![[cecil]](http://cecilvortex.com//monkey/graphics/ceciliconm.gif)
![[vortex]](http://cecilvortex.com/monkey/graphics/vortexiconm.gif)
You may be wondering: How will you, as an active participant in the GRDM, be rewarded for your considerable pain and suffering? It's a question as old as The Book of Job. And once again, as with Job, the answer involves Pat Benatar.
To incent group participation (in the form of weekly posting to the GRDM thread), we've developed devised a cunningly complex 3-tier program. Here's how it works:
GRDMer the Third Level (aka Poobah): Post all but four weeks and you'll receive a copy of Pat Benatar's 11th studio release: Gravity's Rainbow.
GRDMer the Second Level (aka Big Poobah): Post all but two weeks and you'll earn a copy of Richard Brautigan's underappreciated, and extremely easy to read The Tokyo-Montana Express. (Think of it as a cool down after GR.) As an added bonus, Big Poobahs will also *not* receive a copy of Pat Benatar's 11th studio release: Gravity's Rainbow.
GRDMer the First Level (aka Grand Poobah): Post to the GRDM thread each and every week, starting on Jan 11, and you'll be rewarded with a copy of the Tokyo-Montana Express. plus -- and here's where it gets exciting -- a genuine Monkey Vortex brand "I survived the Gravity's Rainbow Deathmarch" mug. GP's will also not receive a copy of Pat Benatar's Gravity's Rainbow. Unless they really want to. In which case, oh, sure, what the hell.
Quasi-legaleso: Needless to say, prizes will be limited to folks what finish the book in the course of the Deathmarch. All books and CDs will probably be secondhand, though serviceable. And I'll set an arbitrary max of 30 winners. Because, much as in real life, there can only be 30 winners. (On the off-chance we break 30, I'll pull names from a beret or somesuch. At this point, we have around 28 people signed on, so...) Also, what is a qualifying post? Glad you asked. A qualifying post can be as simple as: "still here, still suffering" or: "owie" or even just: "ow." Really, any old post will do. The goal is just to keep us all engaged and pushing each other along.
That's it. I hope you're enjoying the holidays. Now's a great time to watch a lot of TV. Go outside. Look at some puppies. For soon your eyes will be filled with rainbow.
-Cecil
![[cecil2]](http://monkeyvortex.com/graphics/cecil3.gif)
If I post twice a week, can I be a "Ranger"?
Another good way to prepare is to watch highlights of Arenas and Hughes 3pt-ers vs. the Warriors last night. The arc of a ball is shall we say reminiscent of a rainbow, and not unlike the path of a descending V1 rocket... With similar consequences for the Warriors!
East Coast GRDM'ers rule!
Which brings up a question: will there be a quality (or relevance) standard for weekly postings in order to qualify? If so, who will adjudicate? And will he be wearing a beret?
boy, we haven't even started yet and the east coast folks already want to rumble. When will we humans ever learn?
And in answer to other questions: no quality standard. Though points will be subtracted for posts over 150 words long.
And yes Yaniv, you can be a Ranger.
a few pertinent questions on this, the night of obese men* in red uniforms:
-do the posts need to be in english?
-what if we read back to front, you know, to spice things up?
-is there extra credit for posting little known facts, e.g., tommie pynch's middle name was ruggles, and tommie took a course from vlady nabokov at cornell?
-is there a special award for naming a pet, "pynch."
*cease and desist from sugar and dairy!
answers to itto's questions...
Q: "do the posts need to be in english?"
A: No!
Q: "what if we read back to front, you know, to spice things up?"
A: Yes!
Q: "is there extra credit for posting little known facts, e.g., tommie pynch's middle name was ruggles, and tommie took a course from vlady nabokov at cornell?"
A: No!
Q: "is there a special award for naming a pet, 'pynch.'"
A: No!
Happy holidays all,
-Cecil!
As for pulling names out of a "beret or somesuch" if there are more winners than prizes, I'm a bit concerned given your hat-identification skills (or lack thereof).
Got me a copy of GR today. Damn -- no pictures at all, in the WHOLE thing. This is gonna be tougher than I thought.