Ramblin' with Roger

1: Your favorite character
My favorite Disney character is Roger, the adult human in 101 Dalmatians, who sings Cruella de Ville. But of the more anthropomorphic, Donald Duck, who I used to do a poor imitation of.

2: Your favorite official princess
I suppose the more modern ones, like Tiana from the Princess and the Frog, or Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

3: Your favorite official prince
Excluding The Beast, they are pretty much interchangeable.

4: Your favorite heroine (that isn’t an official princess)
Dumbo’s mom, Jumbo, protecting her child.

5: Your favorite hero (not an official prince)
Tramp, from Lady and the…

Here’s the list with my comments:

Ah, I’ll do that Curious as a Cat blog. But I had to go from July 2007 to June 2009 to find questions I was willing to answer, AND I hadn’t answered recently.

1) When was the best time, or what was the best experience, you’ve had with a sibling?

With Leslie, it would have to be singing, either with our father, or by ourselves. With Marcia, it may have been playing Man from U.N.C.L.E. I was Napoleon, she was Ilya.

Dustbury did NOT insist I do this, so naturally, I did:

What was the first song you ever bought?

As I’ve noted, I belonged to the Capitol Record Club in 1965, where I was buying albums, so I’m hard pressed to figure out the first single. It may have been Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine; I was then depressed by the release of the Revolver album a short time later, yet puzzled by the variation between the single version and the album version of Yellow Sub, as I noted recently. But the more I think about it, my first single was probably Soul And Inspiration by the Righteous Brothers (listen), which came out a few months earlier in 1966, as I remember that blue Verve label.

What song always gets you dancing?

Cliche that it might be, but it’s Celebration by Kool and the Gang (listen). A short-lived romance got me dragged to a local disco a few times in the day. Recently bought a greatest hits album by that group.

What song takes you back to your childhood?

As Dustbury wrote, “There are those who would argue that I never left.” That said, I’ll pick another song from my father’s singles collection, Bird Dog by the Everly Brothers (listen), on Cadence Records. I discovered that women should be referred to as poultry (quail, chick) – something I fortunately unlearned quickly; and that men were canines – is that still true?

What is your perfect love song?

Forever I have been a sucker for I Only Have Eyes for You by the Flamingoes (listen). Always makes me a bit misty.

What song would you want at your funeral?

I have been, for a long time, of the opinion that almost any song could be done in chicken. Bold songs, such as the 1812 Overture or the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony are particularly great. But the first song I heard which stimulated this proposition was In the Mood by Henhouse Five Plus Two (listen), the “group” actually being singer Ray Stevens. I first heard it on one of those Warner Brothers Loss leaders of the 1970s.

Time for an encore. One last song that makes you, you.

Anyway: Answer the questions using only song titles from ONE artist.

1) Of all the people you know, whose name suits them the best?

Some guy named Barber, who is well-groomed.

2) If you could control one aspect of your death–except the timing–what would you do?

Avoiding pain. I’m really surprised how long it has taken modern medicine to recognize the efficacy of minimizing pain.

Dustbury, among others, has responded to the Happiness Project’s Want To Know Yourself Better? Ask Yourself These Questions.

If something is forbidden, do you want it less or more?

I suppose it depends on WHY it’s forbidden. If I think the reasoning is stupid and arbitrary, then I’ll want it more. If I understand the rationale for the prohibition, I’ll want it less. The way the world is, that would be a slight “more.”

Is there an area of your life where you feel out of control? Especially in control?

There are two ways I look at this. In my personal life, I have an eight-year-old, and that dictates a lot of my life. In the world, there are things (war, environmental catastrophes) being done, sometimes in my name, and it appears than I have absolutely nothing to do about it.

On the other hand, personally, I do love doing certain things the same way: my glasses go on the same place on my dresser every night; this is not obsessive behavior; this is the fact that I won’t FIND my glasses if I don’t put them in the same place every night.

What I do have some control over in the world is writing about it all.