- Song Title Challenge #21: Rollin’ With My Homies – Coolio - “You're late.” Grant cringed before the look in her eyes. “Chill out, Babe. I'm here now, ain't I?” She shifted her weight and crossed her arms. Next came the head-tilt. Grant felt himself grow smaller before her stare, but at the same time reflected how cute she looked when she was angry.
- Song Title Challenge #22: Edge of Seventeen – Stevie Nicks - We call it Seventeen. It has no other official designation. That’s because when it was first spotted, it was thought to be a passing asteroid and we paid no further heed. Only when it returned several years later did the scientists realise that it was, in fact, another moon of the gas supergiant we were orbiting. The seventeenth and most distant moon. We had to wait five years for it to pass again. We sent out a probe, but no one expected the data it returned.
- Song Title Challenge #23: Sunday, Bloody Sunday – U2 - I'll never forget that Sunday. “Bloody Sunday” we ended up calling it. I had the weekend off and had managed to go to church for a change. They actually sent a uniform to fetch me from the sanctuary. It wasn't necessary for him to speak – I could see from his face that it was bad. “How many?” I said as we walked to the car. I knew there had to be multiple fatalities for them to call me out of church. “Five, but…you have to see for yourself, sir.”
- Song Title Challenge #24: Crosseyed and Painless – Talking Heads - “Come look here,” said the professor. I stood closer. He took what looked like an ice pick with wires coming out of it. “I will now push this into the subject’s brain stem.” I looked at the young woman strapped to the vertical table. She was conscious, but immobile from the paralytic the professor had given her a few moments ago. Her eyes followed us as we moved around the lab. I felt a little sorry for her.
- Song Title Challenge #25: Shaving Cream – Benny Bell - We were in a spot of trouble. An asteroid was hurtling straight at us and the ship’s control panel was on fire, making us unable to steer. Oh, and someone…not naming names… had left the fire extinguishers back on Earth to conserve weight during take-off. As I said. A spot of trouble. I heard a banging from the kitchen and went to investigate.
- Song Title Challenge #26: God is a Popstar – Oomph! - “Mind if I join you?” It is a young man, his smile radiating enthusiasm. He’s wearing a white button-up shirt and a black tie; archaic even by Earth standards and hardly the type of garb you’d expect on Jupiter Station 7. He’s holding what seems to be a little black book…another oddity. I nod to the empty seat next to me and he sits down. “I’m Elder Jacob,” he says. I introduce myself and comment on his unusual name.
- Song Title Challenge #27: People Are Still Having Sex – LaTour - I see him duck through a doorway just as I round the corner. I rush after him. The door is unlocked. I edge it open, afraid of an ambush. I find myself in a small anteroom. I can hear music playing from behind the double doors ahead of me. There’s a selection of masks on a table to my right. I put one on and enter, slipping my .38 into my coat pocket. It takes me a moment to process what I see. It feels like I’ve walked into a scene from Eyes Wide Shut. You know the one I’m talking about.
- Song Title Challenge #28: Christmas Tree On Fire – Holly Golightly - We took position next to the door. At O'Reilly’s signal I swung my axe. This was not my first breach, and it connected just below the handle, shattering the lock. I spun back to the cover of the wall, expecting the backdraft. It didn’t come. “Stay out here,” I told the new kid. “We’ll make sure it’s safe first.” I nodded at O'Reilly, fitted my oxygen mask, and took up the hose. The door opened into a short corridor. Light flickered through an opening at the far end. We made our way towards it.
- Song Title Challenge #29: Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo – South Park - Roderick Algernon Pemberton the Third was distressed. The reason for his distress was Roderick Algernon Pemberton the Fourth, currently staring at him with wide eyes. The lad’s governess had brought him in for his daily presentation to his sire and had briefly stepped out. She was taking an awfully long time to return.
- Song Title Challenge #30: What Can You Get A Wookie For Christmas (When He Already Owns A Comb) - “A credit for your thoughts, handsome.” “Hi, Leia. It’s Chewie.” “What’s wrong? Is he sick?” “No, nothing’s wrong. It’s just…What can you get a wookie for Christmas?” “How about a comb?” “If you can find a comb that will survive more than ten seconds of that shag carpet he calls a pelt, sure. On the other hand, he might take the gift as a personal insult. Do you know what wookies do when you insult them?”
