Monkey Business

Kooky Collaborators

Your Muse and Andre have decided to collaborate. They want to write a song together.
6.) Tell us why they decided to collaborate.

         While at the Blame it on My Muse Awards Banquet, quite a few of the muses were gathered around discussing everything and nothing in particular. During the discussion, MJ discovered that Andre has quite a variety in tastes where music is concerned. So she asked Andre, "Wouldn't it be cool if some of us got together and wrote a song? Maybe even make a music video!" Weeks went by and MJ's mind went on to other things, as it is frequently wont to do. She was hence surprised when Andre approached her one night at the Banana Bar while she and I were there just chilling after a long day of creative madness and asked, "You still want to make a song together?"

"What?" MJ queried in that absentminded way she has.

"You remember? You said it would be cool for us to get together and write a song..."

"Oh yeah!" she exclaimed as the memory came back to her. "I'm still down for it. Who else will be weighing in on it?"

"So far," said Andre, "it's just me and you."

"Okay! But maybe some of the others would like to join us on this venture. Should we ask them?"

"I already have," responded Andre. "I'm waiting for the others to get back with me."

"I can't wait! I guess we need to figure out what type of song we want to write and what we want to write it about."

"Well, let's start with what we want to write it about and maybe that will help us decide what type of song to write."

"Okay. Do you have any idea where to start?" asked MJ.

Andre sighs, "I guess we could write it about something we both like."

"Oh oh! I like flowers!" she exclaimed. Andre merely grunted. MJ's happy go lucky attitude fell just a bit and she said, "Well, maybe we should find something we can both agree on. I know! We can both write lists of things we like that we might be able to make a song about and then see if anything from our lists match!"

So that's exactly what they did. It only took Andre a couple of minutes to write his Like List and then he sat for a bit waiting for MJ to finish hers as well. He waited and waited, and the waiting made him thirsty. Deciding that she would be a while, Andre swung over to the bar and grabbed a couple of glasses and a bottle of his favorite vodka. Andre poured himself a glass then carried his drink, the empty glass, and the bottle of vodka back to the table where MJ was doggedly writing her list. Andre glanced over, it looked like MJ was already writing on the back of her page.

"You want a drink?" Andre asked her.

MJ looked up from her list and noticed Andre standing there with a glass of vodka in his hand. "Sure!" she replied then quickly bent her head to continue writing. She wrote something in very large letters and circled it. "Okay, I think I'm finished now. Let's have that drink before we look at our lists."

Andre poured MJ a glass of vodka and continued to drink his own. MJ took a big swig and grimaced from the dryness of the liquor as it hit the back of her throat. "Man, this is really good," she said wistfully, then more businesslike said, "Now, let's compare our lists."

They put their lists in the middle of the table where they both could see each of them. Since there were fewer ideas on Andre's list, each one was compared to MJ's list and then crossed out if it was not also on MJ's. A few entries down, Andre had written "Vodka" scanning the back of MJ's list, Andre finally found a match, so he circled vodka. This process went on a while longer with no more matches found down most of Andre's list. Almost at the end of Andre's list, he had written, "monkeys." (Another no brainer, I know) "Oh! here's another one!" MJ excitedly said as she pointed at his entry and then pointed to the very last thing she had written on her list. "I like monkeys too!"

It turned out that there weren't any more in common between the two lists. But they had a place to start at least.

"So, vodka and monkeys," said Andre, "what can we write about vodka or monkeys that would make a good song?"

"Maybe we can write about vodka drinking monkeys?" posed MJ, her voice full of uncertainty.

"I think we have a winner!" said Andre. "Let's make a toast. To Vodka Drinking Monkeys!"

"To Vodka Drinking Monkeys!" MJ downed the rest of her vodka in one big swallow. "But hey, Andre? Can we figure out the kind of music for our song tomorrow? I'm already gonna have trouble making it home as it is. I'll probably get lost."

"Sure MJ. We'll pick up from right here tomorrow. You need me to call you a cab or anything?"

"Nope. I think I'll walk it. It's a really nice night out tonight."


W/C 886