The last film score I bought and listened to obsessively was from the global blockbuster movie Black Panther.
The composer, Ludwig Göransson, recently won a (well-deserved) Grammy for it, as well as a song of the year Grammy for his work on Childish Gambino’s “This Is America.”
In fact, according to Variety, the Swedish-born producer “became the first artist to win song of the year and best score soundtrack for projects in entirely different music genres.”
It’s no surprise–the Black Panther score is absolutely epic. It hasn’t left my rotation since it dropped.
Here’s a video which explores the producer’s process in making the score. ❤
Comments Off on Heart To Heart Top 10 Video Playlist
Heart To Heart Top 10 Video Playlist
Heart To Heart Top 10 Video Playlist
Like the Top 10 Audio list, this video list offers the top songs from the Heart To Heart Official Playlist, the sixty songs I played religiously over the roughly year and a half that it took to write and edit (and edit, and edit) Heart To Heart. There are also a few other songs from the official list that are thrown in here, just for fun.
Unfortunately, not every song has an official video, some are simply fan-made such as the Dark Shadows tune, “Go All The Way,” which was never officially released.
Artists on this video list include Lorde, Ellie Goulding, Santigold, Icona Pop, Florence + the Machine, and more.
Comments Off on Heart To Heart Top Ten Audio Playlist
Heart To Heart Top Ten Audio Playlist
If you read my last post, you’ll know I had sixty songs on constant rotation while writing Heart To Heart. Like Blood To Blood‘s playlist, the compilation of songs reflect my obsession with always playing music while writing or doing anything in general.
Some of the songs were played more than others, and I always like to check out the “Number of Plays” column in iTunes to get a glance at which tunes I played more than others. Most of this list features female artists that I pretty much wrote to non-stop. The wildcard in the bunch is a song from the Johnny Depp starrer Dark Shadows that was never even released (don’t ask me how it got it in my playlist, I’ll plead the fifth if you do). The only other soundtrack song comes from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; Santigold’s goose pimple-inducing “Shooting Arrows At The Sky.”
This audio playlist features the Top 10 of the list in order of plays, starting with the most played. For the entire official list check here. Enjoy the tunes!
Comments Off on List of Artists – “Sun City” Video – Artists United Against Apartheid
List of Artists – “Sun City” Video – Artists United Against Apartheid
List of Artists – “Sun City” Video – Artists United Against Apartheid – Bruce Springsteen, David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks Photo:30daysout
It’s a day after the passing of the great Nelson Mandela and my mind is going back in time to when apartheid was brought to the attention of the world, and most importantly, youth such as myself, through music.
One thing that came to mind was this 80’s video. I’d seen it many times as a kid growing up in Boston on the awesome V66; a progressive, local music video channel that made MTV look like the joke we all learned it to be later.
While MTV balked at playing videos featuring black artists (Michael Jackson was the first in heavy rotation), V66 routinely played this political video which featured a new music called rap as well as legends of the industry such as Miles Davis. The video featured an exciting cross-section of genres, nationalities and generations; everyone from Ringo Star to Jimmy Cliff to a young-ish Bruce Springsteen to what was left of the original Temptations (David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks).
Below is a list of all the music artists, personalities and celebrities that appeared in the video. If I have missed anybody, please leave a comment and I’ll add after verification.
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Current Playlist: Top 3 Albums May 2013
Current playlist: Top 3 Albums May 2013 – Ed Sheran +
I’m currently writing two pieces: the follow-up to Blood To Blood and a yet-to-be-titled piece revolving around one of its characters, Justin McCarthy. Although, I admit, the Blood To Blood sequel has taken a back seat to the Justin piece which is eating me alive. He’s a very intense guy, that Justin, a flawed character… and his world is intense. Anyone who knows me personally can testify that I am not the same, and it’s truly all Justin’s fault. That’s pretty much all I can say about it for now.
So anyway, here’s the music that’s been serving as a backdrop for my writing over the past month. I’ve been really getting into Ed Sheeran (although he’s more in line with Sawyer Creed’s character in all honesty), but I love his brand of hip-hop-powered acoustic soul and the way he just lays it all out there for everyone to see. The newest artist I’ve been digging is Imagine Dragons. I’m still soaking in their sound and have found it sonically in line with the mood in Justin’s head. Silversun Pickups remains on constant rotation from last month.
Current playlist: Ed Sheeran
Current playlist: Imagine Dragons
Current playlist: Silversun Pickups
Additional artists in current rotation:
Metric Santigold Jay-Z Muse Black Keys Grizzly Bear Cherry Bomb Nirvana Hole Rihanna Beethoven Deadmau5
Last night, I took some time away from tapping on the computer to see my favorite band Muse. This time around they’re touring North America in support of their latest album The 2nd Law, and, as always, they were EPIC. If you have never seen them live, go now.
I took some video; unfortunately the sound is terrible, but you can get a great feeling for the light show. A friend who works at the Boston (TD for the corporate purists) Garden hooked me up with the playlist before the show. I was very excited to see they’d be playing a good mix of the new stuff, not so new stuff (from the previous album Resistance), older stuff (as in Starlight from Black Holes and Revelations) and classics (“Time Is Running Out” and one of my all-time faves “Stockholm Syndrome” from waaaay back in the day). What I didn’t know was they’d nix one of the new songs (“Animals”) for one of my top 3 Muse songs, (“Map of the Problematique”), or that they’d do a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s version of the “Star Spangled Banner” or a great partial cover of “House of The Rising Sun” complete with the audience singing the lyrics. Need I say I was amped?
So now, more than 24 hours later I’m still high on Muse adrenaline. I’m no groupie but I would definitely travel to another city, or country to see this band. Believe me, there is no other band in the world I can say that about. Below you can get an idea as to why their’s is referred to as one of, and sometimes THE, best live rock show on the planet. Their laser shows gets sicker every year.
It’s happened. I haven’t done a weekly post in over a month. But I have a good reason…
You see, I am currently in a wonderful fog. This fog manifests whenever a character and/or his/her circumstances has taken over and demands that I write what is satisfactory and what is true. I have experienced this fog before, but this time it is thicker because I am working on two books simultaneously.
Some mornings I can barely see through this fog straight enough to drive my 9 year old to school.
I’m still learning how to operate successfully in this sometimes disturbing fog. When the characters get demanding, I streamline my life, focus on priorities and say “no” more often to things that can wait. So for now, I feel no pressure to keep up with weekly posts.
However, I must take a breather to tell you about some of the music I’ve been listening to. Since music is always a priority outside and within the fog, the tunes and artists take on a special meaning because they become a part of the creative process; the background as well as part of the fabric of ideas. Some of these tunes I listen to when I’m writing, some when I’m reading, doing research, and some when I’m turning over the plot and characters in my mind at a red light. I’m currently writing two pieces: the follow-up to Blood To Blood and a yet-to-be-titled piece revolving around one of its characters, Justin McCarthy.
Current playlist: Santigold
Current playlist: Adele
Current playlist: Silversun Pickups
Artists in current rotation
Metric Santigold Muse Alpha Blondy System of a Down Adele Grizzly Bear Silversun Pickups Cherry Bomb Kaskade Van Hunt Felix da Housecat Bruno Mars Deadmau5
To answer the question of what’s on my current playlist, I’m listing the most prominent artists on my daily rotation. This list changes as my mood changes and I think you might be surprised at what’s on it today.
These tunes are getting ridiculous play regardless of whether they’re connected to a scene, or character, or not. Many of these songs have a direct relationship to what I’m writing, some of them have no connection whatsoever–at least none that I can see right now. Sometimes, I’ll have music on rotation for no apparent reason until one day it either hits me as to why it’s on the list, or it just starts making sense. Sometimes the characters choose the song(s) and I have little to do with it.
For the record I’m currently writing two pieces: a short story and the follow-up to Blood To Blood.
My trusty Blood To Blood YouTube Playlist includes tunes scooped directly from my iPod playlist, and served up via YouTube. These are the videos to some of the artists listed in the official Blood To Blood playlist. One of these days maybe I’ll be able to pipe everything directly from iTunes, but in the meantime, this little playlist feature on YouTube is kinda cool.
Anyway, I played these artists and their songs hundreds of times while writing Blood To Blood. Many of them are connected to specific scenes from the book. Hole’s “Violet” for example is for when Angel feels her new powers for the first time as she runs through the Maine woods with her family.
I am heartbroken to learn of the passing of my friend, the one and only musical genius, Quincy Jones. Quincy touched my world as both a cherished mentor and as also as someone I looked up to for his deep impact on virtually every form of American music.
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