This is what I get for going to work when most people are on vacation/holiday.
It’s a driveway at one of the farms I pass, with their own streetlight, but we’ll just pretend it’s the moon, ‘k?
And these trees on the hill. I like silhouettes.
I did not set the camera to black and white, that’s what it looked like.
I did start to see some colors in the clouds a little further down the road, in places where the fog parted a bit. Mostly it was thick and gray this morning.
And here’s a thoroughly beautiful piece played by Portland guitarist Scott Kritzer. David Andrews’s “Christmas Youth” which was playing on the radio when I took that top pic. For more amazing music AllClassical.org is into their Festival of Carols. It’s four full days and nights of incomparably beautiful holiday music. If you’re not in the Portland area, you can click on the “Listen Now” and live stream it.
This piece gives me chills. I just wish it was longer and didn’t end so abruptly. I give you: Two Steps From Hell, “Protectors of the Earth” from their album, “Invincible.”
I downloaded the MP3 version from Amazon, in case anyone’s wondering.
I still don’t know if this current WIP is going to be a short story, or if I want to take it to full length novel. It’s funny how I have real life models for some of the characters, but not the main character, my protagonist. Sigh. Back to it.
I wonder if the CD cover is available as a poster…
The annual tradition of the Festival of Carols begins tomorrow on Portland’s classical station, KQAC. They play the most beautiful Christmas music composed through the ages, so many pieces and arrangements that you’ve likely never heard. It’s four days of non-stop glorious music so if, like me, you’ve had all you can stand of “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” or “Do They Know It’s Christmas” and need some real music, tune in online at allclassical.org and go to “Listen” at the top of the page.
Also tonight at 8:00PM PST on their program Club Mod, Robert McBride will be featuring some music by one of my favorite composers, Morten Lauridsen. Club Mod showcases modern ‘classical’ composers. Lauridsen is a particular favorite of mine, and it doesn’t hurt that he hails from this area (Beaverton). If you’re not familiar with Lauridsen, check here for a small intro.
Edmund Stone’s movie music program “The Score” will feature music from movies about Santa Claus on “A Right Jolly Old Elf” today at 2PM PST (and will repeat next Sunday at 2PM PST).
Check out all their programming. And no, I don’t work for the station, but I am a long-time supporter. I’ve listened to a lot of classical stations around the country (sadly there aren’t many left) and I think they’re one of the finest. They’re also commercial-free (apart from the old-style mentions of supporters by the hosts) which is LOVELY.
Happy Holidays, Blessed Solstice, and Merry Christmas! Click the picture for an animated card.
“There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Only posting today because I’ve been home sick. Finally felt well enough to wander outside and get a few photos of these gorgeous leaves when the sun hit them. Autumn needs to be twice as long as it is, it passes far too quickly.
The Hermit from Ian Daniels Tarot of Vampyres. I’ve felt like a hermit the last few days, locking myself in the house to get the revisions done on the vampire novel and sent off to beta readers. I’ve also been OD’ing on “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” and its soundtrack while I write. Seems fitting on this Memorial Day. Even though it’s a fantasy/horror story, the scenes of the Gettysburg battle and Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg address choked me up. There’s a part of the battle scene that slows, focused on one Union soldier running ahead to engage the Confederate troops, and it’s really quite heartbreaking, nicely filmed.
And look, the card has a wolf on it, and the book talks about this card indicating being a ‘lone wolf.’ :::smacks self in forehead::: It’s a time for introspection, silence, going within yourself for the answers, being isolated. Vampires are outsiders, ‘others.’ What they seek is beyond the confines of everyday mass consumerism. The Hermit contains all four elements, fire (scepter), grail (water, the vessel containing the fire. Grails can hold many things), knife for air, and skulls for earth, all this gained by his journey to the Underworld. The wolf is there to guard the entrance. This is the time to complete a journey, a mission, a quest (the story?).
There’s a need to ignore the rest of the world, don’t be distracted by all the banalities of modern society. As they told the Tie fighters in Star Wars making their run on the Death Star, “Stay on target.” Well, I have one more day off before I head back to the grind. Head down, back to editing.
Enjoy some solitude and downtime this week if you can.
This weekend has been all editing, all the time. I’m working on the vampire novel, prepping it for a volunteer beta reader, and consequently going over it all AGAIN. I’m happy to report that the scenes that made me tear up or laugh as I was writing them are still having that effect. While that may seem like a strange barometer to a non-writer, as I’m sure you’re all thinking all writers love their own writing, and that’s often true, there’s also the maxim that if your writing doesn’t sweep you away, it won’t have that effect on your readers either. If you don’t love what you’re writing, it’s likely no one else will.
:::disjointed segue – ENGAGE!:::
I often get inspired by music, so it’s not that much of a stretch for me to hear a soundtrack running in my head as I write. So THEN I got to thinking (as all writers do at some point, I’m sure. It can’t just be me) if my book were to be made into a movie, who would I want to do the soundtrack for it? Yeah yeah, I know, if it were to come to pass I’m sure I’d have no actual say in it, but I can dream can’t I?
So mostly I’d want a pretty hard rock soundtrack, but there are scenes in the book that would call for something more atmospheric, creepy, romantic, more cerebral stuff. Even some classical. Right now I’m all hung up on the soundtrack to “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” I know, I know, believe me no one is more surprised than I am that I liked this movie. But there are some really strong performances in it. Rufus Sewell is tremendous as he always is, with a wonderfully nuanced role as an evil vampire. Dominic Cooper is the next heartthrob ladies, as Henry Sturgess. I expected this to be a silly, frothy comedic romp, but there are few really light moments. It’s not heavy drama, certainly, with such a ridiculous premise but it’s so much better than I expected. The cinematography is really beautiful, the lighting and color in the scene when Abraham proposes to Mary is striking. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is adorable and charming as Mary Todd, and later in the film has a great scene as the grieving mother when their son dies (hardly a spoiler if you know anything about history). Marton Csokas is wonderfully vile as Jack Barts.
Anyway, the soundtrack is by Henry Jackman, and you can hear a lot of Hans Zimmer’s influence in a number of places. Unfortunately I can’t find a clip of the segment that I really love. It’s during the fight scene on top of the train and the music swells to a majestic and poignant orchestration of the theme. It’s quite beautiful, I wish it was longer. I can’t even find that it’s included on the soundtrack CD which makes me sad.
Anyway, along with the orchestral soundtrack, most movies have other pieces written and performed by bands added in (Linkin Park contributed the end titles theme with their song “Powerless”).
So what bands would you like to write songs for your movie? For me, I’d want Rubylux (their new single, “The World Goes Quiet” just dropped on iTunes, check it out
provided they’re not too famous and busy by then, HIM of course, maybe some Avatar (Torn Apart would work really well in one scene), or Black Veil Brides (love their latest In the End). Argh. So I’ve spent the whole day checking out music. Now, back to editing. I’ll try to get a Tarot card for the week posted tomorrow.
Addendum 5/27/2013: This is too fun, I have to share this – Rubylux is on board for the soundtrack!
@ddsyrdal Thanks for the shout out in your blog! Consider us confirmed for the soundtrack! 😉
I’m not sure why but this song started going through my head today. This is for anyone going through a tough time.
The singers are (l to r) Mary Black, Tommy Fleming, Eleanor Shanley, and Maura O’Connell, accompanied by De Danann. For those not familiar, this was written in 1854 by American composer Stephen Foster, several years before the Civil War, but during a depression in the country.
The Irish in particular seem to have taken to this song, many Irish singers and musicians have recorded it. Small wonder, I suppose. It was just a few short years after this was written that my own great-grandparents, Ellen Lee and John Ahern, left Ireland for America. My aunt likes to say they came over during the Famine, but from the records I’ve been able to find they didn’t arrive until about 1857-1859.
Anyway, I love this song. The first time I heard it was on one of Mary Black’s albums. It almost seems like a prayer these days. If only we could sing hard times away.
Since I have the great luxury this year of having President’s Day off (I can’t remember the last time I had it off, maybe not since school?) I thought I’d post a small tribute to Honest Abe, although that’s a little disingenuous. Mostly I’m obsessed with the piece of music that plays over the images, and you guys know how I get when I latch onto something. I was hearing it in my sleep all night. There are a lot of YouTube videos featuring photos from the Civil War that use this piece, although the piece was written in 1982. It’s called Ashokan Farewell and was written by Jay Ungar as a closing piece for the Annual Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp in 1982. Ken Burns also used it as the theme for his series The Civil War. It made it’s way onto the compilation album, “Songs of the Civil War” despite being written well over one hundred years after the end of that war. Still, it is much in the spirit of the times. It’s been compared to Niel Gow’s Lament for the death of his second wife, and you can hear the influence in it. I’ll have to do a post on Niel at some point for all you Scotsmen.
So here it is as the background for a tribute to Abraham Lincoln. You can thank me for the earworm later.
The credit at the end is a little confusing, makes it sound like the music was inspired by Burns’ 1990 documentary, impossible unless Mr. Ungar has a TARDIS we don’t know about…
I have an ulterior motive for the presidential tribute (his birthday is actually the 12th, same day as Charles Darwin. Both were born February 12, 1809. What an alignment of the stars there must have been). Looking at these pictures gave me an idea for a story, and not even Civil War-oriented. But I love all these images of the Pres. Was ever a man more human? I don’t mean to shortchange George Washington in all this, I truly believe he should still have his own day, rather than rolling the two into one. I’ll get around to a post on him one of these days.
I have to admit I get a little choked up looking at these images of our 16th President, and the men who fought in that terrible war. It must have felt like the world was ending. Personally, I think I have it bad when my car breaks down and I get a cold. If there’s such a thing as reincarnation and I lived during that time, I must have died young. I don’t think I’m strong enough to survive what those people went through. I’ve visited Gettysburg on a class trip in high school and I wished I could have spent more time there, with fewer people around, although as emotional as I can be I would likely have been reduced to a blubbering mass. I took a “mini-course” on the Civil War in high school, and we even made our own reenactment film with a group of Civil War reenactors. I was filmed as a dead soldier lying on the ground with faux blood dripping out of my mouth. It was pronounced awesome. I’m good at playing dead.
Since I have no news, other than being home sick for the last three days and trying to work from home a bit, I thought I’d share some music.
Here’s a beautiful Celtic harp piece called Circle of Joy, by Lisa Lynne. Windham Hill sticks it on their Celtic Christmas collections, which is fine, but I don’t associate the piece with Christmas (all to the good). Actually there are only a couple of overtly Christmas-y songs on the CD I have, but this is hands down my favorite piece on it (there are a couple of other really good tracks by Carlos Nunez whom I adore as well).
I don’t know the story behind the tune, she may have written it as a Christmas piece. I just think it deserves a wider audience. I’m using some of her music for inspiration as I embark on a new story (yes, in the midst of revising the vampire novel) Enjoy!
fillingspaces.wordpress.com 