7 and 7 Is

The coolest couple of the blogworld — Flannery and Doc — both tagged me for the latest in blog memes: seven things you don’t know about me. I’ve posted a few of these memes, so coming up with fourteen new things you don’t know about me is a challenge — a challenge worthy of blowing off some office hours.

Flannery’s request was for a song-laden seven — and I’m more than happy to oblige. So, Flannery’s seven will be music-related, and Doc’s will be filled with deep, dark secrets.

And so, as Love sings, here is 7 and 7 Is.

Flannery’s Seven

1. The first album I ever owned was Blood, Sweat & Tears. Santa brought it to me the year our family got a hi-fi stereo. My favorite track on the album is “Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie” — but today I’m sharing one of the hits off the album, Spinning Wheel.

2. The first album I bought with my own money was the Help! soundtrack. Since it was the soundtrack, it included the various orchestral pieces played throughout the movie. Sadly, that version is not available on CD and I have yet to get my LP converted. Probably my favorite song on the album is You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away; John’s vocals are dreamy, and you can never go wrong with a well-banged tambourine.

3. The first 8-track tape I bought proves my extreme coolness: Jefferson Starship’s Red Octopus. Oh, yeah, I was groovin’ between the ch-chungs. It took many turntable Miracles to earn my record collection cred once I hit the college campus.

4. The first concert I was a Willie Nelson show, with Waylon Jennings and Leon Russell on piano, in the early 1970s. The whole family went. It was also the first night I smelled pot. I don’t think they performed this, but I love Willie and Waylon’s cover of (Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay.

5. I embarrassed myself in front of Eddie Money. He was in town for a show, and came to our campus radio station for an interview. Musicians are notoriously late for interviews, so I was in the cafeteria, no doubt flirting with my latest victim. Well, Eddie got to the station early — and, as PR Director, I missed out on my job of welcoming him. I dashed downstairs to the studio, where Eddie and a couple of the jocks were hanging out. I greeted him, then told him I brought in some albums (I’d just bought) that I’d like him to sign. He asked if I was going to his show, and I explained I was very hung over; he suggested some hangover cures. I yammered like a yokel and giggled out some inane, college-age crap — until I noticed the jock was glaring at me and the On Air light was lit. I handled it professionally, shrieking and dashing into the news studio. I was, as Mr. Money sings here, Shakin’ with embarrassment. He was a charmer, coming into the news studio post-interview, bowing and asking me to make it to the show. I didn’t.

6. You’d think my favorite band during my freshman year at UGA was R.E.M., but no; Michael and Peter had yet to find each other at Wuxtry. I was a typical freshman girl in 1977, swooning over Dan Fogelberg and songs like Aspen/These Days. Still sad that we recently lost him, although I haven’t listened to a Fogelberg album in eons.

7. I’ve become a digital queen in the last few years, buying fewer and fewer CDs. The last CD I bought was Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, which includes tasty aural morsels like A Foggy Day and Medley: Almost Like Being in Love/This Can't Be Love.

Doc’s Seven

1. I coordinate my reading glasses with my outfits. I have reading glasses in all the must colors: black, brown, red, lime green, turquoise, blue, rimless. Choosing that day’s reading glasses is as important a morning ritual as baubling up with the earrings, necklace, bracelet, and watch.

2. I’m very anal about my PC’s taskbar. Applications must always be opened in a particular order. For my office PC, it’s Winamp — Outlook — Yahoo e-mail — Current Projects folder — and then the application I’m using. If one crashes, I must close, then reopen all that follow so that order is restored.

3. I’m obsessed with Bridget Jones’s Diary (alternate title: The Cup’s Life on Celluloid). More than once I’ve watched back-to-back viewings on Bravo. Nothing better than a Friday night of take-out Thai and four hours of Bridget. I have the DVD, but I must always watch the broadcasts.

4. I got in trouble in kindergarten for kissing all the boys. (RCofCHS, it was your fault, I’m sure.) I also had problems learning how to tie a bow … probably because I was always trying to tie one on with all those beaux.

My graduating class at Kiddie Dude Ranch, 1965. I’m third from the right. Look at the wide berth those bitches gave me. Why wouldn’t anyone stand close to me?

5. I may have a problem with commitment. When given the choice of a five-year or ten-year driver’s license, I opted for the shorter-term license. If you knew my problem with getting licenses renewed, you’d be concerned, too. But who knows where (or who) I’ll be in ten years?

6. My left pinky is twisted from breaking the bone. I have no idea how or when I broke it; it has been that way as long as I remember. When I’m nervous, I click the broken joint back and forth. To further mar my short, stubby hands, I sport a writing bump on the inside knuckle of my right ring finger. I’ve never held a pencil properly — and thus cannot use chopsticks, either. My Japanese bosses tried teaching me in the early 1980s, but quickly gave up.

7. I’ve been a member of the R.E.M. fan club for at least twenty years. I get opps for presale tickets and a Christmas package every year, as well as a quarterly newsletter. It’s the best ten bucks I spend every year. (Did you really think you were going to get out of here without an R.E.M. triviality?)


And thus we close out another edition of Seven Things You Didn’t Know about me with Billy Bragg’s cover of 7 and 7 Is.

But not before I tag others — that’s seven and seven others:

All the Way from Oy to Vey’s Katie has 7’ed!

Bad Tempered Zombie’s Barbara has 7’ed!

Gifted Typist has 7’ed!

Give Me My Blue Blanket

I, Splotchy’s Splotchy has 7’ed!

Politits’s DCup has 7’ed!

Reject the Koolaid’s Jacy

Ribbed for Your Pleasure’s Mountjoy has 7’ed!

Save Your Generation’s Pistols at Dawn has 7’ed!

Scrivener

Tanya Espanya has 7’ed!

Wapentake has 7’ed!

What I Like About the Universe's Evil Evil Genius has 7’ed!

Yawp's Third Worst Poet in the Galaxy has 7’ed!

Get your seven spillin’, kids.

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