The Mosher Pit

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
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There’s a song by a Scandinavian band called Covenant called “Like Tears in Rain.” It’s named after a line in Blade Runner. But the song itself, with lyrics that read like a post-apocalyptic Good Friday, always makes me want to write stories where passion beats down vicissitude, where determination conquers despair, where a flower blooms amid the grime and soot of industrial waste and rot.

The book I’m writing, which doesn’t have a title yet, is about a woman who has to unite the powers of good because there is a darker flood coming. And the powers of good don’t want to be united. They’d rather scowl across the aisle at one another and point their fingers at the black and white that each side sees.

Cept, it’s not black and white for these two groups. It’s blue and red. (I swear, when I dreamt this, I wasn’t thinking about politics. The colors are magic, and black magic and white magic implied good and evil, and both alignments are good.)

The book is becoming bigger than me, and every time i sit down to it when there’s no one around and a new wave soundtrack pulsing little gothy synthy beats at me, it gets a little more real.

I’m finally writing what I want to write.

(Okay, maybe the Skinny Puppy is a little too much.)

Posted in Goth/Industrial, Music by: Helen
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