Liner Note #36: Part 2 – chat transcript continued

(continued from part 1)

11-16 17:03 Cecilia Tan: How?

11-16 17:03 daron_moondog: I sneezed.
Whoom.
Fortunately he didn’t knock the laptop off the desk when he flew off.

11-16 17:03 Amy: I may have to try that on Pod… He’s being very demanding.

11-16 17:04 Cecilia Tan: These cats are very skittish of certain things. I thought they got used to sneezes but I guess it wore off over the summer…

11-16 17:04 Amy: Has Daron ever had a cat that wasn’t ctan’s?

11-16 17:05 daron_moondog: No.
It’s too difficult to have a pet when you go on the road a lot.
Some roommates have had one here or there but I never had one of my own.

11-16 17:05 Amy: Makes sense, whenever I go out of town Pod turns into The Saddest Cat In The World.

11-16 17:06 Cecilia Tan: Whenever I go to the GROCERY STORE Oolong acts like I was gone for a week.

11-16 17:06 Amy: Yeah, 4 hours is too long, I get yelled at by Belladonna if I’m gone for a Whole Afternoon.

11-16 17:06 Cecilia Tan: I know, right?

11-16 17:06 Amy: Working at home = spoiled cats.

11-16 17:06 Cecilia Tan: Exactly.

11-16 17:07 Lenalena: I have 3 cats and 1 dog, they don’t seem to care particularly. Except when we’re gone for weeks.

11-16 17:07 ed69: I’m a dog guy myself

11-16 17:07 daron_moondog: OK I’m totally curious who the one viewer is who hasn’t joined in. It’s totally OK to lurk though, you guys. Don’t feel like you have to.

11-16 17:08 Cecilia Tan: I’m a cat person.

11-16 17:08 Amy: I’m definitely a cat person, dogs are differently needy.

11-16 17:09 Cecilia Tan: I was that kid who if someone said oh my dog is very friendly, he doesn’t bite… the dog would bite me.

11-16 17:09 sanders: I’d love to have a cat, but with my allergies, that would last two hours before I suffocated. So, I’m thinking English Mastiff instead.

11-16 17:10 Cecilia Tan: I’m allergic to wool and some things but thankfully not cat fur.

11-16 17:10 Amy: The dog wouldn’t bite me, but it would drool on me.

11-16 17:10 ed69: here here on the allergies

11-16 17:10 Cecilia Tan: So I have some questions people submitted in advance to answer.
But hit me or Daron with anything you think of as we go along.

11-16 17:10 Amy: Cats know when you’re allergic, too, mine always snuggle the allergic people.

11-16 17:10 Cecilia Tan: So true!

11-16 17:11 sanders: Cats are really just furry little psychopaths.

11-16 17:11 Amy: Yeah, that’s why I like them.

11-16 17:11 Cecilia Tan: I think they’re more like narcissists.

11-16 17:11 sanders: Sociopaths? I’m no longer sure which is the accepted diagnostic word.

11-16 17:12 ed69: both work for vatds
cats

11-16 17:13 Cecilia Tan: Here’s a question submitted anonymously (or I lost the attribution…): “how do you pick the song titles for the chapters?”
So the thing is I don’t pick them in advance.
I *don’t* think oh I want to use “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” I better have Ziggy do something nuts.
What I do is write the chapter, or typically I write 2-3 posts at a time, and then when I go to put them on the website I think, oh right, I need titles for these.

11-16 17:14 Lenalena: Do you have like a title archive you consult?

11-16 17:15 Cecilia Tan: If something doesn’t come to mind right away, which is 90% of the time, I go to a massive list of songs I’ve got written out that I think might be useful for this purpose .
Sometimes that comes up empty and then I fart around on Youtube or looking at Billboard lists trying to find something.
And THEN…

11-16 17:15 Lenalena: ?

11-16 17:15 Cecilia Tan: I go to YouTube to look for a video. if there isn’t one, then I usually these days go back to the drawing board and try to pick another song.
Which is one way posting as a serial has changed what I might have done in a book.

11-16 17:16 daron_moondog: I also sometimes butt in and refuse to let her use a song.

11-16 17:16 Lenalena: which ones?

11-16 17:16 daron_moondog: Usually because I dislike the artist. Like I’ve blocked her from using Morrissey a bunch of times.

11-16 17:16 sanders: But some of his songs would be so appropriate.

