Little old lady got mutilated late last night...

That may not be an appropriate subject title for a post, but it is my favorite lyric from Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon. (It may be one of my favorite lyrics ever, I'm not gonna lie! The metrics, the alliteration...the macabre LOLs it inspires! ♥)

So the time is drawing nigh for Halloween--my most favoritest holiday of the year! I've already started working on my costume, bought goodies to hand out to my students, and now I would like to burn a fresh Halloween CD to take with me to parties and play for the Trick or Treaters.

So tell me, darlings: What are your favorite Halloween songs? What would you most like to see on a Halloween mix?

Please do include the obvious ones we've all heard and boogied to before, and the not-so-obvious ones I may not have heard of, or may not have associated with Halloween before but just fit like a glove!

A Playlist for Female Stereotypes

Some of you may have seen the Female Character Flowchart that has been floating around fandom discussion boards lately. It's an attempt to quantify what exactly makes a "strong female character" as opposed to the flotsam and jetsam of female stereotypes that make up the majority of female representation in entertainment media. If your character doesn't fall into one of the traps that lands her on this flowchart, then Congratulations! You've got a strong female character.

The fantastically thought-provoking evilhippo wrote an awesome post detailing her reactions to the flowchart, and how she feels the author of the chart has confused the use of tropes with bad female characterization, and many other very cogent and intelligent observations. Naturally, I inserted myself into the discussion and rapidly turned the focus onto PBS, hair products, and what relevant skills evilhippo and I possess that we could one day use to team up and fight crime. (My main superpower being my ability to quickly derail any intellectual conversation and make it ALL ABOUT ME.)

The subject of fighting crime brought us 'round to a little game she and I have developed wherein we choose a criteria for selecting songs and then post our respective choices to fit the genre. Past categories have included "Song You'd Most Like to Get Punched in the Face To" and "Song To Be Abducted by Aliens Whilst Eating an Ice Cream To". Her choice of battleground this time was this: "A short (3-5 songs?) playlist illustrating or engaging with all or a part of the Female Character Flowchart."

Unable to limit myself to just 3-5 songs, I've come up with an entire playlist in celebration of the female characters we love with a secret, guilty passion. I now present to you:

( Track list and music player behind the cut. )