Work Room - Week 6

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I invited a Mentor this week, and then I completely forgot to remind her.

She *is* coming - in Part 2 of the Work Room.

For Part 1, I'll remind you that there is a Sudden Death Write-Off: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/970905.html

and that the new topic is posted: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/971359.html

***

I will also let you know about some exciting news in the Idol-verse.

Friend of Idol Jason Franks SixSmiths was picked up by Caliber Comics and they have reissued the first volume: The Sixsmiths - Volume 1

"The Sixsmiths are a family of suburban Satanists who've fallen prey to the global recession. Now their life is in turmoil: the father Ralf needs to find a new job; the twins, Cain and Lilith, need to survive the horrors of the public school system; and wife Annie needs to keep them all sane and under budget. Meanwhile, their estranged elder daughter Jezabelle is having her own crisis of faith. Will the Devil rise to smite their enemies, or will he damn them with hellfire, wrath and underwater mortgage payment? Collects issues 1-4. A light hearted comedy satire for adults. Its The Simpsons meets The Osbournes. "


and closer to home, our own fourzoas now has an excuse that she byed-out in Week 5. She had work in this book that was just released

Rhetorics of Whiteness: Postracial Hauntings in Popular Culture, Social Media, and Education

"With the election of our first black president, many Americans began to argue that we had finally ended racism, claiming that we now live in a postracial era. Yet near-daily news reports regularly invoke white as a demographic category and recount instances of racialized violence as well as an increased sensitivity to expressions of racial unrest. Clearly, American society isn’t as color-blind as people would like to believe. In Rhetorics of Whiteness: Postracial Hauntings in Popular Culture, Social Media, and Education, contributors reveal how identifications with racialized whiteness continue to manifest themselves in American culture."

One of the things that I've loved seeing, over the years, is Idol writers (and "Idol-adjacent" in the case of Jason) putting their work out there!

So please, go and support your fellow Idol writers in this, and anything else that we have in the Idol store! http://astore.amazon.com/li0cd-20 (and if there is something I've forgotten, or you want to see added - of your own, an Idol-adjacent friend, or just something you really love and you think other people should check it out too). Be sure to mention it to me!

***

While we are waiting for the Mentor post though, first thoughts on the topic?

(and don't forget, those of you who are Patrons, you have the chance to *send me topics to use this season*. https://www.patreon.com/user?u=70027 )

Comments

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I've been seeing comments about people not liking these sports references Gary has been giving as prompts. I get that -- not all of us, including myself, are die-hard sports fans so we wouldn't get a reference which would be obvious to a diehard sports fan.

Given that it's Idol's 10th anniversary, I understand the prompts going down Memory Lane. if you've been around long enough, you've seen a TON of changes in the way it's played. At one point Idol was considered the ultimate long-distance writing *match*, if you will, especially when it came down to the final 10 and people's competitive spirit overshot anything and everything.

But that's just it: Idol has always been a competitive game, just like hockey or wrestling or baseball. It's fallen off that bandwagon the last few seasons, so I daresay that the prompts we've been getting lately hearken back to that *competitive spirit* time, that's all.

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

I'd agree with all of that, but add one more thing, that I don't think can be said strongly enough.

There's a reason why I said that I was pretty sure the "sports-based" (as in "having a background in a sports term but actually a part of culture at this point with a much wider meaning) topic were done from the current season topic list - and then used this one, is because "sports" are things where people compete.

Is professional wrestling an athletic activity? OMG yes. Absolutely.

Is it any sort of "competition" or sport where the outcome is based on ability? (rather than pre-determined/scripted) No. It's incredibly athletic stagecraft. Which is why you have things like a "heel turn". It would be far more accurate for people to be saying "Urgh - another 'acting' topic". :D

Absolutely *NOT* a competitive sport!

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing a brief segment on the TV News over 20 years ago, where the head of the main American wrestling federation at that time -- I think it was Vince McMahon -- appeared before Congress to explain why his organization should be exempt from Federal regulations regarding competitive sporting events. McMahon played a videotape of the latest "championship" wrestling match, where you could clearly hear the "wrestlers" talking to each other as they coordinated their previously scripted moves... thus proving that American wrestling was not a competitive sport. I think at least one of the Professional wrestlers involved in that "championship" bout testified before Congress that everything about American wrestling was faked.

On the other hand, I don't know whether the news segment I just described took place before or after the so-called Montreal Screwjob (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Screwjob)... and I find it rather suspicious that said event did *NOT* take place on American soil, which raises the question as to whether US Federal regulations would have applied even if it were a true competitive bout...

Re: Absolutely *NOT* a competitive sport!

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

The Montreal Screwjob still falls under acting...

hence in that the match was NOT a competetive bout. Think it more like if the director changed the script on an actor or the end of something but didn't tell the actor the script had changed.

I'm not sure if this has happened ever, but say the actors film the final episode of the season. It's a cliffhanger where the guy might or might not die. The actor has been told to not worry, his character lives and he'll be back next season.

Weeks later the episode ends and there's a scene with the doctor saying "He's dead, that's it". And that is how the actor finds out.

That is the best way for me to describe the Montreal Screwjob in a nutshell for someone who isn't a hardcore wrestling freak like me.

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

This made me think about scripts and being scripted/ acting up/ drama.
Cool. Thanks!