Settle Down
In today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, once again Lynn goes to her old theme with the avatar for her brother, “When will you settle down?” This was mentioned twice when Phil was in town last.
If you want to see what Lynn’s real brother was doing in the early 1980s, this is the quote from his website:
Alan came to southern Ontario to continue his studies with Ron Romm of the Canadian Brass and spent ten years teaching and freelancing in Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo and St. Catherines including seven seasons with the theatre orchestra at the Stratford Festival. Cutbacks at the theatre in the early 1980's and in the industry in general, convinced Alan to move over to teaching full-time. In 1983 he went back to U.B.C. to do a year in education, a path which eventually brought him to Ottawa. He has taught music at Canterbury High School since 1989.
Alan was teaching and freelancing with a variety of groups which apparently drove Lynn to distraction. What does she want him to do? Settle down. What does that mean? In these Deanna and Michael strips, “settle down” means to get married. That’s also what it means in this Elizabeth strip.
When the phrase “settle down” was used for April however, it means to be still and quiet. That same use meaning was used for Robin with his earache and again when we saw Françoise dealing with Thérèse and Elly. When you get right down to it, considering how sedate married life is in Milborough, I can easily see both definitions of “settle down” will work.
In today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, once again Lynn goes to her old theme with the avatar for her brother, “When will you settle down?” This was mentioned twice when Phil was in town last.
If you want to see what Lynn’s real brother was doing in the early 1980s, this is the quote from his website:
Alan came to southern Ontario to continue his studies with Ron Romm of the Canadian Brass and spent ten years teaching and freelancing in Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo and St. Catherines including seven seasons with the theatre orchestra at the Stratford Festival. Cutbacks at the theatre in the early 1980's and in the industry in general, convinced Alan to move over to teaching full-time. In 1983 he went back to U.B.C. to do a year in education, a path which eventually brought him to Ottawa. He has taught music at Canterbury High School since 1989.
Alan was teaching and freelancing with a variety of groups which apparently drove Lynn to distraction. What does she want him to do? Settle down. What does that mean? In these Deanna and Michael strips, “settle down” means to get married. That’s also what it means in this Elizabeth strip.
When the phrase “settle down” was used for April however, it means to be still and quiet. That same use meaning was used for Robin with his earache and again when we saw Françoise dealing with Thérèse and Elly. When you get right down to it, considering how sedate married life is in Milborough, I can easily see both definitions of “settle down” will work.
posted by howard at 9:48 PM
9 Comments:
Elly's need to make sure Phil's affairs (if you'll pardon the expression) have been taken care of come from the idea that since she's older, she's the boss of him; since he always seems to have had more autonomy and gotten away with more because of his gender, she's filled with bitterness and anger. This anger could lead her to do something rash such as lie to Connie about his wilingness to settle down, get a day job and not have any happiness.
Here's what depresses me about Alan's bio:
Inspired by the recordings of Don Ellis, Clark Terry and Chuck Mangione, he dabbled with jazz for several years before going on to earn a Bachelor degree in Performance from the University of British Columbia. [ . . . ] He has performed with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Valley Festival Orchestra, the Montreal Baroque Orchestra, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Niagara Symphony where he was principal trumpet for two seasons and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Chamber music however remains his first love.
Reading the strip, you'd think he was this cool hepcat type who'd feel at home jamming with Miles Davis. But no, he briefly admired Chuck Mangione and dabbled in jazz before settling into his first love--chamber music. And playing with orchestras. Not to slam chamber music/classical orchestras, but it all gives me a very different impression than what Lynn was putting out there via Phil. Maybe that's why Alan reportedly disliked his avatar.
DreadedCandiru2,
Elly's need to make sure Phil's affairs (if you'll pardon the expression) have been taken care of come from the idea that since she's older, she's the boss of him; since he always seems to have had more autonomy and gotten away with more because of his gender, she's filled with bitterness and anger.
Since so much of the strip has proved to be autobiographical, it would not surprise me if this material was taken directly from Lynn’s own feelings about her real-life brother.
aprilp_katje,
Not to slam chamber music/classical orchestras, but it all gives me a very different impression than what Lynn was putting out there via Phil. Maybe that's why Alan reportedly disliked his avatar.
In 1983 he went back to U.B.C. to do a year in education, a path which eventually brought him to Ottawa. He has taught music at Canterbury High School since 1989.
This part of the bio is somewhat like the comic strip Phil. Based on the bio, in the early 1980s when Lynn started her strip, Phil was in his jazz-dabbling age. In 1983 and the degree from U.B.C., it appears that time ended. However, Lynn never ended it. I guess she preferred hepcat Phil, even though her own musical tastes seem to run to Bobby Curtola and country music. More to the point though, if the character is a jazz musician, his musical gigs are in seedy bars and nightclubs late at night. If he’s into chamber music, his musical gigs are nice concert venues at regular 8 pm or 2 pm matinee concerts. Based on Phil and later on Becky, Lynn has an obvious bias against professional musicians. She considers them to be the opposite of having a wife, kids and house. Since I see no wife or kids on Alan’s bio, it could be that Lynn’s prejudice may be accurate as far as her brother is concerned. On the other hand, Phil has the teaching job in Montreal like Alan has a teaching job in Ottawa.
