Game: Ask the Person Below You

[bounty]

muse do you mean that from the perspective of that you wanted vampires to remain in the realm of "dark" and/or "evil?"

troyia--I came late to the twilight phenomenon and have become a big fan.

im going to put forth one of my all time favorite books as the most obscure only because its relatively old (1857) and I think that even most people who are into literature have never heard of it, much less read it. tom brown's schooldays by Thomas hughes.

what widely acclaimed/well-praised famous book did you loathe?

[Dark Muse]

muse do you mean that from the perspective of that you wanted vampires to remain in the realm of "dark" and/or "evil?"

That is part of it, my vampires don't necessarily always have to be pure evil but still I like them to be on the darker side. But also I don't like how mainstream and cliche the Twilight popularity made vampires. They have become too conventional.

Kind of like what Pirates of the Caribbean movies did to pirates (though I admit I loved those movies) I was annoyed with seeing skull and cross bones everywhere and everyone wearing them.

That is a tough one loathe is a strong word but the first one that comes to mind when I saw the question was Lolita. I don't know if I would really go as far to say I loathed the book, but I don't quite get what everyone loves so much about it or sees in it. It seemed like the sort of think I should like, but really the narrative style just didn't do anything for me and there were moments when I just found the story boring.

What is the longest book you have read?

[bounty]

hmm, not that im necessarily trying to talk you into giving the series a chance muse, but, with little exception (the cullens and their "cousins") the rest of the vampires in the story are all kinds of dark.

I particularly liked the romance between the two main characters and the tensions they had to face and resolve given their very different worlds. I went into it a bit reluctantly and found myself, despite myself, liking Edward. I thought, I cant do this, im supposed to hate vampires!

I wonder if Lolita is overrated? it might be easy for me to say because im not literarily formally educated, but I wonder if so much of the appeal is just the taboo of the story itself?

for my part, I hated moby dick, and a catcher in the rye.

I answered that question before and I think I might have overestimated my answer---the internet's telling me that tom Clancy's sum of all fears is 928 pages...maybe it just felt like it was 1100! laughs...

do you sing along and/or sometimes dance to music that's playing when no one's around?

[Dark Muse]

hmm, not that im necessarily trying to talk you into giving the series a chance muse, but, with little exception (the cullens and their "cousins") the rest of the vampires in the story are all kinds of dark.

I particularly liked the romance between the two main characters and the tensions they had to face and resolve given their very different worlds. I went into it a bit reluctantly and found myself, despite myself, liking Edward. I thought, I cant do this, im supposed to hate vampires!

I wonder if Lolita is overrated? it might be easy for me to say because im not literarily formally educated, but I wonder if so much of the appeal is just the taboo of the story itself?

for my part, I hated moby dick, and a catcher in the rye.

I answered that question before and I think I might have overestimated my answer---the internet's telling me that tom Clancy's sum of all fears is 928 pages...maybe it just felt like it was 1100! laughs...

do you sing along and/or sometimes dance to music that's playing when no one's around?

I hate to sound consistently contradictory but I am not much one for romances and YA romances I tend to find particularly nauseating. I think my biased against the book is too strong for me to overcome if I did try and read it. When I first heard about it because of my love for vampires I was interested, but than I heard about it to death, and Twilight fans ruined my blog (That is a whole other story).

Catcher in the Rye is one of my personal favorite but a lot of people cannot stand it. Moby Dick I liked way more than I had ever thought I would.

Yes, all the time

Do you have a hidden talent that most people don't know about? (It is up to you if you want to share what it actually is)

[bounty]

muse, despite our irreconcilable differences as concerns twilight and a catcher in the rye, I still wanna go out on a date with your avatar! smiles...

and lemme pass your question along:

Do you have a hidden talent that most people don't know about? (It is up to you if you want to share what it actually is)

[Dark Muse]

Haha yes she is quite mysterious

[bounty]

and her lips are pretty good too! smiles...

im just about to start reading anne rice's the mummy. I have 3-4 of her vampire books---have you read those? and if so, whaddya think?

[Dark Muse]

I am actually a big Anne Rice fan. I love her, I own almost all of her books, and read most of them. Just have a few, mostly some of her newer ones which I haven't read yet. Interview With A Vampire is one my favorite books by her.

The Mummy I also really liked a lot. With the whole zombie thing mummies are really kind of out these days (and I know her book was written before the zombie boom) but I really like it when people do new stuff with mummies and she always has such an original take on legendary monsters.

[bounty]

i'll have to let you know how it goes. maybe if I end up really liking it i'll go right into interview with a vampire.

hidden talent? probably not, but I used to do this fun little thing in class with students and most of them couldn't replicate it, at least after a short time period---set a quarter on the edge of a table, with ~1/4 of the quarter hanging over the side. with your palm down, place your finger tips directly underneath the quarter, flip it up and catch it immediately. "immediately" will be reckoned by the simultaneousness of catching the quarter and your closed fist resting on the table where the quarter had previously sat.

on a more useful note, im good with maps, direction, geographical orientation, etc. and of course the all important knowing how much water to cook how much pasta (as opposed to wasting water) and how much sauce to be heating up at the same time!

whats your favorite book and movie combination?

[Dark Muse]

I am going to have to go with the Great Gatsby. I love that book and I absolutely loved the 2013 Leonardo DiCaprio version. I thought that movie was brilliant!

What is the strangest movie you have seen?

[North Star]

What is the strangest movie you have seen?

Strangest? Hm. There is so many levels on which a movie can be strange. Frankenheimer's Seconds and Roeg's Don't Look Now come to my mind first, and now I realize how these are similar in some ways. I'll say Seconds is the one I feel is the more strange, though.

What is your favourite movie music - not sth you'd necessarily listen without the movie, just sth that works very well in the movie?

[bounty]

muse---I think troyia is reading great Gatsby and liking it. I believe I just read that in the "what are you reading now" thread.

I took a music and the film course in college and ever since then, I think I consciously pay attention to the music in the movie and how it jibes with the scene and how its making me feel.

three movies come to mind in terms of background instrumental soundtracks---one is the last of the mohicans (my celtic/folk bent showing), the star wars movies (the music accompanies and contrasts luke and darth vader really well) and kill bill. there are at least three outstanding music choices for scenes in that movie---one is when O-Ren Ishii and her bodyguards are entering the house of blues (tomoyasu hotei's battle without honor or humanity), the next when Beatrix first confronts O-Ren Ishii (ennio moricone's death rides a horse) and lastly when the two of them square off in a sword duel to santa esmerelda's don't let me be misunderstood. that particular scene (the opening parts of it) is amongst my favorite in all of movies.

on other hand, I recently watched guardians of the galaxy and thought the use of the old 70/80s tunes that the main character loved and listened to throughout the movie was exceptionally well done.

and I thoroughly enjoy rock of ages and will watch scenes from that over and over and over...but that's maybe a different question.

what song (or songs) takes you right back to a particular place and time in your life?

[Dark Muse]

Schism by Tool
Head Like A Hole by NIN
The Bad Touch by Bloodhound Gang
Everything You Want by Vertical Horizon

What was your first (that you can remember) favorite song and or group?

[Hawkman]

The first record I ever owned was Hard Day's Night by the Beatles. The seven inch single has Things we Said today on the B side, which I actually prefer. I've still got this record. I actually played it for the first time in thirty years the othe day. It still sounds as good as when it was pressed in 1966.

What was the worst job you ever had?

[tonywalt]

Popeyes fried chicken in high school. (hard f'n work, and not my thing).

what was the best job you ever had that you do not have now? (sorry for the caveat, just want to remove rationalizations, or the temptation).