Tuesday, March 14, 2006

All About Meme





1. What is your favorite word?

This is so tough. I can't pick just one, so here's a small selection:

Sesquipedalian - Given to the use of polysyllabic words. Go figure, huh?
Cromulent - Fine; acceptable. 'cause it's polysyllabic. Makes me sound wicked smaht.
Defenestrate - To throw out of a window.
Perspicacity - Acuteness of perception, discernment or understanding.
and finally, just to bring down the tone:
Poop Deck. Because I really AM an eight-year old boy.

2. What irks you every time you hear it?

Irregardless. It makes me want to bang my head against a wall. Or better yet, slap the speaker of said WRONG word.
Should of, would of, could of. NO! It's HAVE. Not of.
Me and him. Me and her. Me and them. C'mon. It doesn't even SOUND correct.
People who go up? at the ends of their sentences? As if everything they said? Was a question?
Putting like in between every third word.

You want to know what would just make my head explode? The following sentence:
So, like, irregardless of the weather? Me and him? We, like, went for a walk? And then we went to the movies? And it was, like, really bad? So, we, like, left, right?

Ka-BOOM! Brains everywhere.

I need a t-shirt that says Grammar Rules. And I should probably add pedantic curmudgeon to my list of favourite words.


3. Name the first concert you ever went to.

The J. Geils Band at the original Gahden. Fuckin' rocked. Of course, I will now totally ruin what little musical cred I had by saying I followed that up by going to see (and shriek at) Rick Springfield.

4. Name a song you'll never get sick of hearing.

Thunder Road, by Bruce Springsteen. It's number one on my all-time, top ten desert island song list.
Also making the list (and because I like things in threes):
The Sickbed of Cuchullain - The Pogues
And anything by Steely Dan

5. What song, album, or band influenced you most as a teenager OR what song/album is the soundtrack of your youth?

Soundtrack of my childhood would be just about any AM radio staple of the 70s. Starland Vocal Band's Afternoon Delight. Tony Orlando & Dawn's Knock Three Times. Shawn Cassidy's Hey Deanie. Barry Manilow's Copacabana. The Grease sountrack.

Teenage years were all New Wave, all the time. U2 - Boy and War. The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Clash, The Jam, Duran Duran, The Smiths, Art of Noise, Squeeze, The Alarm, Echo & The Bunnymen, Crowded House and A-ha.

16 comments:

Shannon said...

I <3 Rick Springfield. Were you screaming and crying while he was up on stage singing Jesse's Girl? I would've been.

Thunderroad is my all time fave. It makes me want to buy a Harley and speed down the highway.

Major Bedhead said...

There was a lot of screaming going on. I lost my voice for two days after. It's embarassing to admit that now.

I just love the imagery in Thunder Road. "Make crosses from your lovers, throw roses in the rain."

And these lines still give me chills:
"There were ghosts in the eyes
Of all the boys you sent away
They haunt this dusty beach road
In the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets
They scream your name at night in the street
Your graduation gown lies in rags at their feet
And in the lonely cool before dawn
You hear their engines roaring on
But when you get to the porch they're gone
On the wind so Mary climb in
It's town full of losers
And I'm pulling out of here to win."

Jamie said...

Ugh - you must hate reading my blog. I hate grammar! LOL - I try, but I honestly suck at it.

Oh, and I would have been right up there with you screaming at Rick Springfield. I even started watching General Hospital to get a good gawk at him on TV. Yep, even had one of his records, listened to it over and over and over and over - scratches and all.

Have you seen the Time Life 70's collection of music? I have no life and actually watched it last weekend and OH the memories! All the music you listed and more. Reminded me of my childhood - my parents were young when they had me and they listened to all that stuff too. I would have considered buying the collection, except it cost too much ;P

Jamie said...

Oh, and that Rick Springfield album would have been "Working Class Dog".

:)

Shannon said...

Working Class Dog record was worn out, as were the rest of my family from me (or is it I, or maybe my) singing it on a daily basis.

Kerri. said...

My favorite words?
Topographic. Absquatulate. Sausage. Bit. Unsupervised. Roaming. Melodious. Copenhagen.

Irky thing?
When people say "On accident," instead of "By accident." Skin crawls. Rage bubbles to a boil. The speaker usually ends up dead or seriously embarrassed.

First concert?
Radiohead, 1997. Senior year of high school. Before anyone knew who they were. I'm not even sure the people I went with knew who they were. But I knew. And I sang along like a lonely emo kid.

Song I'll never tire of?
With or Without you - U2. The bassline grabs my stomach every time and makes me unable to breathe for about two seconds. I have to repeat assorted favorite words in my head in efforts to calm down. "Sausage ... Copenhagen ... Absquatulate..."

The Soundtrack to my Youth?
U2's "Boy." Rock me Amadeus by Berlin (I think). And the song Bird Bird sings in "Follow That Bird." It's just so damn sad. Poor Big Bird. Just the thought is making me cry ...

Copenhagen... Melodious ...

Major Bedhead said...

Rock Me, Amadeus is by Falco. Was by Falco, since Falco has shuffled off this mortal coil. Berlin did the oh-do-sappy Take My Breath Away from the equally squicky Top Gun.

I can't believe you saw Radiohead before they were Radiohead. I have this weird obsession with Thom Yorke.

The muppet song that makes me cry is "It's Not Easy Being Green." I know it's a bit cliched to cry over that song, but it gets me every time. That and the song about rainbows. Sarah McLachlan does a version of it that reduces me to a puddle. *snurfle*

Erica said...

LOL about the grammar thing! My poor dh had some kind of speech impediment when he was little - in his brain the words sound right but the signal got scrambled and came out of him mouth wrong - don't know the technical term... Anyway - he is forever misusing the english language and his wife, miss 800 verbal SATS is forever biting her tongue not to correct him ;-}

Erica said...

btw - how on earth do you pronounce "meme"? Mee-mee, Mem, Memmy, Meeem?

Jamie said...

Erica - thank you for asking that - I was wondering the same thing myself.

I don't want to be calling it the wrong thing on accident. (that one is for you, Kerri) heh heh.

Major Bedhead said...

Meem. I think. I could be wrong. It has been known to happen.

Lyrehca said...

I LOVED Depeche Mode. Saw them twice in concert. Bought the t-shirt. Still love them.

And yep, I still own the Working Class Dog album. In a closet in my house.

In fact, the only two concerts I saw last year were '80s wonders: Pat Benatar and Cyndi Lauper. Both rocked.

Joke said...

I live in a timewarp, driving a car from when I was but 21 (sigh) and listening to the music I listened to when I was 21ish.

I rule!

-J.

P.S. The best Springsteen song is, easily, "Badlands"

Major Bedhead said...

It's hard for me to find a bad Bruce Springsteen song, really.

Springsteen and New Wave. What a combination. :D

Joke said...

That combination sounds like my college years.

-J.

Allison said...

Just for the record, you say it pronounce it mee-mee.

Like say "me" as in yourself. Because the survey is about yourself. I'm not sure if this correct, but my friends (us lame high schoolers who have nothing better to do) have been doing Me-Me's for YEARS and that's how we always say it.

So I'm going with that.