- Song Title Challenge #31: Mustang Sally – Mack Rice - “What’s that?” Hugo turned around at the sound of his daughter’s voice. She stood in the door, wide eyes staring at the creature before him. “Come in. And shut the door.” The program unfroze as the door to the virtua-chamber closed and the animal came back to life. “It’s a mustang, Sally,” said Hugo. “A young horse.”
- Song Title Challenge #32: Fractal Zoom – Brian Eno - You are plunging downwards, or it could be upwards…no way to tell, really. You have lost all sense of time since you fell into the pattern, though it does seem as if it now takes longer to progress from one level to the next than it had at first. Or you could be going faster. As another layer of the fractal zooms past you, you become aware of another presence in here with you. How is that even possible, you think. Then you consider that you’re falling through a mathematical construct you created on your computer.
- Song Title Challenge #33: Smell the Witch – Mortiis - “Hmmm. This is nice.” She pressed herself closer against his body and breathed in his musky scent. He kissed the top of her head and she tilted her face up to receive the next one on the lips. “Did you mean what you said?” she asked. “That you’ll take me away from here?” “Every word. I’ll take you somewhere she’ll never get to you. We’ll travel, see the world. There’s so much I want to show you. You won’t believe what’s out there.”
- Song Title Challenge #34: Tuva.Rock – Yat-Kha - Yanto moved as fast as he could along the dry riverbed, Tuva close behind him. He glanced back. Her eyes were fixed on the ground before her, determination on her face, but he could see she was exhausted and close to tears. He couldn't hear their pursuers anymore, but didn't want to risk stopping here in the open. They reached a huge boulder that must have tumbled down during some earlier flood. Yanto ducked behind it, pulling Tuva with him. For the first couple of minutes neither spoke as they tried to get their breathing back under control.
- Song Title Challenge #35: I’m Too Sexy – Right Said Fred - Lauren barely felt the branches that slapped against her face as she rushed through the trees. Her only thought was to get as far as she could from the campsite. She still couldn’t believe it. Stuff like this only happened in movies. The picture of their bodies lying on the ground came unbidden to her mind.
- Song Title Challenge #36: Earache My Eye – Cheech and Chong - “Yo! Brain! When you gonna tell this body to get itself off this bed? I’m tired of staring at the same spot on the wall.” “I'm in pain. It hurts too much to move.” “What’s wrong, Big-B? Where you be hurtin’?” “I have a terrible earache, my eye. It’s utter agony!”
- Song Title Challenge #37: Eye of Shiva – Therion - “I have to see you. I cannot tell you why over the phone. It concerns the Eye.” The Professor’s voice had sounded strained, his tone urgent. The Eye. I wish that cursed stone had never come into my life. The day we finally unearthed the entrance to the temple had made all the weeks of toiling in the Indian sun seem worth it. And to top it all the Professor had selected me out of all the graduate students to accompany him inside.
- Song Title Challenge #38: Scentless Apprentice – Nirvana - Ah, you're awake. Welcome to my…well, I guess you'd call it a dungeon, wouldn't you? It’s no use struggling, you know. You’re not nearly strong enough to break these restraints. Ooh, you do have pretty eyes. I can simply stare into them for ages. Sorry about the smell, by the way. I have a bit of a, erm, condition. Can't be fixed, I’m afraid. It’s a good thing Steven here suffers from anosmia. He can’t smell. Not a thing. Oh, I should probably introduce you. Steven is my apprentice. He’s learning the craft from me.
- Song Title Challenge #39: Freakishly long song title – Christine Lavin - YOU HAVE THREE NEW MESSAGES. FIRST MESSAGE: “Hi, it’s me. Listen, I'm just calling to say I'm really regretting what I said to you when you called me 11:00 on a Friday morning to tell me that at 1:00 Friday afternoon you're gonna leave your office, go downstairs, hail a cab to go out to the airport to catch a plane to go skiing in the Alps for two weeks, not that I wanted to go with you, I wasn't able to leave town, I'm not a very good skier, I couldn't expect you to pay my way, but after going out with you for three years I don't like surprises!! But really, it’s not your fault…
- Song Title Challenge #40: Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving With a Pict – Pink Floyd - It was a routine call as far as I was concerned. According to dispatch the officer had claimed it was weird, but after twenty years on homicide there was little that could still surprise me. Yeah, right. The officer waited for me at the warehouse door. He sprang to attention and saluted as I got out of the car. Rookie. “Put down that hand, son. This isn’t the army.”
an exercise in percussive maintenance
if all else fails...use a hammer 