WORD WARS [scrabble documentary]

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Just got home from seeing this new documentary, basically a film version of stefan fatsis' WORD FREAK... ie, an account of the top players in the american national scrabble association.

if you've read the book, you're immediately familiar with the principal characters, 4 extremely eccentric men who are among the scrabble elite in this country.

it's about 80 minutes, and it debuted at sundance this year and is making the arthouse circuit. it's almost mockumentary like in its absurdity. when truth is stranger than fiction indeed... i strongly recommend it.

ps: great usage of THE MINUTEMEN in the soundtrack, i was tapping my toes.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 05:29 (twenty-one years ago)

It was a fun book. I'd be curious to see it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 05:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Ooh, i want to see this. WHO WANTS TO PLAY LITERATI?

GYGAX, I KNOW YOU DOWN!

― Ian Johnson (orion), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 05:39 (twenty-one years ago)

sorry ian, i'm going to sit on my couch and watch a john fahey dvd... i got you next time tho.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 05:41 (twenty-one years ago)

you bastard.

JOHN FAHEY WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOOOOU.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 05:41 (twenty-one years ago)

oh i forgot to say, the movie is equally hilarious and moving... it's not quite a "look at these weirdoes" style of narrative.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 05:42 (twenty-one years ago)

DO YOU WANT NEW WAVE OR DO YOU WANT THE TRUTH

a word war
will set the keg
my words are war!
should a word have two meanings?
what the fuck for?
should words serve the truth?
i stand for language
i speak for truth
i shout for history
i am a cesspool
for all the shit
to run down in

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 05:44 (twenty-one years ago)

♥ ♥

i used to play scrabble or literati every day with my ex. i got really good, and then no one at school could beat me UNTIL ANNA DID ONCE. I NEED TO PLAY BETTER THAN AVERAGE SCRABBLE PLAYERS.

GYGAX, I LOOKIN AT YOU. HOLLA BACK SOMETIME WHEN YOU GOT DA TIME YO

― Ian Johnson (orion), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 05:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Is the soundtrack to this completely Minutemen?!

― deanomgwtf!!!p%3Fmsgid%3D4581997 (deangulberry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 06:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Can we have an ILX literati tournament already?

I <3 Word Freak, it's crazy great.

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 07:44 (twenty-one years ago)

three words:

STARRY

THREAD!!!!

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 07:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, I am totally yearning to organize something like this, so sign up below I guess!

If we get enough we could have fancy minileague stages and play-offs and stuff, it'd be rad.

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 07:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Dude - ISC is better than Literati (also I will only be playing at work so adjourning games is urgent and key)!

Word Wars - dunno it, but I really want to order Scrabylon - are you sure they aren't the same?

Haha - I am playing a mini Scrabble tournament in the pub THIS VERY NIGHT actually so CHEW ON DAT mofos! Hey - you're welcome to come along, the Royal Oak at London Bridge from six, come one come all! My Scrabble board and battered copy of OSWI are packed in my bag! :)

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 07:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I had no idea Starry was taking it so seriously. What's yr average score, Star? Me and the missus got unpleasantly competitive for a while (no bonkers OSWI words for us though) - me getting frustrated at her unerring ability to lay one, two or three bingoes in a game, blitzing my steady accumulation of 30-odd point moves.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Bah I'm stuck round the 350-400 area which is getting pretty frustrating at the moment! I can sometimes be pretty gormless about spotting bonus plays and a weak spot is failing to take note of what my opponents have and opening up places for them to score mega super bonus points, meh.

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:08 (twenty-one years ago)

CSI last night had a SCRABBLE-RAGE death. For copyright reasons, and Mattel's peace of mind, the game was called "Logos" but it was OBV Scrabble.

In a tournament, a reigning champ played a phoney "EXVIN" which his opponent casually asked "What's that, eh?", and though he looked unconvinced he saw that he could play an "S" plural so did so, at which point the champ stuck up his hand for a challenge! ROXOR!

The suitably miffed opponent then cornered the champ in the loo and forced him to EAT HIS WORD, at which point said fatty champ choked to death

Marvellous

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Shall we give individual matchups the choice of ISC and litarati, then? That seems sensible, it's like a scrabble biathlon or something.

Right! Sarah are you in? Anyone else?

