Icon Meme

[apolla]

Last seen with emony :

I love looking at people's icons, but I don't always *get* them - I often wonder stuff like, "Who's that guy?" or "Where's that quote from?" but I tend not to ask, for various reasons. So come on, here are my icons. Pick one (or more!) you're curious about, and I'll try to explain it. Or at least explain what I like about it.

Comments

[emony.livejournal.com]

I know who the guy is, but the quote? Contextualise. (Is that a word? Hmm. If not, it should be.)

[apolla.livejournal.com]

It is my beloved Philip, but the lines are from a song called 'The Hero And The Madman', which you may remember me yammering on about at Sunderland because it was there that I bought the album it's on, Vagabonds of the Western World. Actually, it was bought in HMV near the Monument in Newcastle, but you know what I mean.

ANYWAY! The song has a spoken introduction and narration by none other than Legendary DJ David 'Kid' Jensen, and the choruses are by the band. And the refrain goes: "Are you the herooooo? Or are you the madman?"

Well gosh, that was much longer than it needed to be! Contextualise is indeed a word, btw

[emony.livejournal.com]

It does sound vaguely familiar, yes. I'm glad to hear contextualise is a word too.

[emberfire.livejournal.com]

hey Clare,

Care to explain why you love your warrior queen icon (says Queen Maeve in keywords)? I am curious if your Queen Maeve is the one I am thinking of.

Very fun meme..shall have to steal.
~Ember

[apolla.livejournal.com]

That's because it's a picture of Queen Maeve of Connaught, she of the 'I demand to be my husband's equal and thus will start a war to get me a bull.'

She was as wild as any king of her time, and drank, fought and fornicated as good as any warrior king. The Greeks and Romans liked their chicks to be good little girls, silent and obedient. We Celts preferred them a little angrier, methinks.

[emberfire.livejournal.com]

Thanks for answering, Clare!

What a strong queen to iconize. Glad to learn more about her through your icon.

[apolla.livejournal.com]

It's also a very spurious reference to my big HP fic, Daoimear De Dan. In that, Lily Evans was the Heir of Maeve, a sort of magical title passed down to, you guessed it, heirs of Queen Maeve, who then took on some tasks and things to ensure the continuing safety of the world. It was the reason Voldemort hesitated before killing her... then later, Lily's successor turns up to help the trio win the war (Sounds more Mary-Sue than it is, I promise!) and all that caper.

But nobody's really read DDD, so I doubt they'd notice that particular link!

[emberfire.livejournal.com]

Intersting fact to learn!

Question for you though..I am imagining that there is a fairie queen named Maeve in some folklore as well? Not sure if you know, but it's worth a shot.

[apolla.livejournal.com]

She might be a variation on the original myth- I've noticed in my research that there's usually at least THREE versions of every story.

In Irish myths and legends, the fairy folk the Shee were there much earlier than human beings.

Mind you, Maeve is totally one of those 'Irish as Paddy McGinty's goat' names, so gets used in a lot of stuff like that, I think.

[no-remorse.livejournal.com]

*am torn between asking about Arthur or Luminous*

torntorntorncan'tdecide.....

[apolla.livejournal.com]

Because it's you, and I can never refuse a fellow pedant, I shall tell you about both.

For George/Arthur, I shall give you a suitably Lennonesque answer:

The Beatles were once famous for their sparkling wit, and while Little Johnny Leper was fambulous fangs to his Safairy with Whide Hunter into the jumble, the mighty jumble, the other Beatles With An A were equally if not exactly as funny. *breathes in*

OK, given that I can't keep up the Lennonspeak for long, the Beatles used to get asked about their hairstyles a lot, because this was so long ago that people thought it was long. If only they knew what was waiting for them in the 70s...

Anyway, in A Hard Day's Night there is a press conference where the boys are basically thrown to a roomful of journalists. The camera follows each as they try in vain to snag a drink or snack and as they're asked all manner of questions.

Some of the best:

Q: How did you find America?
John: Turned left at Greenland.

Q: Are you a mod or a rocker?
Ringo: No, I'm a mocker.

Q: How often do you see your father?
Paul: Ah, we're just good friends.

Q: What do you call that haircut?
George: Arthur.

And there you have it.

As for 'Luminous' this comes from a chat with Nancy in which I was listening to The War of The Worlds which features Richard Burton and Philip Lynott. In the first piece, 'The Eve Of War', The Narrator (Teh Burton) describes a "huge mass of luminous gas". I had just been telling Nancy how I'd listen to Dick Burton read the Yellow Pages when this hit me- Richard Burton manages to string the humble word 'luminous' into about fifteen gloriously beautiful syllables. It was so fabulous we went on and on about it and I said "OMG, I MUST ICONISE!". I found a pic of a much younger Burton in Greek/Roman armour from one movie or another (my guess is the Robe, if only because he looks younger than when he played Antony to Elizabeth's Cleopatra). And there it was born. And he too, is luminous.

Totally and fabulously longwinded am I.

[no-remorse.livejournal.com]

I think I love you.

Your icon stories rock. Even if I did this meme, my answers would be short and boring and most of my icons are self-explanatory anyway. But yours totally rock.

[apolla.livejournal.com]

*smirks*

I try. And I bet you have cool stories too *hugs*

[nightfalltwen.livejournal.com]

THIS ONE!

What does it mean?

[apolla.livejournal.com]

Well...

There's a line in 'Stairway To Heaven' that nobody seems to understand and has taken on a cult following. I think Metallica or some such band actually had a tour called the 'Bustle in Hedgerow' tour.

"If there's a bustle in your hedgerow/Don't be alarmed now/It's just a spring clean for the May Queen."

Now, there's a whole bunch of potential meanings like there are for a lot of good lyrics, but I personally think it's a story of blossoming womanhood, blah blah, first love, blah blah, sexual awakening blah blah. Of course, this being Zep it could be the sex or it could mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING AT ALL.

In the case of this icon, it's a picture of a lithe and young and fabulous Percy with his tight jeans and big hair, and well, the bustle in your hedgerow is optional and you can take that as you will.