A Sense of Where You Za, or The History of Za, Part II
The very first words entered on this blog by the estimable Wicked Winch of the Midwest were "This is an experiment", so I feel that I'm not veering too far off track by asking if anyone other than me is interested in taking a more perspective-based approach to assembling Za history as an alternative to the wonderfully joyful, yet now difficult to keep up with and likely with diminshing returns and a shorter shelf life than we might imagine, anecdote-based version. By this I mean (and pardon me for getting a little academic here, but I'm a geezer and we did all go to Williams, after all) a history comprised of opinions and statistics, patterns and dialectics, questions and even some counter-factuals, not just a nailing-down-the-slippery-facts chronicle, but a rational, perspective-based history. It seems a real strength of the blog that, because of its unparalleled interactivity, it can create a real history out of the many oral histories by giving instant access to all viewpoints everywhere. And since we have a limited (but growing) number of participants our data set as it were can be manageable, more reflective and perhaps even useful to all the newbies watching and to come. Plus, in a sort of Bill James-ian "stats for the hell of it" way (about which I'm sure the Wrecking Ball has plenty to say should anyone ask him), it could be fun. And, in the ultimate task of the historian, it might even do some serious revisionist debunking, e.g. the Comedy Despot's feared Viking Ethos? In the opinion of someone who actually co-led it (Wreckin' Ball and I flipped for the role of co-leader with Randy and I won -- fact), though that was certainly true of Randy's treament of himself (and maybe Ragin'), it was not nearly as fearsome as it has since become in the collective memory, it did produce some great comedy and was probably necessary at a time when our ranks had been diminshed by purges, graduation, desertion and junior years-abroad (Of course, from a more conspiratorial viewpoint, which every history should have just a tiny dose of for style points if nothing else, there is the Theory of Wrecking Ball's Hidden Hand, a dark musing which cuts against that story, to consider when inspecting the power struggles of '90-'91 -- just such an exhumation, too lengthy to explore here, would be perfect for this endeavor.)
Of course such a thing isn't free from peril, both mundane and not so. It'd certainly be less funny and convivial, more typically Bloggish and less welcoming to the spastic maunderings that we, with our surfeit of bleary-eyed 3 am postings, generate ( honest kersey yeas and russet noes, Mr. Rubin, kersey yeas and russet noes...), thus inviting pompousness and pretension . Plus, I would hate for anyone to get their feelings hurt if they learned that they were, by wide acclaim, responsible for, say, the worst joke ever told in a performance (though if anyone does, I can always salve whoever's wounded pride with tales of my own, unquestionably Most Out-There, What-the-Fuck!? Joke Ever Told in Performance.) Neither would I wish it to be an arena for credit-grabbing and chest-pounding (though I don't think that would be too much of danger since we've already survived the fairly substantial amount of credit-grabbing and chest-pounding so far tendered and we all know enough about comedy to know that nobody gets anywhere by trying to say who's funnier -- unless we're talking about other groups, in which case all gloves come off). But I think if we remember that we're all friends here and exercise some restraint, we can come up with some really cool stuff. For example: what were the deepest crises in Za's history? What were the greatest triumphs? What were the tightest groups in Za history? What were the loosest? (Think of the pin-striped professionals of the Yankees as opposed to the self-acknowledged idiots of the Red Sox for those two). Plus, I'm sensing a desire from at least some quarters for some hard, statistical data. I myself would love to have each configuration of Za broken down, as much as is possible, into some basic stats -- male/female, Jew/gentile (was that ever what it was said to be? Enquiring minds want to know...) Div I/DivII/DivIII majors, titties cummed on/titties not cummed on...you get the drift. Not only would this not be exclusive of anecdotes, but it might steer them to a more coherent point and even generate some forgotten ones. For example: I had never heard all those crazy "Uncle Ray" stories about Jesus and Mach II (which the Four Freshman of '91-'92 were called by their elders, in a tip of the hat to Spinal Tap) and it got me to thinking whether the Za had ever had the senior and four sophomore configuration (let alone a returning senior) -- that's a dynamic that I think is unique in Za history: what kind of comedy did that generate? What stories came from it?
