Thursday, July 12, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[TenPoundHammer]

We need more dark horses in music.

[jpahk]

I guess I'm just bitter, but you admit that music is an incredibly vast ocean?

i agree on both counts... if you're referring to pop music, that is. classical music (and i stress, i only mean this for jeopardy purposes) is quite the opposite: you can learn a relatively small number of composers and works and be able to answer something like 90% of what they ask on the show. (unsolicited advice to pool swimmers: do this.) but yeah, pop music is incredibly broad. they're not going to ask about dave matthews over and over the way they ask about handel over and over. but this makes sense if you think about the differences between the two genres. pop music doesn't have to be great to be askable; it just has to be popular, so many songs and artists can fit the bill, even if only ephemerally. but then their shelf life is longer than you think, because catchy music is (intentionally created to be) memorable.

[laurajambon]

Hi, I got the link (thanks!) and so here I am! You can ask me whatever.

Also, I think the palomino issue was down to my country hick accent. That's why Alex was iffy. I was saying the right answer though, so I was relieved.

Before my TDD, they paused for TEN (10!) minutes to check the ethnography response's validity, so I had to stew over my wager for a million years. We even left the stage and got sat down while they researched. It was total agony.

My episode is here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xs511c ... shortfilms
My interview is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nywRxZP ... r_embedded

[silverscreentest]

i don't actually know who the Dave Matthews Band is, but I'm always amazed that the Jeopardy contestants seem to have such deep music knowledge.

At the height of their popularity, they were the quintessential band for white college age to mid-20s listeners. Those people might be very likely 30-something Jeopardy watchers now.

There can be a whole thread on this discussion, but there used to be top 40 radio that had infusions from R&B, country and even show tunes. So that there was some common familiarity with popular music even if it wasn't your taste. This was probably from the 1950 to the 1970s with MTV taking its place in the 1980s. But for the last 20 years, we've all been in our own musical gated communities which are getting smaller and smaller. Glee is just the newest version of what top 40 radio and MTV used to be, just on a much smaller scale. It''s sort of ironic that as popular music is easier to get, everyone else's music is so foreign to us.

Look at the popular music era distribution of Jeopardy some time. Artists and songs from the 1990s on are few and far between except for the college and teen tournaments. And maybe a sprinkling of unavoidable megastars like Lady Gaga.

[stevo4212]

Thanks, silverscreentest. I found that pretty insightful. Say, do you still have clips of your game show? I'd like to see it, for one reason or another, I haven't gotten around to it yet. Should I just find the original post?

[Paucle]

Somewhere there must be a dead horse in need of a beating....

Or a goat.
(Too soon?)

David, really. Now you're just being insensitive.

[alietr]

Hi, I got the link (thanks!) and so here I am! You can ask me whatever.

Welcome, Laura. You were enjoyable (and entertaining). I hope you had lots of fun even though you got edged out. Congrats on a well-played game. Not too many people get such a good line off on Alex.

[Austin Powers]

Best episode in two months, I'd say. Probably more but I can't "prove" that assertion. Great contestants, great answers, twice all-in on the DD, the show should be more like this.

[legendneverdies]

Hi, I got the link (thanks!) and so here I am! You can ask me whatever.

Welcome, Laura. You were enjoyable (and entertaining). I hope you had lots of fun even though you got edged out. Congrats on a well-played game. Not too many people get such a good line off on Alex.

That's only about the second time I can remember that Alex didn't talk to all three contestants during the interviews(not that I pay a whole lot of attention during that segment). There was one time a couple of years ago where he only talked to the third contestant and didn't talk to the other two during the interviews, no?

[TenPoundHammer]

That's only about the second time I can remember that Alex didn't talk to all three contestants during the interviews(not that I pay a whole lot of attention during that segment). There was one time a couple of years ago where he only talked to the third contestant and didn't talk to the other two during the interviews, no?

I think that was already mentioned. It was the day after the one guy's light pen randomly gave out and they ended up ruling it as a tie, or something bizarre like that.

[Austin Powers]

On FJ, my first thought was Russian, but then I figured that with so many Spanish-speaking member nations, it would make sense for Spanish to be an official language. I wasn't too confident, though, before the reveal.

Indeed, the official languages are the primary languages of the permanent Security Council members (US+UK=English, China=Chinese, France=French, Russia=Russian), plus the language spoken in the most member states (Spanish) and the most spoken language out of all the rest (Arabic).

The most helpful thing the clue did was give the number of languages, if you ask me. I was quite sure that I thought I knew what languages were official, but having the exact number let me knock them off the list, one by one. And they pretty much all make sense as choices, one could quibble that Portuguese could be there, too, but adding Bengali (or some other Indian language) wouldn't make a great deal of sense, and would be too obscure for FJ.

