Music / Songs / Singers

Cara Malone plays piano... well... kind of...

Jenny Walker

So, for any of you out there who remember my far too wordy musically indulgent story, No Half Measures, and who wonder what Cara Malone on piano might have sounded like, if you are bored and have nothing else to do, then you could check out a little video of Cara's muse - aka Jenny - having a go on the ivories.

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Singer reconciles with Trans father after 10 years

British singer/songwriter Frank Turner never got on with his father, who was apparently quite abusive towards Frank as he grew up. Then his father took the name Miranda and transitioned. An event Frank could not forgive and they didn't talk for ten years. Eventually Frank got to know Miranda better, they reconciled, and Frank has written a song about the experience. Take a listen here : "Miranda".

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I'm a boy - The Who

I heard this on the radio in the car yesterday.

The Who song I'm a boy was written by Pete Townsend . The song was originally intended to be a part of a rock opera called 'Quads' which was to be set in the future where parents can choose the sex of their children. The idea was later scrapped, but this song survived and was later released as a single.

It was never clear if it was intended to be about a boy who was treated as a girl, or a girl that wanted to be a boy.

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Music playlists for "Aurora and Aurelia" and "Ships"

I usually listen to music constantly in the background while I conceptualize characters and plot out my stories, and oftentimes while I'm working on a story, I make a playlist of songs that I associate with the general "feel" or "vibe" of the piece, certain events and/or characters therein, imagining it as the ideal soundtrack were the story in question ever to be adapted into film. (These playlists are essentially the soundtracks to their respective stories as they play out as if cinematically in my head/imagination.) Even though it's now years after I published these two on BCTS, and judging by their view/kudos counts these stories have "run their course" on here (in the sense that everyone regularly on the site who's going to read/kudo/comment on them has done so by now), I figured I'd share the "soundtrack" playlists for "Aurora and Aurelia" and "Ships", if anyone's interested.

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Breathless Dream

I just woke up from an amazing dream. It started off with me fending off some shadowy figures with powerful vocal attacks (sorta like Black Canary), then for some reason, one of the longer vocal attacks turned into singing. I've already forgotten the lyrics, but I know the song was called 'Breathless'.

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You Look Just Like A Girl Again

If you're familiar with the jazz singer Ute Lemper, you might have heard her interpretation of the Danny O'Keefe song, "You Look Just Like A Girl Again." Although written about a cis woman from the viewpoint of an admirer, to those of us of a certain age who may have missed out on that stage of our lives, it elicits an emotional frisson. Because in the mirror we hold within us, we can see the girl we might have been...again.

You Look Just Like a Girl Again

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Possible theme song for Easy As Falling Off A Bike

This will be of interest to the readers of Bike but hopefully Angharad will especially appreciate it.

Between my brief bouts of depression, I listen to as much music as I can access on the interwebs. Old favorites, new artists, new genres. Anything that touches me emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. And it was on one of my recent excursions on youtube that I came across a delightful little ditty entitled "Lullaby For A Sleepy Dormouse."

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Writers Block

So, I found some poetry that I wrote last year, and it lit a spark to write more, and I have an idea for a story!

My question is : I'm toying with including song lyrics at the beginning of each chapter, but am not sure on the best way to format it. I was thinking of doing it as part of chapter titles, similar to a subtitle. Or using it to start the beginning of each chapter. I want to use it to draw readers in.

If anyone has ideas...

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Life got ya down? Give this a listen.

from The Lion King of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT1Kzk7akjQ

I never saw The Lion King, but this is a great song, written by Elton John and redone in Pentatonix's inimitable style. Hope it makes some of you smile and love this song as much as I've grown to love it.

Catherine Linda Michel

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Kinky Boots on YouTube One Day Only

The Musical Kinky Boots is appearing on YouTube for one day only, today Dec 20.

Kinky_Boots_(musical_poster).jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hExrHHLTMf8&feature=emb_logo

It's a good show and this is the West End production.

