Butter, or backwards it probably stands for Blow Jobs Please...but that just would be uncharacteristically rude of me and a bit dry and perhaps even contrived. :l

Anyway, i guess everyone is entitled to an opinion. I'm just glad he doesn't represent the majority otherwise the amazing hard work that has gone into creating WA would go unappreciated. This forums existence alone should be more than enough to assuage the intended effects of that letter.

*snicker* PJB...Pork Jizz Boy

[reaper239]

what a fucking dickhead

[mem]

post the address and i will send them poo, herpes and monkey syphillis

[Kc]

My form of venting is letting everyone comment. He emailed again do I challenged him to make a show of his own if he sees such potential in the medium.

[yarri]

He emailed again??? Really? What an ass...:meh:

challenge him to put up or shut up. making a show like We're alive is very hard. You and the cast and crew do an amazing job. I've never been disappointed and I've gotten 3 more folks to become fans who agree with me.

[nikvoodoo]

My form of venting is letting everyone comment. He emailed again do I challenged him to make a show of his own if he sees such potential in the medium.

Oh please do post that one as well! That would be awesome-sauce!

[abayarts]

Oh please do post that one as well! That would be awesome-sauce!

I want to read this too!

[awkwardalex]

Screw wasting a good cup of coffee or tea on him. I say kick his chair out from under him and then drop his lap top from a very tall height.

LOl

I'm with Yarri, taking the high road is for babies

[Eviebae]

I'm with Yarri, taking the high road is for babies
LOL!
:p
Seriously, he was asking for a job with this letter? So, he's


Trying to be funny by saying the opposite of what he believes to be true without any context provided to illustrate that fact other than his supplications.
Thinks that being a critic will make Kc think more of him rather than less.
Suffers from a personality disorder and is to be pitied from very far away.


.
Hey, if the first one is true, what do you do?

[cleeprevo]

I wonder where his shorty award nomination is...

[Pikepaw]

I wonder what he thinks of the awards committee who give stuff to We're Alive. When I first read it I thought he was being sarcastic, but then as I continued reading I realized unfortunately, he might be serious. It is the worst when people insult you and then ask things of you. Douche.

Strange comments considering the orgasm that takes place in my ears whenever I turn my Iphone to We're Alive. I wouldn't spill a hot beverage on him, I don't believe in hot beverages. I would just "miss" while practicing my kicks so that shin would collide with his head. Knock some good sense in him maybe

[awkwardalex]

Oh come on KC give us his email! Let us at him, let us at him! :mad:

[Grognaurd]

Meh, I think it should just fade out. The dude is probably wearing pajamas with duckies and bunnies sitting in his moms basement looking for attention. Another email seems to point to him reading the boards and loves the feedback because even negative it is better than being ignored. For me, thread closed

[Adventureless_Hero]

Meh, I think it should just fade out. The dude is probably wearing pajamas with duckies and bunnies sitting in his moms basement looking for attention. Another email seems to point to him reading the boards and loves the feedback because even negative it is better than being ignored. For me, thread closed

No way! Ducky & Bunny pajamas is way too awesome for someone of his doucheousity. He is actually sitting atop a throne of his own excrement glazed over with his sad self love juice and kept moist in his own tears as he dreams of a better life where people want to read his critiques over shit he has only skimmed through while serving hardly any more purpose than a paper weight as he occupies the corner of the basement not pierced with the cracked and dripping plumbing pipes of his ex-nazi grandfather's dilapidated housing project apartment building.

[reaper239]

No way! Ducky & Bunny pajamas is way too awesome for someone of his doucheousity. He is actually sitting atop a throne of his own excrement glazed over with his sad self love juice and kept moist in his own tears as he dreams of a better life where people want to read his critiques over shit he has only skimmed through while serving hardly any more purpose than a paper weight as he occupies the corner of the basement not pierced with the cracked and dripping plumbing pipes of his ex-nazi grandfather's dilapidated housing project apartment building.

epic

[Grognaurd]

@Hero, you are much more creative than I am.

@Reaper thanks

8 )

[Eviebae]

The more I think of this, the more I think it was a misguided attempt to be funny and impress by wit.

[Red Shirt]

My form of venting is letting everyone comment. He emailed again do I challenged him to make a show of his own if he sees such potential in the medium.

Indeed. "When you can do better, then you can complain." That's why I keep complaints to myself. Unless I have a very relevant piece of thought out commentary, I keep it to myself.

