The Charles Loren Mini-Mix

[3pipeproblem]

Since several (read: precisely three) people on my FL have finished/are in the process of reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics, what better time could there be to upload a few songs that remind me of my favorite secondary character who nobody else cares about?

Quick! A multiple choice question. I love and adore Charles beyond all reason because:

a) Marisha Pessl makes it quite easy to imagine James Spader in the role and he reminds me of Alan maybejustalittle.
b) "He was the gold-limbed kid Fitzgerald would've picked out of the senior class photo and described with sun-soaked words like 'patrician' and 'of eternal reassurance.'"
c) He is endearingly sweet, frighteningly obsessive, and always sincere. And he tries to beat someone (a girl) up while on crutches.
d) He probably emerges from this whole debacle more fucked-up than anyone realizes.

The songs are all pretty much pop, but then he is a teenage boy. So without further ado...



Fall Out Boy - Sugar, We're Going Down

Smashing Pumpkins - The Boy

The Killers - Under the Gun

Brand New - Magazines

Dashboard Confessional feat. Michael Stipe - Hands Down



And since I saw Once on Saturday and it's been in my head ever since, I'll throw in this, too.

Comments

[treelines.livejournal.com]

LOLOLOL Fall Out Boy. I love how all of Charles' songs are total radio fodder.

I nominate "And She Was" from Talking Heads for Leulah (incidentally also my Drusilla anthem). Or Bjork. Anything by Bjork. Tegan and Sara are my "Blue and Zach go driving into the sunset" band.

That song! From her website! It pops in my head unrelentingly whenever I even glance at the book. It's freaking perfect. The movie soundtrack should feature it as a leitmotif at the very least.

Oh, man, I need to make a STiCP OST. *muahaha*

[treelines.livejournal.com]

Also: D. Hahahaha, you so would enjoy that he gets incredibly fucked up by this. The awesomeness of Fitzgerald's favorite Spader is just bonus.

[3pipeproblem.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, like he has taste. Maybe in movies and women.

It was also the music I played when I went clown-hunting (http://www.neopets.com/games/play.phtml?game_id=131) on neopets. For some reason the mix was the perfect length--if I made it to the end, I'd get on the high score board. (I ended up winning a third-place trophy!)

I don't understand the love for Leulah. *grabs music anyway* You'll have to write a ficlet to convince me.

Yes! Yes! Make a soundtrack! One of the tracks can be called "Bourbon Mood."

Are the essays done?

[treelines.livejournal.com]

LOLLLLLLL NEOPETS. Hahahahahaha congratulations on the trophy, but. HAHAHAHAHA. Not that I didn't have my own mix for Sonic the Hedgehog. Ahem.

I refuse! I don't have any kind of love for Leulah. She is like the sinister, uninteresting Luna Lovegood, and I much prefer Luna to her. Actually, she kind of reminds me of Bellatrix, with all her sycophantic crap, if we're going to continue this HP comparison. But I would give her one Bjork song in an OST and call it a day.

Noooooo, they're not. D: The plan is to go to the library when it opens and get them done. I hate/love all of you people who keep asking. You are all like a nagging mother. Later, I expect cookies.

[3pipeproblem.livejournal.com]

YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS. Don't deny it.



Oh, okay. Out of all of them, she's the one I found least interesting. Though she's probably the least developed as well. You just talk about her a lot, whereas I tend to forget she exists.

At work (where I'm trusted with many important responsibilities) we were discussing sneaking out to make Schadenfreude pie (http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004492.html). But I think that would be best enjoyed while you're writing your essays. BUAHAHAHAHA.

[treelines.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA It's like the Simpsons version of the monkey statue from the Legends of the Hidden Temple.

She annoys me. I think that's why I remember her. If she were actually interesting, I think I'd want to try to justify her actions, but she isn't and I don't. I'm much more drawn to Jade and Zach and Blue with Zach. He's the purest character there, and I'm very much drawn to that kind of character, the whole, functioning, almost-innocent ones. I think there's a lot of hidden depth in goodness (for instance, there's always the argument that good people Just Don't Get It, but if they do and they still act from that kind of position, how did they get there? why are they still good? That's why I'm still not bored with Jimmy after all this time, really), and it's much more difficult to probe. I also thought Gareth was sinister the whole time, so.

I hate you and would like you to die. But, oh man. I love that recipe. AND I'M WRITING THEM!! I TURNED IN TWO OF THEM YESTERDAY!! I AM SO PRODUCTIVE AND AWESOME!!! So go have the pie.

[3pipeproblem.livejournal.com]

Dude, it took me like 7 years on that site (well, off and on) to win me a trophy. Don't you go mocking it.

N'awww, Zach. I found an interview (http://www.bookslut.com/features/2006_09_009871.php) with Marisha Pessl where--well, first of all, either she or the interviewer mistakenly calls him "Jack"--she says "...whenever I was writing about Jack I would put on cheesy '80s, like Sixteen Candles kind of stuff, like “If you leave” -- that’s so him!" By Sixteen Candles, she of course means Pretty in Pink. Why, yes, I am ashamed to know this.

Hahaha, Jimmy would totally tell a girl, "That boat reminds me of you." And be heartbreakingly sincere when he said it.

It's funny, the different characters we're drawn to. My favorites are Charles (duh) and Gareth (also fairly unsurprising) and Blue, though I think I'm less interested in her because we have so much access to her thoughts. I kind of liked Milton, but I think that's only because they mentioned him and Orson Welles in the same sentence.

I didn't think Gareth was sinister at all until the very end. I didn't really see him as controlling either, God knows why. (Possibly because I wasn't even allowed to see R-rated movies until I was 17. WTF parents?) I was completely blindsided, although I'm sure wanting to think the best of him contributed.

Mmmmmmmmm. Sadly, I spent all my money on chicken. Perhaps I'll go to the back tomorrow and then glory in your agony.

[treelines.livejournal.com]

Aww, you are adorable. For both the Neopets and the '80s trivia.

Viggo Mortenson? As GARETH? Um, no. Her agent is completely correct in suggesting it be Kline, and only Kline. She mentions Gareth as a Beethoven symphony, but I imagine him sitting in a chair with Debussy's "" floating around, and him conducting the piano. IDK.

HE SO WOULD. He might even shave his head. He'd go onthe roadtrip, but have second thoughts and call home every day. Well. Every other day. Haha, ther must be something wrong with me. I'm the only person who loves the good guys!

Again, I think it's just me thinking he was too perfect. And then there were the little Caleb parallels that tipped me off in the very beginning. (My parents did the 17 thing, too. And the first R-rated movie I saw was Independence Day. The second was Starship Troopers. WHAT A DIFFERENCE.)

Hey, take your time. There're still many essays to go. Lots of time for schadenfreude.

[3pipeproblem.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair, I only know about Pretty in Pink because Spader's in it. I haven't even seen The Breakfast Club.

HAHAHA. I have an irrational aversion to Viggo's face. I would weep tears of blood if they cast him as Gareth. Though I think chances of that happening are slim.

Man, I really want someone to fic the roadtrip. Because regardless of what happened during it, Blue still ended up alone at Harvard, which is sad but kind of awesome. You could do all sorts of interesting things to/with Zach. And hmm. The usual line is that good guys aren't as complex--and sometimes they aren't--but I think my other problem is being told who to root for. I don't like an author tipping his hand by portraying a protagonist too sympathetically (this actually doesn't apply in Zach's case, since he's pretty much scorned by everyone in the book). Well, and maybe 'good' guys aren't as complex, which is sort of a failing in itself, but one that some authors choose to ignore. Witness my hatred of Peter Petrelli.

I didn't think he was perfect at all. And sure, Blue revered him, but a lot of kids think their parents are the sun, the moon and the stars. He seemed so flawed and human already. I didn't think he'd up and leave his kid, too! (My friend threw up at both those movies. Um. I had to lie about my age to get into Memento.)

Totally random, but have you read A Series of Unfortunate Events?

[treelines.livejournal.com]

*gratuitous Breakfast Club icon* I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU, WOMAN. Not that I've ever seen Pretty in Pink, to be fair, but.

I am very tempted to write the roadtrip. I have experience, and I think I could manage Zach's POV. Hahaha, Peter Petrelli. I got frustrated with Heroes well into the first episode. I would watch a show all about Hiro and the cheerleader and the artist, but everyone else on that show makes me want to throttle them. Peter seems like a whiny Harry Potter who just happens to leech fame and fortune off everyone else around him.

Hmm. Jimmy is very simple, in a lot of the senses of things. But there are very few people who are morally simple. Having reflected on it, a little, some of the challenge of writing a 'good' guy is resisting the temptation to give them that edgy depth. I remember wanting to add a lot of OOC angst and mishap to Jimmy's life in the very beginning and realizing as I went on that Jimmy just didn't have that. His dad went to prison and his mum's a prostitute, but that hasn't fucked Jimmy up. He's a little slow, and he kinda worships his dad, but he's still good.

LOL, TL:DR.

I trust narrators too much, haha. When Blue said he was the moon and the stars, I took that as his intended surface characterization. I have also been tempted to set up a Calamity Physics community on LJ and GJ. It'll catch on, I'm sure of it.

I saw the movie. I love the soundtrack! But I haven't read the books.

[3pipeproblem.livejournal.com]

...that's from The Breakfast Club? Really? Okay, here's the deal: I will watch The Breakfast Club if you watch Apocalypse Now (watch the original version). We could even watch simultaneously, for the lulz.

DO IT. Man, I need to get a Charles fic going. I'm just torn about when to set it. I'd like to write an all-night stakeout at the motel, but then again I'd like to write something set in the fuuuuuture too.

Hahahaha, oh, Heroes annoyed me by the first scene. I definitely stopped watching (until my friend prodded me to give it another try) because Mohinder's exposition was that painful. My ideal show would be Bennet and Claire (& company), Hiro and Ando, Parkman, and maybe the occasional appearance by Nathan Petrelli and Claude. The artist did nothing for me--they never bothered to develop his character beyond giving him a heroin addiction. I HATE PETER PETRELLI SO MUCH. First of all, his name's Peter Petrelli, which is pretty much like naming someone "Peter Peter." Now, if he were a pumpkin-eater, maybe that would be okay... And. Just. UGH. Milo Ventaldashdasksd FAILS AT ACTING. He cannot even writhe in pain convincingly. He has no chemistry with anybody. Anybody! And he's supposed to be so EMPATHIC. I think "empathic" is really just another word for "douchebag."

Hahaha, I read it, and I think you're right, but I don't have much to add. Good guys don't hold my interest unless they have some sort of complexity (and I do think your Jimmy is, if not complex, at least very human).

I just read a ton of books with unreliable narrators--Calamity Physics, Lolita, House of Leaves, all of Daniel Handler's books--in a row. They're kind of awesome. The last few all have moments where the narrator gleefully informs the reader that they lied about something. It's fun, but I'm about ready to come crawling back to third-person omniscient just for a break. You should start one!

OMG read them! They're wonderful. The first three aren't really anything special (compared to those that follow), but you can breeze through them in an afternoon. It's just...as the series goes on, they keep adding more and more shades of gray and everything gets more and more muddled. Plus, Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler love peppering the books with literary allusions and there's twisted humor throughout.

And I adore Lemony Snicket. There's this entire backstory about him and a secret organization that's somehow connected with Count Olaf and the Baudelaires' parents, but it only comes out bit by bit. You'll be reading along and he'll throw out some crazy reference, like: "Whenever I hear the clink of swords clashing I am reminded of a swordfight I had with a television repairman not long ago."

[fence-post.livejournal.com]

I am always happy to get new music. I now have four different versions of 'Hands Down'. That's a bit ridiculous. But this version is awesome.

[3pipeproblem.livejournal.com]

I am happy to provide (in lieu of actual content). That version's actually the only one I have. Michael Stipe makes it, I think.