And it’s due in just a few short hours. *cries*

I like writing, I’m fairly good at it, but I’m sick, again (though nothing like last time), and that just makes it harder. Plus, when I tried to get started early on this I had the worst time focusing and reading. Talk about inopportune writer’s block. Oy.

Yesterday I finally managed to write paragraphs! Huzzah! I was listening to the Halo and Halo 2 soundtracks at the time, and it was like BOOM, I could write. Why ruin a good thing? So that’s all I’ve been listening to while writing this stuff over and over in the background. I tried listening to something else, but nothing was working out so I went back to Halo. And no, silence doesn’t work either. The only time Halo became an issue was when I had to do some extensive reading and, after fumbling around a bit trying to find appropriate reading music, I switched it to Dirk Freymuth’s Celtic Music for Stress Relief (I am suddenly seeing the ironic pun in that). Then I was able to concentrate on reading. Yeah, I know, I’m weird, but we all knew that already didn’t we?

Okay, back to work for me; but hey, I’ve got Halo backing me up yo.

(Quick FYI: Halo is a science fiction first person shooter game. Apparently it’s a good game. Either way the music is freakin’ awesome and totally worth owning.)

Overall Secret Voyage is a very fine compilation of music. It would go well with fantasy roleplaying games, and filk lovers are very likely to dig it along with celtic lovers. According to my iTunes this CD is classified as Easy Listening, but somehow that doesn’t seem to cut it. It feels more like celtic/rock/jazz to me. Here are my thoughts on the individual songs.

God Save The Keg

This feels piece feels like victorious music you would hear in a video game. There is an organ in the beginning which lends a classical feel, but enter in the flutes and there’s a folk feel to it. It slowly builds, bringing in percussion and voices and guitars. The more it builds the more it feels like victory music after a long battle, journey or voyage. It feels like it’s about to end, but then comes in the organ and it the music changes in the last minute to something more ominous, moving from a major key into a minor key. After the organ is silenced chanting voices are heard. It moves right along and immediately into the second song.

Locked Within A Crystal Ball

This is more new age mixed with rock. Candice Night’s singing is very cool and lends itself very well to the style of the song. Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar solo is very anticipatory. You are just waiting for what comes next. The beat kicks up again and we’re back to the chorus. They make use of what sounds like mini-bag pipes. Unfortunately, in my opinion the song fails in that it fades out. I feel that fade outs are a cop out to figuring out an appropriate ending for a song. It’s not that it ends quietly, but it is repeating the chorus over and over again and slowly fades into silence. If not for the fade out this would be a favorite of mine. However, if this CD is in the background it is still one of the few that catches my attention when I am in the middle of doing something else. That’s a positive thing.

Gilded Cage

The violin carries the melody in this piece and has a more easy listening feel. It flows very well, and has a bit of a melancholy sound to it.

Toast to Tomorrow

Russian folk dancing! Seriously, you just want to start stomping your feet while clapping and shout HEY about every two or three measures from the get go. Which, actually occurs a little a bit in the middle of the song. Then about two thirds in, there’s a series of HEY’s and it changes the key about a whole step, or maybe a third (interval recognition by ear was never a strong point for me).

Prince Waldeck’s Galliard

This is a strictly instrumental piece on acoustic guitar. It has a sort of a modern celtic feel. It is in a minor key, and is rather reflective.; as in, it causes one to close their eyes and think on things. Then it does the worst thing it could possibly do in the end. Again, this is just a personal musical peeve. It does a picardy third! ARGH! I detest 99% of picardy thirds. Let me explain, the whole piece is in a minor key, and then the last chord ends in a major key. In Classical times, ie Bach, it was felt that major keys were more stable, thus pieces written in minor ended in a major chord. I find this jarring. Bach managed to do one that actually sounded nice to my ears. . . If it weren’t for the stinkin’ picardy third this piece would have been a favorite of mine.

Rainbow Eyes

I love the guitar riffs in this one. It sells this song. Take that away, yeah, it’d be nice but nothing memorable, but man, that guitar is full of awesome. It’s got this rock bluesy tone to it, almost like a sexy saxophone played by the most attentive of lovers.

The Circle

This feels bit a like Scottish celtic music with hints of light rock. It has a very definite driving beat, yet at the same time it is not over powering. It also plays to the strengths of Candice’s voice. Right in the middle of it though it brings in these strings that always remind me of ABBA for some reason, after which it switches key and still has a bit of an ABBA feel to it through to the end. 