It is only 2-3 paragraphs, but I'll hazard a guess that PJB, at least as far as entertainment is concerned, leads a miserable life with standards that high. Unless they are a hipster and consume content 'ironically.'

[Litmaster]

Agree with most here... the guy is an ass. I hate armchair quarterbacks (for those of you overseas, this is a U.S. reference to the fat guy on the couch watching football games, always complaining that the quarterback should have done this or that, but did it wrong.... a know-it all, in other words).

If he thinks he can do better, let him go ahead and try it. I make audio dramas myself and can tell you firsthand that it is WAAAAAAY more work to produce one than to listen to one.

And even if he does make something better, than good... it will elevate the medium if different producers keep trying to out-do each other. But to just nitpick with nothing to show..... that's just fucking weak. Especially his critique of the acting... are you serious? This guy mustn't have listened to many audio dramas if he thinks WA has bad actors. I've heard a lot of amateuristic crap that is far less quality than what we get here...

[Red Shirt]

... Especially his critique of the acting... are you serious? This guy mustn't have listened to many audio dramas if he thinks WA has bad actors. I've heard a lot of amateuristic crap that is far less quality than what we get here...

Frankly, I don't think this guy even knows WTF he is talking about.

I have been a passing fan of radio/audio drama throughout my whole life. When I was growing up I was fortunate enough to have had an AM station that played "re-runs" of the original oldytime radio dramas, as well as a well funded NPR station that played both the Star Wars and Hitchhiker's Guide radio dramas once or twice a year. (Along with others I don't recall.)

Additionally, I am a fan of cartoons, more specifically, Anime. That too requires good voice work, though it may not be as obvious to the viewer as there is a visual component.

It is my belief that the voice work of We're Alive, as well as the Foley and music, is among the best.

Perhaps one may say that the first few episodes/chapters may not have been up to the quality standards that we enjoy now. I would argue that this is not a refection of the actor/actress talent, but the actors trying to get a feel for the characters they are portraying. Now, three years in, the actors have become the characters and vice versa.

I personally didn't notice any lack of quality however, I was too blown away by the attention to detail for things Military. As prior service Active Duty and a currently serving Reservist with a combined time of 20 years, I gotta tell you Kc, you knocked it out of the park. I have since learned that the cast and crew is comprised of several prior service veterans so they are drawing from that experience, but I know some currently serving that don't even have that level of detailed knowledge.

[VEE]

There's lots of these folks about, best option is to either ignore them or ask them for a link to their *Podcast/Music/Writing etc.* where they demonstrate that they are better at it.

If it was an attempt at humour then it was quite a poor one, well, I don't see anybody laughing.

[Cunning Plan]

I get the impression that PJB is somewhat compulsive in his nature. He says that he doesn't like the show etc, but feels drawn to listen to it every week. equally, he says that one episode per week is insufficient... tell that to companies such as the BBC whose programmes are often weekly and between 20-30 minutes per episode. add into the fact that he felt the need to complain multiple times and you end up with the mental picture of an 'Entertainment Fly' buzzing around, annoying everyone and going nowhere fast.

alternatively :hammer: him!

also, keep up the good work KC!

[daredevil]

Well Kc, I hope you never let completely irrelevant and useless critiques from getting you down. If you ever need cheering up your forum will be by your side in an instant.

[GingerNacre]

It's true. I'd much prefer a nice jasmine tea to a cup o' joe.

Most civilized people do prefer tea to sludge. Especially ones named "Nik". Best name ever. ;-)

[GingerNacre]

post the address and i will send them poo, herpes and monkey syphillis

Add to list: NEVER piss off Mem.

...also Google "monkey syphillis."

[reaper239]

Most civilized people do prefer tea to sludge. Especially ones named "Nik". Best name ever. ;-)

clearly you have never driven across three countries in europe in one go. trust me, nothing like that autobahn black coffee. it's like hot oil, but that stuff will keep you up for like a week.

[GingerNacre]

My form of venting is letting everyone comment. He emailed again do I challenged him to make a show of his own if he sees such potential in the medium.

I would TOTALLY watch that video or listen to that audio. Might need a cuppa tea to go with it for some civility... so I don't spew lots of profanity at them, but...well...

[GingerNacre]

clearly you have never driven across three countries in europe in one go. trust me, nothing like that autobahn black coffee. it's like hot oil, but that stuff will keep you up for like a week.

Wow. Sounds scary as hell. See, Im ALREADY high strung, so 1) Coffee is banned for me by all professionals and personal contacts in my life and 2) it is against my inner regency/victorian lady to drink coffee when tea is so much more civilized, has prettier cups and is done with a pinky out. :-)

Also the ONLY coffee I have ever liked was Blue Mountain coffee when in Jamaica.

