Top Five + Mix Tape: Fight Song Blog Tour Edition

I know, I usually write these posts over at Insatiable Booksluts, but Joshua Mohr’s new novel, Fight Song, comes out tomorrow so I thought I’d do one for this blog tour.  In Fight Song, we find that what could have been another mid-life crisis couched as fiction, is instead a hilariously magical window into a few days in the life of middle-aged video game programmer, Bob Coffen.  It’s fun and sweet and gross and awesome.  I highly recommend it.

Mix Tape

Handing the reins over to Joshua for a bit, here’s what he has to say about the role music plays on his writing:

Music is an important part of my writing process.  I’m always listening to loud rock and roll as I scribble.  Each novel has its own personalty and thus requires its own soundtrack.  Here are a some songs I compulsively listened to during the drafting process for Fight Song, as I got to know my characters and their passions/preoccupations:

1. I’m Designer  - Queens of the Stone Age
2. I’m Shakin’  - Jack White
3. Hip Like Junk - 7 Year Bitch
4. You Must Be Upgraded - The Flaming Lips
5. Date with the Night - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
6. Life is Simple in the Moonlight - The Strokes
7. Girls  - Iggy Pop
8. Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I Moved Your Chair - Arctic Monkeys

~0~

I’ve put together the above songs – as well as a few that I thought of while reading Fight Song – as a playlist.  You can find it by clicking here.

Top Five

I’ve been trying to decide what theme I’d use for this book since I finished it, but then it came to me and was so obvious.  SONGS ABOUT FIGHTING, DUR!  Which is what I’ve done here.  They may not be the most aggressive tunes in the world, but they’ will totally work for this book.  Totally.

Top Five Songs About Fighting/Fights

1. Elmer – Let’s Get in a Fistfight  (This one is silly and violent.  It makes me laugh a lot.)

2. Verbal Abuse – Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting) (shut up, I love this cover so much)

3. Primus – Fisticuffs  (Eff.  Yes.)

4. Link Wray – Rumble (You probably know this from Pulp Fiction, if nothing else.)

5. Survivor – Eye of the Tiger (What?  I DARE YOU to tell me I’m wrong.)

~o~

Not sure if this will be your thing?  Take a look at the following infomercial (which plays into some things in the book that I don’t want to spoil for you) and visit the rest of the tour stops.  You can find links to all of the participants over at TNBBC.

It Had to be Done Some Time

Everyone has (at some point) been asked the “You’re stuck on a deserted island, you only have [insert number here] books/albums/whatever the hell else FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, what do you pick?” question posted to them.

I’ve probably spent more time thinking about this than the average person, because that’s the way my brain works.  I can’t answer the book question, because my FAVOURITE books aren’t necessarily the books I’d choose.  If I were talking about books, I’d have to take into consideration compendiums and whatnot, and that’s just more work than I’m willing to put in at the moment.

So, today, I’m going to talk about the five ALBUMS I’d take with me – were I lucky enough to be stranded with an iPod (that only holds five albums, WTS?) and a way to keep it charged until I died of scurvy or some shit.  These are albums that I can (and have) listen/ed to over and over and will never ever grow tired of.

sj’s Deserted Island Top Five

(in chronological order)

1.  The Beatles – Rubber Soul
Yeah, maybe it’s a total cliché to choose The Beatles, but IDGaF.  This album has been one of my favourites for almost as long as I can remember.  I’m ignoring the fact that my “class song” when I graduated from high school was In My Life (because, ZOMG there was some terrible singing at graduation, no joke) and just thinking about how a few of my happy childhood memories stem from listening to this album with my Nan (who was a huge fan of both The Beatles and CCR) and the two of us singing Drive My Car whenever we were out together.

2.  Pixies – Surfer Rosa

One could argue that this is my favourite album by my favourite band, so it should be my favourite album of all-time, right?  Eh, possibly.  It’s up there, as should be evident by its place on this list.  My main concern about having this on here is that my FAVOURITE FAVOURITE versions of a lot of these songs are off of bootlegs from the 80s (oops), so I don’t know how long I’d go without wishing that I had some of those available to me.  I know I’d be saying “Oh, but I really just want to listen to that version of Break My Body from Boston in ’87!” before too much time had passed, but here’s the thing – my very favourite song of all time is on this album, so it has to be on the list.  I had considered not telling you what my favourite song is, but I know no one would guess.  This is my all-time favourite song, ever.  So, there you go.

