Posted by Bunny.
Okay, time for another round of answering e-mails.
Question 1: What are your thoughts on Barak Obama becoming the new President of the United States? - from Daniel Frogbrains
Answer: Hi Daniel, It's difficult to imagine a worse administration than the current one. Well, actually, I take that back, my imagination is pretty good. But I think Barack Obama will put more effort into appearing less vicious towards the environment, social welfare needs, etc. But, ultimately he's an elected politician in the United States of America, which means that much of what he does will follow the interests of whichever class is most successful in wielding their own form of power. Which is to say if ordinary working- or middle-class citizens do not insist on being reckoned with then I hope they aren’t too surprised when the upcoming presidency ends up being remarkably similar to previous presidencies.
Question 2: Greetings Pinky and crew, Why do you not have a forum set up? If your interest is discussion, then wouldn't providing a forum for discussion be a logical goal? I look forward to a response. - Mrrar
Answer: Hi Mrrar, I like your name. The main reason why we don't have a forum set up at our website is because we don't have the resources or time to implement something like that the right way. I mean, it would be easy to throw a message board together and let people go at it, but I can imagine things getting out of control very quickly. All of the online discussion forums we've participated in in the past have been "interesting but also not very constructive". Discussing complex and difficult social issues doesn't seem to go well with the "anonymity of the internet" thing. I bet a lot of the very nasty people who we run into on the internet would never say such stupid things if we were talking with them face-to-face. But that seems to be a very common problem. Of course if we can figure out a nice way to get around this problem we will be very happy to reconsider. In the meantime, we will just continue making videos and other stuff for people to discuss among friends, family, in classrooms, or whatever. The internet is a good ‘delivery vehicle’ for us but we still think the most transformative dialogue happens offline.
Question 3: Based on previous donation rates, what is the chance that the Pink Show will survive? (also from Mrrar)
Answer: Not particularly good. Pinky and I are 100% committed to this project but the challenges are also formidable. A two-cat production team to do the all the work that needs to be done? Hmm, this is probably not sustainable. And Mimi, who does all the paperwork and accounting for the Pinky Show project, has never accepted even one penny for all the work she does (not to mention she is already totally overworked in her "real job" as a doctor). Giving all of our materials away for free (while not accepting advertisements or corporate sponsorship) doesn’t make too much 'economic sense' either. I don't think people realize how much time or money it takes to produce this kind of work. So for now we are just trying to keep going, doing the most cost-effective work for as long as possible, until maybe one of us will suddenly get a great idea for how to make this all sustainable. Pinky has lots of great ideas and outlines for episodes and projects but we can't afford to do any of them. Maybe later. Also I think it’s important that one day Pinky would be able to afford going to the dentist and eye-doctor.
And finally, today's stupid question, from Sean O'Brien: What is your nation of origin? The cat speaks excelent English with a passive tone and yet expresses aggressive Anti American goverment opinions. I do however detect an accent. For me to take anything presented serious, I need to understand and then be able to verify it's origin.
Answer: Hi Sean, Yes, we are all from France. Now you know why it is so difficult for us to contain our anti-American sentiments, because as you already know, everyone in France are genetically predisposed to hate freedom. Now you know the truth, you’re very welcome.
Idiot.
Oh, by the way, we have received quite a bit of questions & comments regarding the We Love Museums video, but I will leave it to Kim to respond to them when she has some time to do that.
~French Bunny