Sunday, June 30, 2013

Do You Hear the People Sing?

I have a deep and abiding love of Jon Stewart, but John Oliver's opening segment in reaction to the Supreme Court's decision regarding DOMA is a thing of beauty. Then he tackled Wendy Davis' amazing filibuster. I'm sold, John Oliver. I'm sold!


Watch and enjoy!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Of Monsters and Men

I love music, which seems like a rather pointless claim, because I don't know that I've ever met anyone who didn't like music. Anyhow, I do love music and listen to everything ranging from classic rock to classical, old school country to gansta rap. About the only thing I don't enjoy is techno. It's something about the repetitive, electronic nature of it. Just not for me.

But regardless of genre, my favorite songs are those that tell as story. Whether it's Reba McEntire singing about a young girl turned hooker with a heart of gold, or Josh Ritter recounting the tale of unlikely lovers during a nuclear WWIII, I'm just drawn to these types of songs. They're like short stories set to music, which is probably why I'm such a sucker for them. It's the writer in me responding to the narrative structure of these songs. And if telling a complete story in short story format is hard (and it is), how much harder is it to tell a complete story in the average length of time of a song? It's like the ultimate flash fiction. Songwriters (the good ones) definitely have my respect.

I've gotten inspiration for several of my stories from songs. Some nugget of an idea embedded deep in the lyrics just sets my imagination on fire, and the next thing I know a character pops partially formed into my mind, chattering away. And then sometimes, it isn't the song so much as the video that captures my imagination. Sometimes, it's the combination of both.

I've been hit or miss with blogging recently, mainly miss, so I wanted to jump back in by sharing one such song and video that's captured my imagination recently. No, it hasn't inspired any stories for me, at least not yet, but the song just has a certain something. And I like it, whatever it is. I really do. It also doesn't hurt that the video is a mixture of steampunk, Georges Méliès film, and awesome. That's right, "awesome" is a primary ingredient.

Here is Of Monsters and Men's Little Talk: