Talking about a song in my collection

Steve Burns - Mighty Little Man
Album: Songs for Dustmites

A tired man in his chair
Doesn't move he only stares
At the machine across the room
There's nothing there; it's not getting through
He shakes his head, finally stands up
Throws his hands up in the air
A blinding flash across the room
A sudden crash, a sonic boom
Changes everything he knew
It's everything he's never seen
The biggest deal there's ever been
Described in light upon the screen
(It said)
Nobody else is stronger than I am
Yesterday I moved a mountain
I bet I could be your hero
I am a mighty little man

From way up here you can't look down
As of now there is no ground
The microscope is turned around
Don't be alarmed, don't make a fuss
He's still like you; he's one of us
And he'll come back before too long
He takes a breath and clears his mind
Grabs his coat and steps outside
An empty street, there's no one there
He lifts himself into the air
A billion thoughts expressed as one
Etched in words across the sun
(It said)
Nobody else is stronger than I am
Yesterday I moved a mountain
I bet I could be your hero
I am a mighty little man

This was one of my favourite songs for as long as I can remember having favourite songs*.
Yes, this is the Steve Burns of "Blue's Clues" fame. Yes, when Mum got the CD when it came out, she was like, this has nothing to do with Blue's Clues. I said, "Okay." Or, at least I thought about saying "okay." I was never much of a talker.

The thing I like the /most/ about this song is the syncopated rhythm of the chorus. I do not really know what the song is about - what it all means and stuff - I just always took my own little meaning out of it. I was a new fencer back then, and winning bouts against much bigger people than myself. It was a time when I was really struggling with my disposition on life, the universe and everything. I internalized everything - to a fault - and left little indication of anything that I liked or did not like. More so even than now. I was a hollow, empty shell of myself trying to refill me with an identity I could believe in. Although I wanted this song to help me believe in myself, it did not do that. But it does have musical awesomeness.

Take Care
LQ

*Well, not really. I was ten when it came out, but it was one of the early ones. Before The Short List, some songs were just more fun to sing along with or listen to than others. Notable other faves on The Short List back then were like a-ha: Sycamore Leaves, Talking Heads: Stay Up Late, Information Society: Still Here, Tones on Tail: Slender Fungus, White Zombie: More Human than Human and pretty much the entire Young Einstein soundtrack. (Clearly influenced by a substantial exposure to Eighties music.) This was in my pre-SKA phase - the SKA phase came very shortly after from playing DoB: XBV for hours on end just to listen to Reel Big Fish.

Well, I saw the film Repo: The Genetic Opera

Well, I saw the film Repo: The Genetic Opera

I was with a group of friends at one of their's house and they were like, Hey, have you seen this? Just in general, not to me specifically.
I confided in Claire that I had reservations, but everyone else, seen it or not, seemed keen on watching it.

So, I took my typical spot in the corner and just played along nicely.

It's a musical. Hey, that is cool.

It has Anthony Stewart Head. That is cool too. His brother Murry plays the American in the performance of Chess that I have.

Sarah Brightman too. Hey, she is an incredible singer. How did she get stuck with this? Did she loose a bet?

There is Alexa Vega playing the role of me. No, I mean Shilo. I did not realize she could sing - or is it overdubbed. I will have to look into that.

And Bill Moseley, no less, of House of 1000 Corps franchise fame. I mean, grindhouse/gore flicks are not exactly my thing, but hey.

Okay, so the film. The music is pretty good, the singing is (mostly) good.

The plot was as thin as the stage blood, but, I mean, operas are not exactly known for complex plots. Yeah, there are some back stories worked out for the characters. It is not completely see through - there are some twists, but again, the point is the music which is what really makes this all work.

It is the Faustian counter plot to the Ishiguro Kazuo, Philip K Dick, et al dystopia fictions that started coming out post-WWII. If you saw the film The Island? Imagine if that... insurance... was financed - And you could not pay your bill after having put the policy into effect.

Best songs (In my opinion, and in no particular order that I will admit):
Things You See in a Graveyard
Come Back
Chase the Morning / Everyone's a Composer
Seventeen / What Chance Has a 17 Year Old Girl? (Oh-Kay... this is probably because I am me)
At the Opera Tonight
Zydrate Anatomy
Infected (Again, because I am me)
Let the Monster Rise
Genetic Emancipation
Chromaggia
Depraved Heart Murder at Sanitarium Square
I Didn't Know I'd Love You So Much
21st Century Cure

Notable mentions:
Can't Get it Up if the Girl's Breathing (Mostly for the music. Okay, and for the title.)
Genetic Repo Man

And, there are plenty more good/amusing songs

Well, that is about all I am going to blog about this thing... publicly.
Take Care
LQ

Look! A Friday Update!

Yeah, it is Friday and I am, again, updating my blog.

It has been getting a number of updates this week because of having uploaded those latest "chapters" in my J&J short story thingie.

But that is okay.

It is snowing like it makes good sense. Not, like, record-breaking, or really news worthy, but enough for me to be mentioning here. Maybe I'll check Newsminer to see if they have anything to say about it.

Flurries. Pfft... Oh well. There seems to be something of a meteorological querk between them and me anyway.

Oh, and just in case they /do/ make it big, you heard it here first.

Let us see what else is going on around here...

Wow, the news is depressing. No wonder I don't look. Yeah, there are some good cultural pieces, but they get kinda overshadowed by the other stuff.

Ooo... this looks good: CELTIC JAM, 19:30 at College Coffeehouse, over on College Rd
But then, Sand Castle is playing too, but at 20:30 at McCafferty’s. Cool stuff, that.
Maybe I'll miss the InVein debut at 21:00 at CCH.

Or, Maybe I won't get out of the house at all. Hmm...

Okay, so, that's what's going on here. Nothing to see. Move along.