Such a task could obviously go on forever, but I don't think so. The project would have an obvious kill date with the reunion and it'd give us a naturally rising sense of expectation as the date grew closer, thereby preventing the early peaking that the current wholesaling of stories and good cheer might provoke. The finished project, in electronic, or conceivably some bound, perhaps handsomely, version, paid for collectively by the alums on an ability-to-pay basis, could be our summary gift to the current group as a thank you for hosting us and carrying on the banner. It could perhaps revive the idea that I tried and rather spectacularly failed to achieve in the last reunion (actually some mid-90's alum renuion, I believe), that of the Comedy Endowment, only with the group's ever-evolving history being the true gift rather than the copy of William Shatner's "The Transformed Man" that I attempted to foist on the bewildered then-current members. And such a task could itself become that most sustaning of all endowments: a tradition. For every 5-year reunion or however it pans out, a new volume could be compiled in the same fashion prior, revising older histories and incorporating new ones (which would happen naturally as older members become less able to participate due to family/work preoccupations, fraying memories and, let's be real here, death start take their toll and the still fizzing recent grads take over). It'd be a new volume each time, the interplay between them being the means whereby all future generations receive, with apologies to Whitney Stoddard r.i.p. , a sense of where they Za.
If this is to work at all, though, it'd need lots of participation, so I'm throwing this out there mostly to see if anyone's interested. I thought about making a separate blog for it and can still do so, but, in classic Za tradition, I'd probably fuck up the tech on it (which Winch so worthily hasn't on this), so I figured I might as well start here. And if it's a blog (and Za), I might as well end here: comments?
Of course such a thing isn't free from peril, both mundane and not so. It'd certainly be less funny and convivial, more typically Bloggish and less welcoming to the spastic maunderings that we, with our surfeit of bleary-eyed 3 am postings, generate ( honest kersey yeas and russet noes, Mr. Rubin, kersey yeas and russet noes...), thus inviting pompousness and pretension . Plus, I would hate for anyone to get their feelings hurt if they learned that they were, by wide acclaim, responsible for, say, the worst joke ever told in a performance (though if anyone does, I can always salve whoever's wounded pride with tales of my own, unquestionably Most Out-There, What-the-Fuck!? Joke Ever Told in Performance.) Neither would I wish it to be an arena for credit-grabbing and chest-pounding (though I don't think that would be too much of danger since we've already survived the fairly substantial amount of credit-grabbing and chest-pounding so far tendered and we all know enough about comedy to know that nobody gets anywhere by trying to say who's funnier -- unless we're talking about other groups, in which case all gloves come off). But I think if we remember that we're all friends here and exercise some restraint, we can come up with some really cool stuff. For example: what were the deepest crises in Za's history? What were the greatest triumphs? What were the tightest groups in Za history? What were the loosest? (Think of the pin-striped professionals of the Yankees as opposed to the self-acknowledged idiots of the Red Sox for those two). Plus, I'm sensing a desire from at least some quarters for some hard, statistical data. I myself would love to have each configuration of Za broken down, as much as is possible, into some basic stats -- male/female, Jew/gentile (was that ever what it was said to be? Enquiring minds want to know...) Div I/DivII/DivIII majors, titties cummed on/titties not cummed on...you get the drift. Not only would this not be exclusive of anecdotes, but it might steer them to a more coherent point and even generate some forgotten ones. For example: I had never heard all those crazy "Uncle Ray" stories about Jesus and Mach II (which the Four Freshman of '91-'92 were called by their elders, in a tip of the hat to Spinal Tap) and it got me to thinking whether the Za had ever had the senior and four sophomore configuration (let alone a returning senior) -- that's a dynamic that I think is unique in Za history: what kind of comedy did that generate? What stories came from it?
