sideways | Entries tagged with singalong blogging

Behold! A character directory, for those who were curious.

I have spent much of this week wincing as I attempt to open and close doors, which is a testament to the workout my something-or-other muscles received after one whole hour of climbing up and down walls. It was fun! My colleague and I intend to go again, once we have both free time and functioning arms.

It doesn't help that we've started a string of Chi Sao drills at studio, which isn't particularly strenuous except for the part where you have to sit in horse stance and hold your arms aloft as you patiently and repeatedly go through the same movements for most of the class. That said, I'm excited to be on the road towards having biceps again. There was a brief period, many years ago, where I could actually see some definition on these things. [pats own shoulder] One day...

In other idle news that has nothing to do with a certain royal family because I'm about ready to scream (four articles, ABC? you're not a tabloid!!), did you know well-known child actor Frankie Muniz went on to do a bit of professional drumming? I didn't until I was idly Wiki-binging, and promptly did a spit-take to realise who I'd been listening to every time Grapevine Valentine came up on my shuffle. It's a catchy song, so, huh. Good job!

Songs of the "you clearly have issues, but if you'd let me love you I'd be so good for you" ilk have a way of rubbing me the wrong way, which is why it took me by completely bewildered surprise when Vienna Teng swooped in with "Never Look Away" and downright seduced the closet romantic in me. I feel wooed. I have been topped by a dance beat. VT could offer me her hand and I might just take it.

Watch on YouTube

I keep idly constructing a post in my head about my personal thoughts on the pros and cons of Dreamwidth vs Tumblr as a primary centre for fandom interaction, but then never get around to writing it - which is, incidentally, one of the points in Tumblr's favour. Whenever I miss it, it's usually for that addictive ease of use and the fact it's a platform designed for short, punchy dispersal of content. As someone tends almost exclusively towards short and punchy over extensive meta or chapter fics, it did work for me.

But Dreamwidth still better represents the kind of fandom and information sharing culture I both like and find healthier. I've even just about stopped startling every time someone mentions their grandkids.

Outside the intersphere, the coronavirus outbreak way down south has been hard to hear about and doubtless even worse to experience. It would be nice if this prompted a reassessment of the aged care system, but at the same time it's not as though its flaws haven't been known for many years. How many royal commissions does one industry need, really? Meanwhile, the media's been showing its arse in a big way by choosing to name two - of numerous - cases of selfish breaches putting others in danger, and effectively ruining these girls' lives in the process. I don't deny their wrong-doing, but I have never much liked judgement by frothing mob and the headline by the Courier Mail in particular was just gross.

A less troubling piece of Australian culture - I fell down the hole of looking up catchy ads from my youth. I know, I know. In my defence, the 90s and 00s had some real bangers. Make Those Bodies Sing, anyone? I still can't talk about bananas without it popping into my head. Slip Slop Slap (tadaa~!) and It's A Big Ad remain visceral memories as well, and you'll be hard-pressed to find an Aussie who can't respond to a call of "one-three-double-o!" like a Pavlovian game of Marco Polo. This whole jaunt was mostly spurred by an American coworker, however, when she admitted she had only recently learned about the origins of Not Happy Jan.

When I am not staring off into the distance contemplating sense-memories of a flawed past that was nonetheless fairly soft and fuzzy for me at the time - or, you know, working - I am still neck-deep in A House of Many Doors. I even puffed the dust off the playlist I started putting together for it yonks back and rounded it out in earnest, and I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with it! Helps that there is an endless fountain of convenient symbolism to drawn on from the canon.

I have been feeling out of sorts in a way that, after a few attempts, I have at last hesitantly diagnosed as "in need of a holiday".

( a little more in that vein )

The good news is, it's a holiday I shall get! And with free movement currently allowed within state borders, I'm very much looking forward to going down south to visit the old crew.

Other than that, I've had some good soft lady singer earworms lately.

"Slow Me Down", Emmy Rossum
the noise of the world is getting me caught up
chasing the clock and I wish I could stop it
just need to breathe, somebody please - slow me down

Single singer a capella? Reminds me a bit of Imogen Heap.

"Union Stone", PHILDEL
you know even stones change shape with time
willingly they compromise; and the sacrifice is mine
for your eyes

A love song, mostly sweet with just a hint of eerie.

"C'mon Man You're Dead", Sahara Beck
and we thought we knew who we were
then we got our fingers burned just to keep up with you

A little punchier, considerably unhappier, very catchy.

Shortly after my last post my town went and picked up a burst of cases, so I've been WFH from the last few weeks while waiting to see if that would settle down. The good news is that it does in fact appear to be settling, both here and nationally; the bad news is that the interim period has been about as frustrating as expected. While I haven't felt distressed, there's a certain predictable malaise that sinks in when the routine gets shredded so entirely. I don't feel focused at work, I don't feel motivated at home, and I definitely do not enjoy both those zones of dissatisfaction being the same damn apartment. Cooking has been a disaster. At least I'm supporting my local businesses regularly.