Take Care-
LQ

Ah... writing feels good

The series continues. (Yeah, over on DeviantArt)

What was I doing over the holidays? Writing on the series.
In this 006: Discoveries, they are 16 again. 007: From the Journal is still going from paper to digital and 008: The Mall? Really? is almost done with edits.
007 is kinda small and I don't know if I will upload it today or tomorrow just to pace it out a bit.

Please, feel free to comment.
=^_^=

My current playlist this morning?

Well, a while ago, a friend of mine, as it were, from the lower 48 was going on and on about the band The Bravery.

So, for the holidays I gotz me somez.

Playlist:

[0/12174] The Bravery - Sugarpill (03:27)
[1/12173] The Bravery - Jack-O'-Lantern Man (02:50)
[2/12172] The Bravery - Red Hands And White Knuckles (03:25)
[3/12171] The Bravery - I Have Seen The Future (03:14)
[4/12170] The Bravery - The Spectator (03:50)
[5/12169] The Bravery - She's So Bendable (02:23)
[6/12168] The Bravery - I Am Your Skin (03:01)
[7/12167] The Bravery - Hate[eff] (02:56)
[8/12166] The Bravery - Slow Poison (03:32)
[9/12165] The Bravery - Song For Jacob (03:23)
->[10/8131] The Bravery - Faces [Sun Version] (02:57)
[11/8130] The Bravery - Rat in the Walls [Sun Version] (03:04)
[12/8129] The Bravery - The Ocean [Sun Version] (03:41)
[13/8128] The Bravery - Above And Below [Sun Version] (03:31)
[14/8127] The Bravery - Split Me Wide Open [Sun Version] (03:39)
[15/8126] The Bravery - Angelina [Sun Version] (03:12)
[16/8125] The Bravery - Fistful Of Sand [Sun Version] (03:10)
[17/8124] The Bravery - Tragedy Bound [Sun Version] (02:22)
[18/8123] The Bravery - Time Won't Let Me Go [Sun Version] (04:11)
[19/8122] The Bravery - Bad Sun [Sun Version] (04:02)
[20/8121] The Bravery - Every Word Is A Knife In My Ear [Sun Version] (03:36)
[21/8120] The Bravery - This Is Not The End [Sun Version] (03:59)
[22/8119] The Bravery - Believe [Sun Version] (03:46)
[23/8118] The Bravery - Intro [Sun Version] (00:29)
[24/8117] The Bravery - The Ocean [Moon Version] (04:04)
[25/8116] The Bravery - Above and Below [Moon Version] (03:11)
[26/8115] The Bravery - Split Me Wide Open [Moon Version] (03:34)
[27/8114] The Bravery - Angelina [Moon Version] (03:20)
[28/8113] The Bravery - Fistful Of Sand [Moon Version] (03:00)
[29/8112] The Bravery - Tragedy Bound [Moon Version] (02:27)
[30/8111] The Bravery - Time Won't Let Me Go [Moon Version] (03:52)
[31/8110] The Bravery - Bad Sun [Moon Version] (04:25)
[32/8109] The Bravery - Every Word Is A Knife In My Ear [Moon Version] (02:37)
[33/8108] The Bravery - This Is Not The End [Moon Version] (04:03)
[34/8107] The Bravery - Believe [Moon Version] (03:20)
[35/8106] The Bravery - Intro [Moon Version] (00:18)
[36/8105] The Bravery - Adored (03:40)

Total playtime: 1:59:30

For those of you playing along at home, you may recall that I have made reverence to the lyrics to Hate[eff]. My friend had sent me the youtube link so I could download it without going to the site. It has become one of my have songs, but at about the same time, I was really getting into Cherry Poppin' Daddies. So... I have not discussed it really.

If I keep doing two-fer posts like this, it will be hard for me to really up my post count, but oh well.

Okay, so, Take Care!
LQ

It's Friday + a dream

Well, part of a dream - but I'll get to that later.
First:
Yeah, there have been updates to LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) and so, and all the groovy updates promised. The big one I am waiting for is the 64bit release.
I mean, am I wrong or will this require a new iso? Everything else, yeah, great, I can get through updates. Well, not exactly everything. They said they made improvements to the installer, so I need to run the installer if I want to check them out.

So I am waiting (kinda) patiently for the new 64bit iso of LMDE. But I will be all excited when it is out - probably blog all about it and stuff.

Second:
As some of you are well aware, my - er, Dad's - house plays holiday host for the holidays. People were over for Thanksgiving, and typically we get everyone again for Christmas-New Years. Yup, that's right, a week+ of "house guests."
Every time, I work hard to make sure the house is ready for everyone. Then Mum comes and re-does it all - like it was her house. So, "Why do I do it, knowing this?" you may ask. I just have to. If for no other reason than when Mum comes and moved things, there are not those "clean" spots where things were, you know? Everything is clean before she touches it. Then I have to re-clean after they go to, uh, get "them" off things.
I am doing something different this year. I am completely rearranging the house full stop. Totally mixed up the chi or whatever. Couch - over there. Radio - there. Book case - (unloaded) over there (reloaded). Etc, etc. Even the kitchen is all rearranged.

The point of all this? To change things so radically that Mum will actually _notice_ that I am taking care of it. This is still a work in progress, so we'll see how it goes. It may backfire on me and drive me nuts. Oh, and for the record, yeah, I even am doing the bedrooms.

And, third:
Before I get to the actual "dream" part of this, you gotta know the setup.
In the past, I have had (bad) dreams about waking up next to Dad in bed and (bad) dreams about waking up next to him in bed that felt so real that I ran screaming into his room waking him up with a hockey stick. Being a bit of a sleep walker, I have actually woken up in Dad's bed, being... uh... poked in the back of the leg by him*. That was a fright and he ended up getting kicked in the face before things settled down.
[edit: I should clarify that he was /sleeping/ when this happened, eh? Not his /fault/.]
Also, Amy shares my bed when everyone is over for the holidays. So, I am not completely unaccustomed to waking with someone else in bed. Now, on to the dream:

In the dream, I was dreaming about everyone being here for the holidays and having Amy around. Then, in the dream, I dreamed I woke up rather peacefully, just stretching in the sun-warmed sheets, face down and feeling the still-fresh linen against my skin. I was quickly and calmly aware of the weight of someone next to me, my skin against their smooth skin. I could feel the rhythm of their breathing and it was comforting. I kept my eyes closed against the persistent, bright sumer sun. I felt the curves of their - of her body and knew she was on her back; slight curve of breast against the my ribs. My skin felt cool against her warm body, soft and tender. I smiled from the comfort of it all as I finished my stretch then rolled to my side, away from my bedmate to look at her face. The scent was so familiar I could picture the form before me before I opened my eyes and found...
Claire.
That startled me awake for real. I should have known it was a dream from the light. There was too much light. Sunrise it not until like almost eleven. I had been expecting (in my dream) for it to have been Amy, so familiar and comfortable. I really believed my dream was real and Amy was next to me. I just knew it. Then to open my eyes and find Claire - I was instantly bombarded with new, Claire scents and rhythms. And that /light/. It was on the other side of Claire from me (well, no, it was all around such that the only things I could see were myself, the bed (and beddings) and Claire) and the light wrapped around her so tightly that I could only see her face - my mind filling in the rest of her from memory, vague and incomplete. At least she was smiling at me.

That was yesterday morning - Thursday. It kinda occupied my thoughts, leaving me lost to this distraction most of the day.
You know when you have an "off" day, right? And you can tell things are just not going the way they normally do. So, at fencing, I am off my game. Completely distracted. One guy who doesn't really beat me... doesn't really get touches on a normal day... beats me - twice - and starts talking to his buds about how much better he is because now he is better than me. He had extra toast with breakfast, and now he is better than me, so he is going to have extra toast before tournaments. He put on his right shoe first this time, so he is better than me and will now always put on his right shoe first. Some such nonsense.
On the other hand, the other, the really good fencers, are actually /more/ annoying. "Hey, there were a couple of opportunities in there you missed, thank goodness." Or, "Oh, my, I thought you were going to get me there... You normally get me with those." Etc, etc. Yeah, they could tell I was off my game, but they were trying to /help/. Even Coach started trying, but my mind just was not in it. I tried meditating, but oddly, it did not help.

Sheehs.

So, this is probably a fairly frustrating post for some of you. It touches on Linux, Family, Dreams, Fencing... if I... Oh, I think I will...

Here are the first fifteen tracks in my current playlist:
[0/2680] Lily Allen - Everything's Just Wonderful (03:29)
[1/6901] Book Of Love - I Touch Roses (Long Stemmed Version) (05:46)
[2/6891] Book Of Love - Late Show (03:38)
[3/3300] KT Tunstall - Hold On (02:58)
[4/3209] Katharine McPhee - Over It (03:35)
[5/3294] 32+-+KT+Tunstall+-+Hold+On.mp3 (02:47)
[6/6946] Everything But The Girl - Letting Love Go (04:46)
[7/6939] Everything But The Girl - Driving (04:00)
[8/4235] Yaz - And On (03:12)
[9/5702] Garbage - Wicked Ways (03:44)
[10/5660] Garbage - Cup Of Coffee (04:31)
[11/3221] Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl (03:00)
[12/3299] KT Tunstall - Funnyman (02:56)
[13/6902] Book Of Love - Boy (Extended Mix) (04:29)
[14/3121] Gabriella Cilmi - Einstein (03:40)

Oh, Mercy... somethings in that list should be omitted. :blush:

I just finished reading The Ghost and the Goth by Stacey Kade. It was a good and light teen candy book. I have these "Candy Books" that I read from time to time. Most are Teen, or YA books, but they are fun without having a lot of weight, you know? Why I Let My Hair Grow Out, The first HP book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, In the Stone Circle, the first Twilight book (Uh, I guess that would be Twilight) and about anything by Meg Cabbot. I mean, there are other "light reading" books I have and like and whatnot. The Pern Series, some Piers Anthony, Dresden Files, Girl Vs Evil and whatnot. But these are not like my "deep reading" like Time Travelers Wife, or Never Let Me Go, etc.

Okay... lots of topics to post for one day. Have fun...

LQ

I tried to find the secrets of the brain

Music Goes Round My Head
by The Saints
"All my life I've searched upon the reasons for us being here
The universe and all that it contains
Well I tried to find the secrets of the brain

Twenty years I've labored trying to find who my creator was
But now at last the pieces fall in place
It's funny and it shows upon my face

And the music goes 'round my head
And I can't hear a thing you said
And my life echoes through my brain
It's so comical I'm insane"

Obviously, I would not know this song at all if not for the film Young Einstein. Young Einstein is just one of those films that, though anachronistic like crazy, is just good, silly fun. But nevermind that.

For the most part, I do not really do well at interpreting songs beyond the face value stuff. And a lot of songs make no sense whatsoever when you try and take them literally. There are some exceptions to my ineptitude, but for the most part, I either like a song, or I don't. I don't have to understand it any more than I have to understand /why/ I like it.

THAT being said, I do, at times, /try/ to understand. Sometime I just take what it means to me and me alone, as if it was written for me, though Mercy knows it was not. (Much of the music I like was written well before I was born, in case there was any doubt at all. If I was ever anyone's muse, it was in a life that was not this one.)

So... the music goes 'round me head. I have, over my years (albeit fewer than twenty) contemplated the meaning to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything. I even read a book by that title.

I like listening to music; letting it consume me, letting it replace the me that is inside with the stuff that is it. Much like the way I like getting lost in a good book, I like the music to carry me away where I don't have to be me.

