Would Jeremy Jones be Popular?
I had been playing Jeremy Jones as a sad sack, when qnjones posting as Becky had her go after Jeremy within minutes of his being broken up with Alexandra Love. Now, this is not a strip thing and I know that qnjones has her own motivations for having Becky do that, but it made me wonder if such a thing could actually happen in the strip. In other words, is there something about Jeremy Jones that high school girls would find appealing?
Part 1: Professional Musicians are evil and popular
Jeremy’s dad. He left Jeremy’s mom, so he could tour with his band. Touring is the key. My wife’s stepfather played in a country-western band and they did gigs 2-3 times during the weekend almost every week for years. All of them had jobs elsewhere that paid the bills. If your band is good enough to tour, then you don’t work any other job. This tells me that Jeremy dad’s band is pretty good and it is reasonable to expect that he has some local fame, since he has been doing it for longer than Jeremy has been alive. This is backed up by the fact that Gerald is aware of Jeremy’s dad. The other part is that Jeremy has picked up some sound equipment skills from someone, and that someone is probably his dad. So, it is apparent that his dad did not completely abandon him and is still active in the Milborough area. However, the strip blamed Jeremy’s behaviour problems on his dad leaving, and what is his dad? A professional musician and therefore evil.
April. She is encouraged to do music for fun, but not professionally. She is good, but not popular.
Jim Richards. Only did music for fun. His band does not make anything but bus fare. He is good. He is also popular among the senior citizen set.
Becky. Wants music as a career. She is evil and popular.
Elly’s brother Phil Richards. When he was a pro musician, his career was frowned upon. Now that he is married and teaches music at a university, he is good.
Part 2: The Joys of being a Celebrity Son
No one from my high school was a celebrity’s son. However, when I was in university, attending at the same time as I was Arnold Palmer’s (pro golfer) son. This fellow was known throughout the university, because Arnold managed to get him past dormitory and apartment living by purchasing a house for him close to the university campus. The parties held at his house were legendary. Outside of the members of the men’s basketball team (who won the national championship while I was there), he was the most popular guy in university and we are talking about a university of about 20,000 students.
Part 3: The McGuire Factor
Becky McGuire, who was previously shown to dislike Jeremy in grade 6, is now using Jeremy as her roadie and sound man. This is a significant change in opinion, particularly for Becky, who has strong opinions about people and has been shown to rate them. This also tells me that Jeremy has increased in popularity.
So, I decided it would be fun to do a Jeremy post along those lines involving Lorraine Shoobie.
Constable Paul Wright. I have decided that the good constable is going to be relentlessly pro-Elly, since I have a strong suspicion that is how he will appear when he next meets Elly in the strip. Plus it gives me a great opportunity to do anti-snarking or reverse snarking. Paul made up with qnjones’ Liz today, concluding a funny story arc started by qnjones in a fight over a book.
Howard. I am working with qnjones’ on the storyline of Howard living with Becky. The opening shot occurred today with Howard’s first supper. The premise allows Howard to interface directly with Becky, Dr. McCauley and Becky’s mom everyday, so there is no hurry to dash through anything.
Tomorrow’s strip: Elly and John stuff April into a closet and have dinner without her. During dinner, Elly talks about how life would be as a retiree without either the store or April in her life. This is actually one of the creepiest strips so far. I hope April pops in sometime this week to alleviate my fears.
Part 1: Professional Musicians are evil and popular
Jeremy’s dad. He left Jeremy’s mom, so he could tour with his band. Touring is the key. My wife’s stepfather played in a country-western band and they did gigs 2-3 times during the weekend almost every week for years. All of them had jobs elsewhere that paid the bills. If your band is good enough to tour, then you don’t work any other job. This tells me that Jeremy dad’s band is pretty good and it is reasonable to expect that he has some local fame, since he has been doing it for longer than Jeremy has been alive. This is backed up by the fact that Gerald is aware of Jeremy’s dad. The other part is that Jeremy has picked up some sound equipment skills from someone, and that someone is probably his dad. So, it is apparent that his dad did not completely abandon him and is still active in the Milborough area. However, the strip blamed Jeremy’s behaviour problems on his dad leaving, and what is his dad? A professional musician and therefore evil.
April. She is encouraged to do music for fun, but not professionally. She is good, but not popular.
Jim Richards. Only did music for fun. His band does not make anything but bus fare. He is good. He is also popular among the senior citizen set.
Becky. Wants music as a career. She is evil and popular.
Elly’s brother Phil Richards. When he was a pro musician, his career was frowned upon. Now that he is married and teaches music at a university, he is good.
Part 2: The Joys of being a Celebrity Son
No one from my high school was a celebrity’s son. However, when I was in university, attending at the same time as I was Arnold Palmer’s (pro golfer) son. This fellow was known throughout the university, because Arnold managed to get him past dormitory and apartment living by purchasing a house for him close to the university campus. The parties held at his house were legendary. Outside of the members of the men’s basketball team (who won the national championship while I was there), he was the most popular guy in university and we are talking about a university of about 20,000 students.
Part 3: The McGuire Factor
Becky McGuire, who was previously shown to dislike Jeremy in grade 6, is now using Jeremy as her roadie and sound man. This is a significant change in opinion, particularly for Becky, who has strong opinions about people and has been shown to rate them. This also tells me that Jeremy has increased in popularity.
So, I decided it would be fun to do a Jeremy post along those lines involving Lorraine Shoobie.
Constable Paul Wright. I have decided that the good constable is going to be relentlessly pro-Elly, since I have a strong suspicion that is how he will appear when he next meets Elly in the strip. Plus it gives me a great opportunity to do anti-snarking or reverse snarking. Paul made up with qnjones’ Liz today, concluding a funny story arc started by qnjones in a fight over a book.
Howard. I am working with qnjones’ on the storyline of Howard living with Becky. The opening shot occurred today with Howard’s first supper. The premise allows Howard to interface directly with Becky, Dr. McCauley and Becky’s mom everyday, so there is no hurry to dash through anything.
Tomorrow’s strip: Elly and John stuff April into a closet and have dinner without her. During dinner, Elly talks about how life would be as a retiree without either the store or April in her life. This is actually one of the creepiest strips so far. I hope April pops in sometime this week to alleviate my fears.
posted by howard at 11:01 PM
3 Comments:
I was wondering what they'd done with April, too. That's why I've been vague about her presence--reporting without saying something like, "I took one bite of that stuff and got sick, sick, sick!" Notice her name doesn't even come up in Elly's retirement fantasy. She mentions Jim, the grandkids, and friends, but no April. Hmmmm.
Lunch! D'oh! I hadn't even thought of that. I hope they don't come out and say that, since I've been playing this as a dinner scene. :(
She didn't mention Mike or Liz either. I have actually noticed this about my parents. Grandkids rule, and their parents fade in popularity in comparison. One of my sisters, who decided not to have children, complains that she does not get as many visits from her parents as her siblings with kids. She is wrong about this, but it is nevertheless her impression.
I suspect that Adrianne is correct about the lunch.
qnjones,
The concept I was trying to present was that Jeremy would have some prestige in high school for those things I mentioned in my Blog not related to his work with Becky. His not being high enough on the social ladder for Becky is fine for Becky to post, since that is Becky's impression and probably Jeremy's too. Certainly the opinions of yearbook geeks like Lorraine Shoobie and Cindilu Sera Toniin are not going to change Becky or Jeremy's impression of Jeremy. However, I do plan to continue a running joke that Jeremy is more popular than he believes he is.
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