#also also just realized that a very very important 90s rock song from home country has the same armony that this song at the end

[enderspawn]

🎼 (I can’t find the correct emoji lol) exile arc tommy?

Oh boy! (opens up breakdown playlist) /hj

Montreal – Penelope Scott

Sleep with a Baseball Bat – Cosmic Johnny

Brother – Gerard Way

breakdown under cut, tw for suicidal ideation on the first song esp

1.       Montreal – heehee hoohoo suicidal/depression thoughts baby!!

I mean in short this is tommy saying he wont Survive exile. The intro of the song lists when the singer would be home from college/school and that “another 90 day summers gonna take [their] fucking life” which is rlly just. Tommy not gonna live THAT long in exile.

“And I would rather die And let me make it clear It's nobody's fault But I think we all know That I won't make it to Montreal”

So the thing here is that its “nobody’s fault” bc on one hand it is that he doesn’t blame tubbo but worse he doesn’t blame DREAM. Its just meant to happen, its not bc of anybody, yknow?

“And I would rather die I'll jump before I'll fall And I'm having lots of fun But I won't make it Montreal”

Mans tried to jump to his death before he “fell” whether bc of dream or an accident, hes makin the active CHOICE to end it rather than just waiting. Even w the fun he’s having w dream, he’s miserable and he knows he wont make it to see lmanberg again

“You like to talk about the future As if it's real And when you tell me that you love me I can almost feel it”

Dream keeps promising him stuff for the future. Maybe he can visit to see the tree, maybe he can get another visit, maybe he wont be alone. But tommy doesn’t care, its all fake to him (which like, it is so good for him but fjkdlsjf)

“It's not that it's a bad plan No, the plan fucking slapped I was so excited you don't know how bad I wanted all of it The coffee shop, the weather, the apartment But I don't want anything anymore I don't know, I guess I just got bored”

Okay so. Tommy kept trying to get shit together to leave, right? He wanted to go back so bad and have this domestic life w his friends but in the end he just got so downtrodden that after his shit got blown up he was so ready to just GIVE UP.

“And I don't wanna die I don't wanna get left behind But it's better half than none I hope to god you have some fun”

He doesn’t want to be in this situation, he still CARES abt the lmanberg crew but in the end hes been told that they’re happy WIHTOUT him. He’s not angry at them, not anymore, he just wants them to be happy bc he isn’t.

2.       Sleep with a Baseball Bat – tommy and dream relationship baby!!

“And every time you wake up Thinking this could be the day Well something, something just”

Every day in exile he had no real plans. He just had to exist out there alone and hope someone else came. This IS the day he can do…. Something. He doesn’t know. He doesn’t have a goal.

“And when your love is an anxiety attack Don’t settle for that, don’t settle for that And when you wake and find the claw marks in your back Sleep with a baseball bat, sleep with a baseball bat”

Hes been manipulated into thinkin dream is his friend, that dream “loves” him but it makes him miserable! Hes paranoid and stressed and falling apart!! Boy!!! Fjdsklfj

“Siena says you’re getting used But something’s broken in your head And you can’t run away when you need to”

The other ppl who visited him, like ranboo, KNEW something was happening and that he was in a bad place but tommy had been manipulated by dream so much that he couldn’t process it. No, dream couldn’t be bad, dream was his friend, right? He couldn’t leave exile, dream would be upset. Its all what DREAM wants, not tommy.

“Hey, space cadet Are you still floating round the rock That you spent so much of your life trying to get away from? And does it at least look different from up there?”

OKAY SO ONE. SPACE CADET? THAT’S CLARA BABY!! TWO: he spent ALL his time on this server fucking fighting dream, trying to “get away from” him. But now hes stuck “floating around” with him as his “friend”. The last line feels sarcastic and bitter but like. FUCK it hits, yknow??

“It might take a couple tries till you believe it But love is real, you’ll figure it out, you’ll live to see it But you still have to take a couple of falls And you can’t make an omelet without breaking your balls So batter up Is your bed made? Is your helmet on?”

HAPPY ENDING POG!! HE STARTS HEALING!!!! HE STARTS REALIZING DREAM WASN’T HIS FRIEND!!! He still “falls” and relapses into wanting dream w him but hes so much better!!! Also,,,,, “is your helmet on” w the turtle shell helmet (eyes emoji)

3.       Brother – IF TECHNO AND TOMMY NOT BROTHERS WHY THIS SON—(gunshot rings out)

Okay so on a serious note this song is abt addiction and while I don’t want to take away from that Serious Topic, it Does relate but w tommy dealing w his ptsd of dream

“And brother, if you have the chance to pick me up And can I sleep on your couch To the pound of the ache and pain? Oh, in my head 'Cause I'm awake all night long To the drums of the city rain”

Hhrhnrng staying at technos place to hide from dream and get better a lil JFKDLSJK. Also “the drums of the city rain” is referenced a LOT in this song but like. It keeps him up so,,,,,, dream JFKDLSJF. Mans barely ever slept in exile so it WORKS okay jfkdlsjf

“The lights we chase The nights we steal The things that we take to make us feel this (To the drums of the city rain)”

This is him and techno livin together!! Like in the first chorus you could see lights we chase being tommy finding techno’s place, then later it’s the lights of lmanberg as they sneak in. the nights they steal is both just time spent together and also straight up the times they stole shit JFKDSLJ. “the things that we take to make us feel” is the gapples tommy always eats so that he can feel safe (also, bc in the og song this is PROBABLY abt drugs and potions are drugs in universe so. Arguably getting a potion effect from the apple means it is Also Drugs? Fjdkslfj)

“I can't go back I don't think I will I won't sleep tonight as long as I still Hear the drums of the city rain”

Go back to logstedshire or lmanberg you ask?? The answer is yes. Both. He feels like he doesn’t belong in lmanberg and logstedshire is too traumatizing for him to return at this point. As long as he “hears the drums of the city rain”, or is thinking of dream, he Cant Sleep:tm:

“Does anyone have the guts to shut me up? 'Cause I believe that every night There's a chance we can walk away So hold on tight Because I won't wait too long In the drums of the beating rain”

Okay so hear me out but. This is just tommy and dream. “I believe that every night theres a chance we can walk away” is tommy hoping desperately for dream to let him go home, to walk away from logstedshire. He never will be permitted, not really, but theres a chance that tommy clings to. He wont “wait too long” while out in exile and stuck w dream bc hes desperate and miserable (also fun fact these analysis is basically me just pmv’ing shit in my head and rambling vaguely abt it but like. Listen,,,, flashback verse jfkdsljf) ALSO. The line “does anyone have the guts to shut me up” in relation to exile!tommy is just VERY important to me. Mans was so quiet and afraid to speak up when in exile.

“'Cause the nights don't last And we leave alone Will you drive me back? Can you take me home? (To the drums of the city rain)”

Following up that last paragraph, this is still in flashback. The days end and dream leaves again, making tommy alone. He asks if he can go back, if he can see home and lmanberg and everyone. But echoing the “to the drums of the city rain” after home CAN imply that “home” has become logstedshire WITH DREAM even tho it keeps him up and aaAAAAAHHHH

I swear this ends up okay and techno + tommy focused fjkdsljf

“Faces I don't know I am tired in the glow”

He feels isolated from everyone during his exile and lashes out at those who visit, to the point he feels like they’re all more or less strangers and “faces he doesn’t know”. Being tired in the glow is, imo, him over the lava.

“Of the freezing club Keep me breathing Don't make the lights come back Can you take me home? We all need this When we leave alone”

Hhhngg okay so tommy breakdown time! Hes in techno’s house (the freezing club) and is just pleading for techno to help. Don’t let “the lights come back” (lava again maybe? He doesn’t want to be Like This?) and just wants to feel like hes at home because hes just left exile and hes Messed Up Over It

“Remember when you and I would make things up? So many nights, just take me down To the place we can hear them play I miss that sound 'Cause now we don't sing so loud To the drums of the city rain”

OKAY SO THEY MAY NOT BE CANON FAMILY BUT WILBUR REMEMBERS SPARRING W TECHNO AS A KID AND PHIL IS HIS CLOSE FRIEND SO THEY STILL KNEW EACH OTHER AS KIDS SO SHUSH FJSDKL. Tommy just wants things to go back to how they were, before everything. When things were easy and they were kids just having fun. He misses it. Before exile, before lmanberg, before dream. But it doesn’t matter, because they’re stuck in this now. With his brother dead and his closest friend being the man who killed his best friend and helped blow up his country. Again, the drums of the city rain is dream. Because of his influence, its all different.

Hhhngngngn this is too long so I wont go into the last outro bc you can interpret it a LOT of ways, esp depending on how you want to Pace this song w the exile arc. But like. The analysis is THERE if you really wanna push it/animatic it babeyyy

#dream smp #mcyt #tommyinnit #exile arc #HHHHNG IM SORRY THIS IS SO LATE JFKLDSJ #I PROMISED MYSELF ID FINISH THIS ASK GAME UP AND WOULDNT GO IN DEPTH AS MUCH THEN DID EXACTLY THAT W THREE SONGS JFKDSL #tommy #answered #song ask game #listen the last song is a LIL bit of a stretch but its my playlist i get to put in the not depressing song fjdkls #Anonymous

[ckret2]

Out of all the human music, what do you think Ghidorahs heads would enjoy most?

It took over three thousand words to answer this question and I enjoyed every second of it.

So!

Did you know that dogs can communicate with each other through their pee?

I swear this is relevant to the question.

Dogs pee to mark their territory. And they have an incredibly sensitive sense of smell compared to humans. From a few drops of pee, they can tell another dog’s sex, whether the dog’s in heat if it’s female, whether the dog’s been spayed/neutered, which direction it was traveling, how long ago it was in the area, whether the dog’s stressed or sick…

So if you ask a dog what their favorite pee scent is, what are they gonna say? Probably something relevant to the data they’ve evolved to put into and get out of dog pee. They’re probably gonna say something like “mine, because it’s familiar and means that I’m home somewhere safe,” or “the smell of a lady that’s dtf” or “the smell of stress because I’m an evil dog sadist that relishes other dogs’ suffering” or “the smell of neutered dogs because it means there’s gonna be less fights in this neighborhood between horny dogs” or “i don’t care as long as there’s LOTS of dogs because play pals!!!” Something like that, probably. I’m making this up as I go.

If you ask a human what their favorite dog pee scent is, the answers you get are probably going to be “They have different scents???” or “idk, whichever pee smells the least" or “my puppy’s pee smells different when she’s sick, so, uh, whichever scent is Not That One.”

Ask a human what their favorite kind of music is, or assign a favorite kind of music to a human character, and it tells you something about them. If they say that they like 90s anime themes & JRPG soundtracks, then that’s going to tell you something about them. It’s going to tell you that either they’re from Japan and grew up with that on TV, or they’re a weeb. “Counterpoint: maybe it just tells you that they like that kind of music?” Yeah but where were they gonna stumble on that music if they aren’t either from Japan or a weeb? If they only like the music because of its sound, then they would also be interested in Hasidic Jewish music, right? After all, anime/JRPG music and Hasidic music sound a lot alike:

https://ckret2.tumblr.com/post/187677604232/krakenpocalypse-jewishmagpie-tlbodine

But you never see people say “I like JRPG soundtracks and Hasidic music,” because people don’t like music because of the way it sounds. They like it because of the way it sounds AND because they were exposed to it (you can’t enjoy music you don’t know about) AND because they were exposed to it frequently* AND because they feel at home in a community that values that kind of music AND because that kind of music is accessible to them AND because that kind of music has positive associations for them AND because either they heard a bit of that music and sought out more just like it or because they’re in a place where they were passively exposed to a whole lot of that music… etc etc etc. 

(*Fun psychology fact! Understanding certain sounds as “music” is learned, not just innate—if you hear a new song and it immediately sounds pleasantly musical to you, it’s because you’ve heard enough songs similar to it that your brain auto-interprets it as music. Which is one of the reasons why music in genres that you don’t listen to as often might “kind of sound all the same” or “blend together” or fail to hit any emotional chords in you the way that songs in genres you listen to all the time do. It’s not because you found the One True Emotionally Gripping Musical Genre and everyone else is listening to genres that don’t have that emotional punch for some reason; it’s because your brain is tuned, just like an instrument’s strings, to resonate with those kinds of songs, and other people’s brains are tuned to resonate with other kinds.)

I swear all of this is still relevant to Ghidorah headcanons.

So anyway, if somebody tells you that they’re into anime themes and JRPG soundtracks? It tells you either they grew up in Japan or they’re a weeb. If they tell you they’re into anime themes and Hasidic music? Then they grew up in Japan or they’re a weeb, and also they’re Jewish or close with Jewish folks which is why they were exposed to Hasidic music; OR, they’re a tumblr user who was into one of the genres, saw that same hundred-thousand-note post I linked above, and looked up the other genre. If a millennial says their favorite band is Backstreet Boys, that implies something very different about their overall musical tastes—and possibly their social circle, their fashion taste, their TV and movie preferences—than if they say their favorite band is Evanescence. That’s not to say you can’t be a goth-as-fuck dressed-in-all-black purple-dyed-hair vampire-lit-devouring Grown-Up Emo Kid if your favorite band was Backstreet Boys—but it doesn’t correlate as highly as Evanescence does, does it? Someone whose favorite band sings about the light of Jesus filling their soul probably has very different religious beliefs from someone whose favorite band sings about blowing Satan in a cemetery.

And all of those associations are massively intensified if we’re talking about fictional characters instead of real people. Me, grown up goth that I am, driving to work singing along with Evanescence songs and songs about blowing Satan—when I was a kid I had a phase where Backstreet Boys was my favorite band, and what’s that say about me, my personality, and my overall identity? Ultimately, not a lot, except that they were everywhere when I was a kid, I could name four of their songs (more than most artists!), and I thought three of them were pretty good. People’s tastes are varied, weird, pick up strange chunks, and drift around, and it doesn’t always tell you something deep about their character.

But, if you create a goth character but say when they were a child Backstreet Boys was their favorite band, why did you, the writer, assign them a favorite band that goes against their type so hard? What are you trying to say about them? Did something happen in childhood that changed them from the kind of kid who’s into pop (generally perceived in fiction and sometimes reality to mean a person is normal, well-adjusted, optimistic, mainstream, average, boring—or “has good taste” to other people who like pop) into the kind of kid who’s into goth music (generally perceived in fiction and sometimes reality to indicate a person is sad/angry/anxious, pessimistic, counterculture, overtly rejects the mainstream, weird, mysterious—or “has good taste” to other people who like goth music)?

Is it because something sad happened in their childhood and changing their style/music was how they coped? Is it because they met someone important to them who opened their eyes to The Beauty Of The Dark And Macabre? Is it because they were only allowed to listen to parent-approved pop as a kid and chose to dive into the most out-there genre they could find as an act of rebellion? Is it because they became a vampire and that’s apparently just what vampires do? Is it because they realized they were unconsciously faking being attracted to guys because they thought that was normal and picked an appropriate boy band to latch onto, but when puberty was kicking in at age 13 they saw a cute girl with black nails and clothes at the mall and went “hecc im love girls” and grabbed the first album they could find with a female vocalist in similar makeup on the cover?

What’s this character’s backstory? What’s the significance of that decision? Why did you give this character that favorite band? Why did you choose to have this music in this character’s life? Why pop, punk, jazz, rock, metal, rap, country? Why American, Japanese, Indian, Spanish, Arabic, South African? Why that mainstream, or why that obscure? Just the decision to make their favorite artist “Benjamin who plays his guitar at the local coffee shop” versus “Veniamin who plays his guitar in a coffee shop in Greece and puts the videos on YouTube” tells you something about whether they find their Obscure Favorite Artist in the local community or in Internet deep dives (unless they actually live in Greece). All those decisions tell, suggest, or imply something about that character’s position within their surrounding human culture.

That’s the key here: within their surrounding human culture. What music a character listens to suggests a whole lot about the millions of intricate connections they have with their surrounding culture when that character too is a human.

Assign a favorite kind of music to a non-human character, and you say something about them, too. What you say about them, before you say anything else, is “the way that this character’s brain is wired to interpret sound waves into pitch and rhythm is nearly identical to the way that human brains are wired to interpret sound waves; and furthermore, they’re familiar enough with human culture that they know and recognize different ‘categories’ of music and pick categories that they do like based on their assigned similarities versus categories they don’t like based on their assigned similarities.”

And that ain’t something that can be said about Ghidorah.

See I told you all that would be relevant.

To say “Ghidorah likes rock,” you first have to give Ghidorah the capacity to differentiate rock from rap, from country, from Bollywood, from 8-bit chiptunes, from whatever the fuck Tchaikovsky was up to—and even humans aren’t born with the innate ability to sort songs into categories like that. Hell, even humans who are familiar with music have a hard time telling apart different kinds of music the deeper and deeper you get into specific genres. Like, do you know the difference between Electroclash and Filthy Electrohouse? Probably not? Would saying that Filthy Electrohouse is Electroclash with a house kick help? No? What about saying that Filthy Electrohouse is basically the same as normal Electrohouse except that Electrohouse evolved out of House whereas Filthy Electrohouse evolved out of Electroclash? No? Sound like gibberish to you? You probably know the difference between rock and metal, though, even if only vaguely. Try explaining it to an alien who’s never heard either genre before. To the alien whatever you say is going to sound like explaining Filthy Electrohouse because they haven’t got any of the background understanding of the genres to sort them apart.

(And if you want to know more about what the hell is this Filthy Electro French Clash House thing, may I recommend https://music.ishkur.com/# as an absolutely terrifying but very interesting guide to the complete history of electronic music and its subgenres? I like to click on random things and listen to them. The above genres can be found way at the bottom under Eurotrash.)

So the tl;dr is: I can’t give Ghidorah favorite music. Not in a normal “oh, they prefer to listen to death metal/Italian opera/Tibetan throat singing/golden oldies/traditional children’s lullabies” way because all of that, any of that, implies a knowledge of and connection to human culture that not only do they lack, but just imagining asserting a preferred genre/artist like that mentally strains my internal willing suspension of disbelief.

And I had to say all of the above to say that tl;dr because, like, listen. Listen. “I can’t give Ghidorah favorite music” is a boring, uninteresting answer. It’s a lack of information. “I can’t give Ghidorah favorite music because the vast cultural background knowledge necessary to understand music on humanity’s terms is as alien to Ghidorah as the nuances of dog pee smell are alien to humans.” That, that actually says a lot about Ghidorah, and I think that it says something interest.

So with all that said! Lemme tell you what kind of music they do like.

Because they do like music. A whole lot. Lots of music from lots of alien species.

It’s just human music that’s unfamiliar to them. They will gain familiarity with human music—as soon as they gain access to a means to hear human music (and I do have that in the works!)—but the way they interpret and categorize it won’t necessarily have any correlation with how humans do.

