#insane and vain curates

[misscrawfords]

Haydn, Insanae et Vanae Curae

[joementa]

The Menta Vinyl Vault – We’re Havin’ A Party.

After last week’s quite heavy playlist, and quite serious news and events, we are going to go with something much more fun this week.  I actually had this playlist planned well before last week happened, but the timing is still great.  A few months ago, a friend of mine asked me what I thought were some of the best albums for a party.  We talked some more and he clarified that he wasn’t necessarily asking for best albums to party TO, but the best albums to put on if you were having a party and someone asked to put on a great album.  

Luckily I’ve been a fan of the album format for as long as I can remember and have quite a few albums on vinyl, so I decided to use my own collection (the Menta Vinyl Vault, as I like to call it) to curate this playlist.  All of the 20 albums that are sampled here are classics, from beginning to end.  

I can conceivably see a situation in a non-pandemic world where I am either at or hosting a party and someone asks to put on an album.  They don’t say which album.  But they just ask to listen to an album from beginning to end.  And I would think that any of these albums would be appropriate.  Some are great for dancing at parties (The Fame Monster, Dirty Mind), some are great for drinking at parties (Exile On Main Street, Tom Petty’s Greatest Hits), some are great for other chemical substances at parties (Crash, Waiting For Columbus), some are great for late night parties in Brigantine (Exodus, a staple at our beach parties for a long time) and still others are great for parties where you want to live out your romantic rock ‘n roll dreams (The ’59 Sound).  And my favorite party album, and favorite album period, The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle.  That’s why I ended this playlist with not one, not two, but THREE songs from that album.  For those of you who know (and you should!), these are the last three songs of the album, all side B on the vinyl.  How perfect is that?!

Unfortunately I don’t have experience partying to all of these albums with other people.  A lot of my partying to these albums has been done by myself, listening to these albums and imagining the kind of party that would occur. For example, when I hear Back In Black, I hear a party with cheap beer, leather jackets, t-shirts and jeans, and lots of making out.  I’ve never done that to Back In Black, but when I hear it, I feel like I should be. Another example is Life After Death, which was insanely popular when I was in school and I’m sure played frequently at parties.  However, I was not invited to those parties but I have spent years listening to that album having a party in my head.

Speaking of parties, I hope the only parties that you’re having are in your head.  Pretty soon we will be able to have a real party.  And when we can, we are going to need more than 20 albums to do it.  Until then, use music to pass the time and stay safe please!  

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/menta-vinyl-vault-were-havin-party-selections-from/pl.u-2aoqPBLhVkeGyB

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4rgtjMm4bKZRpiPobYbP0J?si=tENBWl0zTyqHHlPacyABug

Lady Gaga – “Bad Romance” (The Fame Monster)

Prince – “When You Were Mine” (Dirty Mind)

Michael Jackson – “Rock With You” (Off The Wall)

The Notorious B.I.G. featuring Mase & Puff Daddy – “Mo Money Mo Problems” (Life After Death)

Yvonne Elliman – “If I Can’t Have You” (Saturday Night Fever (The Original Movie Sound Track))

Funkadelic – “Funky Dollar Bill” (Free Your Mind…And Your Ass Will Follow)

The Rolling Stones – “Tumbling Dice” (Exile On Main St.)

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “The Waiting” (Greatest Hits)

The Beatles – “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” (The Beatles)

Led Zeppelin – “That’s The Way” (Led Zeppelin III)

Taylor Swift – “How You Get The Girl” (1989)

The Killers – “Bling (Confession Of A King)” (Sam’s Town)

The Gaslight Anthem – “Casanova, Baby!” (The ’59 Sound)

Little Feat – “Fat Man In The Bathtub” (Waiting For Columbus)

Dave Matthews Band – “Tripping Billies” (Crash)

Bob Dylan – “Sad-Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands” (Blonde On Blonde)

Bob Marley & The Wailers – “Turn Your Lights Down Low” (Exodus)

The Clash – “Train In Vain” (London Calling)

AC/DC – “You Shook Me All Night Long” (Back In Black)

Bruce Springsteen – “Incident On 57th Street” (The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle)

Bruce Springsteen – “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” (The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle)

Bruce Springsteen – “New York City Serenade” (The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle)

[hermit-writes]

Needle in a Bug

Summary

When magic surged back through the world, it fractured the fabric of society. Those who had the means rose, the Mega Corporation chief amongst them. Those who couldn’t fell in the shadows, the cracks where the forgotten refuse to die.

Sam and Dean are Runners; mercenaries determined to survive in a merciless, broken society where trust is a luxury and a conscience can get you killed. And they’re good at what they do… until everything falls apart.

When their newest handler is a family friend and the fallout out hits even closer to home, a line is drawn. Nothing is ever free in the Sprawl, and the high ground sells at a premium.

Tags

Au!Shadowrun Fusion, Runner!Dean, Hitman!Dean, Technomancer!Sam, cyberpunk, dystopia, Shaman!Cas, Street Doc!Cas, Benny lives, Bobby lives, Charlie lives, Ellen lives, Dean is bad at feelings, canon-typical violence, alcohol, drug use, smut, bad things happening to kids (off camera)

Read on Ao3 Art by @pimentogirl

Excerpt:

The party was on the upper decks of a yacht, a plasteel and carbon fiber monstrosity longer and wider than some houses Dean had lived in. A live band was set up in the wheelhouse: a string quintet with a restrained music selection. The guests milled around on the two decks, carefully curated displays of wealth and influence in understated armoured suits and sparkly ballistics stoles. They gathered into small groups and broke again according to rules Dean knew nothing about, in tableaux always beautiful but with meanings that eluded him. The conversations he listened to meant so little to him they might as well not have been in English at all. He smiled and nodded and made appropriate agreeing noises nonetheless. He wasn’t completely an idiot.

 It made Dean think of the peacocks he’d seen on the trid: beautiful and vain, fighting against the specter of extinction. Counting the waitstaff carrying the trays of finger food and champagne flutes, as well as the catering staff in the lower decks there was easily a hundred people, which Dean thought was insane.

 The harbour was beautiful; there was minimal wind and the tide had receded, so the water looked placid. It reflected and refracted the lights from the skyline, skyscrapers and Archologies in corporate colours, all blending into a splintered mosaic around the bay. It also made Dean incredibly uneasy: not only did he not want to go for a swim when this contraption inevitably sank, but it left them wide open with too many lines of sight. If he’d had a say in execution he would have been up one of those buildings. Out of the elements and with a clean escape route.

- Keep reading on Ao3

[musicgoon]

Recommended Reading

Providing A Freshly Curated, Weekly Link List on Christianity & Culture.

Find all of my weekly recommended reading link lists with the RR tag. Dedicated link posts with personal commentary can be found with the linktag. Real-time news and article sharing happens on Twitter and my Facebook page.

I love seeing new things on the Internet and I love reading and your comments, so please keep in touch. And to get all of my blog articles, exclusive insight, and more from my many projects, you can subscribe to my newsletter.

Christianity

Look for the Kindness of the Lord: How to Grow Through Bible Reading

Awaken Me to Today: Three Daily Reminders

Young Christian: Give the Lord a Lot to Work With

10 Things You Should Know about Studying the Bible

How Art Can Prepare You for Suffering

Proverbs 26:13–16: Are You Enslaved to Laziness?

Oh, for Grace to Trust You More

Prophecy for Beginners: Ten Frequently Asked Questions

Transparent Leadership

The Wonderful Accessibility of the Word

Four Responsibilities of Elders

Eight Ways Satan Tempts You To Question Your Salvation

Help Your Teens Get Wisdom

2018 Belfast Conference Media Now Available

Nobody Wins: When Leaders Fail to Lead

What should Christians do about our differences on spiritual gifts?

