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Y? Because We Like You…


Apr
28.12

Posted in A to Z Challenge, Music | No Comments »

Well, here we are.  The Penultimate Entry in the 2012 A to Z Challenge.  I’m a little surprised I made it this far this year.  Surprised, but happy.

I was writing this big whole long rambling thing that didn’t really make any sense (which could be true for this entire blog, huh?) so I decided to eighty-six it and post some Y music instead.  Enjoy your weekend, everyone, and I’ll see y’all on Monday for the final installment of the challenge.

Ani DiFranco- You Had Time (from the album “Out of Range”)

Weird Al Yankovic- White And Nerdy (from the album “Straight Outta Lynwood”)


And because I couldn’t decide between the two…
Weird Al Yankovic- Don’t Download This Song (from the album “Straight Outta Lynwood”)

Yeahs Yeahs Yeahs- Shame And  Fortune (from the album “It’s Blitz!”)

And last, but certainly not least, here’s one in honor of The Man:

Rush- YYZ (from the album “Exit… Stage Left”)

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Whedon


Apr
26.12

Posted in A to Z Challenge, I Love Joss, Movies, Music, Television | No Comments »

You may picked up on this by now but I am completely slightly— very, very slightly— obsessed with Joss Whedon.  I wrote about him on W day last year too and about a million times since.  Well, all right, not a million in the strictest sense of the word but a lot.  I wrote about him a lot.  I write about him a lot.

But only because he’s awesome.

A lot of this is going to sound exactly what I wrote last year but I can’t help it.  I love what this man does with story.  I love how in a single 42 minute episode of something, he can make you laugh and then pull the rug out from under you and make you sob.  I love that his writing is fearless and even though you might hate him for it, he’ll kill not only his darlings but yours as well (RIP, Wash…).  I love that he’s written so many kick ass female characters.  I love that he wrote a musical episode of Buffy.  I love that he wrote a near silent episode of Buffy (for which he  won an Emmy).  I love that the Buffy season five episode, The Body, makes me cry every damn time I watch it.  I love that he created freaking Firefly, for crying out loud.  And I love that during the writers’ strike, he created Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (available for instant viewing on Netflix…).  And then for the DVD release of Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, he wrote a musical commentary to go along with it.  How freaking awesome is that?

I went to see The Cabin in the Woods opening weekend because of Joss’s involvement and I hate horror movies.  Granted, I spent a fair amount of time with my eyes closed and my hands covering my face but I still appreciated the hell out of the writing.  I’m planning to see The Avengers (along with the rest of the world) come May 4th because Joss Whedon directed it (and also because Chris Hemsworth is kinda hot).

Joss Is Boss.  And if you looked at my Facebook profile, you’d see that my religion is listed as W.W.J.W.D?

Here are some of my favorite Joss quotes:

“Always remember to be yourself. Unless you suck.”

“Humor keeps us alive. Humor and food. Don’t forget food. You can go a week without laughing.”

“Write it. Shoot it. Publish it. Crochet it, sauté it, whatever. MAKE.”

“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of. ”

To leave you with today, I’m going to post a couple of videos.  The first is an excerpt from the aforementioned Commentary! The Musical from the Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog commentary track. It’s Joss’s song, “Heart, Broken”:

And finally, I’m going to share this gem I stumbled across on YouTube. It’s a parody of the Ballad of Jayne (The Hero of Canton) done by The Bedlam Bards, a group who perhaps worships Joss Whedon and the Firefly universe even more than I do. They have a couple of Firefly inspired albums out. The first is called “On the Drift” and the other “Firefly Drinking Songs.”  The video below is the first selection on the “On The Drift” album.

Enjoy…

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Leapin’ Lizards!


Apr
13.12

Posted in A to Z Challenge, Music, Television | No Comments »

It’s time for another hodgepodge post on My Pet Blog.  Today’s post is brought to you by the letter L and will have absolutely nothing to do with lizards, leaping or otherwise.  I just love alliteration.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Logan Echolls

Show:  Veronica Mars

Portrayed by: Jason Dohring

So, yesterday I was having one of those confidence free days where I didn’t know why I was bothering to write a book at all (I think we call it “Thursday”) so I decided to knock off early and partake in a Veronica Mars marathon.  If you’re unfamiliar with this show, I highly recommend it but be sure to tune in on April 25th when this special, completely awesome show gets its first very own post.  Anyway, I’m digressing.  Partway through the pilot episode, I decided I had to make mention of one of my very favorite characters ever, Logan Echolls.  When we first meet him, Veronica says, “every school has an obligatory psychotic jackass— he’s ours.”  And he certainly starts out that way but through the three too short seasons of the show, he evolves into quite an interesting, complicated character.

