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?

Inspiration from the obituaries

I was reading the obituaries of the local paper and came across this fascinating entry:

Service at Shrewsbury
Crematorium, on Friday,
October 7, 2011, at 12 noon.
Dress code is fancy dress
(Funereal theme).

So many ideas came from this straight away - who was this man and why would his family want a funereal fancy dress cremation? What sort of conversations would the people have at the funeral? What would people say when they saw people dressing up to go to the funeral? Would someone go as the Grim Reaper? The moral of the story is sometimes the most interesting parts of a newspaper can be the classifieds - births, marriages, deaths, wanted adverts and for sale columns. If you're short of an idea try looking for something unusual in the back pages.

After all, the same newspaper that yielded this obituary also turned up

Wanted - one tonne of oats - cash sale

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.