another meme from blue_j

Random song title meme:
Put your mp3 player on shuffle. Answer the following questions with your song titles no matter how silly the answers become.

following blue_j, In my answers below, hilarious results have been bolded for awsomeness.

( Read more... )

also, Barenaked Ladies are geniuses of word play sometimes.

First verse of "This is Where it Ends"

"I don't buy everything I read,
I haven't even read everything I've bought.
I don't cry every time I bleed,
My eyes are dry, but they're bloodshot.
I have faith in medication
I believe in the Prozac Nation
You play doctor, but I've lost patience"

Check out the polyptotons on those first two couplets. Also, the final line is brilliant. Of course, this all pales next to their "Off the Hook", but I already knew that.

on the bus ride over to SJ today, my iPod played one of my more patriotic songs, "At Home with the Exiles". I'm going to post the lyrics to that, and the other particularly patriotic song i have that comes to mind, "Jefferson and Liberty".

But the lyrics to "Exiles" isn't anywhere online, and I haven't looked very hard, but I haven't found Fish's version of "J&L" yet. So I'll be transcribing them later.

At Home with the Exiles
(lyrics: Ed Miller)
( lyrics )

Jefferson and Liberty
(lyrics: Leslie Fish, after trad. attributed to Alexander Wilson)
( lyrics )

xkcd confused me today. I recognized the references of the individual panels, and, after a second, that there was rhyme and meter, but I was clearly missing something.

This is the missing piece of information.

A year ago, I said I was going to explain the connection between Kermit the Frog and paladins. And I did, to a few people, but I never wrote it down.

Henson and Kermit are mythic figures in our culture. I had no special attachment to Kermit because my memory isn't good enough to remember my childhood reactions to the muppets. But Jim Henson, of course, is a great hero of the age. So when I heard of the filk song, "A Boy and His Frog", I went out and found it. It's a great song. You can find an mp3 at Tom Smith Online if you've never heard it. I also have the lyrics reproduced here, for convenience

( Lyrics )

Listening to it, last year, I was struck by the unique mythic relationship between Henson and Kermit that the song expresses.

It resembles a parental relationship in some ways, as explicitly referenced in the last verse. Henson created Kermit, molded his personality, and guided his steps. Kermit's loss, when Henson died, could be compared to the loss of a young orphan: bereft of the core of his family and his caretaker, his world is shaken and suddenly loses its solid base, and he must rely on others to keep him alive. But it differs greatly from a parental relationship in other ways. A child is supposed to outlive his parent. Kermit's loss is also a bit like the loss of a child by the parent: a loss of hope and future.

Is there a better model for the relationship and what it means for Kermit to lose Henson? In addition to the parental relationship, there is a working relationship. They were a team, working together in the closest of coordination, in the service of a greater good. The loss of a partner is a great blow, especially when great works remain to be done, and you're not sure you can see it through on your own.

But they weren't exactlty partners, were they? More like halves of the same person. Another persona, through which to express more personality than you can singly, and do more work. A little like the Little Admiral. But if the loss of the Little Admiral nearly broke Miles, the loss of Miles would have merely slain the Little Admiral, not left him a sundered ghost.

I'm mixing my Bujold settings there, "sundered ghost". That's terminology from the Chalion books. A ghost has died, and so is cut off from the sustaining link to his god. But he neither been taken back to his god. So he drifts, and forgets, and slowly fades.

In some ways, that's an appropriate analogy. Henson is Kermit's god. His creator, his link to the vital force. But it doesn't capture everything. Kermit still lives, he isn't a ghost. And he works more closely with and for his god than most. He serves his god as a trusted right hand, channels the energy of his god in the service of the greater good, is the wondrous emissary of his god. In short, Kermit is a Paladin of Henson.

A Paladin. Whose god is dead.

But a paladin never gives up the cause, not even when his world crumbles.

via Making Light comments*:
Ricahrd Thompson (of Fairport Convention fame)'s Hots for the Smarts**
(lyrics)

As the linker said, he sings it so... slyly. It's great.


*the thread is worth reading, it is largely devoted to geeky-sexiness, with xkcd links, poems, etc.: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009302.html

**In his non-rhoticity, this more or less rhymes.

link via sahiya

An interview with Bujold by writer Karen Miller, posted in three parts:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Bujold seems a little time-rushed and reluctant to give writing advice, which combine to make her seem distinctly unhelpful/abrupt at times in the the interview. But she has a nice long ramble at the end. The interview contains a couple of the stories I heard at the signing, it was nice to have some print versions of those.

some highlights:

*Bujold looking back and seeing in the production of the marriage cord in Beguilement: " 'One spins the thread, one measures it, and one cuts it off.' " Ah. Oh."

To which I reply, "Ah. Oh."

*"an old Steeleye Span song, “King Henry and the Grisley Ghost”, updated to SFnal terms, once supplied a character and entire subplot for a novella."

People may have noticed me occasionally responding to "more X" by misquoting a line from said song: "more meat, more meat, you King Henry, more meat you bring to me". which character and subplot is immediately obvious. Hi Taura! (lyrics)

*"More than in any other book I’ve ever written, its landscapes are important to The Sharing Knife.
...
Because with TSK, I’m mining down to some of the deepest layers of my own experience: the farms, woods, lakes, rivers, animals, plants, insects, people, and weather of my Ohio childhood."

I was noticing that, the ecology is distinctly American.

*Bujold goes on with, "And the world of The Sharing Knife is a deliberately American landscape, not only physically but socially: no kings, no lords, no gods, no state religion, bottom-up rather than top-down political structures, all very much under local control."

