Most of my grading is done until Saturday, when I give an 8:00 in the morning final exam. Yeah, really looking forward to it. I'm now figuring out all the grades to turn in, which will take time but is not so taxing as grading itself.
I even decided to visit blogs today and then found the captcha thing was apparently down. After writing half a dozen comments on various blogs and then being unable to post them I gave up. Hopefully the verification system will be back up and working tomorrow and I will try any new blog posts that come up.
I'm looking forward to doing a little reading. Haven't had much chance in the past few days. I did write a flash fiction story yesterday. Only 438 words. It came right from a dream I had, with minimal changes. I'm calling it "See Your Night, and Raise You Hell."
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Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Blogging Absence
Getting my final papers in today (Thursday), and gave two tests this week that I need to grade. Will have another test on Monday. Senior Grades have to be turned in by noon on Tuesday of next week. This is a long way around of saying I'm going to be absent from the blogosphere for a bit, probably until at least Wednesday morning. I trust you will all be well.
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Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Star Trek Dream
I dreamt last night that I was on the set for the filming of
the final scenes of a Star Trek: The Next
Generation episode. Picard, Troi, Riker and Crusher had beamed down to a
planet and been trapped by a group of aliens whose ship had crashed there.
These aliens were reptilian, an apparent offshoot of the Gorn. Something in the
planet’s atmosphere was causing the Gorns to mutate into near-mindless
alligator type creatures. The ones who were still OK insisted that the humans,
who were unaffected by the condition, help them solve the problem before they
were all lost.
In the scene I witnessed, the Trek crew discovered that the
problem had something to do with unequal air pressures inside and outside the
bodies of the aliens. These pressures were causing their skulls and bodies to
distort. Once the Trek crew figured out the problem, the aliens had a device
that was able to equalize the pressures and prevent the mutations from
occurring.
It was clear to me that the actors thought the whole concept
was very weak and they weren’t really enjoying themselves. As the last scene
was filmed and the actors headed for the dressing room area, I was walking
along with them and saw lots of head shaking. As Patrick Stewart was unbuttoning
the top of his uniform he made the comment: “That was insane.”
I guess that’s why this episode never aired!
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Thursday, April 17, 2014
Our Yard
It’s Easter Break and I’m at my computer at home instead of
at work this morning. That means I get to look out the window at our bird
feeders, which I just filled about five minutes ago. I love our yard. The
activity is nonstop. In the past few minutes I’ve counted 30 indigo buntings, a
beautiful little blue bird about sparrow size, 5 blue jays, 5 doves, 3
cardinals, 2 brown thrashers, 2 red bellied woodpeckers, 1 red headed
woodpecker, and 6 squirrels. There’ll be a lot more doves, cardinals, and
squirrels across the day.
Last night we had our usual posse of raccoons. At one point
after Lana had thrown out the scraps I heard something fall over on the back
porch and went to look. A coon was up on the railing and walked right up to the
glass back door and peered in while I was standing there. A little later I saw
a possum in the yard.
I grew up in the country, of course, and have seen a lot of
critters in my life. I think I’m enjoying them more now than I ever did before,
though. I’ve spent most of my life either daydreaming or working. And whenever
I’m doing either of those things, I do them in an intensely immersed state that
doesn’t allow for many distractions. Finally now, in my fifth decade, I’m
starting to look up occasionally from whatever has my attention at the moment
and just watch the life around me. I owe
Lana for a lot of this. She’s taught me quite a bit about just experiencing
without having to analyze. It’s rather a joy.
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Saturday, April 12, 2014
Skyrim Victory
I’ve posted here before about my favorite video game, which
is Skyrim. This is an heroic fantasy game, in which one can play various types
of heroes in a fantasy setting full of demi-gods, assassins, wizards
and dragons. I’ve chosen to be a Nord warrior, although you can also take the
thief’s route, the assassin’s route, or the mage’s route. The Nord are a hardy
Northern race akin roughly to Vikings. My character’s name is Ruane.
There is an overall story arch to the game in which the
player becomes the Dovakin, meaning kin to dragons. Dragons had disappeared
from the land but something is now bringing them back to life, and the Dovakin
has to solve that mystery and defeat the enemy causing it. Along the way there
are lots of side entanglements, including having to choose between the southern
empire (basically Rome) that rules the land or a local uprising that hopes to
throw the empire out of Skyrim. You also have to deal with vampires and werewolves
along the way, or become one, and explore many caves, grottos, and ruins that
contain monsters.
I’ve now solved the major mystery of the game but am still
playing some side quests. I really like the exploration part of the
game, and there’s a couple of other elements that I like very much that Lana laughs
at me about. First, you get to smith up your own weapons and armor from materials you find in your journeys. Then you can add enchantments such as fire or
frost resistance, enhanced archery skill, added shock damage etc to the weapons
and armor you make. I’ve had tremendous
fun doing this, and have continued it after the main quest is over.
Second, books exist in the Skyrim universe--all kinds of
books, such as spell tomes, history texts, explorer’s journals and so on. And
you can acquire houses in the game that have bookshelves in them where you can
add or take away books. I’ve steadily been acquiring all the books I can find
as I’ve gone through the game, and now that the major part is over I’ve started
filling my bookshelves. In this aspect the game is much like my real life. And
I take joy in it.
I’ll mention one more fun element of the game to end this
post. A skill that players develop as they move through the game is the ability
to “shout.” Shout is a magical attack and there are shouts that can freeze
things, set things on fire, slow down time and many others. My favorite shout
is one called “Unrelenting Force,” which hits the enemy with a intense blast of
air that can send them flying. Lana also gets a kick out of this shout and has
actually put up a video on You Tube of me using this shout on various targets.
The music she set it to really makes the vid. If you’d like to check it out, it’s
HERE. (The horse you see in some of the
clips is Shadow Mere, a pretty cool companion beast that you can get in the
game.)
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Tuesday, April 08, 2014
Oh the Cruelty, or is that Cruelness?
Well, been almost a week since I posted on the blog. I
don’t know how time gets away from me. For one, we had preregistration last
week, and I gave a test on Friday and got 30 essays from another class on
Friday. Lots of grading over the weekend.
I had also been doing some writing. I finished a short
horror story called “Long Dead Woman in a Black Dress,” which I’ll be
submitting soon. I’m about halfway done with an SF story that carries the
working title “Electric Love in Blue.” And I’ve drafted the first scene of a
new Krieg story, which I’m calling “Where All the Souls are Hollow.”
Then came Sunday. On Sunday, all the plumbing in the
house seemed to clog up, and it’s gotten worse. Plumber is supposed to come
today (Tuesday) and I hope the news won’t be too bad. I don’t know about you,
but these kinds of domestic crises take a toll on me. I know I should roll with
the flow (or non-flow considering our current issue), but I just find it hard
to concentrate when dealing with this kind of stuff. I let it get to me too
much.
On the review front, I think the interview over on
Prashant’s blog came off well. I sure appreciate him putting it up. On the less
positive side, I also noticed a couple of days ago that Bitter Steel has a new review and it is a 1 star stomp. Looks like
it went up about a month ago but this is the first I’ve seen it. I apparently achieved the notable level of “tripe!” This is actually the first 1 star review I’ve
ever gotten for anything so I have to keep it in perspective.
Whether reviews are good or bad, I always read them to
see if I can pick up any insights into what readers like or don’t like. This
one was not very helpful, though. Besides the “tripe” label, he adds: “Then I
stumbled upon the word 'cruelness', and I knew that it was a lost cause. Out of
all the actual words the author could have chosen, he picked 'cruelness'. The
word is 'cruelty', Shakespeare.”
Of course, cruelness is a perfectly good word that is
found in dictionaries everywhere and is even counted as a word in Scrabble. I
remember considering “cruelty” in the context of the story but I felt that ‘cruelness’
had the better sound in that particular situation. So, if the use of “cruelness” instead of “cruelty”
can make such an impact on this particular reader, there was no way I’d ever
reach him anyway. Frankly, I’ve been much more troubled by 3 star reviews that
took the work seriously and found something lacking.
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Wednesday, April 02, 2014
Reviews, Updated
Updated News:
Prashant, over at Chess, Comics, Crosswords, Books, Music, Cinema, has now put up the review of Killing Trail, and there is an interview with yours truly. I hope you'll get a chance to drop by and leave a comment. I'll be checking back and forth during the day to answer any questions that folks might have for me.
Also, Aimless Writer (Jeanne) still has her review of Harmland: Dark Tales up over on her blog. I'm very glad to see she enjoyed it. If you'd like, you can read her review here. She has a couple of books of her own available that you should check out.
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Prashant, over at Chess, Comics, Crosswords, Books, Music, Cinema, has now put up the review of Killing Trail, and there is an interview with yours truly. I hope you'll get a chance to drop by and leave a comment. I'll be checking back and forth during the day to answer any questions that folks might have for me.
Also, Aimless Writer (Jeanne) still has her review of Harmland: Dark Tales up over on her blog. I'm very glad to see she enjoyed it. If you'd like, you can read her review here. She has a couple of books of her own available that you should check out.
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Saturday, March 29, 2014
Fits and Starts: Drips and Drabs
I've actually written a fair number of words lately but ultimately have not made a lot of "progress." I've started four different projects that would be novel length but all four fizzled out fairly quickly. One will eventually be finished; I just don't really feel like working on it right at the moment. Of the others, one will probably go nowhere because I was trying to capture an urban fantasy vibe and it just isn't my genre. I've tried it before and never been able to complete such a piece. I know what the problem is on the third work and it needs rewriting because my scenes were too much telling and not enough showing. That I can do but I've got to get the energy up and school has been pretty draining lately.
I did finish a couple of short stories and some memoir stuff. Some of that is submitted now and I hope for good results. I've been noting a decided lack of focus and discipline in myself of late. I know what I need to do but I'm not feeling too guilty about letting the work slide. Anyway, as I've learned over the years, even putting words on paper in drips and drabs can result in finished work. It just takes time.
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I did finish a couple of short stories and some memoir stuff. Some of that is submitted now and I hope for good results. I've been noting a decided lack of focus and discipline in myself of late. I know what I need to do but I'm not feeling too guilty about letting the work slide. Anyway, as I've learned over the years, even putting words on paper in drips and drabs can result in finished work. It just takes time.
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Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Today's Writing Quiz
Today, my writing students are going to get the following, non-graded quiz. All the examples here are taken from actual student papers handed in to me in the past. Although there are some outright errors below, most of the sentences are serviceable but wordy or convoluted.
What is either wrong or weak
about the following sentences? Revise to
remove those problems.
1. In order to analyze their results, the
researchers used an ANOVA.
______________________________________________________
2. The study would seem to suggest that males
are more physically aggressive than females.
______________________________________________________
3. It has been found that honey bees can detect
ultraviolet radiation.
______________________________________________________
4. The study examined the role of anxiety levels
in racial stereotyping.
______________________________________________________
5. The researchers were interested in studying
the effects of temperature on test taking.
______________________________________________________
6. The patient exhibited flattened effect.
______________________________________________________
7. When the participant was exposed to the test
stimulus they showed a strong reaction.
______________________________________________________
8. Charles Darwin finds that there are remarkable
similarities between humans and other primate species.
______________________________________________________
9. There have been a lot of studies done to
investigate the role of anger in punishment.
______________________________________________________
10. Heroin is an elicit drug.
______________________________________________________
11. They gathered data from 17 women; all of whom
were taking birth control pills.
______________________________________________________
12. Participants were asked to sign a consent
form before filling out the survey.