3.  Beastie Boys – Paul’s Boutique

OH, THE ARGUMENTS!  No, srsly, I’ve had so many FIGHTS about whether Paul’s Boutique is superior to Check Your Head (hint: it totally is) and friendships have been close to ENDING because CERTAIN PEOPLE refuse to recognize the genius of what is obviously the greatest hip hop record ever recorded.  No.  Shut up.  I’m totally for realsies here.  FFS, Sounds of Science is better than almost any song ever released, I don’t understand how people can still want to argue this point or fail to recognize the genius of this album.  Bonus, go listen to Shadrach (or, if you can find it – get a copy of An Exciting Evening at Home with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego…you’re lucky, I’m not taking EPs with me on my island adventure or I’d be taking that one too, just for Your Sister’s Def [DRE!]) and try to argue with me.  You still don’t believe me?  I hate you.

4.  Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs

Okay, I admit it.  I feel like kind of a snapebalrog including this one because TECHNICALLY it’s THREE albums and not just one.  BUT, you really have to have all three albums together, or the title doesn’t make any snaping sense.  No, seriously – if you only have ONE, it would be 23 love songs and that’s just stupid. This album breaks my heart into tiny pieces with Reno Dakota, then puts it back together with The Sun Goes Down and the World Goes Dancing.  I giggle to The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side, and sob my face off to All My Little Words.  This is an album that just gets better and more fraught with personal meaning every time I listen to it.

5.  Explosions in the Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

This album is still fairly new, but I’ve already listened to it (repeatedly) more than a lot of the other stuff in my personal library, and it’s actually the album that inspired this post tonight.  I was listening to Postcard from 1952 on repeat, and said to myself “I will never ever get tired of this song.”  It’s true.  According to iTunes, I’ve listened to this song over 100 times since the album came out less than 2 years ago, and I’m still not anywhere close to being sick of it.  Don’t let my adoration for this one song cause you to think the entire album is less than stellar, though.  It’s all amazing.  Even more amazing?  This video, and seeing them perform the album live (even though I’ve never been to Belgium).  It’s gorgeous.  No, really.  Put this on and close your eyes, and spend an hour and twenty minutes being swept away by the music.  [happy sigh]

There are runners up, but these are my definitive list, as of the fifth of February, 2013.  What’s on yours?

Sidenote:  Thank you to everyone who commented on Sunday’s post.  Your kind words mean the world to me.  I was going to reply to each comment, but it was too difficult.  Thank you for understanding.  <3

Moving Mix iPod Shuffle

No intro because I’m too tired and lazy. Shuffled up selections from my giant moving mix.

1. The Clumsy Lovers – Centerfold (not on YouTube, but this is the exact version of this song I have!)
   
2. Neko Case and Nick Cave – She’s Not There
   
   
3. Rilo Kiley – The Moneymaker
   
4. The Impossibles – So Much
   
5. Doug E Fresh – The Show
   
   

And, um…that’s it because I’m going to bed.

Wish us luck!

[eta: I forgot to post this last night, that's how tired I was. Oops.]

‘First of all, I liked to lie a lot.’

I’m going to assume that if you’re a woman currently between the ages of about 31-45 you’ve seen the 1990 Cher/Winona Ryder film Mermaids.  If you haven’t – WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?  GO RENT THAT ISH RIGHT THIS SECOND!

[ahem]

What I mean to say is that this movie was amazing.  Well, maybe not amazing, but it was amazing at the time.  It had very little to do with Cher, and instead focused on her young daughter, played by Winona Ryder before she started shoplifting and having songs written about her personal hygiene.

A lot of people who’ve seen (and loved) the movie had no idea that it was a book first.  I had no idea that it was a book first until my fourth or fifth re-watch when I saw the tiny little script saying that it was based on the book of the same name by Patty Dunn.

I decided then that I had to read this book.

So, um…fast forward about 20 years and I finally found a copy (thank you Open Library!).

It’s a super short book, not even 200 pages.  If you’ve seen the movie, I Double Dog Dare you not to read the entire book as if it’s being narrated by Ms Veronica ‘Heather would never use the word myriad’ herself, Winona Ryder.

I know that I did.

And that’s the problem, I think, with reading a book that’s based on a movie you already love.  It’s difficult (if not impossible) to separate the two.

I wonder if this is the same problem people have with LotR after watching PJ’s bastardizations adaptations?

REGARDLESS, I still found myself able to enjoy the book on its own, even if I was singing Jimmy Soul to myself the entire time.

