Green Room - Week 16 - Day 5

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

You have horrible taste.

No seriously, it's awful.

That book you love? *shudders*

That movie? How could you sit through that?

Let's not even get started with your music taste. Because... seriously...

Or maybe people just like different things, and thus have different tastes... and that when dealing with the Arts, we have to take into consideration that there will be perspectives that may not match our own.

Nah, your taste is just awful!

Because of this - we will now have Gary-only voting for the rest of the competition*!

(* Note: Not really. Although that would be fun!)

***

I'm bringing this up because it comes up every season at one point or another. It hasn't really come up this time. But I'm sure it will. Because most discussions end up coming up at some point or another. I can pretty much set my watch to it!

If you want to make sure that your favorite writers get further in the competition than the writers you don't enjoy as much: Vote.

Then get other people to READ THE ENTRIES, and decide for themselves who they want to see get further.

If enough people agree with you, then Yay for your favorites and Boo for someone else's favorites! If they don't, then put that in reverse!

***
With a planned sacrifice and someone already letting me know that they are dropping - that Top 100 is staring you right in the face, what are you going to do to make sure you, and the writers you admire make it to see the Top 75?

Comments

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking nothing quite has the touch of hired goons.
(ETA: or ninjas. Anyone who can administer 'encouragement' to see things the Right Way.)

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

That's why I have minions.

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

Also: Faust?
Frost?
Fnord?

... something like that.

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

Yay first! Yay ninjas!

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

This is such a true thing! It gets sticky when we get into polotiks. But I'll leave that....

There is such a diversity of talent in this competition and I find it refreshing! It requires stretching a bit and that's always a good thing. I try to NOT vote based on my taste alone - of course I vote for what I love and admire and envy and rejoice at, but I also look for the intent and skill behind entries that don't speak to me on a heart level.

I still feel, personally, conflicted about singling out writers and entries. But...that's me.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

"I still feel, personally, conflicted about singling out writers and entries. But...that's me."

That's a personal preference thing. I think most people go through a period of struggling with the idea.

*For me*, it's the same way that I would tell people about a new book I'm reading, or a movie that I just saw.

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

Let me ask this: would you consider advocating a published novelist on a site like GoodReads, or on your blog? Or would you not want to single out a novelist you enjoy, for fear of not being able to list every novelist at work today?

It's a bit of a rhetorical question, of course, but it's a pertinent one. The Idol pressure-cooker is occasionally like a "business-of-writing simulator." Folks put out work, and sometimes highly deserving material is overlooked for lack of advertising. We want to facilitate writerly growth and expansion of audience, right? I'd put forward that this is part of how we, as readers, do that.

(I concede it's possible for someone not on a list to feel slightly bruised by that. It's a human reaction, if not a pretty one. But there will be other lists, and seeing what a person does like may give you ideas on how to attract them as a Constant Reader, right?)

[gratefuladdict.livejournal.com]

It's always interesting when we get into one of those meta discussions about our voting criteria - and how that meshes (or doesn't mesh with) our personal taste.

And with our relationships or lack thereof in the community.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

Correct me if I'm wrong but from what I've seen of current rec lists, they seem to be mostly made up of the unsung heroes, those players who consistently write well but who aren't well-known in the Idol community at large for any number of reasons. Nothing wrong with that -- it's like giving a shout-out to those sitting in the back row who keep their heads down and work away while the rest of us chat :)

Rec lists dropped off maybe a season or two back? I vaguely remember the first Second Chance and most playing being alts, so it'd be kind of weird to rec the alt and not the main Idol contestant or vice versa...ergo, nobody rec'd anything.

In the past (this is mostly for the newbies) rec lists were seen as Very Bad Things because they let the community know who you were favoring in terms of voting. Given how cutthroat things were back then, most people wouldn't even dream of thinking of doing one.

[kickthehobbit.livejournal.com]

I generally rec whomever I think did especially well. I don't try to pick out underdog vs. not—I base it purely on skill. :)

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

Off to lunch at Indian Bistro w my cousin, Idic_writer! That's good taste! AW

[flipflop-diva.livejournal.com]

what are you going to do to make sure you, and the writers you admire make it to see the Top 75

I'm going to start by finishing my entry! I'm thinking that's a good plan ;)

[deidrewilliams.livejournal.com]

Good morning, people! And cats, dogs, anyone else who might be reading this.

I'm back here after a long break. I think my life has settled down enough to be able to dedicate a little time to Idol. But more than that, I've been aching from not feeling able to write recently. So I want to thank belgatherial for bringing me back to the game in order to help me write.

