Day 29 – A song that makes you feel guilty

I was sent the link to a drama set to music a few years ago. It was performed by a youth group and told the story of a woman who is walking with God and then gets pulled away by alcohol, sex, pressure to look like supermodels, and money. She reaches the point where she is starts cutting, and then is about to kill herself when she decides she can't do that and tries to break free. God steps in and pulls her back to himself and fights off her 'demons' for her, and she suddenly appears with a clean white shirt and the blood on her arms gone.

The drama is set to Everything by Lifehouse, and even though, thankfully, I've never been in remotely like the situation of that woman, it still makes me feel guilty about things that I have done in the past that have been bad for me, bad for other people, or just plain stupid.

Today's prompt - Fighting your demons.

The video is here and I really recommend it! And a write up about the drama is here if you're interested.

Day 28 – A song that no one would expect you to love

My tastes in music are quite eclectic and I really don't know what people would expect me to like, so this is a toughy. Instead of straining my brain I'm going to try to get the phrase ' A song that no one would expect you to love' or something along those lines into a flash fic.

Yes, I'm boring today, sorry...

Day 27 – A song that you listen to when you’re angry

When I'm angry I like listening to loud songs that I can practically shout the lyrics too, and preferably ones that I can put on in the car and turn up really loud. I can't think of any examples off the top of my head, and when I Googled 'angry songs' it came up with a list, most of which I didn't know.

The two songs that I did know from the list of about 50 were Alanis Morissette's You Oughta Know and I hate you so much right now by Kelis.

I think today's prompt is 'hating someone'.

Day 26 – A song that you listen to when you’re happy

I absolutely love the new Twining's Tea advert with its beautiful animation and the soundtrack of Wherever You Will Go by Charlene Soraia. I don't know about something I listen to when I'm happy, but the song makes me feel happy and uplifted.

There are so many places I could go to get inspiration from this song. I could do a freewrite based on a picture from the advert; the title of the song 'wherever you will go' reminds me of the passage from Ruth in the Bible where she swears to stay with her mother-in-law wherever she goes*, so perhaps I could rewrite that in a different setting; I could use a cup of tea as the prompt; write something about being happy; the list just goes on and on.

* But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

(Ruth 1:16-18, New International Version)

Day 25 – A song that makes you sad

There are pieces of classical music that will make me cry, and I know there are several songs as well that I've heard as backing in films that have made me cry, but the one that leaps out is from the recent Phantom of the Opera film, when Christine agrees to stay with the Phantom to save Raoul's life.

Pitiful creature of darkness / what kind of life have you known? / God give me courage to show you / you are not alone.

Today's prompt: Being alone.

Day 24 – A song that makes you laugh

This song makes me laugh, smile, want to sing and dance, and makes me think. It's Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrman.

The song which uses the text of a column written by Mary Schmich in the Chicago Tribune in 1997. She wrote it as what she would say if she was to give a graduation speech, and it was then picked up by Luhrman and the rest, as they say, is history.

Today's prompt: What is the best or worst piece of advice you've ever been given? What happened when you followed it? Or if you didn't follow it, what would have happened if you had?

Day 23 – Your least favorite song

The Crazy Frog. I really hate The Crazy Frog. Part of the problem is that he's just plain annoying, and part of it was that he butchered Axel F, which is one of my favourite movie themes of all time.

The faithful Google image search turned up this image of prizes at a funfair. Why anyone would want to win a Crazy Frog is beyond me - unless they want to dismember it sloooowly, or use it at as guy on a bonfire perhaps...

But I digress. Today's prompt: The funfair.

Day 22 – A song that you want to play at your wedding

I love Madonna's Crazy for You, and I think it would make a great 'first dance' song. I don't think it would be quite appropriate in a church wedding, but for the reception it would be perfect.

I'm not married, so you can't see any pictures of my wedding day, but I found this fabulous picture of a bride in the Kremlin gardens. There are so many things to prompt me to write in this picture. Wonderful as the bride's hat is, it's the two ladies in black who intrigue me most - the one looks confused and I have no idea why the other is looking at her dress like that. Imagination, it's time to fill in the gaps!

