Rizzles Con and Poster Fame

Rizzles Con has announced an official poster contest with the promise to winners of bragging rights, a prize package, and their design will become the official poster for the first ever Rizzoli & Isles convention.

We think this is pretty nifty. Head on over to their website for the contest rules (here), and help them out by spreading the word. We can't wait to see what people come up with!

Rizzoli & Isles: Embrace Your Inner Lesbian - Sabotoge Times

The Sabotage Times has a great article talking about the show and the subtext. In honor of the season two premier in the UK tonight, we think everyone should go read this article.

Cagney & Lacey, Quincy M.E and C.S.I, all top quality crime capers in their own right. Mix them together, add in a dash of Xena: Warrior Princess and you’ve got the highest rated cable channel show debut in America — Rizzoli & Isles.

TNT have aired two seasons in the US and season two premiers tonight on Alibi (Sky 132) at 10pm. Nestled in their listings amongst popular whodunnits such as Diagnosis Murder, Jonathan Creek and Inspector George Gently you’d be forgiven for skipping past yet another cop show in favour of a Come Dine With Me double bill. But Rizzoli & Isles is a cop show with a not so subtle difference.

Check the rest here.

Angie Harmon on Hometown Today

Check out Angie's interview on 1/19 with Hometown Today anchor Philip Mitchell. The entire interview can be seen here.

Oh, Sasha, We Like You, Too

(Check it here)

@Ang_715 had a delightfully fun thing happen to her the other day that we thought everyone would get a smile to see. It would appear that Sasha Alexander pays closer attention to our profile pictures that we thought. @Ang_715 has had the same profile picture for quite some time (we believe since she joined Twitter; we hope she'll correct us if we're incorrect), and it seems Sasha noticed it the other day.

Not only did Sasha notice it, she randomly commented on it and tagged Janet Tamaro (aka JTam) on it as well. How fun is that! Oh, Sasha, how we love that you clearly ship Rizzles, too. ;-)

(The profile picture in question, which was may by Bee [see original post of this manip here], who is just phenomenal at creating manips. Please know that Ang did make it clear that she didn't create the manip, so Sasha knows who to properly credit.)

Angie on Rachael Ray

Head on over to the Rachael Ray Show website (here) to see a clip of Angie Harmon from her latest guest appearance. What? No, we don't know what you mean about the title of this entry...

Lee on CSI:NY

According to TVGuide.com and SeattlePI.Com:

[Lee Thompson Young] will play Kelvin, a Manhattan accountant who has become successful despite a troubled upbringing in the projects. Although viewed by many in his old neighborhood as a hero, when he becomes the victim of a violent armed robbery, the CSIs will have to dig into his new and old life for answers.

Read the rest here.

Let's Talk About SOPA - Don't tl;dr this one, folks!

(Find it here, here, here, and here)

(Find it here)

Did you enjoy having your favorite sites redirected, blacked out, or blocked in some form or fashion today? If you didn't, then you're not alone. For the record, we didn't enjoy blocking them, but our message is clear.

The two bills currently in the United States Congress must be stopped.

SOPA and PIPA, should they pass as they are written right now, would forever change the face of the internet, and it would directly affect every fandom that's every graced an internet site.

Today we, as a community of people who use the internet everyday, came together to do something remarkable. We affected change. In fact, we were so swift about it that the United States Congress has had some of the quickest turn around regarding these proposed bills than it has had with any legislation before. It is unprecedented.

We, the internet community, lobbied. We did so via fax, email, phone calls, site blocking, and - yes - even good old fashioned protesting of the take-it-to-the-street-in-a-nonviolent-way protest. We spoke out, and we were heard.

Congratulations, we shook the establishment. We spoke louder and stronger than any one lobbyist or small group with lots of money could yell, and our government had to listen. But the fight is not over. It has just begun, and, if we want to keep our internet as it is, we must continue to fight.

The first step is to stay educated.

What is SOPA/PIPA?

From CBSNews.com

SOPA and PIPA instead target the platform -- that is, the site hosting the unauthorized content.

The bills would give the Justice Department the power to go after foreign websites willfully committing or facilitating intellectual property theft -- "rogue" sites like The Pirate Bay. The government would be able to force U.S.-based companies, like Internet service providers, credit card companies and online advertisers, to cut off ties with those sites.

[...]

The legislation in question targets foreign companies whose primary purpose is to sell stolen or counterfeit goods -- but opponents say domestic companies could still be held liable for linking to their content. While sites like Reddit wouldn't have a legal duty to monitor their sites all the time, "you might have your pants sued off of you" if you don't, said Jayme White, staff director for the Senate Finance Subcommittee on international trade.

