10 + 1 Songs from the Unofficial Why My Love Life Sucks Soundtrack

I love all kinds of storytelling. When I was little, right up until the year before I graduated from college, I wanted to write and direct TV shows and movies. But then I found out that writers and directors never really have full control over the stories they tell, which is why I decided to become a novelist instead. My stories, though, still play like TV shows or movies in my head--with soundtracks and everything.

So here is the unofficial soundtrack for my funny, geek-centric YA novel: Why My Love Life Sucks (The Legend of Gilbert the Fixer, book one). These are songs I hear in my head when I think of certain scenes and characters from the book. Click on the song title to follow the link to a YouTube video.

10 + 1 Songs from the Unofficial Why My Love Life Sucks: The Legend of Gilbert the Fixer (part one) Soundtrack

Intro: “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” by Eric Idle (Monty Python)

Chapter one: “Breakeven” by The Script.

Chapter three (Amber): “She’s So High Above Me” by Tal Bachman

Chapter three: “I’m Going to Go Back There Someday” (Gonzo’s Song from The Muppet Movie, with clips from Life on Mars, cover version by Paula Jarvis)

Chapter four: “Crazy” by Seal

Chapter five: “I Gotta Feeling” by the Black Eyed Peas (Oprah show flash-mob version)

Chapter 10: “Galaxies” by Owl City

Chapter 12: “D & D” by Stephen Lynch

Chapter 16: “Fix You” by Coldplay

Epilogue: “May It Be” by Enya from The Lord of the Rings soundtrack

As the credits roll: “My Life Would Suck Without You” by Kelly Clarkson

Gilbert's 10 Favorite Songs for Geeks

There’s a scene in Why My Love Life Sucks that reveals Gilbert’s favorite kind of music. This is after Amber has turned him into a vampire, and she’s been trying unsuccessfully to get him to leave his old life and join her.

* * *

I grab my backpack, and head for the bus. I know I have to make a short detour at the school, but I can’t wait to get to Queens.

Amber meets me at the corner. I start singing, “And there’s a creepy doll, that always follows you. It’s got a pretty mouth . . .”

Amber frowns. “You make that up just now?”

“No, it’s a Jonathan Coulton song.”

“Never heard of him.” Figures. “Who else do you like?”

“Well, I . . .” Okay, obviously I can’t say any Nerdcore bands or singers, so that leaves out MC Frontalot and MC Lars. If she’s never heard of Weird Al Yankovic, the only word she’ll hear there is “weird.” She’s definitely never heard of Stephen Lynch, and if she has, she probably doesn’t find songs like “Beelz” very funny. Come on, who do I like that most people like?

Oh, I know. “I like the Barenaked Ladies.”

She scrunches up her face and crosses her arms. “Most guys do, but they don’t usually mention it when there are girls around.”

What? Oh. “No, they’re not ladies. They’re a bunch of Canadian guys.”

“And they play naked? Ewwww!”

“No, they don’t play naked. You must have heard of them. They sing the theme song to The Big Bang Theory.”

“The TV show?”

“No, the actual Big Bang. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe from Douglas Adams’s book was so successful they turned it into a franchise, and they gave the Barenaked Ladies a permanent gig there.”

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. I keep walking, she keeps following, the song “Creepy Doll” keeps playing in my head.

* * *

So what are his ten favorite songs? It’s hard to narrow it down, but I’ll try.

1. “Creepy Doll” by Jonathan Coulton

2. “Code Monkey” by Jonathan Coulton

3. “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton (sung by G.L.A.D.O.S.)

4. “Goodbye, Planet Earth” by Matthew Ebel

5. “The Saga Begins” by “Weird Al” Yankovic

6. “Download This Song” by MC Lars

7. “D&D” by Stephen Lynch

8. “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” by Eric Idle

9. “One Week” by the Barenaked Ladies

10. “The Big Bang Theory” by The Barenaked Ladies

The best shows you aren't watching: #1 Smash

Geek love is the greatest love of all, because a geek loves something not because others think he should but despite others telling him he shouldn't. I am a geek, and when I love something I GEEKING love something.

Now when it comes to TV shows, most of my loves are pretty standard for geeks. I love Doctor Who, Warehouse 13,  and The Big Bang Theory. (I was even the first person to write a glowing review for The Big Bang Theory on Amazon, I love it so much.) But sometimes I love things that aren't as loved as they should be. So this is going to be my list of shows I think need to stay on the air or brought back from oblivion (yes, Firefly, Eureka, you too), and I'm starting with Smash. 

The story of Smash is weak. What sells it are the awesome songs and performances that are a part of the musicals that are being produced in the story of the show. I'm going to show you two of my favorites here. It's songs like this that make me believe Smash deserves to stay on the air.

So if you like what you see, watch Smash on NBC on Saturday nights until the show ends, perhaps forever, and look up previous episodes on NBC.com.

I geeking love Smash. Weak story, but amazing songs and performances.

Happy holidays!

Hope you're having an awesome holiday!

My Hanukkah has been going pretty well. I've been making lots of gluten-free, sugar-free, lactose-free doughnuts, and they're delicious. Lots of latkes too.

As for presents, I got three awesome Think Geek tees, including one that says "The book was better," a Hitchhiker's Guide one with a Twitter fail whale, and this one with the definition of interesting.

I think it's a good idea for writers to make their stories interesting, particular according to the third definition.

I'm currently working on the paperback version of Toren the Teller's Tale, which is a much bigger job than it sounds.

The formatting for a paper book is completely different from the formatting of an e-book. For example, while an e-book has 72-DPI JPG graphics, a print book has 600-DPI PNG graphics, and Toren has a story patch in the header of every chapter--so that's a lot stuff I need to format! I think it will be worth it, though. And thankfully, I'm almost done. There's only the front and back cover and the copyright page left for me to work on.

I'm listening to a funny Pandora station to keep me entertained while I work. You can check it out, if you like, but be aware that some of the content is "mature." (Weird how sometimes mature and immature mean the same thing.) That's not entirely my fault. Pandora is meant to find similar music, but some of the stuff they've selected isn't similar to what I picked for that station. My original selections included music by Jonathan Coulton, the Barenaked Ladies, Weird Al Yankovic, Garfunkel and Oates, MC Lars, Allan Sherman, Matthew Ebel, Jimmy Fallon, Spinal Tap, They Might Be Giants, Monty Python, and more.  

Enjoy the rest of your holiday, and may your magic shine brightly in 2012!

Shevi

• Creepy Doll

   by Jonathan Coulton
  
  
  
  
• Still Alive

   by GLaDOS & Jonathan Coulton

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