Blast You, Minge!

That feisty queen tagged me! Wailey! Wailey!

Well, OK, so I'm flattered that someone cares about my opinion, but these are hard questions. "Next time make it easier for me, OK, handsome?"

Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies:
I didn't so much give away copies as loaned everybody mine, but Sean Stewart's Mockingbird. At least three other people read the book, and it is no longer in my possession. It is well-written, and is extremely enjoyable with it's mixture of realism and fantasy.

Also: Gideon Defoe's The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists. Because it is a freaking hoot! And there have been many, many others, including Karen Joy Fowler's Jane Austen Book Club, Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, and Alan Moore & Eddie Campbell's From Hell.

Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music:
Um, it's not a piece of music so much as an album. I borrowed Pet Shop Boys' Discography from the guy across the hall in my dorm on the last day of my freshman year at university. Keeping in mind that I already knew some of the songs from my youth, I was just completely blown away to hear them, alongside all these brilliant songs that I had never heard before. Up to that point, I listened almost exclusively to alternative rock -- The Smiths, Pixies, REM -- but this album threw my musical tastes wide open. It proved to be a gateway music to disco, which, in itself, got me completely into 60s & 70s soul and funk. At the same time, their references to classical music got me interested in such composers as Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy. They're also at least partly responsible for my interest in Noel Coward, Stephen Sondheim, and Dusty Springfield. They molded my idea of what pop music is, and what it can accomplish, and what can be expected from it. I found a music that spoke to something fundamental in me, music that had a wider view of the world than the petty complaints of white, suburban youth. Not only that, it was music made by gay folks. So, you know, bonus. Plus it was the music that convinced me that I should dance, no matter how self-conscious I am, and no matter how stupid I looked. Pet Shop Boys are still my favorite musical group.

Although I still don't like "West End Girls" very much.

Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue:
I have a few: Written on the Wind, Letter from an Unknown Woman, I Walked with a Zombie, There's Always Tomorrow, The Heiress, Rebecca, Smiles of a Summer Night, Hairspray. I could probably come up with a few more, but that's good enough for now. Most of these are weepies, because I've noticed that sad movies retain their emotional impact for me better than comedies do. And because I am a complete pushover for melodrama of the non-camp variety.

Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief:
Barbara Stanwyck. Even in her stupid movies (Cattle Queen of Montana, anybody?), she just MAKES me believe her. And even her stupid roles are acted intelligently.

Name a work of art you'd like to live with:
I could probably come up with something better if I weren't so tired, but right now, all I can think about is that I would really love if I could have one room of my apartment papered with the Cow wallpaper that Andy Warhol used to cover galleries with. That would be so, indescribably cool! Albeit difficult to coordinate my furniture with.

Name a work of fiction that has penetrated your real life:
Wow, that sounds pretty personal. Penetrated how, exactly?

The work of literary fiction that I have most often found myself idly thinking about in my every day life is Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Mostly because it is a novel that traffics very heavily in metaphor, and I am nothing if not a metaphorophile. The problem is, by saying this, I basically make myself look like the most pretentious individual on the planet. Which, you may be thinking, almost goes without saying.

Wait, a work of fiction can also be a television show, right? Well, in that case the answer would have to be Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Oddly, for many of the same reasons listed above. It's all a metaphor for growing up. Julie and I (and occasionally Jolie) would plan our Tuesday nights around it, and watch it together, and then discuss what we watched. And, if you really want to see me bawl, just show me the episode where Buffy's mom dies. I'm not so much into it as I was when it was on the air, but it shaped how I think about television shows since I first watched it.

Name a punch line that always makes you laugh:
This was the easiest question to answer. From Arrested Development:

Buster: "Mmmm, so watery, and yet there's a smack of ham to it!"

Comic genius, never fails to crack me up completely every time. I even start laughing when I just remember the line. To see it, click below.

I tag whoever feels like being tagged: I don't have enough faith that people read my blog to tag anyone.