[Please read the rest of the article here]

What does this all mean? As the bills are written right now, it means that, for websites like Tumblr, Facebook, Google, blogging websites, other types of search engines, and any websites that allow users to upload or link to content outside of the site itself, any time a user uploaded content without permission from the content's owners it could put the entire company that owns that site under the gun and, very possibly, shut the site down completely.

The bills allow corporations to sue the providers (search engines, blogging sites, etc) to remove the links to sites outside the US that have the unauthorized content. It also allows the US government and corporations to cut off money to these providers by having advertisers and payment services that are based in the US and working with the provider in question cut off funds to that provider. What's more, big companies can sue smaller companies if they think those smaller companies aren't doing enough to filter their content to prevent copyright infringement issues.

The cost to any of these types of companies to continually monitor all user uploaded content would be immense, and, frankly, impractical for a large company; smaller companies wouldn't have a chance. It would be easier to not try to startup a new company or webite or to shut a site down than worry with the headache of trying to keep the potential lawsuits at bay.

If its easier to put extreme restrictions on social sites and search engines or shut them down completely than try to keep ahead of possible infringement issues caused by user groups, then a slippery slope takes hold where our freedom of speech is narrowed down until there's nothing at all.

[Read more about how this affects us here and here and here and here]

Watch this video. We mean it. We'll wait right here until you're done.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

What Can We Do?

We've already done a great deal. Today proves that what we say has merit and weight, but we must keep doing what we've been doing if we are to win the war.

If you live in the United States, protest in every way you can, and make sure to contact your US Senator and US Representative through every channel available to you. Make your voice heard, and make certain the US Congress knows that we're serious about keeping our internet as it is.

Here you can pledge to vote against any congressperson who is for either of these acts.

The following are just a few of the protest petitions you can add your name to:

Google Petition Page

MoveOn.Org Petition Page

SOPAStrike.com Petition Page

Go here to contact your Congresspeople:

How to contact your US Representative

How to contact you US Senator

- List of US Senators

Send an EFax of Protest to Your Congress People

The most important thing is to keep yourself informed of what's happening with these bills. Right now, Congress has set them on the back burner while they do more "research", and several key people who were co-sponsoring these bills have backtracked and said they no longer support them. However, this proposed legislation will be back up for discussion in February [see article here] in the US Senate. When that happens, we need to be ready, and we need to make certain our voices are heard loudly and clearly before then so our government knows exactly where we stand.

Today we made history. We stood united against something that would cause massive destruction of the free flow of information online. Let's keep the momentum alive and continue to push to ensure that it always stay a free flow of information.

Links you should also go to:

• How Corp. Lobby's Arguments Don't Hold Up
• White House Responds to Anti-SOPA Petition
• Why A Published Author is Against SOPA/PIPA
• What Congress Doesn't Understand About the Internet
• NPR Talks About the Blackout
• Overall Look at the Bills, Who Supports, Who Doesn't, & Where It Is In Congress's Process
• 5 Things You Should Know About SOPA
• PIPA Co-Sponsor Sen. Marco Rubio Pulled Support & SOPA Co-Sponsor Rep. Ben Quayle Pulled Support

(Find it here)

[Read about how MPAA thinks the Blackouts today were an "Abuse of Power"]

RizzlesCon Announces Ticket Sale Date!

Everyone, may we direct your attention to Rizzlescon.net so that you, too, may partake in the wonderful news of a ticket sale date!

According to the site:

We are pleased to announce that all tickets for RizzlesCon 12 go on sale on … Sunday February 19, 2012 at 8am PT / 4pm GMT ... On this date we will also reveal all official RizzlesCon 12 merchandise for sale.

Go check out the rest here for details on how ticket sales will happen. We're especially glad to see plans for merchandise as we feel there's not enough R&I oriented stuff out there. Who's excited?

Really?

We're really just showing a little bit of fun. Really. :-)

Fan Fiction Archive Alert!

There’s a relatively new Fan Fiction Archive out there that’s being produced by the same people responsible for the L-Word.com. Below is a little bit about it. Go check it out when you’ve got a moment!

FemSlash, http://ffslash.fanfic.me, is a multifandom fanfic archive welcoming all fandoms, pairings, ’ships with a “slash” or lesbian focus.

Fandoms and pairings include Jane/Maura (Rizzoli & Isles) and Brittany/Santana (Glee) along with Grey’s Anatomy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Bad Girls. (FemSlash encourages stories based on The L Word to be posted at L-word.com. All other fandoms are welcomed.)

Using new fanfic archiving software, FemSlash “makes fanfic as easy as blogging”. Writers are can easily copy and paste video and photos into their stories. It’s easy to track and respond to comments.

Readers can “favorite” writers and/or stories and opt in or out of email notification for any writer or story.

FemSlash also features news stories and has a forum.

Visit FemSlash at http://ffslash.fanfic.me and follow them on Twitter @FemSlash.