Best lines:  “Annoy tiny blond one.  Annoy like the wind.” (Season One, Echolls Family Christmas)

and

“My day is complete. Veronica Mars has accused me of evil doing.” (Season Two, Green Eyed Monster)

Lorelai Gilmore

Show:  Gilmore Girls

Portrayed by: Lauren Graham

Lorelai Gilmore is quite possibly the coolest mom in television history.  I love writing dialogue and I love a show that has well written dialogue.  And this is one such show (all right, so the last two seasons weren’t all that great. But there were still occasionally funny moments).  One of the taglines for this show was “Life’s short. Talk fast” and no one embodied this philosophy more than Lorelai.  It was probably that coffee addiction.  But whatever it was, she was always ready with a clever quip which makes it so much harder to pick favorite lines for her.  Really, you could pick any episode and there would be some awesome Lorelai moment.  So I’m just going to post this video of one of my favorite conversations between Lorelai and her daughter, Rory. The video’s about three minutes long. It’s not the one I wanted to post because the shorter version had the embedding disabled. Uncool, YouTube people. Uncool.

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I, I, I


Apr
10.12

Posted in A to Z Challenge, Blogfests, Books, Music | No Comments »

Yeah.  That title’s my very clever way of saying I don’t have a very clever title.  I don’t even have a very clever post.  In my A to Z Challenge calendar (yes, I created an actual calendar for the event. My one stab at planning ahead), “I” is a big ole blank.  So is the end of the alphabet but that’s a problem for another time.

I have a post so I suppose that’s something.  I actually had to look at last year’s post because I couldn’t remember what I came up with (It was Influential Authors).

Here’s what I came up with ten minutes ago this year:

Isabel Spellman

Isabel Spellman is the main character of a series written by Lisa Lutz.  Isabel is a PI in her parents’ private investigation firm.  She’s been living the PI life ever since she was born so it’s pretty much all she knows.  She’s smart as well as a smart ass and occasionally screws things up big time.  She has no luck with members of the opposite sex, sometimes drinks too much and prefers climbing through windows rather than using the front door.  Her family makes even the most dysfunctional families seem much more normal and I can’t get enough of these books.  There are five books in the series so far.  The picture on the right is the fourth book in the series.  I picked it because it’s my favorite of all five.  There’s hilarity, there’s sadness, there’s some absolutely just moving moments, plus one moment that made me hoot and holler and jump up and down with excitement.  The one drawback is that Isabel still refuses to reveal the name of the San Fran bakery that makes the awesome chocolate croissants.  Uncool.  But what is cool is that I never would have known about the awesomeness of Isabel (well, maybe not never) if a group of my fellow bloggers hadn’t  brought her to my attention.  Thanks!

Iron And Wine

I’m afraid that  Iron and Wine (aka Samuel Beam) might be best known for having a song (“Flightless Bird, American Mouth”) on the Twilight movie soundtrack.  It’s the song that Bella and Edward dance to at the prom.  The song makes another appearance in Breaking Dawn, Part One (at the wedding).  I don’t know if that’s true or not.  I hope it isn’t because this singer/songwriter is rather amazing.  I mean, not that is isn’t good that he got this exposure.  Maybe Twilight netted him a whole bunch of new fans who went out and bought every single album he’s produced.  I hope that’s true.  Anyway, I’m rambling so here’s one of my favorites, Woman King (from the album of the same name):

Indifference

This song by Pearl Jam appears on the album Vs..  It’s long been one of my favorites and another one of those songs that appears on the official unofficial soundtracks I create for my books.

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Horribly Happy Hodgepodge


Apr
09.12

Posted in A to Z Challenge, Blogfests, I Love Joss, Music, Television | 2 Comments »

Good morning, world, and welcome back to the A to Z Challenge as it moves into its second week.  I hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend and that no one’s sugar hangover is too terribly great.  I had a surprisingly lack of sugar intake going on yesterday so I am more than ready to share with you another list of my favorite H things.

