Xander's

Professional Witness ~ I can't quite remember what it was about this chapter that made me give it this title but I do remember that it was somehow suggested by Luc Besson's The Professional.

Saturday In The Park ~ Contrary to popular belief this title was not inspired by the Chicago song.  It was taken from the brilliant musical Sunday In The Park With George (music and lyric by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine) and thereby from A Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat.

Precipice ~ Because everything was.

The Morning After The Night Before ~ I'm a fan of Lina Wertmuller so this is an homage to such film titles as Swept Away...by an unusual destiny in the blue sea of August  and The End of the World In Our Usual Bed in a Night Full of Rain.

Onion Girl ~ Peeling away the layers; not one of my more subtle works.

The Daily Grind ~ Another chapter that I would have to reread but it seems to me that it was about all the nitty gritty details of police work.

Ghost In The Machine ~ Stolen from Jung by The Police.  I like all my titles but my two favourites are the ones that most fit their chapter; this is one of them.

Harbinger ~ A literal title but also suggested by Paula Cole's brilliant first album.

King Midas In Reverse ~ It's no secret that Tucker works in law enforcement; when she's having a hectic day she refers to herself as a "shit magnet".  This seemed a more polite way of saying the same thing and is my other most favourite.  For those who care, a song by The Hollies.

Speaking Parts ~ Another apt title compliments of Atom Egoyan's film.

Little Big Horn ~ Ambushes right and left.

Squeezing Out Sparks ~ Great album title from Graham Parker and The Rumor.

The Gift ~ Another one that I can't recall but it seemed appropriate at the time.

The Reveal ~ Because that's what's happening.

Storm Front ~ Because that's what's happening, too.

Somebody Up There Likes Me ~ A good boxing film about Rocky Graziano and an ironic title for this particular chapter.

Iceberg ~ Dead ahead.

Détente  ~ A meeting of the minds.

Surfacing ~ No, not Sarah McLachlan, Margaret Atwood.  (Although Sarah's good, too.)

Arrested Development ~ This one made me laugh when I thought of it.  I wanted to play with it by making it 'Arresting' but decided to stick with the well known phrase.  It still makes me laugh.

Pay No Attention To The Woman Behind The Curtain ~ There's no place like home, there's no place like home...actually, this was for Sylvie, who turned out to be just a human being after all. 

Intersection ~ Where things meet, naturally.

Present Tense ~ The Conversation and Point/Counterpoint sprang to mind but they seemed rather obvious.  I started thinking about the song My Past Is Present and after playing with it for about ten seconds, this seemed to fit. 

Please Direct Your Attention To The Center Ring ~ Life isn't a cabaret  ol' chum, it's a fucking circus.

The Seventh Veil ~ My first thought was The Dance Of The Seven Veils  because more and more things are being peeled away. It morphed into The  Seventh Veil in tribute to an absolutely brilliant film which would  never be green lighted in this homogenized day and age.

into love... ~ Mark Isham's brilliant film score for Mrs. Parker and the vicious circle leads off with this breathtaking song.

The Downward Spiral ~ A hint of things to come and a tip of the hat to Tucker who likes NIN.

Next Stop, Wonderland ~ The title of a flawed but interesting film.

Incoming ~ Under fire and covering ass.

For Every Action... ~ As soon as I finished reading this chapter, my brain was flooded with science. Thanks to the Exploratorium for clarifying my thoughts... and Newton, you rock, dude!

Release ~ The obvious, of course...from jail, from prison, from torment. But also a big thanks to The Tea Party.

Reparations ~ Brick by brick, stone by stone, building it back up again. God Bless Annie Lennox.

The Bridge ~ The amazon inspector is the conduit between S'Phear and Coop.

Almost Home ~ Events hit close this time and also recall times past.

Thunderheads ~ Obvious but apt, a storm is brewing.

Contact ~ 'Cause Coop doesn't wear glasses. But seriously folks, she's getting in touch with Avery, Kim, herself, etc. I'm getting very obvious in my old age...

Family Ties ~ From a wonderful song by Hugh Prestwood and an obvious but apt choice.

Kindred Spirits ~ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Second Sight ~ Cooper is tuning in to all sorts of insights and undercurrents.

The Shield ~ Although it seems obvious...it's not. Uhhhh, Avery and cops and stuff. It popped into my head and I went with it.

