Tuesday Memes

Teaser Tuesday
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
5. Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

Some medical beast had revived tar-water in those days as a fine medicine, and Mrs. Joe always kept a supply of it in the cupboard; having a belief in its virtues correspondent to its nastiness. At the best of times, so much of this elixir was administered to me as a choice restorative, that I was conscious of going about, smelling like a new fence.

- Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Synopsis:
Considered by many to be Dickens’ finest novel, Great Expectations traces the growth of the book’s narrator, Philip Pirrip (Pip), from a boy of shallow dreams to a man with depth of character. From its famous dramatic opening on the bleak Kentish marshes, the story abounds with some of Dickens’ most memorable characters. Among them are the kindly blacksmith Joe Gargery, the mysterious convict Abel Magwitch, the eccentric Miss Haversham and her beautiful ward Estella, Pip’s good-hearted room-mate Herbert Pocket and the pompous Pumblechook. As Pip unravels the truth behind his own ‘great expectations’ in his quest to become a gentleman, the mysteries of the past and the convolutions of fate through a series of thrilling adventures serve to steer him towards maturity and his most important discovery of all – the truth about himself.

What I think of it so far:
I’m about two-thirds of the way through this now and I’m enjoying it a fair bit, but not loving it. It seems ot be taking a hellishly long time to get to wherever it’s going, but I am finding quite a lot of humour in it – certainly more than I expected! I’m reading this on my Kindle and downloaded the e-book from Amazon for free HERE!

~***~

top ten Tuesday
Top Ten Books I’d Give a Theme Tune

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created and hosted at Broke and Bookish.

I hear a running soundtrack to my entire life, not just the books I read! Anyway, here are some of the books I’ev read with songs I think fit them well, either as overall theme tunes or as the soundtrack to a certain part of them. I hope you’ll enjoy them:

1. The Stand by Stephen King – Stand by Poison

2. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell – Uprising by Muse

3. The Plucker by Brom – Sweet Dreams by Marilyn Manson

4. Game of Thrones by George RR Martin – Icehouse by Icehouse

5. Heatwave by Richard Castle – Summer in the City by Lovin Spoonful

6. The Child Thief by Brom – Wild Boys by Duran Duran

And as I’m actually pushed for time this morning, I will just have to leave it at the six instead of the full ten. I hope you liked them and enjoyed watching the videos.

Tuesday Tunes – Who’s That Girl?

Tuesday Tunes is a music meme hosted by Dale at Smurfin’ the Web.

To take part, answer the question and post a link in the comments at his blog HERE.

Who’s That Girl?
Songs with women’s names in the title.

Emma by Hot Chocolate is a sad song about a woman committing suicide, but it’s beautiful all the same, and with the smooth voice of Errol Brown, it was their first US hit.

Maggie May by Rod Stewart – it’s pretty much the only song of his that I actually like, telling of a relationship between a younger man and older woman. Apparently, Rod Stewart has gone on record as saying, “Maggie May was more or less a true story, about the first woman I had sex with, at the Beaulieu Jazz Festival,” and the mention of “going back to school” doesn’t refer to the US use of the word in conjunction with universities. Oops!

Kayleigh by Marillion spawned a trend for millions of parents to name their newborn baby girls for this song, despite it not being their best effort. It’s still a good track, just not as good as some others that get overlooked in favor of this one (Lavender is far better!).

Layla by Eric Clapton made it to #27 in Rolling Stone’s The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Most people seem to go into raptures over the iconic opening bars of the track on electric guitar, but I prefer the “unplugged” version.

Tuesday Tunes – Manly Music

Tuesday Tunes is a music meme hosted by Dale at Smurfin’ the Web.

To take part, answer the question and post a link in the comments at his blog HERE.

Many Tunes
Songs that have men’s names in the title.

I’ll kick off with the fun Call Me Al by Paul Simon. Featuring Chevy Chase in the video was a stroke of genius. I don’t usually like Mr Chase, but he was perfect for lip synching in this video, which I bet was a hoot to make!

