Welcome to the off season
November 13, 2009 by Grace
Filed under Parc Fermé, Redoubtable by Grace, Top Story
As I sit on a train to NYC, I decided that in an attempt to meet Todd’s weekly deadline and keep, you gentle reader, engaged with Formula 1 Blog in the off season, I will go a more inside, perhaps even personal route for my column. True, in the time that Todd introduced the column this summer, I think I’ve meet the deadline exactly once. He has been pretty patient with me, but I think its time that I ratchet things up a bit. Don’t worry you’ll still get all the snark and the misspellings you’ve grown accustomed to in about 500 words which thanks to the new version of Pages, I can obsess over with each stroke of the keyboard. Todd assured me that there are other reasons to upgrade to IWorks 09 but so far this is the only one I’ve really found useful.
Now when Todd originally pitched the column idea to me, he envisioned a one stop snark fest where I could recap all the hilarities that are Formula 1. Now whether or not I have managed this is really up to you - However, I have learned exactly two things in the process of writing a weekly column (or at least attempting to) - two things which were also noted by other authors in their collection of essays. One is Nick Hornby’s observation that pointing out the obvious to his readers is not only what he does but also uses up words which, as I’ve already noted, becomes a bit of an obsession. And Bill Bryson who upon being forced into writing a weekly column made an obvious but painful observation: that the weeks never end and as soon as you finish writing a column, its time to write another one. Frankly, this whole thing could be retitled to “Another column, already? But I just did one?” Sometimes I wonder how Todd puts up with all of us and yet he continues to solider on.
So where’s the F1? Yeah, its the off season so there isn’t a whole lot. Silly season still isn’t settled but we’re still waiting on Kimi so why get ahead of ourselves. I could point out that this season quickly when from snarky hilarity to just down right insane and really could you blame anyone for getting out the sport while their dignity is still intact? Thank God for World Superbike. Seriously, racing has been saved by a series that no one really took seriously and I always believed was where riders go to die. Kind of like the DTM of motorcycles. (Sorry Ralf) But in the infamous words of Bob Hayes, But I digress.
So what should I write about? I guess its only slightly cheating to ask you guys, but then again, you’re the ones reading it so it seems only right that you should get some say. We could talk about movies or books or tv - well at least until Todd caught on and forced me back on topic. Unless we talked about Glee or the Penguins of Madagascar and used really big words that no one had ever heard of or have to look up in a dictionary before they agreed to wear your t-shirt. Seems like at this point, anything is fair game.
And at that, I’ve met my word quota for the week. Enjoy. RD1.
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I understand that I could be the extreme minority here but I thought I would take a shot… I’m very new to F1… very very new. I’m really trying to learn all that I can about the sport. I personally would really appreciate some type of “beginner’s series.” There would be endless avenues to take this but that would be my vote. Thanks!
Grace as someone who has done a weekly column for 2 papers for 10 years now (OMG is it that long?)… I understand the problem of weekly pressure to have it done… my suggestion is to gather information from every source… Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, the UK, Japan, and the USA and have a file stuffed with trivia so that you can make connections other people never can make because they don’t have the gestalt understanding of the world as you do…
On the other hand, don’t. Forget all that.
Try this: Snark away! Surely you can pre-make fun of every race venue for next year, one race-track at a time… for starters, there’s Donstone…
Gotta love how my first post ever on this site is telling you how to do your job… hahaha.
Something I think would be neat would be to take one story… as an example let’s use USF1 paying their entry deposit. Then you take those news stories from around the world, by country (say, Germany, England, Italy) and then compare the coverage and commentary of different countries. So for example you could compare the positive coverage of the story in the US to that in Germany (and most of the rest of the world) which is still not taking the team seriously at all.
Since all that happens in the off season is media outlets trying to make stories out of nothing, it could be a fun semi-regular post that could serve to summarize a week’s news while also commentating on the media coverage around the world. Plenty of room for snark!! You could either get good translations of the world stories, or punch them into a web translator and let the hilarity ensue!
It would also be interesting to dissect certain stories and show your readers how, as with all media, everything must be taken with a grain of salt since, especially with translations, media figures can spin a story any way they want.
Just an idea!
RD1, how about a rant about how how Free Practice is neither Free (to the public, and therefore misleading), nor Practice.
If you’re happy to “go a more inside, perhaps even personal route”, tell us when/why/how you discovered F1. I realise, that this could result in a story about watching TV with your father or something, but I trust you have the wit to bring something new to the concept. For example, did you inherit your liking for McLaren, or was this a piece of calculated contrary-ness? Was it one of the many short-lived US Grand Prix that drew you/a family member in? Why do you never mention drivers from the ‘pre-Schuey’ era?
Great suggestions folks…now let’s see if Grace delivers. :)
One word Grace… Webber.
Go on you know you want to talk about him and his wonderful virtues.