DISCUSSION THREAD, July 2019 75-Word Writing Challenge

[Victoria Silverwolf]

This Extended Dance Mix version proves what extraordinary technical skills are required to create a Gilbert and Sullivan pastiche. I am in awe.

 

[Garfunkel]

Congratulations to @The Judge! And thanks for the mention, @Ursa major

 

[elvet]

@The Judge Congratulations! I’ll admit that I didn’t know what G&S was, or that it was based on a song, until I read Abernovo’s post. So I voted for the story as a poem. Now that I’ve googled and youtubed the melody, it is even better.
Also thanking @chrispenycate and @Ursa major for the added mentions.

A comment about my story. I have been overdosing on RHS broadcasts from Chelsea, Chatsworth, and Hampton Court. Also, this time of year, I get my weekly dose of Gardener’s World. You are so lucky in the UK to have gardening programs. For all of our HGTV, it is all home renos and flips. No gardening at all. One of these days, I will travel there to see the gardens I drool over every week. Longmeadow here I come.

 

[StilLearning]

Thanks for the shortlisting Ursa Major!

 

[Vince W]

Congratulations @The Judge. A well-deserved win.

 

[dgackst]

Nice writing, The Judge!

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Hello, @Ursa major. I was wondering if you would mind explaining your story, The Gents: Rocking the World for Ninety Years. It flew right over my head, but people were mentioning that it was very clever, so of course the problem of understanding was with me. I did a little Googling, but couldn't find the answer. So if you wouldn't mind... merci, CC

 

[The Judge]

I'm not Ursa, but for me, the group name of Arty, Fish, Alyn Telly: Gents if read phonetically becomes Artificial Intelligence, which is the answer to the group's success and why no one can ID the players. (I don't get the 90 years of the title, though.)

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Hah, yes, I see now. Thank you, TJ! Clever-clever, Ursa!

 

[Ursa major]

I don't get the 90 years of the title, though.

It's just an unfeasibly long time for a group to keep its members together, even assuming that they started young and that the average life-span had increased significantly at the time the group was publishing their music.


By the way, the almost throwaway phrase -- some claimed [the group] created [the zeitgeist] -- was there to suggest to those who'd worked out the nature of the "group" that the group's purpose was more than a desire to keep making music that people would like (and did like).

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

First off, well done that there @The Judge . I actually can't read it or the extended version without fitting it to the tune

My vote this month goes to @M. Robert Gibson for making me smile.

Thanks for the unexpected vote.
I really didn't expect a vote this month. I just wrote something that made me giggle (is that wrong, making oneself ?) and hoped that other people at least found it amusing, though not necessarily vote-worthy.

 

[LittleStar]

Congrats TJ. A well deserved win. Once you started picking up votes I was sure there was no catching you. Having said that I think 7 votes is the most I’ve ever received when winning these things, so I don’t know how much more I could have done Congrats.

As for my entry. I haven’t had many votes/mentions at all the last long while, so has become usual I wasn’t expecting much. Thanks to everyone who voted mine the best of a great bunch, and all the honourable mentions and listings. A very pleasant surprise.

I was struggling to come up with a suitable idea for my entry, so I super cheekily recalled an old first draft (I think the WIP I was on when I joined Chrons actually) and managed to condense some 90k down into 75 words... a very distilled extract of an essence. I haven’t looked at the source material since writing it, but I’m quite happy with the new result.

Thanks again, and I look forward to next months theme and genre.

 

[Vaz]

Stellar month again, ladies and gentlechrons.

Congrats on the win TJ!


V

 

[Artoriarius]

Congratulations, Judge!

 

[Parson]

Congratulations @The Judge. When I heard what you had done, my mouth dropped open No wonder you won! I, however, did not come close to picking that up. I know of Gilbert & Sullivan, but cannot remember ever hearing the song referenced. Sorry to have missed your story so badly.

----

@StilLearning .... I wish I were as clever as you think I was. I did not know of the science behind Van Gogh. I have used "Starry Night" as an illustration in a sermon a few years back as a way to show how things which weren't literal interpretations might still speak deep truth.

