I’m not averse to a little whine, but squashed and fermented grapes are not my thing. Instead of reaching for a drink when times are bleak, I have three sources of solace:
- nature
- human creativity
- affection and connection.
Since the bleak has been smeared about a bit lately, I’ve been drinking in the cloudless blue sky and enjoying the antics of garden-flitting birds — finches, tree-creepers, galahs, red wattle birds, eastern and crimson rosellas, and a couple of female satin bower birds which I like to call Plolives… because they are plump and olive-coloured and it took me a while to work out what they actually were.
I’ve also, as always, been reading and listening to music.
I love it when authors include a playlist in the book and there are songs on it I love and new songs to discover. I have the latest Seanan McGuire InCryptid book, Calculated Risks, on my too-be-read pile and I know there will be just such a list in there.
I love it when writers talk about the music they write to – the songs that are the battle anthems or signature themes for their characters, or the moody and atmospheric music they use to sink into the right/write mindset. There was a lovely flurry of suggestion on the Australian Speculative Fiction Group’s FB page last week which included soundtracks and game scores and ambient music from Burial and Boards of Canada (thanks, Ben Marshall!).
And there have been a couple of delightful synchronicities lately which have made the world feel more connected.
A couple of years ago I followed a link to The Spellbinding Swedish Song That Calls Cows Home (at atlasobscura.com). Kulning – the herding call – is one of those weird and wonderful… magical… things that people do as if it’s no big deal. That’s just how they roll in that corner of the world.
It’s…. I can’t even articulate how cool it is. It gave me chills when I first watched it — see if it does the same for you: Kulning – a farewell song to the cows – YouTube
Then I was reading A Song of Flight by Juliet Marillier – the third in her Warrior Bard series, which is out soon (I received an advance reading copy and I’ll be posting a review about it soon) – and one of the new Swan Island recruits uses this cry to avert disaster. Ooh, chills again. I love how this has been woven into the story and how it is, indeed, magic. I can’t help but imagine the author listening to that YouTube clip and thinking, “I have to use this!” And who could blame her?
Two weeks ago, I had a set of headphones popped onto my ears as I was told, “listen to this.” The this in question was The Hu, a Mongolian folk rock and heavy metal band, doing an English language version of their song Wolf Totem featuring Jacoby Shaddix of Papa Roach.
The sound that The Hu create is just amazing. I recommend watching the original Wolf Totem on YouTube for the joyous juxtaposition of the Mongol hordes on Harley Davidsons. And I know it’s wise to not read the comments but I noticed one comment from a dad whose fairy-tutu-wearing daughter referred to it as “the song with the werewolf singing!!” Which is a fantastic description of the effect of heavy metal throat singing.
Imagine my delight, then, when I read the latest book by Patricia Briggs in her Alpha and Omega series – Wild Sign – and found that the werewolves were, indeed, singing this song. It was just perfect.
If you’ve got a perfect book and music combination to recommend, or your own story of a synchronicity of song, I’d love to hear it.