Day 21 – A song from a band you hate

Just like with my favourite band, I don't really have a band I hate. I have very wide ranging music tastes and if I find a song I don't like so much I generally just switch the radio over onto another station. There are plenty of artists that I don't think I'd get on with if I happened to find myself talking to them, and plenty of songs I don't like for one reason or another, but it's difficult to think of a band that I really don't like.

Just off the top of my head I'm going to say I don't really like the Lightning Seeds, but I've only heard one song of their that I know of, and that was Three Lions, which I really didn't like.

The Google image search pulled up this picture and my overactive imagination looked at all the hats and though, 'hey, it's a cowboy convention!'. So today's prompt is: what happens at a cowboy convention?

Day 20 – A song from your favorite band

I have a slight problem with this one, because I don't have a favourite band. However, when I was a teenager, my favourite band was Take That - yes, I was a Thatter - and so I'll pick one of their songs.

I think I'm going to plump for Never Forget, because it's a fantastic feel good song and I always remember going to a concert, finding my seat was really close to the stage, and singing along with Never Forget, waving my arms in the air, and leaving with a really good buzz.

Today's prompt then, is to write about a concert, from any point of view - stage manager, artist, someone in the crowd, security, car park attendant - and to include all five senses in the piece.

Day 19 – A song that you want to play at your funeral

An easy choice today - In Christ Alone has been one of the songs I've wanted at my funeral pretty much since the first time I heard it.

The song is written by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, and I'm not going to say anything else today except to share some of the lyrics and this link to the song.

[...] Till on that cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied - for every sin on Him was laid; Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay, light of the world by darkness slain: Then bursting forth in glorious Day, up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory sin's curse has lost its grip on me, for I am His and He is mine - bought with the precious blood of Christ.

[...] No power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand 'til He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

Day 18 – A song that describes you

I don't know about you, but sometimes I find myself in situations where I feel like I'm back as a little kid, way out of my depth, and really not sure what I'm supposed to be doing. For that reason, the song that keeps coming to mind when I was trying to think of a song that describes me was Just a Little Girl by Trading Yesterday.

When I did an image search it brought up the expected pictures of cute toddlers and chubby babies, but this picture leaped out at me. I don't know if it's the expression on the woman's face, or just that it was different, but I'm going to use her as a character in a story.

Day 17 – A song that is a guilty pleasure

I've changed my font colour especially for this post. Why? Well one of my guilty pleasures is Raise Your Glass by Pink. Aside from it giving me an excuse to turn my blog pink for a day, and to post the beautiful picture of cherry blossom over there, it's a loud song that I love to turn up to full volume and sing along with in the car. I've never done that outside of my car, and some people who know me would be astonished that I like the song at all, let alone that I'd sing along with it.

Today's prompt is a choice - include something pink in a story that's essential to the plot, or have someone propose a toast.

Day 16 – A song from your childhood

Back to the 1980s for this one and Kylie's first album - complete with big curly hair - for The Locomotion! This song had a silly dance that everybody could join in with and absolutely everyone at my middle school knew the words. It was obligatory for school discos and for parties, and all the girls wanted to be Kylie.

Since I've already had the school disco as a theme, today's prompt is going to either a children's party or wanting to be a pop star - or both!

Day 15 – Your favorite song at this time last year

I had a whole bunch of favourite songs at this time last year - Shattered by Trading Yesterday (see Day 7), Best I Ever Had by State of Shock, November Rain by J'Lostein (You Tube artist), and Fire and Redemption (Heroes theme) by Wendy and Lisa featuring Shenkar.

My usual Google search of images didn't turn up anything particularly inspiring unfortunately, so instead of using the songs I'm using the artists as a prompt today. J'Lostein is a fantastic singer with a beautiful voice and a unique style. On her website she makes a joke about looking as if she eats babies, and it's true that her appearance is almost a complete opposite to her style of music.

So today's theme is 'Appearances can be decieving'.

A new challenge

I really need to finish the 30 day song challenge...

But I found another interesting prompt challenge to try later - the 100 Themes Challenge. I don't plan on doing all of them, but if I'm stuck I might dip in and out.

