I ducked until now

But kijjohnson tagged me, and I simply cannot tell her "No."

List eight of your favorite songs and then pick eight people to do the same:

"Into the West" by Annie Lennox
"Why Should I Cry For You" by Sting
"The Mystic's Dream" by Loreena McKennitt
"Ce He Mis Le Ulaingt (The Two Trees)" by Loreena McKennitt
"Songs from the Woods" by Jethro Tull
"Once I Was the King of Spain" by Moxie Fruvas
"Shout" by the Isley Brothers
"Red Rain" by Peter Gabriel

Notes (I agree with weaselmom that it's good the meme calls for "eight favorite songs" rather than "favorite eight songs." It's exceedingly difficult to narrow the list down):

1. It's all about my LOTR addiction, baby.
2. Reminds me of my first book.
3. This was the first song I heard her sing in concert. The performance made me go out to the lobby during intermission and get every single one of her CDs. It blew me away. I listened to this album over and over as I worked on Swans
4. Can't think of a better song to explain what it's like living with depression--and how to get over it.
5. From my young adulthood. And hey, it's on kijjohnson's list!
6. Infectiously fun.
7. This was done at the dance at my wedding reception and the weddings of all my siblings. Very fond memories of dancing wildly in a crowd to this.
8. See note to #5.

The eight lucky bastards:*

aome
madlorivoldmort
scott_lynch
moony
heidi8
cakmpls
lkw18
cruisedirector

(*If you've done this meme already and I missed it, just point me to the entry)

Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith: Breadbox Edition

Here it is, from evadne_noel. Quite funny.

Questions

Gacked from eugie:

Okay, I'll bite. (But I'm going to go off and try to write for awhile, so answers may be a little slow in coming).

[Poll #509253]

The Sound of Paper

kijjohnson gave me Julie Cameron's The Sound of Paper for my birthday. It seems to be a book about regenerating the creative process if you've been blocked, and god knows, that is up my alley. I started reading it and did the first exercise tonight.

I have mixed feelings about Julie Cameron. I read The Artist's Way and there were parts of that book that really spoke to me. But I cannot get her conception of the morning pages to work for me. (Write three pages longhand every morning, before you get out of bed, about anything, no matter what). She swears that it will Unlock the Font of Creativity within you. I tried, I really did. I did them religiously for months. But as you'll remember, I've been doing a daily journal every night (one page) for going on thirty years. Three pages in the morning seemed redundant (especially since I was doing LiveJournal, too), and I didn't have time. And I couldn't understand what was so magical about them, when I've been doing practically the same thing at night. I wasn't getting the Magical Unlocking of Your Creativity that she swore would happen, and I kept wondering "What's wrong with me?"

Finally, it occurred to me that I had written two perfectly good novels that sold without doing morning pages. (Well, duh.) I stopped doing them immediately and have never resumed, although I still do the night (paper) journal and LiveJournal. I don't miss the morning pages, and it was a relief to cut one other source of guilt out of my life. However, I still remain blocked.

I like her idea of the artist date, though, and I did really like some of the exercises in The Artist's Way. I really must scan the collage I made and post it. She suggested taking pictures and phrases from magazines and pasting them on a page for about an hour. I really got into it and worked on it for about a week. I liked the result so much that I laminated it when I was through. I'm really quite proud of it, and it's still up where I can see it in my office.

So anyway, I'll read and try the exercises in this new book, and try to be open and hopeful.

But no morning pages, dammit.

Tonight's culinary experiment

It's a hot night. I wanted something nice, without overdoing it. I took a small amount of vanilla ice cream (about half a cup), grated some fresh ginger over it, and mixed in some candied crystallized ginger and ate it very slowly.

Mmmmm. I recommend it.