hitting these phenomena at the height of their popularity
It's out of date now but I got this meme from sovay and it was far too much fun, so I'm posting it anyway.
(Well, really I'm just reposting my replies from her lj.)
The Instructions:
1. Take out your zPod, or your mpZ playing device. Put it on shuffle play.
2. You have to decide if each song is a positive one in terms of survival (songs like Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" or anything that directly references survival, escape or something like that counts double, even something by Survivor, but I reserve the right to laugh at you), or a negative one in terms of survival (Songs by the Zombies, White Zombie, Rob Zombie, about zombies or death or whatnot count double); if you really can't judge the song, just take it as a pass and it does nothing either way for your chances for survival-remember this is entirely up to you to judge.
3. Keep going until you get 5 songs one way or the other. 5 Surviving songs means you lived. 5 Not surviving songs means you food.
Let's try it!
(I have a lot of June Tabor in my collection. I am SO doomed.)
Bruce Springsteen, "We Shall Overcome"
Okay, this has got to be one of the ultimate survival songs. One point for me not being eaten!
Miranda Sex Garden, "Ah, Look Upon These Eyes"
Ah cruel cruel love
Thus to forsake me
Then welcome death and take me
In my unhappy state
I ask no other fate
And one point for the rampaging zombie hordes. Damn.
Steeleye Span, "The Wife of the Soldier"
What did the wife of the soldier get
From Russia's distant steppes?
From Russia she got the widow's veil
And the end of the tale is the widow's veil
She got from the distant steppes.
Okay, the soldier is not me, but there's enough death and destruction that it's another point for the zombies.
Bob Dylan, "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"
With your mercury mouth in the missionary times,
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes,
And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes,
Oh, who among them do they think could bury you?
...
Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole
With your holy medallion which your fingertips fold,
And your saintlike face and your ghostlike soul,
Oh, who among them do you think could destroy you?
But I may escape them yet! Two points for me not being eaten!
Baby Gramps (who apparently isn't actually Tom Waits, or something?), "Cape Cod Girls"
Well, nobody gets eaten in this but fish, and I am not a fish. On the other hand, in this recording, he sounds like a zombie. I think I'll call it a draw.
Thomas Moran, "Strawberry Lane (The Elfin Knight)"
One of the not-having-to-marry-an-elfin-knight riddle songs. Avoidance of attachment to supernatural beings = three points for me not being eaten.
Hillel & Aviva, "Ha-Na-Ava-Ba-Ba-Not"
I don't understand Hebrew, so I cannot tell what this song is about. Pass.
Fairport Convention, "Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman"
Run to me mother of anyone's child
And tell me the revelry planned
Judges and barristers, clerks at the law
His show is the best in the land
Here's a toast to the Jolly Hangman
He'll hang you the best that he can
And that is clearly another point for the zombies. The score right now: three points for me, three for them! This is suspenseful, huh?
The Beatles, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
Um, okay.
Pentangle, "Reynardine"
Has an ambiguous ending:
Through sun and dark she followed him
His teeth so bright did shine,
And he led her over the mountain,
Did that sly bold Reynardine.
I appreciate ambiguity. No points on either side.
Britten, War Requiem, "After the blast of lightning"
And when I hearken to the Earth she saith
"My fiery heart sinks aching. It is death.
Mine ancient scars shall not be glorified
Nor my titanic tears the seas be dried."
Okay, that is pretty much the definition of DOOM. Four points for the stupid zombies and three for me.
This one could be it!
Le Vent du Nord, "C'est une Jeune Mariée"
And it's a happy song ("Gai, gai, je suis en ménage, / Gai, gai, je suis mariée!"). So the zombies don't get me. Four to four!
And the next one will decide whether I survive the apocalypse or am zombie chow!
Oxford Camerata, Credo from Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame.
As this is an affirmation of the essential Christian beliefs and expresses the hope of salvation, it looks like for meme purposes I've been granted divine deliverance from being eaten by zombies. Praised be God and not our strength for it.
In non-zombie news, I do sort of wish this icon I tried making weren't too big for lj.
But perhaps it is just as well that it is.
(I had an unproductive evening. Maybe this weekend I'll actually work on the damn dissertation.)
Also WHY IS IT that it is NEARLY FOUR O'CLOCK and I am not the LEAST BIT TIRED?