Ghidorah’s wired for singing. Loooves singing. I haven’t decided yet whether that’s a natural dorat thing and over time they added in music from other species as they learned it, or if it’s specifically a trick that they picked up after being fused together and needing a way to weaponize their empath abilities. In either case, their singing is tied directly into their empath capabilities. Half of the “songs” they know aren’t “songs” in any conventional sense, but “the sounds that they figured out would interact directly with the way a target species’ brain functions in order to cause whatever emotion they want their target to feel.” I’ve talked about this before in my Ghidorah-as-siren post. https://ckret2.tumblr.com/post/185784244462/ghidorah-as-siren

(Things like that—specific sounds that directly cause emotions in a species due to an instinctive response rather than a learned reaction—are precedented in real life! There’s a certain sound frequency that causes humans to feel fear/panic/dread/paranoia and sometimes hallucinate ghosts, and it’s theorized that this sound might be found at a lot of “haunted” locations: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2003/oct/16/science.farout )

So, when Ghidorah does this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA-QJUyBdJU

That’s literally a song, from their perspective. It’s a short song, but it’s a song. It’s a “become afraid and rampage against anything threatening (which means everything)” song. At the end of The Glorious Resurrection of Bouvet Island (here https://ckret2.tumblr.com/post/187594976987/the-glorious-resurrection-of-bouvet-island ) when Rodan is “ whistling a high soothing note” and then they do this:

“It took him a while to notice that the middle head had started copying his whistle, letting out a single endless note at the exact same pitch. Then the other two joined in, turning it into a high, trilling, reverberating sound, an “ii-lii-lii-lii-lii.” The sound got into his head, made him feel like he was floating. Made him feel like he was in the safest place in the universe.”

They heard Rodan making a sound (something like a single long high-pitched bird whistle) which Rodan instinctively knows as a “soothe somebody” sound; they learned the sound, and from it learned something about how Rodan understands and processes sound; and they immediately turned it around and used it to soothe him. When Rodan immediately feels Super Safe, that’s not just because they’re being all nice to him—that’s full-on song-based dorat empath mind control he’s under the effects of.

So a loud trumpeting roar that induces “be afraid and smash things!” feelings is a song. A single high-pitched continuous note that induces “you’re extremely hella safe!” feelings is a song. So far, those are the only two Earth songs they know, because those are the only two songs they’ve got that work on Earthlings. One they composed themselves, and one they remixed from a song Rodan accidentally taught them.

Based on this, the human definition of “music” and Ghidorah definition of “music” are very different. Our music can be included somewhere inside his definition; but his definition is far broader than ours and includes things we’d never hear as musical.

Ghidorah can sing, like, non-mind-controlling songs too. He does do that. Just sing for fun rather than for megalomaniacal world-destroying reasons. Songs composed for normal reasons! All the ones he knows at this point are alien but he could sing them. There’s a mention in the one-shot from Gigan’s perspective that he likes Ghidorah’s singing and wants to expose him to more.

However, he doesn’t have to separate “normal songs that sound like actual music” from songs that can evoke emotions. Especially if the song itself is somehow intended to evoke an emotion, it’s pretty easy for Ghidorah to learn the emotion that it’s supposed to cause and actually weave that into the song itself. Because, generally, if a species goes “ah yes this song should inspire This Emotion,” then they’re likely to include sounds that physiologically/psychologically help induce that feeling in the brain. Humans do it! So if he’s singing a sad-sounding song with sad lyrics, the odds are good that if a member of the species that produced the song hears it, they won’t just think it sounds sad, they’ll be telepathically forced to feel sad.

The songs they most enjoy singing are ones that can make use of all their musical abilities. Of course, they’ve got their voices—and when they’re singing, they tend to go for higher pitch ranges. You ever hear this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eogtlyDg4Y

Dude can pull off soprano if he wants. If they do hear enough human songs to be familiar with them, yes, they’re going to sing along with the music—and yes, they’re going to do it even if they don’t know the words, which they won’t, because they’ve probably never heard a human voice except when it’s screaming loud enough that they can faintly pick it up from five hundred feet above. They’re going to sing anyway. Don’t pretend you’ve never tried to sing along with a song in a language you don’t know and ended up going “AAA LALALA DA DADA GSDKLFJGLKJ” as you sing.

But like it’s not gonna be limited to human voices because they’ve been all over the galaxy, what separates a “voice” from an “instrument”? Nothing! They can sing violin & viola parts. They can sing brass instruments. They can sing piano.

You know that their tails rattle? Like rattlesnakes? They’ve got maracas on their tails. They can keep rhythm to music with their tails. Or their feet, if they’re on a hard enough surface that they can tap their claws.

You know this scene? With the wing thing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhDdXXr9dfQ

Ever heard a tesla coil sing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f6GijQXaBI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee5evlN8Bbs

Yeah they can do that. Probably with greater actual range than a tesla coil. I imagine it works best on synthesizer music and some electric guitar. Probably other things too that I haven’t thought of, but uh I listen to synthesizer & electric guitar so that’s what I think about when I imagine singing space dragons lmao.

Their preferred music, therefore, is going to be stuff that 1) give all three heads parts to sing, 2) also lets them use their tails and wings, and 3) ideally, gives them some interesting emotions to steal/replicate/inflict on others. Which is very broad! Covers a lot of things, no doubt!

Eventually, yeah, they’re going to probably develop more specific human musical preferences—but the preferences are going to be based on their own alien criteria, and it’s also going to be based on what human music they have access to. At least initially? That means that their musical taste is going to be limited to whatever music they can pick up on AM radio in the Gulf of Mexico just off the northeast tip of Mexico. Which, depending on the exact stations available where the Rio Grande dumps into the ocean will probably mean “the current chart toppers in Mexico & the US” and “extremely local Mexican music.“ 

It took over three thousand words to reach that answer. I hope you found the journey rewarding.

#reference #writing #music #king ghidorah #ghidorah #godzilla #headcanons #(this is as much about Music Itself and about The Act Of Writing as it is about Ghidorah) #(if u wanna scroll for a while the ghidorah stuff is in there tho) #(like uh... a little over halfway down) #sableghoste #ask #(i didn't edit this because it's bedtime) #(enjoy typos)

[arcadialedger]

As promised-- 100 things about admin

1. I am really, really short. 4′10 short.

2. Books are my favorite thing in the world-- I am a die hard bookworm, collect them endlessly, read about 3 a week.

3. I had spinal surgery for scoliosis and have Turner’s Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder

4. ASPIRING AUTHOR!

5. I’ve got big blue eyes 

6. Harry Potter is one of the most important things in my life, and literally my childhood. It is my heart, and it is home.

7. I have lived in 10 different houses, because my family loves to move

8. I am a double major in English and Film Studies, hoping to be both an author and work as a creative executive for Walt Disney Animation Studios, or in publishing

9. Boston is my favorite city in America

10. I am very, very Italian- Sicilian. Ciao. 

11. Overprotective cat mom, and crazy cat lady

12. I absolutely adore BBC/ PBS television, and anything British: including Victoria, Downton Abbey, Poldark, and more.

13. Astrological sign is Cancer (July 20th)

14. Lifelong Sherlock Holmes nerd. I adored Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories as a child and the friendship between Holmes and Watson is incredibly important to me.

15. Scholar and lover of all fairytales, folklore, myths, and legends.

16. Yo hablo español. ¿Alguien mas?

17. Language and linguistic studies fascinate me. I love both learning languages and language family trees. The story of history is written within them.

18. History buff and nerd.

19. Proud brunette who wishes she was ginger.

20. Youngest sibling of three girls.

21. I just realized I never said my name so hi, my name is Katie.

22. I am a die hard Whovian. Like, huge Doctor Who nerd.

23. INFJ, 4w3 personality. 

24. Alongside Harry Potter I grew up with Percy Jackson, which I love wholeheartedly to this day. The nostalgia I feel with that series-- man.

25. My best friend is @shadowqueendiangelo and I love her. We’re platonically married.

26. I love film history and learning about film techniques. 

27. Connoisseur of all period fashion.

28. I’m kind of obsessed with red lipstick.

29. Active member of the YA book community.

30. I’m a barista!

31. I am a barista because I love coffee and drink too much of it.

32. Only 19 but my mind is older.

33. Speaking of which, I am a theatre kid, and live for the stage.

34. I love Broadway and musicals.

35. Besides musicals/ Broadway, I was born and raised on country. I also love 80′s rock, and am an absolute classical nerd.

36. Beethoven and Tchaikovsky are my two favorite artists.

37. Shakespeare aficionado and lover.

38. Big Stranger Things fan and 80′s nostalgia junkie.

39. Would live in Victorian England if I could.

40. Proud Christian, of Catholic and Jewish ancestry. 

41. Very, very pale.

42. I practically live in preppy dresses and skirts.

43. Self proclaimed hobbit, and LoTR fan/ Tolkien scholar.

44. I suffer from severe OCD.

45. I play the piano.

46. I used to do archery, and was very good. I hope to take it up again.

47. Lifelong New Englander.

48. My favorite color is blue.

49. Huge HTTYD fan-- like, ridiculously obsessed.

50. Jane Eyre is my favorite classic outside of Sherlock Holmes, as well as the works of Austen, The Odyssey/ The Illiad, Little Women Frankenstein, Anne of Greene Gables, Beowulf, The Great Gatsby, and Alice in Wonderland.

51. I LOVE GAME OF THRONES AND A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.

52. ^Arya Stark is my GIRL^

53. Obsessed with Queen Victoria because she was a short, stout, brunette blue eyes woman like me.

54. I long to travel abroad, and have serious wanderlust

55. I am absolutely obsessed with not only history but culture. I considered going into cultural studies for a long time.

56. Secretly a wannabe historian.

57. I collect coffee mugs.

58. For a Christian I am oddly obsessed with everything pagan and absolutely love Halloween/ Salem culture (us New Englanders have the best Halloweens!)

59. I’m a sketcher and a cartographer!

60. Had a childhood obsession with Pixie Hollow Fairies. Still kind of do.

61. I AM A HUGE DISNERD! I want to work for Disney, and am super passionate about not only their animation, but the history of the company and the parks.

62. I am very passionate about animation as a whole. I adore foreign animation, and anything highly stylized which stretches the reaches of the art form.

63. Guillermo del Torro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is my favorite film, and GdT is one of the all time favorite creators.

64. Avid reader and lover of Agatha Christie.

65. Art museums are one of my favorite places on the planet. They’re cathartic to me, and help my anxiety.

65. I absolutely love the solar system, constellations, astronomy, and astrology.

66. I have a deep connection with the ocean. It is home to me. Not only do I just love everything nautical, I love old maps, seafaring tools, ship wheels and ropes. I’ve been on SO many ship tours it’s ridiculous. The sound of the ocean waves and an endless horizon before me is pure magic.

67. There are few things I adore more than a starry night sky.

68. Other favorite shows not yet mentioned include A Series of Unfortunate Events (first the books then the series), The Umbrella Academy, Merlin, Lost, Reign, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Broadchurch and Vikings.

69. Star Wars and MCU fan.

70. I am starting to run out of ideas for this.

71. Middle grade was my golden age of reading, and middle grade books will always have a very special place in my heart.

72. I can best be described as passionate, stubborn, sassy, caring, and complex.

73. I have an incredibly aggressive and confrontational personality. I have been frequently called a chihuahua. 

74. I am half blind. My eyesight is awful, I need to update my glasses prescription yearly.

75. Right handed. Boring, I know.

76. I grew up playing soccer/ in a hardcore soccer family, and am now super passionate about fitness and working out. I work out 6 days a week and love it.

77. I love to sleep. Like, a lot.

78. I have to take Vitamin D supplements during the winter or I will pass out often.

79. Favorite foods include: pizza/ any Italian food, any seafood, eggs/ egg sandwiches, burgers, ribs, mac and cheese, dumplings, and grilled chicken. I also love anything corn (including corn bread and muffins), potatoes, and LOVE all fruit besides pineapple. 

80. Speaking of which, if you put pineapple on pizza my Italian ass will COME FOR YOU.

81. Ungodly introverted, but also very outgoing and social.

82. I continue to go my therapist mostly because of her dog and she is well aware of this.

83. I just really love animals in general.

84. Koalas are my favorite animal.

85. I tend to stick to canon shipping, and I kind of hate fan fiction. Nothing against it, I just find it stupid. 

86. One of my goals in life is to not only visit multiple countries on each continent, but to be at least trilingual.

87. I have crazy long eyelashes, and love to emphasize this with mascara. It’s one of the few features about myself I like.

88. Hopeless romantic who has never had a boyfriend and dreams of falling in love/ having a fairytale romance.

89. I have a stuffed Toothless gifted to me by my best friend-- I feel this is oddly important.

90. My favorite art form (as in literal art, drawing/ painting) is charcoals. 

91. I have always felt I would be good at knife throwing and have wanted to learn. 

92. Hermione Grander, Belle, Jane Eyre, Hiccup Haddock, Jo March, and Elizabeth Bennett are my heroes.

93. Nicknamed Angsty Yoda. (I really am an angsty Yoda).

94. I’m a big fan of ballets, operas, and arias. 

95. I love school. A lot. It’s kind of my element. 

96. My dream career (a writer) has stayed the same since I was 3 years old.

97. My favorite Disney animated film, is The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I also love The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Tangled, Moana, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Mulan and Hercules.

98. Favorite musicals include: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Wicked, Les Mis, Into the Woods, Rent, Once on This Island, Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton, The Sound of Music, Anastasia, Hadestown, Bandstand, Cinderella,  Singin’ in the Rain, Newsies, Finding Neverland, The King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, Miss Saigon, The Music Man, Beauty and the Beast, Something Rotten, Once, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Sweeney Todd.

99. I live for the deliciously dark and macabre (yet I hate horror?) Guillermo del Toro and Tim Burton are my favorite creators.

100. Friendship is the greatest love in my life, and what I firmly believe to be the most beautiful, raw, powerful, unconditional love in this world.

#tales of arcadia #guillermo del toro #netflix #admin post #admin #admin speaks #about me #learn about me #getting to know me #100 followers #100 facts about me #100 facts about admin #commanding daylight

[sometimesalwaysmusic]

SURRENDER

Surrender is a duo of Dave Williams (DW) and Scott, veterans of the Ottawa music scene. They are set to release their debut album soon; in the meantime, give their first single, Hold On, a spin, and read on about their vast experiences in music, top albums, and thoughts on the Ottawa music scene. (Photo: Rémi Thériault)

VITALS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/surrendersounds

Bandcamp: https://surrendersounds.bandcamp.com/releases 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/surrendersounds/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/davemonomania (Dave)

Upcoming shows:  Stay tuned!

SA: How did Surrender come to be as a band? DW: Scott (Surrender vocalist) and I had been playing in the band Crusades for the past ten years, and in early 2018 we all quite amicably realized that the band had run its course. We did a final tour in the UK/Europe, one hometown show, and played our final two sets at The Fest in Florida. Toward the end of all that, with things winding to their conclusion, Scott and I began discussing working on something new together - something outside of the punk/hardcore scene that we’d been deeply involved in for the previous twenty-plus years. We’re both hugely into pop music, and of the synth-driven variety specifically. I had inherited a Roland Juno 106 when my best friend’s father passed away a few years earlier - it was a fixture in the home studio that I initially learned how to record in - and I sorta longed to make something with it. So, I started writing some songs on it at home, sent them to Scott, he sent some vocal ideas, and we were off. SA: What bands or musicians would you cite as the biggest influences on your sound? DW: Whew. I’ll do my best to keep this as brief as possible. There are some obvious touchstones: Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Tears for Fears, all of Vince Clarke’s 80s output - Erasure’s The Innocents is a big one, Eurythmics, OMD, Cyndi Lauper, The Cure... essentially the more ‘serious’ side of 80s synth-driven pop music. Later 80s/early 90s stuff like Björk/Sugarcubes, New Order and the ‘Madchester’ scene, Jesus Jones, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and the other Grebo bands. I probably can’t overstate the impact of the quintessential 80s soundtracks: The Lost Boys, Footloose - Kenny Loggins’ “I’m Free” might be my favourite pop song of the decade. I’m a sucker for some of the big producers of that era too. Desmond Child was unstoppable for a while - Cher’s Heart of Stone is another BIG one. As for more modern stuff, I’m pretty obsessed with a lot of the Norwegian pop scene. Cold Mailman is a HUGE influence, as is Hanne Kolstø, Pyke, the new Misty Coast record, there’s a ton of amazing stuff coming out of that country. Some straight-up dance stuff too: Toulouse, Robyn, Pet Shop Boys, ABBA obviously. And of course, the still relatively-new Synthwave scene has some amazing artists: Kristine, FM-84, Michael Oakley, the whole culture of nostalgia surrounding the NewRetroWave world - music, movies, fashion - certainly runs parallel to what we’re doing, and I really dig a lot of it. SA: Thus far in your career, what has been your biggest success? DW: Hm. It’s safe to say that there are MANY variations on how one might measure artistic ‘success’. Coming up in a community where monetary success was never the goal (or at all likely), I’d say that getting to travel all over the map multiple times with my closest friends, meet and befriend people we’d have otherwise never crossed paths with, and see things most folks don’t get to see - all because we wrote some pretty cool songs - is probably my greatest personal success.   SA: On the other hand, what is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? DW: I think, for me anyway, the biggest challenge has been balancing my creative life with my personal one. I’m married with three small kids - 7, 4 and 2 - and that can obviously present a different set of priorities than simply hitting the road for most of the year and really pushing a project to its fullest potential. Admittedly I’ve been envious of friends and peers who just throw their gear and clothes in the van and make it happen ‘the old-fashioned way’. But that’s just not the life that I set up for myself, nor is it for Scott or the other folks we’ve played with - and I’m far from resentful of that - it just means we need to take a different approach. Amassing a substantial following or getting the attention of a bigger label isn’t terribly easy when you can’t be doing the literal legwork that other bands can. But I do my best to stay close to the people I’ve worked with all along, to show my gratitude and appreciation, and I work endlessly (to some peoples’ chagrin) on the music we make.   SA: How do you guys approach the song-writing process? DW: Since it’s just the two of us, it’s pretty easy to just bounce things back and forth before we actually get together in a room. Basically, I’ll come up with some chord progressions, leads, arpeggios, whatever on my Juno or my wide array of Arturia soft synths, then I’ll record the rhythm section tracks, typically writing most, if not all, of an instrumental song. I’ll send that to Scott and he’ll come up with vocal melodies and record a demo to send back to me. Then I’ll kind of edit the parts around his vocal ideas until we’re happy with the dynamics and how the song sorta lives and breathes. Then we’ll get together at Scott’s with a selection of wine and beer and a pizza, usually with extensive notes on harmonies and how to punch-up the existing vocal parts. We’ll track that stuff, I might do a few more edits at home, and then we send it to the wildly talented Alex Gamble at The Hive in Toronto for mixing, producing, extra instrumental layers, added drum machine stuff, whatever he hears. That’s pretty much how this first LP has gone, and it’s been an absolute pleasure.   SA: What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? DW: I imagine like anyone who’s spent twenty-plus years in a community, subculture, what have you, I’ve got a lot of thoughts and feelings about the Ottawa music scene. My personal involvement tends to ebb and flow as new waves of participants arrive and others exit - years will go by where it feels like home and then there might be a few where I’m not quite as active - but it’s always very near and dear to me. There’s certainly never a lack of quality artists in this sleepy city. I started going to punk shows when I was thirteen - Punchbuggy (featuring a young Jim Bryson) at the Greely Legion was my first show ever - and twenty-five years later there are still a ton of the same faces mixed in with a ton of different ones. That’s a pretty special thing.   SA: As I understand it, you guys have been active in other bands of quite different genres in the past. Why SURRENDER, and why now? DW: As I mentioned, Crusades finished our ten-year run this past October. Black Tower, the sorta traditional heavy metal band I play drums in - with Scott on bass and his partner Erin on guitar and vocals - also decided to take it easy for a while, and although I still kinda ‘moonlight’ with The Steve Adamyk Band, that wasn’t happening at the time. Scott had also just wrapped up the “album cycle” with his band The Creeps and didn’t have much on the horizon there. I briefly played in a hardcore band called Power of Fear that did a few shows, but the current hardcore scene is very... let’s say... ‘youthful’, and it became apparent pretty quickly that it wasn’t something I wanted to stick with. Mostly I just wanted to make music with Scott, and based on our mutual love for 80s/90s pop music (and Scott’s equally toned down schedule), we decided to take a crack at doing something closer to the music we listen to the most. And honestly, I’d been writing and playing fast and/or aggressive music for so long, I really just wanted to make something upbeat and positive that people could dance to.   SA: A question for fun: your three desert island albums. What would they be and why? DW: Alright, this isn’t gonna be easy. Or brief. Note: these aren’t necessarily my favourite albums of all time (certainly they’re in the Top Ten), but if I’m gonna be listening to these on whatever hi-fi system this hypothetical island has until I wither away, here’s what I’d hope washed ashore with me (also, I’m gonna cheat using a nostalgia loophole):

1. Alice Cooper - Love It to Death / Killer (my Dad’s old dubbed cassette version) These two albums, both released in 1971, were my first love. They were on a single cassette in my Dad’s collection and really still exist as a single entity to me. I always cite my discovery of these two albums, probably at 4-5 years old, as the foundation for my entire musical life to come. Not only were they mysterious and rather frightening, but there was an eclecticism in this batch of songs that made everything I fell in love with afterward - metal, punk, prog, pop, garage, etc. - seem somehow part of the same cloth. Alice and that original band showed me very early on that there’s no need to limit oneself to the confines of a style, sound, genre, whatever. Most important records that ever happened to me.