Here we go…

Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog

Yep.  I wrote about it last year and I even mentioned it last week when I talked about Captain Hammer.  And chances are it’ll come up again on Wednesday when I talk about the person I am most likely to one day stalk (unless there are like, law enforcement type people reading this. Then I won’t stalk anyone. Ever. Promise.).

Dr. Horrible, played by the impossibly adorable Neil Patrick Harris, is just a evil genius trying to take over the world.  “The world’s a mess,” he says, “and I just need to rule it.”  He also would like to gain the affection of his laundry buddy (that’s right. The evil genius has to go the laundromat), Penny, a do-gooder who’s just trying to help the homeless.  Standing in his way of achieving both these goals is Captain Hammer, Corporate Tool.  I talked about him last Thursday.  The humor is fantastic and the songs are super.  And I really wish there was Dr. Horrible to be had.

Because the bottom line is, Dr. Horrible makes me incredibly happy.  Whenever I’m having a crappy day, all I have to do is pop in my DVD and voila! My mood has been presto changed-o into something far more cheery.  I even downloaded a copy from iTunes to put on my iPod so I could watch it at The Store.  I’m pretty sure most of the staff can now sing along with Dr. Horrible.  All I can say to that is… co-workers, you’re welcome.

Happy Endings

I was introduced to this sitcom found on ABC last year by my brother and sister-in-law.  It didn’t take long for me to fall head over heels in love with it.  I find it to be so damn funny.  Sure, not every joke lands but that holds true for every sitcom out there.  I have a habit of scribbling down lines that makes me laugh in my notebook and lately most of those scribbles are courtesy of the Happy Endings writing team.

And the best part is, it’s one of those rare shows that both The Man and I enjoy so it’s something we can watch together.  Awww, sweet, right?  Right.

Next up…

Halestorm

Halestorm is a rock band out of Pennsylvania.  Again, I was introduced to them by my brother and sister-in-law who apparently know exactly what I will like.  They saw this band in concert a while back and heard the song below.  My sister-in-law looked at my brother then and said, “we have to get this CD for M.J.”   So thanks for that because I do love this song… and the entire album for that matter.

Heavy In Your Arms

Last but not least is this song by Florence + The Machine.  The first time I heard, I feel deeply in love with and it remains to this day at the very top of my favorite songs of all time list.  This is a hard feat because I am forever searching out new music and no song has held on to the #1 spot as long as this one has.  I think probably because it’s such a perfect song for the love stories in my book.  Spoiler Alert: I don’t do happy endings. Often.

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Addlepated Animaniacs


Apr
01.12

Posted in A to Z Challenge, Fun And Games, Music | No Comments »

It’s April 1st so you know what that means.  It means the internet will be filled with more than lies than usual.  It also means that more than 1600 people are now embarking on the wondrous adventure known as the A to Z Challenge (if you’re not already signed up, there’s still time to commit!  Just click on the link…).  I’ve just barely been online this morning and I’ve already seen a lot of great topics.  It makes my theme (‘Totally Winging It’ ‘My Favorite Things’) seem rather silly…

Anyway, here are some of my favorite A things:


Animaniacs

This cartoon which ran in the mid nineties was one of my favorites even though I was old enough to not be into cartoons anymore.  By the way, I’m never going to be that old (Phineas And Ferb is my current favorite cartoon).  Yakko, Wakko and Dot, Pinky and the Brain (Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Pinky?)— anyone remember that one episode they did in French with a Les Miserables tribute?  Classic!  And then there were the Good Idea/ Bad Idea segments.  And Mime Time.  And the Wheel of Morality bits at the end.  Oh boy, I loved this show.  I suddenly feel the need to watch it all over again.  Here’s a clip of one of the show’s awesome songs (and yes, I do own the show’s soundtrack):

Since we’re on a music kick now and I don’t want my posts to get too long, let me talk about one last thing…

Addlepated

Addlepated is my friend Mike’s music project.  Last year he released an album he wrote, performed, recorded, mixed, produced and whatever else one does to an album before its released as part of the RPM challenge (NaNoWriMo for musicians).  This past February, he did it again.  The final product, Leader of Men, was released on March 27th.  It’s available for download (for free, or name your price) on the Bandcamp site.  If you have some free time at some point, please go check it out.  And if you’ve never been to Bandcamp, you should definitely check it out.  It does a lot of great things for indie musicians.

