Sunshine Blogger Award!!!

Yeah, someone – OK, Jaquandor – dubbed me with the Sunshine Blogger Award, which is a “get to know the writer better” type of blogging exercise, with a couple of rules attached:

1. Answer all 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you.

2. Nominate eleven bloggers in return and write eleven (possibly fiendish) questions for them to answer.

As Jaquandor rightly notes:
“I’ve been blogging for so long that I remember when these types of blog-quiz awards were quite common. They’ve really fallen by the wayside with the rise of Facebook and Twitter and the like, but they’re still fun, so I’ll go ahead and answer these, pose my own, and nominate. Here we go!”

1. What do you value more in a story: dialog or plot?

The plot, in that dialogue can arguably be fixed, but a plot may have a flaw that’s fatal. I’m reminded of a story in the TV sitcom Modern Family where a couple of the characters meet their writing hero on a train, and they inadvertently let him know that his solution to the multi-book plot is in fact impossible. (The writer is devastated, but there’s a happy ending.)

2. Describe the home planet of Lin-Manuel Miranda. (Come on, that dude ain’t human.)

It is a nickelodeon. Teresa Brewer knows what I mean. I saw him interviewed on CBS News, and he knows almost all the lyrics to the vast collection of musicals his parents own. Plus his love of other forms makes him a human jukebox. (BTW, I LOVE that segment where he performs in front of the President back in 2009, which Jaquandor linked to recently.

3. If you enjoy watching any sports at all, which ones would you at least like to try just once?

Lacrosse. I would suck at it, but I find it utterly impressive. UAlbany has had a good team in recent years, even after three Native American brothers graduated.

4. Describe the most recent book to which you gave (or would have given) five stars.

The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg.

5. Do you finish bad books? Why or why not?

No, because life is too short.

6. How vexed are you when movies don’t match the books?

Not at all. Different media require different treatment. In fact, I’m more vexed when a book does not judiciously edit down too long prose.

7. Describe your perfect hot beverage. In detail. I’m talking roast of bean or variety of leaves, additives like spices or squirts of citrus, vessel from which the drink is sipped, where you are sitting as you sip it, who is next to you, what music is playing.

OK. it’s tea, Earl Grey, well seeped, with cream and one sugar (or a bit of honey), from a mug I got some years ago from a Mongolian couple that changes color depending on the temperature of the drink. I’m sitting the recliner that we no longer own, and I’m listening to Miles Davis’ Blue album. Or Joni Mitchell’s Blue album.

8. Do you watch cooking shows? If so, describe your favorite.

I do not. I find the chefs mean. The yelling makes me stressed. Don’t enjoy.

9. Name a place you’ve visited that you thought you’d hate but you didn’t.

Galveston, Texas, 1996 or 1997. Maybe it was an anti-Texas bias I started with, but I loved that somewhat worn-down old city. On the other hand, I hated Houston, as expected.

10. You know that hobby you had as a younger person that you miss dearly but you know you’ll never do it again? Describe it!

I collected postage stamps. My great aunt Deana had a book of old stamps from all over the world, which I still have, somewhere. So when my parents would get mail, I’d ask to take the stamps off. The hobby didn’t last more than a year, but I love looking at postage.

11. On January 20, 2017, the newly inaugurated President of the United States signs a law requiring all Americans to display a coffee-table book prominently in their home. Which one do you put out?

It has to be a Beatles book downstairs that I’m too lazy to get the citation.

Oh, tagging. I always hated tagging, because it felt as though I were obliging people. But I realize they could do a Nancy Reagan and Just Say No.

Arthur@AmeriNZ
Jason from DC
Lisa
Shooting Parrots
fillyjonk
Dustbury
Eddie, the Renaissance Geek
Chuck Miller
Leslie in Vancouver
Albany Weblog

Hey, don’t have 11. So be it. Which rhymes with Soviet.

The questions, borrowing heavily from the questions Jaquandor was asked, plus questions I asked SamuraiFrog:

1. What is your favorite song? Do you have a significant memory attached to a time you listened to it?

2. Where do you love to blog/write the most?

3. What can you hear right now? What would you prefer to be listening to?

4. What do you do when you feel you should be writing but are lacking in inspiration?

5. What is your greatest achievement?

6. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life what would it be?

7. Who is your favorite author and why?

8. What are your favorite (10? 50? 100?) songs of the 21st century?

9. What do you believe these days, spiritually/theologically?

10. What are some of the worst awards winners, where you wonder, “How did THAT happen?? (Movies, music, TV, whatever)

11. Will Donald Trump be President? And if so, why?