*Bujold was older than I currently am before starting she started writing seriously. This is... encouraging.


And to briefly quote Miller from the intro and afterword to the conclusion:

"For me, the single driving note of fabulousness about Lois' work is her characterisation. It's ... unparalleled. And she's no mean hand with a turn of phrase either. Lois is fearless when it comes to her characters' journeys. She has the ability to write funny, write sad, write ludicrous, write tragic. She writes people you desperately, desperately want to meet. She writes bone-aching humanity, with a profound understanding of the human heart.

There's a reason she's a multi-award winning writer. She is, quite simply, one of the best spec fic has to offer."

"Isn't she amazing? If you're not already a fan of this fabulous woman's work, then run, do not walk, to your nearest bookshop and start reading! You'll never be the same again, I swear ..."

Just to prove that we're not alone in our raving, Bujold-pushing madness. She's just that good.

And one more insight: I'm reading Beguilement aloud to Sarah right now, and the other day we were reading the part where Dag starts his campaign to... beguile... Fawn's family. He gets very persuasive/manipulative. Sarah said, "if [Bujold]'s not careful, he's going to start channeling Miles" (Bujold is on th record complaining of Ingrey starting to channel Miles and large parts of Hallowed Hunt having to be re-written).

We talked about it a little and concluded, no, Dag isn't channeling Miles. He's actually much more similar to Aral, when he starts getting manipulative: quieter, more calculating, with pinpoint precision (sniper persuasion, as opposed to Miles's machine gun fire)

ETA: Bujold apparently has a myspace blog. I need to syndicate that into my LJ.

ETA2: someone has already set up the syndication: it's at lmb_myspace if anyone else wants it.

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the Colors high.
Heave ho,
thieves and beggars,
never shall we die.

The king and his men
stole the queen from her bed
and bound her in her Bones.
The seas be ours,
and by the powers
where we will we'll roam.

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the Colors high.
Heave ho,
thieves and beggars,
never say we die.

Some men have died,
and some are alive,
and others sail on the sea
– with the keys to the cage...
and the Devil to pay
we lay to Fiddler's Green!

The bell has been raised
from it's watery grave...
do you hear it's sepulchral tone?
We are a call to all,
pay head the squall
and turn your sail toward home!

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the Colors high...
Heave ho,
thieves and beggars,
never say we die.

contracted from hedgerose

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first lines from the first 15 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike out the songs when someone guesses correctly.
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is not part of the game, if you do, don't post the answer.

[quote]I'm only counting songs with words that I can reliably reproduce (most of the songs are in English, one is in Scots)[/quote] Also applies in this case.

Oh, a lot of these lyrics have been sung by more than one person, in which case titles will be considered acceptable answers (but you can still guess the artist).


1. The Careful text books measure/ (let all who build beware!)/ The load, the shock, the pressure/ material can bear "Hymn to the Breaking Strain" guessed by banjomensch (in this case not actually performed by Leslie Fish, but by a close musical relative)

2. And it's weigh-hey, where the Red Queen reigns/ from her throne upon the sea/ with the hot rum running in our veins

3. It makes you blind, it does you in/ It makes you think you're pretty tough/ It makes you prone to crime and sin/ it makes you say things off the cuff "love is like a bottle of gin (or whatever the title is)", Magnetic Fields guessed by architeuthisdux

4. "Oh, where are you going," said Milder to Mulder/ "Oh, we may not tell you," said Fessel to Foe/ "We're going into the woods," said John the Red Nose "The Cutty Wren" guessed by ceolrince (no performer guessed yet, and I don't expect anyone to guess the performer since its a pretty traditional one)

5. Winter winds, they do blow cold/ the time of year, it is chosen/ now the frost and fire/ and now the sea is frozen

6. Mirk and rainy is the nicht/ There's no a star in au the carry/ Lightnings gleam athwart the list/ And the winds drive on wi' winter's fury "Are Ye Sleepin', Maggie?" guessed by ceolrince, Dougie Maclean, artist guessed by quxx

7. I am Cowboy Kim/ Cowboy Kim I am/ I am a lucky cowboy/ Let me tell you why/ I'm a man with a mission/ A boy with a gun "Big Mess", Devo guessed by architeuthisdux

8. Sometimes I can't move my feet it seems/ As if I'm stuck in the ground somehow like a tree/ As if I can't even breathe

9. One by one I cast my stones to the ocean/ every one a chart of memory/ I have borne my trials with honor and duty

10. As we travel through this world/ lots of changes come our way/ but I know you'll always be my girl/ and I'll be yours forever and a day

11. I'm a human head and my best friend is also a head/ I don't really need my best friend/ Now my friend is gone and I'm only a head by myself "I'm a Human Head", They Might be Giants guessed by quxx

12. Well I'd like to visit the moon/ On a rocket ship high in the air/ Yes, I'd like to visit the Moon/ but I don't think I'd like to live there "I'd like to visit the moon" guessed by banjomensch by Ernie, performer corrected by animate_mush

13. I met Ferdinand de Saussure/ on a night like this/ On love he said, "I'm not so sure/ I even know what it is" "The Death of Ferdinand de Saussure", Magnetic Fields gussed by quxx

14. Look straight in the window, Try not to look below/ Pretend I'm not up here, I try counting sheep/ The sheep seem to shower off this office tower by Barenaked Ladies, performer guessed by quxx

15. Oh, I was born in the shadow of a fairfield crane/ and the blast from a freighter's horn/ was the very first sound that I e'er did hear "The Shipyard Apprentice", Ed Miller guessed by quxx