8.21.2007

To Dos Day

___ Item 1: TRY TO CONTAIN YOUR EXCITEMENT...
...at StinkyLulu's brush with local independent media fame. (Hey. 'Sbetter than the blurb I got last year. Sharing's for suckers.)

___ Item 2: CONTEMPLATE...
...GayProf's sage advice. (For more context on what life in academentia is really like, see this comprehensively accurate post.) My back to school mantra? "Aim for kind, generous, professional detachment." And, then, when that only sorta works, I go read this site.

___ Item 3: ENJOY...
___ Item 4: PLAY...
...Scrabulous with StinkyLulu (Facebook account required). It's my new favoritest thing in the world; one game with Nathaniel and I'm completely obsessed...

___ Item 5: PICK YOUR MAKEOVER...
...from the wonders of hair architecture found atop the class of 1967 at Santa Fe (CA) High School. Shout for your 'do -- use the name of the gal/guy from the Class of '67 who's modeling your new look -- in comments...

___ Item 6: HELP...
...StinkyLulu come up with another scheme for selecting the month for Supporting Actress Sundays. Noting how the voting tends toward the more recent years, certain people have been nagging me for some time to just get autocratic and pick the years I want to watch. Which makes sense, but I do love the surprises and the randomness. To an extent. To the extent of Dances with Wolves. (This month's voting just hurt my feelings.) And hey, lovely reader, when you "force" Dances with Wolves on StinkyLulu, the consequences might just be severe. A bit of background: since the Smackdowns started, I've been using a crackpot "numerology for idiots" scheme to create each list of eligible years. ('71 combines to the number 8 and August is the 8th month, etcetera, etcetera.) I've also put a moratorium on the most recent 10 years. And while I'm not sure I'm ready to abandon the current system quite yet, I am interested if folks have any ideas for alternate mechanisms. So, lovely reader, any clever ideas? Do you like the voting? Do you agree that things are skewing too contemporary? Are there things the current system doesn't attend to? Any suggestions of themes or other coordinating principles for voting? Lu's all ears...

Have at it, lovelies...

13 comments:

John T said...

Perhaps whatever decade is selected for this month would be left off for next month: ie, if 1990 is indeed the selection for September, then no selections from the 1990s would be on the ballot for the next month.

Oh, and I hope the moratorium isn't permanent on the last ten years, as I was hoping the smackdowners would eventually take on 2001, one of the better lineups in my opinion of Supporting Actresses, despite the winner being an easy fifth place slot.

VW said...

Re Item #2 - thanks - didn't know about that blog.

goatdog said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
goatdog said...

Have some kind of contest (guess the screen capture, write a funny caption to this photo, explain in 20 words or less why X actress has more Oscars than Y, etc.). The winner of the contest gets to pick the smackdown year from a list of five that you've chosen. With John T's suggestion limiting the decades on the ballot, and maybe no years from the 1970s for a few months.

The Jaded Armchair Reviewer said...

As it stands:

1936

1942

1950
1958

1961
1962

1971
1974
1975
1978

1982
1985
1988

1990 (the smackdowner's inevitable dance with doom?)
1996

2006

The 40's are sorely under-analyzed. I agree about cooling off with the 70's and 80's (wasn't born during the former, too young to appreciate anyhing during the latter anyway) until we can at least bring everything to an even threes for each decade.

Criticlasm said...

I'm really sad that it doesn't look like 1945 is going to be done, and I miss that with the recent exception of 50, everything has been post '75. It's more interesting to me to hear about perfs I may not have known and actresses I may not be familiar with, rather than people we all know. I'm not really intersted in 90, for example.

With my gemini symmetry thing, I would of course be interested in decade round robin, where you would do the 40s one month, 50s the next, etc, and let people choose the most interesting year of that decade. Just a thought.

Keith said...

I like criticlasm's rotating decades idea. Other possible decision mechanisms:

Arbitrary StinkyLuluDictat, based entirely on your whim of the moment.

Some sort of collective decision making by that month's panel of Smackdowners.

Cut the overall period in half, alternating halves, so that this time through the cycle, our choices are 1945, 1954, 1963; and the next time through, it's 1972, 1981, 1990.

StinkyLulu said...

I had actually been contemplating a version of Criticlasm's idea for 2008, if I continue the Smackdowns another year. (I was thinking of doing the 40s in April - the 4th month - and the 50s in May - the 5th month - etcetera...and then doing something clever in Oct, Nov and Dec.)

So I guess now I'm leaning to the "something clever" approach for October, November, & December of this year as well. I'm intrigued by goatdog's suggestion of contests...

Thanks for all the thoughts, folks.

CanadianKen said...

I like Keith's idea of cutting the overall period in halves - 30's to 60's cycle alternating with 70's to 90's.

NicksFlickPicks said...

I'm happy with any of these ideas, as long as we get to dip our toes into classic Hollywood more often.

Criticlasm said...

And what's your usermane for Scrabulous? I haven't found anyone online to play it with...

your mom said...

No help with the Supportress selection dilemma here, but I am chiming in late with my pick for Item 5 (sharing your perverse love of random yearbooks). You didn't have to live through these lovely coiffures... but omigod I could sense the cloud of Aquanet just looking at them.

While I love that Coleen Thuss appears to be checking to see if the helmut's still on, and ya gotta love the fusion of styles offered by Janice McMillon... the shellacked precision of Irma Cota and Susan Gilmore... the astonishing overall volume of Lavonne Jenkins... and the possibly fatal swallowing of Virginia Villa... I must give the award to Roberta Bruneau, for her swirling blonde tribute to the Zuni Olla Maiden. Conveniently, I have an appointment at Shag tomorrow! I'll take the photo.

Kimberly Lindbergs said...

When I vote I tend to vote for the 60s and 70s or anything earlier since the following decades = horrible actresses and craptastic performances. But that's just me and my not so humble opinion.

I wish you well in your effort to survive Dancing with Wolves if you do indeed have to watch that dreadful film. Man o' man how I hate Mary McDonnell and her BAD hair in that movie.