If you haven't seen it, take a look, you might enjoy it a lot. :)

Hugs,
Erin

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Can this young girl not know

how magical, how perfect, how wonderful her voice is?? She acts so surprised when she finishes and all the judges are practically in tears at how beautifully she sang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT-rdjv8wgQ

I teared up at the first few notes and was crying before the first four bars of the song!!! By the time she finished I was crying my heart out and I didn't even understand the language in which she sang!

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Sexy Elephant

This song is either the singer's (Florence Welch) ticket to immortality or her never-live-it-down moment. Or both: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhHOEs-1tQM

And this poor buck is probably traumatized for life. He'll have performance anxiety, and PTSD flashbacks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbBwLlmd-y0

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MUSIC - Jolin Tsai

Jolin Tsai has always been pretty outspoken in her support for LGBTQ people (from a non-western / taiwanese standpoint / view) in her music. Although most of her songs (according to what I have heard /s een of them) are gay or lesbian themed, her last one is T related.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feOq6MWeUXA

Lynne

PS Chinese with subtitels.

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For those of you who are JPop fans one of the biggest just retired.

This Saturday, Sunday Japan time, one of the biggest idols in JPop retired. In JPop there are a few big female idols in Japan that it has their career path and a very successful one at that. I speak of Mika Nakashima, Ayumi Hamasaki and Namie Amuro. Amuro-san is the one retiring. She threw one last concert in Okinawa(her home province) apparently, along with local artists it sounded like from the news. Her more notable songs are "Can You Celebrate?" and "Sweet 18 Blues" along with many others. I own both songs and definitely enjoy each of them.

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My other favorite pastime other than writing.

Just wanted to share a few videos from my open mic last week. I've been trying to get decent recordings, but the background noise is usually too much. While my middle was talking, you can still hear me playing. Figured y'all would get a kick out of these. On top of doing occasional stand-up this is my other love besides writing.

Landslide

Hallelujah

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Truly Uplifting Performance

OK, I don't know if anyone's been watching America's Got Talent, but if you didn't catch the end of last week's episode, you missed a truly remarkable performance by a deaf 29-year-old singer named Mandy Harvey.

Here's her GOLDEN BUZZER performance: --> Golden Buzzer and the song she sang (an original), with lyrics: --> Try

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Nothing like good music to raise one's spirits

So I've been just kinda messing around today, trying to get inspired to write some more. I hit up Pandora, and set it to fit my more eclectic style. I've been in a rather tranquil mood today, so I thought I'd start with a little Enya, but she wasn't who I really wanted. I felt myself drifting back to my darker days (in part due to writing Inner Demons), and thought I'd give a group I hadn't played in years another go - Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

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Accel World, 2nd Ending, "Unite" by Misawa Sachika

One of my favorite anime songs, sung and instrumental-wise, is the second ending to the anime series "Accel World." I sourced the pieces of this blog from a variety of places to bring it all together onto one page to view it as a whole - "Unite." ~Sephrena


Accel World End 2 Creditless.jpg

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A Bad Case of Writer's Block Isn't Always a Dirth of Creativity

I know I've never been the most cherished author here, but this has always been the place I felt most comfortable sharing my creativity. I love writing, and I love stories, both reading them and sharing them, and for much of the last 10 years BC has been THE place I did so.

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Thought processes can be

set off by the strangest things, let me set the scene
Suffering from a migraine [I do not get the auditory component of migraine that causes nausea, which is why it probably took the medical types took so long to diagnose my suffering with Migraines], I was sat in a darkened room listening to music, most of the time it is just there but like with a lot of things something catches you in that place between you the conscious and subconscious, and a lyric begins to roll around in what I [laughingly] call a mind.

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Been a bit depressed, but tonight,

I am feeling happy, euphoric if you will. Why? Because I'm watching television and the 50th Anniversary concert of THE BEACH BOYS!

Whenever I hear those great voices and great songs, I feel young again. I grew up listening to The Beach Boys, Jan and Dean, and countless others from the 60s and my memory slips back in time to a more innocent time when I wasn't so conflicted and frightened about what our world has become, when I hear The Boys.