I would love to see some recs, since I've missed so many weeks. Who should I be reading?

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Welcome back!

[belgatherial.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! ;)

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

Welcome back! I remember you. :)

[medleymisty.livejournal.com]

I know that my issues with wanting people to be transparent eyeballs are my own weird little issues.

That is a very amusing sentence if you don't know what I mean by transparent eyeballs! ;)

Editing because maybe I should explain.

I guess...I am learning to deal with subjectivity, as I learn more about boundaries and self-esteem and how other people are very different from me, and That's Okay, but it's just...

I wish that people could come to art with completely open minds, ready to just experience it, and not come to it with any preconceived ideas.

[anyonesghost.livejournal.com]

I'd like to offer a respectful counterpoint, if I may?

It's my understanding that Emerson argued for "I am nothing; I see all" in the context of the natural world being an extension or manifestation of the Divine or Sacred. I would propose that, really, art (as something made by humans) should be actively comprehended rather than passively accepted. (Per Emerson's The American Scholar, rather than Transcendentalist tenet.)

To wit, I would propose writing should be approached with an open mind. Do not close yourself off to possibilities, for that denies you the possibility of growth -- but do engage it, integrate it, understand it.

... of course, that's just my opinion, and I concede anyone's right to have their own.

[lawchicky.livejournal.com]

I rarely do rec lists, just because I don't want to single some people out and not others, and it does seem to get rather political as the season goes on anyway. In the beginning of the season, the attitude always seems to me "come on, let's WRITE", and then the contestants narrow down and it gets more competitive and people are always trying to read into things like alliances and blocks of votes, etc. That being said, I haven't been privy to most of those things until well after they've already happened, but I've heard they do! So, in an effort to stay out of the drama, I try to just vote for what I like and promote the community in general instead of specific writers.

Additionally, this season I haven't always made it through all the entries, so I would feel badly if I recommended some people over others when I hadn't even read the other entries as a comparison.

Again, to each his own, but that's the way I approach it.

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I rarely do rec lists, just because I don't want to single some people out and not others, and it does seem to get rather political as the season goes on anyway. In the beginning of the season, the attitude always seems to me "come on, let's WRITE", and then the contestants narrow down and it gets more competitive and people are always trying to read into things like alliances and blocks of votes, etc.

Me too :nodding:

I definitely think the "reading into" thing affects older vets more because there were more concrete reasons to be paranoid back in the day :points to the_lettersea's comment upthread: It's difficult to shake it, no matter how much the game has changed since then.

(edited twice because I keep forgetting to close my HTML :p)

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

"With a planned sacrifice and someone already letting me know that they are dropping - that Top 100 is staring you right in the face, what are you going to do to make sure you, and the writers you admire make it to see the Top 75?"

You know, a really paranoid over-analytical person could infer that we're losing 25 people this week.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Oh Lord, I hope we're not losing 25 this week! (That would mean a Gatekeeper week, very likely, but that seems a little doubtful to me at this stage...)

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

Hubby and I went to the dollar theater last night, partly to get some photos for a GISHWHES task, but also to see Blended, which was actually much better than we had expected. Then again, I'm overly fond of Drew Barrymore, LOL.

(Yes, that's her in the icon)

Also, where's the link to the Topic post?? Tsk!

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/764463.html

[aimercat.livejournal.com]

beg for votes. offer cookies (or at least cookie recipes). maybe a kickstarter-esque incentive program. harass & stalk people to vote for me. Tweet/facebook my way to votes.

I don't know. It always seems like I'm floating near the bottom.

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

All this talk makes me want to write up a rec list!

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

Late night LJ questions:

1. Why would LJ notify me of a comment I am not authorized to view?
2. Why would I be unauthorized to view a comment in Idol (the only place I'm tracking comments.)

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

1. The only time that's happened with me is if I post something in somebody's LJ and the somebody either edits the post to FO or filters it further.

2. I'd chalk it up as an LJ burp because I've never seen it happen in a community.

[jexia]

"what are you going to do to make sure you, and the writers you admire make it to see the Top 75?"

I am going to endeavour to read and comment on at least fifty entries.

[labelleizzy.livejournal.com]

I think that is an excellent goal.

So I am totally stealing it.

=)

[i-love-freddie.livejournal.com]

Never really done this before but... I wrote a homegame piece: http://i-love-freddie.livejournal.com/448873.html