These Questions Two

[mrissa]

1. Do you read collections and anthologies in order? Or do you skip around in them? Or does the answer vary, and if so, what does it vary with?

2. If you could wipe a song from the face of the earth, including everyone's memories, which song would it be? I was thinking "Tell Laura I Love Her" because I have a hatred for that song far beyond its actual appearances in my life (which are few and far between). timprov suggested the entire oeuvre of Creed. We moved on to that one horrid car crash song, which would obliterate its original and Eddie Vedder remake forms. But surely we are missing entire realms of the horrid here. Enlighten us.

Comments

[zalena.livejournal.com]

That car crash song is part of a genre called "sickies." My brother loves them.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ahh. Around here, the word sickie is used in an attempted "Princess Bride"-Colombo voice: "How's da sickie?"

[wilfulcait.livejournal.com]

Wow. The car crash song would be high on my list, but I think the honors would go to the one about the little boy buying shoes for his dying mother for Christmas.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

They made a TV movie and a book out of that, and then a sequel book and TV movie, with a sequel song by the same band.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Skip-around reader here. Pretty much all the time.

Song to eradicate? Hmmm, hard to choose. I tend to respond to music with violent intensity, which is nice when I like something, but awful when I loathe something and cannot remain in the room with it. I think the one I might first eradicate, all 9,456,564 verses and its smarmy melody, is "American Pie" which in 1972 you could not escape no matter where you went.

[jsgbits.livejournal.com]

OMG, that song was earwormed the moment I read the title!

[loup_noir]

Anthologies get read in whim order as does a lot of other stuff, too.

"Please daddy, don't get drunk this Christmas." Song makes me want to throw things. It may be tied with a country western song -- the actual title escapes me -- that starts "Hello, I'm a truck."

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Good heavens. I don't know either of those two songs, and I am so glad.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

This is hard to answer, because there are lots of songs I have refused to listen to more than a snippet of, they were so grating. So I wouldn't know how to identify them. But the two songs I would most like to see disappear forever (in both directions of the time arrow) are "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" by the Crash Test Dummies and "Counting Blue Cars" by Dishwalla.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

(Second attempt at posting this reply...sigh.)

I like the Crash Test Dummies, but markgritter does not, so I am careful about when I play their stuff.

"Counting Blue Cars" is generally referred to around here as "The [name of college friend] Get Laid Song!" One of our college friends was convinced that the band had written that song just to get laid and did not believe that the reference to God with the female pronoun was sincere on the band's part.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

I read collections and anthologies in order, with two exceptions:

1. In the bathroom. Sometimes, err, the length of a piece is important.

2. At work. Generally I feel obligated to be at least nominally on-task, so I'll skim over pieces that aren't directly relevant.

[callunav.livejournal.com]

I'll generally read the first two or three stories in order, at the very least. Then if something suggests to me that I should read everything in order, I do. If not....

Anthologies (stories by a lot of different writers) I skip around with complete abandon. I may not even read the first story first, I may head right for an author I know I like to start with. I go back and forth and to and fro, and eventually hit everything, pinball-like. I suit my mood. I'll start something and decide it's not what I'm in the mood for - funny/farcical, too long, too short, too abrasive, too male - and skip to something else, knowing I can and will come back later.

Collections of stories all by the same author, I generally read in order until I stick on something, and then I'll skip that one and move on, but not necessarily straight on, because realizing what I don't want gives me a more active sense of what I do want. For instance, if I realize that I'm not enjoying a story because it is long and convoluted and I'm tired and don't have the attention span for it, then I'll move on to find a story that seems shorter and simpler, savoring the knowledge that something dense and complex awaits me when I have the brainspace for it.

Why?


I can't think of any song I'd eradicate. I'm sure there are such songs, I just can't think of them. Years ago, it would have been the Buddy Holly 'Roller Coaster' song, not because I thought the world needed to be free of it on principle, but because not only did I not like it, but it stuck in my head *horribly*. I would only need to hear one line of a muzak version in a store, and the song would be with me for days. However, it has lost its power over me, so I no longer mind it especially.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Why do I ask? Because someone on my friendslist made casual reference to reading out of order, and I wondered how common it was.

I'm glad you didn't get the chance to eradicate "Every Day" when you hated it so, because I really like Buddy Holly (a-hey-hey), and it's not like we have an overabundance of his stuff in the world.

