The · Revels · of · the · Dead

Me: "..he's essentially like if Mieville got ahold of Conan and weirded it the fuck right up. You saw "Destroyer", right? Remember Bombatta, it's going to kind of -"
Chrissie: "You know you're doing it, right?"
Me: "I'm.. doing it?"
Chrissie: "Yes. Yes, you are. Right now."
Me: "What are you-"
Chrissie: "You're being that guy who corners someone and tells them about their character."

Oh god no.

This has been a week of waking up to the sound of rain pattering along the driveway and against the roof. I've been opening the door to let the cooler air in, and have watched the pink buds from the gnarled tree out front drop with the wind and wet. My car has had a coronation of petals every morning; the incongruity is charming. Haven't bothered turning on the news at all, really. Just a nice quiet morning. When the traffic kicks up, the door gets closed, and Jon Stewart fills the rest of the prework time.

Finances are a bit muddled right now -- been making some some-day-I'm-going-to expenditures recently -- which means lower key stuff is going on at the moment. At Halloween I nabbed a bunch of Hammer Horror and classic monster movies from AMC, and have been going through them. Chrissie and I are making a habit out of going over to the tennis courts for.. well not so much tennis really.. but catch-with-rackets. Arcon was a lot of fun a weekend or two ago -- for games and buds both. And as bunches of friends across the world (literally) are having babies, I'm going down to see my niece for her 3rd birthday this weekend. Quiet fun, but I am feeling antsy for something new/louder. In part soothed by a NYC trip at the end of August, but I think I need to scratch that itch beforehand. We'll see.

I've been rereading (and mentally rewriting/reordering/recomplicating) my novel. There's a bit of hesitancy to start affixing words to screen again. It's weird. It'd be nice to be published. To sketch out the order of events, or to just write and see where it goes? That's the bear I'm wrestling with these days.

Been finding a bunch of new music. I really need to offshore my iTunes list to the backupbrain.. my poor laptop is groaning under the weight of 'em all.

Work is work. Y'know. A bit too much resting on my laurels after the BigThing(tm) ended up working better than we all thought it would. Lots of projects need attention. The kids are just now going into finals, and we're all waiting for the slow sigh of a collective unclenching to soundlessly spread across campus again. It's an interesting tension study -- none of my staff are taking classes, but we all feel the finals stress. Stress as vector. Communicable stress.

A slow damp cool Spring so far at the Herk. Looking forward to the summer.

Ever onward.

This piece has been banging around in my head for days. Some songs do that, they hang out, echoing around in brainspace, not getting stronger or louder but also not going quiet either. They persist. Certain songs can be on infinite repeat for days, without loss of interest or growth of boredom. And I wonder if this charitable haunting has to do with the song as much as something connected to the music itself. Is it more nostalgia, or is it the music itself -- the math, the production, the hook?

Mansell has a habit of making music that does this. Moon, Requiem for a Dream, Pi.. and now ME3. There are a few tracks on the Moon score that if it catches me in a right mood, puts me on a Mobius Listening Loop. The use of echo coupled with the simplicity of notes.. plugs me in, man. But then again, Moon as a story was likewise haunting and of depth and melancholy.. and there are some scenes in that flick that are compelling for the way they mesh sadness with joy.

"Leaving the Earth" -- the name of the track above, works similarly. The simple echoed piano, the Inception foghorn, the quiet coupling with the loud, the growing strings adding grandeur/gravitas.. love it. But then again, the story of ME3.. wow. It blew me away. And I felt like I was closing a novel when the credits rolled. The same way I felt when I finished all the leavetakings from the Lord of the Rings; these friends are gone forever now, there will be no more.

Wish I had a tenth of the ability that Mansell has. Just, wow.

(I have heard this particular piece of music in numerous films, Pandora finally gave me the title and composer.)