So, yeah, some of my favorite songs are all about the music; the melody, the rhythm, the bass, the je-ne-cest-qua.
Other times it is the voice, the story, the words.

Do I like instrumentals? Well, not as a rule, but there are plenty that I do like.
Do I like musicals? Again, not as a rule, but there are plenty that I do like.

I have music playing just about all the time. World music, techno, rave, jazz, rock, classic, soundtracks... even bagpipes.
Quiet, ambient new age stuff while I meditate, dance music while I workout, swing while I ride my bike... whatever.

But I have no talent for music. Like Henry DeTamble in The Time Traveler's Wife, my life has a soundtrack, but it is all by someone else.

This kinda bums me a bit.

So... If you are out there, and you are reading this blog:
What is playing right now?
Do you play an instrument?
Are you musically inclined, or declined?
Can you sing? Let me rephrase that... Do You think you can sing?

Just... leave a comment!

Take Care-
LQ

It is Friday and I am not sure how I feel about that

This update may take me a while to get posted, but I will leave it up here until I am good and ready to post it.

This week has really gone my fast. Too fast, one may say.

The Linux Mint servers were having issues from being overloaded. I am happy that they are getting that popular... in a way.

Maybe I should go back to looking for a nice, quiet, unpopular distribution... maybe I should stick with Mint. It is great, but I am never one to go with the flow, as it were.

Rice. Sure, it's rice - who expects it to _not_ be boring. But hey, seasoned right, it is very flexible. And, dried, it stores well all winter, so, you know, no point in being down about it, eh?

I watched the film they made of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and...
I think they did a good job. I am not goring to do a side-by-side breakdown. I have given up on trying to do that because it never ends well for the film. Maybe an exception or two. Now, books made from films? That is a whole other issue all together.
Back to the point, I really think that - for a conversion - the stripped down film made a lot of sense. Yeah, I think there was a point or two missing... but those missing points are mostly Mrs. Sebold's issues/hangups. It was tidied up nicely for the movie-going audience.

Never Let Me Go, when it comes out, I am not likely going to be so kind about. In fact, I think I am going to re-read it over the holidays so it is all fresh. It has been even longer since I read Ishiguro than Sebold. This was an incredible book. Depressing, yes, but incredible.

Now, I have no idea if there are plans or not, but I think Peter Jackson could do a good job bringing Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series to film... seeing as how Hollywood has thrown in the towel on original film concepts. (Did I spell Westerfeld right? lemme look that up... Nope. Better go back and fix that. Done. Now no one will know.)

I did a thing a while back about songs that, given a more developed story, could make a really good film. Some may be more like a Sundance festival short, other maybe like a full fledged motion picture, but hey... interesting plot nonetheless.
I am listening to Yaz (or Yazoo, for those of you across the pond) while writing this. It feels good.

Earlier, I was listening to Cherry Poppin' Daddies:
"You gotta move fast to beat the devil
Your arm is too short to box with G__"
I feel like that some days... stuck between anything and everything with no recourse and no wall to put my back against. It really wears me out sometimes.

Oh, I am doing better now, I suppose. Sometimes when you are lying down at the bottom of the well, the only thing to do is be still and hope the kicking is over with soon.

So, this is supposed to be the month for writing, right? It is bugging me that I have not been able to put anything down, you know? And Mum will be here Wednesday. It feels like it may as well be tomorrow. I am not ready to deal with family again. Maybe I just want Dad all to myself for the holidays. Yeah, that is bad of me to think like that, but then, I have even worse thoughts, so, oh well. The point of that was to say that starting with Mum on Wed,family will be coming and between getting ready, and then them being here, I doubt I will get anything finished enough to post. :bummer:

This is getting long-ish and has touched on a number of subjects without being very meaningful to any of them, so I suppose it is time to wrap this up.

Take Care-
LQ

No Update Today

There was a time I was doing one of those 365 things. I am not now, so I do not, like, need to make an update every day.

So, I am wrapped up in a blanket eating (?) tomato soup listening to (currently Pet Shop Boys - no, it is changing... Gary Numan). It is -26C outside and a nice, new, fluffy layer of snow.

Here is the thing: I do not know which is worse; your friends parents catching you talking to your food, or getting the answer to "Does it talk back?" wrong.

Also, my, um, agent was asking me if I wanted some more work... for someone else. More script _writing_. That is good. New and different stuff. I asked PHP or PERL and he said it would be up to me... whatever works. It'll probably be PHP. Ah, my good friend. Comfortable like an old blanket. Like this blanket, actually.

So...

Last night's dream was really messed up and I am not going to post it.

There is that meteor shower tonight. Leonid.

Prince William got engaged, eh? Good for them. I think she'll do fine.

What else?

Oh, and yeah, check out eyebeam.com. Funny comics. You may have seen that I am reading the archives.

So, take care, eh-

LQ

It's Friday - I'm in... pajamas

Yes. It is Friday and I know that most of you out there do not need _me_ to tell you that.

I _so_ do not feel like posting on my blog today, so I thought I would post about that.

This is just a Friday blog and not very interesting, so you may want to just move on, but here it goes.

I have been missing a lot of time lately and that makes it really hard to get things done. Well, sure, I think I swept the same floor like 5 times on Tuesday. So, I know that got done, eh? Maybe we should get security cameras in here so I can find out what it is that goes on during these spells. Or maybe I am better off not knowing. Typically that is what I hear - that I don't want to know, or it was not important .

Twice this week I woke up in Dad's bed, once in the kitchen and once in the bathroom. Once I came back from my missing time undressed in the coat closet and once by the creek in my parka and boots.

For the November writing thing, I was really hoping to get a lot written... no a character.

