Unfinished Business
Sep. 28th, 2003 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coalescentEarlier this week, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
twic sent me a reply to an email. Nothing unusual in that, except that the email in question had been sitting in his postponed-messages folder since 1999, and he'd only just got around to finishing it off. The thought behind it made me smile, and once again made me bitterly regret the fact that I lost the best part of four years' worth of email by forgetting to move it off ermine.
Anyway, in a similar vein, I discovered this afternoon that I left a whole bunch of questions unanswered from the interview meme. So, here we go:
On Music
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brassyn: List your top five songs of all time, with a reason for each one.
Standard disclaimer: Any list I give now will probably change ten minutes down the line.
Smoke, by Ben Folds Five
Up until the age of about 16, I didn't have a CD collection. I owned no popular music. I'm not entirely certain why; that's just the way it worked out. I suspect it was partly because people I didn't like at school were conspicuously into pop music, and that put me off.
Anyway, the first four bands I bought music by - and I can't remember the order - were Deep Blue Something (after hearing Breakfast at Tiffany's), the Beautiful South (after hearing Rotterdam. Bought the album, asked my mum if I could play it in the car, realised the lyrics I thought I knew to 'Don't Marry Her' were a radio edit...), Kula Shaker (they were cool! For a little while. I swear I remember them being cool), and Ben Folds Five. There was then a gap, where I didn't buy much; then I went to university, and now I have something like 300 albums.
Of those four, Ben Folds Five are the one I still listen to on a regular basis. If I was in a band, I'd want it to sound like that, and I wish I could play piano like that. I love a great many of their songs, but from the first time I heard it 'Smoke' has been my favourite.
Walking Barefoot, by Ash
Ah, Ash. Best British pop band of the past twenty years. 1977 did the rounds whilst I was at school, Nu-Clear Sounds came out and was rubbish, and then the summer of 2001 rolled around and Free All Angels appeared on the scene. Anyone who says 1977 is better is mad; Free All Angels is the definitive Ash record. It would earn that place on the strength of 'Burn Baby Burn' and 'Sometimes' alone, but 'Walking Barefoot' puts it in a whole other class.
The album came out in the run-up to Finals. Now, when I was doing my prelims two years earlier, I bought a couple of CDs just before I sat the exams, and listened to them pretty much non-stop during that period. And was never able to listen to them again. This was no big loss, because the CDs in question were by Gay Dad and Shed Seven, but Ash - well, I didn't want to risk losing an Ash record in that way. So I told myself I'd just have a couple of listens, then put it away until after Finals.
Then I heard 'Walking Barefoot'. Ash just know melody, and power-pop bounce tinged with melancholy just hits me in all the right places. I listened to the album non-stop for three weeks.
And you know what? The album is so damn good that exams didn't spoil it for me one bit.
There Goes The Fear, by Doves
I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing when this first came out. I mean, Lost Souls is one of the most dour albums you're likely to hear; beautiful, sure, but not something to play when the sun is shining. Then you hear There Goes The Fear, and you're left wondering exactly what drugs Doves have been taking. It's sparkly, it's sunny...hell, you can even dance to it.
Red, by Elbow
You may have noticed that I like the melancholy. This may be because I don't actually find melancholy songs make me melancholy. I mean, I recognise that they're sad songs, but mostly when I'm listening I find them beautiful, and end up in awe of that beauty. Red is such a song. I can listen to it a hundred times and find something new each and every time.
Putting Out Fires by The Bluetones
Like Ben Folds Five, there had to be a Bluetones track on here. It could have been any one of a dozen, and it could have come from any of their albums, but this one has the most memories: It used to get played in the college bar on a nightly basis.
korovyov_x: 'Britpop', band wagon of sub-Beatles/Stones/Kinks tripe or important moment in music history?
Important. Not without its share of tripe, but not without its share of genius, either; I think Blur, for instance, have long since proved their musical worth. And the legacy of Britpop is the deeply messed up British music scene we see today.
On SF
greengolux: Pitch me your idea for a great SF film.
That's hard. In fact, that's impossible: I can't come up with an original idea good enough for a film. And whilst there are many SF novels I'd like to see adapted at some point, in almost all cases (Red Mars, again) I can't help thinking they'd be better as a TV series.
