potentialities

As I understand many other writing types do, I often gravitate to soundtracks when I put music on while I write. The absence of lyrics keeps the language processing centers of my brain free, and unlike proper classical music, soundtracks are written with the intention of staying in the background while you focus on something else instead of demanding your full attention.

One of my favorites is actually the soundtrack to a game I've never played, a cult favorite steampunk RPG from 2001 called Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. The composer's website seems to be down at the moment, but you can check out the cached version to read more about it. Basically, he drew on elements from medieval/Renaissance/early music for the motifs, but then scored it for string quartet, with a couple of tracks that incorporate percussion and synthesizer. It's really gorgeous and atmospheric, and also freely available to download, along with the entire score.

I highly recommend it, whether you're noveling or not this month.

Number of falling stars spotted: 9
Number of falling stars caught: 0
Number of mandrake roots got with child: 0
Number of women true and fair: depends; how quickly can you get here?

If you would like to listen to some metaphysical poetry, either during meteor showers or otherwise, I can offer you this lovely album of Richard Burton reading John Donne. Sexily.

Forget Christmas; Easter has the best music.

As is traditional (shut up, once you do something twice it is so a tradition), I've uploaded some transcendently lovely music that I've recently acquired to share with you all.

This time, it's Carlo Gesualdo's setting of the Tenebrae service.

Discs 1 & 2 (192 kbps MP3s, 176 MB zipped)

As a festive holiday-type offering in your general direction, I have put together a mix CD consisting entirely of different, awesome versions of the old French drinking song J'ai vu le loup, for anyone who likes French, medieval music, folk, Celtic rap, or possibly drinking.

Drinking With Wolves

Track listing:
1. J'ai vu le loup (Traditional) - The Baltimore Consort
2. J'ai vu le loup le renard et la belette - Le Poème Harmonique
3. La Vendée - Garolou
4. Le renard et la belette - Laïs
5. Mais qui est la belette - Manau
6. J'ai vu le loup (Club Renaissance Remix) - Club Renaissance
7. Dies Irae (Bonus Track) - Monks of the Abbey of Notre Dame

I just realized that these are still on my server, so everyone can enjoy the most divine Easter music ever written: Bach's St. Matthew Passion, recorded by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra directed by Sir Georg Solti.

The libretto with facing English translation

No. 68, Chorus I/II: "Wir Setzen Uns Mit Tränen Nieder" -- 7.6 MB (160 kbps MP3). If you download only one song today, make it this one!

Disc 1 -- 68.6 MB (160 kbps MP3s, zipped)

Disc 2 -- 59.4 MB

Disc 3 -- 73.8 MB

This is close enough to what I was looking for a few months ago that I'm going to choose to believe that I personally summoned it into existence: gay figure skating manga!

( Look at the pretty cover! )

It's a yaoi one-shot entitled Sono yubi no tadoru kizu (The Wound My Finger Traces) by Tsurugi Kai. You can download it at the scanlators' website here, or I uploaded it to my webspace to here [17.3MB .zip file].

It's cute, a little angsty, not very (visually) sexually explicit, and has lots of pretty figure skating if you like that sort of thing (I do).

Also, Sam and I are really excited about the Boys Love trailer. Sam quite fancies Kotani Yoshikazu to begin with.

You know what's fun? Wandering around your house, dripping wet and half-blind, trying to find something to wash your hair with. (I ran out of shampoo. My mother recently switched to this shampoo that makes my hair fall out, so I'm certainly not using that. My brother is at camp with his shampoo.) I eventually turned up something in the far recesses of the cupboards in our bathroom.

Apparently, the people at our hotel "found" my laptop case. I'm not entirely certain precisely how or where they "found" it, but they are mailing it back to me, so I suppose that it doesn't matter. I couldn't find a new laptop case that I wanted to buy, anyway. In the interim I have burned a complete new set of Prince of Tennis DVDs, so I suppose I will pass my duplicates on to some poor unsuspecting soul other person.

I uploaded this for belmanoir and might as well share with the class: Louise Attaque's 1997 self-titled album [38 MB]. Louise Attaque are sort of French folk rock with a killer violinist (I suck at describing music, so sue me).

I lust after one of these. The only problem would be that I don't have a sewing machine (at least, as far as I know) and haven't actually sewn anything since I was 9 or so. (Ask me about the time I put a needle all the way through the palm of my hand, eye first!)

handynavi keeps making Sims who have zero niceness points and then he wonders why they are so mean. It's really quite amusing. Except when they make Tezuka!Sim cry.