Then... I get this e-mail yesterday from "my client" (a honcho at the place for whom I crunch data. See, first, I was like, "The byte count is off and there is this transmission artifact (ascii-burp) in the file. Please re-transmit."
So I get it back without the garble, and there is one record with a bad field count and it is throwing things off. So I find an un-escaped delimiter in a field in the record and it should not be there at all - like, there is no reason for that character to be in there at all.
I go back to them again and I am like, there is this record that has a problem. It was extracted that way and it needs to be fixed, re-extracted and sent to me again.

This is where the honcho's e-mail comes in because they should have the file back [today, now that it is Friday] but it will be late, etc, etc.

The e-mail was just to me, like it was my fault. I included my contractor guy when I replied, "Excuse me?"

That was really depressing on top of all my uncertainties this week.

So, _NOW_ I am feeling bad.

I was listening to The Bravery this morning what waffling about posting this. I made ginger-curry rice with an egg, but they are getting cold while I type.

Pffffftttt...

Reading Misfile did not help because it is kinda a mini cliffhanger and I could just about kick Chris in the shin for doing that to me today, but no... I couldn't do that.

I am thinking hard about finishing watching Kick-A__... but I don't know. I am about 40 minutes in an waiting for a character that I like. Well, I liked Mr Bitey, but that is it so far.

So, there it is. Hope I didn't bring anyone down.

Take Care-
LQ

To The City

Getting ready for my last trip to "the big city" before winter hits in earnest.  Just the usual stuff

Yeah, I go every few months, but that is not the same as when I was moving between Dad's and Mom's every summer.

I never really collected "stuff" in general, but especially not the past seven or eight years.  However, I still have ended up accumulating more in the past couple years than I had the other 6 put together.

I blame having a best friend (other than Dad.)  Not blame in a bad way, but just kinda... explain it that way.  Looking around (other than the fencing, cycling and computer paraphernalia) most of what is around are things Clare related.  I find this odd.  It is not so much that is it bothering me.  I am not having to struggle with weird emotions or anything - like I have to burn it all, or break/cut everything into little pieces.  I (hope I) am past that. But it would be more stuff to pack if I moved.  Well, not so much if I just moved back to Mom's... I'd leave it here for the spell.

On the other hand, I have a good number of books out on loan to Claire.  Which is fine.  I'll probably take them to a book shop upon their return.

Mom has promised no surprise events this trip.  It is (mostly) utilitarian.  But it is not like have that much faith in her promises when it comes to the kind of surprises she has dealt in the past.  Most things, sure, but...

On the other hand, she is understanding more that things that she thinks are "no big deal" can really freak me out, so maybe she really will keep her promise.

Again, it is not like she makes a promise knowing she will not keep it, it is just that she has not considered these parties, weddings, whatnot to be inclusive in the "No surprises" category.

But enough about all this.  I still need to get ready.  I have a lot of house cleaning and stuff to do before I travel.

Sigh.  And I have to plan what music to take with me.  Here is what I've got so far:

Kon Kan                 Peter Schilling
3 Doors Down            Pet Shop Boys
Alice In Chains         Lily Allen
Stone Temple Pilots     Camouflage               
Maroon 5                Matchbox Twenty              
The Killers             The Stone Roses                    
Third Eye Blind         Yaz  
Indecent Obsession      Orgy                         
Yelle

And I will be adding Tones on Tail and OMD at the least.

Take Care-
LQ

(yet) Another Friday Instalment

Well, what can I say...
Where have been things that happened this past week, but they were weird and I am not going to blog about them -
 - Other, that is, than to say it has been a weird week.

I got to a point this morning after not being able to sleep, not feeling good, etc that I will not waste blogspace or keystrokes talking about, where I was like, "Oh boy! It's Friday! Time to blog again!"
That was followed quickly by the stark realization that I have no idea what to blog about.  Hmm... imagine that.

So:
The trailer for "The Girl Who Played With Fire" was released.  Um... what is the word... Oh yeah.  "w00t"
Watch It Here
Okay... that was not the English/internat'l trailer that was just released, but apparently the only link back to it I am finding right now is on youtube, to which I am insanely allergic, so you have to read the Swedish. For some of you that will be fine, I know.


Also, there has been a lot of buzz around the literary circles for the series (Thank you @randomhouse) which is cool because it is much with the awesome.

Then, also, a friend of mine turned me on to an anime series Bamboo Blade.  It is cute and funny, but it has amusing character development.  It centres around the sport of kendo.  Being a fencer, I find this cool.  Reminds me of clubs I have known, but I will leave it there.

Let's see... what else.

Oh - I wrote a (bash) script to... automatically tweet whatever I have playing in xmms2.  But it is a little annoying... I think I like to be more selective about what I share - even if it may not seem like it.  :rollseyes:

Well, there you have it.

Have a good week.  Read a book.

Take Care
LQ

p.s.  Yes, I am missing most of last weekend.  Not sure I want it back, given the evidence.  Two more "episodes" this week that I am sure of.  :sadface:

RIP Peter Steele

Birth name Petrus T. Ratajczyk
Also known as Peter Steele; Pete Steele; Lord Petrus Steele
Born January 4, 1962(1962-01-04), Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died April 14, 2010 (aged 48)

Not too sure what to say, but I ran across the news this morning and I was like... Whoa.

Heart Attack at 48.

Maybe shock is keeping me from being able to express exactly what I feel?  I was never like a "ZOMG I am SUCH a Type O Negative Fan!!!!" but they were always there.  I put them on (really loud at times) when there was just nothing else that would fix it.  I mean, sure... there are a few artists that I put on (really loud at times) when there was just nothing else that would fix it, but they seemed to fix different things.  And there were somethings that I really needed Peter's voice for.  I am listening to Bloody Kisses now and...

I really hope I can get over this, and, in time, get what I used to out of their music, but now - Right this moment, I feel like I will never be able to listen to them the same again... and it will never be able to fix what it used to.

But, I guess that is _really_ selfish of me.
Oh, wait... this is _my_ blog.