Songs and stories

[aet.livejournal.com]

As, like we say in Estonia "a bear has stepped on my ear", so most of songs sound pretty much same to me and I have no idea which one of them should be erased.

With stories the trouble is I find it harder and harder work to submerge myself in a fictional world, hence reading short stories or, in fact, anything shorter than 200 pages, has become a rare occurrence indeed. I seem to recall, though, that I often pick - the story with author whom I know or who has name that catches my eye; or the story with most appealing title. As of why to pick - it just seems natural to reach out for the shiniest toy first.

Re: Songs and stories

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

That's a wonderful expression. "A bear has stepped on my ear." I love that.

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

1. I read them in order.

2. America's Horse With No Name. Stupid lyrics and annoying, grating melody. Tell Laura I Love Her can go too, but not before Last Kiss, the one where the singer actually causes the car wreck that kills his girlfriend and then sings about it. Oh, and Teen Angel where girlfriend dies because she goes back to the car stalled on the railroad tracks to retrieve narrator's class ring. That should be the Darwin Awards theme song.

[copperwise.livejournal.com]

No coffee yet. The car wreck does not kill the girlfriend and then sing about it, I promise.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

I'm hopelessly linear and read anthologies and collections mostly in order. The only exception being if there's an author I really really like writing about one of my favorite series characters. That one goes first every time.

I think "Havin' My Baby" should be eradicated from the earth and all memories of it as well. Ick ick ick.
MKK

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh blerg.

Which reminds me of the "lovin' in my tummy" song, which reminds me of the "I don't wanna leave the Congo" song, both of which need to go as well.

It's a very talented bad song that gets me to free-associate other songs that bad.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

1) If the reason I'm reading the anthology is a particular story, I read that first. If the reason I'm reading the anthology is because shapeshifted cats in medieval Arabia is particular appealing to me that day, I'll read straight through.

2) I really hate that "someone left the cake out in the rain" song. I hate it in general (the lyrics are nonsense and the tune is irritatingly mournful for such a silly sentiment) and in particular (there's some very strange people out there who keep writing me emails asking why I don't post their theories on how the song relates to the legend of King Arthur on my website).

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

"MacArthur Park" is one of the songs that is now inextricably twined with its Weird Al version, so every time I went through that region of Oakland, I thought about velociraptors.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

Which car crash song? I'm thinking of "Warm Leatherette", but there are probably dozens of car crash songs.

I agree with the removal of all Creed, ever. Also, if I never hear "Come On Eileen" ever again, the world will be a better place.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Last Kiss is the one I had in mind.

Margaret Cho has successfully derailed "Come on Eileen" for me, so that if I hear it, it doesn't get in my head. What gets in my head is Margaret Cho singing the first line and then imitating her mother yelling at her, which is just fine with me.

I also giggle every time I hear "Hungry Like the Wolf" because of Margaret Cho.

[greykev.livejournal.com]

I generally read anthologies in order, but will skip past lame offerings to the next story.

I would like to eliminate the one bourbon, one scotch, one beer song. It is the most worthless waste of radio time I can think of and annoys me greatly.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I do not know this song either. So many bad songs I don't know! This post makes me so grateful.

[mkille.livejournal.com]

Which is worse, Barney songs or DragonTales songs?

Song to Erase

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

The Name Game. ("Rosanna-danna, bo-danna, da-danna.."). Of course, that one HAS been largely erased from existence - you've probably never even heard it. I would hear it on the school bus every day (driver liked to play top-40 radio) and it would remain lodged in my brain all day. AARGGGHHHHH!!! Why did you make me think about that???

Re: Song to Erase

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Because I'm not a nice person, clearly. I try to tell people, but sometimes they just don't listen.

I have never heard it on the radio. It was one of the songs we were encouraged to sing as part of Fun-Filled Drug-Free Activities in junior high.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

1. In order if possible. I usually only read things out of order accidentally.

2. "Stairway to Heaven"

[oursin.livejournal.com]

1. Skip around, usually
2. TLILH is one, there's also 'Honey, I Miss You' and a nauseous thing called something like 'The Choice': husband is waiting outside obstetric ward and doctors say they have to save either his wife or their child: he has a dialogue with a divine being as a result of which he dies and Miracle! mother and child survive. 'Little Green Apples' is pretty toxic, too.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Any song in which God is an asshole and the songwriter doesn't know it is a bad, bad thing. But I haven't heard that one.

