Thursday's Inspirational Quote of the Day
"Those who wish to sing always find a song."
— Swedish Proverb

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender wishes you a musical day!
Keep reading for more of today's posts including an article on how to buy a sword.
"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: inspirational quote, quote of the day, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, dragon, sing, song

Friday's Inspirational Quote of the Day
"The greatest moments of the human spirit may be deduced from the greatest moments in music."
— Aaron Copland

Fantasy Author Sandy Lender wishes you a great and moving day!
Keep reading for today's odd installment in the pseudonym discussion. Commenting on it still counts toward the eBook contest. :)
"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
Tags: inspirational quote, quote of the day, fantasy author, Sandy Lender, dragon, human spirit, music, Aaron Copland

Greatest Songs of the Seventies
Meme me, baby

No mocking me, now, but I’m a member of the Barry Manilow International Fan Club (hey, I love the man) and his PR machine (which works overtime, let me tell you) sent me a message late last week inviting me to vote for my favorite thirteen songs of the two-hundred he’d narrowed down from the canon of seventies tunes he could include on his upcoming covers album. Fantastic! I got to weigh in!

I carefully considered which ones I would ABSOLUTELY DIE to hear Mr. Manilow sing, which ones I thought he could market in 2007/2008, and which ones I thought he’d sound great singing, and came up with the list I’ll post below.

But here’s the meme I’m sending out! List your top five songs of the seventies. Yes, I said seventies. What five songs moved you then to such heights that you can still listen to them now if they come on on the Old Fuddy Duddy Station when you’re in the car? This might be easier after I stir your memory banks with my top thirteen list (in no particular order) that I want Mr. Manilow to perform…

Cecilia
Hooked on a Feeling
I’m Not in Love
Imagine
Lady (hopefully the one by LRB)
Pina Colada Song
Silly Love Songs
You Light Up My Life
You’ve Got a Friend
Take a Chance on Me
She Believes in Me
Maybe I’m Amazed
Everything I Own

And here are the folks I tag to answer the meme challenge!
Michelle (M.B. Weston, author of A Prophecy Forgotten, www.elysianchronicles.com)
Tina Murray (author of A Chance to Say Yes, http://achancetosayyes.blogspot.com)
The Author Mike (author of Jessie Remembers, www.freewebs.com/justsaywhat)
Dorothy Thompson (co-author of The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost, www.overthehillchick.blogspot.com)
Jamieson Wolf (author of Garden City, http://www.jamiesonwolf.blogspot.com)
Thingfish23 (http://tamingoftheband-aid.blogspot.com)

Now, this isn’t to say you visitors can’t participate, too. If you’re just stoppin’ by and this tickles your fancy, there’s a comment link just beneath my tagline about dragons winning the day. And you don’t have to come up with five if you don’t want to. No rules for you to adhere to! You can just list one that’s your favorite… And yes, anything off the ’73 release of Houses of the Holy is fair game! Rock on!


“Some days, you just want the dragon to win.”

Tags: music, Barry Manilow, meme

Vote Like A Democrat in Chicago...Often!

Okay, guys. Please forgive me...but...if you wouldn't mind...

Duran Duran's "Rio" video is up for nomination as one of the top videos to influence music videos. If you wouldn't mind...this takes all of three seconds to do once the Web site comes up on your screen. All you have to do is scroll to the blurb about Duran Duran's "Rio" (it's the one with the handsome man in a white suit with a blue shirt and white tie on the front of a yacht with his mouth open) and click on "vote for this video" or "vote for it" or whatever the link told me to do at the bottom of the text blurb. The screen will bring up a nice little list where you click on the button for "Rio" and "vote". Easy as pie!

THANK YOU!
http://music.aol.co.uk/specials/music-videos-that-changed-the-world/article/20060727064509990022

The video is fabulous, by the way. Hot guys, beautiful women, fast boats, cheesy plastic phones, stunning scenery instead of staid studio musicians in white, boring rooms. This was cutting edge in the early '80s and made people sit up and take note...Cherry ice cream smile, kids!

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."

Gimme Your Favorite O-So Inspired Lyrics

Have you ever been listening to a song on the radio, singin' along, groovin' out, when you suddenly thought, "Wait, what did he just say?" A friend of mine once pointed out that Blondie's "Call Me" has a line that sounds just like she's yelling "corned beef…on rye", and I've not been able to hear the real words since. But the real words to some songs are just as bad as the stuff we imagine we hear. Consider the literary genius of Starship's "We Built This City on Rock and Roll".

My favorite bizarre line out of a contemporary (and I'll use that word in an all-encompassing sense) music song is from Paul Davis's "'65 Love Affair":

Well I acted like a dumb dumb
You were bad with your pom poms

Fabulous. The thing is, I really like the song, but, even as a youngster hearing the song I thought, "Wait, what did he just say?"

One of my girlfriends likes the banality of Toto's "Roseanna, yeah!" Surely we can all get stopped in our tracks by several lyrics out of the Black Eyed Peas's catalog (and don't get me wrong; I love the BEP). So what's your favorite inspired moment of creative writing set to music? What bizarre lyric in a song makes you grin? Share! (Maybe we'll do serious lyrics next time...)

"Some days, you just want the dragon to win."