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Showing posts with the label music

“Things Every Southern Woman Should Know How to Make”

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Alice clicked on the headline, mildly curious about what yet another stranger thought should be in her kitchen repertoire. Pictures of China plates mounded with crispy fried chicken, greens, cobbler, and a pile of biscuits a mile high flooded the screen, all set off with a pitcher of sweet tea beaded with condensation. The table was set; an apron draped off to the side next to a box labeled “Gramma’s Recipes” in fine calligraphy. She closed the browser and put away her tablet. She was born a Georgia peach, but she couldn’t make a cobbler to save her life. Did that mean she wasn’t southern? Or maybe just not “Southern.” For Alice, there was no recipe box full of family traditions. Her younger years were filled with rental homes in different states and her father’s voice coaxing her toward a text book rather than a cookbook. Metalworking and fabrication held more interest than learning to flambé or sauté. Did it make her less of a woman that her cooking skills consisted of fresh salads...
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Music Ramble: TRANSMISSIONS by Starset

I don't listen to the radio much. Usually about two hours a day, on the way to work and on the way home. And usually in that two hours, I hear the same five bands over and over until I want to punch someone in their Metallica... Um, face. Lately, though, they've been playing some new bands, and I've been pretty happy. Excited, even. One song in particular, My Demons, was sticking with me, so I decided to check out the album. I'm freaking in love. TRANSMISSIONS by Starset is glorious symphonic rock, and I can't get enough of it. Especially the song Dark On Me. Not only does it give me major feels, but it's stirring story possibilities, and that's always fantastic. Let It Die has a total mad scientist feel, which is only boosted when I listen to the remix, and my writer brain is going nuts with it. The whole album is beautiful, and while I have my favorites, there's not a song on it that I don't like. So, if you like your rock with violins an...
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Music Rambles: The Departure of Adam Gontier from Three Days Grace

Recently, Three Days Grace announced that lead singer Adam Gontier resigned from the band due to health issues. My first thought was, “That sucks.” It does suck. I love the sound of Mr. Gontier’s voice, the distinctive quality it gives to the wonderful songs 3DG puts out. It’s not something that can be picked up by someone else and it still be the same. That said, I applaud the band for marching forward. Their tour was already planned out, tickets sold, and though I know it won’t be the same, I’m sure Matt Walst of My Darkest Days will do an excellent job. (MDD puts out some sweet music, too.) Sometimes, things change. It happens. Thank you, Adam Gontier, for the music you’ve fill our lives with, and I hope you feel better soon. And thank you, 3DG, for that same music, and for passion to keep going. I hope you continue to give us awesome tunes and wish you all the best. I want to thank Matt Walst as well, for stepping up to fill the vacancy. It’s not an easy thing he d...
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Vacation Thoughts

I took a few days of vacation this week, and I discovered I needed the break more than I thought I did. I had ALL THE PLANS to do ALL THE THINGS. I managed to do about half of all the things, hehe. But that's okay because I did things I didn't know I needed to do. Such as listen to hours of music with the volume turned up. Or sit down and read with no distractions. And that is where a lot of my five free days went. I finished Lia Habel's Dearly, Beloved, which was absolutely amazing, and I also finished A Storm of Swords in the Song of Ice and Fire series by George RR Martin. Good stuff. Then I listened to all of my My Chemical Romance albums, A Perfect Circle, Evanescence, We Are the Fallen, Within Temptation, and so much more music. I missed doing these things. I hadn't left myself time to just read or listen to music in such a long time, that I really, truly had come to miss them. I also hung some Halloween decorations up, and I worked on my costume. Of co...
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Everything’s Connected: Or the Roundabout Ways I Discover Things

I don’t listen to the radio much. Less than three hours a day, and the first hour is mostly a talk morning show. (I love the morning show, but not much music is played.) I pretty much listen to the one station, and every so often, I’ll hop on Pandora or I Heart Radio and listen.   So, how do I find new music? In so many ways. I have picked up lovely new tunes through many various avenues. For example, thanks to Jeri Smith-Ready’s SHINE, I am now a fan of Glasgow band, Frightened Rabbit. All it took was a mention, and I got curious enough to search iTunes. Now I’m in love, hehe! I discovered the awesomeness of Within Temptation in a similar fashion. I was sitting in the car bored, waiting, and I pulled out my phone to look up anime music videos on YouTube. As an already confessed Final Fantasy fiend, I searched out FF videos. I came across a FF: Crisis Core vid set to Within Temptation’s Angels , and was blown away. I got chills watching that video, and I had to hear more...
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Music and Muses

There's nothing better to me than to sit down with my laptop, plug in my speakers, and open iTunes while I write.  Sometimes I just let it run through all my music on iTunes DJ, but for some projects I create lists of music that to me fit the mood of the story.  It's amazing to me how music affects the way I write.  It doesn't even have to be the entire song that moves me either, but a chorus or one line that makes my brain start firing.  For example, the opening lines of "Turn My Head" by Live inspired the beginning of a story for me.  Right now, 10 Years' song "Silhouette of Life" has little brainstorm clouds brewing in my mind.  Music inspires in me images for scenes,  character emotions, storyline undertones, and sometimes just the desire to put fingers to keyboard and fly. 
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