Carryover post

I really, really tried to make sure you got a proper post this week.  My fervent hope was that I would complete the next round of work on my Perl module, since it’s been a month since I updated over on my Other Blog.  However, I ran into a couple of crises (one computer-but-not-work related, the other child-and-sickness related) that have conspired to keep me from being prepared to do that.  I’ll have it next week if it kills me.

My next thought was to quickly crank out the next post in my music mix series, because I rather thought I’d already started it, and therefore it would be pretty easy to polish it off.  But, alas: I had the barest shell of a post ready, and there was just no way I was going to be able to fill that out in a reasonable amount of time.

On the other hand, I would once again point you at the post that I updated last week with: Why I Left the C3V.  It really is about way more than Heroscape and the C3V; plus it’s long enough to count for two weeks’ worth of posts anyway.

Until next week.

A post to be: Heroscapers post #2

I’ve actually been doing quite a bit of writing this weekend, but it’s not quite ready for primetime yet.  Hopefully I’ll be posting it within the next few days; at that time, I’ll come back and post a link here.

Update: I did eventually get around to posting it, and it’s now available up on my Other Other Blog (yes, I now have 3 friggin’ blogs, despite the fact that I still think blogs suck).  It’s ostensibly about my favorite game, Heroscape, and my involvement with a fan-based group, the C3V.  However, what it’s really about is group dynamics and politics in a small, volunteer-run organization.  The lessons I learned there (and the mistakes I made) are easily transferrable, I believe, to any such organization you may be involved in: church group, school committee, scout troop, etc.  It’s over four times as long as one of my normal posts here, but I think it’s worthwhile nonetheless.  Check it out if you’re so inclined.

Skip to m'lou

Another busy weekend, coming off a fairly terrible virus that laid the whole family low.  So I just didn’t get around to posting anything for you.  Sorry about that.  Next week should be a bit better.

Shadowfall Equinox II

"This Town of the Dying"

[This is one post in a series about my music mixes.  The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use.  You may wish to read the introduction for more background.  You may also want to check out the first volume in this multi-volume mix for more info on its theme.

Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguous—that is, I don’t guarantee that the next post in the series will be next week.  Just that I will eventually finish it, someday.  Unless I get hit by a bus.]

As usual, I had enough tracks left over after creating Shadowfall Equinox I to nearly fill out the entirety of a volume II.  I only had to add a few more to complete this volume: in fact, this is one of my shortest tracklists, at 13 songs, though it’s full length.¹  It’s just that there are 6 tracks over 6 minutes—2 over 8, in fact—and only 2 tracks under 3 minutes.  I typically don’t like to use songs that long (certainly not this many of them), but this particular mix can sustain a song of that length easily.  The music, as you may recall, is designed to swirl in the background, providing intellectual stimulation without distraction.  Long tracks can actually help with that, sometimes.  As long as they don’t get too repetitive.  But I don’t think you’ll find that to be the case here.

Also as usual, we see a lot of repeats of the usual suspects, starting with those derived from the original inspiration for this mix: “Shadowfall II.” I took it easy on the Greinke this time, only including a single track from Wide View.  And I finally got around to including Kevin Keller, the other artist who’s central to “Shadowfall II,” although not from the same album as used on the Hearts of Space program.²  Rather, I chose to use The Day I Met Myself, and specifically the track “Unfolding,” which I actually like more than any of his tracks used in “Shadowfall II.”

Other returning artists include darkwave virtuosos Black Tape for a Blue Girl and Falling You.  As per usual, these are the only two tunes with any words, so the latter is our volume namer.  We also have another track from Ronny Moorings, this time as Clan of Xymox, for some proper gothic tunage, and Amber Asylum returns with another dark ambient track.

Speaking of that style, we kick off this volume with Dark Sanctuary, a French neoclassical group that specializes in dark ambient.  Although most of their tunes are a bit too operatic for my tastes, I absolutely loved “Night Rain” the first time I heard it.  What vocals there are here are wordless and backgrounded, a somewhat haunting soundtrack against a stormy setting.  The rain motif continues, belnding almost imperceptibly into “Intangible” by Chad Kettering.  Kettering is ostensibly new age, but this track has more going on: the wind chimes against the backdrop of the rainfall, plus his own brand of wordless vocals (this time more reminiscent of Middle Eastern-style ululation), give this tune a majestic but mildly foreboding feel that helps it fit right in on this mix.  Then we have a surprisingly downbeat performance from instrumentalists Smokey Bandits, also set against a rainy night.