The themes are:
1. Introduction
2. Love
3. Light
4. Dark
5. Seeking Solace
6. Break Away
7. Heaven
8. Innocence
9. Drive
10. Breathe Again
11. Memory
12. Insanity
13. Misfortune
14. Smile
15. Silence
16. Questioning
17. Blood
18. Rainbow
19. Gray
20. Fortitude
21. Vacation
22. Mother Nature
23. Cat
24. No Time
25. Trouble Lurking
26. Tears
27. Foreign
28. Sorrow
29. Happiness
30. Under the Rain
31. Flowers
32. Night
33. Expectations
34. Stars
35. Hold My Hand
36. Precious Treasure
37. Eyes
38. Abandoned
39. Dreams
40. Rated
41. Teamwork
42. Standing Still
43. Dying
44. Two Roads
45. Illusion
46. Family
47. Creation
48. Childhood
49. Stripes
50. Breaking the Rules
51. Sport
52. Deep in Thought
53. Keeping a Secret
54. Tower
55. Waiting
56. Danger Ahead
57. Sacrifice
58. Kick in the Head
59. No Way Out
60. Rejection
61. Fairy Tale
62. Magic
63. Do Not Disturb
64. Multitasking
65. Horror
66. Traps
67. Playing the Melody
68. Hero
69. Annoyance
70. 67%
71. Obsession
72. Mischief Managed
73. I Can't
74. Are You Challenging Me?
75. Mirror
76. Broken Pieces
77. Test
78. Drink
79. Starvation
80. Words
81. Pen and Paper
82. Can You Hear Me?
83. Heal
84. Out Cold
85. Spiral
86. Seeing Red
87. Food
88. Pain
89. Through the Fire
90. Triangle
91. Drowning
92. All That I Have
93. Give Up
94. Last Hope
95. Advertisement
96. In the Storm
97. Safety First
98. Puzzle
99. Solitude
100. Relaxation

Day 14 – A song that you wish you heard on the radio

One of my favourite albums from a few years ago was Celine Dion's The Colour of my Love. The album had a lot of really good songs on it, including Refuse to Dance, which has a really interesting violin part. But I think my favourite song was Next Plane Out.

I like the melody, I like the orchestration - including the wonderful violins in the last choruses, and I like the almost poetic nature of some of the lyrics. The opening lines conjur up a wonderful picture, and the song starts with the sound of rain, bringing it even more to life.

I listen to the sound of the rain fallin' down my window
Prayin' for a gentle wind
To bring my baby back again

So today's prompt is going to be describing someone sitting by a window, watching the rain and waiting for something.

Day 13 – A song that reminds you of someone

A Whole New World from Aladdin was the first duet I ever sang, and so of course it reminds me of the person I sang the duet with.

When I googled the song name one of the first pictures that popped up that wasn't Disney-related was this one. I presume this family is at an aquarium, but what if they were in a submarine, or an underwater city?

Today's prompt is to write something about an entirely different environment to live in, whether that's on the moon, under the sea (hey, there's another Disney song!), in a sub-zero place or in a floating city in the sky.

Song Challenge - Day 12

Day 12 – A song that you can dance to

I heard Wham's I'm your Man on the radio this morning and it brought back good memories of school discos when I was about six or seven. You know the kind of thing, when you got Agadoo playing and you did all the actions, and it didn't matter that it really didn't make sense (why did we 'push pineapple shake a tree'?), then everyone did the Hockey Cokey, and sung along with Startrekking. Then of course, all the cool boys would show off their breakdancing skills while the girls all gathered around to admire them. Boys take heed - girls like a guy who can dance!

And so today's writing prompt will be 'the school disco', with all its bright colours, 80s hair and silly songs.

Song Challenge Day 11

Day 11 – A song that reminds you of a certain event

Fleetwood Mac's The Chain is a classic for this. It's been used by the BBC for its Formula One coverage for years and years, and so it always reminds me of watching grands prix, especially the flyaway races where I'd have to get up really early in the morning to watch qualifying and the race live on TV.

This picture came up on the faithful Google search and it is, indeed, a chain. I've got no idea what I'll write about today. Perhaps a freewrite starting with this picture; perhaps something about a race; perhaps something based on one of my trips to a grand prix; or maybe aomething about getting up in the middle of the night.