Printer-friendly version
Forums:
Taxonomy upgrade extras:
How about taking popular songs and create stories out of them for a contest,,,maybe The Who song "I'm a Boy" or Queen's Son and Daughter, Lou Reed song take a walk in the wildside...Ziggy Startdust..Arnold Layne...lots of weird songs to work with...anyone up for it?
Why not?
I'm game (er, less of the cat calls there, please)
Could you sort of mix and match perhaps, taking bits from many songs or would you just have to choose one?
make it a real challenge
Get a list of willing suckers... er, authors. Then take a list of songs proposed by all and sundry. The songs should not be too obscure but don't have to be anything related to TG at all. Just songs. Then the authors get tossed a song and if they accept the challenge have to take the songs story and make it into a ah... story.
Time limit?? The author has to know the song and agree to run with it... and then... hey ya got ya'selves a challenge. Um... I think I'm going on hols for a while... kidding. I'm game...gulp...
Kristina
Ooooh That's fighting talk
Sounds good.
Let's get on with it then...
hey, I do ideas...
Details is someone elses job.
It's quarter to 1 so I'm off ta bed. Happy challenges guys.
Kristina
Two songs
Erin's Sledgehammer and my own Jingle Jangle Morning are both on the front page now. Do they count? ::smile::
-- Donna Lamb, Flack
-- Donna Lamb, ex-Flack
Some of my books and stories are sold through DopplerPress to help support BigCloset. -- Donna
No
That's cheating and anyway, your story doesn't follow Mr. Tambourine man at all - apart from using the jingly-jangly bit (no offense).
No, this one will have to be written for the task ahead and that goes for Erin too. Just because she runs the place doesn't give her privilages where this is concerned.
???
Actually, I used the lyrics of Mr. Tambourine Man as an outline of the story, so if that story doesn't qualify (other than being too previous), I'm not at all sure what would. ::puzzled look::
-- Donna Lamb, Flack
-- Donna Lamb, ex-Flack
Some of my books and stories are sold through DopplerPress to help support BigCloset. -- Donna
My apologies
I meant no disrespect, I just didn't see that when I read it.
Anyway, it doesn't qualify so there!
I'm in!
Sounds like fun! Still working on my Stardust entry though, so I'm hoping this takes a while to set up. *grin*
Randalynn
I shouldn't think it will be that quick
I don't suppose it will be THAT quick in coming together so I would presume you'll be alright.
Sounds like Nivana, um, Teen Spirt
... I don't have to worry about keeping a man
if I keep this blonde and I keep these tan, because
I'm blonde, yeah yeah!
Randa, this sounds tough, I mean, look at the Beatles ...
...
Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be ...
This will not be easy.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Ooh, Weird Al...
... did a parody of Smells Like Teen Spirit called Smells Like Nirvana -- could be fun!
Edeyn Hannah Blackeney
Wasn't it Jim Henson who said, "Without faith, I am nothing," after all? Wait, no, that was God. Sorry, common mistake...
Yay Weird Al!
He's like one of my favorite musicians. I don't really do a whole lotta collecting for most artists, even when I like their music a lot, but I've got bunches and bunches of his songs.
Heather Rose Brown :)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Groucho Marx
I don't there needs to be a hard time limit,
Due to the Stardust contest I'd say by end of year...unless Erin wants to make it a new contest. As for songs, I'll take either I'm a Boy or Son and Daughter by Queen. Or did you guys want to come up with a list of songs and the pick and choose or random draw? I do think it is better if the person knows and likes the song they get.
I also agree that already written and posted stories don't count no matter how good they are (sorry Donna) :)
Hugs!!
Alexis
I think this will take some thinking
Kris reckoned that a list is compiled and we just get lumped one - that we know.
I see flaws in that as it may be difficult to get a list we can all agree on.
I like the idea that we all do different songs - no duplication. That way you get to choose, but that may be seen as unfair since it would have to be a first come first serve sort of basis, I would think and may be difficult to co-ordinate.
See, I think we need to think about it.
I have dibs on "Believe it or not!"
Greetings,
I'c like to claim "Believe it or not" otherwise known as the theme from the Greatest American Hero (and Heroine) Sung by Joey Scarbury Written by (M. Post/S. Geyer)on the album - America's Greatest Hero Copyright 1981 Elektra Records.
My Entry in the Writing Challenge is
Sorceress in Flying Solo
Believe it or not! :: giggle::
Hope you all enjoy!
All my hopes,
Sasha Nexus
All my hopes
Sasha Zarya Nexus
You do know...
The Greatest American Hero is available on DVD now, all 3 seasons! And as an extra on the first season is the pilot to The Greatest American Heroine (which never aired).
Edeyn Hannah Blackeney
Wasn't it Jim Henson who said, "Without faith, I am nothing," after all? Wait, no, that was God. Sorry, common mistake...
American Hero
I think mine would have to be Mark Twain.
It's a bit off topic I know, but I think he was really switched on, an awsome writer and definitely someone with talents to aspire to.