Second in my list is another fun one with Thunderbirds-style puppets of the band performing (and some Thunderbirds action too!). The video for Calling Elvis by Dire Straits is a blend of live action and puppet animation…

Next we move onto the smooth sound of Hot Chocolate and their track Brother Louie. It tells the sad tale of a mixed race couple whose families are dead set against them being together…

Finally, I’ll leave you with Major Tom – originally recorded by Peter Schilling in 1983, I prefer th ecover version by Shiny Toy Guns. It’s the other side of the story given in David Bowie’s Space Oddity. Here are Shiny Toy Guns performing it live…

 

On this day…

1859 – On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin was first published, and sold out its initial print run on the first day.

1955 – Ian Botham, England test cricketer is born.

1963 – Jack Ruby shot and fatally wounded Lee Harvey Oswald.

1974 – A group of paleoanthropologists discovered a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis in the Afar Depression in Ethiopia, nicknaming it “Lucy”.

1991 – Freddie Mercury, lead singer of Queen, dies of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS.

That’s right – it’s 20 years ago today since Freddie Mercury died. That means Queen has been without Freddie longer than they had him. That’s a sad thing indeed. He was a showman extraordinaire and remains a huge loss to the music world.

RIP Freddie – you asked “Who wants to live forever?” and through your vast musical talent, you have become truly immortal!

Tuesday Tunes – And Now…Introducing!

Tuesday Tunes is a music meme hosted by Dale at Smurfin’ the Web.

To take part, answer the question and post a link in the comments at his blog HERE.

And Now…Introducing!
What are the best intros to songs?

One of the best intros into any tune ever comes directly from a musical, of all places! I speak of none other than Chess. Written by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus (yes, the guys from Abba!) and lyrics by Tim Rice & Björn Ulvaeus, it as a surefire thing that One Night in Bangkok would totally rock. It’s sung by Murray Head – brother of Anthony Head (of Buffy fame) and opens the second act of this phenomenal show.

And the other one I think really deserves to be right up there with the best of the best when it comes to intros is The Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin. It’s a short intro, but with that guitar almost beating the rhythm and the screaming vocals echoing out, it’s one of the most striking. Overall, it’s not particularly musically adventurous, but that opening is just great.

Tuesday Tunes – Comeback Kings

Tuesday Tunes is a music meme hosted by Dale at Smurfin’ the Web.

To take part, answer the question and post a link in the comments at his blog HERE.

Comeback Kings
Are there any bands that you are glad have made a comeback, or are there any that you wish hadn’t?

Well, two of the bands I would have mentioned making memorable comebacks were already half-inched by Dale (Duran Duran and Take That sans Robbie Williams), so I’ll have to go with my last remaining choice for excellent comebacks, A-ha!

A-ha originally formed in 1982, but it wasn’t till Take On Me hit the UK charts in 1984 that I discovered them and I loved them from the very beginning. They quietly took a very long holiday from it all in 1994 much to my sadness and regret. They made a quiet return in 2000 which resulted in a new tour, but it wasn’t till the 2005 album Analogue that they really “came back” in force. It was a fantastic album which featured both their old sound and a fresh feel – it was everything the fans could possibly have hoped and wished for.

Here’s Analogue (although I couldn’t find a good video for it – grrrr!):

Sadly, the guys decided to call it a day, announcing their split late in 2009 and their intentions for one final world-wide tour in 2010. Their farewell album, Foot of the Mountain, was wonderful. In particular, I love Butterfly, Butterfly, which says goodbye to their fans with their “last hurrah!”

Tuesday Tunes – It’s A Monster

Tuesday Tunes is a music meme hosted by Dale at Smurfin’ the Web.

To take part, answer the question and post a link in the comments at his blog HERE.

It’s A Monster
As yesterday was Halloween, what are some of your favourite monster themed songs?

Hmmmm, let me see. Let’s go by themes, shall we? First off there’s the Devil himself. Song’s such as The Devil Went Down To Georgia by The Charlie Daniels Band, Devil Inside by INXS, and Sympathy For The Devil by The Rolling Stones, however, I think I’ll go with Running With The Devil by Van Halen.

For monsters, there’s always Enter Sandman by Metallica with their “beast under your bed”, but I think I’ll go a bit retro and plump for Scary Monsters, Super Creeps by David Bowie.

Vampires, oh you sexy bloodsucking creatures of the night! I have the perfect choice for you and it is Bloodletting by Concrete Blonde.