That’s going to do it for me today…See y’all tomorrow and thanks for stopping by.


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WIP: The Movie


Mar
09.12

Posted in Blogfests, Music, Writing | No Comments »

This might be my last post for a bit as I have some sure to be fun shifts at The Store coming up (that new spring line apparently won’t put itself out) next week so if I am to leave you (however briefly), I’m glad to do so with something as fun as this particular blogfest hosted by Kyra Lennon at Write Here, Write Now and Rachel Schieffelbien at Writing On The Wall.


The purpose behind this blogfest is to indulge every writer’s fantasy: what our beloved stories would look like on the big screen.  Participants have been asked to cast the movie as well as build a soundtrack.  The second part of this is easy as I have built several soundtracks for my WIP, Effigy.  The first part, however, was surprisingly difficult.  In the interest of time, I have only cast the two main characters.  For a more complete list, you can click HERE.

The role of Haleine Coileáin, the story’s central character, I’d probably award to Jennifer Lawrence (yes, she of “The Hunger Games” fame).  Or Rose Leslie (you may have seen her on Downton Abbey and rumor has it, you’ll soon see her on Game of Thrones).  But honestly, I don’t know.  Here are their pictures:

Jennifer Lawrence

Rose Leslie

The role of Haleine’s love interest, Dana (no last name), is currently going to Joseph Morgan of The Vampire Diaries fame because I have a wild crush on him and his voice is really, really sexy.  Don’t judge me.

Joseph Morgan

So let’s move on to the soundtrack, shall we?  As I said earlier, I’ve created several soundtracks for this book.  When I stumble across new songs I like better, or the story evolves as I take a freaking lifetime to write the damn thing, some songs go, some songs stay.  Again, in the interest of time, I’m only going to post two songs.  If you’re interested in seeing the complete (and current) soundtrack, click HERE.  Just be forewarned that there are spoilers on that page.  Some people don’t care about things like that but others do.  So, please, consider yourselves warned.

This first song made the very first soundtrack and has pretty much been the only song to survive all these long years.  It’s Sarah McLachlan’s Do What You Have To Do:

The second song I’m going to post has really come to define Haleine.  It’s been on the soundtrack almost as long as the first song. It’s Natalie Merchant’s My Skin:

Well, that’s going to do it for me today. Thanks for stopping by and thank you to Kyra and Rachel for hosting this blogfest. I’m looking forward to hopping around to see what everyone else has going on.

Have a great weekend, everyone. I’ll see you soon.

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Fight or Flight


Feb
29.12

Posted in Music, Writing | No Comments »

It’s the end of February which means there’s likely a bunch of musicians scrambling to to put the final touches on their 35 minute albums.  If you have no idea what I’m talking about right now, welcome to The Man’s life… But seriously, February is the RPM Challenge (think NaNoWriMo but for musicians.  Read about it HERE) month and today it ends.  The last I knew, my friend Mike was well on his way to completing said challenge.  This includes the song “Fight or Flight”, a song for which I wrote the lyrics.  I haven’t heard this song yet.  This time last year I’d listened to multiple takes of Maelstrom but I haven’t heard one note’s worth this year.

Don’t know what’s up with that, Mike.  (HINT. HINT.)

But what I can do for you is share the lyrics I wrote for this year’s album.  Whoa there, everyone!  Please try to contain your groans excitement!

The song is called “Fight or Flight” and is, like “Maelstrom”, based on my novel Effigy.  This particular song is based on a specific scene involving my main character, Haleine, at the end of the novel.  Like every single character I’ve ever written, she’s not in the very best of mindsets.  But you probably knew that already.  So, without any further ado (hey, it’s customary to applaud after the main event. Not because I’ve just announced I’ll stop introducing the main event!), may I offer for your reading pleasure, today’s lyrical interlude…
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21 Questions


Feb
20.12

Posted in Books, I Love Joss, Music, Random | No Comments »

The latest craze sweeping the blogosphere is this question and answer thing where you are tagged and asked to answer ten or eleven questions.  Well, this weekend I was tagged twice.  Once by Ava Quinn over at Tongue In Cheek (a wonderfully hilarious blog you should check out if you haven’t already) and once by Jessica Salyer at Just Following A Dream.  These questions combined number 21, hence my very clever title. Here are my answers to their questions:

Ava’s Questions:

1.  When is your favorite time to write?

My favorite time to write is at night, after all other mammals in my household are asleep.  That’s when I can barricade myself in my office and break out the weaponry.  Both literal and figurative.