Sorry, back to the plot...
Mark Twain
Talented and observant, and "switched on" to the world around him... most definitely. He was also a chain-smoking, womanizing, drunken brawler in his twenties. In later years, he still smoke, drank, and had numerous high-profile affairs with women that were not his wife -- though when she died, he went on a trip around the world being a cynical bastard to people from all over instead of limiting it to those here in the US. All in all, he was one of the best authors, EVER... but he was no hero.
Edeyn Hannah Blackeney
Wasn't it Jim Henson who said, "Without faith, I am nothing," after all? Wait, no, that was God. Sorry, common mistake...
Sam Clemens
Clemens didn't drink at all on one notorious pubcrawl through the saloons of London with a famous companion, Rudyard Kipling!
His womanizing was also much exaggerated in the telling; he was a flirt mostly. :)
Clemens was a study in contradiction and yes, he's one of my heroes, too. A very human one.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Oh, don't doubt
that I admire the man. His writing, even when he had lost faith in his abilities was nothing short of awe-inspiring. If we're talking about just his writing and observational abilities, then yeah, I pretty much idolize him, too! The other stuff, well, it can be overlooked as his private business, but he took pains to make sure the press knew about it! One story about him in San Francisco was that an "anonymous" tip told a newspaper reporter about all the scandalous places and people he'd be seen with in the next 24 hours, doing scandalous things. The tipster was reported later to have sounded an awful lot like Clemens/Twain himself. I'd rather hero worship an all too human hero that let his work garner his publicity, and while he didn't try to keep his failings from the press, he didn't go seek them out either. Jim Henson.
Edeyn Hannah Blackeney
Wasn't it Jim Henson who said, "Without faith, I am nothing," after all? Wait, no, that was God. Sorry, common mistake...
I have it on DVD
Hi there!
I have the pilot for "Greatest American Heroine" as part of the season 1 DVD. I've just watched it again and I can't get emough of it.
I have to get season 2 and 3 to complete my collection
All my hopes,
Sasha Nexus
All my hopes
Sasha Zarya Nexus
My choice...
I bags I know what I like (In your wardrobe) by Genesis.
I haven't decided what to call it yet, but it might be something to do with knowing what someone likes in someone's wardrobe, just as a guess.
Nick B
Since this was my idea (guess that means I need to write too :)
I don't see why two or more people can't write based on the same song. I don't think too many people write the same way. It would be interesting to see different people's takes on different songs. A
Another song that popped into my head to day is Daughter by Pearl Jam... :D
Huggles!!
Alexis
a few questions
1. Who is going to compile the list, and determine who is going to get which song as the basis of their story?
2. Rather than a pre-compiled list, why not just require that the song must have been published and recorded, and that the members of BC had a reasonable expectation of having heard it?
3. Is there a real problem with more than one person writing a story relating to/based on/ involving a song, as it would be expected that these would be individual efforts, and could show different viewpoints on the same song.
4. What is the possibility that there could be a sub-catagory for new authors who have never published a story either on BC or anywhere.
This is probably the most I have ever written, other than business correspondence, but I have been reading BC, and BC Classic, and StardustRus, and SOL, and many others for a long time.
The idea of creating a story based on an existing song caught my interest and I believe I might be able to do something with it (especially if all of you on here are as nice to me as you seem to have been to all the others whose work I have seen on here.)
Okay, if we're calling dibs...
I call dibs on these:- I Hope That Somethin' Better Comes Along -- Kermit the Frog & Rowlf the Dog
- Man! I Feel Like a Woman! -- Shania Twain
- Drivin' A Truck (With My High Heels On) -- "Weird" Al Yankovic
- Rainbow Connection -- Kermit the Frog
- Somewhere Over The Rainbow -- Kathryn McPhee
- Bitch -- Meredith Brooks
- Defying Gravity -- Idina Menzel as Elphaba in Wicked
- I'm Going To Go Back There Someday -- Gonzo the Great
- Rocket Ride -- Tom Smith
- Walk Like An Egyptian -- The Bangles
- Swingin' On A Star -- Bing Crosby
- Sweet Dreams -- Annie Lennox & the Eurhythmics
- Mississippi Squirrel Revival -- Ray Stevens
- Another Day In America -- Adrienne Serna
- Paint It Black -- Vanessa Carlton
- Don't Let Me Get Me -- Pink
- Kiss the Girl -- Disney's The Little Mermaid
And yes, I'm actually gonna do one story with all of them, the Artist mentioned is the version I'm basing my story on, if it's sung by more than one.
Edeyn Hannah Blackeney
Wasn't it Jim Henson who said, "Without faith, I am nothing," after all? Wait, no, that was God. Sorry, common mistake...
more of a challenge
Wouldn't be more of a challenge if someone assigned the song to you? Yeah, there are some songs that would seem impossible, but it sometimes brings out the best stories.