Still, it hasn't been all bad. I got some overdue deep cleaning done over Easter, watched a nestful of peewees fledge in fine detail, and solved the mystery of the Strange Cat Sounds that have been plaguing me - not a cat, nor a catbird, as first suspected, but a great bowerbird showing off some truly impressive mimicry skills. Ever been meowed at by a bird? It's interesting. A comment from a colleague makes me think he may also be behind the odd whistling kite cries I've been hearing. I hope he has a ladyfriend who admires him appropriately for all this effort.

As the outbreak has been slowly wrested under some degree of control, it's been hard not to fidget restlessly about next steps. My greatest concern - of becoming a carrier - has largely eased at this point, which on the one hand is very nice but on the other hand starts to make it even more difficult to peer mournfully out my window at a wide world that must go unroamed. Of course, all it takes is a small handful being careless to start the whole thing up again in earnest, and I'd rather we be overcautious than seriously beplagued. We've been absurdly lucky - a low population that's highly dispersed, solid cooperation between states and the three tiers of government, and the basic benefits of being a giant island have gone a long way towards helping curb the consequences of some early fumbles. I just miss friends and family, and getting to go down to the sea.

In other news, here are some videos that have sparked joy over the years:

1. The all-women a capella group GQ made some internet waves with their barbershop medley, but I'm also in love with their rendition of Regina Spektor's Samson.

2. Call Me Maybe, as presented by orchestra and choir.

3. Flight of the Conchords consults children to write charity song Feel Inside (And Stuff Like That).

singedsun made a post about video game music recommendations that I've been idly thinking about ever since, so I might as well do something about that. (As well as wholeheartedly second their recommendations of the Kentucky Route Zero and The Last of Us soundtracks!)

My personal predilections lean towards grand cinematic orchestrals. I love string music, strong drumlines, and harmonies. I enjoy drama, and melodrama, and exhilarating high stakes, and I appreciate it when the music takes me there as fully as the storyline does. It does unfortunately mean I unironically enjoy watching trailers, but at least that adds some extra value to my movie tickets.

The soundtracks most likely to stick in my mind thus tend to belong to the big games: Mass Effect, tapping into classic space opera; Dragon Age: Inquisition, valiantly striving to stay somewhere to the left of LotR; Halo, knocking my socks off since I was thirteen years old and my brother and I were making a solemn pact never to start the game until we'd let the main theme run through on the menu screen at least once. Curiously, though, it was Halo 4 that most often had me pausing in the midst of the playing to listen with interest. Belly of the Beast, Arrival, and To Galaxy are a nice sampling of Neil Davidge's take on the franchise. I wouldn't necessarily argue he had the more distinct sound, but there were some very striking melodies in there that I guess just worked for me.

Similarly, I seem to find myself preferring Destiny 2's OST to the first, and it's become a regular go-to if I need some background music at work. Inner Light is the central theme and deservedly so, while Journey is a melancholy counterpart to the sense of loss as you flee the sanctuary that early players will have called home for two years, before building to something more battle-ready. I really enjoy a lot of the gentler tunes as well, though: The Farm, Ikora, Holliday. And the best Destiny song of course remains Deathsinger Dirge. (Do not actually listen to that if you're easily startled.)

Outside of the blockbuster games, you get less of the orchestras but more room for unique twists. Sunless Sea, for example, is a game that for long stretches can involve very little but holding one's finger down on a single key; what makes this level of patient grinding tolerable is the visual and audio aesthetic. It's dark nautical if dark nautical were actually a genre, the sound of sailing on waters full of deep and hungry horrors, and it is a startling shift to breach a new region and suddenly get hit with a sound like Infernal in alarming contrast to the comforting familiarity of home waters. A nod must also be made to Hull is Other People for giving me a good chuckle when I first saw its title.

Oxenfree actually incorporates the background music into the gameplay in a way I found simple but really effective. It's not a soundtrack I would choose to listen to in the car, exactly, but it's a strong complement to the bright neon teen weirdness of the game and, like Sunless Sea, helps keeps things interesting in the slower moments of a storyline that is more about exploring and conversing than combat or puzzles.

And then there is Inside, whose soundtrack is of a flavour so subtle that it mostly does not exist, but deserves a mention solely because the composer recorded it from inside a human skull… which I can't even argue isn't a great addition to the metaphor. It's fascinating because ambient noise comprises most of the audio atmosphere throughout Inside, but it means when music does kick in, a tiny handful of notes end up having almost treble the impact. The interplay of absence and sudden, throbbing presence makes for a very lonely, oppressive experience overall.

Finally: it's not quite a soundtrack song, but I listened to Plasma3Music Remix's take on the Uncharted 4 variant of Nate's theme very nearly on constant delirious repeat during the final weeks of my post-grad. You'd expect there to be some negative associations but, no, I'm still fond.