2.  What would you like to change about the place where you write?

I’d like it to be located in some fabulous oceanfront home on Mount Desert Island in Maine.  Other than that, I’d say I need more bookshelf space.

3.  Who is your favorite villain?

My favorite villain is Dr. Horrible.  Running a close second is Dr. Doofenschmirtz.  I also have a soft spot for Skeletor.

4.  Which do you prefer?  Mel Brooks’ movies or Monty Python’s?

Ava mentioned she thought this was the toughest question and I think she might be right but I have to go with Monty Python because Monty Python and the Holy Grail is on my top ten list of all time favorite movies.

5.  Who is your favorite character from The Princess Bride?

The second toughest question.  I have debated on this question for a while (a very long time) and have decided to go with Fezzik.

6.  If you could meet anyone living today, who would it be?

Joss Whedon.  Next question.

7.  What is your favorite dish that your mom used to make for you?

I am the quintessential picky eater and so my favorite meal growing up (and still today) was dubbed the yellow meal.  It was homemade macaroni and cheese, corn and cornbread.  It bored every other member of my family.

8.  What song are you really into right now?

Right now, I am really into the song Come Back Home by Chris Pureka.  The lyrics are lovely.

9.  If you had a kickass Halloween party to go to and you had unlimited resources to prepare, what would you go as?

I don’t know exactly.  But assuming I’d also have the unlimited confidence to pull it off, I’d say some kind of medieval-esque celtic warrior woman.  But let’s face it… it would really be an excuse to procure myself some kick ass weaponry.

10.  Who from your past would you Facebook stalk but never want to see in real life?

I guess an ex-boyfriend or two but other than that, I really don’t know.

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Lyrics: Maelstrom


Feb
10.12

Posted in Music, Writing | 1 Comment »

I said earlier in the week I’d post the lyrics I’d written for a friend’s music project.  Since it’s now Friday and I haven’t yet done that, I suppose, today’s the day.

Maelstrom is the song that appears on Addlepated’s first album “Lost In The Snow.”  As I said in that earlier post, it’s based on my novel, Effigy, more specifically the male lead’s mindset at the end of the story.  Just to warn you: he’s not a happy camper….

And now for your reading pleasure….

Maelstrom

Your eyes snared me
Before I knew it’d been done
A single drop of rain
From a sky soaked in sun

And drenched I now am
As the storm carries on
The water keeps rising
But my will to swim is gone

Did you want to hold me under?
Did you want to watch me drown?
Well, it won’t be long because this storm’s now a maelstrom
And the black is pulling me down

You kissed me so gently
When the deed was done
You smiled so sweetly
It never occurred to me to run

Is that what you wanted
When you planned your attack?
Me looking in your eyes
As you stabbed me in the back?

Did you want to hold me under?
Did you want to watch me drown?
Well, it won’t be long because this storm’s now a maelstrom
And the black is pulling me down

What a clever little whore
With your clever little lies
Lure in your prey with a smile
Then trap them between your thighs

How did you ever get so close?
How did I let it get this far?
I’ve had my share of hurt before
But you were the first to scar

Did you want to hold me under?
Did you want to watch me drown?
Well, it won’t be long because this storm’s now a maelstrom
And the black is pulling me down

You were sobbing when I saw you last
Crocodile tears flooded those perfect eyes
Your siren song was on your lips
But for the first time, I saw past your guise

I’m through bleeding for you
But I won’t try to fight my way free
I’m too far gone and done with the world
So let the world be done with me

Come now and hold me under
Come now and watch me drown
I’m a dead man adrift in a maelstrom
And the black is pulling me down.

That’s gonna do it for me today and for the week, actually.  Tune in next week when I post my second set of lyrics Fight or Flight.  Have a great weekend, all.

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