If my brain is going a mile a minute, I can frequently break the cycle with music. But it has to be more than simple background music, I need something almost “meta” about the song that pulls me out of the song and makes me think about the writing, or admire the lyricist’s choice of phrasing.

Harry Chapin’s songs from the 70s are almost all stories, from Cats in the Cradle to Taxi, so there’s lots of things in them that get me thinking about the backstory or the “other” elements that you could fill in if you were to flesh them out into a novel, for example. My favourite is probably A Better Place To Be, about “a little midnight watchman, a rotund waitress, and a woman he picked up one night” (the description he gives in his live album). It is also one of the few “LIVE” albums I like, other than Bob Seger. Most of the time I hate them, but his live album has a great feel to it.

This past week, I’ve been pulling songs that have the ability to distract me and pull me out of whatever funk I’m in. And they’re eclectic.

First up, Follow Me by Uncle Kracker. It’s likely the only song I would like of his, and the only one I can name. It’s a song about adultery, which you would think would automatically go nowhere good. But it’s presented as a completely up-tempo song with lyrics that are compelling:

I’m not worried about the ring you wear,
‘Cause as long as no one knows, then nobody can care.
You’re feeling guilty and I’m well aware,
But you don’t look ashamed and baby I’m not scared.

I’m singin’

Follow me, everything is all right
I’ll be the one to tuck you in at night
And if you want to leave I can guarantee
You won’t find nobody else like me

It is a perfect picture, even if not salutary. You can picture the “addiction” in the song, a perfect representation of just about every “cheating” scene in TV or movies, people who are too afraid / disrespectful to end their marriage and go with the person they actually love. Every time I hear it, I start thinking of scenes I could write in fiction.

The next one is a slight nudge to the left of that above far-right position, but still harsh, and it is a double-version release. CeeLo Green has two versions of the same song, one explicit and one PG — F*** you and Forget You. I first heard the song on Glee, even though I wasn’t a regular viewer. I only tuned in for Gwyneth Paltrow’s visit, and when one of the students suggests she’s too old to be cool, i.e., “like 40 or something”, she replies, “Top 40 maybe”. Then she sings Forget You. I liked it enough to look up the original, partly because I love the beat. It has some amusing lyrics of course.

Yeah I’m sorry, I can’t afford a Ferrari
But that don’t mean I can’t get you there

I guess he’s an X-box, and I’m more Atari
But the way you play your game ain’t fair

While the song is average, I love multiple things about this song. First, the lyric above — an XBox and Atari metaphor? Cool. Second, they throw in some background responses to the lead that have some killer lines, particularly in the explicit version.

I pity the fool that falls in love with you oh (Oh ssh she’s a gold digger)
Well (Just thought you should know n*****)

In the explicit version, the song drops those lines like they’re natural conversation. Hard to believe, I know, but it WORKS perfectly. The imagery of the person saying them is clear, as is where they’re coming from in the “conversation”. A verboten word, correctly and expertly used in the only semi-acceptable version possible.

But the third reason, the part that blows me away, is that BOTH versions work. Explicit and raw or PG and pop-py, they both are viable songs that did well.

The next one in my list goes way over to the pop lists. Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. I won’t try to convince you that it’s the greatest song ever or anything, but there are two lines I love:

You took your time with the call, I took no time with the fall

***

Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad

The next two are from the country realm, and I like them both for the same reason — they take a phrase from pop culture or common language, twist it a bit, and give us a whole new picture. The first is Single White Female by Chely Wright. In it, she takes the SWF language from personal ads and turns it into her refrain.