______________________________________________________
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Sunday, March 23, 2014
Noir at the Bar: The Readings:
So I made it the Noir at the Bar
reading at the Irish House on St. Charles last night. I got there a bit early
because I’d heard they had good food and figured to eat and drink a beer or two
before the festivities began. Jāson Stuart, the organizer, and his wife, Karen, were also
early so we all sat down to a meal. Karen and I had the house burger and we both
agreed it was great. Jāson had the big Irish breakfast, with various kinds of
sausages and puddings. Looked delicious and I’ll have to try that next time. Wonder
of wonders, we talked books and writing. Who’d a thunk it?
Folks began to trickle in and we
actually started the reading around 8:00. Jāson read a short, poignant piece
from a work that should be out soon with a very intriguing main character.
Heather Graham then read a piece from one of her published works. This was the
first time I’d met Ms. Graham. She was very nice. The great Megan Abbott read
next, from a work in progress. Everyone admired her description of rattlesnakes! I didn’t get a chance to talk to her a lot
but did mention knowing her mother, Patti Abbott. She laughed and said that
everyone knew her mother.
Laura Lippman was unable to appear,
but we also had readings from myself, Greg Herren, and Nate Southard. Greg was
the only person besides me with a piece set in the New Orleans area. I believe
he said the title of his tale was: “A Streetcar named Death.” Nate and his wife
came all the way from Austin, giving them the win in the travel department. Nate’s
piece featured a small town sheriff who is not only dealing with crimes but
with the onset of Alzheimer’s. What an interesting concept.
Besides the readers, there were probably
about a dozen other folks there, as well as some people listening in who had
come to the bar because it was…well…a bar. I have to call out three of my
Xavier colleagues for coming out to support me: Elizabeth and Elliott Hammer,
and Kate Eskine. Kate brought hubby along. He didn’t seem to have been dragged
kicking and screaming. Elizabeth is such a sweetheart she even wore a hat with
a “Charles Gramlich Fan Club” attachment. It was great to have them there and I
thank them. I am not worthy!
After it was all over, several of us
sat around and visited and had another drink or two. We talked more writing and
traded some books among ourselves. I really had a good time. I don’t get out a
lot and this kind of event always makes me wonder why since I have a good time
when I do. Thanks to Jāson for organizing and to everyone who read or came to
listen. I’m hearing rumors of another one next year so that sounds pretty cool.
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Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Noir at the Bar
I'll be here on Saturday night this week, March 22. I'm really looking forward to it. A number of authors are going to be reading their noir tales, including Megan Abbott and, I think, Heather Graham. I'll be reading a piece called "The Finest Cut," which appeared in my Harmland collection.
The reading takes place at the Irish House: 1432 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130. It's from 7:30 to 10:30. I have no idea what time I'm likely to be reading. But there is booze there! Come drop by and say hello if you can. Should be a great time.
Contact information for the Irish House is: (504) 595-6755
There's also a page on facebook about it.
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Sunday, March 16, 2014
Favorite Movies: Part 2
Here's part two of my list of favorite movies, and the ones that have had some influence on my fiction.
6. Alien. I consider this my
second favorite horror movie. It’s far more horror than SF to me, although it
combines those elements. It has definitely influenced some of my more graphic
horror. I know Sigourney Weaver from this film, and I would recognize the name
of the Captain if I heard it, although I can’t think of it now. Despite that,
there’s one element of this film that irritates me, and that is how fast the
alien grows after it “hatches.”
7. Aliens.
The sequel to Alien is a very
different movie. It has horror elements but it is primarily adventure SF, which
I do enjoy writing. There are some great dialogue lines in this one, and some
great characters. I know Weaver, of course, and would certainly recognize the
names of several of the other actors if I heard them. This was an influence on Under the Ember Star.
8. Predator. This movie nicely combines
horror and adventure. The SF elements are really quite minimal. I know Arnold,
of course, and Apollo Creed. I know that’s not the real name of the actor but
the character he played on Rocky.
There are elements of this movie that influenced Cold in the Light.
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1978. Also
a horror movie as opposed to a true SF film. Very enjoyable. I like the first
version quite a bit too, but this is the
first version I “saw” and I’ll always have a soft spot for it. This film was
remade a couple of times later and was horribly mangled. Only the first two
versions are worth seeing. I would say this has influenced some of my horror.
10. Brotherhood of the Wolf. This is a
French film starring a number of actors whose names I wouldn’t even recognize.
It’s based on real historical events, a “beast” that terrorized the French
countryside and was widely believed at the time to be a werewolf. The movie
puts quite a bit different spin on the “beast.” It’s got great action and
wonderful visuals. I enjoyed this enough to go and buy a copy. I did so,
partly, because I figured it wouldn’t show very often on TV. I was right.
Honorable Mentions:
11. The Exorcist. One
of the few movies that actually creeps me out.
12.
Excalibur. A dramatic retelling of
elements from the Arthur legend.
13. Raiders of the
Lost Ark. Great pulp adventure.
14. The Good, the
Bad, and the Ugly. Western mythmaking with Clint Eastwood.
15. Young
Frankenstein. I seldom watch movie comedies but this is one of my favorites.
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Friday, March 14, 2014
Favorite Movies: Part 1:
I quite often make a point of saying that films mean almost nothing to
me. It’s true. I watch movies. I enjoy some of them. Almost always I promptly
forget them and can’t even remember their titles within a few days. I have no
idea about the names of most actors. Lana often tells me the names when we’re
watching movies, but within fifteen minutes I couldn’t give you that name. I
think I’ve looked up something on the internet about movies or actors maybe a
dozen times in my life. I’ve bought exactly six movie DVDs in my life, three of
which I got in a package deal for about 3 bucks (and have never watched since I bought them). Lana has bought two others that I might well
have bought myself under the right circumstances. Yet, I cannot say that movies
haven’t affected me. And there have been some that have influenced my writing.
So, instead of bashing movies too badly today, I’m going to actually talk about
a few movies I really do like and which have been influences on my fiction. To avoid making these posts too long, I'll do it in two parts.
1. Once
Upon a Time in the West. This is my favorite western, and perhaps my
favorite movie. It stars Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, and Henry Fonda. Bronson plays a gunfighter known only as “Harmonica,”
and Fonda is the primary villain. This is really the classic myth of the old
west and I do own a copy of it. I didn’t actually buy the copy, though. It was
a gift. There are lines of dialogue and certain descriptions in the Talera
series and in Cold in the Light that
evoke elements of this film.
2. The Outlaw Josey Wales. This is my
second favorite western, starring Clint Eastwood, of course. I couldn’t tell
you any of the other actors in it. It is actually based on a novel and is one
of the very few cases in history where—for me—the movie is a whole lot better
than the book. This also had an influence on the Talera series.
3. The 13th Warrior, starring
Antonio Banderes and a bunch of other actors I don’t know. This is my favorite
heroic fantasy movie. It’s based on Michael Crichton’s Eaters of the Dead, which is a retelling of the Beowulf story. Both
the book and the movie are very good. The movie has been more of an influence
on my work than the book, primarily because of the very strong visuals. This
movie’s influences can be seen in some of my heroic fantasy, such as “A Whisper
in Ashes.”
4. The Thing, John Carpenter version. This
is my favorite horror movie. I know the faces of many of the actors in it from
other films but the only name I know is Kurt Russell. I thought the casting was
excellent, though, and Carpenter got great performances from all the cast
members. This has definitely influenced my horror fiction.
5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The one
exception to my “I don’t care about TV/Movies” feelings is Star Trek: The Original Series. I will watch anything and
everything about the original series and have seen every episode and film more
than once. I’ve even watched the cartoon series, which featured the voices and
likenesses of most of the original cast. I know almost all the actors names, which is
unheard of for me with any other series ever. I even know the names of many of
the guest stars and have several of their autographs. Wrath of Khan is by far the best of the movies made with the
original cast and I’ve watched it so many times I largely have it memorized. Perhaps
strangely, however, it has had little actual influence on my writing. I’m sure
it’s influenced overall themes but not many details of the Star Trek Universe
enter my fiction. Part of it is that I seldom write SF of this type, and part
is that I know the stuff so well that I automatically reject it for specifics
in my own fiction. The one exception is probably the Spock eyebrow arch, which
I have had characters do in my stories. Lana bought a copy of this but I fully
endorsed the purchase.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2014
A Review of Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy
I read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy quite a few years ago now, and reviewed it at the time in various places. I never posted the review on my blog, however, so here it is:
Book Review:
Blood Meridian: Or the Evening
Redness in the West: (Vintage,
1992, 335 pages). This was the first book I read by Cormac McCarthy. It is both
beautifully written, and deeply flawed. The prose is often scintillating. McCarthy’s
command of the language and his use of metaphor and vocabulary is extraordinary,
enough to make me envious. On the other hand, the flaws (as I see them) often
make this book a difficult read.
First, in the modern literary tradition, McCarthy attempts
to make his book as inaccessible as possible to readers. He eschews the use of
normal dialogue punctuation and often leaves out helpful speaker tags. There
are “no” quotation marks to indicate dialogue and I was incredibly irritated by
this. It smacks of elitism. I see no benefit to it and the costs are
considerable. There were many places where it was difficult to recognize
transitions in dialogue and who was speaking. The writer’s job is to make his or
her prose as accessible as possible. Note, I don’t say “easily accessible.”
McCarthy’s work almost demands rereading for the quality of his prose, his
imagery, and his meaning. Why, then, make a sometimes difficult task more
difficult by doing something as silly as leaving out quotation marks.
There were two other major flaws in this work, flaws that
prevent it from reaching the level of artistry that it had the potential to
reach and which the cover blurbs suggested it had obtained. First, and most
critically, there is little “story” in this tale. I don’t believe story is the
“only” reason for writing. I appreciate beautiful language and surrealism, but
story is important and is needed to carry a long work like this. A book cannot
be a masterpiece without story.
For the most part in this book, a young man, fourteen
years of age when the tale begins and known only as “the kid,” wanders around
in Texas and Mexico observing and participating in various acts of extreme
violence. He has no goals (realistic perhaps but not particularly conducive to
story). He simply survives one scenario after another with little more than
animalistic reactance. His “will to live” may be remarkable, but when the
blurbs say that this book should stand alongside Moby Dick I think they
are wrong.
In Moby Dick, at least the character of Ahab had a
clearly discernable goal--to kill the white whale. The Ahab character in Blood
Meridian, who carries a touch of the character of the white whale as well,
is known as “the judge.” But the judge
doesn’t even appear until page 79, and his motives are opaque, at least to me.
Another flaw, and one that strikes me as a major one in a
“literary” novel, is that there is virtually no character development. This is perhaps understandable for the
judge, whose personality is fully formed when we meet him, but it seems there
should have been much more development for the kid, who ages by over a decade
during the book. There is no “regeneration through violence” as the front cover
asserts for the kid. He is the same at the end as at the beginning. The sheer
weight of violence this boy witnessed and took part in would have been expected
to have shaped his character. It doesn’t. He becomes neither holy nor truly
debauched. In fact, his emotional reaction throughout is virtually deadpan. It’s
as if he’s spent the years as a garbage collector, but without really getting
any extra ‘stink’ on him.
Speaking of violence, Blood Meridian is, make no
mistake, intensely and brutally violent, perhaps the most violent book I’ve
ever read. The violence is constant and deftly handled, neither over dramatized
nor too understated. There are certainly echoes of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
and such films as Apocalypse Now.
Had the violence more clearly served the purposes of a story I would
have praised it. Perhaps McCarthy’s point is that there is no glory or honor or redemption in violence, and he may be right.