11-16 17:17 Cecilia Tan: OK, what is it you have against Morrissey anyway?

11-16 17:17 Lenalena: But he embodies teen angst so well!

11-16 17:17 daron_moondog: I’m under the impression he fucked over Johnny Marr.

11-16 17:17 Cecilia Tan: Ah. The guitarist for The Smiths.

11-16 17:17 daron_moondog: And there’s only so much lead singer diva bullshit I can take.

11-16 17:18 Cecilia Tan: I see.

11-16 17:18 Lenalena: really? I thought you’d be well used to that by now.

11-16 17:18 daron_moondog: Ziggy uses it up, I guess.
Or I transfer it. Or something.

11-16 17:18 Cecilia Tan: I think you let me use the Smiths a couple of times.

11-16 17:18 ed69: Daron its out of charter for you to slam some one elses music

11-16 17:19 Lenalena: we can only have one diva in our lives I guess

11-16 17:19 daron_moondog: Some songs by The Smiths are too good to pass up.
Ed, it’s not the music I object to. It’s the man.
Has anyone read his autobiography?

11-16 17:19 ed69: ok

11-16 17:20 Lenalena: no. how is it?
he was never my favorite in the 80s

11-16 17:20 Cecilia Tan: Haven’t read it, but I did read Will Henderson’s article about it. Let me link to it.

11-16 17:20 ed69: thanks i would like to read it

11-16 17:22 Cecilia Tan: It’s called “I Read Morriseey’s Autobiography So you Don’t Have to.”
http://thoughtcatalog.com/william-henderson/2013/11/9-highlights-from-morrisseys-autobiography/
Daron, I think you should cut Morrissey some slack.

11-16 17:22 daron_moondog: You don’t like him either.

11-16 17:22 Cecilia Tan: I don’t like his whiny voice. That’s different.

11-16 17:23 daron_moondog: Fine. Use the his songs for some chapters about Ziggy though, and it’ll fit, I guess.

11-16 17:24 Cecilia Tan: Yes, dear.
OK, another question.
“Have you ever consciously changed the planned story based on reader reaction?”
The instant answer is no, but now I’m trying to think to make sure that’s true.
The thing is, the readers are so diverse, things that one reader hates, another one loves.

11-16 17:25 Lenalena: So tell me, is ANYONE Team Jonathan?

11-16 17:25 Cecilia Tan: So even if some people reacted one way to something, it’s unlikely that reaction would be universal.

11-16 17:25 daron_moondog: Steve is.

11-16 17:26 Lenalena: He is? Where is Steve?

11-16 17:26 daron_moondog: He’s a reader who comments once in a while and who donated to Jonathan’s story.
Dunno where he is tonight.

11-16 17:26 sanders: Seems like the biggest factor would be that *Daron* isn’t actually Team Jonathan.

11-16 17:26 Amy: I am! I like Jonathan.

11-16 17:27 daron_moondog: *cough cough*

11-16 17:27 Amy: But I agree, Daron is totally not on that side, so I don’t really push it when I comment since I can see the writing Daron is so painstakingly scrawling on the wall.

11-16 17:27 daron_moondog: I think the only thing all readers agree on is they hate my dad.
I’ve done a terrrrrible job of maintaining any suspense about me and Jonathan I think.

11-16 17:28 Lenalena: Dude, when it doesn’t work it doesn’t work. Nothing suspenseful about it.

11-16 17:28 ed69: CAN SEE THE WRIGHTING ON THE WALL

11-16 17:28 sanders: Seconding Lena.

11-16 17:29 daron_moondog: I was so wishy washy about getting into the relationship in the first place and it’s been hard not to just start every chapter with “And then the latest thing that happened in my totally doomed relationship…”
So I think that colors people’s feelings about Jonathan.
My Totally Doomed Relationship is the name of my Morrissey cover band. *badump bump*

11-16 17:29 Amy: But I do think you do a decent job of showing us that he’s really a good guy.

11-16 17:29 Lenalena: It doesn’t help that Jonathan doesn’t seem as into you as he is into having a relationship in the first place

11-16 17:29 daron_moondog: He is a really good guy.

11-16 17:30 sanders: He is a good guy but he’s the really wrong guy for you, exactly because of what Lena said.

11-16 17:30 daron_moondog: But I think Bart hit the nail on the head, too. What J was attracted to was the tiger, but he wanted to domesticate me into a housecat.