2. Misfits - Walk Among Us / Earth A.D. / Legacy of Brutality (also a homemade cassette version c/o my friend Judd’s older sister, fully decorated with black Sharpie and White-Out) If early Alice Cooper set me on the weirdo path as a youngster, it was a single afternoon taping CDs in my friend Judd’s bedroom that locked me into the punk rock subculture forever. We’d been Guns N Roses turned Pantera turned Sepultura fans like many a shitty kid of the 80s/90s, and Danzig’s ‘Mother’ was in heavy rotation everywhere at the time, so we were no stranger to that beautiful beast’s howl. When Judd’s sister borrowed a stack of Misfits CDs from a pal at school and explained to us that this was Glenn Danzig’s old band (of course we recognized the name and logo from Rockabilia ads and Cliff Burton photos), we dove in assuming we knew what was coming. We most certainly did not. The Misfits became my favourite band that day and have been for every day since.

3. Peter Gabriel - So Every time I listen to this incredible record, I discover new things I love about it. A perpetual go-to and a true monument to the possibilities within pop music (shout out to Daniel Lanois there too). I was going to choose his Shaking the Tree compilation because it contains my favourite PG track - the piano version of “Here Comes the Flood” - but I figure I’d cheated enough with the first two answers. ...also Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love, The Hellacopters’ High Visibility, Cold Mailman’s Everything Aflutter, Cave In’s Jupiter, and The Lemonheads’ It’s A Shame About Ray. This is an unfair question.   SA: Finally, what comes next for Surrender moving into 2019 and beyond? Best of luck! DW: First on the agenda is to find an ideal home for the LP. We’d kinda like to step out from beneath the umbrella of labels we’ve worked with in the past, but there are no specific plans thus far. Just release the second single, hope the feedback is good and see if anyone wants to partner up for the long haul. As far as any live performances go, that’s a big question mark. It’s been so great doing this with just the two of us, it’s hard to imagine inviting anyone else into the fold. That said, it’s even harder to picture just the two of us on stage like Yazoo on “Top of The Pops,” so who knows? Thanks so much!

#surrender #crusades #katebush #misfits #petergabriel #alicecooper #thecreeps #steveadamykband #poweroffear #blacktower #grebo #jesusjones #bjork #tearsforfears #roland #interview #newmusic #livemusic #synths #ottawa #gatineau #nationalcapitalregion

[thislassishooked]

How to Carve a Pumpkin (Not Yourself)

Well, I did it, I finished my Halloween fic. This is based on a prompt given to me by the lovely @hollyethecurious

Please excuse anything that looks weird, this was my first time using the keep reading and it kept giving me grief. This is unbetad because I literally just finished it. All mistakes are mine. I hope you enjoy!

Tagging some of my other dear friends that might get a kick out of it. @ilovemesomekillianjones @winterbaby89 @xemmaloveskillianx @kmomof4 @kymbersmith-90 @snowbellewells

Rated G (But I may be persuaded to add an M rated sepual since I loves these characters so much)

4200 words

Emma slipped her arms through her jacket sleeves, flipping her hair out from under her collar. She tried to keep the sigh from her lips as her sister-in-law knocked on her door.

 “Just give it a chance, mom,” Henry encouraged from the couch,  “you really need to improve your carving skills. It’s a little embarrassing to have a triangle eye and nose with crooked teeth pumpkin glowing on our front porch every year.”

“Hey, it’s a classic. I recall you creating that same masterpiece not too long ago,” she quipped while ruffling his hair.

“Yeah, like six years ago.”

“Is your homework done?” He nodded. “You get another thirty minutes on the Xbox, then get yourself ready for bed.”

“I got it mom, Mary-Margaret is waiting.”

“Okay, kid, be good for Elsa.” She leaned in to place a kiss on the top of his head and hollered a quick goodbye to Elsa.

“Have fun!” Elsa yelled back from the kitchen.

Mary Margaret’s gleaming smile met her on the other side. “Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be for a pumpkin carving master class,” Emma replied sarcastically.

“Just you wait. The instructor just moved to town and is a four time Master Pumpkin Carver,” she spoke as the bounced down the steps.

“And that means… what exactly?”

“Don’t you ever watch the Travel Channel?” Emma gave her a guilty shrug. “It means he’s the best in the country. Last year he won with one that perfectly resembled that rock troll leader.” Emma sighed in defeat. “Plus, he just bought and renovated that old used bookstore on Main that I know you loved as a kid.” That did spark some interest in Emma, but she sensed there was more. “And… he’s single,” she sing songed. There it was. The reason she’s learning how to carve a pumpkin at twenty eight years old. Mary Margaret wants to play matchmaker.

“How on earth could you know that?” Emma asked while struggling to find her seatbelt buckle.

“David’s been helping him with some of the restoration. He loves to get his hands dirty so he’s been going in after hours to help get the place ready to the grand re-opening.”

“And does said master pumpkin carver have a name?”

“Killian Jones. He’s originally from Ireland.”

Fantastic, Mary Margaret wants to set her up with a good looking, (I assume he’s good looking), single, master pumpkin carver, hard working, Irishman. What could possibly go wrong?

They arrived at Storybrooke High with only minutes to spare. Apparently Mr. Jones agreed to teach in one of the art rooms and he was doing it for scraps. A mere $10 fee to pay for your pumpkin and carving supplies. Just who was this guy?

Emma and Mary Margaret settled on a set of desks near the back with Belle and Ariel joining them shortly thereafter. Emma was surprised to see August there, but if there was a potentially handsome, single man within a ten mile radius of their small town, August would be there. The man had been on more dates in the last year than Emma had in her life.

“So what do you plan to carve?” Belle asked her after they had settled.

“I don’t know, I just figured he’d give us an example and I’d copy that,” Emma answered with disinterest.

“Oh, you were supposed to bring an image for inspiration, did I not mention that?” Mary Margaret asked innocently.

Emma turned to her sneaky sister-in-law. “No, I believe that was not something you shared with me.”

“Well, I wouldn’t worry, I’m sure Killian can help you with that.”

At every desk, a pre-selected pumpkin had been placed. Emma studied hers, noticing how perfect the dimensions were. It was as if she had sat down at the only perfect pumpkin in the whole room. Belle’s had some weird warts, Ariel’s was flat in the front, Mary Margaret’s was too large, but Emma’s was… perfect. It didn’t seem fair since she had no intention of carving out any sort of masterpiece.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” an accented voice said from the doorway. “I’ll be your host for the night, does everyone have a pumpkin?” A slew of yes’s answered the man who owned the not at all sexy voice of whom she had yet to see. “Excellent, I’m Killian Jones, lets get started with the basics, shall we?” Emma finally spotted the source of the accent and damn, if he wasn’t the epitome of tall, dark and handsome.

“Isn’t he delicious?” Ariel whispered into Emma’s ear.

“Airel,” Emma admonished, “you’re married!”

“Very happily married, but it doesn’t mean I can’t acknowledge a hotty when I see ‘em,” she teased.

“I have to agree with Ariel, that man is a ten on the hotness scale,” Belle added.

Emma looked to Mary Margaret expecting her to reprimand their friends because if there was anyone on the planet that was more devoted to her husband than Ariel, it was Mary Margaret. But all she found was a slightly guilty grimace.

“He is… pretty cute Emma.”

Emma was stunned. Although she agreed with her friends that his dark, ruffled hair that swooped just above his ocean blue eyes and his days old scruff that peppered the lower half of his very handsome face gave him an above average grade in the “hotness scale” as Belle had put it, she was above superficially rating a person. He could turn out to be a total asshole.

“You should all have the tools you’ll need for tonight,” he continued. “A carving knife and a large scoop. Be sure to cut a large enough hole around the stem or you’ll have a hell of a time scooping out the guts. Always remember to keep your knife at an inward angle so the top will have some support when you replace it.”

That seemed simple enough. Emma got to work, every once in a while sneaking a peek at the admittedly handsome instructor as he circulated the room every so often when he took a break from his own carving up front.

__________

Killian had taught many carving classes over the years, but had recently grown weary of the menial job. There was more to his life than a silly tradition of carving a squash in the days leading up to Halloween. It didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy carving his own creation in the comfort of his home, but the “glamour” of being a carving master had spread like wildfire through the small New England town. He had inadvertently become a local celebrity.

When Dave had asked him to host a class because his very sweet wife Mary Margaret had expressed interest, who also happens to be an excellent cook, he could not deny the woman her wishes. David’s help in restoring the old used book store had been pivotal in his dream of settling down in a cozy town by the sea and living as normal of a life as he could. Of course he had come to consider both David and Mary Margaret as dear friends. This class was purely a favor to his friend for all the free labor David had offered when he first found out that Killian had purchased the building. Apparently, the store had been a favorite of David’s sister when she was growing up and he wanted to help restore it to its former glory for her. Killian would have been a fool to refuse the help because David really knew what he was doing. The place was almost ready for its grand re-opening after only three months of back breaking work.

Killian spotted the object of David’s affection not long into his first circulation and approached her with a wide, genuine grin. As he got closer, his eyes averted to the beautiful blonde beside her, clearly struggling with carving the top off her pumpkin. Her tongue stuck out on the side of her mouth to indicate she was concentrating very hard on the task.

“Killian!” Mary Margaret squealed, using her hands to pull his full attention to them. He didn’t need Mary Margaret’s over exuberance to lead him in her direction. The gorgeous woman to her right was doing a fine job of it.

“Good evening, Mary Margaret,” he greeted with a flourished bow and a side eye on her friend.

“Oh,” Mary Margaret caught on very quickly, “this is Emma, David’s sister, well adopted sister, but that’s not really important,” Mary Margaret rushed.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Emma…” he knew she had a different last name than David, but wanted to hear it from her lips.

“Swan,” she supplied briskly, not meeting his eyes.

“Swan,” he replied in his most seductive voice. This apparently caused her to meet his gaze. He was instantly mesmerized by her emerald gems. There was something about Emma Swan that left him speechless, and according to everyone he had ever known, he was never for lack of words.

She broke the trance as a pained cry left her mouth. He looked down only to realize that she had cut herself with the carving knife.

_________

Emma had done some stupid things in her life, but cutting her hand because she couldn’t take her eyes off of a relative stranger was high on the list. Her pumpkin was covered in blood and Mary Margaret had started to panic, but Killian flew into action. He grabbed a flask from his bag and raced back to her.

“For some reason we don’t have a first aid kit in the classroom, but I’ve got the next best thing. Give me your hand love.”

“It’s fine,” Emma protested.

“No, it’s not, you’re hurt,” he stated with concern.

Emma offered him her hand which she came to regret when he popped the top of his flask off with his teeth and poured it over her open wound.

“Ah, ah, what the hell is that?” she yelped.

“It’s rum, the closest thing we have to an antiseptic. The burning will settle soon enough,” he said with sincerity. “I don’t think you’ll need stitches, Emma, but for now we must stop the bleeding.” He then proceeded to unwrap his scarf from his neck and secure it around her hand instead. His left hand was covered in “pumpkin guts” as he had clarified, so he used his goddamn gorgeous mouth to secure the scarf in place, pulling it tight with his teeth and the whole time never taking his eyes off of hers. Emma was transfixed as he stared into her eyes longer than necessary. She only broke the trance once she realized that the whole class and her sister-in-law were silently watching them. It seemed to bring Kilian back to reality as well. He practically lept from her side and resumed his duties.

It was only near the end of class the he approached her one last time. “How does the hand feel?”

“It’s fine, doesn’t even throb. You can have your scarf back,” Emma offered with an outstretched hand.

“You should probably keep it on for another few hours. What I really wanted to know is, what is your plan for your carving? Everyone else brought a picture of their ideal carving, but you seem to have none.”

“That’s because I don’t,” she stated emphatically.

He knelt down again so he was eye level with her. “What are you passionate about, Emma?”

Emma was taken aback by his rather forward inquiry. She knew that he was only trying to help inspire a stupid idea for a stupid carving that she absolutely had no investment in, but something told her that it meant more. She closed her eyes and the only image that popped up in her head was Henry.

“My son,” she answered with a smile.

Killian nodded his head in understanding. “And what is your son passionate about?”

Emma found her eyes had landed on his again. The sincerity in them burning into her very soul. She only had to think about her answer for a matter of seconds because her son was very transparent.

“At the moment, dinosaurs,” she answered on a laugh. Killian laughed along with her.

“That is very typical of an eight… ten year old?” Killian guessed.

“Ten,” Emma affirmed.

“Tomorrow night I will have what you need to create a dinosaur masterpiece that your boy will love.”

Emma had no words. This man that she had just met expressed a sincere intention to please her son, a boy he had never met, a boy he owed nothing to.

“Will you come by the bookstore tomorrow, love?” The endearment threw her off, but she quickly realized that it was probably a force of habit from growing up in Ireland. “I would like to discuss the details of your son’s passion.”

“Henry,” she said, even surprising herself. She never talked about her son with men.

“Alright then,” Killian said with an adorable lopsided smile, “Henry’s passion.”

“I thought the bookstore wasn’t open yet,” she asked on a whisper.

“For you, love, it is open anytime.” That statement had thrown Emma for a loop. He had said it with such yearning that her body shook, a sensation she hadn’t experienced in some time.

“If I have the time, perhaps I’ll stop by,” she said nonchalantly. That, of course, caused a huge grin to break out across Killian’s face.

“I look forward to it,” was the last thing he said to her before instructing the class to start cleaning up for the night.

Emma stood outside the little shop that she loved so much as a kid. She had debated going all day, but with Henry spending the evening at a friend’s house, she couldn’t think of any excuse not to show up. She knew he was there because the lights were on. The carving class didn’t start for another two hours so she steeled her nerves and knocked on the old fashioned french doors. They were newly painted and looked as good as she remembered.

Her hand was now wrapped in an ace bandage and Killian’s scarf freshly washed. She had managed to get the bloodstain out, but was remiss to return it to him. She heard footsteps approaching and waited on bated breath as he unlocked and opened the door. He was just as gorgeous as she remembered, his dark hair slick from having been recently washed. His spicy scent assaulted her senses and for a moment, she was struck speechless. His face lit up when their eyes met and she was shaken by the desire to pull his lips to hers and find out if he tasted as good as he looked.

“Swan, a pleasure, as always.”

“As always? We’ve only just met,” she teased.

“Aye, but I am sure that every time you grace my presence in the future will be a pleasure,” he said, taking her hand in his and placing a feather light kiss just above her knuckles. Emma’s breath was momentarily lost at the old fashioned gesture. “Please, come in. I have several ideas put together for Henry’s surprise pumpkin.” Her heart swelled at the thought that he had remembered her son’s name.

Upon entering the old store she was overwhelmed by the smell of old books. The musky scent that comes from a well used book has always been a favorite of hers. He had even kept the name she always found cleaver. The Books of Yesterday. It was an appropriate name considering just about all of the inventory was older than her.

“Would you like something to drink, love?” Emma couldn’t help blush at the familiar endearment.

“Um, do you have any cocoa?”

“Of course, with whipped cream and cinnamon, yes?” Emma’s mouth fell open. She was sure she never mentioned that to him before. “Your brother often spoke of you during the renovation and he mentioned that was your favorite beverage,” he clarified. He scratched a spot just behind his right ear, a gesture that she found adorable, then turned to retrieve said cocoa.

Emma took the time to peruse the old shop. He and David had done wonders to bring the magic back to the place she had spent so many hours at as a lonely child. That was before David had discovered she was an orphan that had run away from her group home. Although the adoption was never made legal, Ruth Nolan considered Emma her daughter the moment David had finally convinced her to come home with him. He was already dating Mary Margaret at the time, apparently high school sweethearts, and she had gained a mother, brother and sister all in one night. It was the best decision she had ever made. Well, that and keeping Henry of course.

Killian returned with two steaming mugs of cocoa topped with fluffy white cream and dusted with cinnamon. She smiled as she thanked him.

“I have the carving examples in my office if you’d like to take a look at them,” he said bashfully.

“Lead the way, master carver,” she quipped. As it turned out, he had printed at least twenty pictures of possible dinosaur carvings, many of them too intricate for her.

“Do you happen to know what Henry’s favorite species is?” Emma thought back to the times he had convinced her to watch the Jurassic Park movies with him. He had always perked up when a raptor was on screen.

“He loves the velociraptors as well as the t-rex, but the raptors are his favorite for sure.”

Killian picked out a very difficult carving that almost looked like the raptor’s head was jumping right out of the pumpkin. “I’m afraid this is the only example I could find that resembled a raptor.”

“Yeah, that’s not gonna happen. I could hardly finger paint as a kid. Not the artistic type, but I think I could handle the t-rex. The one from the Jurassic Park logo doesn’t look too difficult and it is Henry’s favorite movie.”

He pulled the picture from the pile and handed it to her. “And I will be there every step of the way to help you create a masterpiece for your son,” he spoke reverently.

__________

Killian bid Emma farewell after giving her a few books to read that she was interested in. He wasn’t running a library, but couldn’t find it in himself to charge her for them. She had refused at first, but he had managed to convince her with the knowledge that he was certain she would return them in good condition and still very much sellable. He didn’t buy the bookstore to make a profit. He had already done that with his previous job as a stockbroker in London. He had told Emma that after his brother perished in a naval exercise gone wrong, he packed up what little he owned, entrusted his clients with his best friend and coworker Robin and left for America with no plan.

Emma was doing a fantastic job with her carving the next night. She needed help with getting the teeth just right since they were so many of them. Every time he would lean over her to give her instruction he would breath in her lovely scent. She smelled of apples and cinnamon and it was a scrumptious combination. He was remiss to bid her farewell at the end of the night. Tomorrow was Halloween and everyone would light up their creations. Mary Margaret had done a fine job of carving her princess design as well.