[Austin Powers]

I actually almost had my clock almost cleaned by one of Dave Matthews' children when they were much younger. It's not as interesting a story as it sounds, but he really should keep those kids on a leash.

And my mother raises pygmy goats. One of them almost cleaned my clock, too, when I made the mistake of jumping on a picnic table near one of them. Apparently, the goats are competitive, or something, about who has the high ground. No real hope of keeping them on a leash.

[stevo4212]

Was this the first time in history that a contestant got to skip his anecdote?

I'm gonna need you when I get onto the show, Ms. Hambon, lol.

[seaborgium]

Was this the first time in history that a contestant got to skip his anecdote?

I'm gonna need you when I get onto the show, Ms. Hambon, lol.

If you'd read the thread, you'd have known the answer is no.

And I'm not sure what you could have done differently to have gotten the spelling of Jambon right.

[bpmod]

That's only about the second time I can remember that Alex didn't talk to all three contestants during the interviews(not that I pay a whole lot of attention during that segment). There was one time a couple of years ago where he only talked to the third contestant and didn't talk to the other two during the interviews, no?

I think that was already mentioned. It was the day after the one guy's light pen randomly gave out and they ended up ruling it as a tie, or something bizarre like that.

It was actually that his pen stopped working as it is designed to do when the thirty seconds is up. You don't think that every contestant just on his/her honour stops writing at that exact moment, do you?

So, due to him coming up with the correct response given much more time than his competitors, they decided to bring back the person who would have won had they not given the 'winner' the extra time.

I hope that makes a tiny bit of sense.

And, yes, don't people read the entire thread to see if a partticular topic has already been discussed? I know I do.

Brian

[bpmod]

Hi, I got the link (thanks!) and so here I am! You can ask me whatever.

Really? Whatever? I could think of some things I'd like to know.

But, seriously, welcome Laura! You were a joy to watch and your delivery of the whole goat story was fantastic.

Nothing like the goat stories we used to tell around the campfire.

And I don't think I'm alone when I invite you to stick around these parts. You just might like it here too.

Brian

[seaborgium]

It was actually that his pen stopped working as it is designed to do when the thirty seconds is up.

The light-pen issue: Paul suspected that he might have trouble with it, and so during the briefing about it he tried to ask about the paper and Sharpie, and what exactly the procedure was for switching to the non-computery answering method. They didn't really answer him, saying that pen problems rarely happen and he shouldn't worry about it. So when he started having trouble during FJ (I've heard problems can arise from touching the screen with your hands while writing), he started trying to get some sort of high sign from the judges to switch to paper. (He could be seen giving up on the light-pen just as the camera was panning away from him.) Alex, seeing Paul nonplussed and pointing at his pen to the judges, asked if there was a problem, and told him to write his response on the paper. So Paul did, and was declared the winner, which was amended to Paul and Tom being co-champs, since Paul had gone over time writing his response, and Tom hadn't.

It was posted on the old board that people at auditions asked the contestant coordinators about the situation, and they explained that it was determined Paul would go on as a champ because the time it took him to write his response on paper was faster than the time remaining when he started attempting to write on the screen.

It wasn't "I was going to write the correct response, but time ran out, so I'll claim malfunction." They surely wouldn't have let him be a champ had that been the case.

edit: forgot to add that the light pen spiel now includes, "If you have a problem with writing your response, write it on the card. You don't have to tell anyone, no one's going to give you a signal, just write it on the card."

[cinemaniax7]

Hi, I got the link (thanks!) and so here I am! You can ask me whatever.

You were an absolute delight, Laura! I usually dislike pet stories on J!, but yours made my entire week.

[stevo4212]

I'll stop complaining about music (and perhaps take responsibility for my own wrong answers). Sorry guys.

I was just introduced to "Spotify." Do you like that program? is there a catch to it?

Is it fair to say that it's found a good way to simultaneously provide free music to listeners, and provide some compensation for the performers? Probably not what you would consider fair or reasonable compensation though?

[bgm]

Hope Laura does stick around. She is fun! Had us laughing all day.

On another note, one of the more interesting things during the day is the shuttle from the hotel to the studio. You spend the minutes waiting in the lobby, scoping out the competition... and Jennifer (from Tuesday) was the first fellow contestant I met and she was kind enough to offer me a seat at her table as we waited. Fortunately, we were a pretty gregarious group and started chatting pretty quickly on the ride over. And I think it might have been Laura who started the ball rolling. It was really heart-breaking watching Christy and Jennifer not make FJ, because they are both very intelligent and awesome women!