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Pretty impressive - I think I'm in the 320s whereas Pam is in the 340s. She did once beat me three times on a long train journey, each time scoring over 450. She's never forgiven me for clearing my rack first in one game and dragging her down from 504 to 499 (she had a K left) - despite the fact that I was 150+ points behind. We have a semi-cheating open-book policy on the two-letter words (though I guess we know them all now) but no other concessions to QAT/ADZ/QOPH madness. I'm terribly slow though - once a seven-letter opportunity has gone I pine for several minutes.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Alan I am sure you are a BIG LIAR!!

I'll play on ISC although I'll keep having to adjourn quite regularly I'm afraid :( My username is starry292. Perhaps it would be better to use this Scrabble thingy here - useful for those on hem hem constrained time budgets...

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:21 (twenty-one years ago)

am not! Look: http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?s=e0a705e6fbca1f1143b0e405e0c1653f&showtopic=3116226&st=75&#entry1433528

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Wowsers - I don't think I could have forgiven you for that either! I've never managed to score that much - unk! YAQONA is another good menk word, it's a bouze from Fiji apparently, hurrah. I used to play open-book, but we don't now. I am alright on the twos, but if I'm frustrated I make really silly mistakes. Wa!

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Suecadence
Whoever wrote this episode must have read Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis. This episode contained several shout-outs to this excellent book about the world of competitive scrabble playing:
The 735 shirt. There is a real Championship Scrabble player who scored over 700(an unheard of score) and would wear a shirt to all his subsequent tournaments.

The use of the term "coffeehousing" to describe players who wanna chit chat while playing, and "blue hairs" to describe old Scrabble playing ladies.

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:25 (twenty-one years ago)

(oops sorry xpost)

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Cor, Mike - I think you should pop along to the pub tonight for a quick half and a Scrabble now! (You can bring Pam too but it looks like she would kick some serious botty)

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to be dead dead serious abt scrabble, I'd learnt the twos and threes and was doing 'Satine' stems and that, then I realised I was just killing a perfectly good game for no reason, I enjoy it loads more now that I've forgotten great chunks of that.

I wish I could come to this MINICOMP.

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Good on you, Gregory.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Gregory Henry: DO SO THEN! I don't know the threes so you'd kick botty too!

(Haha I've done SATINE stems too, on RETINA now - my young chap [Greg you might know him actually...] has even joined the London Scrabble League, although quite frankly that gives me the fear - I've refused to join until I AT LEAST see what they get up too ie sacrificing chickens to x9 bonuses or something)

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha I admit also: I have been in correspondence with a nice 80yr old lady from the East Midlands about the word GJETOST!!

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I had a little run of losing on the final move (or the deduct/add post-game tally-up, whatever it's called - endgame?); I think the travel Scrab went in the bin at that point. We have this gaping void in our knowledge/checkable reference - there's yer JOs and QIs and AAs, all helpfully printed up in the game booklet - and there's our (very) concise edition of Collins but we daren't plug the gap with the OSWI. It seems a step too far. It's only a game, right?

Er...what's a SATINE stem? Is it where you run a word parallel to another and make a raft of valid two-worders? Or something more fiendishly complex?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:40 (twenty-one years ago)

SATINE is the set of six letters that are most productive for seven letter words.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Aw man, it's really geeky - a stem of SATINE* (* next to a word means it's a phony BTW) will combine with lots of other letters in the alphabet to score another word, ie SATINE plus B gives you BASINET, BESTAIN, BESAINT ect, SATINE plus C gives you CANIEST and CINEAST...

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Might give you more - my sodding list book isn't OSWI curses curses.

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Wowser! Armed with this knowledge I will DESTROY Pam! But I can guarantee the alternate spelling of 'cineaste' won't be in our little Collins book (er, what's 'caniest'?)

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:51 (twenty-one years ago)

CINEASTE is good too! Haha I assume CANIEST is "more like a cane" - but it's not in the OED so heaven only knows. It's acceptable though!

There's also ACETINS. Which I assume describes a really good tin. Yes!

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:56 (twenty-one years ago)

(Sorry, I meant that I wouldn't get away with CINEAST; CINEASTE would draw murmurs of approval - but I'd need to be lucky with the board. I do tend to get away with lots of sneaky chemical/physics terms which resist attempts to look them up.)

Anyway, back to discussing Word Wars.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 09:05 (twenty-one years ago)

haven't seen the doc yet but i've won 95 percent of my literati challenges.

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 09:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Yay, finished my first ISC game and am newly rated at 1320 whatever that means. Scored 433 points with two bonuses of HOARiER and FUNNIES. What fun!