My inspiration was rather more prosaic. I remembered the navigators from Dune and the line "We have now folded space." and thought about the fact that to me at least it seemed as much art as science, and it was something humans couldn't do. Stir in my distaste Picasso's weird stuff and you have the genesis of a story. I was happy to have short listings and votes. (I do like the early Picasso when he painted in the style of the Great Masters.)

 

[Parson]

Alaska Update ... we are "at leisure" at the Alyeska lodge on the way to Fairbanks. Didn't do too much today. Walked a trail, rode the tram up a mountain and god pictures not nearly good enough to remember the spot.

 

[johnnyjet]

Congratulations to @The Judge! You were certainly deserving of the win and just missed a vote from me. I picked up on the Gilbert & Sullivan reference on the first line and sang the rest of the story (in my head, of course). Not that I'm into opera that much, but that one's a classic.

 

[Elanvitalseries]

This was difficult. Really difficult!

• In the Beginning, by @Perpetual Man just made me laugh, with an alternative idea for the big bang, and the idea that even higher beings might have to listen to their mum.
• Cubism and the WarpSpace Drive, by @Parson spoke to my science-trained little heart; science and art are inextricably interwoven, but it's wise not to take too much licence with relativity.
• Relativity, by @LittleStar left me feeling uncomfortable, but put over so much imagery, and emotion, that it was impossible to ignore.
• The Intergalactic Appeal of Stairway to Heaven, by @Tywin managed to reference not just one of the bands I grew up with, and still love, but distilled how art, in this case music, can affect you.

All these had me reading through again.

Anything written by @Starbeast makes me smile. His offbeat humour is always evident, and brightens the Chrons. Thanks, pal.

An Honourable Mention for @Elanvitalseries - The War Within did not quite hit all the marks for my vote, but I loved the imagery, the fact that it told a full story in so few words, and was very well-written.

However, it came to a choice between titans and, oddly enough, the final two stories posted.

• The Stars Before Us, by @TheDustyZebra is beautiful -- in a very meta way, it moved me in the way only a good piece of art can move a person, whilst describing someone being moved by great art; and​
• Let AI – and G&S – Entertain You, by @The Judge, which had me singing the words, and tapping my toes, as I imagined the words sang in the voice of HAL, and it reminded me of AIs in Becky Chambers' novels.​

In the end, my vote went to The Judge. By the way, thanks for the [expletive] earworm! That's going to be with me for the rest of the evening! (I also love Gilbert & Sullivan.)

THAnks for the honorable mention

 

[Culhwch]

Congrats, TJ! A very clever entry - it was always going to be hard to beat, though LittleStar took a valiant tilt at it!

I definitely struggled with the theme this month, and the result was very underwhelming. Some months I think I'm going to do poorly and I do well, some months I think I'm going to do well and I do poorly, but this month I thought I was going to do poorly and I did. The great thing about it, though, is there's a new challenge just around the corner!

 

[Peter V]

Many congratulations @ The Judge

As soon as I started reading, the tune for your crafty bit of piracy (pun intended) popped into my head and I realised I was reading / singing a strong contender for the win. Very clever

As for my offering, thank you for the vote your honour and also thank you @ M. Robert Gibson. Both much appreciated. Thank you also to those who mentioned / shortlisted my sad little tale.

To be honest I am quite disappointed with the result because I felt it was possibly my strongest entry to date. I know I should be grateful for getting a couple of votes and some mentions, especially as there have been multiple occasions when I have received neither but it has set me to wondering if a majority of this fine ensemble simply do not enjoy dark stories or unhappy endings? If that is the case it is unfortunate for me because I have depths of darkness to plumb!

Inspiration for my story came from a trip to Prague a few years ago. The Orloj, in the old town square is a beautiful astronomical clock and our guide told us a story of its construction in 1490 by clockmaster Jan Růže (also called Hanuš). It is said that the clock maker Hanuš was blinded on the order of the Prague Councillors so that he could not repeat his work. When I read about it on my return home, I found this was later proven to be inaccurate but it does make for an interesting story and certainly a gruesome one for tourists.