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From the ridiculous to the sublime

After a stupid and annoying afternoon I've had a wonderful evening courtesy of The Dorset Chamber Orchestra who gave a concert in my local church - it's used for quite a few musical things because it has good acoustics.

Tonight after Legends 9 & 7 by Dvorak

Symphony in D by Arriaga

came the finale with Violin Concerto in D minor by Brahms with soloist Frida Backman, and she was excellent. This is one of the great violin concerti of the classical canon and a favourite of mine. For those who don't know it:

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Jordan Gray (The Voice UK)

Most of you will know the format of 'The Voice' programmes on TV.
This season's The Voice UK has just moved into the 'Battles' phase.

One of the 'judges/mentors' is Paloma Faith.

One of the chosen performers to join her team had to withdraw due to personal reasons, so Paloma chose Jordan Gray, who had previously been 'rejected' by all four judges - and all four admitted to having made a mistake afterwards - as her last-gasp replacement, reinstating the performer in the show.

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Christmas Tune Acronym Quiz 2015

So we're approaching that time of year again, so it's time to roll out my annual tradition - the Christmas Tunes Acronym Quiz!

This year, I've compiled over 200 tunes to decipher, including a handful of instrumentals in addition to the usual mixture of songs, carols and novelty / parodies. There's also an "Add Your Own!" tab in case your favourites aren't represented in the list (already filled with a handful of songs I discovered which didn't make the 200).

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I am in tears and blown away

by this piece of music. Sometimes I wonder where we as a species are going and if there is any hope for us, or will we fade away like the dinosaurs and other extinct species.

This piece of music made my heart soar and the sheer beauty of it brought me to grateful tears of joy, for if we, as a species, can produce something this beautiful, surely there is hope for us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRotQyJkKWU Turn up the volume and revel in the sheer power of this music.

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Gender Swapping Dinosaur Musical

So I was researching some music for a friends radio show the other day and I came across something interesting and I thought I would share what I found. So first some background. The show has a feature called The Musical Moment where he plays a song from a film or a musical. In my research this week I came across a show called Triassic Parq. Basically it's the story of Jurassic Park but told from the point of view of the Dinosaurs. However there is a little bit more to it than that. This is a description of the plot from the show's Wikipedia page

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Gayageum lessons.

I don't live in the immediate vicinity of L.A. or San Fran but I was wondering if anyone knew of general availability of finding a musical teacher in the U.S. to help teach me the Gayageum. It's a Korean zither and I've really wanted to learn it ever since hearing it's potential on "Heartstrings".

I would like to learn on the full string but they're quite expensive for me now so I'm looking at the basic model for now.

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Something I Didn't Know (About Syd Barrett)

My favourite hit single of all time is probably Pink Floyd's 'See Emily Play', written by Syd Barrett.

The song is named after Emily Young, at one time a close friend of Syd's. Speaking on the recent BBC documentary 'Psychedelic Britannia', she offered the opinion that the girl described in the lyrics was Syd himself. Given that so many of his other compositions are rooted in memories of his childhood, it seems possible that Syd may have been expressing more than just his feminine side.

https://youtu.be/oUHQTywSJYM

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For your entertainment

In my never-ending quest to find things cool and awesome, I have discovered an amazing artist. If you're already familiar with her, yay! If not...

Her name is SJ Tucker, and her style is ... difficult to describe. Mythpunk, folk-rock, neopagan blues might be a good start, but she really defies category. The important thing is this: she is amazingly talented.

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B B King, A Legend Who Now Belongs to the Ages

B B King died this past Thursday at 89. I saw and heard this great Blues Guitarist perform live several times. He also was an influence to other musicians over decades. God is in Heaven and listing to a great jam session.

He was also a WWII veteran. These heroes are getting rarer.

shalimar

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Let it Go….

Has anyone else actually listened to the lyrics for Disney's 'Let it go' and thought that it would make a great TG anthem?

As a silly competition idea does anyone have any other suggestions for an off the wall TG anthem ( e.g. Rodney Atkins "If you're goin' through Hell")?

P.S. First place will automatically go to Andrea as she does this all the time! :)

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