“So what are your plans for tomorrow night, love? Trick or treating with your boy?”

“Yeah, just as soon as I finish my shift. Henry is very excited to see my jack-o-lantern. Thank you Killian, for helping me put a smile on his face.”

“And what is young master Henry dressing as for the evening?”

“A pirate. He’s very excited about it.”

Killian beamed at the new information. He and his brother grew up pretending to be pirates as well. They would have sword fights with sticks in the front yard of the orphanage they grew up in. They even went so far as to purchase a sailboat together when it became financially possible.

“And you, Swan? What will you be dressing as?”

“Oh, I won’t be dressing up,” she laughed.

“That’s unfortunate, because I believe you would make a lovely princess.” She blushed at his praise. It was the most beautiful thing.

Emma finished her dinosaur and it was almost a perfect match to the picture he had given her. He was bursting with pride for her.

“Well, thank you again for everything, Killian. Perhaps I’ll see you around?”

“I certainly hope so, love. You do need to return those books that I lent you eventually. But I do hope you’ll visit me at the shop before you finish them,” he said in a pleading tone. She gave him a shy smile, the blush returning.

“Goodnight, Killian,” she said picking up her pumpkin.

“Goodnight, love.” He watched her walk out the door with Mary Margaret, the brunette looking over her shoulder to flash him a conspiratorial smile. He returned it eagerly. He had a lot of work ahead of him tonight to finish his plan.

David had informed him that Emma would be finished at the station by six and picking Henry up from Elsa’s. That meant that he had until 6:15 to get everything set up. Thankfully he had David and Mary Margaret to assist him with his task. Emma’s jack-o-lantern was already out on her front porch. The sun had set by the time his surprise was complete.

__________

Emma and Henry turned the corner that led to their home and she gasped at the sight before her. She parked the car and they both rushed to get out to investigate the glowing creations. Henry was darting between each jack-o-lantern, bouncing on his feet as he observed each one. There were nine in all, each one with a carving of a different dinosaur. In the middle of the pack was the very raptor that Emma had deemed impossible for her. Henry stared at it in wonder, pointing out every detail to his mother.

“Mom, this is so cool! How did you do it?” he asked excitedly.

“I… didn’t.” She knew there was only one explanation and she actually teared up at the thought of him putting so much work into bringing her son such joy. Just then she watched as Killian, Mary Margaret and David approached them. He was dressed as a sexy version of Captain Hook. All black leather and a smattering of chest hair peeking out of his v-neck shirt and vest.

“Wow!” Henry exclaimed. “Mom, look at his costume.” Oh, she was looking alright. Probably more like leering. Henry ran up to them, nearly knocking Killian to the ground as he wrapped his hands around him in a hug. Killian returned the gesture. “Thanks for the pumpkins, Mr. Jones” He then went on to ask him questions about his costume. Emma was dumbfounded at the instant connection they seemed to share.

“Do you like it, Emma?” he asked with an almost nervous smile.

“Like it, no. Love it, absolutely.”

“Emma, I was hoping we could take Henry trick or treating with Leo. Perhaps give you two a little time alone?” Mary Margaret asked with a knowing smile. Emma agreed while gazing into Killian’s hopeful eyes. She had known this man for all of two days yet he had managed to worm his way into her heart.

After bidding the group farewell, she turned to the pirate who was grinning like a loon. She knew just what to do with that grin. Emma closed the gap between them by pulling him in for a searing kiss. He was stunned for about a half a second before returning the kiss with the same fervor. His lips were soft and rough at the same time. She licked along the seam of his delicious lips and he opened for her, groaning as he did. Emma let out a moan of her own at the taste of him. Their tongues tangled as they explored each other’s mouths. Her hands grasped the back of his head just as his ran through her hair. She knew they needed to come up for oxygen soon or they wouldn’t make it inside. She pulled away slightly as Killian chased her lips. She leaned her forehead against his, both of them breathing heavily from the impassioned embrace.

“Would you like to come in for cocoa?” she asked him once she had found her voice.

“Very much,” he answered breathlessly. “Will you go out with me Friday night? Dave offered to take Henry for the evening.”

She raised her eyes to his again. His face had grown soft and hopeful. Her answer came in the form of another kiss, this time slow and sweet.

They spent the rest of the evening talking by the fireplace, cocoa in hand. She enjoyed getting to know Killian Jones, master pumpkin carver and owner of her favorite book store.

#Captain Swan #Halloween #killian jones #emma swan

[onestowatch]

Songwriting Virtuoso Sam Martin Chronicles a Life in Debut Solo Album, ‘Alpha Omega’ [Q&A]

Photo: Jimmy Fontaine

Sam Martin has been songwriting and producing for other artists for years, quietly amassing over two billion streams through the projects he’s touched. Martin is widely revered as pop songwriting royalty, with Maroon 5’s “Daylight” and Jason Derulo’s “Want to Want Me” being just a few of the many songs he’s collaborated on. Having already proved himself behind the scenes, Martin is stepping into the limelight with his debut album, Alpha Omega, an emotionally packed 18-track feat detailing a life from conception to finish.

The album itself is too complex to describe in the space of a couple hundred words, but falls somewhere between pop and alternative rock with lots of playful production touches. Martin has put himself at the heart of this project, from playing most of the instruments on the album himself to directing the accompanying film. Featuring audio clips from his own life and translations of highly personal memories, the film showcases the moments in Martin’s life that shaped him into the man he is today. Martin offers a piece of himself to listeners with Alpha Omega, revealing vulnerabilities and taking his artistry to the next level.

We sat down with the songwriter, artist and father to discuss Alpha Omega, telling the truth and gaining momentum as an artist.

OTW: Let’s start with the title! How did you land on Alpha Omega?

Sam Martin: I originally had the album as “Requiem” because I love Mozart’s Requiem. I wasn’t settled on it and my lawyer, who hilariously loves the record and listened to the private Soundcloud link over 40 times, said “This is too positive of a record to be called ‘Requiem.’ What about ‘Alpha Omega,’ like A to Z in the Greek alphabet?” I liked that because the whole album is from birth to death of a human’s life, and it’s semi-autobiographical, but I, of course, haven’t died yet so it can’t be totally autobiographical.

OTW: So is this a story inspired by your life or pretty much a retelling of your life story to the T?

Sam Martin: Once it hits the midlife crisis I project it on people I grew up around, but up until that point it’s like 90 percent autobiographical. There are a few moments I exaggerate because it’s good for the story, but it’s mostly based on true events. I basically had a great childhood and a great thirties so far, so it was a reminder of how hard things have been to get to where I am.

OTW: I think that’s pretty common for people to have a tough time in their teens and twenties and come out of it in their thirties.

Sam Martin: Yeah that’s why I’m hoping people can relate to it; I’m just telling a true story and trying to be honest.

Photo: Jimmy Fontaine

OTW: Could you tell us about the recording process and co-producing the album? 

Sam Martin: I didn’t want to bother any of my really talented musician friends because I couldn’t guarantee that it was going to be a good idea. I was so used to bringing opportunities to producers and saying, “Hey I’ve got this song, Adam Levine likes it, let’s do it.” And all of a sudden I’ve got these songs and I’m keeping them. I would start songs like “Sabotage,” and get them really far, but I just didn’t trust that I would be the one to finish them. As the project went on I became way more confident, and I got some help along the way. I played all the bass, key, guitars, organ, some drums, and vocals of course, so it reminded me of how I used to do things as a kid. It felt like returning to my old self, just on steroids. (laughs)

OTW: How does it feel to go from writing for other artists to debuting your solo album?

Sam Martin: Well, I’m sober about it, but it is very fun. I had reached a level of success a lot of songwriters dream of, but for some reason I wasn’t terribly happy. I realized in hindsight that I was getting sick of serving other peoples’ moods and whims. It was exciting for a while, but I learned that you have to express yourself and feed your creative intuitions, or else what you’re writing for other people suffers as well. I have a million thoughts on that, but mainly it’s been fun, healing and exciting.

OTW: Let’s talk about the film, which you directed yourself. That’s a huge undertaking, how was that process?

Sam Martin: It was mostly overwhelming. I hadn’t directed anything for seven years, I used to film features for nonprofits in third world countries. I was actually kind of on track to be a director, but music was always my first love. When I got my break and Maroon 5 took my cut for “Daylight,” I didn’t have to make videos anymore and I dove into songwriting and abandoned directing. I had a bigger idea than the available budget for this project, so I thought the best way to do it was for me to direct it and edit it. My brother and sister helped out as well, and we basically went right to the edge of our abilities. Everyone was a hero on that shoot, once we finally got shooting it was a well-oiled machine. It was really special.

OTW: You included some audio clips of your own life in the film, how did you go about choosing those?

Sam Martin: My sister is usually our family archivist, and I had her send me some stuff and pick out audio. I also recorded my son, I think he was about two at the time, and he gave me some amazing stuff. My wedding is in there, my dad’s 60th birthday party is in there. For me, it’s wonderful so I hope people can connect with that too.

Photo: Jimmy Fontaine

OTW: Going into the specific tracks, “Blue Eyed Joy” is a personal favorite. Could you tell us about writing that song?

Sam Martin: Oh really? Thank you for saying that, that was the first and last song I wrote for the record. I started it like eight years ago, and it had a few good lines, but I cranked it back open because I felt like it could be much better. The very last thing I wrote on the record was the chorus for “Blue Eyed Joy,” which is like the best part of the whole record. So it’s cool to have the last thing you do be one of your best. I think a lot of songs are written by single people who are sort of troubled. If you look at the top charts, I don’t think any of those people are married or in a long-term relationship. So I wanted to do something that legitimizes sticking it out and get through the hard stuff. My favorite line of that song is “diamonds don’t form overnight.” You can’t think your relationship is going to be perfect overnight. A happy 60-year relationship does exist, and we shouldn’t forget it.

OTW: I think we all need that reminder; dating scene can be tough. 

Sam Martin: Yes, it’s possible!

OTW: Do you have a track you’re most excited for people to hear?

Sam Martin: My personal favorites are not always the favorites of everyone else. But my favorite single tracks are probably “Great Escape,” “Blue Eyed Joy,” and “Come On.” As a concept album, it’s important for the listener to note that the album never stops and that themes reemerge.

OTW: Tell us about balancing being a dad with releasing an album?

Sam Martin: My family is a delight. I’m obsessed with my family, and my kids are growing up so fast—I don’t want to miss it. I work from home a lot and have people over instead of going out to write.

OTW: What does 2019 look like for you?

Sam Martin: It looks like a big mystery. We’ve got this record, and I’ve still been writing a lot for other artists. I’m making a whole other record in case we get good momentum—I’m kind of doing everything right now. I must admit I’m having the most fun working on this record.

OTW: Who are your Ones to Watch?

Sam Martin: Starrah. I love that “Codeine Cowgirl” song she just put out. I also love Elephant Heart, my buddy is in that group. There’s some good stuff there.

#sam martin #alpha omega #interview #blue eyed joy #alternative #rock #pop

[westcoastprancer]

My Auto-Spaz-Ography

***WARNING - WAY TOO MUCH UNNECESSARY PROFANITY***

Getting past the only child bullshit...sue me I guess? Not my fault my parents could only handle one of me. Pretty annoying growing up hearing from morons that I must be a spoiled little shit...

Can’t really argue there. Aside from self-inflicted hunger (you know...that junior high self image bullshit..starve and lose 5 lbs in a weekend), I’ve never gone hungry. I’ve never been cold, without clothes, or a roof over my head. I was taught values. So yeah, I am fucking spoiled rotten. No apologies there.

People who continuously stay “stuck” royally piss me off. These weirdos are toxic. Avoid them at all costs. They will not change. You will thank me for this piece of advice sometime in your life. Everybody’s got a problem. So do I. Set goals for yourself. Get the fuck off your sad ass every couple weeks. Find your best friend (if you don’t have one of those...you should seriously consider working on finding one) get trashed, talk it out and let that shit go for a while. If you’re stuck in a rut for more than 2-3 months, get help. Seriously. It’s not embarrassing. It’s way more shitty in the long run when you turn out to be the aforementioned person who just stays fucking “stuck”. On another note, subject of the week has been middle aged divorced broads with kids and how sly and bitchy they are. If they go ape shit on me before getting their facts straight, imagine what they do to all these poor men? No fucking wonder a good, non hot dog throwing down hallway status, loyal, no bullshit broad like me can’t find a solid dude. The good dudes are out there getting berated by these broads they knocked up and can’t get out of it now because...you know...the kids and stuff. I’m glad I took a different path. Can’t imagine being in that desperate place looking for affection because I am 37-47 year old wrinkly, loosey goosey broad thinking I was tossed aside by a shitty man, when I am the nutbag...just looking for attention. It’s easy to get laid. No strings. No problems. Many people make it way too complicated. My friend’s brother is hilarious. He is kinda a douche and I love his stories about profiling chicks. My favorite was when he told this broad at the bar she looked beautiful and she said how he made her day! (First red flag) They go to exchange numbers and she once again tells him what a nice time she had meeting him ( nothing wrong with that) but then goes on daily wishing him a good day. That’s another desperate sign. Come to find out...middle aged. Divorced. Kids. Lonely in the panties. You know the drill. I used to host this radio show called Cryin’ Lovin’ Laughin’ or Leavin’ so I learned these things sort of young. You remember the patterns of people. You know warning signs of crazy. Here’s the most invaluable lesson, most people are batshit crazy. Keep the wall up a while. Test people. I have caught so many good people (so I thought) in lies through the years. Even little irrelevant lies. It doesn’t matter if it’s a friend, relative, colleague, or significant other. When you catch someone in a lie of even the smallest, you wonder what else they are capable of lying about. It changes everything. Be like me. Don’t lie. Sometimes it’s hard, but then you have nothing to hide and having the truth on your side keeps you out of some really shitty situations.Even if it is so embarrassing and you have to put a towel over your head to face the truth...do it. If you don’t believe a word of anything else I say...believe me when I tell you about people. The good and the bad. Just take the time to get to know a person. You don’t want a lazy middle aged squinty eyed salmoncake real estate selling Mom moving her and her kids asses into your house all of a sudden. You ain’t that desperate. Oh and dudes, I’m coming for you...don’t act desperate either. Just don’t. I tend to take your sides on this shit because dudes on the other sides of things are usually just happy to be free, so their demeanor is totally different. But that doesn’t mean I won’t flip sides on you if you guys start getting weird. Covid seems to have made everyone crazy.

Even in a good mood, there is nothing better than a super depressing 90’s country song...am I right? It’s that sad shit that always gets me in my damn near non-existent soul. Look, I randomly placed 6th out of 20 on a totally impromptu Roast Battle at the Laugh Factory in LA one night. One of the roastmasters told me I did so well for my first time because I have no soul. HA HA HA...that one fucking stuck with me. Back to the point - if you can’t sit down with a couple good homies now and then and blast “Alibis” on 10 while chugging Crown, you should really address some things in your monotonous life. Just sayin for someone who doesn’t do the bar scene much anymore and barely has feelings...I know every color of every neon sign. I’m always hashin out a heartache in the back of my mind. Makes me remember not to go there ever again. People suck. I feel like I have already mentioned this. I’m not a “hard” person. I’m a realist. I don’t want to miss fantastic opportunities with people, but I also know those people are few and far between so I really keep my guard up. The right people always tear it down in time. 

People who get offended by profanity seriously piss me off more than a hive of wasps chasing me. Let me be clear...if I wasn’t dropping at least 72 f-bombs a day...I’m not sure where I would be in life. It’s turning all negative events in my life into positivity. I mean when you think about the F word. No matter how you slice or dice it...it does have a positive meaning in any context. “Go fuck yourself.” - Ok! “Fuck that!” - With what?! “Fuck You!” - Time and place please? Etc… Do you know what I am fucking saying?

Seriously asked my father the other day why he didn’t own Hilton chains or something. I’m sick of this fucking sweaty ass work too hard lifestyle with hardly any time to do fun shit. The idea of being some stuck up heiress with holes in my pockets sound fucking fantastic to me sometimes. Maybe just not the stuck up part. Could you imagine me that way? Snap my fingers and a drink comes! First class flights to St. Croix with my inner posse.  Living the goddamn dream. Me and my doggies on a private island!

I’ve become a bit dramatic, I think. For an extremely hard headed Portagee, I can still call myself out when needed. It’s kinda weird not living alone anymore. I’ve got a badass homie around now (wish I would have met years ago) who actually gives a shit how my day was. So I kinda get called out now on my bullshit. (Side note: It’s important to keep company around you who doesn’t enable your negative traits. Your best friends will call you on your shit and help you grow.) Sometimes I’ll lay down and pout all day over some shit that is NOTHING. Just get stoned and forget the fuck about it. I’m sure this is something I’ve been doing for years. Never caught it til now. Checklist to work on. No one likes even a small percentage of a drama queen. Yuck.

Amazing the shit I think of while stoned. What’s the point of dating? Attach yourself to another person for life? Is that even natural? Attach yourself to yourself...not American Pie style you pervert. Attach yourself to doggies. I cannot stress enough how fulfilling life is raising pups. Watching them grow and learn. I’m not even talking about the ones you raise from babies. Even at an older age, your dog will still learn and grow with mental stimulation and affection. It’s so amazing to watch the new things they learn and pick up on. If you treat your dogs well, they will treat you double as well until death do you part. Sure, it’s shitty you get so attached and they don’t live very long, but it teaches you perseverance. True value of cherishing your pals and moving on in your life always keeping a piece of them with you. Sounds fucking gut wrenching sad. It is, but I promise you the time you spend with your pups outweighs the sadness in the end.( If you’re planning on spending zero time with your animal, leave your pet in constant confined spaces, starve or beat it...don’t fucking get one. Don’t even get close to one. They are better off in the wild than with your crazy ass. You ain’t right.)

You can’t be a lying dickface all the time and expect everyone to be nice to you. Saw a good one on Family Guy that touched my sweet heart a little. Stewie to Brian: “You’re not my friend. Friends come and go. You’re family. That’s for life.” Sounds so sweet. In fact I wanted to call my bestie and tell him that. Then I snapped out and realized “family” can be a super toxic F word. Sad thing is I have a pretty big “family” on each side, yet the older I get, I have realized my only family is my parents. In fact, I have created my own family full of non-blood relatives. Life is wonderful in the positive environment I have created for myself through the years. It’s amazing to form bonds with amazing people who have no ulterior motives like wills and money. Fucking money brings out the true colors in people. It’s sad. People spend their whole lives trippin balls over money. That must suck. 

Those dorks at Central Catholic. Even at 15 made me laugh like hell. They’d interview the football “stars” getting full rides to Notre Dame and shit. My favorite was when asked about their favorite band... “Creed man. Such great “hard rock” with such powerful, positive messages.” Those dudes are probably miserable in their physical therapists jobs with their cheating whore wives who come home smelling like ratty vaginas. Someone had to fucking say it. Embarrassing confession: “My Sacrifice” is a FANFUCKINGTASTIC song!

I have a hard time with people. I try my best. I always learn and continue to grow. I got that goin for myself. People suck. People are cruel. (3rd time I’ve said this today?)  People take no time to disappoint me for the most part. If you’re kind to me, I will be twice as kind to you. If you’re a fuckface to me, expect me to be an extra double fuck with a cherry on top. Add some nuts too and suck on that shit. I’m a badass person to have in your life and on your team. If you’re lucky enough to make it into my inner circle, I’ll probably be one of the best friend’s you’ve ever made. If you can’t look at yourself in the mirror and see the person that you would like to be friends with, you need to make some changes. It took me a long time to become my own best friend. If you can’t be solid with spending time with yourself, you can’t be solid with anyone and you’ll eventually become a dead weight. Take the time to get to know yourself and work on it...for me it’s constant. I know there is other people with my qualities in the world. If you find one, take the time to learn about them and ease your way into friendship slowly. Actions speak louder than words. Prove yourself to be a good human. Be patient. The best relationship of any type comes with time and work.

Let’s see…

Don’t be a fucking retail investor.

Don’t be a fucking commie.

Don’t be a fucking douchebag. 

Don’t fucking settle.

Don't stop bettering yourself for you and those you care for.

Don’t stop fucking being YOU!

LO

#westcoastprancer spaztime mybio wildchild speakyourmind

[shemakesmusic-uk]

This segment features artists who have submitted their tracks/videos to She Makes Music. If you would like to be featured here then please send an e-mail to [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!

Morchella

Newcomer Morchella releases self-produced debut single ‘Coat of Arms’. ”For me this track is an expression of the complexities of every individual and just how much ‘lies beneath the surface’," explains Morchella. "I wanted to take the listener on an atmospheric journey.” ‘Coat of Arms’ is a perfect blend of ethereal production and songwriting. It creeps from an electronic soundscape into a Kate Bush swirl and into a Sigur Ros build, with haunting backing vocals throughout. Morchella is a London based musician, producer and multi-instrumentalist, drawing inspiration from the likes of Agnes Obel, Jonsi, Radiohead, Sharon Van Etten and Bat for Lashes. She’s been busy working on new material with award nominated sound engineer Shuta Shinoda (Jehnny Beth, Hot Chip, Ghostpoet, Daughter), recording at Hackney Road Studios along with a very talented band.

Morchella · Coat of Arms

Emi Jeen

The story of Montreal-based alt-pop artist Emi Jeen is brimming with emotion, heartbreak, wisdom and triumph. With her songs that tell her tale: at once hopeful and nostalgic; wistful and urgent; raw and graceful. Emi says of her new single 'Runaway': "When I first began to write the lyrics for this song, I was in LA and just wanted to escape reality. I wasn't comfortable in my current situation, having so many disappointments fighting the music business for the last 10 years. I often feel so different when I'm in another country and feel like there's so many new opportunities that I feel like another person. On that trip, I began to see a little light out of the blurriness and started writing in the backyard of my Airbnb. Two years later, back in the studio, the song came to life. With the confinement and closed borders we are facing now, the urge to escape is heightened. It's okay to start all over again and to take risks. I hope 'Runaway' serves as a reminder that it’s never too late to change things around and move on and take a different path."

EMI JEEN · Runaway

Excorde

Musically, Excorde's songs feature a very broad yet cohesive influence and fusion of 80's and 90’s rock genres, from adult-oriented, classic, alternative, indie, progressive, alt. country, pop, metal, to the most important element of all: Excorde's truly original sound. Lyrically, expect to find thoughtful and deeply moving phrasings about experiences in love and life. Jimena’s emotional voice combined with Jonnie’s distinctive instrumental constructions will transport you to another dimension where catchy choruses, killer guitar riffs, and meaningful lyrics are imbued throughout the listening experience with Excorde.  The duo had this to say about their new single 'All the Way Back Home': "This is a melodic hard rock tune about plucking up the courage to end a dangerous relationship and finding refuge where you feel safe.  This song has sections ranging broadly from intimate to epic, full of rising actions, thematic variations with intriguing resolutions sure to keep your attention throughout the song.  The song also happens to be graced with the amazing 5-string violin talent of IceRequiem (Rachel Brick)."

jonnie cook · All The Way Back Home ~ (NEW MIX 7/13/2020)

The Crayon Set

The Dublin-based band specialise in catchy, alternative pop. The band released their debut album in April 2013.  Its follow-up, Lost Languages was released in 2017. The album was a move away from the indie pop of their debut and was in part a homage to many of their favourite 'Americana' artists. The band have just finished recording their third album Downer Disco with producer Stephen Shannon and it is scheduled for release later in 2020. Check out new single 'Summer Song' below. The Crayon Set are an exciting live band and have played many of the top Irish festivals and venues. Their dynamic live shows feature tight vocal harmonies, instrument swapping and occasionally some giant inflatable crayons.

The Crayon Set · Summer Song

S.K. Wellington

S.K. Wellington is a Calgary based Folk/rock singer-songwriter. Acoustically driven with relatable themes and catchy hooks. Formerly The Wellington Folk. S.K. Wellington had this to say about her latest single: "'Like a Ghost' came to me following the loss of a significant relationship. It would have made for an epic country song (they took the dog and all!) but I decided to go in a different direction. I was so broken that all of my inhibitions and fears about music, arranging, and producing, went right out the window. I needed to pursue this radically different process and new sound for my own healing and passion. I've realized that a relationship ending in a tough way doesn't always have to result in anger and resentment. You can allow that powerless feeling, the intense hurt and the grief, to soften you. I found a lot of compassion for both myself and the other, as I fell apart and then started to build my life back up again. There can be a balance while adjusting to a new normal."

S.K. Wellington · Like A Ghost

Tiffany Johnson

Tiffany is a singer-songwriter with a fresh new style. Her songs are a mix of country and pop with honest lyrics and unique melodies. Surrounded by music from a young age, Tiffany was a natural writer and performer. She fell in love with the idea of being able to capture a moment or feeling through her lyrics. She hopes that with each song she writes, someone will be able to identify with it and feel like they are understood. "My new single 'Out of My Head' tells the story of someone trying to move on. I think sometimes memories come back at the most unexpected times. Even when you think you have moved on, something will randomly remind you of the past. The song is all about trying to get those memories out of your head."

#submission saturday #morchella #emi jeen #excorde #the crayon set #s.k. wellington #tiffany johnson

[waalm]

KEEPING THE SOUL OF THE SONG INTACT

WAALM Tribune has the pleasure of interviewing ‘Peter Linseman’, owner of Music Mentor Productions (MMP), a CCMA nominated recording studio & Independent Record Label. 

WT: For our readers who get to know you for the first time, please tell us how did it all start, how you entered the world of music and music productions?

PL: I have always been interested in literature and poetry as a youngster and then started playing the drums in my teens. I played for my first band called The Acrylics when I was 14 or 15 and I remember having to sneak into the bars to play the gigs! It was a punk rock band and I just remember playing as fast and hard as I could, just trying to keep up with the super energetic tempos. I started writing songs on my drums but my lyric sheet was on my tom-tom and I keep poking holes in it! So I started on the guitar, in order to have chords to accompany my songs and melodies. Next, it was finding a way to record the songs and a reasonable way was creating my home studio. And then releasing our songs and also learning how to do that ourselves, same with marketing, etc. etc. Music Mentor Productions started when I created the first Songwriting and Music Business Courses offered in Canada at the continuing education program for the Toronto District School Board in the mid ‘90’s. I registered MMP as a production company and music publisher at that time.

WT: You have several artists under your management, how do you balance this on top of producing, co-writing or even performing?

PL: It's a juggling act at the best of times and I have a few mantras that help me. The mantra I say the most lately is "there is always enough time for everything". Aside from creating a two year and five year career plan, the label and artist have an unending stream of tasks and staying on top of social media is a full time job in itself. So my mantras are "what is the next most important thing to do" and "go as far as you can and from there you can see further". My favourite artists/projects are the ones I get to do it all, especially writing and producing, like my new artist Dr Ally K. I'm so proud of Ally, my long time friend, music collaborator and actual GP Doctor! 

WT: What was your biggest challenge as a producer? Could you overcome that challenge? If so, how?

PL: I had an epiphany when I was commissioned to co-write and produce a ten song musical way back! Actually, it was a project that Dr Ally K brought to me – a full-length musical about the world of gene splicing, playing God, letting nature take its course, etc. I'm a ‘hands on’ person and have learned everything by doing it, and with the guidance of some great mentors along the way. 

I remember the moment, when I was a couple of songs into the musical and I stopped with a realization that I'm in over my head. The pop opera type songs were fine but the more classically based musical numbers were brand new to me. I thought about the music deeply and remember thinking to myself - there are only 12 notes on a scale and songs/production have similarities across the board, like counter melodies, harmonies, beats, shots, etc. I have never looked back! I finished Orchids with Ally and this musical was attended by thousands including a thousand health-care professionals in the Canada-wide performances of ‘Orchids’.

WT: What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a producer as well as a manager?

PL: Creating music out of nothing has always had the greatest appeal to me personally. The next most appealing aspect is seeing an artist successful in any realm of the entertainment industry, especially getting them 'signed' or helping them up to the top level of the game. A recent and very rewarding occurrence is when Mosi calls me Maestro! 

WT: How do you see the role of music in the society today?

PL: I'd like to think that my role is to create and produce music that can touch as many people as possible. I've always tried to keep the soul of the song intact and simply enhance it with production. My favourite creations have a positive emotional impact whether it's being moved physically, emotionally or spiritually. 

WT: In your view, what are the characteristics of a responsible artist/musician/songwriter?

PL: A responsible songwriter/musician needs to be sensitive to the music and its life in the music industry, as well as to the artist and their vision. A responsible artist should realize their position as a highly visible role model/idol and also the ages of their demographics. I believe the best artists in the world are great role models especially for the impressionable demographics. 

WT: It is more than five years now that you are collaborating with Mosi Dorbayani and WAALM and during all these years, many notable projects were released. Which ones are among your most favourite, name three?    

They have all been memorable and it's hard to pick three! But if I must choose, it would be the songs where I not only get to work with Mosi, but I also have the pleasure of working with Kate Todd and Carla Sacco. These are amongst my favourite people on the planet!

WT: You’ve just co-produced a new EP album ‘Sealed with A Kiss’, with Carla Sacco, who also voiced the project. What is your anticipation?

PL: Carla and I are anticipating a great reception to these wonderful selections of songs, which are all about love and joy. They are each unique and the production has its own little universe for each of them. But as we've always experienced with Mosi's creations, they all have a great commercial appeal and pop sensibility to touch the most amount of hearts. We will also promote these songs that we are also very proud of, starting on the relaunch of my website as well as our social media and anticipate a quick response bringing awareness to WAALM as well as Carla Sacco. 

WT: Recently, in his social media, Mosi Dorbayani wrote the following about you: 

“ In my view, 'Peter Linseman' is a superstar musician in his own right. He has many slashes (/) after his name but yet humble and friendly. Wearing several hats contributing to Canadian music, he is a dedicated professional, who mentors and promotes young talents. His facilitation to boost artistic career of those who are new to the world of music is exemplary. What I personally admire about Peter is that he does not necessarily produce just for the industry, but for the quality music. Hence, his productions score continuance success.” – How do you see yourself in context of music ? 😊

PL: Mosi is a brilliant man! Wow! What flattering and humbling words from Mosi...it’s a rare feeling in this business but Mosi seems to create this feeling constantly amongst myself and my artists. To answer the question: what he said! Mosi has said it all and as I mentioned earlier, I protect the soul of the creation and at the same time support it with production that has a very wide audience and appeal, which is a lot like what Mosi creates. 

WT:  What music enthusiasts should expect from you in 2019? Tell us about your other forthcoming projects and events.

PL: There are many great projects being released internationally including this EP, ‘Sealed With A Kiss’ with Carla Sacco, which I am very excited about. As I mentioned previously, I am re-launching my new website and also a new Facebook page for my independent label Music Mentor Productions.

We are releasing a six song EP for my new artist Dr Ally K as we speak. I am so proud of the work that Ally and I have done together and have mentioned some of our previous collaborations in this interview. Every track on this EP is cutting edge urban pop production with a great lyrical message. Up, Up & Away - EP by Dr Ally K on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1aArMYujAxVAz1he5K24cY

We will be launching an album that has been in the works for a few years called ‘Out Of The Wreckage’ by a brilliant artist name Melanie Joy. We have gone over the songs meticulously in the production stages and Melanie is an English major and uses it to write lyrics that make you stop and think! 

We will be releasing some original music from Carla Sacco this year and it will be the launch of a new chapter in her solo artist career. Carla is super talented on all levels, the greatest vocalist and performer I’ve had the pleasure of working with, an angel on this earth with a heart of gold...I’ve stopped searching Neil Young! Carla is also the chosen voice to represent and incredible songwriter from Oregon, Mina Whitesides and we will release an EP with a collection of songs sung by Carla, initiated by Mina. 

We've already released the single ‘Dance Children Dance’ and we released an inspiring video, with most of it being shot at Carla’s performance at Youth Day in 2018.

We have just released John Chris Ford’s heart breaking new single called ‘Break It’. http://www.musicmentorproductions.com/john-chris-ford.html

JC is a very talented country artist whom I am proud to get the opportunity to produce and manage. There is a lot more to come in 2019, so keep in touch!

WT:  Thank you for taking time attending this interview.

PL: My pleasure. 

Related Links: 

‘Sealed With A Kiss’, the EP Album on Spotify: 

https://open.spotify.com/album/2nIVNmsX2oxGrAlxxDB4ca?si=PvhqfYUMRkCKSwmdUZet9g

Carla Sacco’s Interview: 

http://waalm.tumblr.com/post/182254784039/artists-the-provoking-leaders

MMP Official Website: http://www.musicmentorproductions.com/

MMP FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/musicmentorproductions/ 

#waalm #musicproductions #musicmentor #mosidorbayani #peterlinsman #carlasacco

[markisan]

High School Albums that Forged My Fantastic Musical Taste

Fine! You win, nostalgia! Here’s my list of 11 albums that shaped my musical taste as a teenager. And because I’m a writer, I have to tell everyone why.

U2 "Achtung Baby" 1991

This is the first album I ever bought on CD and it came in one of those long, cardboard box things. I may have or may not have saved said box and used it as bedroom wall art next to my giant, laminated D&D puzzle. Achtung Baby is unquestionably one of the best albums of all time and one of the very best amalgams of rock and electronics I’ve heard. Absolutely seamless. I still listen to this regularly, I own the deluxe LP package and I know all the lyrics by heart.

Matthew Sweet "Girlfriend" 1991

An important transitional album for me. Before high school I was probably listening to Tiffany and Bobby Brown or some crap. And definitely lots of hair bands like Cinderella and Bon Jovi. This album started steering me toward college/alternative rock by merging great pop with super hot riffs. I could sing this album with a fat smile and air guitar to it. Plus, those anime videos for “Girlfriend” and “I’ve Been waiting” were awesome.

Dracula Jones "Heavy Pop/Speak" 1991

Dracula Jones was a local Syracuse, NY hard rock band that became really popular in my hometown and the surrounding area. They came close to signing with a major label before they imploded. I attended many of their shows and I still have the cassettes they released in the early 90s. Dracula Jones is probably the first band I saw live. Ever since then I have loved going to shows. I hear Dracula Jones actually got back together and they play from time to time. I would love to see how the old bastards held up.

Pearl Jam "Ten" 1991

If you know me at all, you know how much I love Pearl Jam and have continued to adore them as an old man. I remember creating a binder full of interpreted Eddie Vedder lyrics to help me sing along to this 90s beast of a record. I probably still have it in storage somewhere.

STP "Core" 1992

Back when MTV was actually about music, STP’s “Sex Type Thing” got a lot of air time on shows like 120 Minutes and Headbanger’s Ball. At the end of High School I slowly started gravitating toward metal and hardcore, and “Core” was a bridge of sorts for me into that world because it had a harder edge than what I was listening to. This record also came out at the time when I visited Belize with a bunch of students as part of a Rainforest educational program. I was there for 2 weeks. That experience was one of the most transformative of my life. I played this record on my Walkmen countless times in the jungle and on the beach while I was there. I associate it with a time in my life where I felt like I was becoming the person I wanted to be. By 1994 I was perfect.

Singles Soundtrack 1992

Probably the record most responsible for really getting me to love 90s hard rock and grunge, which obviously holds a special place in my heart according to this list. 25 years later this is still a hell of a soundtrack with some absolute classics like “Drown” from Smashing Pumpkins, "Would?" by Alice in Chains and “State of Love & Trust” by Pearl Jam. I recently re-watched the film too. Love it.

The Tragically Hip "Fully Completely" 1992

My Uncle Michael introduced me to a lot of new artists in the early 90s because he represented MTV as a lawyer and would get a ton of free albums from them. Often times he’d receive advance records by bands no one knew about yet. The Hip was the one that made the biggest impression on me. Their sound has changed a lot since I first heard the song “Blow at High Dough,” but what hasn’t changed is the unique vocal style and remarkable lyrical ability of Gord Downie. I had never heard his kind of modern poetry in songs before. As a young writer, his songwriting spoke to me like nothing else on the airwaves. The Hip never made if big in the States, but in their home country of Canada they are royalty. I was fortunate to live in Upstate New York which is close enough to Canada to feel the influence of Canuckian rock. Fully Completely is the Hip album that really solidified my love for this band.

Jeff Buckley "Live at Sin-e" 1993

Jeff Buckley’s “Grace” is my favorite album of all time, which people think is weird because I mostly listen to metal and late night ambient music today. It came out in 1994, when I was in my first year of college, but I was lucky enough to stumble upon this live 4-song EP during my last year in high school when it was released. Just Jeff in a coffeehouse with a Fender. One listen to Jeff Buckley’s music and it’s apparent how immensely gifted he was, but it’s the incredible emotion he could convey in his voice, coupled with that musical talent, that made him so special. No music moves me quite like a Jeff Buckley song. I wish he was still here with us.

Radiohead "Pablo Honey" 1993

I adore this album and listen to it a lot even today. My brother bought the CD for my birthday because I had recorded the video for “Creep” (probably on BetaMAX) and would play it constantly. At the time I had just purchased a receiver and a CD player in preparation for college, but no speakers, so I would listen to this album on headphones in my room. Over and over. I am still a big Radiohead fan, but man do I miss their more guitar-centric sound on records like this one and The Bends, which is my all-time favorite Radiohead album. A little aside – I remember having a subscription to Spin magazine when it was good and they crucified The Bends when it came out. So did a lot of other critics. When I saw the review I hesitated on buying the album, but my love for Pablo Honey was so strong, I decided to get The Bends anyway. After I listened to it I thought it was the best record I’d ever heard. That’s the day I realized that a lot of critics are wrong. Except for the critics who’ve praised VORACIOUS. They are absolutely wonderful and correct.

Earth Crisis "Firestorm" 1993

Another local band that rose to prominence in the Syracuse area, but also found fame worldwide. I saw Earth Crisis live quite a few times. I’d say they are directly responsible for getting me into hardcore right at the end of high school. The song “Firestorm” in particular was a big anthem for Teen San. What’s interesting about this band is that they were/are straightedge, militant vegans. I love meat and will always eat meat because it is delicious, but the band’s politics didn’t turn me off. Mostly because I couldn’t understand their lyrics. Everything was growled. By the time I found out what they were actually singing about I was already invested in the brutality of the music and had started seeking other bands with similar styles.

Tool “Undertow” 1993

When I first saw the video for “Sober” I was absolutely mesmerized. That dark, heavy guitar chug washing over sinister, stop-motion visuals just wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen or heard. It felt like something new had risen up from the depths on an obelisk of bone and beauty. It was glorious. When I listened to the rest of the album I knew there wasn’t any turning back for me. I plunged headfirst into the vast abyss of metal, where my heart now permanently resides.

#high school #favorite albums #nostalgia #grunge

[noiseartists]

Mexican Shoegaze, Dream & Noise Pop, a quick guide, Vol.1

To present the great Mexican scene, we asked a specialist: Jairo Manzur, Editor of Sonidos que Permanecen (ex ‘Shoegaze Latino America’). And what a superb introduction it is.

Thanks to Lorrelle Meets the Obsolete, Lasitud, Los Kowalski, El Glum, Acty and Rilve for providing some of the material for this article.

INTRODUCTION

“I find it hard to introduce a genre so global (and kind of diffuse nowadays) as shoegaze even in a single country. In my mind, any attempt would just leave things out. So, instead of introducing Shoegaze in Mexico, I will try to propose a way to approach the genre in two different ways: a historical one and a geographical one. During this brief introduction, I will also refer to other articles that have highlighted bands and musical scenes.

Shoegaze in Mexico: a historical perspective.

When I was asked by Noise Artists to write an introduction to this guide, the first thing that came to my mind was to find and explore the roots of Shoegaze in Mexico. In general, Shoegaze become a musical phenomenon in Latin America during its resurgence around the 2010’s (a resurgence prompted by Internet communities dedicated to the genre and the worldwide availability of equipment and gear that was before too expensive or hard-to-find).

Nonetheless, many countries had seminal bands during the 90s; even if the examples are scarce bands like Silvania or Resplandor (both from Peru), Mellonta Tauta (Argentina) or Un.real (Puerto Rico) were pivotal in the development of shoegaze in Latin America. To my surprise, there is little information about bands doing Shoegaze during the 90s in Mexico.

In his introduction to the Pitchfork's list "The 50 Best Shoegaze Albums of All Time", Peter Kember (founder of Sonic Boom and Spacemen 3) reminds that:

“If you had told me in 1991 that, 25 years later, I would be prefacing a list on Shoegaze, I would probably have told you it would never happen. Few of these bands paid even the slightest, fleeting lip service to commerciality. I couldn't see it.

But things change; even by 1993, I was redressing my views. I played a show that year in L.A. at Johnny Depp's Viper Room. The support band, to my complete amazement, was a Shoegaze band—a Mexican shoegaze band. The thought that this music might cut through cultures with such broad swathes had never occurred to me before, but now I could see this genre might have long legs, in between that gaze and those shoes.”

Kember does not state (and probably doesn't remember) the name of that Mexican band. Still, the mention is priceless and problematic: that band (and probably others) existed, yet we don't have any valuable information about them. So, that is a (re)search that needs to be addressed in the future. The location of the gig is also important: areas like Baja California (with Tijuana on the lead) have become important musical centers thanks to its proximity to the United States border. As noted by Erich E. Mendoza on "Tijuana's Independent Spirit Has Made It Home to One of Mexico's Most Exciting Music Scenes":

“To understand why the Tijuana scene is experiencing a revival, we have to dive into the early 90s, when a local band named Staura was just getting its start. Staura was made up of Gaby Spica, René Soberanis (better known as Loopdrop, another key band in this scene), and Omar Foglio, who would go on to become Tijuana's top independent promoter and launch Swenga Fest in 1995.

It was during the career of Staura and Loopdrop that the local public began to turn their heads and notice what was going on in the few venues and bars that had performance spaces for bands at the time. And it was through these initiatives and with this support that other acts like Ibi Ego and Shantelle began to come to life in the early 2000s.”

Shoegaze in Mexico: a geographical perspective.

Though Mexico City concentrates most of the population of the country, the musical scene in Mexico is well decentralized. As already commented, Baja California has been an important and fervent musical area for decades.

In recent years, bands like Lorelle Meets the Obsolete or Mint Field (mixing Shoegaze, Dream Pop and Psych Rock) have risen to global fame, by so increasing the already notorious presence of the area on the musical map of the country.

Aguascalientes also seems to have a strong bond with Shoegaze: bands like Le 1991, Bleak Boys, Car Crash Sisters and others, have explored the genre with success; the same happens to other states like Guanajuato (with interesting bands like DUVVI. Clan de Venus or the already disbanded Candy Colors) and Morelia.

Differently from other Latin American countries, the music in Mexico is not centered around the capital city. So, any attempt to think any genre has to encompass the country as a whole.

Lorelle Meets the obsolete

Mexico’s Lorelle Meets The Obsolete conduct a mind-blowing experiment in restrained noise. Bringing their intense new album ‘De Facto’ to the stage they now push electronics to the fore of their wall of sound. All elements (the surging guitars, clattering electronic beats and heavy live rhythms) coalesce into a wave of sound, like an acid rock Factory Floor. They sing mainly in Spanish with some detour through English.

There is an interesting article in the Guardian that points out that

A mix of shoegaze textures and darker psych stylings has earned Lorelle meets the Obsolete acclaim far beyond their native Mexico, with Robert Smith and Henry Rollins among their fans.

An other article in Sonic Cathedral points rightly about the evolution of the band’s sound on the last album:

De Facto isn’t just a progression from 2016’s acclaimed Balance, it’s a new start which sees Lorelle Meets The Obsolete ripping up their own rulebook and building everything up from scratch. When they returned to Ensenada after touring Balance in 2017, they built a new recording space with their roommate and touring synth player, José Orozco. As a result, a lot of the songs were initially conceived without guitars.

“There’s nothing unusual about this, but for us it was all new territory working this way,” explains Alberto. “Having a new palette of musical equipment gave us the chance to develop the songs in a different way, so songs were constructed around drumbeats and synth lines – most of the guitars only came at the end.”

The line-up is:

Lorena Quintanilla (Lorelle): Vocals, electric guitar & electric bass.

Alberto González (The Obsolete): Drums & percussion, electric bass, casiotone, electric & acoustic guitars.

Their music work to date is (we included links to some good reviews):

2011: On Welfare, album

2012: Ghost Archives, EP

2013: Corruptible Faces, album; Live In Mexico City; What's Holding You?, EP

2014: Chambers, album; Live in London

2015: God Unknown Records Split, EP

2016: Balance, album

2017: The Sound Of All Things, EP

2019: De Facto, album; Unificado (Pye Corner Audio Remix)

Some songs we love:

SADFIELDS

Sadfields are a Noise Pop band from Mexico City formed in 2015. After a fantastic first song, "Falling apart", the band released their first 6 songs' EP/LP. If you like a huge sound, cranked guitars, beautiful melodies, look no further. The Band and Noise Artists did a full artist presentation that you can find HERE

They sang in English but have started lately with lyrics in Spanish with gusto. The music work to date is:

2016: Falling apart, single

2017: Homesick, album; I don’t know why, single

2019: Atrás / Desaparecer, singles

The current line-up is:

Daniel Espinoza - Vox/Guitar

Miguel Lara - Bass

Erick Román - Drums

Some of the songs we love:

LOS KOWALSKI

The Kowalski are a band from Mérida, formed in 2011. They sing in Spanish and mix progressive rock and reverb Pop very efficiently.

“We create a color palette by means of distortion and echo waves, where melodies of reverberated voices appear, combining organic sounds with electronic sounds.”

The current line-up is:

Pablo Fuentes: drums, keyboard, guitar, voice

Manuel Gutiérrez: guitar, keyboard, voice

Arturo Ponce: bass, guitar, theremin

They have 2 EP, 1 album (see below) and are currently working on our second album, which they hope to release in early 2020:

2015: Sputnik, EP

2017: Sónica, EP

2018: Dejarte ir, album

2019: Sputnik, EP

Some of the songs we love:

ACTY

Formed in mid-2015, ACTY (Amparo Carmen Teresa Yolanda) is a band originally from the state of Hidalgo.

The 4 names making the acronym come from Compadre Lobo, a novel written by Gustavo Sainz. The band’s taste for literature is reflected in their songs, the lyrics narrate youthful anguish, while music envelops us in atmospheres of noise (Shoegaze, Kraut, Noise, Post -Punk.)

They are currently belong on the independent label "Amigos Records" with whom they have released their two albums in Cassettes. They have released 4 official videos, the most recent being "Nothing is what They Want." According to the band, their last album, ‘Once Veinte’

“is the turning point between what it would be and what it is. We follow the path of what it would be, renouncing what it is. That is why we are here, living that utopia that we always wanted but we never dared to discover.”

The music work to date is:

2016: Amparo Carmen Teresa Yolanda, album

2018: Once Veinte, album

The current line-up is:

Iván Aguilar: voice, guitar

Oscar Aguilar: drums

Emmanuel Cerón: bass

Some of the songs we love:

SPRAY CANELA

Spray Canela is an independent Mexican band and ‘always will be’:

“One day we realized that what is believed and said about the Mexican music scene is very partly a lie. Unhappy with the national scene we decided to take action by our own hand and stop limiting our ideas and sound, expanding out of our area of comfort. We record our own music and produce our own merchandise, we like to keep it that way.

Since 2017 Stupid Decisions has been our hallmark for sharing our vision about sound, as well as our taste for cassettes, independent distribution and other things that could be called D.I.Y.”

Their sound is always changing, song after song, from Shoegaze, Raw Post Punk and progressive Rock, giving them an almost organic life.

Their music work to date is:

2019: Síntomas De Un Punto Muerto, album; Domio Mundial / Ciccone, singles

2018: Milagro Adolescente, LP

Some of the song we love (the second piece is absolutely epic):

LASITUD

Lasitud is a Shoegazing / Dream Pop / Post-Rock band from Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico. They mix the experimentation and stridency of Shoegaze, the soft harmonies of Dream Pop and the sensitivity of Post-Rock, resulting in a deep sound full of unique textures.

“Listening to Lasitud is like taking a long journey of dream landscapes”.

The music work to date is:

2018:Lasitud, EP

2019: Fantasma , EP

The current line-up is:

Paola Vidal,voice and keyboards

Julio Beli in voice, guitars

Andrés Contreras, guitars

Max Campos, bass

José Gorrochotegui, drums

Some of the songs we love:

EL GLUM

Hailing from Guadalajara, Mexico, EL GLUM is the solo project of Eduardo Vela, the guitarist of alternative rock band Aurum, with a debut EP (Uno) in 2018. Seamlessly melding ’90s influenced dashes of shimmering shoegaze reverberations and atmospheric, lulling dream pop with energetic rhythms, mesmerizing synth and blurred vocals, El Glum has just dropped a new single “Lejos”. The music work to date is:

2019: Fuera, single; Lejos, single

2018: Uno, EP; Presente. Single

Some of the songs we love:

RILEV

RILEV is a Shoegaze / dreampop band originally from Mexico City. Their first EP was done and released totally independently. They are mainly inspired by nature and love and believe in music as a catalyst for strong emotions

The current line-up is:

Manuel Grados: Guitar, voice

Alexis Guzmán: Bass

Alfredo Reyes: Drums

 The music work to date is

 2018: Rilev EP

Some of the songs we love:

BLEAK BOYS

Bleak Boys are a band from Aguascalientes. They released their first music in 2014. Their music is a powerful ensemble and loaded with a loud sensibility,

Describing their music, the bands says:

We met somewhere in a dreamy landscape

The current band members are:

John: Guitars, Vocals, Synthesizer

Paco: Lead Guitar, Vocals

Cruz: Bass, Keyboards

Noel: Drums, Vocals

The musical work to date is:

2015: Part Time Punks Sessions, album; Tensegrity, EP

2014: Corrosive, EP; Ræd, single; Bleak Mates, single

Some of the songs we love:

#Mexico #Shoegaze #Dream pop

[alexbandfan]

Donate Life Hollywood - 2010

Young Guns Music interviews Alex Band

A dream has become true. After so long waiting and wishing for it Young Guns Music has been able to interview Alex Band, former The Calling frontman. We talked about his new album, future plans and fans love. Don´t miss it! Young Guns Music : Alex, thank you very much for accepting to be interviewed by us. It’s been a long time since you decided to start your solo project. So many years working on it and at the same time being unable to set it off... For an artist and mainly for one as you’re, starting in the music world so long ago, it must be quite difficult to get it on with it. How have you kept on fighting all this time? What has helped you to go on?

Alex Band : It has definitely been a crazy struggle to get to where I am at now. Giving up was never an option for me. Yes, there were days when it seemed like I was never going to get to where I needed to be, but I stayed focused and knew I could make it happen eventually. Knowing I was making the album I believed in helped me to not give up.

Is this album exactly what you have dreamt with all this time?

Absolutely! This is the album I fought so hard to be able to make. I poured my heart and soul into each song and I am so proud of the outcome. I was even able to add a few new songs just this year right before the album was released. Which was your first feeling when "Tonight" was officially released? Did you expect so great acceptance among your followers?

I always felt this was the song I wanted to release as my first single and I am really happy I stuck with it. When I first started my promo tour in the US to promote the song I actually heard "Tonight" on the radio that same day and it didn't feel real. I worked so hard and for so long to get to this point that I almost don't believe it's happening. The reaction to the song has been amazing, in Europe it was the theme song for all the World Cup adds!

For an artist it must be incredible to see that your work is not released during years but they are still there waiting for it. How much have fans helped you to get there? What’s the importance of Alex Band’s fans in your life?

My fans are the reason I never stopped making music, no matter how long it took me to release it. They all waited and supported me while I worked on this record and finally released it. I give so much to my fans to show them how much they mean to me. It's really neat now to be out playing shows and see so many fans from the past showing up again! It's a good feeling to say the least to know my fans still care and are excited about my solo album, even after 5 years of waiting.

You seem to have quite a huge fan base in countries such as Japan or Brazil. For an American artist, did you ever expect your music to reach so far?

I can't say that I expected the majority of the success I had and I am beyond grateful for it. To have fans all over the world is a dream come true. My music has reached people in almost every corner of the world and I hope it continues to.

How would you describe your new album? What Alex Band’s fans should expect about what they were used to get from you and what new fans should like about it?

I'd say my album is more anthemic and mature than my albums as The Calling. This album takes you on a journey through my struggles, finding love, and loosing it. It is relatable on every level and really takes listeners into my world.

Love seems to be the main subject in your music. Love moves the world? How important is love in your life?

Love is what life is all about. It isn't always easy, but it is the reason we are living. We can all relate to love and loss and I wanted people to feel that in my music. I truly believe love is the meaning of life.

Which are the songs from this album that represent more Alex Band´s spirit? Which is your favourite one?

I can't pick a specific song that represents me in particular. I wrote all the songs on the album and they all are from personal experiences and feelings. The entire album is my spirit being told through my songs. Right now, my favorite song on the album is one I added last minute called "Will Not Back Down." I think it's a beautiful sexy addition to the album and playing it live is a blast!

Are you anxious to show your album live to the world? Are you planning any world your?

Having lived with this album for the past 5 years, I am more than ready to share it with the world. It's been way too long and I can't wait to keep spreading it everywhere. There are no world tour plans yet, but that is a goal for the future. I think it will all happen in stages.

Will we be able to see you live in Europe and in Spain?

I hope so, that's the plan! I currently have a sold out tour next month in Germany/Switzerland/Austria…and I know I will be going to the rest of Europe and of course Spain as well in the near future.

Which are your more remarkable memories in music? Who would you like to thank for being there all the way up here?

There are so many amazing memories in my career so far. I think one of my favorite still was winning best new artist at the MTV Awards. I was up agains Avril Lavigne and Shakira and many more huge artists…I never thought I would EVER win. But it was voted on by fans, and my fans are crazy supportive! They somehow voted more than anyone else and I won the award! I was sooooo surprised to be called up to the stage and accept it, I had no idea what to say! I think the person I would thank for my career so far over anyone else is my Father. He always supported my music and was behind me 100% through it all from the very beginning when I was taken out of school at 15 and got my first record deal.

All these years you’ve performed some side projects. We were for example able to watch you in CSI. How was the experience? Would you like to repeat in a near future?

CSI NY was a blast to be a part of. I hadn't really done too much acting on that level before and I really enjoyed it. Even did my own stunts;) I would definitely do more acting in the future, once I am back home and working on the next album.

Besides your music there’s a fact about Alex Band that not many people know and we really believe it’s quite remarkable. You started working with Donate Life and then you started your own Alex Band Donate Life. How would you describe the project for those who do not know anything about it?

Donate Life is the main charity I support and believe in, I even have it tattooed on my arm. It is a charity that raises awareness for organ donation which not many people know about or understand. So many lives can be saved through organ donations, it's about giving life to others once we are gone. Honestly, it is as simple as signing up online at donatelife.net to be an organ donor.

How did you get involved in the project? Why do you think in the US it’s so difficult to promote donations? Because in Europe it’s more usual for patients to see it as part of the process while in the US it’s still some kind of taboo.

I got involved when someone very close to me needed a liver transplant and was on a waiting list. I realized from my personal experience with it how much of a demand there is and how many people are waiting to receive organs, some of which never get what they need. I just think there is a major lack of knowledge when it comes to organ donation and people aren't going to support or sign up for something they don't understand...which is what Donate Life is working at changing. The people waiting for organs far outnumbers the amount of actual donors there are in America right now. Something like 90% of Americans say they support donation, but only 30% know the essential steps to take to be a donor. Hopefully, that continues to change.

What kind of activities do you perform along the year to promote donation?

I host my own concert every year called Alex Band's Donate Life Rocks, where all proceeds go to Donate Life. I'm pretty much a walking billboard with the tattoo on my arm and talk about the charity at any possible moment. The bracelet line I just created actually donates a portion of proceeds to Donate Life as well which is really awesome!

You’ve also got involved in Blackstar bracelet, how was the experience of mixing music and fashion? Did you expect so much success?

Designing a line of bracelets to coincide with my music was a lot of fun. It is something that has never been done before and I think the success of them is awesome. I knew that people would love it due to the fact that there is so much content that comes with each bracelet, not just the song download...and that it is a tangible object you can wear everyday.

Taking a look back to the past, you started your music career very young and you got a top hit experience just in the beginning. How do you remember The Calling experience? Was it difficult to digest that your first album becomes a top charter?

It might seem that I had a hit and success very quickly, but it was actually a long process. I was signed at 15 and the record label pretty much forgot about me and wouldn't let me make an album until I was 19. And then it finally came out when I was 20. So there was 5 years there that I worked very very hard writing hundreds of songs and playing many shows in Los Angeles and just waiting and waiting. Once the album finally was released, it took 10 months to make "Wherever You Will Go" a hit at radio in the US. I toured all over the US for those 10 months in a little van and went to every radio station, hundreds of them. It all finally paid off.

What has "Wherever You Will Go" meant in your life?

That song means everything to me. It was the song that introduced me to the world. It's the song still today that every single person knows me by…I can sing the first two lines of the chorus and anybody I meet says "Oh yes of course! I love that song!" The song today still is played millions of times all around the world and has become one of the biggest songs in history. Billlboard magazine named it the number one song at radio in the US for the last decade. This is a huge achievement and I am very proud.

"Wherever You Will Go" has been chosen as one of best songs ever. How was it composed? How did you got inspiration for it?

I wrote that song when I was only 16 years old! I don't remember the moment I wrote it because it was so long ago! I do remember it was very fast to write and complete, maybe only a few hours. Some of the best songs I write come very quick and easily.

Which has been the most incredible memory with a fan? Which has been your favourite moment in a stage?

There have been so many great memories with fans! One time a fan gave me a scroll that was very large, like the size of a big dog. It was one mile long all rolled up! She had worked over one year on it, writing "I love Alex Band" over and over millions of times! Crazy! I still have this scroll in my garage with all my other fan gifts. I keep every fan gift I am given in air tight sealed boxes so they will last forever. My favorite moment on stage was probably playing Party In The Park in London England many years ago. I actually played this festival two years in a row. The audience is over 150,000 people! So amazing! To see that many people sing my songs along with me was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Would you like to say some words for all your fans who are reading this interview, specially your Spanish fans?

To all my Spanish fans, I miss you very much and I am so excited to come back to Spain and perform for you all and meet you all! It has been WAY too long! Thank you for continuing to support me after all these years…it means so much to me. All the love…

Thank you very much Alex, we wish you the best.

Thank you very much for all the good questions and for your well wishes! I hope to see you soon! All the love...

Source here

#alexnews2010 #alex band #the calling #model #singer #donate life

[pastordorry-blog]

Enunciating The Annunciation

“The Annunciation”

Advent Week 2

Luke 1:26-38

December 10, 2017

 I realized last night that I never gave Kathy a sermon title for today.  I had planned on calling it "The Annunciation" because I love that word. But it just slipped my mind to tell her. I failed to enunciate the annunciation!

Good thing we can always count on the angel Gabriel to be at the top of his game!  When I picture this scene in my mind, of the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary to give her this astounding news, Gabriel is rock solid.  He speaks very clearly and with great confidence.  In my mind's eye, the angel Gabriel looks and sounds rather like our own Oliver, whose bass voice helps give our choir such a solid foundation.  Can you picture that, too?  I can hear the groans coming from the choir...there will be no living with Oliver in choir rehearsal now that his voice has been compared to the angel Gabriel's!

But since we know the angel Gabriel is not a human man, to be fair, the angel could also be pictured as a woman.  In that case, I think of Lexi, our seminary intern who preached last week.  Didn't she do a good job?  Her voice and message are strong, direct, and concise.  Very Gabriel-like in my opinion.

I think it's good to use our imaginations with this story.  Actually, people have been imaging this scene in their minds' eye for two thousand years. When we were in Israel, we got to go to The Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.  It is a new church, built in 1969, but it is built on a site that has been marked as significant since the very first days of Christianity.  It is built on the site of what scholars are quite certain was Mary's home, the very place where this story happened!  There is a large plaza around the church featuring art from every country you can think of, a huge variety of styles and colors, but every single piece depicts the same scene:  the angel Gabriel coming to Mary and telling her she is going to bear God's son into the world.

I liked looking at the art, but for some reason, I can't sink my teeth in to this story unless I picture it with people I know, people I can relate to.  So for Gabriel, I like Oliver or Lexi.  And for Mary? Actually, my picture of Mary has changed since our trip in November.  Not because of the art, but because of the trip in general. The Holy Land is not the home of the meek and mild.  It is a hostile landscape, and water is a constant issue.  Living there is not for sissies!  And the people, they are assertive.  They are passionate.  In the past I always pictured Mary as gentle and soft, maybe even prissy and submissive. But now when I think of Mary, now I picture an older member of our church named Margaret, queen of the church kitchen.  She has servant's heart.  But she is not victims.  She will not be pushed around.  She can hold their own against any number of adversaries!  That is the kind of woman I think God chose to bear God's son into the world.

Thinking about this scene using people I know helps make it more real for me.  And REAL, that's important.  If we want real cheese on our frozen pizza, we certainly want real in our theology.  Doesn't it seem rather fanciful, an angel appearing to a young girl and telling her she is going to have a baby even though biologically that would be impossible for her?  As far-fetched, or even as made up, as it might sound, the Annunciation forms the foundation of our faith, doesn't it?  Our faith is based on the belief that somehow, mysteriously, God, in God's time and God's way, came to earth from heaven.  That is big news!

And clearly it isn't news that is the fifteen minutes of fame kind of news.  When we were in The Basilica of the Annunciation, from the main floor of the church we walked down a ramp and stairs to a grotto, and you can see the inside walls of Mary's family home.  Scholars believe this was Mary's home because Christians were making pilgrimages to this place very early on, and there are remnants of the "Hail Mary" prayer graffitied on the outside of her ancient home.  Mary's home became a house church almost immediately after the resurrection.  Being there was a very powerful experience. It is the closest thing I have ever experienced to physical proof of our beliefs that Jesus is God in the flesh, born to a mother and raised like every other child--and yet somehow different from every other person who ever lived.  

Clearly Mary knew that, too.  Her faith had to be strong to carry her from Nazareth, where she lived, to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. Let me tell you, Nazareth and Bethlehem are not close!  It's about 80 miles.  It took us about two hours on a bus.  Imagine that on a donkey.  Just for comparison, it's about 90 miles from Newtown to Atlantic City, NJ.  This is another reason I think Mary was made from hardy stock.  She would go on to make many other demanding journeys in her life, including returning to Nazareth after being with Jesus in Jerusalem when he was crucified.  

Through all the ups and downs of being the mother of our Lord, Mary developed a rock-solid faith that formed a lasting bedrock for Christian worship through all these years.  The Magnificat, which we read earlier in the service, continues to inspire and challenge us to see the difference Jesus' coming can make for all people.  The coming of Jesus took her from a life of survival, to a life of significance. Jesus turned everything in her world completely upside down.  Her song of praise is not just about what God has done for her.  It is a song about what God does for the whole human race.

Yesterday morning, Phil and Wes went out and got us a Christmas tree.  It looks so nice! But boy do Christmas trees take up a lot of room.  They never look nearly as big on the lot as they do once you get them inside.  This year I heard of a unique solution to this problem:  upside down Christmas trees.  Have you seen them?  Apparently they sell five different models of artificial upside down Christmas trees at Home Depot alone!  You can get them from a bunch of retailers.  People like them because they save space.  The skinny end is near the floor, which allows more room for presents or furniture or just your feet!  If space if really an issue, you can hang your tree upside down from your ceiling! That way you don't lose any floor space at all to the Christmas tree!

I'm not sure Mike Daney would go for us turning our Christmas trees upside down in the sanctuary, but if we did, it would only be to drive home an important point.  The Annunciation--the angel Gabriel's words to Mary--turns her world upside down. And those words have turned the whole world upside down.  Mary had within her the movement of God who would bring rulers down from their thrones and lift up the humble.  She was mothering the baby who would fill the hungry with good things but send the rich empty away.  By creating space inside of her for Jesus, she was creating space upon which God's kingdom could come.  She was making room for more hope, joy, peace and love in the world.  She was nurturing the God who would take her, and all people, out of survival mode, and give them a life of significance.  What do you think: should we try upside down Christmas trees next year?

Well, they say there's a first time for everything. On Friday I did something I've never done before:  I was a guest on a radio show.  At least, I thought it was going to be a radio show. Turns out it was a TV show!  Nancy McCarthy, who is a member of our publicity committee, has a friend named Dawn who tapes a show every Friday morning about financial planning.  But this week, Dawn wanted to focus on something different, something about the holidays and caring for your spirit during what can be a stressful time.  She asked Nancy for suggestions, who  might be willing to come and talk about that, and Nancy thought of me.  When she called to ask me, I figured I ought to be able to answer that question, how to care for your soul around the holidays, so I said yes because, it's only radio!  I could look at my notes the whole time, who would know?

Surprise!  Using notes was out of the question.  There was not just one but TWO television cameras right there the whole time.  I am sure my face was bright red.  I have no idea if anything I said made any sense whatsover.  The whole thing is basically a blur.  Except for one part.  Toward the end, the host, Dawn, asked me, "If someone wants to get closer to God, what can they do?"

It was a secular video production, I had agreed to come on the show knowing I would be speaking to people of various faiths.  So I did not say, "Well, personally, I think you should get to know Jesus!"  Instead I talked briefly about spiritual pathways, pathways that are common to various religions, such as silence and meditation; getting out into creation; serving others; and using your intellect, studying as a way to get closer to God.  I think all of those are valid answers, and there are others as well--using your creativity, for instance, or attending worship.

But that question has stuck with me, because I do not feel I have answered it satisfactorily.  How can we get closer to God?  Isn't that what Advent is all about?  Our scripture lesson today is speaking to me, and I think maybe a good step, if we want to get closer to God, would be to learn to enunciate the annunciation!  When you think about it,  the story of Jesus coming into the world through a regular person like Mary, it turns everything upside down!  Jesus' coming to earth makes the ordinary extraordinary.  It makes the physical world sacred.  It takes being a person to a whole new level. Jesus called this level friendship. Friendship with God.  The ability to participate in the divine.  All of us have equal capacity to hold within us the presence of God.  And so all of us, we can move from survival mode to a life of significance, a life lived in companionship with God.

There are a variety of spiritual pathways, a host of spiritual disciplines, many "means of grace" as John Wesley called them.  But if you want to get closer to God, try being a Gabriel.  Find some way to tell someone the good news of God's love. Find some way to tell someone the good news that God is with us. Find some way to tell someone, you don't have to be perfect, or good, or even okay.  Maybe you'll use words, maybe you won't, but find your own way to enunciate the annunciation.  Let people know that if they want God to come into their heart, God is honored to be invited. There is no place God would rather be.

Try being Gabriel on for size, and see what happens.  If your experience is anything like my radio slash video experience on Friday, you'll be scared and flushed and question yourself afterwards, why didn't I say this or why did I say that?  But you will also experience a deep sense of satisfaction for having offered yourself as a servant and friend.  Because the truth is, all of us can be Mary.  Every single person in the world was designed in the image of God, designed to house God's very presence within them.  There is no one in the world who Jesus would reject as his very own dwelling place.  And all of us can be a Gabriel, and share that good news with the world.

We tend to think of God as up there, up in heaven, up above us.  Or maybe we think of God as being far beyond us.  But Gabriel's news to Mary was good news not just to her, but to all of us! The Lord is with us.  The Lord is in us.  Use your imagination, and find your own way to enunciate the annunciation. Amen.

,�d�x�

[sometimesalwaysmusic]

YARNS

Since relocating from Belgium, his home country, to Ottawa, Martin Dawagne (aka YARNS), has been busy, releasing his first full-length album called Summer - Fall -, complete with songs named after cities and neighborhoods where he has travelled and composed. We touched base with Martin to discuss his musical background, his diverse influences, and his ideal “exclusively Belgian/Canadian” tour mates. Stay tuned for his next album, titled Winter - Spring -.

VITALS

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Yarns.music/ 

Web: https://yarns.bandcamp.com/releases

Latest Release: Summer - Fall - (Album, March 2018)

Upcoming Shows: July 26th @ Jamari August 2nd @ Bar Robo August 28th @ House of Targ

SA: How did this project come to be? YA: After several years of touring and composing in a hardcore band (Now, Voyager), I felt the need to explore a different kind of music. Something connected to introspection, journeys, and widely opened to interpretation. Also, I wanted to try something where it would be 90% me creating, from the composing to the artwork, as well as the live performances. I always call Yarns my most “selfish project”, as it is highly autobiographical, and my main guideline is that all the creative ideas – or at least most of them – have to come from me. That being said, there has been some incredible artists involved in the project, such as the actress Megan Carty (the voice, and the main help in creating the proses), Mike Tompa (the producer), or my brother Bruno Dawagne (who created the logo).

Finally, I started Yarns when I was at an emotional crossroad in my life, and I decided to leave my native country, Belgium, to come to North America, and try to create in an environment far from everything I knew. All the proses on the album are based on places where I lived, which explains their titles.

SA: What bands or musicians would you cite as the biggest influences on your sound? YA: Mainly some soundtracks and composer pieces. I am a huge fan of Jonny Greenwood, Max Richter or Arvo Part. I am also highly influenced by rock music, like Nine Inch Nails, The Chariot, Meshuggah, Gojira, Sufjan Stevens, Bon Iver, Sigur Ros, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Arcade Fire, etc. I also love finding influences in music that is far from what I create (world music, kids shows, hip-hop, etc.).

SA: Thus far in your career, what has been the project’s biggest success? YA: Like I said, Yarns is a self-centred project for which I decided I would never try to please anyone but myself, and put my instincts and integrity before anything else. The fact that it resonates with some people is something I am really honoured by, as this project does not obey to any structure, genre, or need to please. Another one of my influences, Bjork, said that “the moment you try to satisfy others than yourself, you’re not satisfying anyone”, and I think there’s a lot to be learned here, musically speaking.

SA: Conversely, what is the biggest challenge you've faced, and how have you dealt with it? YA: Every performance is a challenge to me. Before I started Yarns, it was impossible for me to even conceive being by myself on a stage, and even less performing only with looping pedals (which can be quite punishing, when you mess up). No matter how many times I played a show, I always experienced stage fright, and thus every concert is challenging. The hour before playing, especially, is always nerve-wracking for me.

SA: How do you approach the song-writing process? YA: I always try to start with an emotion and with my hands first. For Yarns, I am not able to begin creating from scratch behind a computer. It needs to first be myself sitting with an instrument and my pedalboard, and search how I can express a specific emotion accurately. After hours of looping some stuff around, recording some jams with myself – and, also, going crazy – I only start editing on the computer. On parallel to that, I start writing a prose and edit/go deeper into the theme with Megan Carty. Once I have a first version of a song, I go to a studio to record it. After that “official” version is done, I go back to my instruments and figure out a way to perform the studio version live, or to re-adapt it.

It is a long and tedious process were you go back and forth between “this is awesome” to “I am a shitty musician, why am I even bothering?” all the time, and it’s exhausting. But Yarns is about introspection, and this process expresses it accurately, I guess. 

SA: I understand you are a transplant to Ottawa. What are your thoughts on the Ottawa music scene? YA: I think there are some gems of venues around here, and people are really open-minded, especially the metal/punk/hardcore scene. I love the size of Ottawa, because it is not too big or overwhelming like Toronto or Montreal (great cities too, though). However, I think the city would benefit from having three or four more venues with a capacity somewhere between Mavericks and the Canadian Tire Centre, because apart from the Bronson Centre, that doesn’t really exist here and that’s too bad.

SA: What is your favourite show that you’ve played, and why? YA: I think that it was at Pressed, where the venue was packed because Nighttime in Kansas was playing. I felt I progressed from playing in front of such a filled-up room, and little by little taming my terror as the set went by. Also, I messed up big time at that show, and realizing that I was the only one noticing about it was quite rewarding.

Finally, pretty much any show at Ask a Punk is always a great time. That’s my favorite place to perform in Ottawa.

SA: Thus far, what is your favourite Yarns track, and why? YA: It’s one that is on my next album, and it’s called Fault Lines. It’s a track that mixes all the different looping techniques I learned while creating the other Yarns tracks. It also mixes all my influences, from metal to sinister soundtracks. It’s very doomy, scary and a little optimistic too. Unfortunately, this is the only song I recorded that I am not yet able to play.

Her Monster is also an important one to me, as it took me more than one year to write, and Yarns started with the two main chords of that song. I had just arrived in Montréal in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, and I was very unsettled and depressed. All I had to create was a tiny acoustic guitar, and these two chords came naturally out of it, and became the backbone of Summer – Fall -.

SA: A tour consisting of you, and only your favourite Belgian and Canadian acts. Who is on it? YA: If we have to go for Canadian, definitely The Arcade Fire, as they are my favourite rock band! A tour with A Silver Mt. Zion would be pretty dope too. For Belgium, I’d love to play with a band called Amenra, which is a sludge-hardcore band with some spooky imagery. Very twisted and meditative.

SA: What comes next for you in 2019? Good luck this coming year! YA: I have been postponing forever the release of Winter – Spring –, the sequel to Summer – Fall –, since I have been busy working on other creative projects, mainly some soundtracks for some theatre pieces. Releasing an album when you’re the only person in the band is a colossal work. So yes, this is what’s next, and having a proper merchandising, too.

Thank you very much for this interview, Pierce, good luck to you too!

#yarns #canada #ottawa #belgium #interview #newmusic #indierock #solo #livemusic #askapunk #montreal #faultlines #radiohead #sigurros #jonny greenwood #arvo pärt #nighttimekinkansas #pressed #canadiantirecentre #bronsoncentre #asilvermtzion #arcadefire #amenra

[flauntpage]

DGB Grab Bag: New Penalty Signals, Cherry Seventh-Best Canadian, and Hrudey on Duty

The three stars of comedy … will return

We're taking a break from the three stars this week, since a.) it's August and everyone who has ever played, coached, or worked in the NHL in their life is off the grid at a cottage somewhere, and b.) I've been away most of the week and probably missed anything funny that did happen. The three stars will return next time. Meanwhile, we have important business to get to in the next section.

Be It Resolved

Last week, I got very worked up about the NHL's weird insistence on treating holding the stick as a different penalty than holding, complete with its own hand signal. To be clear, I stand by that rant completely. I'm right and you know it.

In putting that section together, I had to dive into my copy of the NHL rulebook to verify that holding the stick was in fact the only penalty that forces the referee to perform a two-part signal, and in doing so, I realized something I'd never noticed before: There are four NHL penalties that don't have a signal at all.

Granted, they're the rare ones. Specifically, the penalties without signals are kicking, head-butting, throwing equipment, and too-many-men. You don't see those all that often. Still, they're in the rulebook. They should have some sort of signal. You can't ask a referee to announce a penalty and then just stand there like an idiot while everyone stares at him. We need to give these guys something to work with.

So let's do that. I've got some suggestions.

Let's start with kicking. That's the easy one. The referee just makes a little kicking motion. Simple enough, right? I mean, it would have to be a distinct kicking motion so that everyone in the crowd could make it out, but I'm sure the league could come up with a nice, easy definition for distinctive kicking motion that everyone would always agree on, so we'll just use that.

(Also, you could probably follow that up by having the ref pull out a phone, dial the police, and have the player arrested because he just freaking kicked somebody while wearing skates and is obviously a psychopath.)

Photo by Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

The head-butt is a little tougher. My first thought was that the ref would slap his own forehead, but older fans might get confused and think he just realized that he could've had a V8. So I'm going to go a little more extreme and suggest that he slam his head directly into the crook of his arm. It's simple, distinctive, and my son will get excited because he'll think the ref is dabbing. Everyone wins.

For throwing equipment, I think we go with the obvious: The ref has to wind up and toss his whistle into the crowd like it's the Rock's elbow pad. And yes, that does create a problem where the referee won't have a whistle for the rest of the game, but if it's overtime or late in a close game or the playoffs, he won't need it anymore, so we should be fine.

And finally, too-many-men. My first thought was that the ref should have count to six on his fingers, look confused, and then make an exaggerated herpy-derp face at the crowd. But that seems a little complicated, so let's keep it simple. Just point at the Bruins.

Be it resolved: All these new hand signals go into effect for the 2017-18 season. Please let any referees in your life know so they can start practicing now.

Obscure former player of the week

One of this year's bigger off-season moves was the Stars signing Alexander Radulov away from the Canadiens. Radulov had 54 points last year and occasionally goes into beast mode, so he doesn't qualify as an obscure player. His brother Igor does, though, so he gets this week's honors.

Igor Radulov was a winger who was picked by Chicago in the third round of the 2000 draft, four years before his brother would go to Nashville in the first. It was a good round for less-successful brothers, as Henrik Lundqvist's twin brother Joel had gone a few picks earlier. (Henrik himself wouldn't go until the seventh round that year, marking the last known time that his life wasn't completely perfect.)