Straight Haired Girls All Want Curls ~ A line from I Keep Looking by Sara Evans and let's be honest, good hair beats heaps o' brains every day.

Found You Out ~ The title of a wonderful song by The Drivers. The real Cooper is starting to emerge and Avery and Angelo just caught a glimpse.

Not Just Anybody ~ Cooper needs Help!

Shadowplay ~ They're in the shadows and they're playing. I tried to think of something a little more subtle but...I'm not that good.

Marathon ~ I can't remember what sparked this title but--oh wait, it was the marathon sex scenes. Never mind.

Brief Encounter ~ You spell it exactly how it sounds and of course, it's also a wonderful film.

...And You're Still Standing ~ This one is a little harder to explain. A song popped into my head as I was reading this chapter and it's called Poor Man's House by Patty Griffin from her remarkable album Living With Ghosts. The full lyric line reads "You know you're coming to some kind of understanding, when every dream you've dreamed has passed and you're still standing." Perfect.

The Best Defence ~ is a good offense and Coop should be a goalie: she's very good at deflection.

Lifeboat ~ Sorry folks, no deep hidden meanings here.  What Sarge is for Coop.

a thing of skin and bone her pulse beats up through ~ I'm crediting Xan with this one even though it was taken from the chapter itself.  And it's fairly self explanatory. 

Praise, Mash Notes & Bribery Chocolates ref these should go to ~~>  Xander

Tucker's

The Soft Machine ~  From a book by William S. Burroughs.  Seemed an apt title to me for the first visit to a psychiatrist who shrinks heads in a pepto bismol colored house. 

The Hydraulics of Zen ~  I have no idea.  I was reading several different books at the time and something about the irony of "hydraulics" and "Zen" appealed to me.  Two words you wouldn't put together necessarily & a play off Cooper trying to approach the investigation systematically while being so fucked in the head. 

Forced Entries ~ Cop term but a play on Massey's greasy insinuations as he shows Cooper around the penthouse.

Naked Lunch ~ William S. Burroughs again.  Seemed perfect for a lunch meeting with McCafferty when Cooper is so stripped of defenses & raw she can't hide no matter how hard she tries. 

Of Guilt and Grief ~ Just popped into my head.  Like Of Mice and Men only Of Guilt and Grief which was what the chapter was about.  (Sorry; I can't be fucking brilliant ALL the time.)

A Question of Gravity ~ Two fold one.  Play on words about Cooper's OD & feeling so groggy & heavy & the penultimate moment when she almost falls head first at Jinny's feet... Which is a two fold moment in itself.  And also the big powwow between Kim, Kerry & Jinny about whether or not to take her to the hospital which  would result in her losing her job & all credibility.  Lots of laws about falling going down in that one. 

An Essay of Windows and Doors ~ Again, I have no clue.  I remember wanting to come up with something to do with entrances & exits as a sort of metaphor on Jase's death & Jinny's entering Coop's life. 

Stones, Uncast ~ Another of those that just seemed to work for that chapter.  Cooper finds all sorts of personal, intimate, revealing things out about Jinny & she could have reacted quite differently because she'd been handed some rather heavy ammunition... but she chose not to use it. 

Awake Intact ~ This is from a poem of mine.  And all my poetry totally sucks & is really personal & only written when I am on the verge of a mental breakdown so no, you can't read it. 

Vertical Intrusion ~ I loved this one.  Obviously, it's referring to the scene against the wall in the lounge area of the club...  But it's also about how when someone is trying to intimidate you and you stand up and are taller and they immediately get humble and step back.  Nice, easy, relatively harmless cop maneuver. 

One More Move ~ Hmm.  I notice Xan's not claiming this one.  I don't remember.  Sorry.  It was from a song I'm pretty sure & looking at the titles after it I'm guessing from the Canadian band, the Headstones. 

Brighter Lonely Day (Run Run Run) ~ DEFINITELY from the Headstones.  Just perfect for this chapter because the day started off so bright & Coop was so chipper & wham!

Unsound ~ Again, the Headstones.  One of my favorite albums  one of my favorite songs on it.  Could have been written for me.  Or Cooper.  Lots of lyrics in the chapter if you're curious.  And, in my opinion, this is probably the best, most telling, well written chapter in the series.  I just re-read it & it's so good I can't believe I  wrote it. 

