The 7 x 7 music meme

[jmc_bks]

I have been tagged by davidgallaher1 and jperceval:

List seven songs you are into right now, no matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LiveJournal along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.

1. Lizzie West -- 19 Miles to Baghdad
2. Eric Clapton -- Motherless Child
3. Three Doors Down -- It's Not Me
4. George Strait -- Need I Say More
5. Jimmy Buffett -- Come Monday
6. Melissa Etheridge -- If I Wanted To
7. Dixie Chicks -- I Hope

Who to tag?
eackerman
sarahf
miladyinsanity
CindyS
KateR
Rosario
and anyone else who wants to participate...

Comments

[miladyinsanity.livejournal.com]

Do I really have to do this?

Because, horror of horrors, I don't listen to music.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Nah, you're excused :)

[miladyinsanity.livejournal.com]

You're nice. I mean it. I won't attag you the next time someone tags me. LOL.

[(Anonymous)]

yeah, me too sort of. I mean I listen to whatever the radio plays at me and sometimes I think, wow that was good, but they never tell me the names of the songs any more. So I don't know.

And when I write, I listen to stuff I don't particularly love but creates white noise.

kate r

[(Anonymous)]

Dang, you think if I hum a few notes people will know the song ;) I'm horrible with titles but I think I can work it out. I can't tell - are you eclectic in music or is that country? (I can be very eclectic but just not right now and I can almost NEVER do country ;))

CindyS

[dogzzz2002.livejournal.com]

Hey! Turtles! I love the green.

Cindys

O/T - a Demon Angel Question.

[(Anonymous)]

Firstly, thanks for Demon Moon.

Secondly, I finished it yesterday, and last night, as I was going to sleep found I had a question. It may have been answered in DM & I just missed it, but if not I was wondering if it was answered in DA.
In Meljean's world there are fallen angels, including Lucifer, and Hell. If you've Lucifer + Hell is there also God + Heaven? And if humans can go to Hell after they die, can they also go to Heaven? And - here's the big question - if they can, what about vampires?
Seemed to be some suggestion that humans were morally different than vampires in the grand scheme of things - in respect of free will, for example.
Basically, I was wondering if choosing to become a vampire entailed choosing to abandon the possibility of an afterlife.

MMcA

Re: O/T - a Demon Angel Question.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Basically, I was wondering if choosing to become a vampire entailed choosing to abandon the possibility of an afterlife.

Oh, good question. I don't remember if this was answered in DA or not. For humans, my assumption was that if they could go to Hell after death, they must also be able to go to Heaven. Part of the issue of free will (I thought) was that Guardian intervention would interfere with the disposition (for lack of a better word) of their souls in an afterlife. For vampires, that assumption doesn't work so well. Have you posted your question to Meljean Brook?

Re: O/T - a Demon Angel Question.

[(Anonymous)]

Might try, tho' I'd be worried it'd look like nit-picking. I'd just been wondering why everyone wouldn't choose to be vampires & wondered if one had to sacrifice one sort of immortality for another. The two possibilities that occured to me were that perhaps vampires couldn't have children (so they lose their genetic immortality) or that they lose their spiritual immortality.
The children seem to be less of a problem, because if you wanted children you could presumably stay human till you'd completed your family, then turn.

Re: O/T - a Demon Angel Question.

[meljeanbrook.livejournal.com]

Ooh ooh, I know the answer! :-) And, nope, it's not nitpicking.

Vampires (and Guardians, for that matter) are still eligible for the afterlife ... and they can go to either Heaven or Hell. (If a Guardian just so happened to turn evil, he'd be going to Hell, too.)

It's the transformation to something other than human that changes whether Guardians and demons have to respect vampires' free wills (and this is also the same for Guardians -- once a human is transformed to Guardian, a demon doesn't have to respect his free will). In my head, it's the trade off for greater power, and the Guardians' place in the fight against the demons -- because the demons couldn't (physically) fight Guardians if they had to respect their will, and there has to be a balance.

But vampires are kind of in-between. Their free will doesn't have to be respected, but they also have an option of not doing anything -- they don't have to serve as Guardians or demons. The nosferatu didn't choose a side in the first battle between Lucifer and Heaven, and were cursed for it. Vampires now have the same type of choice to make, or to continue to abstain (although the way that turned out for the nosferatu suggests that might not be the best way to go -- and I actually cut out a part where Colin points that out to the other vampires (because it didn't really fit his voice, and saying it so explicitly felt a little heavy-handed ... but maybe I should have?))

As for why someone wouldn't become a vampire -- aside from the cold skin/sucking blood part, which I think might be seen by regular humans as really gross, and being awake only during the night, there's the bloodlust, which removes free will, and the very real danger of being killed by demons/nosferatu. So although there are powers gained and benefits to being a vampire, there's also a lot of drawbacks (like if you end up partnered with someone you can't stand, but still have to screw him every night -- and you have no other choice, because you have to eat.)

Oh! and there's no children for vampires or Guardians. They're all sterile. Although some vampires do decide to turn after their children have grown up (I have a vampire like that in the Wild Thing anthology -- she fell in love with a vampire after she had children, but waited until they were grown before she allowed him to transform her (at around fifty-five years old. But that has a price, too, because while she was human, he had to feed from another vampire; luckily for their relationship, a menage wasn't out of the question for them.))

(And if this confuses the issue even more, let me know -- mostly, it's just a trade-off for being more-than-human. Vampires still make choices that determine whether they're headed for Hell or Heaven, but they also are subject to being killed or hurt by the Guardians and demons)

...counts parenthesis...all right, I think we're good :-)

Re: O/T - a Demon Angel Question.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you.

Not confusing in the least. I'm just enchanted that you know the answer off the top of your head - that's magical.

Marianne McA

Re: O/T - a Demon Angel Question.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

You're welcome :) Glad it arrived!