2006-06-14 01:34 pm
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I'll probably be alone in considering this the most important article of the day.
2006-04-21 01:14 pm

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I think the lyrics quiz has run its course. Congratulations go out to [livejournal.com profile] ladystarlightsj, [livejournal.com profile] midnightsjane, [livejournal.com profile] londonkds, [livejournal.com profile] deevalish, [livejournal.com profile] dlgood, and [livejournal.com profile] buffyannotater. The remaining songs were:

3. "Dreams are strewn across the sand /
You won't need (you won't money) /
Oh no"
"The Road To Ruin" by The Libertines.

4. "Hip shakin' mama, I told ya /
I'm in love with only you /
Gotta, do it baby why don't ya /
I'll give ya everything you want."
"I Can't Turn You Loose" by Otis Redding.

9. "Jingling a wish coin that I stole from a fountain that was drowning all the cares in the world /
When I get older climbin up on the back porch fence just to see the dogs runnin."
"Go It Alone" by Beck.

I'm not all that surprised that these went unnamed -- I doubt very much that I would have recognized any of them. I might have known which album the Beck came from, but I definitely wouldn't have known the song title.

I've gathered all ten songs together and uploaded them to YouSendIt. There are now only 10 downloads allowed to non-members, so let me know if it runs out.
2006-04-19 02:21 pm

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There's been a rather listless response to my last update, from which I have determined that I suck you may not be as familiar with the music in question as might be hoped. I've added a few lines to the seven remaining lyrics, should that serve to shake anything free.

2. "Well, New York City really has it all /
Oh yeeeeaaa-ah, oh yeah." ([livejournal.com profile] buffyannotater recognizes "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" by the Ramones.)

3. "Dreams are strewn across the sand /
You won't need (you won't money) /
Oh no"

4. "Hip shakin' mama, I told ya /
I'm in love with only you /
Gotta, do it baby why don't ya /
I'll give ya everything you want."

7. "Do things do things do things bad things with it /
Do things do things do things good things with it." ([livejournal.com profile] dlgood correctly notes that this is "For the Love of Money" by the Ohio Players The O'Jays.)

8. "On stage or on record /
Go to the Wiz and select it /
Take it off the rack, if it's wack put it back /
I like the Whopper, fuck the Big Mac." ("It Takes Two" -- Rob Base & DJ EZ Rock as ascertained by [livejournal.com profile] dlgood.)

9. "Jingling a wish coin that I stole from a fountain that was drowning all the cares in the world /
When I get older climbin up on the back porch fence just to see the dogs runnin."

10. "Hugging like a monkey see, monkey do /
Right beside a riverboat gambler." ([livejournal.com profile] dlgood again comes up with the identification: Terence Trent D'Arby's "Wishing Well.")

There, nothing passive aggressive about that.
2006-04-16 11:41 pm

One of those name that song things

I feel a little guilty because I haven't been spending enough time with the one I really love, the one whom I can't live without; I'm speaking, of course, of my poor neglected mp3 player. However, since the October trip to Egypt, I've amassed a considerable playlist. Here are ten almost randomly selected lyrics from that playlist:

1. "You're the reason for the word 'bitch.' " ([livejournal.com profile] deevalish nails it as "Roses" by Outkast.)

2. "New York City really has it all."

3. "Dreams are strewn across the sand."

4. "Hip shakin' mama, I told ya."

5. "And don't try to dig what we all s-s-s-say." ("My Generation" by the Who, as identified originally by [livejournal.com profile] ladystarlightsj.)

6. "You'll always find us . . . out to lunch." (Correctly named by [livejournal.com profile] londonkds as the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant.")

7. "Do things do things do things bad things with it."

8. "I like the Whopper, fuck the Big Mac."

9. "Jingling a wish coin that I stole from a fountain that was drowning all the cares in the world "

10. "Hugging like a monkey see, monkey do."

<FONT COLOR="white">Around your answers would be appreciated.</FONT>
2005-02-16 06:00 pm

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The reason I prefer Caribou Coffee over its dominant competitor, Starbucks, has nothing to do with politics and little to do with aesthetics (but who gives a fuck about a goddamn Grammy?), and much to do with the fact that Caribou will knock ten cents off of my order if I can correctly answer a trivia question. It's like appearing on a very tiny game show, and it's one of the definite though small pleasures of my day. Today, however, I looked up at the chalkboard and was shocked to read the following:
February is Black History Month!
Trivia -10¢
What is the name of the slave with whom Thomas Jefferson had an affair & produced children?
I thought this was in spectacularly poor taste. As a trivia question, it's fine; as a Black History Month trivia question, it's a bit insensitive. But I bit my tongue and answered -- and then tried to stay polite while enduring the barrista's congratulations for being the first person all day to answer correctly.

