22 May 2007

Aries and me..me.. or is it meme?

I've been away for a week in France, and during that time several of the charts of people or events that I've written about in previous postings have been in the news.

Here they are:

  • Nicolas Sarkozy (posted May 2007) was inaugurated as France's new President. I watched this event on French TV and had it explained to me by our French family hosts. Interesting to see it from the point of view of the French media.
  • It was announced that Prince Harry (posted May 2007) would not be going to serve in Iraq (but he subsequently did).
  • Gordon Brown (posted February 2007) will become Prime Minister, unopposed by any challengers to the leadership of the Labour party.
  • Tony Blair (posted March 2006) came under attack during his final visit to Iraq as Prime Minister.
  • Life on Mars (posted April 2007) the quirky and innovative TV series, won accolades at the TV Bafta Awards ceremony.
And did I mention that whilst in France, I was staying in Picardie where the Battle of the Somme (posted July 2006) took place?

On my return, I also discovered I'd been "memed" by GreenAbby and asked to recall a pop song or two from the year I was 18 and to write about why it influenced me. I cringe at the memory of "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to" and "Dominique" by the Singing Nun ( yes, I kid you not! - her name was Soeur Sourire and as I was learning French at school it was fun to learn the words and sing along - those were very innocent days back in 1963...). The melodies were good even if the words weren't up to much.

And if, like me, you're not sure what a meme is, here is the dictionary definition:

"a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behaviour) that is passed from one generation to another by nongenetic means (as by imitation)"
Somehow, a meme sounds very like Aries as in "me...me!" and I guess I prefer to focus on the charts of others and discover a theme - a sort of thee...me. Thee, not me.


2 comments:

Barbara said...

Hi Joyce,

I hope that your week away was a good one in Picardie. A lot of current news were going on during this time !
It looks like Abby tagged you for the music meme ! I will soon be answering to that one; I let you come and discover my chosen lyrics for 1980.I've been busy, too. I'am going to put that up when I have the chance.

Have a nice weekend.

seev said...

Hi Joyce. Thanks for that dictionary definition of meme. Looks like the definition is stretched to fit the occasion. haha But people do have fun with them (memes) apparently. :-)
Take care,
Mardé