Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for October 27, 2017

What?! Fay hasn’t seen the 1939 classic film, but has read its 1900 masterpiece?! I’m pretty much the opposite.

she has never played the music, but has read the music score. weird!

Allergic to television?

Fay’s Mom doesn’t let her watch TV?

But of course she is an academic. She is home a lot with allergies so she reads! Too much time on her hands – better 1900s books than junk on TV and internet.

Oh my goodness!! If she has read all of Lyman’s books it would explain why she never gets out to do anything. He has a ton of them and most are variations of his main work, “The Wizard of Oz”.

Luann is gonna be a great Teacher, a big help to Fay and some day she’ll be a terrific Aunt and Mom.

Even if Fay is a frequent reader, it’s surprising that she hasn’t seen this classic film on DVD.

Since Fay is not into singing, then I guess we will get to see if Luann is aware of the stage play version.

Forging into uncharted territory…

Okay, I think this strip significantly reduces the chance that Fay is suddenly going to take over the lead in the school musical. Someone who, one week before opening night, didn’t even know the show was a musical and had never heard any of the songs is not going to be brought in to replace the girl playing Dorothy no matter what kind of emergency the lead actress might suffer.

Where I see this story going … Luann builds up Fay’s confidence to show her that all the characteristics she needed to become an actress were inside her all along. That might be kind of sappy, but it would parallel the plot of The Wizard of Oz (hopefully in a subtle way) and would resolve the storyline in a way that would produce a happy, but not absurd, ending for Fay.

I remember when the movie would be on TV once a year. And it didn’t matter what else was on that night.

Don’t Sing? (DAMN!)

Uhhhh, I MEAN, NO Problem, Fay! Just Lip-Synch the Tunes!

Oh Don’t Worry! Lotsa Popular Singing Groups do it all the time.

Look, Once upon a Time, there was this Group called “Milli Vanilli,” and They……,

Does your library have a complete set of Baum’s Oz books?

I’d think not for Pitts.

So they have a complete set at home, and Fay has never seen the movie, or even knows that it was a musical.

Two ideas pop up:

1. Nobody watches any TV at Fay’s house.

2. Mom does not know that Fay has been reading her collection of rare 1st editions.

Very interesting because this is nowhere near anything everybody expected.

All you old codgers might not be aware that a tween kid might not look at TV the way we did, or Gen X, and I can tell you that Millennials, certainly did not. And Fay is too young to be a Millennial. Luann is, but Fay is post-millennial, Gen Z. She read all of Frank Baum’s books though,that blows me away. Lets hope she can sing. She is perfect for Dorothy. Watch Luann rehearse her for that role.

Okay, maybe I was wrong, and she won’t be Dorthy in the play. There’s no way she’ll learn the script before the play starts, if she didn’t even know it was a musical.

I’m generalizing, but millennials don’t seem drawn to musicals. They watch the movie adaptation, not read the book. Reading books is what kids do when their parents don’t take them to movies. Books are free at the library and something you can do when you’re lonely and wish you were someone else or somewhere else. I think Fay’s imagination is limitless because she reads, but she lacks the social interaction by being so sheltered.

where is delta???

To buy this, you’d have to also believe that no adult ever knew she had read, or saw her with, even one of the books. A reference or query about the movie would have been inevitable.

Well-read, but a trifle sheltered be she.

[ Good on Fay for diving into literature though. ❤️ ]

I’m pretty sure everyone’s heard of the Pink Floyd / Wizard of Oz weird synchronicity…. but not everyone’s experienced it. I think it’s a worthwhile experiment, especially with a small group of friends, especially enthusiasts of the movie or the musicians. It consists of listening to the album Dark Side of the Moon concurrent with watching the movie.

When I did this with friends, we set the CD player to continuously replay, re-starting after the final track. You start the DVD of the movie, and when the MGM lion roars for the third time, you switch on the CD and mute the DVD playback. From then on there are frequent and often extremely weird matches between the songs and the action of the film. “Great Gig in the Sky” syncs with the house lifted by the tornado, the words “I’m not afraid of dying” coincide with the view of the tornado approaching in the distance, a line about “balancing” when Dorothy is walking the fencer rails, the words “which is which” are sung as the Witch of the West sees her dead sister, the Witch of the east. And so on. Side One of the album is almost to the moment the same length as the black and white portion of the movie. Much more too. Some funny, most more than a little uncanny.

It’s all a series of coincidences of course, with some of the supposed matches being highly subjective matters, and other CDs have been similarly matched with other DVDs. I’ve heard that someone has put parts of the movie/album match on YouTube, and that the entire thing may also be available online, though I’ve never sought it out.

Bottom line, it’s a fun, brief entertainment and good for the conversation it stimulates with the group watching.

On the topic of the original book, it can actually be interpreted as an allegory for 19th century economics. Dorothy represents the average american, tin man represents the industrial worker, and the scare crow represents the farmer. The yellow brick road represents the gold standard, the silver shoes (or ruby shoes n the movie) represent bimetalism, and the emerald city represents fiat money.

It’s quite intresting.

Turner Classic Movies broadcast times for the movie, commercial free, this year…..

Saturday November, 18 2017 at 07:00 PM

Saturday November, 18 2017 at 09:15 PM

Friday December, 22 2017 at 07:30 PM

Saturday December, 23 2017 at 08:00 PM

Sunday December, 24 2017 at 02:45 PM

Sunday December, 24 2017 at 05:45 PM

Possible plot development:

A tornado hits Pitts, and takes Fay and Puddles to Oz. Once there, Fay finds that she IS Dorothy, and that Luann is Glinda. And also that Ann Eiffel is the Wicked Witch of the West. Fay then experiences the whole sequence.

However, since she has no physical ailments there, Fay decides to stay permanently in Oz. Meanwhile, Puddles comes back alone in a hot air balloon.

Then Luann attends Fay’s funeral, after she died of either Peanüt Allergy or Münchausen Mother — take your pick!

OK, this isn’t going to work if she doesn’t even know the show is a musical. She’ll probably read the script and be appalled at some of the changes they made to the story.

“What? RUBY slippers? Her shoes were silver! What is this garbage?”

(Fay:) Do the flying monkeys sing?"

^

(Me:) “Do they? …. do they?… Are you kidding? Do they ever?…Well let me tell you!… Er…. No. They…they actually don’t. Sorry, kiddo.”

“Tired of screwing up, tired of going down, tired of myself, tired of this town.”

“Do, Ra, Me, Oh, My!”

“The Misery Of Oz”

“I Don’t Eat Spam, A Lot”

“Musique….Non Stop?” (♬)

“Chompin’ At The Bit Parts”

“Trying To Get Backgrounded”

“You Can’t Run Too Long, On Auto Tune”

“Garlands And Roses” (♩)

“Hey, Judy” (’♩)

“The Apple Of My Shy”

“Vocal Dischord”

“Musically Declined”

“I Know Why This Caged Bird Don’t Sing”

or

“Lip Syncin’ In The Rain” (♬)

Would mom forbid Faye to watch TV?

If she’s only read the books, why doesn’t she call the flying monkeys “Winkies,” like they’re always called in the book? In fact, the land of the Wicked Witch of the West is “Winkie Country.”

Only 90 comments thus far. Comments are slow – and have been this entire week. A commentary on the entire Fay arc? Yet, I find this much more pleasant than last week’s Les arc. // The first two days of last week, I was even ready to go along with the idea that Les might be reforming. But the next three days, it was the “old” Les all over again. And to top it off, Saturday, he bragged about it. // I’m still thinking that Les would be a great addition to this strip – as a stock villain – which role he seems to relish.

Oh! Oh! Oh! I can’t wait to see her reaction to the line, “..and your little dog, too!”.

This is my first time signing in to the site in months, so …. My take on Fay. There’s nothing WRONG with her — I think most of her problems stem from her mother. All the symptoms stomach problems, etc sound STRESS RELATED. She’s probably turning all her stress INWARD and that’s what’s making her “sick”. Her mom seems like a pleasant control freak. What Fay needs are FRIENDS.

Here’s some food for thought, or at least something to chew on: many, many people have seen “Gone with the Wind,” but how many have actually read the novel by Margaret Mitchell? Can you even find it today?

5

Interesting. I am wondering, since Fay had no knowledge of the “Wizard of Oz” movie, if her parent(s) either do not allow her to watch television or perhaps have chosen for their whole family to be sans television? I know some folks who purposefully do not own a television, not out of economic need, but from choice.

If the idea of no television is true, I wonder if there is further restriction on other electronics with Fay or within her family’s household. Perhaps they limit or do not have a computer or Internet access (again I mean by choice). Perhaps they do not have cell phone(s) (or at least Fay may not).

* * * *

If the above does represent Fay’s current environment, it could be a major shaper of her apparent “shyness” and touch of “reticence” (except with Luann, it seems). I can easily see how Fay may feel somewhat “out of the loop” with her peers…. the vast majority of whom will likely be very wired into current technology.

* * * *

I am of an age where I recall well when not every home had television and all shows were black and white!!! I sometimes do miss that earlier time without (at least) computers, the Internet, tablets, smart phones etc. I know and realize I will likely never be fully “unwired” again, but there were some vastly different aspects to life that have declined and/or been squashed due to being so very wired. Some of these things, I do miss.

Someone who’s been ill a lot may have a lot of confined time at home to do a lot of reading.

And despite protestations about availability, fact is The Wizard of Oz hasn’t been shown all that much in recent years on TV. Not like ti used to be. So the idea that she may not have watched it isn’t unusual to me.

I realize that this issue has probably already been beaten nearly to death, but my nieces and nephews (and one is now a parent herself) just don’t spend time in front of a television the way those of us who are older did. Both ebooks and regular books are much more portable for brief ‘downtimes’ waiting at a doctor’s office, if necessary. And my brother (back in hospital for more treatment for leukemia/stem cell transplant) finds it less exhausting to read text on his tablet than to watch characters move around on a TV screen. So if Fay goes through periods of ‘sick leave’, she may be more inclined to read a book (in either form) than watch TeeVee (and since she didn’t say anything about her mother not letting her watch, I see no reason to conclude that this explains why she hasn’t seen the movie.)

Fay will have a beautiful singing voice…

How does Luann know this play is a musical? The flyer says nothing about it.

Poor kid, parents must keep her in a closet at home…

I think Fay is an emotionally blocked kid with at least one helicopter parent who may or may not be suffering with their daughter from munchausen by proxy.

I think Luann is confusing The Wizard of Oz(book) with The Wizard of Oz (film classic) and even The Wiz (film adaptation). Be that as it may, Fay should not be dismayed. And besides, the flying monkeys are not Good Guys, and so Fay should chooose another Supporting part if she won’t tackle “Dorothy”!

tomorrow: Luann teaches Fay how to cackle as the wicked witch!

So we’ll practice parts in the play because your Mom is paying me to mentor you though I have no qualifications to do such a thing and this sounds like a really “mentor-y” thing to do. You can pretend to be a real part of the play without all the work of BEING in a play and won’t that be fun?

I could believe she’s never seen the 1939 movie, but I can’t believe she’s not even aware of its existence.

Okay, if you’ve read all the books, who’s your favorite OZ character in general? I have to go with Toto (Spoiler: he’s been able to talk the whole time!)