Tag Archives: music

#ChangingPathsChallenge2024: Songs

Most of my life, I’ve had a tentative relationship with music. I did not listen to the radio or collect a lot of albums from my favorite musicians growing up. When we traveled in the car, if we weren’t listening to the radio (usually tuned to one of the Christian radio stations that dominate the twin tiers region), we listened to one of three tapes that my family collectively owned.

  • My mother’s “Best of the Statler Brothers” collection.
  • My sister’s “Beat the System” tape by Petra.
  • My “Ghostbusters” tape.

In fact, the only music that remained in my life were hymns at church and the songs we’d sing at Sunday school. Some of those are still implanted in my memory even though I haven’t sung them since 1998 (for the most part). Especially the Sunday school songs. I swear that the fastest way to trigger a former Sunday school teacher from an evangelical church is to start singing “Father Abraham.” (Warning: The link is neither for the feint of heart nor for those particularly susceptible to earworms.)

In college, I got introduced to the kind of worship songs put out by groups like Maranatha Music. I came to like these simple tunes as they were easy sing and fairly easy to remember. At lest the choruses were. I’d never remember all the words to even the first verse of “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” but I could always remember how to sing “As The Deer.”

When I started exploring Paganism, I thought it would be nice to find music that reflected my new spiritual home. I had heard there were many Pagan chants used in ritual, but there weren’t any groups in my area that used them. (I did get introduced to a couple while attending Pagan conferences in Ontario province in the early 2000s.) I started looking at music that was not explicitly religious and found artists like Loreena McKennitt1 and Clannad, while not explicitly Pagan, had songs that at least seemed to hint at Pagan ideas.

While spending time with various Pagans in Ontario, I also discovered the music of a Pagan folk singer who went by the name Castalia.2 I instantly fell in love with her music and I’d consider her songs some of my favorite Pagan songs. Not that I know a lot of others, mind you. As I said, music has never been a huge part of my life.

I’d still love to learn some simple tunes or chants for ritual purposes, though.

(This post is part of #ChangingPathsBlogChallenge2024. See Yvonne Aburrow’s post announcing the challenge for more details and a list of topics.)

Footnotes

  1. The particularly observant reader might note that I seem to gravitate towards Canadian artists. I see it too, though I have no idea why that is! Maybe it’s because I basically live right on the border? ↩︎
  2. I was also fortunate enough to meet the artist herself at a couple of those Pagan conferences I mentioned and even have a couple brief conversations with her. ↩︎

Writing Practice Review: Days 4-6

This past week started out so well in the realm of writing. Sadly, illness took over and everything stopped after Thursday. Hopefully this coming week will show more promise. Either way, I’m going to go easy on myself. Scolding myself for lack of perfection in these things just gets me down, making it less likely I’ll get back up again.

At any rate, here’s the writing practice I got in since last Tuesday.

Day 4: 1200+ words. This piece is a bit of backstory and/or my attempt to explore a character concept. I like the idea of a dragonborn fighter who is currently working as a mercenary to pay bills, but is extremely unsatisfied with the kinds of jobs his recruiter obliges him to do. I feel like a good Dungeon Master could work with that to create a hook that draws my fighter into a more satisfying adventure and a life he’s more comfortable with. Of course, the DM might also ask me to change a few details here. For example, I wrote the scene as if it’s happening in the world of Fehrun and the DM might want to place their campaign in a different world. I’m actually okay with that. I just picked locations in Fehrun to make the story easier to write. I’d have no problems changing the details. Of course, I still need to work on this character. The story raises other questions like how and why did my fighter become a mercenary in the first place? Why isn’t he with the other warriors of his clan?

Day 5: 300+ words. This piece is quite short, but it’s what I wanted to write. I felt like anything I might do to try to increase the word count would have diminished what I was going for. Better to focus on Gene’s experience of playing as well as the effects of the music.

Day 6: 1000+ words. Another dialogue-intensive piece. What can I say? I love my dialogue. Originally Karbath was supposed to just wander through the bar and maybe even witness a few fights. I even considered the possibility that he would end up int he ring after all. But the challenge from the young kid just suggested what I considered a more interesting direction for the scene. I also hope that Karbath’s wish that he could be more than just some fighter shone through. In many ways, I think he hoped to steer the kid towards a life he and his circumstances denied himself.

Music, Memories, and Emotions

The other day, I was listening to the radio while driving, and “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith came on.  I absolutely love that song and want to include it here.  So thanks to YouTube, enjoy a nice rendition with lyrics, no less:

I actually have an emotional history associated with this song.  The song was quite popular on the radio back in 1998, thanks to Armageddon.  At the time, I was also involved with a young man name Zech.  It was actually my first relationship, providing you don’t count the friend I experimented with in high school.  The song meant a lot to me back then.  Every time I heard it, I thought of Zech.

The other day when I heard the same song, it made me think of another guy.  I’ll call this guy D (until he tells me he’s ready for me to talk about him by name.  D and I have been talking, hanging out, and otherwise enjoying each other’s company.  We’re not actually dating, though I hope that changes some day in the not-too-distant future.

What I find interesting is that while similar, the reaction the song evokes in me regarding D now and the reaction I had back when I was involved with Zech.  In both cases, the theme of the song — the desire to be with that special someone as much as possible — resonated deeply with me.  However, the emotional undercurrents are worlds apart.

As I mentioned, Zech was my first boyfriend (though come to think of it, we never officially dated).  We were both young and immature, and I was only recently out (I had only finally accepted my sexuality two years earlier).  This meant that I was going through a lot of emotional turmoil, and tended to cling to Zech in a sense of desperation.  And that desperation came through back then as I’d listen to the song.  I didn’t want to miss a thing, because I was terrified that things would end.  Part of me wanted to squeeze as much out of the relationship before the horrible ending came, and part of me foolishly believed that simply by being ever-present, ever-vigilant, and ever-suffocating, I could actually prevent the horrible ending from coming.

I’ve grown up a great deal in the intervening twelve years, and I now listen to that song again with a new guy in mind.  And once again, I find myself nodding along with the song.  But rather than a nagging sense of desperation, my heart is filled with a sense of peace and contentment.

The funny thing is, there area  few parallels.  There’s no guarantee that things will work out between D and I.  (Is there ever really any such guarantee?)  I don’t know how long I have with him or even if we’ll ever become a couple like I’m hoping for.  I think it’s likely though.

But in the end, it doesn’t matter.  I have this time now, and I want to make the most of it.  Not out of fear or desperation, but out of hope and joy.

People often talk about how music can evoke powerful emotions and we can associate specific memories and feelings with a song.  However, I sometimes think that people forget that new connections and associations can be made with old songs that replace or overpower the old ones.  I know from personal experience that this is true, because I enjoy “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” far more today than I did back in 1998.

In fact, I think I’m going to go listen to it again.

A Capella Music and Star Wars! Who can beat that?

My brother-in-law sent me a message on Facebook this morning of this great a capella tribute to Star Wars. The tribute was made by a young man named Corey Vidal.

Corey originally put his tribute up on YouTube, but it was taken down due to copyright issues. He’s trying to get it reinstated. In the meantime, I thought I’d embed another a capella piece he’s done that is still available on YouTube.