That leaves short stories, and right now I'll go for Ted Chiang's 'Hell Is The Absence of God'. That would be something to see.
elleblue: What author's work is most in line with what you think is really going to happen to the world over the next few centuries?
The early Accelerando stories by Charlie Stross might not be too far wrong for the near-term future, or at least for the near-term future for certain segments of the population. After that, all bets are off.
greengolux: Would you ever consider - maybe in a couple of years, if there were a few of us - trying to set up a new SF mag, either fanzine or pro-zine?
Oh, hell yes. I don't even care if it would make more sense to support existing magazines; that's something I'd love to do.
korovyov_x: I'm not into SF and I'm no longer an 'Angel' fangirl. We need to find new things in common. Do you like puffins?
No. And I have no particular feelings about ducks, either. Therefore, I propose an alternative solution: Brainwashing you until you like SF. What d'you think?
On Life
elleblue: What's the best thing that could happen today?
For everyone to wake up with an extra fifty points of IQ and a basic grounding in philosophy, logic, ethics and human rights, law, economics, molecular biology and quantum physics.
I have a feeling things would get a lot better a lot faster if everyone was smarter. And I include myself in that.
korovyov_x: 'Reprise' moots the notion that life is hell. Is this news to anyone (viewers and, indeed, other characters) other than Angel, or is this revelation in fact something of a 'duh' moment?
...Why do you hate me? :-)
No, it's not news to anyone. It's not a concept you often see presented on TV, however, and still less so articulated with such grace. And the crucial thing about 'Reprise' is that you have to take 'Epiphany' with it, because they're a matched question/answer pair. As a presentation of someone coming to self-belief and self-understanding, they're just beautiful.
brassyn: What makes you feel truly scared?
Feeling that I'm in emotional free-fall, with no safety net.
greengolux: What kind of kid were you, and was your childhood a happy one?
Honestly? I have no idea what kind of kid I was, I'm afraid. My memory is atrocious on that front. I don't know whether I was loud, quiet, well-behaved or a holy terror, although to be honest my gut says 'a geek now, a geek then'. I don't remember feeling sad, but then for the most part I don't remember feeling happy. My childhood just was; if I try to think about it, it slips away, like a dream.
elleblue: Can you argue that there are advantages in unrequited love/affection over relationshippy two-way love? What do you see as the point of either sort?
I'm still going wtih love is freedom, although Geneva's point about support is valid. Pair relationships are selfish, but somehow necessary; I think most of us would like to feel there's at least one person out there who'd put us first. And vice versa, I think most of us would like to be able to put one person first.
Unrequited love isn't healthy, but it can be healthier than the alternatives.
Hmm. That's not really saying quite what I want, but I can't put it any better right now.
brassyn: If you could be any character in Greek (or Roman, depends how you learnt it) mythology, who would you be?
The problem with this is, I never learnt Greek or Roman mythology. I know nothing. Well, I know the names, but that's as much from being a space-program geek as anything else.
So I'm going to have to pass, I'm afraid. But if you wanted to recommend a primer to mythology...
korovyov_x: You can either have control of a time machine or a space ship. Which do you choose?
Easy one. The time machine. Then I go forwards until someone invents a space ship, and I have both. :-D
On Stuff
elleblue: Find my 'question for everyone' note, and answer that. :-)
I tried, but I failed. If you reiterate, I'll answer it!
elleblue: What advice could you offer your meatspace friends about starting up a comic about you?
Don't. One really is all the world needs.
greengolux: What do you want for your birthday?
I got some pretty cool stuff for my birthday this year. Not least amongst this was my flat. Right now, I couldn't say; as much as there's a long list of Stuff I Want, none of it is really absolutely essential. Except maybe West Wing season two DVDs, since I'm almost done with season one.
Tangentally, when I give books as presents, I always wish I could think of something to write inside the cover, but I never can. Does anyone else do that?
brassyn: Did you ever dream that one day you'd be a trucker (with your own 'stop and everything)?
Can't say that ever crossed my mind. Can't say it's not a pretty cool thing to have happened. :-)
korovyov_x: Just how hot is Dan Hartland?
Depends how much you like tight pants.
brassyn: Please imitate a pokemon.