Is Sasha Alexander Going Back to NCIS?

Maybe, but not forever, and she's certainly not leaving Rizzoli & Isles!

According to Access Hollywood:

Set to air on February 7 on CBS, the special episode will take a look at what could have happened if different decisions were made by the characters over the years.

Glasberg said Holly isn’t coming back for the episode, but he smiled and said to watch when a reporter asked if Sasha Alexander (who played Kate) would return for the special. (Check the rest here.)

According to TVFanatic.com:

Much of the installment takes place in large part at a diner, never before seen on NCIS, Gibbs gets his morning coffee - he goes there a lot, obviously. It will also look at existing relationships differently.

Tony and Ziva will meet, for instance, but under circumstances that mark a drastic departure from how it went down years ago, as Kate (Sasha Alexander) has never left us in this alternate universe. (Check the rest here.)

Are we going to see Kate again? It's looking like that's a real possibility! We'll have to keep our eyes open and make sure to catch the 200th episode of NCIS to find out.

Systems or Relationships?

Yahoo TV has a really good article going over a blog post made by John Rogers, a co-creator of TNT's Leverage. In it, he talks about the difference between shows that are about systems (aka procedural dramas) and shows about relationships.

What he says about Rizzoli & Isles seems pretty spot on.

According to Rogers' classifications, "Rizzoli & Isles" has all the window dressing of a show about systems. "Rizzoli & Isles is an hour long police drama that almost always begins with a murder. At first glance the format of the show seems to closely mirror 'Law & Order,' the platonic example of a show about systems," according to Rogers. But first glances can be deceiving.

Read the rest here. Trust us, you'll want to see what else he said. Very interesting stuff!

How About A Shirt?

If you follow the RizzlesGirls twitter account or the RizzlesCon twitter account, you'll recall a question a month or so ago that asked if anyone would be interested in buying a shirt that said something like, "Det. Sexy McBadass... Please excuse my swagger".

After some permissions from @diamondgirl774 and many answers of yes from people following the feed, the Rizzles Shirt Collection has happened! An amazing fan has put together four different shirts, two for Jane and two for Maura, that you can have for your very own. What's more, the proceeds go toward funding RizzlesCon, which we think is just wonderful. You can buy them here. Please be sure to read what she says about ordering and wait time.

Please be aware that the shirt sales are being run by a very gracious fan and not by Rizzles Girls nor RizzlesCon, but we thank her for her work, and we feel she's doing something really fantastic! Now, go check out all the shirt options, figure out which one you like best, and get one for you or your favorite Rizzles fan!

RizzlesCon 2012

If you haven't been keeping your eye on RizzlesCon, it may be time to take another look. A few very major announcements have come from the site, and we feel you should know about them (assuming you don't already).

First of all, the NOH8 campaign will be there on Sunday, July 22 to do a photo shoot. It is the first time for NOH8 to be in Anaheim, California, and we're very excited they've agreed to be there at the convention. You may find more information here regarding the shoot. Please note, you don't have to attend the convention to go to the photo shoot, and we hope everyone who is able will at least take a picture for a most excellent cause.

Another really interesting thing to keep your eye on are the workshops that have been confirmed. One that we feel will be really interesting is being run by Michele Mulkey (IMDB entry, personal blog, official site), who is a special effects make-up artist and prop maker with over 12 years of experience. Her specialty? Making all the gruesome body effects you see on the screen, and she's very good at it. We feel her presentation will be packed full of both interesting and delightfully gross examples of her very cool profession.

Finally, there is a panel scheduled that we think everyone who is at the convention should try to attend, the "LGBT and the Media" panel. So far, the convention has confirmed panel guests as follows:

Mediator: Trish Bendix, Managing editor of AfterEllen.com

Guest: Sophie B. Hawkins, Grammy nominated singer, songwriter, musician and painter

Guest: Gigi Gaston, American writer-director

Guest: Katherine Brooks, Writer and director, well known for her feature film ‘Loving Annabelle‘

The panel is said to have two to three more guests to round it out. The convention is currently in talks with people from the transgendered, gay, and bisexual parts of the community, and they hope to have confirmations soon. Keep your eyes open; who confirms may surprise you!

We are all working very diligently to make the convention a success, and we hope to see as many of you there as possible! Ticket sales will be announced soon, and we will make certain to post that information here as soon as the announcement is made. In the meantime, pricing for the tickets may be found here.

Are you excited yet?

Cutest Couples - AfterEllen.Com

Look who made the list! (Check the rest here)

#5 Maura and Jane - Rizzoli & Isles

Quick Piece on R&I

From Jam! Showbiz:

“Now, to put some icing on the cake and be like, ‘Are they? Aren’t they? Is this the scene where it happens? Is this a dream sequence?’ You know what I mean? It’s fine, we love it.”

Check the rest here.