[GingerNacre]

...monkey syphillis

Can you BELIEVE I could not find much on monkey syphilis?! WTF?

But I do have a person I know who just bought a potential zombie monkey at a thrift store and she blogged about it. http://thebloggess.com/2011/07/would-you-like-to-buy-a-monkey/ The monkey (Copernicus) has been petrified per the pictures. Unsure if zombie or syphilic or both. :-)

[reaper239]

Wow. Sounds scary as hell. See, Im ALREADY high strung, so 1) Coffee is banned for me by all professionals and personal contacts in my life and 2) it is against my inner regency/victorian lady to drink coffee when tea is so much more civilized, has prettier cups and is done with a pinky out. :-)

Also the ONLY coffee I have ever liked was Blue Mountain coffee when in Jamaica.

yeah, i can feel that. i'm not a big fan of the stuff myself, but when you need to be up for long periods of time, coffee and nodoze. pound coffee like an underage highschooler at his first kegger, and pop nodoze like a pill fiend, you can accomplish anything, until you stop, and then you pass out for like a day. those were good times.

[Solanine]

Was he talking about pippin's accent because thats the only one I've ever really noticed. I just don't understand. This guy obviously doens;'t listen to the competition. Had he experianced the epicness that is the accents in Wormwood then he would understand just what an achievment WA is. He obviously likes
WA "the one-week wait for a 20-minute episode is waaaay too long" but maybe becasue its free he is having a hard time reconciling with the fact? Anyway
as I am yet to find a digitalised version of "monkey syphillis" and am unwilling to contract the real version just to pass it on to him I will just forget about this whoile thread. Although if there is a deity on the froums, send a Kidney stone his way would you? A really big one?

[Kermit_Killer]

[smarmy voice] Well, doesn't it say something that despite all the faults PJB lists with the show, he still notes that he keeps listening? Clearly, something is right. Or he is masochistic. [/smarmy voice]

There will always be someone complaining about anything. As my Irish sister-in-law would say, "If it was raining gold, ee'd bitch about a headache!".

At least PBJ listed some possible improvements (from his perspective). I particularly dislike folks that just complain but offer no alternatives.

Enjoyed the actors and production values throughout the series - keep it up! ;)

[Luna Guardian]

Kill maim burn!

[nikvoodoo]

I hadn't read the email in so long......what a jagoff. I'd almost forgotten

[TheIsh79]

I never forget jag offs....Wait, that came out wrong.

[Osiris]

I've forgotten more jagoffs than you remember.

Totally came out right. :love:

[GodofInsanity]

1st time seeing this. I actually had to stop and look for the punchline...then I realized he was serious. Well if this is bad I am really curious what he thinks is good...wait nevermind...I am not curious about this guy one iota....Keep up the great show KC

[Ghost@1radio]

Having been on both sides of the reviewer/performer relationship I know that a bad review can feel awful, especially when it feels undeserved. In this instance I think it is entirely undeserved.

From a reviewers point of view I am also aware that not everyone sees eye to eye (which is why, in my reviews, I always tried to separate personal taste from technical criticism and clearly identify which was which). I struggle to see why this person would hold those views, but different people seem to look for different things.

In the end though, reviews are useful to a creator or performer in so much as you can use them to look at your work or performance through another persons eyes (or ears) and weigh up what (if anything) you feel might be legitimate. In this case I would dismiss it as a strange personal taste on the part of he person sending the email as I can't see anything in the criticism that actually points to anything that needs work.

The only accent that gave me so much as a moment of puzzlement was Pippins English accent which, to my ears, seamed to roam across a couple of county boundaries. However I wondered if that was deliberate, to add mystery to the character, or if the character had lived in several parts of England, which sometimes leads to odd portmanteau accents. Being form the UK I can usually identify which town in a given county some one is from as long as it's a northern accent. For example, I'm from county Durham and can identify other people form the same pit village I'm from by their accent which sounds different in my ears to the people form the Steal town just 8 miles away, or the village only 3 miles to the west of here and so on.

[Duffusmonkey]

LOL did that email come from Indiana? PJB is the initials of an eccentric drafter that used to work at my company, he has been gone for 16 years but I still see his initials on drawings

[KPCoyote]

I know this is old, but do you still get dribble like this still? I mean, if you want amateur go watch a fan video my friends and I made playing "Colonial Marines". There is nothing amateur about the acting or production value in any of the work that I have heard.