Saturday 9

(Link in meme-roll)
I Feel the Earth Move
If you're not familiar with today's song, you can hear it here.

1) This song is from the album Tapestry, one of the all-time best-sellers (more than 25,000,000 copies sold worldwide). Is it in your collection?

Nope. I like Carole and her songs (this album and all the other songs she's written) just fine, but I'm about 10 years too young to 'get' why this was such a big freakin' deal. At least two of my sisters were into her stuff, though, so I got my time in with the songs.

2) It's about that glorious passion you feel when you first fall for someone. How many times have you been in love?

Oh, about a kajillion times. Kids kill me and I crush on them regularly. In grown-up love? Maybe 3-4 times.

3) San Francisco radio stations briefly removed "I Feel the Earth Move" from their playlists after the 1989 earthquake. Have you ever been in an earthquake and literally felt "the earth move under your feet?"

Yes. At least three times, all in Colorado. I've been fortunate that in the times I've been in California, the land has not been shaky. Anyway, once when I was a kid I have a vague memory of being in my parents' bedroom upstairs and looking out the front window and seeing the ground 'waving'; when we were planning my dad's funeral, sitting in the dining room of Mom's apartment, the building shook; and in the middle of the night while visiting my mom some years later, I swear there was an earthquake, though no one else felt it.

4) Carole King is the first and only woman to win the Gershwin Prize for songwriting from the Library of Congress. Here's your chance to brag a little -- tell us about an accolade you have received.

I can't even think of a time. I set high standards, and the last two reviews I've had I've found that my (new-last-year) boss does too. We haven't so much talked about living up to those standards as the areas where I have not done so. Which irritates a bit, yeah.

5) Carole wrote "You've Got a Friend," which was a mega hit for her good pal, James Taylor. King and Taylor have known one another for more than 40 years, but have never been romantically involved. Do you have any platonic friends of the opposite sex?

Yes, of course. Several guys at church, the guys at work might qualify too, to a point, friends from college....

6) Like more than 80% of the population, Carole is right handed. Are you right handed, left handed (10%) or that most rare of all, ambidextrous (less than 10%)?

I'm a full-fledged rightie. My left hand is only good for typing and holding large things.

7) One of Carole King's earliest hits was Little Eva's "The Loco-Motion." Little Eva was the teenager King hired to care for her young children. Tell us about a sitter who cared for you when you were little.

The thing is, I had lots of much older siblings so I'm not sure there was much outside-the-family babysitting needed, but apparently the teenaged girl across the street, my brother's age, did a few times. Ten years later, she was my flute teacher. She was a lovely woman, really pretty in the classic 70s way. Wonder why my brother never went for her? Hmmm....

8) Beautiful is the title of the Broadway play about Carole King's life. If we were producing your lifestory, what would you want us to call it?

I'm sorry that one's taken. hah I think "Grace" would be good, seeing as how my mom called me that whenever I tripped or did something else klutzy. So, quite often.

9) Carole wrote "Pleasant Valley Sunday," the Monkees' song about conspicuous consumption. When Crazy Sam looks at her crowded shelf of hair products (paraben-free conditioner, keratin-restoring conditioner, hair masque, hot oil conditioner …), she realizes she's guilty of it herself. Have you bought anything recently that you later decided was a waste of money?

Well, yes. Lots of food lately that could qualify for that (she says, wiping Dunkin Donuts crumbs off her face). Can't think of anything else lately, but I've had some clothes moments like this in the past; "what was I thinking?!"