And if we have vampires, we have to include werewolves, or they’ll get howling mad! For this section we have the superb Bark At the Moon by Ozzie Osbourne.

A shoe-in for the shambling undead in the form of rotting corpses, well one I feel most people will choose is Thriller by Michael Jackson, so I’ve chosen Zombie by The Cranberries.

And finally, we can’t forget about ghosts. I could have chosen classic ghost story, Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush, but instead I felt I just had to leave you with Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Junior.

Tuesday Tunes – As Seen On TV

Tuesday Tunes is a music meme hosted by Dale at Smurfin’ the Web.

To take part, answer the question and post a link in the comments at his blog HERE.

As Seen On TV
There have been many television adverts over the years that have seen the use of some great songs, but what are you favourite ones?

I definitely would have mentioned the drumming gorilla, but Dale got there first, so my two picks for this week’s Tuesday Tunes are as follows…

I’m not a huge fan of The Velvet Underground, but the first time I saw this advert for Dunlop Tires, I thought Venus In Furs was the perfect choice for it. The jangly tune just suits the weirdness of the advert down to the ground. And I do really love this track – it’s the only Velvet Underground track I like!

Secondly, I’m not a fan of boy band style music, but this new advert for Yeo Valley is just brilliantly funny. It also helps that the guys are absolutely gorgeous! And yes, you can download this track (Forever by The Churned). I’d love to see this one beat all the X-Factor finalists to the number 1 spot in the charts – that would be the buttercream icing on the cake!

Tuesday Tunes – What’s On the Box For Kids?

Tuesday Tunes is a music meme hosted by Dale at Smurfin’ the Web.

To take part, answer the question and post a link in the comments at his blog HERE.

What’s On the Box For Kids?
What were your kids’ TV theme tunes?

Dale already mentioned my all-time favourite kids’ TV theme tune – Ulysses 31! Actually, that was my favourite show full stop and Ulysses was my first cartoon crush (along with Hank from Dungeons and Dragons).

One totally rockin’ theme tune that immediately springs to mind is the theme tune for Jem and the Holograms. I loved this show and would pretend to be a rock star (I’ll freely admit, though, I preferred the baddies – The Misfits!). Last year I had candyfloss-pink hair and remember gleefully thinking “I have Jem hair!”.  It was so quintessentially 80s with big hair and big shoulder pads, but that’s part of its enduring charm, and yes, the music was contagious!

However, I still reckon the best and most rockin’ kids’ theme tune is the one for Jamie and the Magic Torch. It was a fun show about the adventures a kid had when he was supposed to be tucked up in bed – instead he’d shine his magic torch and leap down through the light shaft it created into another world. Jamie, and his dog, Wordsworth, would get into all kinds of scrapes, but it was the theme tune that made sure this will forever have a place in my heart – it starts out prog rock creepy and then swirls into a big The Who style guitar intro which switches into pop-glam-rock madness. It’s awesome to the extreme!

Tuesday Tunes – What’s On the Box?

Tuesday Tunes is a music meme hosted by Dale at Smurfin’ the Web.

To take part, answer the question and post a link in the comments at his blog HERE.

What’s On the Box?
What were your TV theme tunes?

I’ve decided to go with two from my childhood and two from more modern shows.

When I was a kid, one of my favourite shows was The Fall Guy and for some reason, despite the style of music not being my thing at all, I always loved the theme tune. Here it is:

And on a Saturday tea time, every kid my age was glued to the screen for The A-Team. It had everything – action, adventure, comedy – and nobody ever died. There’s not a theme tune more rousing that this one!

And now for the modern ones. One of my favourite shows (currently on a break after season 4) is True Blood. Loosely based on the Southern Vampires series of books by Charlaine Harris, it features some seriously sexy vamps, and the theme tune, Bad Things by Jace Everett is just awesome.

And finally, one of my favourite shows that, unfortunately, got cancelled. Lie To Me was an incredibly clever show with an awesome cast and I loved it. To top it all off, it had just THE best theme tune – Brand New Day by Ryan Starr. Obviously, this is just a fraction of the whole song, but I wanted to post just the intro to the show. I urge you to listen to the full version if you haven’t already, which you can find HERE.