[gaaneden.livejournal.com]

I read them order, usually. However if I don't like the story I'm reading, I skip the rest of it and go on to the next story. Unless I've already read the anthology I'm reading. Then, I skip around.

No Doubt's "You really love me" makes me want to kick puppies and should be removed from existence.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yep, I don't feel any obligation to finish a story I dislike just because it's in an anthology I want to read, either.

[carbonel]

I read them in order, because otherwise I would only read the authors I recognize, and while I know perfectly well that I'm going to enjoy stories by unfamiliar authors too, there's a part of my brain that only wants to read dessert, as it were.

As for songs, there's a bunch of them I'd be happy to erase from the earth, but most of them have been mentioned and fall in the "teen death song" genre: "Our Last Kiss," "Leader of the Pack," and the one that's an urban legend about the girl who meets the guy at a dance except that she's dead and has the chorus "Strange things happen in this world."

Lydy and I play at banning music for ice skating competitions, and so far have banned "Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet," "Tosca," "Carmen," and "Bolero" (because Torville and Dean did the definitive version). Probably others, too, but that's what comes to mind at the moment.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Vroom, vroom. Oh yes: gone.

I would happily ban all of those from ice skating competitions, yes. And I don't even watch as much of them as it seems you and Lydy do. Actually, while I wouldn't ban "Carmen," I often don't want to hear it, because I was earwormed with it for approximately three months in high school. Meep.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

1. In order. Nearly always. Skipping over a particular story constitutes a great and daring exception.

2. Nothing comes to mind. If I listened to commercial radio no doubt I'd have a long list at any given moment; so I don't, and I don't.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I seem to notice Muzak more often than you do, from my experiences in going to restaurants with you. I don't listen to commercial radio any more, either, but annoying songs are everywhere.

[lexiphanic.livejournal.com]

1. In order. Partially because I want to read the whole thing, and if I skip around I am much less likely to do it. Also because someone took the time to put them in the order they're presented, and it's interesting to speculate as to why.

2."The Lion Sleeps Tonight." Ugh. Just thinking about it makes me angry. I have no idea why, but that song just sends me over the edge. Also, "Unchained Melody," but I think that one is based on a former friend's utter obsession with it more than on the song itself.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Are you as maddened by They Might Be Giants' riff on "Lion Sleeps"? I am way too amused at singing, "Hush my darling, be still my darling, the lion's on the phone." But it's a very clear melodic as well as lyrical reference, so I could also see where it might not be something you enjoyed.

"Unchained Melody" makes me giggle. I am not an entirely unromantic person. I am just not a conventionally romantic person.

[ellarien]

1. In order for collections by one author, or anthologies that are all the same kind of thing. Anthologies of random themed stuff (the sort with art and poetry as well as stories) I'm more likely to dip into at random.
2. Here I look blank, because a rather small fraction of my musical universe is occupied by songs as such, despite my current Enya obsession.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

1) I generally read in order, but I skip at will if a story doesn't grab me fairly quickly.

2) Well, "A Horse with No Name" (yes, name the damned horse! you have nothing better to do in the desert anyway!) and "Please, Daddy, Don't Get Drunk This Christmas" (which is on an otherwise rather nice John Denver Christmas album) would be very high on my list. Also, Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" -- I dislike Rod Stewart anyway, but since my name is Margaret and I used to go by Maggie (and still do in certain circles), I've had it sung at me all too often.

I don't read a lot of Dave Barry nowadays, but I still love his Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs, which is based on a survey he did asking his readers to write in with their most hated songs. The only problem with it is that I always end up getting earwormed with the bad songs.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

1) in order, unless the next one is very long or very uninteresting, in which case i will skip it and then read in order after that, and usually come back to what i skipped.

2) god bless the usa. which i already hated before september 12, 2001, but now i hate with the fiery passion of a thousand suns.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. We had to do a dance to that when I was a small child in Nebraska, and I know people who taught their small children to lisp it out tunelessly. I'm not sure a thousand suns is enough.

[seajules]

I read all the way through if the anthology is themed, but if it's a Year's Best or somesuch, I tend to skip around and read what strikes me as interesting at that particular moment.

There are entirely too many songs (indeed, whole genres of music) I'd want to wipe from the face of the earth. I have yet to meet a piece of music to which I am indifferent; I either love it or I loathe it.