My two favorite non-writing activities related to writing are research and building playlists of music.
The current project -- a decidedly time-limited distraction from the novel -- requires an enormous amount of research, a lot of which is difficult. Good difficult. I know I'm getting close to where I need to be because of the dreams I had last night. Saturation dreams, the kind I have when my brain is putting together all the pieces and making sense of a bunch of stuff. It's not totally different from learning a new game (especially a mmporg). It feels strangely like swimming. At the moment I can't touch bottom, but I know it's there now.
The even more fun part for this story was putting together the playlist. I habitually do this for short stories. I suspect it's actually more important for short-form stuff than it is for longer works because short stories live or die by their hold on mood and music is an extremely effective way for me to get into the feel of the time and place. The times and places of this story are extremely particular.
Sometimes my playlists are heavy on music with lyrics. This playlist is largely instrumental, or with chanting. I even fit in a couple of Wimme's solo yoik pieces.
I'm being coy about the story itself because it's for the Haunted Legends anthology and... well, I feel like being coy about what I'm doing. If ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
nihilistic_kid or ellen_datlow want to know what I'm working on before I send it, I'll be glad to tell them. I'm guessing not, though.
Also, I'm at that phase of story ideation here I get superstitious about saying what I intend to do, lest I pin down things that should be mobile.
- Music:Dead Voices On Air - Tounge Like Scree
My introduction to Tom Waits was 'Bone Machine', and I immediately took to the sandpaper beauty and the diesel fume drift. It scratched itches I didn't know I had. So when I got earlier albums like 'Raindogs' and 'Swordfishtrombones', the more crooner-mode just wasn't binding to the same receptors, so I didn't listen to them as much.
However, building up music to listen to for my 8-bit Cyberpunk story I decided to use almost entirely period music (1985-1988, and of course anything that came before), so I dumped a lot of Waits into the list. I was sitting down to do the little crab-walk up to writing some more words one day when 'Cold Cold Ground' comes up, and it goes straight into my bloodstream in a way music doesn't do that often. Not just the swaying melody like a swingset in a New Orleans cemetery, but the words. They stopped me in my tracks and I just listened.
Sometimes a piece of music is just exactly perfect to put down roots behind all the walls and I can see the leaves when I look out my window. I can rarely ever get them back out, but it's not so bad really. The music that's done that for me is a hugely eclectic lot: there's 70's era Vangelis, Simon Bonney (the lead singer of Crime and the City Solution), Cliff Martinez, Talking Heads, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nick Cave, Astor Piazzolla, Carl Orf, The Cramps, Steve Reich. I keep thinking that garden is full, but stuff keeps sprouting.
- Music:Tom Waits - Cold Cold Ground
Shades of Ai No Corrida. I like my entertainment to have a sharp edge on it. Things often need to be cut.My hands ‘round your throat
If I kill you now, well, they'll never know
Wake me up if I'm sleeping
By the look in your eyes I know the time's nearly come
Wake me up ‘cause I'm dreaming
Well, they'll never believe what's been happening here
But caught in my mind there's a way to get outWake me up ‘cause I'm dreaming
Well they'll never believe it
So hush now, my babe, please don't cry
Everything's gonna be alright
Hush now, darling, I can hear you're screaming
Let me hold you until the morning comesSo tell me this is what you want
You can whisper it soft or you can scream it out loud
‘Cause there's still time to change your mind
But do it now before tomorrow comesWake me up ‘cause I'm dreaming
Well, they'll never believe it
So hush now, my babe, please don't cry
Everything's gonna be alrightHush now, darling, I can hear you're screaming
Let me hold you until the morning comes
Until the morning comesThe light is fading
But the stars are dancing bright
My mind is racing
like clouds across the sky
How did you make me go... this far?
- Music:Tindersticks - Until The Morning Comes
Not everything has been a bucket of teeth today.
What was waiting for me in the mail? Something wonderful.
Glory Bumps.
Under normal circumstances, that would be the fiftieth reveller in the capacity forty eschatological ball, or perhaps polymerised youthful perambulation. Today it means I got the new Shrieback album, and I really kind of needed it.
On top of the piss-fucking Supreme Court I found out today that a friend was diagnosed with some variety of testicular cancer and I have no further details because he's currently in South Korea and dealt with the diagnosis by getting very sensibly drunk.
I think I'll go back to reading Petronius' Satyricon now.
- Music:Shriekback - Amaryllis In The Sprawl
kirizal thinks I should warn you that this is a video of a song about fisting, and thus not particularly safe for work. If you don't know what fisting is, this video is the most beautiful way to find out.(Video does not contain actual fisting)
- Music:Ryuichi Sakamoto - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence
These lyrics are a nice example of why I'm so incredibly taken by The Handsome Family.
Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear
Amelia, Amelia Earhart,
after her plane was torn apart
and bursting through the trees
She remembered picking lemons
with William Randolph Hearst
and how a spinning plane propeller turned liquid in the sun.
And as the cockpit burned,
her hair filled with sparks,
but when the glass exploded in,
everything went dark.
Amelia, Amelia Earhart,
after her plane was torn apart
and bursting through the trees
She remembered sipping consommé with William Howard Taft
and a boy with perfect skin who smelled like mustard gas.
And as the cockpit burned,
she couldn't help but smile,
recalling a dancing bear
she'd seen as a child.
- Music:The Handsome Family - Amelia Earhart vs. the Dancing Bear
Almost immediately after seeing The Fountain, we ran out and got the soundtrack. Of course, the last Darren Arronofsky movie with music by Clint Mansell also had awesome music (Requiem for a Dream -- most famously used in the preview for Return of the King). I wasn't really surprised that I was blown away by the music in the movie. I was a bit surprised by how blown away I was.
It's just one of the best movie soundtracks I've heard in years and years. It simultaneously evokes the movie and is utterly its own organism. You really don't need to see the movie to listen to the music and get something out of it.
It's performed by Kronos Quartet and Mogwai, so it's got my two favoritest instruments all over it: piano and violin. I love me my synth, but I'm a total softy when it comes to classical instruments.
The soundtrack is a remarkable use of minimalism, evolving melody and unusual arrangements. Sometimes the strings are getting punched on the high notes by either some kind of synth or a horn and the effect is to turn what would ordinarily evoke a kind of simple pathos and turn it into a vehicle for something stranger and less easily identified. It beautifully complemented the movie and it's just incredibly powerful on its own.
Despite having loved the movie, I recognize it's a work that will polarize people. The soundtrack, however, I can recommend unreservedly. It is simply great. I've listened to it really a bunch since getting it.
- Music:Clint Mansell - Xibalba
They had one guy doing backup with a handful of instruments plus an incredibly ancient drum machine which Brett fiddled with and cursed throughout the show. Their stage presence was absolutely charming. They covered most of my favorite material from the albums we'd been able to find, plus a variety of stuff I hadn't heard that I liked a great deal. After the show, Rennie worked their merch booth and
kirizal and I got all the remaining CD's (4!), a t-shirt and Rennie's book of short stories. Their stage banter was like Rasputina, The Honeymooners and the Addams Family were tossed into a blender. There was a great deal of playful character assassination, vituperation and general snarliness and both of them seemed to be having a tremendously great time doing it.Their music performed live was at once very similar to the recordings and completely different. It took on the generally playful tone that their banter set. Their webtsite says they're planning some solo gigs after they're done touring with Stan Ridgeway. If they're anywhere near us, I'll definitely go and drag as many people as possible along for the ride.
I started reading Rennie's book last night and I'm digging it a great deal. Her short stories remind me very much of Robert Walser, which is a very good thing in my estimation. The main difference is that bad things tend to happen a lot, where Walser's stories more often just kind of gently meandered without much malfeasance. But then, her book is titled Evil, so I suppose that's to be expected.
Today we went up to Aliso Viejo for
icefox's gallery opening, which was great.At the moment, I'm completely exhausted. I've been running a bit ragged lately, so I'm going to turn in early and try to get a nice chunk of sleep.
- Music:Tindersticks - Jism
Now I need to head out to catch the Stuart Staples show up in LA.
( Another excerpt, this time from an unrevised section. )
- Music:Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke - Sacrifice
First up was Thee Corsairs, who I'd almost seen once but missed due to traffic. They were really energetic and clearly having a blast. The fun was infectious.
After Thee Corsairs there was an incredibly awesome and totally unexpected burlesque act. A Halloween burlesque act. With brain eating, defective pasties and the severing of false boobs. Plus, a geek sticking needles through his arm and chin. Totally excellently awesome.
After that was the Creepy Creeps. At tonight's show, they were dressed like zombie Devo and they totally kicked ass. Tremendous, vast fun. I've never seen a keyboard player thrash the keyboard. Literally tipping it over and moving around the stage with it, in its coffin. Great stuff.
The last act was Deadbolt who didn't really do it for me so we left early. Good musicianship, kind of uninspired vocals, interesting stage presence and a kind of lousy attitude. Still, the evening was excellent.
Now to get some sleep, get up, write, and go see more live music, this time up in LA. Busy busy is me me.
- Music:Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet - We're Not A Fucking Surf Band
kirizal and I are going to hole up in Borders to write for a while, then this evening we're headed downtown to have dinner with caprine and tomsalt and then it's off to see a bunch of skeleton themed music. Tomorrow, there will be more writing, and then it's off to LA to see Stuart Staples of Tindersticks. Clearly, it is the time of music. Still, there shall also be much writing.- Music:Set Fire To Flames - Buzz Of Barn Flies Like Faulty Electronics