11-16 17:31 Lenalena: I’ve been the Jonathan in a relationship, believe me, it’s not something that makes you happy in the long run

11-16 17:31 ed69: can tame that
can not
tane

11-16 17:31 daron_moondog: And I sure feel like an animal in the zoo every time our upstairs neighbors look in on us, like oh, what’s he doing now?

11-16 17:31 sanders: D, you just accidentally earwormed me with Robin Thicke.

11-16 17:31 Lenalena: keep going ed!

11-16 17:32 daron_moondog: *sings* “can’t touch this”

11-16 17:32 sanders: Dude! I was in Seattle last week and they were announcing MC Hammer doing a show out there

11-16 17:32 Lenalena: Your neighbors are domesticated and they want all couples to be the same to validate their own relationship

11-16 17:32 daron_moondog: Wait, Robin Thicke? Wha’d I say?

11-16 17:32 sanders: I almost booked a ticket back for that.

11-16 17:32 daron_moondog: MC Hammer still around? Good to know.

11-16 17:33 sanders: “tried to domesticate you, but you’re an animal. baby, it’s in your nature.”

11-16 17:33 daron_moondog: AHHH, yeah, that.

11-16 17:33 Lenalena: God I fucking hate Robin Thicke

11-16 17:33 ed69: daron if you were domesticated you would lose your self

11-16 17:33 daron_moondog: I honestly don’t know much about him. My impression is Robin Thicke is the latest guy who wants to be Justin Timberlake.

11-16 17:33 sanders: The best thing about that song was Glee this week and Sue Sylvester’s reaction to it.

11-16 17:34 daron_moondog: Except that Justin Timberlake is already himself.

11-16 17:34 Lenalena: It’s that whole song. Gloryifying rape culture.

11-16 17:35 Cecilia Tan: There’s a video parody out of the Blurred Lines video with women singing the song and cute boys prancing around.
Cannot remember who did it now but Google for it and you’ll probably find it.

11-16 17:35 cayra: ugh

11-16 17:35 Amy: Yeah, Blurred Lines makes me want to hit someone.

11-16 17:35 Lenalena: I’ve seen it linked. I hate watching web videos though, so i tend to avoid them.
Ditto, Amy

11-16 17:36 Cecilia Tan: Cute boys. I clicked. I’m predictable that way.

(It turns out there is more than one gender-reversed parody song/video of Blurred Lines! The one I meant was by Seattle “boylesque” troupe Mod Carousel:

But this one by some female Law students from New Zealand is also quite amusing:)

11-16 17:36 ed69: same shit use sex to sell bad music

11-16 17:36 daron_moondog: True.

11-16 17:37 Cecilia Tan: OK, here’s a question for Daron from a reader. “of all the celebrities who have come out since 1989, who surprised you the most?”

11-16 17:37 ed69: worse the music the more skin

11-16 17:37 daron_moondog: Jeez. A lot of people have come out since then.
I think the funny but sad but now-happy thing is how many come out and people are NOT surprised. Like, was I surprised about Lance Bass? I wasn’t surprised he was gay. I was surprised he came out. Except I wasn’t, by that point.

11-16 17:38 Cecilia Tan: Yes you were.

11-16 17:38 daron_moondog: Surprised isn’t the right word.

11-16 17:38 Cecilia Tan: You were totally amazed that he did it.

11-16 17:39 Lenalena: Sometimes I am more surprised when people are NOT gay. Like Bowie.

11-16 17:39 daron_moondog: Maybe I just don’t remember now. Ellen was more ground-breaking.

11-16 17:40 Cecilia Tan: Lena, I know, right? Bowie was one of those people who actually had a bisexual phase and passed through it.
Speaking as a bisexuality activist, that’s a valid thing to happen. It’s just a problem when people assume all bisexuals are just going through a phase.

11-16 17:40 daron_moondog: Yeah, a lifelong phase.

11-16 17:40 Cecilia Tan: Daron, you want to talk about why you identify as gay instead of bisexual?

11-16 17:40 Amy: I’ve found people will find some way to be a dick about every single possible sexual decision if you let them.

11-16 17:41 daron_moondog: Amy, so true.

11-16 17:41 ed69: do not let them

11-16 17:41 sanders: Easier said than done sometimes.

11-16 17:41 daron_moondog: And here’s the thing. I don’t really identify as gay, but it’s the closest thing I’ve got to a label that fits.

11-16 17:41 sanders: Especially in the US.

11-16 17:42 daron_moondog: I’m gay in the sense that I prefer guys. I’m not gay in the sense that I don’t fit into ‘gay culture’ at all. At least not in the US

11-16 17:42 ed69: u don,t know my reality then

11-16 17:43 cayra: ‘gay culture’ is something that irritates me a little

11-16 17:43 Cecilia Tan: We bisexuals feel a little betrayed by celebrities and public figures when they choose the gay or straight label, though, when they could be role models.

11-16 17:43 Lenalena: What’s your reality, ed?

11-16 17:43 sanders: But how do you define ‘gay culture’? It’s a pretty shifting, amorphous thing depending on where you are, who you are…

11-16 17:43 daron_moondog: ctan, you can have Ziggy. You can’t have me. It just doesn’t fit.

11-16 17:43 cayra: smells too much like having to conform to expectations to me

11-16 17:44 daron_moondog: Cayra, you hit it on the head. There is definitely a subculture I don’t fit.

11-16 17:44 ed69: been in relationship 20 years my boy friend

11-16 17:44 daron_moondog: I don’t mind the people in it enjoying their conformity. But conformity is death to me.
That’s why I wanted out of New Jersey in the first place.
Ed, congratulations

11-16 17:45 ed69: will be in may

11-16 17:45 sanders: You want to be unique. Just like everyone else. And, yes, congratulations, Ed.

11-16 17:45 Cecilia Tan: But D, don’t you think people are afraid of the label “bisexual”?

11-16 17:45 ed69: we do not fit in any of the boxes

11-16 17:46 daron_moondog: Yes.
I am afraid of that label. I got over my fear of being called gay. So that’s where we are and I’m sticking with it.
Ed, I think *most* people don’t fit the boxes.
But some people still try to.

11-16 17:46 sanders: Do you think one of the reasons people are afraid of the label is in part because they’re afraid they’ll get… questioned for not fitting those supposed boxes?

11-16 17:47 daron_moondog: I wish everyone had more freedom to “roll your own.”

11-16 17:47 cayra: By the way, what are your thoughts on all the emerging new labels for sexuality, gender or the lack thereof? Good? Bad? Confusing?

11-16 17:48 daron_moondog: The word bisexual comes loaded with a bunch of expectations, I think, which vary so much from person to person that the label first of all might not be that good at communicating what people mean.
And second, a bunch of those expectations are negative ones.

11-16 17:48 Lenalena: Did anyone read the Dani Alexander-Sonny Hassell interview about bisexuality? Great questions, great answers: http://slashfiction.org/bi-the-way-an-interview-with-santino-hassel

11-16 17:48 daron_moondog: I also haven’t kept up with all the new lingo.

11-16 17:48 Cecilia Tan: Ooh, *clicks to read later.*

11-16 17:49 cayra: I think instead of accepting that people usually don’t fit into boxes, they’re just trying to invent more new boxes.

11-16 17:49 Cecilia Tan: I’m not a big fan of labels in general.

11-16 17:49 cayra: Many many different boxes.

11-16 17:49 Cecilia Tan: But I like that people are trying to invent new boxes.

11-16 17:49 sanders: Ed, can I ask a fairly personal question? I’m assuming with 20 years in your relationship, you’re at least mid-30’s, so relatively comfortable with who you are as a person. Do you think part of the attempts to fit into the boxes are something we grow out of? Because I’m inclined to think that’s the real phase, or at least it was for me as bi/queer woman when I was in my teens and 20s.

11-16 17:49 Cecilia Tan: Trying to invent new ways of looking at it, and that there are a lot more possible sexual identities and orientations than the “big” words.

11-16 17:50 cayra: I guess it makes it less easy to ignore the reality of those orientations.

11-16 17:50 ed69: I am 52 my man has not grown out of it at 50 i have

11-16 17:50 sanders: *nod*

11-16 17:51 cayra: Having a box can mean security, too, I guess.

11-16 17:51 Cecilia Tan: Personally I stick with “bisexual” to describe myself since that’s what I picked in the 1980s and I haven’t changed that much, even if the world has.

11-16 17:51 cayra: Easier to say ‘this is who I am’.

11-16 17:52 Cecilia Tan: There’s a way in which the “bisexual” label also says more about what you’re not than what you are. I like that people have to stop and think about what I mean by that.
Even if they get it wrong.

11-16 17:52 daron_moondog: That’s fair.

11-16 17:52 ed69: being gay or bi does not define me its just what is

11-16 17:52 daron_moondog: I see some more viewers joined us.

11-16 17:52 cayra: If there was a label for me to use without verbal tetris, maybe I would like labels better.

11-16 17:53 Cecilia Tan: Cayra, yeah, I feel sometimes like it takes so many adjectives I’m like something on a gourmet menu.

11-16 17:53 cayra: Now that is an awesome thought.

11-16 17:54 Ver: *waves*

11-16 17:54 daron_moondog: ctan is served with a side of chipotle slaw and a cabernet reduction.

11-16 17:54 Lenalena: And alphabet soup

11-16 17:54 Cecilia Tan: Hi Ver! Feel free to jump in with a question for either Daron or me!

11-16 17:54 ed69: I ll join that gourmet menu

11-16 17:55 Ver: I’ll probably mostly observe, but thanks. 😀

11-16 17:55 Cecilia Tan: I’m an omnivore, that’s for sure…

11-16 17:55 cayra: Haha, maybe back to the music? I’d be interested to know what kind of contemporary music you like.

11-16 17:56 Lenalena: I’d also like to know what everyone thinks Moondog3 sounds like. What badn does it compare to, for you?

11-16 17:56 Cecilia Tan: I’ve been sidetracked out of contemporary music by dint of being a writer who never leaves the house anymore. So most of my new interests are in world music and stuff that I find through Pandora.

11-16 17:56 daron_moondog: Like Lindsey Sterling.

11-16 17:56 sanders: She’s AMAZING

11-16 17:56 cayra: yessss

11-16 17:56 Cecilia Tan: Yeah. Thumbs up Lindsey Sterling.

11-16 17:57 cayra: most of my new music obsessions I find via Youtube.
Since I own neither radio nor TV.

11-16 17:57 sanders: Anyone who hasn’t seen her, she’s this lovely *joyful* woman with crazy violin skills who looks like she *loves* her job.
I dare you to watch her and not grin.

11-16 17:57 daron_moondog: I’m really interested in how there’s been this sudden shift in contemporary pop music with these kind of angst-folk bands.

11-16 17:57 cayra: Angst-folk?

11-16 17:58 Amy: You mean like Mumford and Sons and the Moustache of Awfulness?

11-16 17:58 daron_moondog: Like the Decemberists, and Mumford & Sons

11-16 17:58 sanders: the moustache of awfulness?

11-16 17:58 daron_moondog: And a whole bunch more. Crap, what’s the name of that band from Ramsey, NJ?
They do a song about a submarine or something?

11-16 17:58 Amy: That was a commentary on Mumford, not a band

11-16 17:59 Lenalena: Lumineers?

11-16 17:59 Amy: I can’t think of them without wanting to shave their singer

11-16 17:59 Cecilia Tan: You mean the Lumineers

11-16 17:59 sanders: LOL. It should be a separate band. That thing needs its own post code.

11-16 17:59 daron_moondog: YES. Thank you.

11-16 17:59 Lenalena: I find Mumford weirdly unbritish….

11-16 18:00 daron_moondog: There’s some kind of facial hair thing going on all over these days it seems.
In sports, too.

11-16 18:00 Amy: You can’t blame Mumford on Movember, though

11-16 18:00 daron_moondog: Not that I am into sports.

11-16 18:00 Lenalena: It’s Movember

11-16 18:00 Amy: He has that horrid little caterpillar year round.

11-16 18:00 daron_moondog: Not my thing.

11-16 18:00 Lenalena: I think the facial hair is a hipster thing

11-16 18:01 Cecilia Tan: I think it’s that things have to go through cycles. What’s in goes out until it comes back in again.
Hippies to hipsters, just took a couple of decades.

11-16 18:01 sanders: At least Gen X knew it had bad facial hair. It wasn’t trying to make bad facial hair an ironic statement.

11-16 18:01 Cecilia Tan: OK wait but there was a question up there we missed answering.

11-16 18:02 Amy: Folk-angst is just the new hot way for white people to show how tormented they are.

11-16 18:02 daron_moondog: Lena wanted to know what band you think Moondog Three sounds like.
This should be good.

11-16 18:03 Cecilia Tan: Shut up, you.
They occupy a space musically not dissimilar to the space occupied by Jane’s Addiction.

