Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Weingarten on Our Town continued

Better late than never, I suppose...

Chatological Humor (UPDATED 11.10.09)

aka Tuesdays With Moron

Gene Weingarten
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 27, 2009; 12:00 PM



Our To, WN: So have you had any more time to think about the "Our Town" in the Washington Post Magazine, especially with the "reportage graphique" explanation of 18 Oct.?

Am I wrong to be sticking to my initial assessment of "blech." It seems to be trying to hard to be artsy for the sake of being artsy, which is fine and has a place, but I don't think it's in the Washington Post Magazine.

Also, is it churlish of me to note that the National Zoo does not have any llamas at the Kids' Farm (25 Oct. Our Town)? Those guys are alpacas.

Gene Weingarten: Liz, can we link to the mentioned 'toon, which contains, um, me. Michael Cavna was playfully publicly answering my critique from the last chat.

I'm willing to wait n' see. My problem with this feature is not arts-fartsiness; I think it's a good idea to send a cartoonist to try to record a moment in time in an interesting place, coupled with whimsical commentary. I think this is ambitious, and I applaud ambition.

My problem, so far, is that I think we've proven that not all places offer fodder for riveting observational humor. This is hard; the threshold needs to be high. Let's give it a chance. This past Sunday I liked the speechless speech balloons.

washingtonpost.com: Our Town: Oct. 18 | Oct. 25

_______________________

Fairfax, VA: I find "Our Town" intellectually stimulating. It's like "Where's Waldo" for literate people.

Gene Weingarten: Noted!

No comments: