Blog Topic Generator & Thoughts on Luuurve...

So, like, I've mentioned before that I suffer from depression. I've been in a social media/life funk. Haven't been Facebooking, haven't been blog, reading, haven't been writing. Been watching a LOT of Hulu, though, which is about as helpful as a coma. Anyway, I took April off blogging and am having a really hard time getting back into the swing of things. Want to get back to regular weekly blogging, in the hopes that any kind of creative writing will prime my fiction-writing pump, as it were. But I've really no desire whatever to even think up a topic, much less write something worth reading about it. The weekend melted away and Monday, my supposedly regular day for my weekly blog post, loomed. WTF could I do in the remaining hours of Sunday to light a fire under my blogging ass?

I could Google "blog topics."

And I did.

That search turned up Hubspot's Blog Topic Generator. There, you provide three nouns you want to write about and the site spins out five blog post titles to aid in lighting a fire under your blogging ass.

Who the hell knew such a thing existed? Well, I do now.

The words which immediately came to me were, unsurprisingly:

• Love
• Man
• Sex

Because yes indeed, folks—I have a one-track mind. (Hey, there's something to be said for consistency, OK? Gimme a damn break.)

One of the five resultant titles did capture my imagination, and it was this:

What Will Love Be Like in 100 Years?

My initial response was, "The fuck should I know?"

But then the gears got to grinding (in my brain, people, not in any tawdry devices you may be envisioning) (more's the pity), and it seemed to me that, while technology, gender roles, and hairstyles may change (and thank GAWD they do), love never does.

Right? I mean, how love is expressed will vary: culturally, generationally, socio-economically, and even within the course of any given relationship. But we all still express love, don't we, on some level, to some degree? The ways love messes with your mood doesn't change: we can still ride the roller-coaster from caring, to lust, to fury, to worry, to caring again in, like, 3 seconds flat.

That love guides behavior, such as setting your cap after a love object, making some kind of commitment, maybe building and filling a nest, has been true for thousands of years, y'all. I can't see it changing, like, ever.

Can you?

I can *totally* go for that...

...Hall & Oates song. Remember it? That groovy ode to relationship ultimatums, that bassy-funky-makes-me-want-to-rumpy-pumpy-let's-meet-on-the-bed-and-jumpy-1981-soul-poppy-goodness more commonly known as I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)? Of course you remember it. I mean, you really should remember it, 'cause it's da fuckin' bomb, but if you don't (or if you just want to bop to it, 'cause, as noted previously, it's da fuckin' bomb), here 'tis:

This is one of those early 80s tunes (along with Blondie's Rapture, which I've blogged about before) which turned me on to my first feelings of sexuality. That damned bass line, people!!! That sexily crooned challenge of, "Where does it stop, where do you dare me to draw the line?" That gauntlet thrown oh-so-foxily to the floor: "I can't go for that, no. No can do."

Ahem.

Right, so I kinda like this song (you may have noticed). And, as I'm not too much of a purist, I tend to enjoy cover versions of my fave tunes (er...if I think they're well-done). In 2010, this nifty duo called The Bird and the Bee covered it; I have to say, y'all, I heart this chick's voice working so smokily over the lyrics. Check it:

Where I tend to be more of a hard-ass is when it comes to song sampling, when one group snips a riff from some other popular tune to lay under different vocals or over different chord progressions. I mean, yeah, I can see where it can be creatively done, but sometimes I think it's just a bit lazy. That said, when I first heard Simply Red's sampling of I Can't Go for That for his song Sunrise, I was all, "Hells, YEAH!" Which is to say, I totally went for that. (Though not for the song's video, which is a bit of soft porn that totally doesn't fit the spirit of the goddamned song.) (Not that there's anything wrong with soft porn; I mean, you wanna see some porn, I'll send you some links that'll blow your mi—uh...but I digress...) But anyway, yeah: the plaintive longing he expresses through his lyrics...gah, it gets me right here ::thumps fist over heart:: Here's a live version of Sunrise which, I think, better captures the charm and heart of the tune.

How about y'all: what are some tunes that first rocked your casbah? What are some covers you've loved? What are some you've hated? What's a tune that if you ever heard it covered, would make you completely lose your cool? (For me, that was when Celine Dion covered a song first made famous by Cyndi Lauper: I Drove All Night. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Words, wOrds, WoRDS...

It's time for round two of a little game I like to call Words, wOrds, WoRDS (because it's a word-association-type game and I'm clever like that).

"How does one play?" you may ask.

Using the Random Word Generator at CreativityGames.net, I'm going to toss out a word and you're going to share the first thing that comes to your mind, in the comments section below.

Are you ready?

Today's random word is...

PEA

To learn what came to my mind, select the darkened text between the asterisks.

***

I thought of that fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, The Princess and the Pea, possibly because I traveled for my day job this weekend and spent a restless night tossing and turning and could really use a good night's rest. Also, I wouldn't mind being claimed and set up for a life of luxury by a foxy and charming prince. I mean, I'd be willing to give it a shot, is all I'm sayin'.

***

Go on, then. Reveal unto the world what that word inspired in your little gray cells.

If you dare...