11-16 18:03 daron_moondog: You sound like Jonathan there.

11-16 18:03 Cecilia Tan: I used to write critiques on the backs of albums at the radio station.

11-16 18:04 Ver: Well, Jonathan has to come from somewhere, right?

11-16 18:04 Cecilia Tan: Right.

11-16 18:04 daron_moondog: So, Jane’s Addiction, except Ziggy doesn’t sound like Perry and I don’t sound like Dave Navarro.

11-16 18:04 Cecilia Tan: Actually Dave Navarro sometimes does sound like you.

11-16 18:04 Lenalena: I can live with that

11-16 18:05 Cecilia Tan: But yeah, if Perry Farrell is an oboe, Ziggy is…

11-16 18:05 Lenalena: an air raid siren?

11-16 18:05 daron_moondog: You’re stuck because there isn’t an instrument versatile enough to be Ziggy’s voice.

11-16 18:05 Cecilia Tan: LOL

11-16 18:05 Amy: I like to think of Moondog3 as less irritating than Jane’s Addiction can be…

11-16 18:06 daron_moondog: That’s because Ziggy isn’t as irritating as Perry Farrell.

11-16 18:06 cayra: Are you sure?

11-16 18:06 daron_moondog: I mean vocally.
Personality wise, well…

11-16 18:06 Ver: XD

11-16 18:07 sanders: I can’t come up with a good single band to compare to what I imagine Moondog3 sounding like. It’s more if I could assemble a super group, I might be able to come up with something. I wouldn’t have guessed Jane’s Addiction, though.

11-16 18:07 daron_moondog: Speaking of lead singer divas, Farrell’s the guy who held his band hostage until at the last minute before they signed their major label deal giving him 80% of all the publishing rights.
He was like “I know we were supposed to split everything equally, but I’m the most important and I do the most writing.”

11-16 18:07 Lenalena: Give me your supergroup, sanders 😀

11-16 18:07 Amy: Sounds charming. Ziggy is definitely less irritating than that.

11-16 18:08 daron_moondog: Which is a dick move no matter how you look at it.
Ziggy is… at least… I should shut up now.

11-16 18:08 Lenalena: oh yeah, Ziggy just fucked Daron over to get his own way. He tried anyway.

11-16 18:08 Ver: I think it’s less about being obnoxious and more about your ego being bigger than the moon.

11-16 18:08 Amy: Yeah, see, I’m not on Team Ziggy either. I’m on Team Daron Needs to Be Happy.

11-16 18:08 Ver: Which… well, Ziggy has an ego, but it’s not THAT big.

11-16 18:09 daron_moondog: Your lead singer is ALWAYS going to be a narcissist and a megalomaniac. IF they weren’t they wouldn’t be a good front man.
It’s all about channeling it properly.

11-16 18:09 Ver: I don’t know hy it posted that twice. XD
*why
Apologies

11-16 18:09 Cecilia Tan: I think I only see it once…

11-16 18:09 Ver: Huh.

11-16 18:10 Cecilia Tan: Anyway, so use Jane’s Addiction as a reference point, very guitar driven but not really metal, not really punk, with a big sound but that didn’t fit corporate ideas of what an arena rock band should sound like.

11-16 18:10 Ver: Yeah, I mean, I’d be all for Team Daron Needs to Be Happy, if we even had a clue as to what that entailed exactly. XD

11-16 18:10 daron_moondog: Working on it.

11-16 18:11 Ver: I know. 😛

11-16 18:11 Cecilia Tan: You can toss in some INXS to the mix for Ziggy’s vocal range and style (though his range is higher than Michael Hutchence).

11-16 18:11 daron_moondog: And toss in The Cure for Ziggy’s writing style.

11-16 18:11 Lenalena: Hah! I was just going to compare Ziggy to Michael Hutchence!

11-16 18:12 Cecilia Tan: It still hurts me to think about Michael Hutchence being gone.
Like I never got over it.

11-16 18:12 Lenalena: Especially the stupid way he went

11-16 18:12 Amy: I may not be Team Ziggy but I’m not Team Ziggy Succeeds at Suicide…
(that wouldn’t make Daron happy at all)

11-16 18:12 Ver: No, definitely not

11-16 18:13 Cecilia Tan: For those who don’t know the story, Hutchence suffered a blow to the head and had been acting erratically ever since. Outbursts of anger, etc.

11-16 18:13 Ver: Oh, yikes.

11-16 18:13 Cecilia Tan: He committed suicide by hanging himself.

11-16 18:13 Ver: :/

11-16 18:14 sanders: The anniversary of his death is coming up in a few days, I think.

11-16 18:14 daron_moondog: Yeah. We really lost him too young.

11-16 18:15 Cecilia Tan: I know I say no spoilers but I will say this. Ziggy will not be succeeding at suicide if for no other reason than I wouldn’t do to you all what Hutchence’s death did to me.

11-16 18:15 Lenalena: You think it a side effect of being the diva singer that suicide seems like a viable option

11-16 18:16 daron_moondog: Much less what it would do to me?

11-16 18:16 Cecilia Tan: *blows raspberry at Daron*

11-16 18:16 sanders: I’ve tended to take his survival for granted since he’s around to answer comments and hint at still being around present day.

11-16 18:17 Ver: Well, that and brain damage is a difficult thing, in Hutchence’s case.
He may have felt like he’d lost himself and was never going to be able to recover it.
….not to be morbid or anything. XD

11-16 18:13 Cecilia Tan: For those who don’t know the story, Hutchence suffered a blow to the head and had been acting erratically ever since. Outbursts of anger, etc.

11-16 18:13 Ver: Oh, yikes.

11-16 18:13 Cecilia Tan: He committed suicide by hanging himself.

11-16 18:13 Ver: :/

11-16 18:14 sanders: The anniversary of his death is coming up in a few days, I think.

11-16 18:14 daron_moondog: Yeah. We really lost him too young.

11-16 18:15 Cecilia Tan: I know I say no spoilers but I will say this. Ziggy will not be succeeding at suicide if for no other reason than I wouldn’t do to you all what Hutchence’s death did to me.

11-16 18:15 Lenalena: You think it a side effect of being the diva singer that suicide seems like a viable option

11-16 18:16 daron_moondog: Much less what it would do to me?

11-16 18:16 Cecilia Tan: *blows raspberry at Daron*

11-16 18:16 sanders: I’ve tended to take his survival for granted since he’s around to answer comments and hint at still being around present day.

11-16 18:17 Ver: Well, that and brain damage is an difficult thing, in Hutchence’s case.
He may have felt like he’d lost himself and was never going to be able to recover it.
….not to be morbid or anything. XD

11-16 17:03 Amy: I may have to try that on Pod… He’s being very demanding.

11-16 17:04 Cecilia Tan: These cats are very skittish of certain things. I thought they got used to sneezes but I guess it wore off over the summer…

11-16 17:04 Amy: Has Daron ever had a cat that wasn’t ctan’s?

11-16 17:05 daron_moondog: No.
It’s too difficult to have a pet when you go on the road a lot.
Some roommates have had one here or there but I never had one of my own.

11-16 17:05 Amy: Makes sense, whenever I go out of town Pod turns into The Saddest Cat In The World.

11-16 17:06 Cecilia Tan: Whenever I go to the GROCERY STORE Oolong acts like I was gone for a week.

11-16 17:06 Amy: Yeah, 4 hours is too long, I get yelled at by Belladonna if I’m gone for a Whole Afternoon.

11-16 17:06 Cecilia Tan: I know, right?

11-16 17:06 Amy: Working at home = spoiled cats.

11-16 17:06 Cecilia Tan: Exactly.

11-16 17:07 Lenalena: I have 3 cats and 1 dog, they don’t seem to care particularly. Except when we’re gone for weeks.

11-16 17:07 ed69: I’m a dog guy myself

11-16 17:07 daron_moondog: OK I’m totally curious who the one viewer is who hasn’t joined in. It’s totally OK to lurk though, you guys. Don’t feel like you have to.

11-16 17:08 Cecilia Tan: I’m a cat person.

11-16 17:08 Amy: I’m definitely a cat person, dogs are differently needy.

11-16 17:09 Cecilia Tan: I was that kid who if someone said oh my dog is very friendly, he doesn’t bite… the dog would bite me.

11-16 17:09 sanders: I’d love to have a cat, but with my allergies, that would last two hours before I suffocated. So, I’m thinking English Mastiff instead.

11-16 17:10 Cecilia Tan: I’m allergic to wool and some things but thankfully not cat fur.

11-16 17:10 Amy: The dog wouldn’t bite me, but it would drool on me.

