Eva Saves the Band. Actually Duncan Does
In today’s strip, we see everyone admit that Eva has the necessary vocal chops and dance moves to be a member of 4-Evah, or whatever the new group name will be. Interestingly enough, it is Duncan who moves things along and sidesteps each one of April’s complaints about Eva. I have no explanation for Eva’s odd smirking except perhaps she expected her beauty to get her in. I cannot tell whether Lynn wants her to appear in love with Duncan at the outset, or simply to be a girl who knows how to use her looks to get what she wants. I expect it is the “in love” part, because I cannot see April in a relationship with a “my beauty opens all doors” kind of girl. I have known a few girls like that in my life, and in my limited experience, less attractive girls hate them with a passion. Considering the lengths to which Lynn has indirectly criticized Becky for her material possessions and boorish behaviour, I cannot see her condoning the replacement Becky for doing the same thing.
Today the good constable posted some snark on the Liz monthly letter. This time, he commented on Liz’s apparent obsession with having a regularly scheduled phone call and the paranoia that occurs when Paul does not call on time. I know Liz says in the letter, it could be her also not calling on time, but we all know she is really talking about Paul’s tardiness. I also had a good time looking up pheromone sprays for cats on the internet, plus suggestions of what do when cats eat your plants. From my research, it appeared the two issues were unrelated. I have not had cats for a long time (the wife and my boy have terrible cat allergies), but when I did, they were all outdoor cats, so these issues never came up. I do not know if there is some factual basis in what Liz said, or if my research is correct. Nevertheless, I opted to snark as if my research was correct.
Jeremy Jones took aprilp_katje’s lead and commented on Eva’s changing appearance. I have been enjoying Jeremy, Eva and Shannon’s lunches together, but now that Eva has been officially established as April’s friend and in love with Duncan, I expect a lunchtime strip with April and Eva will be coming soon.
Howard continued his anti-teen adventures at the Valhalla, pulling in yet more monthly letter anti-teen quotes. I realized as I was looking for these, it seems to be an overall theme for quite a few of the letters.
Tomorrow’s strip: Much to my surprise, we jump away from the band auditions and onto a new portrayal of Becky. April’s Real Blog Becky is actually not too far away from Becky of the strip. Thorvald is Becky’s agent. Thorvald is introducing her to music people at the Valhalla supper club. Plus we did have Becky cut a promotional CD what seems like months ago. And… excitement of excitement, a Jeremy Jones’ quote which is pretty much what ARB Jeremy would say about Becky. The only thing that doesn’t mesh is the Becky getting academic help from other girls, whom Becky declares as her new friends. In ARB, we have established Becky has having overcome her academic difficulties. Back to the drawing board on that one.
The frightening part about tomorrow's strip is that what is happening is exactly what was declared in John's Letter, August 2005. I quote:
It's unfortunate that Becky is choosing to off with stars in her eyes and will be missing the most important part of life: friendship. So, you can only wish her luck, knowing that if she does make it, she will likely not have a happy life. Sometimes it's a blessing to not be too good or too driven to succeed in something that you love, because such ambition takes all the fun out of it. Being a professional musician is a difficult life. Having a normal life, surrounded by friends and family and enjoying music as a hobby or as a passion is a lot more fun. That's an opinion from someone who gave up piano after the fourth lesson. I told April to let the hurt go. That Becky is young and selfish and will need her friends more than ever. Once you "go public", it's hard to tell who likes you for yourself or for what you can do. I said to leave the door open and wait for Becky to come back. She will!
It will be depressing to see this life lesson for Becky play out, but you know it will go just the way John said it. Normally I would say this is a long lead time for a story, however, Lynn jumped from introducing Eva in November to her reappearance in April, so you can tell there is no sense of story-telling from a daily comic strip reader perspective. Lynn is doing this strip as if it were purely a graphic novel now and daily strip readers be damned.
Today the good constable posted some snark on the Liz monthly letter. This time, he commented on Liz’s apparent obsession with having a regularly scheduled phone call and the paranoia that occurs when Paul does not call on time. I know Liz says in the letter, it could be her also not calling on time, but we all know she is really talking about Paul’s tardiness. I also had a good time looking up pheromone sprays for cats on the internet, plus suggestions of what do when cats eat your plants. From my research, it appeared the two issues were unrelated. I have not had cats for a long time (the wife and my boy have terrible cat allergies), but when I did, they were all outdoor cats, so these issues never came up. I do not know if there is some factual basis in what Liz said, or if my research is correct. Nevertheless, I opted to snark as if my research was correct.
Jeremy Jones took aprilp_katje’s lead and commented on Eva’s changing appearance. I have been enjoying Jeremy, Eva and Shannon’s lunches together, but now that Eva has been officially established as April’s friend and in love with Duncan, I expect a lunchtime strip with April and Eva will be coming soon.
Howard continued his anti-teen adventures at the Valhalla, pulling in yet more monthly letter anti-teen quotes. I realized as I was looking for these, it seems to be an overall theme for quite a few of the letters.
Tomorrow’s strip: Much to my surprise, we jump away from the band auditions and onto a new portrayal of Becky. April’s Real Blog Becky is actually not too far away from Becky of the strip. Thorvald is Becky’s agent. Thorvald is introducing her to music people at the Valhalla supper club. Plus we did have Becky cut a promotional CD what seems like months ago. And… excitement of excitement, a Jeremy Jones’ quote which is pretty much what ARB Jeremy would say about Becky. The only thing that doesn’t mesh is the Becky getting academic help from other girls, whom Becky declares as her new friends. In ARB, we have established Becky has having overcome her academic difficulties. Back to the drawing board on that one.
The frightening part about tomorrow's strip is that what is happening is exactly what was declared in John's Letter, August 2005. I quote:
It's unfortunate that Becky is choosing to off with stars in her eyes and will be missing the most important part of life: friendship. So, you can only wish her luck, knowing that if she does make it, she will likely not have a happy life. Sometimes it's a blessing to not be too good or too driven to succeed in something that you love, because such ambition takes all the fun out of it. Being a professional musician is a difficult life. Having a normal life, surrounded by friends and family and enjoying music as a hobby or as a passion is a lot more fun. That's an opinion from someone who gave up piano after the fourth lesson. I told April to let the hurt go. That Becky is young and selfish and will need her friends more than ever. Once you "go public", it's hard to tell who likes you for yourself or for what you can do. I said to leave the door open and wait for Becky to come back. She will!
It will be depressing to see this life lesson for Becky play out, but you know it will go just the way John said it. Normally I would say this is a long lead time for a story, however, Lynn jumped from introducing Eva in November to her reappearance in April, so you can tell there is no sense of story-telling from a daily comic strip reader perspective. Lynn is doing this strip as if it were purely a graphic novel now and daily strip readers be damned.
posted by howard at 10:15 PM
7 Comments:
I hope your speech went well. I look forward to your return to ARB.
We don't see Becky actually take the homework from the girls, that is true. One of them is labelled math quiz answers, so there can really only be one purpose in having such an object displayed. I don't know if the strip will get more specific about Becky getting help, but there is a very real possibility the strip will take Becky down over the issue of academics, so Becky will find her only "true" friend is April. They did that once before with Jeffo Bray, but this time they have Eva in the wings, so there may not be a reconciliation. Lynn loves to do the Patterson reclaims a person lost morally stories, so I would be surprised if Becky doesn't take a fall over cheating.
You are quite right the REAL problem with "relying on looks alone" girls is men. The phrase amongst men is "no matter how good she looks, there is some man out there who is sick and tired of her shit." On the other hand, our mating instincts are visually cued (like birds) and there are some pretty strong forces that move men to prefer a gorgeous woman that require effort on the part of the man to think rationally about.
At work, I have seen looks work both for and against a woman. If a woman is attractive, she is more likely to be heard. However, she is also more likely not to be taken seriously. On the other hand, if she establishes her professional competence well enough to overcome this, it is a power combination. The company for which I work primarily employs men, but at the top of the company is a female president and a number of right arm women, all of whom are attractive.
My personal tastes in women have been odds with the usual standard. I find women with glasses more attractive. I find women who wear loose-fitting, less sexy clothing more attractive. I find women who wear little-to-no makeup more attractive. Gorgeous women have tried to use their looks on me in the past, and have been frustrated. But a girl I knew who had those above features, manipulated me to no end.
As for Eva, I suspect a dye job. And I wouldn't be surprised if the lack of commitment thing never shows up in the strip.
Welcome back, qnjones! Hope the speech was a success!
The "math quiz answers" and "essay" device--this is about as heavy-handed and OTT as the cartoon villains carrying a large case marked "bomb." I left open the possibility that these girls could be trying to get Becky into trouble, but as Howard expects, Lynn is probably about to start a "Becky in academic trouble" arc. Of course, April is complicit in her outline-lending, so IRL, she'd get into trouble, too.
This month in the strips has really shown a disconnect between the monthly letters and the strip, moreso than before. The business with Eva's relationship with April and Duncan has already been in play in the letters for months, but I got the distinct impression that in the strip we are pretty much starting from scratch. So, in the strip, Eva has just met Duncan and she does not know April well enough to eat lunch with her...yet.
Likewise we have this business with Becky's academics. April handed over the outline months ago (and Lynn made sure to point out it was an outline and not an actual essay, so I think April is off the hook for getting in trouble), and the January monthly letter described Becky crying at a math exam for some unknown reason. My guess is that we need to consider the "math exam crying" an event yet to come and not an event that happened in the past, just as the events with Eva in the monthly letters have proved to be yet to come. Since the Lynnions are so fond of repeating old plots, I expect that we will have yet another scene of April comforting crying Becky in the bathroom. Watch for it in a strip near you.
Hm, it's as if the monthly letters are the outlines and the strips are the essays? ;)
It's kind of like that except the timing of them is off. The retirement of Dr. John and moving to the smaller house was mentioned well in advance of showing up in the strip, but it was still done in such a way that it made sense. With Eva and soon to be with Becky, the events that are to happen are actually portrayed as having happened. But that may be because April can't really say, "I think Becky will be crying over a math test." I question why they are mentioned at all, if they can't be written in the proper time sense.
I question why they are mentioned at all, if they can't be written in the proper time sense.
I agree. Rather than a direct outline/essay relationship, it's more like the monthly letters and the strips come from different departments with only a loose connection to one another--and maybe they are vying for control? It's odd, to say the least.
it's more like the monthly letters and the strips come from different departments with only a loose connection to one another
That may be entirely possible. When you get right down to it, Stephanie, who controls the website, has to keep up with things daily. The strip writers and drawers probably run through a sequence of writing, then roughing the characters, then inking the main characters, then drawing the backgrounds and inserting the lettering. Then the strip has to be delivered pretty early for distribution. Stephanie may be writing the monthly letters based on story possibilities being discussed without knowing if ideas are going to be scrapped or changed by the time the final strip product is completed.
It is pretty obvious the strip has writers and artists assigned to certain sequences, particularly with the grampa Jim birthday script that practically gave away the Eva in the band story, before it was even presented in the strip. Not to mention the radically different appearance of Eva, not only from her original appearance, but just going from Sunday to the dailies this week.
If the writers and artists cannot take the time to talk to each other, then I can easily see Stephanie being even further out of the loop.
Post a Comment
<< Home