Based on the bio, in the early 1980s when Lynn started her strip, Phil was in his jazz-dabbling age. In 1983 and the degree from U.B.C., it appears that time ended. However, Lynn never ended it.
That's my interpretation, too. Maybe at least part of Phil's reported irritation comes from Lynn having chosen one point in his musical trajectory and stuck with it for Phil.
I guess she preferred hepcat Phil, even though her own musical tastes seem to run to Bobby Curtola and country music.
Considering her musical taste, maybe she "preferred" it in the sense that she considered it easier to look down her nose at jazz than at chamber music.
More to the point though, if the character is a jazz musician, his musical gigs are in seedy bars and nightclubs late at night.
Like the club Connie goes to in Montreal to see his gig during her "chase after Phil" trip.
If he’s into chamber music, his musical gigs are nice concert venues at regular 8 pm or 2 pm matinee concerts.
Which would make it much harder for Elly to characterize him as Mr. Bad News to Connie.
Based on Phil and later on Becky, Lynn has an obvious bias against professional musicians. She considers them to be the opposite of having a wife, kids and house.
And she must expect her readership to immediately recognize this trope. Professional musician! Unreliable!
Since I see no wife or kids on Alan’s bio, it could be that Lynn’s prejudice may be accurate as far as her brother is concerned.
Yup--there's no evidence of a real-life counterpart to Georgia. It would be interesting to know what Alan thought of that particular discrepancy between his life and Phil's.
On the other hand, Phil has the teaching job in Montreal like Alan has a teaching job in Ottawa.
True. :)
aprilp_katje,
If he’s into chamber music, his musical gigs are nice concert venues at regular 8 pm or 2 pm matinee concerts.
Which would make it much harder for Elly to characterize him as Mr. Bad News to Connie.
It’s still possible, but the characterization would have to be in terms of things like Phil is not going to make much money, so your standard of living wouldn’t be as good as it would be if you married a dentist. Lynn has expressed a belief before that becoming rich is easy, but she seems to have restrained herself in complaining about Phil’s career choice in this way.
Based on Phil and later on Becky, Lynn has an obvious bias against professional musicians. She considers them to be the opposite of having a wife, kids and house.
And she must expect her readership to immediately recognize this trope. Professional musician! Unreliable!
This is one of those areas where Lynn has some difficulty because her viewpoint is substantially different from her reading public. She ran into similar problems when she proclaimed Mira Sobinski was evil because she spent time and money on her grandchildren. Lynn’s issues with her mother and her brother surfaced in both cases.
Since I see no wife or kids on Alan’s bio, it could be that Lynn’s prejudice may be accurate as far as her brother is concerned.
Yup--there's no evidence of a real-life counterpart to Georgia. It would be interesting to know what Alan thought of that particular discrepancy between his life and Phil's.
I think it’s clear that Lynn has used her comic strip to make the avatar for Alan be what Lynn wanted her brother to be, in the same fashion that she turned Michael into a writer and Elizabeth into a teacher and John into a person with no agenda outside of dentistry and model trains. I expect that all those people would have difficulty reading the strip without realizing that Lynn disapproved of what they were doing in their lives.
As it turns out, in Lives Behind the Lines Lynn said that her brother married a woman named Joan after dating a single mom. According to Lynn, Alan specifically asked Lynn not to have Phil marry Georgia in the strip in imitation. Obviously Lynn did not agree.
Lynn said that she wanted to name the character Jane and not Georgia, but she thought it would be too confusing because of Jean Baker in the strip.
In any case, although Georgia started out as a flautist playing jazz with Phil, Joan Russell-Ridgway appears to be a Speech Language Pathologist working in the Ottawa school system. I am sure this is the reason why Georgia turned into an Audiologist. It makes me wonder if the single mom was a flautist.
The most interesting part in the book is where Lynn says that Phil and Georgia dropped out of the strip in the same way Fiona Brass and Sharon Edwards did, where she planned to do more stories and didn't. I don't really buy that. Phil is a strip regular from 1980 to 1992. Fiona Brass and Sharon Edwards were not nearly as important characters. Knowing Lynn reacted after her divorce by temporarily writing John Patterson out of the strip, I suspect it was a personal issue with her real-life brother.
Lynn has expressed a belief before that becoming rich is easy
Because she had some really good luck, in the right place and the right time.
In the real world, as opposed to Lynn's head, becoming rich is NOT easy, even if one is prompt and arrives early for everything, has an advanced degree in a professional discipline, and works very hard as opposed to scribbling out a few pictures a day. Luck and making the right connections mostly seem to be the key.
howtheduck--I'll have to dig out my copy of Lives Behind the Lines; I'd completely forgotten those details about Alan. Hm... going from flautist to audiologist seems quite a leap. And I suspect you are right about the reasons for Phil becoming a much less prominent character.
I believe Lynn shares her true (wrong-headed) feelings about jazz via Elly. Love how the strip's description field captures it: "Elly calls it discordant random noise and misses the point of jazz music." If only he'd learned to be more like that nice Bobby Curtola, eh?
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