So, that is the news... and I have not figured out how I feel yet.

Sadness....

Lady Quindecim.

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 15/15

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 15/15 (in no particular order that I will admit to):
15) "More Human Than Human"

I am cheating on this one.

See, Blade Runner - in the film the Tyrell corp produces the Nexus replicants (androids).  Their motto is "More human than human."  Their product has an expiration date.  In the film, the current product generation is "Nexus 6"

And White Zombie - the song has the line, "I am the Nexus One, I want more life [censored] I ain't done."  And so on.  So, the two are inseparable in my mind.

Okay, now, for the rest, well, I can imagine a replicant thinking of himself like the zombie described in the song.

The replicants were made to do the things that humans did not want to do, or were too dangerous to do.  Mostly described in the film, they were pleasure androids and wariers.  They were also used as assassins and other things like that and they had become so human-like, that they were made illegal to have on earth.
So, Tyrell corp experimented with giving them a "past" - a collection of fictitious human histories by which they can develop an empathy for the human perspective.  This, as the replicants began to approach their own expiration date, caused much introspection as they also developed a stronger, living-organism-like, sense of self preservation.  This is also described in the lyrics:
"Yeah, I am the jigsaw man
I turn the world around with a skeleton hand - say
I am electric head,
A cannibal core,
A television said - yeah
.
.
.
Into a psychic war,
I tear my soul apart and I eat it some more"

"jigsaw man" - their parts are synthetic, vat grown, and then assembled.
"I turn the world around with a skeleton hand" - describes that thier super-human qualities put them outside the natural world, able to control it; but (skeleton hand) still not human, not "living", and not in control of their own, ultimate destiny.
"electric head" - android
"cannibal core" - self expiring - time limit.
"television said" - not quite sure, but I have my thought on this... maybe referring to their "invented past"
Then
"Into a psychic war" - refers to the point at which they suffer an internal struggle driven by psychological motivators.
"I tear my soul apart and I eat it some more" - the introspection they go through during the "psychic war"

So, the film was awesome.  It is iconic of the "dystopian future."  It helped define a genre.  There is a lot missing from the book, but the film stands well enough on its own.  I have seen it with and without the narration, but I saw it with, first, so memory kept filling it in, so I do not know that I can form a proper opinion of the director's cut.

Take Care-
LQ

(p.s. Spell check does not know dystopian, but it know utopian?  How wrong is that?)

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 14/15

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 14/15 (in no particular order that I will admit to):
14) "Some Enchanted Evening"

Music by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Film: American Graffiti (1973)

["Some Enchanted Evening"?]
{Yeah}
[Really?]
{Yeah}
[Of all the great songs in the film... Really?]
{Yeah.  Hush. I'll explain.}

I remember it well; the first I saw the film.  I was about 10 or 11.  I was in the hospital and feeling really down and drugged.  Mum was like, "Hey, LQ," except she never calls me 'LQ', "Do you want to watch such and such," and, "Blah blah is coming on later."  And I was like, "Whatever, Mum, I don't really care... mumble mumble zzzzz."

Then I had like stired, like, "Han Solo never said that, mumble mumble... zzzzzz."

Then I heard Harrison Ford singing "Some Enchanted Evening" and I started laughing.  I just started laughing so hard I started crying.  I was still laughing when the nurse Mom called came in.  Nurse was like, "Okay, she's laughing?  So?"  Mom said, "I haven't heard her laugh in 4 years."  That was sobering.  (She called Dad later when she thought I was asleep... just to tell him that I laughed.) But anyway, I think Falfa was great.  I idolized Milner.  It was such a fun and heart-felt story.

I really like the song "Green Onions", "You're Sixteen", "Do You Wanna Dance"... the list goes on...
I really like the way the story was told - through the night, bouncing back and forth through the plot lines - then the little wrap up at the end.
... the thing about deciding where your heart belongs, even when it is not the easy thing to do.
... the thing about following your dreams, but knowing your limits.

"Some Enchanted Evening" was so out of place; completely random and nonsequiter.  This big ol' cowboy breaking out into opera to break the silence.

So, there you have it.  #14 of my top fifteen songs-from-films list.  This one was more late from the "getting-round-to-it" than from any indecision.  This has always been a special film for me, and mostly because if this song.

Take Care-
LQ

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 13/15

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 13/15 (in no particular order that I will admit to):
13)"People Are Strange"
Written by The Doors
Performed by Echo & The Bunnymen (as Echo and The Bunnymen)
Produced by Ray Manzarek
Courtesy of WEA Records
Film: The Lost Boys (1987)

This was the first... "shared"... music I had ever received.  The girl that gave me the CD also introduced me to Echo & The Bunnymen.  This was some time ago... like a few years.  We had been talking about bands we liked and she said that she had this soundtrack with these really cool bands and she gave me a copy.  She was like the first "goth" I knew.  She copied her older sister with like, everything.  Thought it was cool to wear her hand-be-downs because it was like being all "indi" and shopping the second-hand stores, but it was free, and she knew who had it last. 
I was listening to it and Dad had thought I was watching the file, until he came into the room-proper.  I was like, no, someone gave me a copy of the soundtrack.  Later, we watched the film.  It was cool.  I don't think too much of some of the tracks out of the context of the film, but I was like... wait, this one band sounds familiar.  Dad was like, Yeah, that's E&tB.  He went out with a girl that was really into them.  She gave him a tape of the soundtrack because it had E&tB on it.  Then he named some other E&tB songs, showed me his 12" of "Paint it Black".  So, Monday at school, I went back to my friend and was like "Wow, I really like E&tB" and said I saw the film and she was like "Yeah, ain't it great?" and I was like comparing them to Love and Rockets and her "boyfriend" was like "Yeah, they are great" and started trying to talk to me about L&R a lot... a lot... and creeping me out and my friend thought I was trying to steal her boyfriend, or didn't want him to be around me because she felt threatened or something.  Then it was Summer Break and she had new friends in the fall.
Boyfriend was in quotes because we were pretty young.  It was like, this is the boy, that is her friend, and the one that she let hold her hand and buy her desert at lunch.  (Due to research I had conducted trying to figure things out about me, I paid a lot of attention to any of my friends relationships with "boyfriends"... I was already terrified of boys.)