11-16 17:10 ed69: here here on the allergies

11-16 17:10 Cecilia Tan: So I have some questions people submitted in advance to answer.
But hit me or Daron with anything you think of as we go along.

11-16 17:10 Amy: Cats know when you’re allergic, too, mine always snuggle the allergic people.

11-16 17:10 Cecilia Tan: So true!

11-16 17:11 sanders: Cats are really just furry little psychopaths.

11-16 17:11 Amy: Yeah, that’s why I like them.

11-16 17:11 Cecilia Tan: I think they’re more like narcissists.

11-16 17:11 sanders: Sociopaths? I’m no longer sure which is the accepted diagnostic word.

11-16 17:12 ed69: both work for vatds
cats

11-16 17:13 Cecilia Tan: Here’s a question submitted anonymously (or I lost the attribution…): “how do you pick the song titles for the chapters?”
So the thing is I don’t pick them in advance.
I *don’t* think oh I want to use “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” I better have Ziggy do something nuts.
What I do is write the chapter, or typically I write 2-3 posts at a time, and then when I go to put them on the website I think, oh right, I need titles for these.

11-16 17:14 Lenalena: Do you have like a title archive you consult?

11-16 17:15 Cecilia Tan: If something doesn’t come to mind right away, which is 90% of the time, I go to a massive list of songs I’ve got written out that I think might be useful for this purpose .
Sometimes that comes up empty and then I fart around on Youtube or looking at Billboard lists trying to find something.
And THEN…

11-16 17:15 Lenalena: ?

11-16 17:15 Cecilia Tan: I go to YouTube to look for a video. if there isn’t one, then I usually these days go back to the drawing board and try to pick another song.
Which is one way posting as a serial has changed what I might have done in a book.

11-16 17:16 daron_moondog: I also sometimes butt in and refuse to let her use a song.

11-16 17:16 Lenalena: which ones?

11-16 17:16 daron_moondog: Usually because I dislike the artist. Like I’ve blocked her from using Morrissey a bunch of times.

11-16 17:16 sanders: But some of his songs would be so appropriate.

11-16 17:17 Cecilia Tan: OK, what is it you have against Morrissey anyway?

11-16 17:17 Lenalena: But he embodies teen angst so well!

11-16 17:17 daron_moondog: I’m under the impression he fucked over Johnny Marr.

11-16 17:17 Cecilia Tan: Ah. The guitarist for The Smiths.

11-16 17:17 daron_moondog: And there’s only so much lead singer diva bullshit I can take.

11-16 17:18 Cecilia Tan: I see.

11-16 17:18 Lenalena: really? I thought you’d be well used to that by now.

11-16 17:18 daron_moondog: Ziggy uses it up, I guess.
Or I transfer it. Or something.

11-16 17:18 Cecilia Tan: I think you let me use the Smiths a couple of times.

11-16 17:18 ed69: Daron its out of charter for you to slam some one elses music

11-16 17:19 Lenalena: we can only have one diva in our lives I guess

11-16 17:19 daron_moondog: Some songs by The Smiths are too good to pass up.
Ed, it’s not the music I object to. It’s the man.
Has anyone read his autobiography?

11-16 17:19 ed69: ok

11-16 17:20 Lenalena: no. how is it?
he was never my favorite in the 80s

11-16 17:20 Cecilia Tan: Haven’t read it, but I did read Will Henderson’s article about it. Let me link to it.

11-16 17:20 ed69: thanks i would like to read it

11-16 17:22 Cecilia Tan: It’s called “I Read Morriseey’s Autobiography So you Don’t Have to.”
http://thoughtcatalog.com/william-henderson/2013/11/9-highlights-from-morrisseys-autobiography/
Daron, I think you should cut Morrissey some slack.

11-16 17:22 daron_moondog: You don’t like him either.

11-16 17:22 Cecilia Tan: I don’t like his whiny voice. That’s different.

11-16 17:23 daron_moondog: Fine. Use the his songs for some chapters about Ziggy though, and it’ll fit, I guess.

11-16 17:24 Cecilia Tan: Yes, dear.
OK, another question.
“Have you ever consciously changed the planned story based on reader reaction?”
The instant answer is no, but now I’m trying to think to make sure that’s true.
The thing is, the readers are so diverse, things that one reader hates, another one loves.

11-16 17:25 Lenalena: So tell me, is ANYONE Team Jonathan?

(still too long… cont’d in part three!)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *