Periodic Table of Women in SF Meme

It's Friday -- time for a fun internet game!

By now you might have heard of the marvelous Periodic Table of Women in SF [that's science fiction/fantasy, not San Francisco, and you really should watch the video at the bottom of the post that that link brings you to].  A new meme has broken out about it, one I learned about from Cheryl Morgan:

Bold the women by whom you own books (I’m assuming this includes books or magazines edited by people who are not fiction writers).

Italicize those by whom you’ve read something (short stories count)

*Star those you don’t recognize [note: I've encountered so many names in my life, I always feel like I recognize most.  The ones I've starred are ones that, if somebody mentioned them in conversation, would cause a profoundly vague expression to come over my face.  And I'm doing this quickly, so I hope I don't star anybody who I not only recognize, but have spent actual time with...]

And below the jump, you'll find my answers...

Music Meme

I love happenstance and serendipity with music, so am quite attracted to a music meme Andrew Wheeler just shared:

1. Put your iTunes (or any other media player you may have) on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!

Here we go...

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Izakunyatheli Afrika Verwoerd (Africa is Going to Trample on You, Verwoerd) -- from This Land is Mine: South African Freedom Songs

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Six O'Clock News -- John Prine

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Another Man's Vine -- Tom Waits

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Pagan Poetry -- Björk

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine -- Bob Dylan

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
I Kill Children -- Dead Kennedys

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Humdrum -- Peter Gabriel

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Brother Flower -- Townes van Zandt

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Cataracts -- Andrew Bird

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Straight -- Amanda Palmer

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Honey in the Rock -- Blind Mamie Forehand

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Steam Powered Aereo-plane -- John Hartford

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Television Man -- Talking Heads

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Drifter's Escape -- Bob Dylan

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Castles Made of Sand -- Vance Gilbert

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Soul Mining -- The The

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Sweet 16 -- Bob Peck

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Aim to Please -- TV on the Radio

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Onions -- The Mountain Goats

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Killer Queen -- Queen

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Demento -- Kill Memory Crash

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Echoes -- Pink Floyd

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Two Good Men (Sacco & Vanzetti) -- Woody Guthrie

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Nice Work if You Can Get It -- Billie Holiday

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
Nightswimming -- REM

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Floe -- Philip Glass

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Peter -- Marlene Dietrich

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground -- Bascom Lamar Lunsford


Wow. Those really are random, but a lot of them are oddly appropriate.

Now a fun challenge would be to write a story from all those. If I weren't already trying to write a story based on a stray comment about a group of songs I mentioned to Brian Slattery, I'd give it a try.

People Collection

Because there is very little I would not do at the request of Clare Dudman, I shall continue the following meme-questionnaire-thing, which she tagged me for...

This seems to have originated here and requires the responder to list 5 personal qualities not generally known to readers of the blog it's being posted on. The idea, apparently, is to collect things that would be interesting attributes to draw on for characters in fiction.

Here's a required paragraph:

PLEASE LEAVE THE FOLLOWING IN ALL ‘PEOPLE COLLECTION’ POSTS

Remember that it isn’t always the sensational stuff that writers are looking for, it can just as easily be something that you take for granted like having raised twins or knowing how to grow beetroot. Mind you, if you know how to fly a helicopter or have worked as a film extra, do feel free to let the rest of us know about it :-)

We are all, apparently, interesting in our particularities.

Since I don't tend to put too much personal stuff up here, this should be fairly easy. Let's see...

1. In the past few months a number of extremely wonderful things have happened to me, most of which will end up being chronicled here, but a little over a month ago my cat, Vanya, disappeared. We had been companions for 9 years, and this loss has affected me far more deeply than any of the wonderful things, which is, I suppose, a testament to him and to how much he meant to me. He'd had a sister named Masha who died of cancer during the summer of 2001, and that loss was difficult, particularly because I hated to see her suffer, but it was softened because Vanya was still there, and so I was not alone.

2. I vehemently dislike shopping, and sometimes buy clothes that don't fit or items that are not what I was looking for because once I get into a store, all I want to do is get out.

3. Often when thinking, I flip a pen or pencil in my hand, usually without looking at it.

4. I have a motorcycle license, but haven't ridden a motorcycle in ten years.

5. I was an extra in the skating scene in the movie The Good Son, written by Ian McEwan and starring Macauley Culkin and Elijah Wood. Culkin was sequestered from the extras for most of the 9-day shoot, but he did seize the megaphone one day and have a group of us play "Simon Says" and "Hokey-Pokey" with him. Elijah Wood was far more friendly, not being particularly famous back then, and I remember pleasant conversations with both him and his mother.

If this sort of thing interests you and you have a blog of your own, consider yourself tagged.

Soundtracking

One of my favorite things to do when directing a play is to put together the soundtrack, and sometimes when writing I will try to manipulate how I write by what music I select for the background (or don't select -- silence has its own effect).

Thus, I was immediately interested in the new "soundtrack to your life" meme that Gwenda Bond and Elizabeth Bear did. For fun, I put iTunes on shuffle and looked at what the songs would correspond to. I didn't intend originally to write about it here, but the songs that came up created a strange sort of narrative, with some spooky syncronicity, and I immediately began trying to think of a story to build from most of them. I'll probably try to write the story, so am recording here the initial impulse...

IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
So, here's how it works:
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool...

Opening Credits:
"Oliver Cromwell" by Monty Python
The most interesting thing about King Charles the first is that he was 5 foot 6 inches tall at the start of his reign, but only 4 foot 8 at the end of it....because of....

Waking Up:
"So Come Back, I Am Waiting" by Okkervil River
And there’s plenty of ways to claim his crimes tonight,
and there’s plenty of things to do on his dime.
And there’s plenty of ways to wear his hide tonight.

You’ve got yours and I’ve got mine.
You’ve got yours and I’ve got mine.
So why
did you flee?
Don’t you know you can’t leave his control
only call all his wild works your own?
So come back and we’ll take them all on.
So come back to your life on the lam.
So come back to your old black sheep man.

First Day at School:
"Evening Song" by Philip Glass, from Satyagraha [no lyrics]

Falling in Love:
"I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" from O Brother Where Art Thou?
I am a man of constant sorrow
I've seen trouble all my day.

Fight Song:
"So Fast, So Numb" by R.E.M.
listen. this is now. this is here.
this is me. this is what I wanted
you to see.
that was then. that was that.
that is gone. that is past.
you cast yourself, cast.
passed by, thrown down fast. you say.

you say that
you hate it.
but you want to recreate it.

Breaking Up:
"Gold Dust" by Tori Amos
How did it go so fast
you'll say
as we are looking
back
and then we'll
understand
we held gold dust
in our
hands

Prom:
"Divertimento for Strings" by Bela Bartok [no lyrics]

Life is Good
"Estate Sale" by Eels
Man: "These are the sounds of the days that are past."

Woman: "A miracle was about to happen."

Mental Breakdown:
"Poor Ditching Boy" by Richard Thompson
Was there ever a winter so cold and so sad
The river too weary to flood
The storming wind cut through to my skin
But she cut through to my blood

Driving
"Hold On, Hold On" by Neko Case
Compared to some I've been around
But I really tried so hard
That echo chorus lied to me with its
"Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on"

Flashback:
"Play Dead" by Bjork
I play dead,
and the hurting stops.
It's sometimes just like sleeping,
curling up inside my private tortures.

Getting Back Together:
"Crazy Man Michael" by Natalie Merchant
Michael he whistles
The simplest of tunes
As he asks of the wild woods
Their pardon
But his true love has flown
Into every flower grown
And he must be keeper
Of the garden

Wedding
"Don't Explain" by Billie Holiday
Hush now, don't explain
Just say you'll remain
I'm glad you're back, don't explain

Paying the Dues
"Paranoid Android" by Radiohead
Please could you stop the noise, I'm trying to get some rest
From all the unborn chicken voices in my head

The Night Before the War
"Happy" by The Frames
Come help me out I'm sick from the fight
from inserting a laugh where there's none
show me where this joke got tired

Final Battle
"Ruby's Arms" by Tom Waits
I'll feel my way down the darkened hall,
and out into the morning
the hobos at the freightyards
have kept their fires burning
so jesus christ this goddamn rain
will someone put me on a train
I'll never kiss your lips again
or break your heart

Moment of Triumph
"Police on My Back" by The Clash
I'm running down the railway track
Could you help me? Police on my back
They will catch me if I dare drop back
they will kill me for the speed I lack

Death Scene
"Hell Yeah" by Ani DiFranco
Life is a b movie
It's stupid and it's strange
A directionless story
And the dialouge is lame
But in the he-said/she-said
Sometimes there's some poetry
If you turn your back long enough
And let it happen naturally

Funeral Song
"Coin-Operated Boy" by Dresden Dolls
coin-operated boy
sitting on the shelf
he is just a toy
but i turn him on
and he comes to life
automatic joy
that is why i want
a coin-operated boy
made of plastic and elastic
he is rugged and long-lasting
who could ever ever ask for more
love without complications galore
many shapes and weights to choose from
i will never leave my bedroom
i will never cry at night again
wrap my arms around him and pretend

End Credits
"Angels of Deception" by The The
Down by the river, I've been washing out my mouth,
'cuz deep in the heart of me
there's a frightened man breaking out.
Oh I was just looking for paradise
anywhere in this world
While they're gunning for heaven--
from this man made hell!

I doubt I'll stick with the exact circumstances of the sections (prom?!) for the story, but I'll definitely keep the order of songs and see what happens. If it seems to be going well and worth sharing, I'll post fragments here.