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I wasn't trying to cockwave, Chris! You're right it came across like that, good call :(

I can't come to the minicomp because it is TERM and I have WERK (hang on, it is in London, right?). But tell me about the young chap!

― Gregory Henry (Gregory Henry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:02 (twenty-one years ago)

How does the film compare to Spellbound?

― Japanese Giraffe (Japanese Giraffe), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:21 (twenty-one years ago)

whoever is next to use the word "cockwave" in scrabble shall receive 735 from me

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha I assume CANIEST is "more like a cane"

wouldn't that be CANIER?

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:32 (twenty-one years ago)

like how when a laboratory something is more like a garn is an Laboratoire Garnier?

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Why wasn't the documentary called "War of the Words"?

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

are the posters done with starwars fonts?

― ken c (ken c), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 11:34 (twenty-one years ago)

movie poster:
http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Ss/0390632/wordwarsnew.jpg
(if that doesn't work click here

http://i.imdb.com/Photos/Events/2317/JoelSherma_Grant_2064609_400.jpg
(joel sherman, marlon hill, joe edley, missing: matt graham)

quicktime trailer

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 12:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I do not note a date for the UK!

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 13:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha I admit also: I have been in correspondence with a nice 80yr old lady from the East Midlands about the word GJETOST!!

! ! !
Is that acceptable? It's not even the proper spelling in Norwegian any more!

― OleM (OleM), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 13:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Yep - totally acceptable! What's the Norweigan spelling now then? I gather GJET = goat and assume that -OST makes it into cheese?! OleM - bear in mind although it's not correct in Norweigan, we're playing in English and therefore can be as mental as whoever makes the dictionary decides :)

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 13:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, absolutely. Correct variant now "geitost", and yes, "geit"=goat. ("Gjet" older variant, used in speech in some dialects + conservative language, but not part of official written language.)

― OleM (OleM), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 16:00 (twenty-one years ago)

you bloody SOWPODS start your fookin thread!

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

if that's how this movie used the Minutemen's music, I'm afraid I might not want to see it.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

that was my emphasis FWIW, that song is great go poop up a tree.

they also used the instrumental that comes after "corona", i forget the name.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the song you big dummy, I don't like what I fear the recontextualization of it would be for me if I saw the movie.

freakin' a dub metal jerk.

― hstencil (hstencil), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:11 (twenty-one years ago)

it's strictly background, you have to listen for it... just go see it and stop mithering.

― gygax! (gygax!), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 17:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I need to renew my copy of Word Freak.

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Thursday, 3 June 2004 02:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Bah, well I played two alright games yesterday - my second game happened after I ate THE BIGGEST AMOUNT OF PIE in the WORLD and started falling asleep in my seat chiz chiz.

I mean, it was HUGE!!

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 3 June 2004 08:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I played a like an idiot last night, and I cannot really blame the pie either :(

― Ricardo (RickyT), Thursday, 3 June 2004 08:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Ohmigod, Scrabble was the motive for murder on CSI two days ago! I'm scared of scrabble players now! They're DANGEROUS, they are!

::looks at Starry and Ricardo suspiciously::

What was in that pie, then? Your last opponent? ;-)

― Possibly Kate Again (kate), Thursday, 3 June 2004 08:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Contents of pie = half a cow, plus the kidneys of a flock of lambs. It was monumental.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Thursday, 3 June 2004 08:09 (twenty-one years ago)

And 12 sacks worth of mashed potato.

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 3 June 2004 08:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Kate, I mentioned that up-thread, but yes they are suspicious MURDERERS (only 12 points)

― Jaunty Alan (Alan), Thursday, 3 June 2004 08:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah, sorry, I missed your post, Alan. You are so correct, though.

― Possibly Kate Again (kate), Thursday, 3 June 2004 08:18 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Watching the final scenes in San Diego, I wondered how many ilxors were that room, tapping timers. (Or how many wished that they were there.)

Of course, I like to play poker. What do I know?

Is the soundtrack to this completely Minutemen?!

No. The guy with stomach acid had a penchant for singing "Across the Universe" in hotel bars.

CSI last night had a SCRABBLE-RAGE death. For copyright reasons, and Mattel's peace of mind, the game was called "Logos" but it was OBV Scrabble.

The suitably miffed opponent then cornered the champ in the loo and forced him to EAT HIS WORD, at which point said fatty champ choked to death

That's beautiful.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 19:27 (nineteen years ago)

this was a pretty good movie

― pssst - badass revolutionary art! (plsmith), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 19:58 (nineteen years ago)

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