[critique] Re: New Song: How to Own Your Human

[the Ginger Cat <gingi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 19 Feb 2001, Lee Gold wrote:

> the Ginger Cat wrote:
> > 
> > How to Own Your Human
> > copyright 2001 by Nyani-Iisha Martin, Jacob Sommer, Rachel Silverman
> > ttto "This is Not the Way to Get Laid" by Leslie Fish
> 
> The original song has an invariant chorus, which you've 
> chosen to discard in favor of a last line that changes for each
> verse.  Therefore it's important that the last line really suit
> its verse.

Yup, that was our intention.

> > Don't assume you deserve those treats
> 	I don't think "deserve" is quite the right word here.
> 	For one thing, a lot of people do appreciate cat 
> 	self-confidence/arrogance.  
> 
> 		"If you misbehave, then you won't get treats"?

Oh, I appreciate my cats' attitude.  But they do have a sense of "I
deserve that treat NOW" that I was trying to bring through here.

> > Just ignore those human calls
> > Pretend you're chasing jingle balls
> > Running around in stairs and halls
> > This is not the way to be cute.
> 	This seems inaccurate observation.  
> 	Lots of people do seem to think it's cute.  
> 		"When you hear the humans call,
> 		Don't come up with a big hairball
> 		Or find a bed beneath to crawl:
> 		This is not the way to be cute"?

We were trying for sarcasm here, I think.  Ny?  Jacob?  Or maybe just the
whole thing of "where is that cat when I want it, and why is it always
underfoot when I don't?"
 		
> >   Don't play the cool sophisti-"cat"
> >   To show how bored you are.
> >   Washing your butt for all to see
> >   Just won't get you very far.
> > 
> > Don't skip washing, do it now
> > So that you'll be the cat's meow
> > You'll just have to do it anyhow
> > Or else you're on the way to a bath.  [hey, wait, there's WATER in there!]
> 
> 	These two verses contradict one another.  

Not our intent.  I was thinking of the habit cats have of washing as
indelicately as they possibly can when they want to show disdain, for the
former verse.  For the latter verse, we were just playing with Leslie's
original.

> > Don't presume they love your bod
> > Your purrs are not a quid pro "cod"
> > Not since Egypt have you been god
> > This is not the way to be served.
> 	Umm, again these first two lines seem inaccurate.
> 		"You know that they love to touch your bod
> 		But your purrs just aren't a quid pro "cod"?

I like that.

> --Lee, who prefers dogs but who did have a couple of cats 
> as houseguests (along with their owner) some years back

I like dogs, but until I get a house with a yard and lots of time to play
with one, it would be cruel to have one.  As one of my favorite Nancy
buttons says, "Cats are roommates; Dogs are kids."

--Rachel

-- 
R. S. Silverman
http://www.gingicat.org
"It isn't my fault that I'm supposed to be living in a musical and got
stuck in a dramatic production." --Robert Cooke, on rec.music.filk