Bulba bulba bulba. Bul ba ba. Bulbasaur!
twic sent me a reply to an email. Nothing unusual in that, except that the email in question had been sitting in his postponed-messages folder since 1999, and he'd only just got around to finishing it off. The thought behind it made me smile, and once again made me bitterly regret the fact that I lost the best part of four years' worth of email by forgetting to move it off ermine.Anyway, in a similar vein, I discovered this afternoon that I left a whole bunch of questions unanswered from the interview meme. So, here we go:
On Music
brassyn: List your top five songs of all time, with a reason for each one.Standard disclaimer: Any list I give now will probably change ten minutes down the line.
Smoke, by Ben Folds Five
Up until the age of about 16, I didn't have a CD collection. I owned no popular music. I'm not entirely certain why; that's just the way it worked out. I suspect it was partly because people I didn't like at school were conspicuously into pop music, and that put me off.
Anyway, the first four bands I bought music by - and I can't remember the order - were Deep Blue Something (after hearing Breakfast at Tiffany's), the Beautiful South (after hearing Rotterdam. Bought the album, asked my mum if I could play it in the car, realised the lyrics I thought I knew to 'Don't Marry Her' were a radio edit...), Kula Shaker (they were cool! For a little while. I swear I remember them being cool), and Ben Folds Five. There was then a gap, where I didn't buy much; then I went to university, and now I have something like 300 albums.
Of those four, Ben Folds Five are the one I still listen to on a regular basis. If I was in a band, I'd want it to sound like that, and I wish I could play piano like that. I love a great many of their songs, but from the first time I heard it 'Smoke' has been my favourite.
Walking Barefoot, by Ash
Ah, Ash. Best British pop band of the past twenty years. 1977 did the rounds whilst I was at school, Nu-Clear Sounds came out and was rubbish, and then the summer of 2001 rolled around and Free All Angels appeared on the scene. Anyone who says 1977 is better is mad; Free All Angels is the definitive Ash record. It would earn that place on the strength of 'Burn Baby Burn' and 'Sometimes' alone, but 'Walking Barefoot' puts it in a whole other class.
The album came out in the run-up to Finals. Now, when I was doing my prelims two years earlier, I bought a couple of CDs just before I sat the exams, and listened to them pretty much non-stop during that period. And was never able to listen to them again. This was no big loss, because the CDs in question were by Gay Dad and Shed Seven, but Ash - well, I didn't want to risk losing an Ash record in that way. So I told myself I'd just have a couple of listens, then put it away until after Finals.
Then I heard 'Walking Barefoot'. Ash just know melody, and power-pop bounce tinged with melancholy just hits me in all the right places. I listened to the album non-stop for three weeks.
And you know what? The album is so damn good that exams didn't spoil it for me one bit.
There Goes The Fear, by Doves
I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing when this first came out. I mean, Lost Souls is one of the most dour albums you're likely to hear; beautiful, sure, but not something to play when the sun is shining. Then you hear There Goes The Fear, and you're left wondering exactly what drugs Doves have been taking. It's sparkly, it's sunny...hell, you can even dance to it.
Red, by Elbow
You may have noticed that I like the melancholy. This may be because I don't actually find melancholy songs make me melancholy. I mean, I recognise that they're sad songs, but mostly when I'm listening I find them beautiful, and end up in awe of that beauty. Red is such a song. I can listen to it a hundred times and find something new each and every time.
Putting Out Fires by The Bluetones
Like Ben Folds Five, there had to be a Bluetones track on here. It could have been any one of a dozen, and it could have come from any of their albums, but this one has the most memories: It used to get played in the college bar on a nightly basis.
korovyov_x: 'Britpop', band wagon of sub-Beatles/Stones/Kinks tripe or important moment in music history?Important. Not without its share of tripe, but not without its share of genius, either; I think Blur, for instance, have long since proved their musical worth. And the legacy of Britpop is the deeply messed up British music scene we see today.
On SF
greengolux: Pitch me your idea for a great SF film.That's hard. In fact, that's impossible: I can't come up with an original idea good enough for a film. And whilst there are many SF novels I'd like to see adapted at some point, in almost all cases (Red Mars, again) I can't help thinking they'd be better as a TV series.
