It’s all about meme
Cats: blogs, odd things|I’ve been meme tagged by Grammar Grrrl Beth from A Cup of Coffey to answer five random questions.
1. Who was your Tiger Beat crush? Do you still find him cute?
Tiger Beat was a teen magazine of the ’70s read by mostly pre-teen girls. My crush was Tony DeFranco who used to sing Heartbeat, It’s a Love Beat with his band The DeFranco Family which, I am assured, was not a manufactured band.
Tony is now selling high-end real estate in California. Cute? Naaaw, my tastes have evolved since ‘73, but TDF is not hard to look at either.
2. You’re the new hot voice out there, and everyone wants to play with you. Who do you pick to play in your backup band?
Guitar, Jack from White Stripes,
Base, Sting
Drums, Larry Mullins Jr, U2
Background vocals, Amy Winehouse, George Michaels, David Bowie, Sting.
Piano, Jools Holland
Clarinet, Artie Shaw (he’s dead and hasn’t played since ‘52, but I’m assuming this meme is a fantasy and we can bring him back)
3. What’s your favorite curse word? When do you use it?
I adore the words arse, arsing, arse-h***. I use these words when dealing with or talking about people who are arses. I find it an immensely satisfying word to say aloud and to describe appropriate people. I always use the word with an R as I find the word ass to be rather crude.
4. What’s your guilty pleasure TV show, the one you’re almost embarrassed to admit you watch?
Bewitched, Teletubbies, Sixties Batman and Robin shows, Old Underdog cartoons.”There’s no need to fear,Underdog is here!”
5. Which is your very favorite bauble?
My wedding rings, but not because I’m sentimental about weddings or wedding rings.
I like messing with the one-ring-forever ritual of the wedding ring.
I switch them up whenever the whim takes me. There was no ring available on the day I married because I was on a remote beach in Fiji and the closest thing available to a wedding ring was a key ring which was far too big for my finger. And let’s face it, a key ring would have looked ridiculous on my finger.
Today, I am wearing a Russian wedding ring which consists of three inter-linked bands made of white, red and yellow gold. It is not made from Polonium 210.
Tomorrow, I will come up with another five random questions and tag five more people.
July 23rd, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Y’alls got married in Fiji?! How cool is that?!
I want a new wedding ring. I should have gotten new ones last year for our 10th anniversary but that passed and now we’re at 11.5 years…
July 23rd, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Yeah, I’m paying primo ticket prices to see your band hit the stage.
My Tiger Beat crush was David Cassidy. And, yes, I still get a thrill whenever I hear a Partridge Family song.
Great answers, GT!
July 24th, 2007 at 3:05 am
Wow GT — who KNEW???!!
July 24th, 2007 at 7:21 am
My TB crush was Donny Osmond because that was my best friend’s crush and I was only 11 and didn’t know any better. That’s my story etc.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:25 am
What’s this ‘meme tagged’?
As a huge fan of Richard Dawkins (pioneered the concept of the meme) and Susan Blackmore (expanded on the concept) I feel this use of a very useful concept unpalatable. However if this particular mutation survives, so be it, that’s what memetic evolution is all about.
It should have to survive through at least one generation to be considered as a meme.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:41 am
I would love for someone to give me a good, non-Dawkins explanation of “meme”. I read “The God Delusion” and basically skipped the “meme” chapter after my head started to hurt. Aidez moi, svp.
July 24th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Tag memes are just as Dr.Dawkins described – words or fragments of ideas that propagated themselves through the culture, sometimes for good and sometimes for bad, a bit like genes.
Susan Greenfield(?) has also talked about the way memes spread and influence science.
Both are public intellectuals and scientists who understand the interconnectedness of science and culture. I suppose the Internet is the ultimate propagator of Dawkins’ memes.
July 24th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Deepti wrote:
“I would love for someone to give me a good, non-Dawkins explanation of “meme”.”
Wikipedia gives a pretty succinct definition…and then follows by providing more than you would ever want to know.