Like Oxygen ~ A song by Wendy Lands; 'Well do you want beauty/or do you want me to bleed/I'll give it to you silently/or should I suffer and scream/and if you push me/to see how far I can bend/you'll make me transparent and thin/like oxygen'.  (Fits both Sylvie & Cooper.) 

A Visible Darkness ~ Obvious.  (Hopefully)

She Knew Your Devils and Your Deeds ~ From the Joni Mitchell song 'A Case of You'.  Just because. 

Requiem for the Living ~ Because Coop's spent too much time living with ghosts.

A Given ~ The words Cooper doesn't say in this line:  "Yeah.  That's~~"  I shrug helplessly, making myself meet his gaze.  "I know."   Because 'self-sacrifice' is just too.... self-righteous. 

axioms of incidence and order ~ A lyrical phrase I stumbled on after doing a Google on the word 'sphere' & rummaging through 'Geometry of a Sphere'.  The basic axioms of incidence are as follows: 

1. Incidence between points and lines:
2. There are at least two distinct points.
3. There is one and only one line that contains two distinct points.
4. Every line contains at least two distinct points.

Which quite satisfied me & the chapter was going to be titled 'axioms of incidence' until I read further & discovered this:

"In spite of the axioms of order being ignored for so many hundreds of years they are so important that one can entirely replace the axioms of incidence by giving an extended set of axioms of order. Think of it this way. If a straight line is to be the shortest path from a point to another then we must at least be able to designate the order of the points...  define if they are 'on the way' or 'in-between'."

This, combined with my wisdom tooth infection, the subsequent fever & the Vicodin, boggled my brain in a very tidy and methodical fashion seeing as I did the characters (Coop, Weaver, Jinny, S'Phear, Sylvie, Massey & Chandler, et al) as various 'points' with the story being the 'line' connecting them all.  I don't generally see any correlation between geometry & literature so I must confess I snagged it immediately & did some 103 F attaboys to myself. 

Rear Window ~  A nod to Hitchcock, both due to the rear windows in the story & also to the birds... & the concept of voyeurism, spying with the subsequent psychological ramifications.  And, quite honestly, because I couldn't think of anything else & I am really tired of trying to name these chapters creatively.

Six Degrees of Suspicion ~ Because it worked. 

Out of a Clear Blue Nowhere ~ A play on the phrase 'out of a clear blue sky' in reference to Cooper's not expecting S'Phear's arrival in person & on the term 'Blue Nowhere' used to describe the vague realm of the Internet & Cyber Space. 

My Regrets Become Distractions ~ A line from Amy Ray's beautiful & haunting song 'Starkesville' (Become You/Indigo Girls). Full lyric goes: 'My regrets become distractions and I cannot do them justice/so I hung up and I fell back to sleep'.  It just worked for this one. 

The Theory of Chaos ~  Basically (& I do mean basically), the chaos theory states that complex, dynamical systems show order, but they never repeat exactly. Since our world is classified as a dynamical, complex system, our lives and our experiences will never repeat; however, they do form patterns. (Ask any psychologist.  They base their entire careers on this.  Ask an FBI profiler.  Ditto.)  This chapter finds Cooper witness to several repetitive patterns in her life, non linear fractal dimensions of her past, present and future.

Or maybe I've just done too much DMX & beer trying to kick this pneumonia.

Give Me Little Pieces ~  A Daemon Records artist,  Dede Vogt.  Just because.  It worked. 

Every Little Once in Awhile ~ Taken from the lyrics of "Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie" by Leadbelly.  Because that's about how often I update. Pa dum pum!  Actually, just because I've been waiting to use this one for Sylvie & it seemed like you know, now or um...  never.  Maybe. 

Teeth and Tissue ~ From my beloved Headstones song by the same name...  seemed to fit given the CSI nature of this chapter.  Here's my favorite verse & the one most pertinent & fitting for Cooper & this chapter. 

It's so hard, so hard to be cautious/When you swim this close to the bottom/All we collect is ourselves and abuse/You said you would, and then you wouldn't/Maybe you tried, but you just couldn't/There's nothing left of me here but teeth and tissue/Teeth & tissue

If Nothing Changes ~ Again, The Headstones, whose real link at www.headstones.com isn't working, possibly because the idiots have broke up.  Damn.  I don't think I can write Cooper without them.  Anyway~~  This is off their newest CD, The Oracle of H- Fi. 
 

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