The Mumpsimus

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 a...

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 ...

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...

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 t...