Single white female
Looking for that special lover
To put it in a nutshell
A one women man who doesn’t want no other
Oh, you never can tell
She just might be your dream come true
A single white female
Is looking for a man like you

The second is from Bonnie Raitt, Something To Talk About. Before I get to the refrain, let’s talk for a moment about the song itself. It’s basically about one friend wondering if they shouldn’t have put someone else in the Friend Zone and missed out on something great. In movies and TV, the scenario is often portrayed as the shy, retiring librarian or nerd type longing for their best friend, who is chasing the latest hot guy/chick to walk by. Almost always, the person being longed for has seemingly NO IDEA of the other’s feelings. I find it unlikely that the thought NEVER occurs to two single people who regularly spend time together as best friends, but hey, no angst/no story. This one is a bit different. There’s no obvious longing, it is basically the girl being surprised that there’s a rumour about them, and it knocks her out of her innocent view of her friend enough to consider, “What if…?”.

And lastly, we come to a strange one for many reasons. The song is called Dragonhearted by, wait for it, TryHardNinja. This is an artist that is quite prolific in the gamer world, often adding words to what would be normal gamer background techno music.

Sometimes even shooting stars
Find wishes that miss their marks.

But when the night gets too dark
And the road home seems too far

We’ll see the sun come up again
We will climb higher than we’ve been
We got a fire that burns within

We are the Dragonhearted
We are the Dragonhearted

Jacob found them through gaming and YouTube videos, and while most of the songs he pulls out from gaming aren’t ready for mass consumption, there’s something about this one that rises above, in my view. I also like that it is a song I wouldn’t know existed if my son didn’t find and share it with me. I love listening to it while he sings along. But I do still like the upbeat message — we are the Dragonhearted!

I threw all of them into a playlist, and I’ll add others over time. They’re an eclectic mix, and I have others that will fit the bill for other reasons too. Ultimately, they’re my “anti-funk” mix, designed to pull me out of my head and embrace the light. Maybe I’ll write a story about a cheating lover who suddenly figures out she’s in love with her best friend, but has to find the courage of a dragon to give people something to talk about. Or, maybe they’ll just provide me with #morejoy.

On Day 6, I mentioned the PolyWogg Reading Challenge (#MoreJoy – Day 6 of 31 – My Reading Challenge), and it is a bit of a chicken-and-egg dilemma which one I would write about first, as they go hand-in-hand.

I like reading, first and foremost. And after reading pretty much any book, I like writing a review. Some people like doing reviews as it is like a bookmark for them…a milestone that says “I read this”, while others are content merely to add the book name to a spreadsheet or app or website to track what they’ve read. Others are more interested in the next book than keeping track of other books. And others keep a list, but not for any milestone purpose other than to prevent themselves from buying the same book again! I feel all those desires too, but there is something different about my madness.

I like writing reviews because I like organizing my thoughts around the book. Did I like it for the style? The plot? The characters? The diversion?

Did I feel “meh” because it was simply not compelling to me on any level? Did I find myself “forcing” myself to finish it?

Yet my reviews don’t stop at books. I want to do the same with TV episodes even, movies, music, etc. I don’t feel the urge to review telescopes, so it isn’t universal, but I do like the idea of reviewing accessories like smartphone adapters. I don’t review electronics, but I might review an app or two. Or 100.

In a way, it is tightly tied to my curation desire for knowledge. I like pulling a bunch of wayward bits of information together into a framework for a more coherent whole. And so I write multiple types of reviews.

Yet therein lies part of the rub. It is easy to get BEHIND on reviews, except there’s no deadline. I have lots of books that I have read in the last 2 years that I haven’t done a review for yet, as well as movies. Or whole seasons of TV shows. I’m also somewhat unclear if there is an audience for any of the reviews. I don’t promote them widely or anything, I’m not trying to drum up a large following.

Way back when I was first starting my website, I loved the idea of doing NEW movie reviews the same weekend it was released. See it opening day, review it opening night, share my views before the hordes make their decisions. Yet I also like having a life too. Back then, I didn’t have much of one and that was one direction I considered pursuing long-term if I was single. That’s a much more complicated story than I have space or time for right here, but I considered trying to make myself into an amateur reviewer.

The significance of that time though leads directly to two other aspects that continue. First, I take my reviews seriously enough to try to do them respectfully, not some tongue-in-cheek, drive-by review. Second, I created a structure that takes some time to write. I can’t dash off a review in 30s, or even 5m. A book review can take me 20-30m to write, plus I then copy it to multiple sites for sharing, save the review in a couple of places for local backup / tracking, and then move on. I binged 35 books back in June, and that means if I review them normally, I’m looking at a minimum of 20h to review them all. That is NOT happening. I need to come up with a new format to review books that is shorter and punchier, not the full-length review that I normally do.

And I’m EXCITED by the idea of coming up with a new format.

Did I mention I LIKE writing reviews? Thinking about reviews? Thinking about how I communicate about reviews? How I share my reviews?

That I like writing ABOUT reviews, as I’m doing now?

I have a dream that when I die, I’ll be all caught up on my reviews. In the meantime, I’m going to enJOY the writing.

Okay, I admit it. I said MY reading challenge. It is…and it isn’t.

Three years ago, I created a private group on FB and invited only friends to join, if they wanted to do so. I had seen a bunch of online challenges where people read different types of books, some used Bingo cards, some used the alphabet, some only read certain genres, and others were over-the-top complicated or underwhelmingly self-promotion where all the books were by the same publisher. Yawn.

Enter the PolyWogg Reading Challenge. MINE would be different! I’d pull from the best, discard the rest; I’d find some hooks, we’d embrace the same books! Okay, so poetry wasn’t on the list.

Annnnd I made it too complicated. I tried creating a Bingo Card-style exercise, and while it was okay, it wasn’t really creating a “sharing” atmosphere. We were all reading different things at different times. More like people travelling at the same time but to different destinations and with different modes of transport. The only thing we had in common was that we were reading.

Year 2, 2020, I tweaked the setup. I asked for feedback from the handful of people subscribed, we chose some themes/categories, and I added simple badges. It worked, generally, and I tweaked it a bit more for Year 3.

In January, I set the themes for each month of the year, and based on the input from people, I generally have three types of books to read:

a. Reader’s choice — anything they want can fit in here, no one has to listen to me and my choices, they can be REBEL READERS! Embrace their anarchy!

b. Thematic choice — I give a bit of guidance for the theme / category but usually there is a fair bit of room for choice (as people requested); and,

c. Challenge books — these are often a bit denser, and while I sometimes give wide choice, sometimes I pick 2 or 3 books that I want to read and thus putting them on the list helps encourage me to read at least one of them!

Over the last two years, some members have added a few more people, and we have just over 20 or so subscribers. But in any given month, probably only 8 or 9 active posters.

I suspected that we could potentially morph into a traditional book club where in any given month, we might all be reading the same thing. That absolutely hasn’t happened. But what I really like is the sharing and interaction between members. One person will read a book, and recommend it, and then next month or the month after that, the same title shows up on other people’s list for the month, based on the earlier review. People have shared books in physical form too.

But what I love about all of this is that not all of them know each other. They mostly all know me, although a couple are 2 degrees of separation away through another member. And while some of them know each other more than that, most of them primarily interact in the forum. That’s their connection.

Which I didn’t exactly expect, but I should have, probably. When I ran my trivia game by email back in the late 90s, some of the people met through my game and asked to connect to other players who they were competing with regularly. The other person agreed to “match” emails, so they connected. And started talking. Plus I am still friends with someone on FB that I met through that trivia game, a friend of a friend of a friend of someone I barely knew.

I really enjoy reading people’s feedback on the books they are reading, as well as seeing the interactions between people who mainly only know each other through the group. It’s small, it’s intimate, and I would be open to it growing a bit larger, but I would never want it to get above 20-30 active people I don’t think. I like the 2 degrees of separation feel to it.

And interacting with people about books, instead of memes or the news? That always brings me joy.