It reminded me of the biggest differences between genetic and memetic evolution. memes are much more prone to mutation, and don’t necessarily provide any benefit to the ‘carrier’ (i.e. brain worms).
I find that most people don’t have a very good grasp on genetic evolution, so the meme concept is often beyond their grasp.
Is this what they refer to when the say a thread has been ‘hi-jacked’?;)
July 24th, 2007 at 10:30 am
*GASP* Are you saying that the meme concept is beyond my grasp, Dick???
Once again, *Gasp!*
July 24th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Here is Wikipedia’s definition which fits with my understanding of the concept. I’ve heard Dawkins speak eloquently about the concept on radio before, and because he’s such a good speaker/communicator, he made it quite easy to to grasp, even for the non-scientists. It think it’s a tribute to Dawkin’s vision that we are using memes like this one on the Internet. He saw it long before, this.
According to memetic theory, a meme (IPA: /mi:m/) — a unit of cultural information, cultural evolution or diffusion — propagates from one mind to another analogous to the way in which a gene propagates from one organism to another as a unit of genetic information and of biological evolution. Multiple memes may propagate as cooperative groups called memeplexes (meme complexes).
Biologist and evolutionary theorist Richard Dawkins coined the term meme in 1976.[1] He gave as examples tunes, catch-phrases, beliefs, clothing fashions, ways of making pots, and the technology of building arches.
Meme theorists contend that memes evolve by natural selection similarly to Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance influencing an organism’s reproductive success. So with memes, some ideas will propagate less successfully and become extinct, while others will survive, spread, and, for better or for worse, mutate. Memeticists argue that the memes most beneficial to their hosts will not necessarily survive; rather, those memes that replicate the most effectively spread best, which allows for the possibility that successful memes may prove detrimental to their hosts.
The idea of memes has proved a successful meme in its own right, gaining a degree of penetration into popular culture rare for an abstract scientific theory.
July 24th, 2007 at 10:51 am
You know, I was going to add a remark to ensure that the comment was not misunderstood, but thought, “No, Deepti isn’t THAT sensitive!”…but I have been known to be wrong on the rare occasion.:lol:
Deepti, you are so smart, and wonderful, and intelligent, and attractive, and knowledgable, and SENSITIVE.
Love,
Dick
July 24th, 2007 at 11:36 am
You’re smart and wonderful and intelligent and attractive and knowledgable and sensitive too dick
Hey, it’s my birthday, today, whaddabout me?
July 24th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
GT, you are the paragon of all things great and wonderful, beautiful and sublime. You are like an fine aged wine or cheese, a 3000 year old egg (but look much younger).
Congratulations GT. I didn’t realize you were a born again!
…and I’m not sensitive, no, it’s not true, do you think so, what do you mean, not really, well sometimes, do you really think so, I’m not, usually…do I seem sensitive? I’m not, you know. Really.
July 24th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
Great answers! I don’t remember Tony DeFranco or the DeFranco family at all. I feel cheated.
July 25th, 2007 at 5:30 am
Haha, I’m NOT that sensitive Dick, just keeping you on your toes
I’ll take the compliments anyhow!
Happy Birthday, GT! You missed a great hike, complete with dead seals and dry wit compliments of McB.
July 25th, 2007 at 5:31 am
I also like feigning shock through the use of *GASP!* There’s something satisfying about it…
July 25th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Yes it’s so Carol Brunnet doing a southern baaa-ell in the nineteenth century. Gaaa-eesp!
July 25th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
No Dick, you don’t seem sensitive, smart, witty and wonderful, but not sensitive
July 26th, 2007 at 4:11 am
A heartbeat is a love beat GT! Except when it involves the Underdog movie that’s coming out? Have you seen the trailers? I loved the cartoon too. Am I going to have to pay full price for a ticket to your concert or is there a blog discount?
July 26th, 2007 at 5:47 am
For you, Dale, always a discount.
July 26th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Thank-you GT, I was starting to get a little sensitive about that.