A much shorter quiz.
The last one of these I'll post for a while, I promise. :)
Tell me about your favourite...
Book: Jack Kerouac's On the Road weakly scrapes home. I don't have a favourite book, really. I like the sheer adventure, the jazzy rhythms of the prose, and the sense that these characters are pioneers - muddled, confused and lost pioneers - ploughing a new and risky furrow. It's not the greatest book ever, but it stirred my sense of adventure and inspired me to travel, and for that I'll always cherish my grey paperback.
Album: The Smiths' The Queen is Dead. I know: hardly a curve ball selection. Never mind that it's one of the seminal records of indie; what I care about is its relation to me. I'm not a permanent misanthrope by any means, but I certainly identify with Morrissey in so many of his songs. He doesn't just express his sadness and alienation in the romantic spirit - he does it with wit. "I Know It's Over" and "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" are inimitable. If you've never had a moment where those songs echoed your very essence, then you've lived a charmed life.
Song: This is far more transient than the album choice. Recently, I've had a crush on Bjork's "Hyper-ballad". I'm not entirely sure why. I understand the song and what it's expressing, but I haven't experienced that. I think it's refracting through my own life to produce a strange, unforeseen yet heartfelt interpretation.
Film: Tough, because there's no film I've watched more than ten times. Very few over three even. Right now, I'll go for Amelie, simply because it's a delight of a movie.
Place: San Francisco. Closer to home, the Iveagh Gardens off Harcourt Street are peaceful, relatively unknown, and lovely. More generally, bed, but anywhere with my favourite people will keep me cheery.
Person: I decline to answer. I do have a definite group of favourite people, from whom I could probably pick one right now. But I won't. Suffice to say that the winner is someone I trust completely, who makes me giggle at the silliest things, who laughs at and humours my woeful puns and one-liners, who's smart and challenging (and pulls me up when I'm not), shares a goody set of my interests, and whose very appearance makes me smile, because I love their company so. Note too that each person on the shortlist ticks most, maybe even all, of those boxes.
Moment: I'm not sure. Certain marvellous moments spring to mind - those brief occasions you wish you could enjoy forever. When nothing else seemed to matter, nor did it seem like anything else ever would. A close runner-up would have to be gliding through a hamlet in Virginia. On a sweaty, starry July night, at 2am in a dark and touching-silent carriage, the air-conditioning set to shiver, I leaned on the window, enraptured, drinking with my eyes the porches of cheap wooden homes, just metres away, unshielded from the track. Laundry hung and toys lay strewn. Lights glowed softly on the porches and through some windows. In warm butter a couple in silhouette embraced, dead to the passing voyeur, yet so bewitchingly vital to him.
Tell me about your favourite...
Book: Jack Kerouac's On the Road weakly scrapes home. I don't have a favourite book, really. I like the sheer adventure, the jazzy rhythms of the prose, and the sense that these characters are pioneers - muddled, confused and lost pioneers - ploughing a new and risky furrow. It's not the greatest book ever, but it stirred my sense of adventure and inspired me to travel, and for that I'll always cherish my grey paperback.
Album: The Smiths' The Queen is Dead. I know: hardly a curve ball selection. Never mind that it's one of the seminal records of indie; what I care about is its relation to me. I'm not a permanent misanthrope by any means, but I certainly identify with Morrissey in so many of his songs. He doesn't just express his sadness and alienation in the romantic spirit - he does it with wit. "I Know It's Over" and "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out" are inimitable. If you've never had a moment where those songs echoed your very essence, then you've lived a charmed life.
Song: This is far more transient than the album choice. Recently, I've had a crush on Bjork's "Hyper-ballad". I'm not entirely sure why. I understand the song and what it's expressing, but I haven't experienced that. I think it's refracting through my own life to produce a strange, unforeseen yet heartfelt interpretation.
Film: Tough, because there's no film I've watched more than ten times. Very few over three even. Right now, I'll go for Amelie, simply because it's a delight of a movie.
Place: San Francisco. Closer to home, the Iveagh Gardens off Harcourt Street are peaceful, relatively unknown, and lovely. More generally, bed, but anywhere with my favourite people will keep me cheery.
Person: I decline to answer. I do have a definite group of favourite people, from whom I could probably pick one right now. But I won't. Suffice to say that the winner is someone I trust completely, who makes me giggle at the silliest things, who laughs at and humours my woeful puns and one-liners, who's smart and challenging (and pulls me up when I'm not), shares a goody set of my interests, and whose very appearance makes me smile, because I love their company so. Note too that each person on the shortlist ticks most, maybe even all, of those boxes.
Moment: I'm not sure. Certain marvellous moments spring to mind - those brief occasions you wish you could enjoy forever. When nothing else seemed to matter, nor did it seem like anything else ever would. A close runner-up would have to be gliding through a hamlet in Virginia. On a sweaty, starry July night, at 2am in a dark and touching-silent carriage, the air-conditioning set to shiver, I leaned on the window, enraptured, drinking with my eyes the porches of cheap wooden homes, just metres away, unshielded from the track. Laundry hung and toys lay strewn. Lights glowed softly on the porches and through some windows. In warm butter a couple in silhouette embraced, dead to the passing voyeur, yet so bewitchingly vital to him.
posted by Martin at
12:22 a.m.
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1 of my readers composed a witty reply
1 Comments:
This isn't going to make any sense to most of my readers, so just ignore it. :)
A little while ago, someone asked me what my favourite song was - a very personal question indeed. I never got around to giving the answer.
But I thought I should let you know - the one I posted above is not the one I was going to play for you.
By
Martin, at Thu Apr 06, 12:11:00 p.m.
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