It was a bit of a weird draft pick, because by the time the Blackhawks used it, it had been traded five times in deals involving everyone from Mike Knuble to Ulf Samuelsson to Niklas Sundstrom (twice!) to the No. 4 overall pick in the 1999 draft, which was Pavel Brendl. Theory: If you dig hard enough, every obscure player eventually links back to Pavel Brendl.

Anyway, Radulov remained in Russia for a season before heading to North America to spend a year playing for the OHL's Mississauga IceDogs (and head coach Don Cherry). He scored 33 goals, then moved to the AHL in 2002, where he got his first taste of the pro game. By the end of the year, he earned a brief call-up to Chicago, where he scored five goals in seven games.

That had fans and media expecting bigger things. Radulov made the Blackhawks out of camp for the 2003-04 season, but he got off to a slow start, scoring just once in his first 16 games. By December, he was playing under ten minutes a game, and then found himself a healthy scratch. By the New Year, he was back in the AHL.

While we didn't know it at the time, we'd seen the last of Igor Radulov in the NHL. He headed home to Russia during the 2004-05 lockout and stayed there, first with HC Spartak Moscow and later with the KHL. Unlike his brother, he never did make an NHL comeback; at 34, he was still seeing time in the KHL last season.

What has Don Cherry gone and done now?

We haven't used this section much lately, and to be honest, there's no real reason to break it out now. Don Cherry hasn't done much this week. He's on vacation, like everyone else. But since there's not much going on, I thought it would be fun to use this space to tell the story about the time Cherry was voted the seventh-best Canadian.

Yes, that actually happened.

I realize that American readers are probably wondering how this is possible. How could a country with so much history decide that a sports broadcaster was the seventh greatest person to ever live? That would be like naming John Madden or Vin Scully as one of the ten greatest Americans. They've had great careers, and people love them, but greatest ever? Like, out of everyone? Are you crazy?

Meanwhile, Canadian readers are like, "Seventh? Huh. That seems a little low."

When you are a bright spot in the history of your country. Photo by Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Here's the background. In 2004, the CBC launched a project to determine the greatest Canadian of all time, creatively naming it "The Greatest Canadian." The end result was a top-50 list, determined by a multi-step public vote.

Cherry ended up finishing seventh, ahead of people like Alexander Graham Bell, Sir John A. Macdonald, and, oh yeah, Wayne Gretzky. He was narrowly beat out by names like Terry Fox, Sir Frederick Banting, and Lester B. Pearson. In case you're wondering, the winner was Tommy Douglas. If you Americans don't know who that is, he's basically the guy who brought Canada the concept of, um, you know what, America, maybe it's better if we don't mention it right now. Tommy Douglas is Kiefer Sutherland's grandfather, that's all you need to know.

The important point is that Cherry finished seventh, which gives you an idea of how insanely popular he's always been up here. There was a time when he absolutely could have run for prime minister. Hell, he probably would have won.

By the way, when the CBC program aired, each of the top ten was presented by a Canadian celebrity. Cherry's segment was introduced by Bret "The Hitman" Hart. Just in case you were ever wondering what the most Canadian thing of all time was.

Classic YouTube clip breakdown

Who's up for some terrible NHL goaltender-based rap/rock? Good. You're in luck.

Careful readers will recognize this clip from February, when it was rediscovered and broken down in detail by Kings bloggers The Royal Half. We gave it a spot in the weekly comedy stars section back then, but it was inevitable that it would work its way to Classic YouTube section status someday. That day has arrived.

So the background here is that it's the 1989-90 season, give or take a year, and a group called The Puck Boys has decided to record a song honoring the Kings' coolest player. No, not Wayne Gretzky. No, not Luc Robitaille. Not Bernie Nicholls, either. Those guys were good, but they didn't rock a baby blue bandana during games. No, the Puck Boys are going to sing to us about Kelly Hrudey.

To answer the obvious question: No, The Puck Boys are not a real band. They can't be. I mean, I don't doubt that at least a few of these guys are actual musicians, and the lead singer is… well, we'll get to him in a bit. But this is basically a casting call of musical clichés all mashed into one super-group. They can't possibly be an actual collective. There's just no way.

All that said, this is a pretty catchy song. You're going to be humming it all day. Consider yourself warned.

"Who's between the pipes tonight? Well let me check my roster…" Um, actually, the roster itself wouldn't have that information. You'd need to check your lineup. Once again, novelty hockey song bands' failure to hire me as a fact-checker comes back to haunt them.

Glove saves were just better in the 80s and 90s. The goalies always looked a little bit surprised to have actually made a save, and they'd really sell it by flailing their arms around. It always looked great.

OK, almost always.

We get our first wide shot of the entire band, which includes a guy in cowboy hat, a dude in a suit, and a small child. And, of course, there's our lead singer, who looks like Bruce Springsteen had a baby with Marty Jannetty and then let it be raised by Rico Suave.

Just to give you a sense for the attention to detail that's going to be in play here, we start off with our singer telling us about all the things they now have "one less" of, while holding up two fingers.

The singer is giving off some star power, but the undisputed star here is keyboard-suit guy. He has clearly a.) never played the keyboard before and b.) not quite got the hang of the whole "having elbows" thing. But he did break out the formal wear for this video shoot, so we'll give him that. Dress for the job you want, and all that.

This is one of those late-80s songs that would be described as rap but may or may not actually be. I feel like the inclusion "whopper of a stopper" kind of disqualifies it right there.

So about that lead singer. His name is Harry Perzigian, and he'd become famous under some less than ideal circumstances a few years later. He was accused of supplying drugs to the son of actor Carroll O'Connor, who later committed suicide. He later sued O'Connor for slander, and the whole thing was a reasonably big tabloid story at the time. Perzigian died in 2014; a friend wrote this tribute.

I feel like that may have been the most depressing paragraph in YouTube section history. Can we get back to hockey jokes now? I'm not sure we have a choice. Onwards.

"Is this real, we must be dreaming. Have you checked our goals against?" Yes, I have. Kelly Hrudey's goal against average in 1989-90 was 4.07, the fourth worst mark in the league. But in fairness, he posted a 4.34 in the playoffs.

As we're digesting that information, our next highlight is an opposing player on a breakaway just getting blatantly tackled before he can get to Hrudey. Probably the right play.

That player is Brent Ashton, by the way, and he's going to feature in like every one of these highlights. Seriously, it's all they have and it's going to get weird.

"It's 7:30, I'm OK," our singer tells us while pointing at his wrist, which does not have a watch on it. This guy is terrible at hand gestures. Working the name of the song into the wardrobe is a strength, sure, but hand gestures not so much.

We get more Ashton highlights, and… wait. Was this originally supposed to be a Brent Ashton tribute video? Did they write a whole song about Ashton, then scrap it at the last minute and throw it in a dumpster, where it was found years later and repurposed by Chris Parnell? It would explain so much.

We get our second identical shot of Hrudey decking Paul MacDermid. And with that, we've made it through our entire video while using highlights from one single NHL game. Come on, guys. Even the Neil Sheehy-era Capitals know you always use two or three to mix it up.

And because I know you expect me to know these things, I went back and tried to figure out which specific game all these highlights are from. We knew the Kings were playing the Jets in L.A. (home teams wore white back then), Kelly Hrudey was in net, Brent Ashton and Paul MacDermid are in the lineup, and the Kings won (since we see Hrudey pumping his fist at the end of the game). The only game from 1988-89 or 1989-90 that fits that criteria came on December 19, 1989, when Hrudey gave up five goals in a 9-5 Kings win. Wayne Gretzky had six points. Are you sure the goalie's the guy you want to be highlighting on this team, guys?

I don't think that's the kid's real voice, you guys.

The epilogue on all of this is that Hrudey spent the next five seasons in L.A., and was significantly better over most of that span. He finished fourth in Vezina voting in 1990-91, and helped lead the team to the Stanley Cup Final in 1993. Was he inspired to those heights by this song? We can never truly know for sure, but yes, he was.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at [email protected]. DGB Grab Bag: New Penalty Signals, Cherry Seventh-Best Canadian, and Hrudey on Duty published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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DGB Grab Bag: New Penalty Signals, Cherry Seventh-Best Canadian, and Hrudey on Duty

The three stars of comedy … will return

We’re taking a break from the three stars this week, since a.) it’s August and everyone who has ever played, coached, or worked in the NHL in their life is off the grid at a cottage somewhere, and b.) I’ve been away most of the week and probably missed anything funny that did happen. The three stars will return next time. Meanwhile, we have important business to get to in the next section.

Be It Resolved

Last week, I got very worked up about the NHL’s weird insistence on treating holding the stick as a different penalty than holding, complete with its own hand signal. To be clear, I stand by that rant completely. I’m right and you know it.

In putting that section together, I had to dive into my copy of the NHL rulebook to verify that holding the stick was in fact the only penalty that forces the referee to perform a two-part signal, and in doing so, I realized something I’d never noticed before: There are four NHL penalties that don’t have a signal at all.

Granted, they’re the rare ones. Specifically, the penalties without signals are kicking, head-butting, throwing equipment, and too-many-men. You don’t see those all that often. Still, they’re in the rulebook. They should have some sort of signal. You can’t ask a referee to announce a penalty and then just stand there like an idiot while everyone stares at him. We need to give these guys something to work with.

So let’s do that. I’ve got some suggestions.

Let’s start with kicking. That’s the easy one. The referee just makes a little kicking motion. Simple enough, right? I mean, it would have to be a distinct kicking motion so that everyone in the crowd could make it out, but I’m sure the league could come up with a nice, easy definition for distinctive kicking motion that everyone would always agree on, so we’ll just use that.

(Also, you could probably follow that up by having the ref pull out a phone, dial the police, and have the player arrested because he just freaking kicked somebody while wearing skates and is obviously a psychopath.)

Photo by Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

The head-butt is a little tougher. My first thought was that the ref would slap his own forehead, but older fans might get confused and think he just realized that he could’ve had a V8. So I’m going to go a little more extreme and suggest that he slam his head directly into the crook of his arm. It’s simple, distinctive, and my son will get excited because he’ll think the ref is dabbing. Everyone wins.

For throwing equipment, I think we go with the obvious: The ref has to wind up and toss his whistle into the crowd like it’s the Rock’s elbow pad. And yes, that does create a problem where the referee won’t have a whistle for the rest of the game, but if it’s overtime or late in a close game or the playoffs, he won’t need it anymore, so we should be fine.

And finally, too-many-men. My first thought was that the ref should have count to six on his fingers, look confused, and then make an exaggerated herpy-derp face at the crowd. But that seems a little complicated, so let’s keep it simple. Just point at the Bruins.

Be it resolved: All these new hand signals go into effect for the 2017-18 season. Please let any referees in your life know so they can start practicing now.

Obscure former player of the week

One of this year’s bigger off-season moves was the Stars signing Alexander Radulov away from the Canadiens. Radulov had 54 points last year and occasionally goes into beast mode, so he doesn’t qualify as an obscure player. His brother Igor does, though, so he gets this week’s honors.

Igor Radulov was a winger who was picked by Chicago in the third round of the 2000 draft, four years before his brother would go to Nashville in the first. It was a good round for less-successful brothers, as Henrik Lundqvist’s twin brother Joel had gone a few picks earlier. (Henrik himself wouldn’t go until the seventh round that year, marking the last known time that his life wasn’t completely perfect.)

It was a bit of a weird draft pick, because by the time the Blackhawks used it, it had been traded five times in deals involving everyone from Mike Knuble to Ulf Samuelsson to Niklas Sundstrom (twice!) to the No. 4 overall pick in the 1999 draft, which was Pavel Brendl. Theory: If you dig hard enough, every obscure player eventually links back to Pavel Brendl.

Anyway, Radulov remained in Russia for a season before heading to North America to spend a year playing for the OHL’s Mississauga IceDogs (and head coach Don Cherry). He scored 33 goals, then moved to the AHL in 2002, where he got his first taste of the pro game. By the end of the year, he earned a brief call-up to Chicago, where he scored five goals in seven games.

That had fans and media expecting bigger things. Radulov made the Blackhawks out of camp for the 2003-04 season, but he got off to a slow start, scoring just once in his first 16 games. By December, he was playing under ten minutes a game, and then found himself a healthy scratch. By the New Year, he was back in the AHL.

While we didn’t know it at the time, we’d seen the last of Igor Radulov in the NHL. He headed home to Russia during the 2004-05 lockout and stayed there, first with HC Spartak Moscow and later with the KHL. Unlike his brother, he never did make an NHL comeback; at 34, he was still seeing time in the KHL last season.

What has Don Cherry gone and done now?

We haven’t used this section much lately, and to be honest, there’s no real reason to break it out now. Don Cherry hasn’t done much this week. He’s on vacation, like everyone else. But since there’s not much going on, I thought it would be fun to use this space to tell the story about the time Cherry was voted the seventh-best Canadian.

Yes, that actually happened.

I realize that American readers are probably wondering how this is possible. How could a country with so much history decide that a sports broadcaster was the seventh greatest person to ever live? That would be like naming John Madden or Vin Scully as one of the ten greatest Americans. They’ve had great careers, and people love them, but greatest ever? Like, out of everyone? Are you crazy?

Meanwhile, Canadian readers are like, “Seventh? Huh. That seems a little low.”

When you are a bright spot in the history of your country. Photo by Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Here’s the background. In 2004, the CBC launched a project to determine the greatest Canadian of all time, creatively naming it “The Greatest Canadian.” The end result was a top-50 list, determined by a multi-step public vote.

Cherry ended up finishing seventh, ahead of people like Alexander Graham Bell, Sir John A. Macdonald, and, oh yeah, Wayne Gretzky. He was narrowly beat out by names like Terry Fox, Sir Frederick Banting, and Lester B. Pearson. In case you’re wondering, the winner was Tommy Douglas. If you Americans don’t know who that is, he’s basically the guy who brought Canada the concept of, um, you know what, America, maybe it’s better if we don’t mention it right now. Tommy Douglas is Kiefer Sutherland’s grandfather, that’s all you need to know.

The important point is that Cherry finished seventh, which gives you an idea of how insanely popular he’s always been up here. There was a time when he absolutely could have run for prime minister. Hell, he probably would have won.

By the way, when the CBC program aired, each of the top ten was presented by a Canadian celebrity. Cherry’s segment was introduced by Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Just in case you were ever wondering what the most Canadian thing of all time was.

Classic YouTube clip breakdown

Who’s up for some terrible NHL goaltender-based rap/rock? Good. You’re in luck.

Careful readers will recognize this clip from February, when it was rediscovered and broken down in detail by Kings bloggers The Royal Half. We gave it a spot in the weekly comedy stars section back then, but it was inevitable that it would work its way to Classic YouTube section status someday. That day has arrived.

So the background here is that it’s the 1989-90 season, give or take a year, and a group called The Puck Boys has decided to record a song honoring the Kings’ coolest player. No, not Wayne Gretzky. No, not Luc Robitaille. Not Bernie Nicholls, either. Those guys were good, but they didn’t rock a baby blue bandana during games. No, the Puck Boys are going to sing to us about Kelly Hrudey.

To answer the obvious question: No, The Puck Boys are not a real band. They can’t be. I mean, I don’t doubt that at least a few of these guys are actual musicians, and the lead singer is… well, we’ll get to him in a bit. But this is basically a casting call of musical clichés all mashed into one super-group. They can’t possibly be an actual collective. There’s just no way.

All that said, this is a pretty catchy song. You’re going to be humming it all day. Consider yourself warned.

“Who’s between the pipes tonight? Well let me check my roster…” Um, actually, the roster itself wouldn’t have that information. You’d need to check your lineup. Once again, novelty hockey song bands’ failure to hire me as a fact-checker comes back to haunt them.

Glove saves were just better in the 80s and 90s. The goalies always looked a little bit surprised to have actually made a save, and they’d really sell it by flailing their arms around. It always looked great.

OK, almost always.

We get our first wide shot of the entire band, which includes a guy in cowboy hat, a dude in a suit, and a small child. And, of course, there’s our lead singer, who looks like Bruce Springsteen had a baby with Marty Jannetty and then let it be raised by Rico Suave.

Just to give you a sense for the attention to detail that’s going to be in play here, we start off with our singer telling us about all the things they now have “one less” of, while holding up two fingers.

The singer is giving off some star power, but the undisputed star here is keyboard-suit guy. He has clearly a.) never played the keyboard before and b.) not quite got the hang of the whole “having elbows” thing. But he did break out the formal wear for this video shoot, so we’ll give him that. Dress for the job you want, and all that.

This is one of those late-80s songs that would be described as rap but may or may not actually be. I feel like the inclusion “whopper of a stopper” kind of disqualifies it right there.

So about that lead singer. His name is Harry Perzigian, and he’d become famous under some less than ideal circumstances a few years later. He was accused of supplying drugs to the son of actor Carroll O’Connor, who later committed suicide. He later sued O’Connor for slander, and the whole thing was a reasonably big tabloid story at the time. Perzigian died in 2014; a friend wrote this tribute.

I feel like that may have been the most depressing paragraph in YouTube section history. Can we get back to hockey jokes now? I’m not sure we have a choice. Onwards.

“Is this real, we must be dreaming. Have you checked our goals against?” Yes, I have. Kelly Hrudey’s goal against average in 1989-90 was 4.07, the fourth worst mark in the league. But in fairness, he posted a 4.34 in the playoffs.

As we’re digesting that information, our next highlight is an opposing player on a breakaway just getting blatantly tackled before he can get to Hrudey. Probably the right play.

That player is Brent Ashton, by the way, and he’s going to feature in like every one of these highlights. Seriously, it’s all they have and it’s going to get weird.

“It’s 7:30, I’m OK,” our singer tells us while pointing at his wrist, which does not have a watch on it. This guy is terrible at hand gestures. Working the name of the song into the wardrobe is a strength, sure, but hand gestures not so much.

We get more Ashton highlights, and… wait. Was this originally supposed to be a Brent Ashton tribute video? Did they write a whole song about Ashton, then scrap it at the last minute and throw it in a dumpster, where it was found years later and repurposed by Chris Parnell? It would explain so much.

We get our second identical shot of Hrudey decking Paul MacDermid. And with that, we’ve made it through our entire video while using highlights from one single NHL game. Come on, guys. Even the Neil Sheehy-era Capitals know you always use two or three to mix it up.

And because I know you expect me to know these things, I went back and tried to figure out which specific game all these highlights are from. We knew the Kings were playing the Jets in L.A. (home teams wore white back then), Kelly Hrudey was in net, Brent Ashton and Paul MacDermid are in the lineup, and the Kings won (since we see Hrudey pumping his fist at the end of the game). The only game from 1988-89 or 1989-90 that fits that criteria came on December 19, 1989, when Hrudey gave up five goals in a 9-5 Kings win. Wayne Gretzky had six points. Are you sure the goalie’s the guy you want to be highlighting on this team, guys?

I don’t think that’s the kid’s real voice, you guys.

The epilogue on all of this is that Hrudey spent the next five seasons in L.A., and was significantly better over most of that span. He finished fourth in Vezina voting in 1990-91, and helped lead the team to the Stanley Cup Final in 1993. Was he inspired to those heights by this song? We can never truly know for sure, but yes, he was.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you’d like to see included in this column? Email Sean at [email protected]. DGB Grab Bag: New Penalty Signals, Cherry Seventh-Best Canadian, and Hrudey on Duty syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6