Ten cents is ten cents! My soul will grow back tomorrow.
2004-08-15 05:34 pm

(no subject)

Last night, I went downtown to see North By Northwest, preceeded by two of Chuck Jones's Merrie Melodies, at Cinema At The Square. I knew that the people behind me were trouble when, during "Little Beau Pepé," one of them loudly exclaimed "Oh my God!" when the black and white cat rubbed up against the freshly-painted ladder and ended up with a white streak down her back. I don't know what sort of cultural illiterate is surprised when, during a Pepé Le Pew cartoon, the cat ends up with white paint on her, but I hope that some sort of LiveJournal community exists to make her feel ignorant. These women continued to offer helpful commentary throughout the movie: when the bad guys have propped an intoxicated Cary Grant behind the wheel of a car on a precariously windy seacoast road, another woman said, "I think they're going to drive him off the cliff." And when the movie got to the establishing shot of the Indiana cornfield, and one of them said, "That's no man's land," I wanted to turn around and say, "For the next ten minutes, the movie will take place with practically no dialogue. Let's see if we can do the same." But I didn't, because I'm polite, genteel and cowardly.

North By Northwest is still one of my favorite movies; I was reminded last night that it, much more than the novels, set the framework for the James Bond movies. And there were some lines I didn't remember. Cary Grant saying to James Mason, Eva Marie Saint and Martin Landau "The three of you together -- now, that's a picture only Charles Addams could draw," at least had the ring of familiarity, but I have absolutely no recollection of ever before seeing Mason, captured by Leo G. Carroll and watching as the park ranger shoots Landau, saying, "That wasn't very sporting, using real bullets."

On a completely unrelated subject, I was tickled to read today's New York Times Magazine and find that it contains an "On Language" column by William Grimes which mentions Chez Panisse but not Alice Waters and a Food column which mentions Alice Waters but not Chez Panisse. I don't imagine that the Times is running some sort of hidden contest where you're supposed to match obvious pairs, setting "Curtis Sliwa" with "Guardian Angels," or "The Bell Jar" with "Sylvia Plath," or "colossal embarrassment" with "U.S. Men's Basketball Olympic team," and then counting the pages in between the references for some sort of Kabbalistic frisson. Perhaps it should.
2004-06-29 09:52 pm

Lyric puzzles

Ever since the meme went around in May, I've regretted not putting up a bunch of lyrics from unidentified songs which readers could then guess. It's fair to say that this has gnawed at my heart. I enjoyed, despite my poor showing, the guessing games posted by lynnmonster and Chad Orzel, but I think my favorite set had to be the one by [livejournal.com profile] tahnan. Instead of just posting the words, he created ten separate puzzles from the lyrics. I know a good idea when I see one, and I am shameless enough to steal not only his idea but his puzzle forms as well. Unfortunately, I was able to solve (and, in fact, understand the mechanisms of) only eight of his ten song-puzzles, so I've had to bring in two other (much more complicated) types of puzzles.

So, following the lj-cut, there are ten puzzles, to which the answers are all lyrics from songs which have played on my MP3 player within the last three months. I won't say that the representation of my musical taste is entirely balanced (I do listen to black music made after 1972, for example, and white music made before 1976), but I like all the answers. Whether or not the puzzles are as likeable, I'll leave up to you.

To prevent the game from being ruined in the comments, I'm turning automatic screening on. If you want your answer unscreened, you should use invisotext; for example, if your answer to number twelve were "Spice Up Your Life" you might type:
Answer to #12: <font color="white">The Spice Girls, "Spice Up Your Life."</font>
Please put each answer in invisotext separately, as different solvers proceed at different speeds.

(The Spice Girls definitely don't feature in this quiz. Shut up.)

And so, without further ado: the puzzles . . .  )

Enjoy!

ETA: It is traditional in these memes to outlaw Googling, but I figure that if you've done the work of solving the puzzle, you shouldn't get frustrated because you don't recognize the lyric.

Now, Googling to solve the acrostic? That action rests on a moral foundation made of sand.
2004-01-12 07:18 pm
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I will be posting mysterious numbers throughout the week. Today's is 5:13.