From there we go to another returning star from volume I: 4AD collective This Mortal Coil.  I spoke briefly before about my love of It’ll End in Tears, but it deserves a deeper dissection.  This album is insanely good to listen to when you need to chill out, and for many years (right up until I discovered “Shadowfall II,” I’d say) it was my go-to disc for meditation, relaxation, or contemplation—not when I wanted to fall asleep,³ but when I need to just let my mind drift.  The only thing that ever compared to it was my brief fascination with Enigma and their first album, but that doesn’t have the staying power of It’ll End in Tears.  Given all that, it was inevitable that we’d see a track from that album here on this mix.  “Fyt” doesn’t really have a rain theme going on, but it is reminiscent of the sounds of thunder, so it’s the perfect bridge between the rain group above and the underwater group below.

The pair of songs that have a vaguely submarine bent starts off with Reef Project, who we first heard from on Paradoxically Sized World II.  “Blind Cave” is a bit more somber than many of their other tracks, so it works well here.  And fades beautifully into “Deep Dive” by Deep Dive Corporation.  DDC is one of those bands I discovered mostly by accident: I was listening to a smooth jazz station in DC when I heard “Imagination,” off the same album as “Deep Dive.” This is doubly unlikely, both because I hardly ever listen to smooth jazz stations, and also because “Imagination” is not really a smooth jazz song.  Furthermore, I only heard part of the song and had no idea who sang it or even what the name was.  I had to go to the radio station’s website and look up which DJ was working when the song was played, and email him to ask for the details, describing the song as best I could.  And, to add to the overall unlikeliness of the entire scenario, the DJ not only recognized the song, but actually took the time to reply to my email.  I don’t know if we’ll hear “Imagination” on one of these tracks one day,⁴ but I actually like “Deep Dive” even better, and it fits in beautifully here.

Shadowfall Equinox II
[ This Town of the Dying ]

“Night Rain” by Dark Sanctuary, off Royaume Mélancolique
“Intangible” by Chad Kettering, off Into the Infinite
“Anjelitos Negros” by Smokey Bandits, off Debut
“Fyt” by This Mortal Coil, off It'll End in Tears
“Blind Cave” by Reef Project, off Deep Waters [EP]
“Deep Dive” by Deep Dive Corporation, off Support Your Local Groover
“Theme I” by Clan of Xymox, off Medusa
“Bounce” by Jeff Greinke, off Wide View
“Varenka” by Falling You, off Human
“Unfolding” by Kevin Keller, off The Day I Met Myself
“Riviera” by Amber Asylum, off Frozen in Amber
“The Apotheosis” by Black Tape for a Blue Girl, off As One Aflame Laid Bare by Desire
“Without Waves” by Tim Story, off Threads

Total:  13 tracks,  73:51

And all that we have left is the closer: Tim Story’s “Without Waves.” I was first introduced to Tim Story on a different Hearts of Space program, “Starry Night.” Perhaps some of the tracks featured there will show up here one day as well, but for now this song from Threads will suffice.  It’s the longest track on the volume, at a whopping 8:45, but I think you’ll find it worthwhile.  It will leave you calm and soothed, ready for the next volume of this contemplative mix.

Next time, we’ll swing back around to video game territory.

⇐ Shadowfall Equinox I

Shadowfall Equinox III ⇒

__________

1 Currently, my only other tracklist with 13 songs is Smokelit Flashback II, and it’s over 10 minutes shorter than this one.

2 That album was Across the Sky.

3 That would be more likely to involve Victorialand, or India, or possibly Shepherd Moons.

4 But I do know that we won’t hear it on Smooth as Whispercats.  It really isn’t smooth jazz at all.  Perhaps if I ever do an electronica-based mix.

My mind is on the blink

Due to a rather intense project at work, I don’t have the time (or energy) for a proper post this week.  I suppose I could give you an improper post, but I don’t feel like that either, really.  Although I suppose one might consider this post quite improper, depending on one’s point of view.

This week I had one day which started at 10:45am and went until about 3:30am, the only real breaks being driving to and fro and a fairly leisurely lunch.  I always say that I don’t mind doing a long night at work every now and again, as long as it doesn’t become a habit.  For this job, it’s the first time in 2½ years.  If it’s another 2½ years before it happens again, that’ll be just about the right frequency.  Hell, I’d even consider a shorter interval: every 2 years is okay, and even once a year isn’t that bad.  This job happens to have a hell of a lot of other advantages, and plus I actually enjoy this sort of thing every once in a while.  It’s sort of like staying up all night in college, working on a group project with your classmates that you absolutetly postitively have to turn in the next day.  It’s sort of fun, and you get all loopy and silly towards the end, and everyone drinks and smokes (or at least doesn’t care if you do), and you play loud, thrashy music to keep everyone energized.  The work thing is kind of like that, only with less drinking and smoking.  But they did let me play some loud music, so that was nice.

Again: as long as it doesn’t become a habit.

So I’m taking yet another break this week, and, as I do, I will leave you with these words of wisdom that I recently read by a fairly famous programmer in my chosen language, Mark Jason Dominus (generally known in the Perl world as simply MJD):

A smart programmer requires only ten years to learn that you should not do things the wrong way, even if you are sure it will not matter.

Words to live by indeed.

Perl blog post #47

After too long of a break, I’m back to my latest Perl series, which is about a new date module I’m working on.  If you’re technically inclined, hop on over to my Other Blog and check it out.  If you’re not ... well, there’s always next week.

Zephyrous Aquamarine I

"Out Upon the Islands on a Cool Summer Night"

[This is one post in a series about my music mixes.  The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use.  You may wish to read the introduction for more background.

Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguous—that is, I don’t guarantee that the next post in the series will be next week.  Just that I will eventually finish it, someday.  Unless I get hit by a bus.]

As I first alluded to in Salsatic Vibrato I and expanded on in Salsatic Vibrato III, the Swedes are the masters of mixing swing with other musical styles: Movits! (rap), Diablo Swing Orchestra (metal), and, of course, Koop (electronica).  Besides viewing them as in the company of other Swedish swing-mix-meisters, we could also view Koop as one of those European bands that’s forging the new sound of electro-swing, along with Caro Emerald (from the Netherlands) and Caravan Palace (from France).  But in reality labeling Koop as simply “electro-swing” is missing a big part of their identity.  They are electro-swing, sure, but also electro-lounge, electro-jazz, and sometimes not even particularly electro-anything.  While their first album (Sons of Koop) is pretty firmly electronica with infusions of various jazz styles, their latest¹ is more straight-ahead jazz with electronic flourishes.  From the second I put it on, I was blown away.  That’s mainly because it opens with “Koop Island Blues.”

It’s hard to describe this song, which is why I threw you a rare YouTube link so you can hear it for yourself.  A coworker once said it reminded him of French chanson, which it does, sort of, but it also has a very tropical sound, in more than just the background waves and seagull calls.  There is something in it which is pure and true, and transports you to a place where there is sand as far as the eye can see in one direction, and, in the other, the blue-green sea, and a light tropical breeze blowing through the palm trees overhead ...

Of course, there are lots of types of music that could fit on a mix like this, but some of them are really out for me.  For instance, I am not a Parrot Head, and you will never hear any Jimmy Buffet (or anything remotely like it) here.  Then there’s “beach music”: my record-collector father once had a record-collector friend² who absolutely loved beach music, so I was treated to a fair amount of it growing up.  The Drifters, primarily, but, having grown up a stone’s throw from Virginia Beach, no more than two hours from Nags Head, and maybe five from Myrtle Beach, we were geographically disposed to find a lot of the strictly local beach music artists.  Still, I never got into it.  And, from the other coast, there’s the sunny surf-based pop from various California groups, but mainly the Beach Boys.  Never much cared for that stuff either.

For me, this mood needs an injection of either the Caribbean, or the Pacific.  The latter naturally leads us to the strange phenomenon of exotica.  Just in case you thought I was spurning all 50’s- and 60’s-based ocean-inspired music on general principle, I threw in a 1965 version of “Quiet Village”—whose original some say kicked off the whole exotica movement in the first place—and the Arthur Lyman version of “Misirlou” from 1958, a song which exists in multiple genres, from traditional Middle Eastern ballad to surf rock anthem.³  But it’s always been the exotica version that speaks to me.

Some think the prospect of Hawaii becoming a state is what originally fueled the exotica craze; there’s no doubt that statehood (achieved in 1959) contributed to its popularity.  Or perhaps it was South Pacific, which came to Broadway in 1949, just two years before Les Baxter’s “Quiet Village” hit the airwaves, and then to movie screens across the country in 1958.  It was probably South Pacific more than anything else which cemented the image that most Americans had of Hawaiian music—regardless of how inaccurate it might be.  Pretty much any music that sounds like South Pacific is going to make us think of Hawaii ... or, contrariwise, if you want your audience to feel a Hawaiian vibe, you just make your music sound like a throwback to South Pacific.  We have two such tunes here, one from our old pals the Asylum Street Spankers, and the other from ex-Squirrel-Nut-Zipper Tom Maxwell.⁴

Leaving the Pacific Islands and moving over to the Caribbean, we have quite a range of musical styles to choose from.  Calypso is an excellent choice, and there will probably never be a volume of this mix that doesn’t feature a Harry Belafonte tune.  Here it’s “Angelina,” which is one of my favorites off his greatest hits collection Pure Gold.  Plus I threw in the humorous (but still calypso-adjacent) “King of Calypso” from those champions of the silly-yet-poignant, Ed’s Redeeming Qualities.⁵  Then we have Thievery Corporation, whose brand of electro-world can only be considered broad-ranging in the sense that it ranges from one side of the Caribbean to the other.  Their reggae-tinged tunes don’t really work here,⁶ but “Exilio” just screams “island” to me.  And of course the inimitable George Benson, whose version of “On Broadway” somehow takes a beach music song⁷ and gives it just enough Caribbean rhythm to make it sound like an iconic island song despites its roots, its lyrics, and pretty much everything else about it.

Then we have steel drums.  Steel drum music is a bit like bagpipe music: as much as you may like hearing the sound of the instrument, most of the music that features it is just annoying.⁸  I wanted some steel drum music, but I had a hard time finding much of it that I could stomach, much less tunes that I actually enjoyed.  For volume I, I chose Kent Arnsbarger, surely the only Chicago-based steel drummer, and OD TAPO IMI, who are at least prolific if not that well known.⁹  Steel drum artists seem fond of doing steel drum covers of recognizable songs, and I suppose “Oye Como Va”—written by Tito Puente, although the Santana version is the one you undoubtedly know—was sufficiently tropical to start with.  The Arnsbarger tune is an original, as far as I know;¹⁰ a mellow, sultry track with just a hint of Jamaica.

Also, let us not forget that the Caribbean flows into the Gulf of Mexico, where sits New Orleans.  Most New Orleans music is brassy and festive, but there are a few which can relax and fit the vibe here.  “Iko Iko” is, Wikipedia tells us, about two floats in a Mardi Gras parade which collide.  Good thing Wikipedia tells us that, because I certainly would have never gotten it from the lyrics.  But “Iko Iko” certainly does have a New Orlean vibe, somehow, and the version by Cyndi Lauper always fascinated me.  As a late addition to the volume, “I’m Sailin’,” by Mazzy Star, is a lazy, almost breezy, tune which (rather uncharacteristically for them) slots in nicely here.

In the category of songs that feel Caribbean without you really knowing why, I couldn’t overlook the Bonedaddys, whose “Shoo-rah Shoo-rah” I heard on the radio sometime around 1990 and never forgot.  It sounds exactly as tropical as you’d imagine a band who looks like this would sound.  Plus it transitions beautifully into Mental as Anything’s “Good Friday,” which (like many of MaA’s songs) is quite light musically and quite a bit darker lyrically.  Even so, this tune has always made me think of celebrations like Carnival in some equatorial place, so I felt like I had to throw it in here.

And, in the category of over-obvious choices, I ended up throwing in a Beach Boys song after all: “Kokomo” is the only song from the Brothers Wilson and Co. that I ever really liked.  I understand proper Beach Boys fans hate it, which may explain everything.  And it wouldn’t be a real tropical island mix without including “Coconut” by Harry Nilsson.  The Wikipedia article on this tune puts it in the category of “novelty songs,” which I think sells it a bit short.  It notes that it’s included on the soundtrack to Reservoir Dogs, which is indeed whence my copy comes.  But I remember it more from Practical Magic, which is one of those silly movies that you just have a guilty pleasure for.  I find the song to be a bit sly and a bit circular, sort of twirling along in a pleasantly buzzed haze while sipping margaritas on the screened-in porch of a cabin on the beach ...

Zephyrous Aquamarine I
[ Out Upon the Islands on a Cool Summer Night ]

“Koop Island Blues” by Koop, off Koop Islands
“I'm Sailin'” by Mazzy Star, off She Hangs Brightly
“Kokomo” by The Beach Boys [Single]
“Could This Be Magic?” by Van Halen, off Women and Children First
“Quiet Village” by L'Ensemble Instrumental des Iles, off The Exotic Sounds of Tiki Tribe [Compilation]
“Coconut” by Nilsson, off Reservoir Dogs [Soundtrack]
“King of Calypso” by Ed's Redeeming Qualities, off It's All Good News
“Oye como va” by OD TAPO IMI [Single]
“Exilio (Exile)” by Thievery Corporation, off The Richest Man in Babylon
“Misirlou” by Arthur Lyman, off The Exotic Sounds of Tiki Tribe [Compilation]
“Iko Iko” by Cyndi Lauper, off True Colors
“Angelina” by Harry Belafonte, off Pure Gold [Compilation]
“On Broadway” by George Benson [Single]
“White Orchid” by Tom Teasley, off Painting Time
“Peaceful Island Life” by Nickodemus [Single]
“Shoo-rah, Shoo-rah” by The Bonedaddys, off Worldbeatniks
“Good Friday” by Mental as Anything, off Fundamental as Anything
“If I Had You” by Tom Maxwell, off Samsara
“Reggae Blues” by Kent Arnsbarger, off Trip to the Tropics
“Tradewinds” by Asylum Street Spankers, off Spanks for the Memories
“Cool Down” by Dragon, off Body & the Beat

Total:  21 tracks,  79:59

Although it’s the poster-child for songs from unexpected artists, “Could This Be Magic?” by Van Halen is actually the second song that I chose for this mix.  It’s utterly unlike any other Van Halen song ever: light, and playful, and wonderfully evocative.  Eddie’s guitar work is simple and sublime, and, according to Wikipedia, it contains the only recorded instance of female backup vocals on a Van Halen track.  Even David Lee Roth restrains his usual clownish exuberance for a change.  Although Wikipedia will tell you that the B-side of “And the Cradle Will Rock ...” was “Everybody Wants Some!!,” other sources confirm what I already know: at least some versions of the 45 have “Could This Be Magic?” as the flip, and at least some of those were used in jukeboxes, including the one in the concrete-floored warehouse-like building called a “rec room” at the little campground where my grandparents kept their camper year-round.  I spend a good deal of nearly every summer of my childhood there, and the poorly-named rec room was at least some place to hang out.  There was a pool table and a foosball table and 2 or 3 pinball machines, so it was often inhabited by the older kids, smoking and shooting pool and engaging in other dangerous activities that made us little kids wish we could be so cool.  And, somewhere amidst this band of teens, there was one kid (or more than one, for all I know) who completely loved “Could This Be Magic?” As a consequence, I heard the song a lot, and it will always epitomize summer vacation in a weird, inexplicable way for me.  As soon as I realized I was putting together a mix about islands and tropical getaways, I knew I had to include it here.  Besides, it contains the brilliant line that provides the volume title.

We also have a couple of artists first heard from in Paradoxically Sized World: Nickodemus, who I first heard of in a list of songs used in LittleBigPlanet PSP, brings us “Peaceful Island Life,” which is pretty much just what it says on the tin; and Tom Teasley, who I believe I first heard on my cable provider’s “Zen” channel, provides “White Orchid,” a mellow little number that has quite a cool tropical jungle vibe.

Finally, we wrap it up with “Cool Down” by New Zealand’s underrated Dragon.  While the majority of Dragon’s output lies somewhere between prog rock and glam, “Cool Down” is uncharacteristically mellow for them.  It’s not particularly a desert island tune, but it does make me think of warm and humid summer nights after a quick rain shower, so I thought it would make an excellent closer here.

Next time, we’ll keep it on the relaxing tip for a trip back to autumn music.

__________

1 As of this writing.  Although it’s been 10 years, so hopefully there’s a new album coming soon.

2 He’s since sadly passed away.

3 It’s this latter version that you likely recall from the Pulp Fiction soundtrack.

4 And we’ll hear another from SNZ themselves on Volume II.

5 We first heard from ERQ on Tenderhearted Nightshade.

6 There will be another mix for that, which we shall come to in the fullness of time.

7 As done by the aforementioned kings of beach music, the Drifters.

8 For a fuller discussion of my thoughts on bagpipe music, see my comments on Skyedance in Numeric Driftwood.

9 Well, maybe they are if you’re a huge steel drum fan.  Assuming that such creatures exist.

10 Although certainly it could be a cover of something I’ve never heard before.

Another fruitless interval (for you)

Working on a very interesting problem for $work, and still not feeling particularly creative.  So I think I’ll let you enjoy the Internet without my ranting for one more week.  Yes, I know that’s now three weeks in a row.  But, hey: you’re obviously persistent, or you would have given up years ago.  So I feel confident you’ll try again next week.

See you then.

Lying fallow

Hope your 2016 is going along swimmingly.  Mine isn’t so hot, so far.  I think I’ll just wait another week before writing anything to put up here.