Thursday, April 2, 2009

The Target Audience

Every YA author should have to teach a teen to drive. In case you don’t have a young driver handy, here are two conversations that occurred while Jeremy was behind the wheel.

Jeremy (singing falsetto): In the jungle, the mighty jungle,

Me: Don’t sing while you’re driving.
Jeremy: the lion sleeps tonight.
Me: Okay. Only at red lights.

Me (after emphatically correcting a driving error): When I was learning to drive, Grandma got mad at me.
Jeremy: You must have been terrible. Grandma was really nice.

4 comments:

Jacqui said...

Ha! I think EVERYONE should have to teach for a week, at some age, like some countries have military training.

Ann Finkelstein said...

Jacqui:
Great idea!

TimInMich said...

Okay, my reply is off-topic re writing, but ... so?
Woo-hoo, another fan of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." On my laptop I have the version by the Tokens, of course, and Robert John's version. I often play them in rotation and throw Lou Christie's "Two Faces Have I" into the mix. Falsetto heaven.
If Jeremy wants more falsetto, Lou Christie and Frankie Valli are the go-to guys. Valli's "Sherry" still knocks me out.
Esoterica: The girl group the Tammys, who usually backed Christie, are held in awe by hipsters for their "Egyptian Shumba."
Many writers call it "insane" - in a good way. Check this out:
"Christie wrote a song for the group called "The Egyptian Shumba." It was 20 years ahead of its time. Heck, it may still be ahead of its time. Quite simply the Tammys' "Egyptian Shumba" sounds like a hyped-up B-52's - two decades before there was a B-52's. The song is a glorious, over-the-top dance song that could inspire a John Waters movie. With female hormones in overdrive, the Tammys scream, wheeze and shout at the song's finale in one of the wildest songs of the girl-group era." See http://keepkey.yochanan.net/tammys.htm
Okay, nuff. I've never heard the dang song, but I intend to. -- Tim

Ann Finkelstein said...

Tim: I'll tell Jeremy.