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A while back I asked people on my Twitter friends list to DM me with the answer to a really simple question: What is your favorite color? I got some really interesting responses, and I thought to myself: “Hey self” “Yeah?” “What if we do a really neat post out of this?” “Well! That’s a capital idea!” “Yes, it is, isn’t it?” “Totally. Let’s go get wasted.” “OK!” And then I forgot about it for a while.

But the time is ripe! The time is NOW! (Isn’t it always now?) The time is upon us, gentle readers, to explore people’s favorite colors! This will be part one of (probably) two, because I take favorite colors very seriously.

First to respond was @johnherman with

Argyle. Is that a color? It should be.

I couldn’t agree with him more, because if I agreed any more than I already do – which is very strongly – I’d probably probably be one of those slavering fanatical types and that’s just not healthy, you know?
Fun facts about argyle:

• (Editor’s note: Since every definition and history of argyle I found points to the damn wikipedia page, I guess I’ll use theirs too.) The argyle (occasionally argyll) pattern is made of diamonds in a diagonal checkerboard arrangement. The word is sometimes used to refer to an individual diamond in the design but more commonly refers to the overall pattern.
• It’s the name of a town in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New York and Wisconsin (the last 2 have a town and a village!).
• Argyle is a magazine for the lifestyles of the rich and famous of the Toronto area. You don’t have to be a fabulously wealthy, busy, Canadian business exec to read it though. Us lay persons can flip through their most recent issue at the site, too.
• There’s a guy named Steve Argyle who does some pretty neat illustrations and CGI work.
• This article about Freemasons isn’t really related (aside from a mention of Argyle Street) but I do so love a good conspiracy theory.

Next up is @tmtx, saying:

Amethyst purple. It’s my birthstone. Plus it’s the color of the mind chakra so it helps me focus.

Awesome town! My birth stone is the diamond so theoretically I get all colors, but I don’t care for diamonds so I see it more like no colors. And “clear” or “prismatic” aren’t exactly points of focus as chakra work goes. Oh well.
Fun facts about amethyst purple:

• The PANTONE ® number for amethyst is 18-3015.
• At the time of this writing there are 12 pages of colors registered on COLOURlovers claiming to be amethyst, but only 5 claiming to be amethyst purple (none of which really fit the bill if you ask me).
• Amethyst, acording to asunam.com is: “Spiritually, it is primarily a 6th Chakra stone. It helps one to achieve an accelerated access to the higher self and enhances the meditative state.”
• Amethyst is a quartz variant with iron or manganese impurities which provide the distinctive color.

Good stuff! Next came @cheshster with a practical favorite:

I like royal blue. It is the best color for my hair, and goes with my eyes.

It’s definitely important to have a handle on color if you want to avoid a lifetime of sartorial missteps. Plus, an awful lot of people love a blue-eyed man, and any decision that emphasizes gorgeous blue eyes is one I will support whole-heartedly.
Fast facts about this regal color:

• The PANTONE ® number for royal blue is 2745 C.
• COLOURlovers has 9 pages of royal blue!
• Wikipedia describes royal blue as follows: “Royal blue describes both a bright shade and a dark range of blue. It is said to have been invented by millers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of which won a competition to make a dress for Queen Charlotte.” Are colors invented, or just given a name when everybody agrees they see the same thing?
• The hex code for the html color term “royalblue” is #4169E1

Then @meatbag threw in his two cents:

quinacridone rose, cuz it r similar to octarine- either that or British racing green

That’s technically three colors! What NOW?! Oh the pressure is enormous. Ok, no time to panic. Let’s just start with the first.
The undisputed truth about quinacridone rose:

• Quinacridone is a red powder. It is an organic compound with the molecular formula C20H12N2O2. It is used as a pigment; analogs bearing this motif are known as quinacridones.
• There’s a patent on the chemical formula for Mono-N-alkyl-quinacridone pigments. Who’d-a thunk it? (Caution serious science business ahead.)

What you need to know about octarine:

• It was a color invented by Terry Pratchett for the Discworld series of books. It is the color of magic, “and can only be seen by wizards, and cats, who sometimes describe it as resembling a fluorescent greenish-yellow purple.”
• Peter Carroll, chaos magic scholar, adopted octarine as a symbol for a rich imagination.
• Nerds like it too, as octarine has also wormed its way into tech vocabulary to describe peculiar program behaviors caused by “too many cooks”.

British racing green?!

• As is typical of this set, British racing green isn’t just one color. Wikipedia describes it as: “British racing green or BRG, a colour similar to Brunswick green, hunter green, forest green or moss green (RAL 6005), takes its name from the green international motor racing colour of Great Britain.”
• I have a feeling that when @meatbag thinks about British racing green, he probably thinks of something like this extra sexy jag.

There are more colors to come, but this is a lot to process! So for now I’ll leave you with some music I hand picked to fit the chosen colors. I tried to go with artists who named themselves by my friends’ favorite colors, but it didn’t always work, so I cheated a little. I’m sure once you give it a listen you won’t mind so terribly much that I did, though.
Edit: Mixwit sadly closed. I will do my best to re-add the chosen songs through another means.
Songs:

• The Argyles – Still In Love With You Baby
• This is an absolute gem. Classic surf rock sound, production values reminicent of the 60s. It’s available with other Argyles songs and other, similar music on a 2002 reissue called Rebirth More background here, too.
• Amethyst – Give a Reason
• I confess I chose this because it’s the opening theme to one of the seasons/series of The Slayers that I used to listen to all the time. I still think it’s fun.
• Unknown – Boys in Royal Blue
• I found out in my searching that this Scottish gem is in fact a football (Americans read: soccer) anthem! It’s still rather inspiring.
• Octarine – Timetraveller
• Couldn’t find any quniacridone rose or british racing green, so octarine it is! It’s all video game-y! Short but sweet, it would make good background tunes. MP3s available at the artist’s (Martin Philip) site.

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