The Mosher Pit

The interactive memoir and blogspace of Helen Catherine Heath Thompson Mosher.

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Archives

Is there a 12-step group for compulsive writers?

Archive for the 'Entertainment' Category

January 31st, 2010

JK Rowling on the benefits of failure

JK Rowling’s 2008 Harvard Commencement speech. Found via TED.

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

Posted in Authors, Link of the Day, Pictures by: Helen
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August 8th, 2009

50 Concerts

[I'm starting to get tagged for memes on FB more often. It's ok, I haven't been blogging here enough lately, right? Pregnancy is so distracting. Anyhow, I've forgotten more concerts/shows than I can remember--life of a former music critic, I guess.]

Here are the rules. Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you’ve seen in concert.

Should you choose this challenge, here’s what you do (if you’re doing this through Facebook, anyway):
Copy my note. Click on “notes” under tabs on your profile page. Select “write a new note” in the top corner. Paste the copy in the body of the note. Make your list. Change the number at the top, and add your title. Once you’ve saved, don’t forget to tag friends (including me) on the right.

1. Duran Duran
2. Depeche Mode
3. Sting
4. U2
5. Nine Inch Nails
6. The Damned
7. Nick Cave
8. Radiohead
9. Siouxsie and the Banshees
10. The Faint
11. Cyndi Lauper
12. Bella Morte
13. Gary Numan
14. VNV Nation
15. GWAR
16. Conjure One
17. Dead Can Dance
18. REM
19. Poison (Mike Nelson’s brother was responsible for this.)
20. Psychedelic Furs
21. Concrete Blonde
22. David Bowie
23. Peter Murphy
24. The Rollins Band
25. The Cure
26. Tapping the Vein
27. Erasure
28. The BoDeans
29. Apoptygma Berzerk
30. The Pixies
31. Low
32. Strawberry Switchblade
33. Corrosion of Conformity
34. Apocalyptica
35. The Dresden Dolls
36. Social Distortion
37. Covenant
38. The Smithereens
39. Love Spirals Downwards
40. Debbie Harry
41. And One
42. Carfax Abbey
43. Cracker
44. Ego Likeness
45. black tape for a blue girl
46. Stromkern
47. The Gossip
48. Voivod
49. Rufus Wainwright
50. Voltaire

Posted in Music by: Helen
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July 26th, 2009

My Life According to Duran Duran

Because Kelly A. tagged me, and I haven’t done this one in a while and for some reason have never picked my first favorite band:

Using only SONG names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to at least 15 people and include me. You can’t use the band I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as “my life according to (band name)”

Pick your Artist:
Duran Duran

Are you a male or female?
Girls on Film

Describe yourself:
Notorious

How do you feel:
Hungry Like the Wolf

Describe where you currently live:
Planet Earth

If you could go anywhere where would you go?
Ordinary World

Your favorite form of transportation:
The Chauffeur

Your best friend is:
Friends of Mine

What’s the weather like:
Hold Back the Rain

Favorite time of day:
New Moon on Monday

If your life was a TV show, it would be called:
All She Wants Is

What is life to you:
What Happens Tomorrow

Your fear:
Come Undone

What is the best advice you have to give:
Reach Up for the Sunrise

Thought for the Day:
New Religion

How I would like to die:
Red Carpet Massacre

My soul’s present condition:
Shadows on Your Side

My motto:
My Own Way

[Tags will appear in Facebook. But if you're one of my blog readers who doesn't regularly tune in to Facebook, consider yourself tagged too, but only if you want to be.]

Posted in 80s, Memery, Music by: Helen
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July 9th, 2009

Missing DJ Helcat

Even though I didn’t actualize on my DJness until this past decade, I actually got my start at WMWC, the a.m. college radio station at Mary Washington. My friends Beth and Jason helped me produce a comedy/commentary show we called “The Montana Report,” and I was Montana Fountainbleu–probably my first of many alter egos that I’d later parlay into internet-pen-names and various short-story protagonists. I’m not sure that we were ever as funny as we thought we were, but we sure entertained the hell out of each other, at least.

Elder son is attending a radio camp at WGMU next week, and I can’t wait to ask him if they still have pots and carts–that is, potentiometers and NAB cartridges. I doubt it. I was on the tail edge of analog production in those heady late 1980s-days, both with regard to yearbook layouts and radio show logistics. I went the print route, and as such, I know all about how desktop publishing completely changed publication production. But aside from being much more comfortable with CDs and mp3s than with vinyl (even though I originally learned to spin and mix on vinyl), I haven’t kept up with what’s happened in broadcasting over the years.

And since Elder Son has been ruminating over producing a podcast–possibly even two–and I really like his ideas, I thought I’d give him a leg up on understanding how broadcast radio works. The best podcasts generally seem to come from folks who have an understanding of radio broadcast, and if Elder Son takes a liking to the medium I’m willing to invest a little money in making sure he has the tools to capture content to his heart’s content.

So watch this space. Elder son might be making a venture into new media before his 17th birthday, and he has just the mom to help him find his audience.

In the meantime, I think it’s time I turned my attention back to producing a podcast of my own.

Posted in Creative, Family, Life, Music by: Helen
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November 22nd, 2008

Bring back the music!

Not an 80s set! Been broadening my horizons lately, and these are some relatively new tunes (modern alternative, I think) I’ve been digging of late, put together into a somewhat coherent set. Enjoy!

Posted in Music, Playlists by: Helen
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October 16th, 2008

Helcat on Blip.fm: the Apocalypse Party

Since I’m lame and don’t have a rig anymore, I have to resort to social music sets to get my earbugs out. I love blip.fm — it’s the service I use to embed a tune on the top-right corner of my blog. I haven’t been using playlist.com as much, but that’s more a function of not being in myspace so much ever since most of my missed connections are now on Facebook.

However, I have to dismantle old playlists on blip before I can put together a new one, and since I’ve had a request to restore my Cellar Door set to the current one (those crazy high school friends I’m back in touch with!) I really want to archive the set I chose for my apocalypse party, in case I ever have a chance to spin it real time.

So, without further ado, Helcat’s economic meltdown party from Sept. 16. Actually, it’s been a month, about frigging time for me to post a new one!

Until The End Of The World – U2
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) – R.E.M.
1999 – Prince
Love Shack – B-52s
Groove Is In The Heart – Dee Lite
Love Is Noise (DM/DS Death and Glory Mix – The Verve
No One Lives Forever – Oingo Boingo
Til The End Of Time – DeVotchka
Once In A Lifetime – Wolfsheim
What You Feel – The Cast Of Buffy The Vampire Slayer
True Faith – New Order | play
Welcome Tomorrow – Love and Rockets
All Tomorrow’s Parties – Bryan Ferry
Come Tomorrow – Chicane
Ordinary World – Simon Le Bon & Pavarotti
Save a Prayer – Duran Duran
Let the Day Begin – The Call
Final Man – Covenant
Dead Man’s Party – Oingo Boingo
All You Zombies – The Hooters
Somnambulistic – Information Society
I will survive – Cake

My favorite discovery during this was Come Tomorrow, by Chicane, typically known for being an ibiza trance act. While you can hear the trance influence in the music, it’s considerably more organic.

Join me any time on blip at http://blip.fm/djhelcat!

Posted in 80s, Blip.fm, Music by: Helen
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October 5th, 2008

Laura Brino

Light. Lifting. Toe-tapping in the most unsung-hero kind of way. That’s how we felt last weekend in Annapolis when we ran across Laura Brino playing outside an art gallery at the annual Fall Festival there. The lovely thing about Music from the Streets, or my Found Music series as I call it on YouTube, is that is the randomness of discovery that makes this what it is. But it’s now officially a series, and I’m really delighted to bring you this piece from one of Annapolis’ own. Sorry for the abrupt ending — I like to include a short interview when I can but my batteries were low (and my iPhone seems determined to make a cameo in the bottom of the screen). So, without further ado, enjoy the jazz-indie-folksy stylings of Ms. Brino here:

Learn more about her music at laurabrino.com.

Posted in Music, Music from the Streets by: Helen
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August 28th, 2008

Coming soon to a bar near you

I’m really happy to announce that I’ll be collaborating with Mark Clay in the near future to actually put out some live music again. Good chance that we’ll produce some originals, too, as we both are songwriters. But we’ll also be putting our imprint on some music from the 80s.

Posted in Music by: Helen
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August 5th, 2008

Pandor—uhhhhhhhhh

Usually, among my faithy colleagues, I’m the early adopter for most new toys. Being a DJ in my former life, it’s hard to let the control go, so I’d never given Pandora a look until the Very Rev. Nick Knisely, who’s oh-so-very VERY (heh, had to!) asked me why I hadn’t told him about its musicky goodness. I was caught clueless, and sheepish. See, I use Playlist.com to build embeddable playlists, Blip.fm to microblog my various earworms, iLike.com (via Facebook) to get updates from bands I like, and Last.fm to explore music (and I still use gnod, so there). So, I really didn’t think I needed another music tagging service to keep track of.

Nick+ had mentioned Pandora had iPhone integration so I decided to give it a whirl. Oh, Lord. See, I’m a woman of many genres, and finally I have a way to broadcast all of them on separate channels, tune into whichever I want, and share the results in all their crazy mishmoshedness.

So far I’ve set up Radio Helcat 80s, Radio Helcat Industrial, Radio Helcat Bluegrass and Radio Helcat Modern. And I’m quite sure I’m going to have to set up a Baroque channel, a movie score channel, and .. hmm. Eventually they’re going to have to cut me off.

But they, like every other social music service, totally lack any songs by Modern English other than that one we shall not name. That’s going to be the barometer, for me, of how fabulous a service is, because I will not rest until “Someone’s Calling” gets the love it deserves. (And for that matter, becomes my ring tone.)

Posted in 80s, Bluegrass, Goth/Industrial, Music, Social Media by: Helen
1 Comment

July 24th, 2008

The power of nature

Last night, I was headed west on Interstate 66 at about 8 pm; looming ahead of me was something dark and menacing. While yammering into my cellphone to Utterz about it, I observed that being forced off the grid brings out my “voice,” that is, my writing voice. I started on this whole intarwebz thing 13 years ago wanting to meet and learn from other writers, after all.

Oh, but you do write, you say. You entertain us with this thing called blog and you have several hundred published articles blah blah blah. Yep. But I also have a slew of unpublished short stories and two unfinished novels.

And it may be that I’m an essay writer, after all. There’s something about being about to channel creative energy through one’s own experience; it’s something many writers do in terms of adapting their lives to fiction. But I seem to prefer reporting on the experience over distilling its essence and remixing it into fiction.

But then a storm like last night happens, and I find myself huddling in a corner of the library’s shelter area, a small section of the offices at the very center of the building, and had exactly 10 minutes left on my laptop battery. I wrote this on my private (but still online) journal to explain the difference between the energy I was feeling and the energy everyone else was putting off:

what’s really funny is listening to everyone say “I just saw major lightning!” Yeah. I saw a wall of charcoal-colored sky with the disco lights on full blast, an army of water marching with malice in its collective, soot-encrusted heart. I blinked.

I’d revise that now to say that I tried to stare down that wall to better illustrate what I mean by “I blinked,” but aside from that, yeah. A violent thunderstorm that eats the sky like that is like nature throwing an anarchistic disco party, and I wasn’t inclined to dance.

Posted in Life, Nature, Speculative Fiction, Writing by: Helen
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