(Well, really I'm just reposting my replies from her lj.)
The Instructions:
1. Take out your zPod, or your mpZ playing device. Put it on shuffle play.
2. You have to decide if each song is a positive one in terms of survival (songs like Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" or anything that directly references survival, escape or something like that counts double, even something by Survivor, but I reserve the right to laugh at you), or a negative one in terms of survival (Songs by the Zombies, White Zombie, Rob Zombie, about zombies or death or whatnot count double); if you really can't judge the song, just take it as a pass and it does nothing either way for your chances for survival-remember this is entirely up to you to judge.
3. Keep going until you get 5 songs one way or the other. 5 Surviving songs means you lived. 5 Not surviving songs means you food.
Let's try it!
(I have a lot of June Tabor in my collection. I am SO doomed.)
Bruce Springsteen, "We Shall Overcome"
Okay, this has got to be one of the ultimate survival songs. One point for me not being eaten!
Miranda Sex Garden, "Ah, Look Upon These Eyes"
Ah cruel cruel love
Thus to forsake me
Then welcome death and take me
In my unhappy state
I ask no other fate
And one point for the rampaging zombie hordes. Damn.
Steeleye Span, "The Wife of the Soldier"
What did the wife of the soldier get
From Russia's distant steppes?
From Russia she got the widow's veil
And the end of the tale is the widow's veil
She got from the distant steppes.
Okay, the soldier is not me, but there's enough death and destruction that it's another point for the zombies.
Bob Dylan, "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"
With your mercury mouth in the missionary times,
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes,
And your silver cross, and your voice like chimes,
Oh, who among them do they think could bury you?
...
Now you stand with your thief, you're on his parole
With your holy medallion which your fingertips fold,
And your saintlike face and your ghostlike soul,
Oh, who among them do you think could destroy you?
But I may escape them yet! Two points for me not being eaten!
Baby Gramps (who apparently isn't actually Tom Waits, or something?), "Cape Cod Girls"
Well, nobody gets eaten in this but fish, and I am not a fish. On the other hand, in this recording, he sounds like a zombie. I think I'll call it a draw.
Thomas Moran, "Strawberry Lane (The Elfin Knight)"
One of the not-having-to-marry-an-elfin-knight riddle songs. Avoidance of attachment to supernatural beings = three points for me not being eaten.
Hillel & Aviva, "Ha-Na-Ava-Ba-Ba-Not"
I don't understand Hebrew, so I cannot tell what this song is about. Pass.
Fairport Convention, "Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman"
Run to me mother of anyone's child
And tell me the revelry planned
Judges and barristers, clerks at the law
His show is the best in the land
Here's a toast to the Jolly Hangman
He'll hang you the best that he can
And that is clearly another point for the zombies. The score right now: three points for me, three for them! This is suspenseful, huh?
The Beatles, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"
Um, okay.
Pentangle, "Reynardine"
Has an ambiguous ending:
Through sun and dark she followed him
His teeth so bright did shine,
And he led her over the mountain,
Did that sly bold Reynardine.
I appreciate ambiguity. No points on either side.
Britten, War Requiem, "After the blast of lightning"
And when I hearken to the Earth she saith
"My fiery heart sinks aching. It is death.
Mine ancient scars shall not be glorified
Nor my titanic tears the seas be dried."
Okay, that is pretty much the definition of DOOM. Four points for the stupid zombies and three for me.
This one could be it!
Le Vent du Nord, "C'est une Jeune Mariée"
And it's a happy song ("Gai, gai, je suis en ménage, / Gai, gai, je suis mariée!"). So the zombies don't get me. Four to four!
And the next one will decide whether I survive the apocalypse or am zombie chow!
Oxford Camerata, Credo from Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame.
As this is an affirmation of the essential Christian beliefs and expresses the hope of salvation, it looks like for meme purposes I've been granted divine deliverance from being eaten by zombies. Praised be God and not our strength for it.
In non-zombie news, I do sort of wish this icon I tried making weren't too big for lj.
But perhaps it is just as well that it is.
(I had an unproductive evening. Maybe this weekend I'll actually work on the damn dissertation.)
Also WHY IS IT that it is NEARLY FOUR O'CLOCK and I am not the LEAST BIT TIRED?