A Word to the Younger Men

Loneliness and the Church

The Perilous Practice Of Platform Building

3 Reasons We Should Pay Attention to What We Sing in Church

A Word to the Younger Women

God Will Renew Your Joy in Ministry: Three Lessons from Decades of Weakness

John Calvin and the Doctrine of Irresistible Grace

When an Average Joe Turns 40

Infographic: The Story of Redemption

A Word to the Older Men

The State of Theology: The Questions that Matter Most

The Joy of Overlooking an Offense

A Distinctively Christian Appreciation of the Arts

A Word to the Older Women

How to Worship God in Vain

What Netflix Cannot Give — and Death Cannot Take

The Audacity of Gender-Reveal Parties: Another Step Towards Cultural Insanity

Culture

Marvel's Visual Development team walks us through updating the Wasp suit after Ant-Man

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ Featurette Shows How Marvel De-Aged Michelle Pfeiffer and Created More VFX

Lana Condor opened up about her relationship with Noah Centineo—and her real-life BF

Netflix Says It Makes Movie and TV Stars as it Adds 7 Million New Subscribers

TV Shows Have Opening Weekends, Too—and Netflix Wins Them All

Though it takes its time, Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina will put a spell on you

Carly Rae Jepsen Is The 21st Century's Queen Of A Million Kingdoms

Copeland Perform New Song Live

How the Term ‘Heavy Metal’ Came to Quite Accurately Describe a Particular Genre of Rock Music

Building something new

How the West Was Digitized

Watch a Rare, Revealing One-Hour ‘Empire Strikes Back’ Documentary from 1980

The Tale Of The Stolen Totenberg Stradivarius Ends With A New Legacy

Finding a space for their music: from Hong Kong to Berklee

Shutting Themselves In

Two Generations Find Closeness And Privacy On One Plot Of Land In Otai, Japan

The First and Last Record Store in Little Tokyo | Arts | Departures Columns | KCET

Where A Kid Can Be A Kid

Helpful Tips for Surviving the Longest Flight in the World

100 Websites That Shaped the Internet as We Know It

The Entire ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Movie Score is Being Released for the First Time Ever

The Fascinating Art of Making Paper Props, Maps, Posters, Reports and Newspapers for Film and TV

Spit Takes: There Were No Winners in the Lakers-Rockets Spat

Big Spittle Lies: LeBron’s Lakers Home Debut Turns Into a Fight

Can LeBron’s Lakers Become Showtime 2.0 If They Can’t Shoot?

Best Case, Worst Case: Golden State Warriors

Is It Possible to Know Too Much About Basketball?

The Bat-Flipping, Crotch-Chopping Dodgers Finally Realized They’re Better Than Everyone Else

In Praise of Oscar the Grouch

Caroll Spinney, the man behind Big Bird and Oscar The Grouch, is retiring from Sesame Street

Please enjoy this sprawling ode to Bob Ross cleaning his paintbrush

The Unique Way Disney Uses Highly Memorable Songs in Minor Keys to Introduce Their Villains to the Audience

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Roller Coaster’s Revolutionary New Ride System Revealed in Disney Patents

I tried all of Disneyland’s Halloween foods while I was on my period and ranked them

3 Predictions For IG Shopping and the Future of Ecommerce on Instagram

The State of Slate

“It Is Really Hard to Know What is Real”

Instagram Has a Massive Harassment Problem

[misscrawfords]

Top 5 choral pieces you've sung.

Oh fun question! But very hard because I've sung so much amazing music.

Mendelssohn's Elijah, my all time favourite oratorio and something I've sung three times now.

Mozart's Requiem - I sang this from memory in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London quite a few years ago now but it was an epic experience.

Verdi's Requiem - I've sung it several times and it's just such an awesome belter of a piece every time.

These are probably the big hitting works that I've most memorably sung. I'll include a couple of recent pieces I've done with my chamber choir that I've loved.

4. Buxtehude: Jesu, meines Lebens Leben and Alleluia - I love the steady pacing rhythm of both these pieces. I'd definitely use the Alleluia as the soundtrack for a period drama. Who said Baroque music was dull!?

5. Stenhammer's Varnatt - I sung this gorgeous Swedish piece in my concert on Sunday and it makes me cry every time from its emotion even as I'm trying to sing it. It's just beautifully written.

6. Bonus 6th because I just remembered it and it's amazing: Haydn's "insanae et varae curae" aka "insane and vain curates". An absolute belter of a piece.