Such a task could obviously go on forever, but I don't think so. The project would have an obvious kill date with the reunion and it'd give us a naturally rising sense of expectation as the date grew closer, thereby preventing the early peaking that the current wholesaling of stories and good cheer might provoke. The finished project, in electronic, or conceivably some bound, perhaps handsomely, version, paid for collectively by the alums on an ability-to-pay basis, could be our summary gift to the current group as a thank you for hosting us and carrying on the banner. It could perhaps revive the idea that I tried and rather spectacularly failed to achieve in the last reunion (actually some mid-90's alum renuion, I believe), that of the Comedy Endowment, only with the group's ever-evolving history being the true gift rather than the copy of William Shatner's "The Transformed Man" that I attempted to foist on the bewildered then-current members. And such a task could itself become that most sustaning of all endowments: a tradition. For every 5-year reunion or however it pans out, a new volume could be compiled in the same fashion prior, revising older histories and incorporating new ones (which would happen naturally as older members become less able to participate due to family/work preoccupations, fraying memories and, let's be real here, death start take their toll and the still fizzing recent grads take over). It'd be a new volume each time, the interplay between them being the means whereby all future generations receive, with apologies to Whitney Stoddard r.i.p. , a sense of where they Za.
If this is to work at all, though, it'd need lots of participation, so I'm throwing this out there mostly to see if anyone's interested. I thought about making a separate blog for it and can still do so, but, in classic Za tradition, I'd probably fuck up the tech on it (which Winch so worthily hasn't on this), so I figured I might as well start here. And if it's a blog (and Za), I might as well end here: comments?
posted by Toby Miller at 11/19/2004 11:30:00 AM
3 Comments:
Toby, I think this blog is a good place to get a running start on it. I'm not sure we can sustain sufficient interest/energy for two blogs. The way to go about it is to open a new thread and let people write in the comments (btw, long posts make the site difficult to navigate, I've tried to keep the posts shorter and confine lengthy text to the comments -- seems to be working). The trick will be to ask sufficiently detailed questions and keep people on track. As some people might have noticed, there are conversations running all over the place. I love all the excitement and embrace the anarchy, but it makes linear narrative difficult to maintain.
If there is an undergrad who wants to pursue it, culling through the comments of Toby's questions (and perhaps the larger blog) might yield an entertaining and thorough history of the group. Goose had to track down the alums for his. This history would come to you!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
viz. J-Ice's comment about appropriate uses of the history: I think anything, any viewpoint, any topic, any emotion, any speculation is valid so long as everyone remembers what their intentions are. That's a problem I have with the anecdotes at this point, as they've now devolved into, on the one hand, a slightly tedious and exponentially hard to follow debate about the facts, where someone like, say, Ben Cooper and I never find out what we have in common for focussing exclusively on what happened during our respective tenures and, on the other hand, a surrogate reunion, in danger of sapping the drive for the real one (which, come to think of it, might just be life in the 21st century asserting itself, though that's another post altogether).
The problem is getting as many people invovled as possible. If there were half a dozen more people commenting on the same event you guys were unpacking, Za itself would become its own arbiter (and we'd remove a lot of clutter at the same time). Without that, I think it's inevitable that some threads become rancorous because of the dearth of viewpoints -- in your case it's just you two guys bouncing off one another, ironic as you were two of the vocal supporters of this project in the first place. I think the solution is for those who want to keep the project going to just come up with the most compelling questions and provocative viewpoints as possible, remembering that the acid test for what's worthwhile is whether it contributes to Za's long-term health, i.e current and future members, our real audience in this case.
As for anyone else reading this, start busting out the big pictures from your own mental sagas and make'em public, if for nothing else than to keep Ice and Winch from leaving bloody rubber chicken heads in each others' beds.
Post a Comment
<< Home