Music Monday: All Up In My Feelings...

Yeah, this week's song is just representative of where I am at the moment. I'm trying to channel this into writing and so far, Scarlet is tending the shrines in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. I'm hoping she will continue to talk to me through these edits (which may be responsible for my mood, because edits are NEVER FUN) and help me tell her story the way it is supposed to be told...

Music Monday: That Pirate Thing

 Yeah, I'm on Tiktok and yeah, I'm loving the whole sea shanty trend. But I'm also loving other trends, like the #birates trend that involves the intersection of LGBTQ+ folx and pirate cosplay. Whew. The pirate cosplay game is strong, and I came across today's Music Monday through a few cosplayers who are acting out bits from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean...I guess? (I've only seen two of them, don't come at me!) 

The video is of the Tiktok creator Colum McGuiness's version and it is haunting. The original is by Hans Zimmer, one of the RULERS of movie soundtracks, and it's got me thinking about "thieves and beggars" that "never shall we die" in terms of the Wraiths of Appalachia WIP. I just need to get all that out of my system before April, right? Enjoy.

Hoist the Colors

by Hans Zimmer

The King and his men
stole the Queen from her bed
and bound her in her bones
the seas be ours and beyond the powers
where we will we'll roam

Yo ho, all hands
Hoist the colors high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die

Yo ho, haul together

Hoist the colours high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die

Yo ho, haul together

Hoist the colors high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die

Yo ho, haul together
Hoist the colors high
Heave ho, thieves and beggars
Never shall we die

Music Monday: Sometimes you just need a good drum

 So this song has just turned up in my Shazam, and if I had to guess I would say it's from one of the myriad of programs that we've been binge-watching during the pandemic. No idea which one. It could also be from Tiktok, considering the overabundance of sea shanties and the like over there lately. 

The lyrics spoke to me about my MC, Scarlet, and I could imagine her Mamó singing this song to her on the front porch of the cabin up in the mountains. But the drums...sometimes you just need a good drum. Enjoy.

Little Margaret by Rhiannon Giddens

Little Margaret, sitting in her high hall chair
Combing back her long, yellow hair
Saw sweet William and his new-made bride
Riding up the road so near

She threw down her ivory comb
Threw back her long yellow hair
Said, "I'll go down and I'll bid him farewell
And I'll nevermore go there"

It was late in the night
They were fast asleep
Little Margaret appeared all dressed in white
Standing at their bed-feet

Saying, "How do you like your snow-white pillow?"
"How do you like your sheet?"
Saying, "How do you like that pretty fair maid
Who lays in your arms asleep?"

Very well do I like my snow-white pillow
Well do I like my sheet
Much better do I like that pretty fair maid
Who stands at my bed-feet

He called his serving man to go
And saddled the dappled roan
And he rode for her father's house that night
Knocked on the door alone

Saying, "Is Little Margaret in her room
Or is she in the hall?"
"Little Margaret's in her coal-black coffin
With her face turned toward the wall"

Unfold, unfold those snow-white robes
Be they ever so fine
For I want to kiss those cold, cold lips
For I know they'll never kiss mine

Three times he kissed her cold, cold hand
Twice he kissed her cheek
But once he kissed her cold cold lips
Then he fell in her arms asleep

Music Monday: Wishing Well

I'm going in a slightly different direction this Music Monday and introducing you to a band that I first discovered on TikTok (I'm one of those old ladies now, it seems) and have since found matches a lot of what I look for in writing music. The first song I found by The Dead South was In Hell I'll Be in Good Company, but then I found this little gem and it speaks to me in reference to the Appalachian project I'm working on - and not just because these fellas are amazing on traditional instruments like banjos. Now, which of the Wraiths are speaking to me through this song?

"Wishing Well"
by The Dead South

So sweet so genuine.
I bet you taste like sweet cherry pie.
So gorgeous every man's jaw drops.
When will you choose my straw.

So I find you put flowers to shame.
You've got all the guys playing your game.
In the moonlight I will ask you to dance.
Will you let me taste sweet romance.

I throw my penny into the wishing well.
What that wish was I will never tell.
Can I be by your side at night?
Can I be your everlasting light.

I will be your warrior.
I'll be the one who takes care of you.
Just let me know when shit get tight.
Oh baby please just let me ignite.

I'll be the one to control disease.
I'll change the weather anytime you please.
Everyone will know your name if you please just be my queen.

I throw my faith into the wishing well.
What that wish was I will never tell.
Can I be by your side at night?
Can I be your everlasting light.

I throw my fate into that wishing well.
I pray to god that I don't go to hell.
No no no...

I throw my fate into that wishing well.
I pray to god that I don't go to hell.
No no no...

I throw my fate into that wishing well.
I pray to god that I don't go to hell.
No no no...

I throw my penny into the wishing well.
What that wish was I will never tell.
Can I be by your side at night?
Can I be your everlasting light.
Can I be your everlasting light.

Notes from Exile: End of a Weird Nano/Semester/Year/etc.

Well, that's that.

Well, that happened.

It happened a week ago, and I don't really have anything to say about it other than I am clearly NOT a horror writer and should stick to what I know, which is character-driven, has paranormal elements, and possibly includes some romance. 

I don't know what Legacy is going to become, but I haven't completely thrown it in the dumpster fire that has been 2020.

So here we are, in the last month of one of the weirdest years on record. I'm sure that the survivors of the Spanish Flu felt a similar sense of relief/trauma/fear mixed with a healthy dose of What the Hell was THAT? I'm also battling a lot of apathy, if I'm honest, about everything in my life, and I know I'm not alone in that.

My semester at the DayJob™ ended this past Friday and the students are in exam week now. They all went home at Thanksgiving and everything was online afterward, a decision that I think was very well reasoned. I mean, until we have a vaccine for this thing for a few months, I think that online everything is the way to go, but no one asked me. 

The end of the semester also signals the end of the calendar year, and as it always seems now that I work in academia, suddenly there is a flurry of things to do for Christmas/New Year. Only there isn't. I had so hoped that we would be going to the UK for Christmas this year. We were supposed to go in August for my father-in-law's 80th birthday but that didn't happen either.

Christmas hasn't been the same, if I'm honest, since we lost my father in April of 2018. Thanksgiving is hard now, without my mother, but Christmas was always my dad's holiday. The man was not cheap in his decoration of their house - garlands hung from every low hanging light fixture and there were wreaths with big red bows on every window. They had stockings on the mantel with a tangle of garland and plastic reindeer/Santa above it. Candles were in the windows that burned all night every night. Once he was no longer able to do these things, some of the sparkle went out of Christmas for me. 

I haven't found it since. Being unable to travel, unable to even go out for a long, loud, boozy meal with my friends here has made me just want to get this season over with and move on to 2021. I mean, I tried - I put up our tree and got hives from "Artificial Christmas Tree Syndrome." 

And this time next week I will be on Winter Break from Clemson - maybe then I can find my mojo. Or maybe I can get some editing done, or at least write a better, more uplifting blog post. Thanks for spending this year in exile with me. I hope you're well, and that your holiday season is as magical and bright as you can make it this year.