So, back to the film.  After Dad and I watched it, he asked me what I thought because I looked pensive, he said.  So I curled up in his lap and explained: If I was a vampire, it would cure me and I wouldn't die.
He said that the trade-off would be that I had to kill people.
I said that in some of the stories, they don't have to kill.
We went on then talking about a number of books and films about living forever, and miracle cures.  That was when he gave me Virtual Light.  See, in Andromeda Strain, they explain that for a virus to be successful, it could not kill its host.  So it mutates to a non fatal strain by the time it is unleashed on the world.  In Virtual Light, this happens to HIV - a non-fatal, dominant strain is identified and vaccine is made.  I love the book, but I was also pissed because I didn't want to die.  I wanted it to be real.  I was kinda torn because I both loved and hated the book.  So he gave me Neuromancer to read and I got over the hate and read the rest of the Sprawl trilogy, then re-read Virtual Light and moved on to Iduro and All Tomorrow's Parties, then backed up to the Burning Chrome collection of short stories, and I read The Difference Engine.... and I have really wandered away from The Lost Boys, haven't I.

In short, I was introduced to my favourite author because of a conversation about vampires and "cure-alls" and whatnot.

The title of the film is a reference to the companions of Peter Pan, who remained forever young.

This film invented the phrase "vamp out", which has passed into common usage on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

In the cave of the Lost Boys you can see a poster of Jim Morrison who recorded the original version of "People are Strange" with The Doors. And when Star and Laddie are being carried into Sam’s room, you can see a poster of Echo & the Bunnymen who recorded the version used in the film.

Notable contenders:
"Cry Little Sister (Theme From The Lost Boys)"
Written by Mike Mainieri (as Michael Mainieri) and Gerard McMahon (as Gerard McMann)
Performed by Gerard McMahon (as Gerard McMann)
Produced by Mike Mainieri (as Michael Mainieri)
Co-Produced by Gerard McMahon (as Gerard McMann) and Bruce Martin

"To The Shock Of Miss Louise"
(uncredited)
Music by Thomas Newman

Sorry about getting a little off topics there, but I had recently read Welcome Chaos, by Kate Wilhelm where there is an enzyme that kills about 50% of the people that come in contact with it (transmitted sexually, but it also goes out as a "vaccine"), but the survivors live for ever, immune to all disease, even old age.  It had brought that old conversation back to mind.  It was a Regan Era "Cold War" story.

Anywho,
Take Care-
LQ

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 12/15

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 12/15 (in no particular order that I will admit to):
12)"Navarre And Isabeau's Dual Transformation"
Well, this is almost another "The whole flippin soundtrack" one... and another "just put it on for the music" films.  Oh, yeah.  I am talking about the Ladyhawke soundtrack, which is effectively by The Alan Parson's Project... almost.  Here is the Wikipedia entry on that:
[quote]The film's score was composed by Andrew Powell. Richard Donner stated that he was listening to The Alan Parsons Project (on which Powell collaborated) while scouting for locations, and became unable to separate his visual ideas from the music.[/quote]
So, being familiar with Alan Pardons Project, then seeing this film, I was like, "Dad, this sounds like Alan Parsons" and he was like, "I think they did do the soundtrack."  So we looked.  The Wiki entry was not there and so tracing it back, we were initially lead to believe that The Alan Parsons Project was to be credited.  Then we found that it was more Powell than Parsons, but neverthemind.
The music is awesome.  The film is funny, cute, fanciful... just _really_ good.

• Matthew Broderick as Philippe Gaston
• Rutger Hauer as Captain Etienne Navarre
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Isabeau d'Anjou
• Leo McKern as Father Imperius
• John Wood as Bishop of Aquila
• Ken Hutchison as Marquet
• Alfred Molina as Cezar
• Giancarlo Prete as Fornac

Well, Broderick seemed a bit out of place, but I got used to the character and he does pull it off.  Everyone else is spot on.
The film was filmed in Italy, primarily in a (and around) a real little medieval town call L'Aquila. The tune that Isabeau and Phillipe dance to in the stable is a genuine Italian 14th Century dance named "Trotto".  The breed of horse that Navarre rides is a Friesian, popular among medieval knights.  There was so much put into the production to give it such an authentic feel.

So, why go with such anachronistic soundtrack?  I feel that it serves to bring us, the contemporary audience, back to another world of magic and fantasy - a bridge to transport us there.

I like to listen to Alan Parson while doing school work, and sometimes while cooking.  Sometimes, I will put some on and curl up with Dad on the sofa while he reads.

So, this one part of the film, we see the two, Navarre and Isabeau, transform together, almost touching, and all the pain, and all the love, and the sum of their cursed existence.   The song is instrumental, so there is not much to say about it, but watching, and listening, it just all comes together to take its place at number twelve.

Take Care-
LQ

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 11/15

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 11/15 (in no particular order that I will admit to):

11)"Wouldn't It Be Good"
Written and Performed by Nik Kershaw
Performed by Danny Hutton Hitters
Film Pretty in Pink (1986)  - Yeah, like a lot of these, well before I was born.

It was surprisingly difficult to come up with ONE song for the representative for the list.

[quote]I got it bad, you don't know how bad I got it
You got it easy, you don't know when you've got it good
It's getting harder just keeping life and soul together
I'm sick of fighting even though I know I should

The cold is biting through each and every nerve and fibre
My broken spirit is frozen to the core
I don't wanna be here no more
...[/quote]

Yeah, I think about this one a lot.  Sometime more than others, and at times it has different meanings for me.

As for the film, it is (possibly) my fave of its ilk.  I take that back... I love the book.  The film was good.  If the film had the same ending as the book, then it would be my fave of its ilk.  So, I pretend.

Here were the runner ups for which song from this film:
"If You Leave"
Written by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (as OMD)
Performed by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
Courtesy of Virgin Records, Ltd.
By Arrangement with A&M Records, Inc.
Because... well, it's OMD
Funny thing about that, actually.  I read in an interview that their record company was like "You have not had a hit in a long time and you need a hit."  And they were like "We don't care about having hits, we care about writing our music."  and the company was like "hello?  Paycheck?" and they were like, "Fine." and they did and it was and then they were like "Now we can go back to writing our stuff."

"Bring On The Dancing Horses"
by Will Sergeant, Ian McCulloch, Les Pattinson, Pete DeFreitas
Performed by Echo & The Bunnymen
Courtesy of WEA Records / Sire Records
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products
Just because.

"Shell-Shock"
by New Order & John Robie
Performed by New Order
Courtesy of Factory Records / Qwest Records
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products
My fave New Order song.  _WAY_ better than Blue Monday.  :ack:

So, if these 15 were in some kind of normal, ranked order, this one would have more... prime... position.  But these are in no particular order/ranking that I will admit to, so here it is at number (what number are we at? [what kind of grammar is that?]{oh, hush}) eleven.

So, anywho, yeah, coming to a thing on this entry was really holding things up.  I thought about moving on to the next one, but for reasons I won't [Can't]{Won't}[Whatever] explain, I just had to hold off until I got here.

Take care-
LQ

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 10/15

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 10/15 (in no particular order that I will admit to): 
10) Amadeus - the whole thin - What can I say, it's Mozart.
I mean, the film leaves some to be desired, but as a piece of cinema fiction with good tunes - there you have it.

On another note...
When I originally posted this on another blog last summer, in this spot, I talked about Linux Mint being... heavier than my computer was really happy with, and that I was thinking about giving something really thin like Zenwalk or Slackware a try.


I did, but still went back to Mint.  I have, with more RAM, found more happiness with Mint, yet, due mostly to restlessness, gave Slackware another go.


See next post for more how all that went (is going.)

Anywho,
Take Care-
LQ

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 9/15

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 9/15 (in no particular order that I will admit to):
09) "Ça plane pour moi" by Plastic Bertrand

"Ça plane pour moi"
Single by Plastic Bertrand
A-side	"Ça plane pour moi"
B-side	"Pogo Pogo"
Released	December 1977
Format	7"
Genre	Punk
Length	3:00
Label	AMC
Writer(s)	Yvan Lacomblez
Producer	Francis 'Lou' Deprijck

Film - National Lampoon's European Vacation - but this is not the one I am blogging about.

Film - Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Film -... Yeah, this one gets used a bit, actually, and I don't know what all in.

It has been covered a number of times by a number of artists - including The Presidents of the United States of America.  (For those of you playing along at home, The Presidents of the United States of America is one of the bands I listen to sometimes.  My favourite song of theirs being "Kitty" - but nevermind that right now.  And I just think that "nevermind" _should_ be one word.  I mean really.  With all the words and phrases that got slammed together (coupled?) to make one word out of them, how did "nevermind" get missed?  I guess it would have been something like "nevertheemind" or "whatforsoothdoththoumeantsbythinkingsuchthings" but I digress.

There was a lot of good music in Ferris Buler's Day Off, but this one takes the cake.  Sputnik's Love Missile F-111 is great, Oh Yeah by Yellow, and many others, but this one, in its silliness, takes the cake.  It is a silly song.  It is one of those songs where it is not supposed to make sense - just lots of silliness strung together.  And the scene is the delinquent trio in silly shots strung together.

Um... Short one today.  I mean, yeah, I could talk more about the film, but "Ça plane pour moi" really is a bunch of random phrases and whatnot put together for fun and whatnot.  The song is not really _about_ anything, eh?

Take Care-
LQ

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 8/15

Top Fifteen Movie Songs 8/15 (in no particular order that I will admit to):
08) "I HEAR MOTION"
Composed by Sean Kelly, Andrew Duffield, James Freud and Barton Price
Performed by Models
Film: Young Einstein

Again, one of my all-time fave films; one of my all-time fave songs.  Duh, right?  Hello - on the list.
Yahoo Serious is an amazing human.  This film was fun and silly and all his.  His friends and family helped him make it.
This song has a great beat, and you can dance to it.  This may not be completely - blatantly - obvious, but I like music.

"
Now let it out
    Shout to the night
And so it goes
    I hear motion
Just count it out
    Shout in your sleep
You'll say the word
    I hear motion

When it is Christmas for every one else
    I feel I'm missing the point. 
Sing Happy Birthday
    Sing Happy New Year
Whisper the words we all want to hear
"

So.... yeah.

Again, I do not have a whole lot to say about this without just going into the film plot and whatnot.  I mean, either you saw the film and were like "that was weird" or you saw it and were like, "Okay, that was funny" or you never heard of it and I don't want to just ruin it for you.

This script was like - SO - anachronistic.  In this scene, Albert Einstein invents rock and roll music, inspired by the rhythm of children playing hopscotch, and converts a violin to an electric guitar.  It went something like "...A scientific musical theory based on the human heartbeat.  4 bars, 4 beats to the bar... with a back beat.  In that state, the gravity will 'roll' to the down beat. Therefore, the body motion must 'rock' to the up beat.  A new musical theory; 'Roll & Rock'" or some such monologue.

So... yeah.  Yahoo Serious.  One of my favourite people in the world.  This was his (first) film, and my favourite (of many very good) songs from it.

Take Care-
LQ