Hey, everyone. Haven't been very productive lately. I keep almost wanting to write -- I get the urge (especially after reading another of the LeGuin essays on writing; I'm in the midst of her wonderful Language of the Night) but then it turns to nothing, dust when I sit at the computer. I managed to crank out one poem this morning, but only be resorting to a very strict form. Here it is -- I'm not sure yet if I like it.
It's pouring rain outside. Rather nice if you like the stuff, as I do -- I biked through it for a while this morning -- got thoroughly drenched, but it so cheered my mood for a while -- rather like a child splashing through puddles -- don't most kids enjoy that? I wonder when/why it is that most adults develop an aversion to rain...
One of you asked what other music I liked -- I thought I'd answer that in some detail here, in case anyone else was interested. (I'm occasionally still amazed that people are interested in the petty details of my life...guess we're all voyeurs at heart. :-) So, I'll listen to almost anything (except heavy metal), but I prefer music with interesting lyrics. So I like musicals (which tend to tell a story), especially Camelot, Les Mis, Chess and Jesus Christ Superstar. (I also have a sneaking fondness for Joseph, 'cause I was in a college production (I played Potiphar's wife -- typecasting, no? :-)).
I also like folk music -- both traditional and modern. Stan Rogers, Maddy Prior, Christine Lavin, Loreena McKennitt, Sally Fingerett....if you haven't listened to anything in the field, Christine Lavin is a great introduction -- her songs are all either really funny or really sad. I particularly like "The Kind of Love You Never Recover From" and "Don't Ever Call Your Sweetheart By His Name". Stan Rogers is one of the classic folk musicians, with great sea chanteys like "The Mary Ellen Carter".
I like occasional pop/rock singers -- Indigo Girls, Tori Amos, John Cougar Meloncamp (sp?), Sophie B. Hawkins, Annie Lennox, Tracy Chapman...oh, and the woman who does "The Queen and the Soldier". I forget her name, but that's an amazing song.
Finally, I also like world music and classical music. I don't know as much about world music, but I've got a bunch of favorite Celtic bands -- Boiled in Lead, Black 47, Dubliners, Chieftains, Clannad, etc. and so on. As for classical, I played classical piano for 10 years and flute for 7, so I got a pretty good exposure to the masters. I tend to like the more dramatic ones -- Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky. :-)
Whew -- that was probably more than you wanted to know...:-) Oh, let me stick in a plug for The Flash Girls -- a new group, one of whose members, Emma Bull, is also an excellent fantasy writer. That pretty much covers it.