This is very much a coming-of-age story (even if I loathe that term from the very core of my being), but you’ll find yourself empathizing with Charlotte and wishing that Mrs Flax would JUST GET HER SHIT TOGETHER ALREADY.  It’s totally worth the few hours you’ll spend on it.

Promise.

Go find yourself a copy of this book (but not from the link up there, cos I want Heather D to get it next), and listen to the thing I’m going to link to below.

I just found this today, and it makes me so happy (plus, CHER, SO IT ALL TIES IN TOGETHER!  Sometimes, I swear I’m the most awesome).

You’ve seen this movie, right?  If not, you’re planning on reading the book, then watching it, right?  RIGHT?!

Everybody Else is Doing It

…and with that title, I’ve ensured that I will be walking around singing The Cranberries for the REST OF THE YEAR.  So, um…thanks for that, self.  <.<

It’s the last day of 2012 and it is A MONDAY.  This seems appropriate in some way that I can’t quite completely grasp.  I’m still working on my first cup of coffee, so bear with me.

I’m including the Year End Fireworks Celebration that WordPress put together at the end, but that’s not even close to being all I want to talk about today.

[sips coffee]

See, Heather? I DO SO wear clothes. Jeez.

I have this strange personality quirk (or maybe everyone is like this, I don’t really know) where I find it incredibly easy to be optimistic for the people I consider to be my friends, but when it comes to myself, I’m the most pessimistic sturm und drang-er there ever was.  I have no problem talking everyone else into believing that no matter how terrible this year was, the next is sure to be better.  But for myself, I’m unable to see any possibility of a silver lining.  I’m going to work on that in 2013.

Because…when I really think about it, 2008-2009 were bags of shit, but each year since then has been progressively a tiny bit better.  This leads me to believe that the trend will continue.  I am (tentatively) hopeful that with this move and everything that’s coming up, 2013 will manage to be slightly better than 2012, which was just a bit better than 2011 and so on.

See?  Hope.  That’s kind of new.

Moving on.

In 2012, goodreads tells me that I read 167 books.  I’d originally set the challenge up for 75 (because I don’t like pressure), but Megiggles made me change it to 100 in February because I wasn’t “challenging [my]self enough.”  Then, in May I upped it again to 125 because I realized I was going to blow past 100 way before the end of the year.  I’d considered upping it again to 150, but I like that it says I’m at 134% of my goal.

There were also comics and stuff that I read that aren’t in the gr database, but still.  Even if I didn’t manage the 300+ books of some people I’ve seen on goodreads, I’m averaging a book every two days, which is pretty darn respectable.  This is the first time I’ve actively tracked how much I read in a year, so we’ll see what happens next.  Tune in tomorrow to see my reading plans for the year.

Moving on even further, looking at my stats for the year, I’ve realized that no one really reads book reviews.  Maybe this is different for people that ONLY post book reviews, but my straight review stats are down in the dumpster on the detention level, whereas bookish thought posts tend to do much better.

I’ll be posting fewer straight reviews, since I was never very good at them anyway.  I haven’t got the wherewithal or the patience to post book blurbs and publishing information.  Also, I don’t really care about that stuff, so…yeah.

2012 was the year I was Freshly Pressed for a post I almost didn’t even write because it’s not the sort of thing I generally talk about.  I guess that’ll learn me, huh?  Also, I am SO DISAPPOINT IN ALL OF YOU that not ONE PERSON got where the title of that post came from.  NOT ONE PERSON!  This is very distressing.

So, even though that was my most viewed post for the year, it’s not one of those that I was particularly proud of.  The posts I was proud of?

• My Philip K Dick flow chart
• My recaps of The Silmarillion
• My post about my grandfather
• My ranty post about “stealthy” members of fandom
• My open letter to the US
• All of my posts so far over at Insatiable Booksluts

Those may not have been my most viewed posts (really, not even close), but they’re the things I think are the most ME.  If you’re just starting here, you can get an idea of what I’m about by reading those.  I usually hate everything that comes out of my mouth, er…flows from my fingertips, but that is the stuff I’m really happy I wrote.

…and now I think I’m done.  I don’t want to talk about 2012 anymore, I just want it to be over.

Here, if you’re interested, you can have a look at what WordPress thinks are the highlights of my year, but just know that I DISAGREE.

Oh, and in typical me-fashion, my blog is procrastinating right up until the last minute.  If I can manage 80 more views today, December will be my best blogging month ever.

I’m not going to worry about all that right now, though – I’m going to go watch NumberLand for the eleventy billionth time with Baby Girl.  Have a safe and happy New Year, my friends.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 50,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 12 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.