That leaves short stories, and right now I'll go for Ted Chiang's 'Hell Is The Absence of God'. That would be something to see.
elleblue: What author's work is most in line with what you think is really going to happen to the world over the next few centuries?The early Accelerando stories by Charlie Stross might not be too far wrong for the near-term future, or at least for the near-term future for certain segments of the population. After that, all bets are off.
greengolux: Would you ever consider - maybe in a couple of years, if there were a few of us - trying to set up a new SF mag, either fanzine or pro-zine?Oh, hell yes. I don't even care if it would make more sense to support existing magazines; that's something I'd love to do.
korovyov_x: I'm not into SF and I'm no longer an 'Angel' fangirl. We need to find new things in common. Do you like puffins?No. And I have no particular feelings about ducks, either. Therefore, I propose an alternative solution: Brainwashing you until you like SF. What d'you think?
On Life
elleblue: What's the best thing that could happen today?For everyone to wake up with an extra fifty points of IQ and a basic grounding in philosophy, logic, ethics and human rights, law, economics, molecular biology and quantum physics.
I have a feeling things would get a lot better a lot faster if everyone was smarter. And I include myself in that.
korovyov_x: 'Reprise' moots the notion that life is hell. Is this news to anyone (viewers and, indeed, other characters) other than Angel, or is this revelation in fact something of a 'duh' moment?...Why do you hate me? :-)
No, it's not news to anyone. It's not a concept you often see presented on TV, however, and still less so articulated with such grace. And the crucial thing about 'Reprise' is that you have to take 'Epiphany' with it, because they're a matched question/answer pair. As a presentation of someone coming to self-belief and self-understanding, they're just beautiful.
brassyn: What makes you feel truly scared?Feeling that I'm in emotional free-fall, with no safety net.
greengolux: What kind of kid were you, and was your childhood a happy one?Honestly? I have no idea what kind of kid I was, I'm afraid. My memory is atrocious on that front. I don't know whether I was loud, quiet, well-behaved or a holy terror, although to be honest my gut says 'a geek now, a geek then'. I don't remember feeling sad, but then for the most part I don't remember feeling happy. My childhood just was; if I try to think about it, it slips away, like a dream.
elleblue: Can you argue that there are advantages in unrequited love/affection over relationshippy two-way love? What do you see as the point of either sort?I'm still going wtih love is freedom, although Geneva's point about support is valid. Pair relationships are selfish, but somehow necessary; I think most of us would like to feel there's at least one person out there who'd put us first. And vice versa, I think most of us would like to be able to put one person first.
Unrequited love isn't healthy, but it can be healthier than the alternatives.
Hmm. That's not really saying quite what I want, but I can't put it any better right now.
brassyn: If you could be any character in Greek (or Roman, depends how you learnt it) mythology, who would you be?The problem with this is, I never learnt Greek or Roman mythology. I know nothing. Well, I know the names, but that's as much from being a space-program geek as anything else.
So I'm going to have to pass, I'm afraid. But if you wanted to recommend a primer to mythology...
korovyov_x: You can either have control of a time machine or a space ship. Which do you choose?Easy one. The time machine. Then I go forwards until someone invents a space ship, and I have both. :-D
On Stuff
elleblue: Find my 'question for everyone' note, and answer that. :-)I tried, but I failed. If you reiterate, I'll answer it!
elleblue: What advice could you offer your meatspace friends about starting up a comic about you?Don't. One really is all the world needs.
greengolux: What do you want for your birthday?I got some pretty cool stuff for my birthday this year. Not least amongst this was my flat. Right now, I couldn't say; as much as there's a long list of Stuff I Want, none of it is really absolutely essential. Except maybe West Wing season two DVDs, since I'm almost done with season one.
Tangentally, when I give books as presents, I always wish I could think of something to write inside the cover, but I never can. Does anyone else do that?
brassyn: Did you ever dream that one day you'd be a trucker (with your own 'stop and everything)?Can't say that ever crossed my mind. Can't say it's not a pretty cool thing to have happened. :-)
korovyov_x: Just how hot is Dan Hartland?Depends how much you like tight pants.
brassyn: Please imitate a pokemon.Bulba bulba bulba. Bul ba ba. Bulbasaur!