But that is hardly the stuff of myths. One aside about the violence in Blood
Meridian is that I find it interesting that a level of violence that would,
in a genre novel, be seen as “over the top,” is here considered masterful. Perhaps
violence that has a point is suspect.
A last flaw in the book comes with the ending, though I’m
sure many literary critics would disagree. Frankly, as with many literary
novels, I didn’t understand the ending. When the kid stumbles upon the judge at
the end, the judge embraces him and then.... What? From the response of witnesses it was
something rather horrible. I ’m just not sure what. Cannibalism? Murder?
Sex? Clearly, Blood Meridian had an effect on me or I wouldn’t
have gone on so long about it. It has passages of great beauty, and though I’ve
criticized it I still find myself recommending it. I don’t think it is a great
novel, but it does have power.
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Wednesday, March 05, 2014
Mardi Gras
As the crowds split, a cold hard
gust of wind came blowing in over them and over the Quarter. It gathered other
gusts to itself, swirled across the Faubourg Marigny and up Bourbon and Royal
streets like a desert dust devil. It carried with it black dust and a mélange of
beads and other Mardi Gras trash. It picked up the stench of sweat-soaked
people, the stale odors of alcohol, urine, vomit. Along with those scents it
gathered the thoughts and feelings of the revelers—their joys and rages, their
laughter and sobs, their lusts and sins.
And when the wind had all of that
in its grasp, it leaped upward toward the highest steeple of the St. Louis
Cathedral.The cross at the top of the steeple shook; a dirty shadow enveloped
it, then shrank down, took darkling form. For a moment it seemed that a long-armed
man clung to the steeple. Then the figure leaped down and down from the cathedral
and disappeared into the bushes and hedges of Jackson Square. The wind was gone
as if it had never been.
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Friday, February 28, 2014
One Hit Wonders: The Rockers
This will probably be my last post about music for a while. Below are some of my favorite rock songs by bands that really only had one song I liked. I know that several of the bands featured below had longer careers and put out plenty of other music, but these are certainly their biggest hits. And they are the only songs by these bands that I listen to. I'm actually rather sheepish about "My Sharona," and yet I do like it. It's certainly the closest thing to pop music I've included on my lists.
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Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Metal versus Rock 5: Southern Rock
When I started putting together my list of top ten favorite hard rock songs I ran into a problem. I had a lot more than ten. However, I found a couple of ways to 'expand' my list creatively. For one, I took out all the songs from my original list that could also be categorized as "Southern Rock," and put them on a separate list. So, here we have my top five favorite Southern Rock songs, all of which also fit generally within the Hard Rock genre.
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Sunday, February 23, 2014
Metal versus Hard Rock 4
Picking numbers 6 through 10 of my favorite hard rock songs proved very difficult. So, I ended up making a further division of favorites. Below is my next set of Hard Rock songs, and later I will put up two other lists: My five favorite Southern Rock songs and my favorite "One Rock Wonders" bands.
8. Rage Against the Machine: Guerilla
Radio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0kJLW2EwMg
9. Monster Magnet: Space
Lord: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dscfeQOMuGw
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Thursday, February 20, 2014
Metal versus Hard Rock 3:
Here are the first five songs from my favorite Hard Rock list. Certainly there are many other good songs that might fall into my top five under the right circumstances, but at this moment, these are my picks. Please note that I've realized I need a separate list for "southern rock." That will be upcoming after the Hard Rock top ten.
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Monday, February 17, 2014
Heavy Metal Versus Hard Rock: Part 2:
Here are metal songs 6 through 10 for me. Ty pointed out that his list would change with his mood and that is true of me as well. This is my current list. It might not be the same next year. And there are certainly plenty of songs at 11 on that might move up given the right circumstances. However, these ten songs sure do show up for me a lot when I click on you tube to listen to something I like. Next up will be Hard Rock songs, which was a harder list for me to make.
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