I once heard a story teller ask the crowd for four unconnected things, a place, a time, an item,and a person. the audience picked:
A castle siege
the plague
an artichoke
and a little girl
Five minutes later, they were all engrossed in an elabrate tale about how a young girl behind the walls of a castle under siege, dipped the thorns of artichokes into the sores of dying plague victims and tossed the petals over the wall. when the attacking army of barefoot serfs stepped on the thorns, they became infected with the plague and spread it to the knights, etc... casuing the agressers to give up the siege.
Wow! now if only I was a storyteller like that.
Having said that, If my life and other writings will allow it, I will accept the challenge and will allow YOU to pick the song. I will do my best to create a story using it.
A.A.
I do that
When I'm in Bardics, and giving a performance. I thought of all those songs at once in an interconnected story. So, yeah, it'd be more challenging, but it's not something totally new. I have been trained as part of the bardagh (plural for bard)... I won't go into details of the process or my ranking here, but it was as difficult work as I've ever done -- though rewarding and fun!
Edeyn Hannah Blackeney
Wasn't it Jim Henson who said, "Without faith, I am nothing," after all? Wait, no, that was God. Sorry, common mistake...
Wow, what did I do?
2 things:
1) If we are going to do song assignments (which I'm against) then someone will have to do it other than myself. I'm stuck in Classic Rock land of the 60's and 70's heave on Prog Rock
2) Erin was nice enough to create a heading for this under "Contests"
So we can try and reach a consensus on how to proceed either picking your own song(s) or having one assigned. I'm more than happy to keep a tally of votes. Either PM here or email me at [email protected]
Huggles!!
Alexis
How about.....
I just thought of another song that would be humorous to use..... maybe. Men in Tights, from Robin Hood, men in tights.
or is that too easy?
A song is a song
Although, as I recall it's a song about "Manly Men" :D
Huggles!!
Alexis
My thought was...
To make it a real challenge that we arrive at a whole list of songs, 50 or so. Classic pop stuff, jazz standards, folkie things, whatever.. but songs most people will know or can find on the net easily to get the lyrics and maybe hear it.
Then we have the list of authors willing to face... The author does not pick their song that is done by readers/everyone else/adjudicating body, whatever. A PM maybe to ask...hey ya think ya can do this one?? Choice of 3 perhaps if the other is thought too tough. If they agree to try...away we go. Take the theme or main idea as they see it and... tell a story.
As soon as all the assembled authors have their song then it's on. Time limit might be a month or something like that. Most would I guess be shortish things which is fine.
But the idea is to challenge the writers to work off the cuff, without a net... maybe in a style they hadn't tried before. It's a challenge ya know. Kudos to those willing to risk it.
Thanks Alexis for putting up the entry to spark off the idea.
Oh... of course it has to wait till after Bobs contest on Stardust. His was up first.
Kristina
I'm Game
I don't listen to much music that has lyrics, but if I can find it on YouTube, or Itunes or something, I am willing to give it a try. I need to try different styles of writing and this would be a good way of forcing me to.
A.A.
Nice thought but...
Erin doesn't have the capability to 'randomise', which would leave the onus on one of the authors.
Also, some of the authors aren't too chuffed with the idea of being 'given' something.
I agree, it DOES make it more challenging, but would we get the authors to agree on those terms?
I originally was going to use an amalgamation actually using Alexis's examples, but it seems that idea too is split and many just want to do one.
So should there be a framework to write around or do we just hit it?
I don't want to see this as too strict an exercise. It's 4fun
My original thinking going into this was to take songs that can be related to TG themes like "I'm a Boy" and dozens of others....listen to the song, study the lyrics, take what you want from the lyrics and create a story around it. IF you want to combine songs, go for it, but maybe list which songs are included and links to the songs or its lyrics.
Huggles!!
Alexis
StarDust Contest comes 1st and other Thoughts
Although I'm not writing an entry for it, I would hope anyone who is would concentrate on that 1st. That contest is running until November 3rd. Based on that let's see what we can come up with by the end of the year. Given that November is the start of the holiday seasons I'm sure people will be extra busy. Also, since this isn't a contest but a fun competition (unless someone rich out there...) multiple entries are welcome. :) I'd say the only rules I can think of off the top of my head would be that the song is findable so people can listen to it, and that as participating authors we agree to comment on each other's entries. Any other thoughts or differences of opinion?
So far there has been two votes for picking your own song(s). I don't see any reason we couldn't do this both ways. The 1st time we'll pick out our own, and if we are all happy, we can try it again this time being assigned songs. We can come up with the list as a group and then give it to a third party or parties to distribute them to each author willing to have a go at it.
Huggles!!
Alexis
I'm in
Sounds good to me. I'll start searching for a song and if something sparks an Idea, I'll go for it.
A.A.
Song
I do have a song-inspired story outline on my pile, so after I get my Stardust entry in, and finally finish my Sleeping Beauty sequel, I can work on "All the Live-long Day." I might not be able to get to it until November, though.
Song Suggestion
I'll just throw this out in case somebody might like to try it - "Uneasy Rider" by The Charlie Daniels Band.
Karen J.
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way."
College Girl - poetheather
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin