Randomizer

Just some random thoughts from the past few days that will probably never coalesce into full-blown blog entries but, nonetheless, deserve airing.

Christmas Holiday music

Is there any song that gets dragged out once a year that is more tuneless, pointless, and more of an ear-worm than George Michael’s Last Christmas? Don’t believe me? Go watch the video and see if you can get the damn tune out of your head in less than two days and without repeated high-volume listenings of Lady Marmalade (either version but the original is better).

Question celebrity

Why do we care that Nicole Ritchie was arrested for drunk driving? What, besides being famous, has Nicole Ritchie ever actually done?

I wonder about fame a lot while I’m waiting in line at the grocery store and staring at the tabloids. I’m utterly convinced that Paris Hilton thinks that money is going to protect her from the ravages of her excesses. It will be interesting to watch as the years roll past because I don’t think the media circus is going to be any less frenzied in the next decade. If anything we will, indeed, fulfill Andy Warhol’s prediction.

And is it just me or is Ellen Pompeo from Grey’s Anatomy just a sexed up version of Melissa Gilbert?

Inspiration

The mythical “they” tell us that writers write what they know; that we draw on experiences from our own lives to create characters, stories, plots, and conflicts. To a certain extent this is true. I look at my own fiction and I can see where my life has influenced some of the characters and conflicts. I can also look at it and see 100% pure inspiration; an idea that came to me out of the ether because I happened to be listening at just the right time.

Driving across town today I was obsessively flipping radio stations in a semi-vain attempt to avoid said Christmas holiday music. Yes, even our one remaining classical station has gone to holiday tunes, and while I like The Nutcracker I can only hear The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies so many times in a week before I want to scream.

The oldies station was playing Bob Seger’s Night Moves and I stopped because, frankly, I like the song (deal with it). And while listening the thought occured to me: somewhere in the world there is, most likely, a 50-something woman who hears that song and regularly thinks “You may not have been in love, buddy, but I sure was!”

Just random thoughts that have come unbidden during the holiday frenzy.