Sister Gypsy

This is more typical of celtic folk music. I get the image of a bard and his players working together to tell the story of a gypsy. 

Can’t Help Falling In Love

I do not particularly care for this remix of I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You by the A-teens. Though I think theirs was also a remix. 

Peasant’s Promise

This starts out as simple, very little instrumentation, mostly Candace’s voice, and then the drums start in and it intensifies while carrying out the same motif from the beginning throughout the song. Unfortunately this is another fade out song. This makes me sad because it would have been really great otherwise. Now it’s just good.

Far Far Away

This song reminds me of the sort of things my mother used to sing while playing the guitar while I Was a child. It’s a story about a woman and how she used to have such wonderful dreams of the future and now the question is can the person she is now still dream like she used to dream? Towards the end it has an Enya to feel. Yet again though it’s a fade out. It would have been better to simply end quietly. However, in this song it’s a bit more forgiveable because of the ending being “looking for moments of far away” as she lives on.

Empty Words

“There’s so much said in empty words. . . No one’s saying what they mean.” This is far too true in real life, and unfortunately we humans aren’t very good at reading in between the lines or body language to really gage what a person means. Action speaks louder than words because it supports your words. Thus, it seems that one should always say what they mean, mean what they say, and show it through action. That’s what I get out of this very simple voice and guitar piece.

WHOA! Okay, so here I am, having already posted this review on a couple of sites (FanDominion.com and Ruthiechan.net) and in the beginning of “God Save the Keg” is the tune to “Empty Words“. I listened to “Empty Word”s and then felt like listening to the whole CD again, only to find myself singing the lyric to “Empty Words” while listening to “God Save the Keg!” It really makes me wonder what other subtleties I am missing. I am betting this CD is telling one continuous story but it’s hard to tell when one doesn’t have the lyrics to read (the preview CD didn’t come with lyrics). This discovery has just increased the coolness value of Secret Voyage.

However, bizarrely enough, what did NOT get lost, and was rediscovered today while I was unpacking and dealing with the remaining boxes of stuff after my fairly recent move, was my green spiral bound notebook labeled “Music Bu.” You can imagine my surprise when I saw this. Inside contains how and what I was going to do for the bureau. Somehow this notebook has stayed with me when I left the nest and got married, moving to Vegas, then moving to Gimp City (my “pet” name for Yuba City), and then returning to San Jose where I am now.

I wanted to do an AudioZine! Now, there’s a nifty idea that’s probably more plausible now, but it wasn’t just gonna be people talking. This was gonna be 1-2 90 minute tapes long. The zine notes, which were to be on paper, would contain the group or artist name, the writer, the copyright and words (if applicable), album name, what movie (if applicable) and other such things. This could contain any and all types of music including original music by the members as long as nothing was risque or vulgar. Of course the focus was SFF. I reserved the right not to accept submissions (that’s probably not something I would have thought to include, so I’m sure the big sister fan was influencial in the way I wrote this stuff, though I must note, that I am not actually quoting myself entirely word for word).

Now, my youth at the time shows because I also had an idea for an Audio RR, which was very similar to the Audio Zine. The difference was a 60 minute tape, with only ten minutes per RR member, and we were going to be talking to each other and have some music from SFF as well, so we apparently were going to be discussing the music we’re sharing with one another. It was also not directly controlled by me either. So it would have been more cut loose than the Audio Zine would have been.

I also had an idea for a general newsletter with the following column ideas, Latest music/the 90’s, Artist’s: Dead or Alive, Elementary Music Theory? (complete with question mark), Musical Info, Sheet Music, What Grooves and What Doesn’t, and Music in SF/F (the crux of the whole idea).

I also got my mother involved with the idea of allowing people to play or sing their songs on tape and have it notated with the first melody being for free. My mother is a musician and is real good at ear dictation, one of my uh, not so strong suits. I have to have a piano with me in order to do that stuff with any sort of accuracy.

And last but not least I had this whole “tell me about yourself” form to help me assess the interests of those wanting to get involved so I could better serve them. Unfortunately, I seem to recall that the tape recorder broke down, well, the record button stopped working, along with family and schools issues that this whole idea fell by the way side. . . I still think it’s a valid topic, and maybe I’ll stick a Music in SF/F in the N3F Forums that just started back up again. Afterall, the music is what broke the series Andromeda for me. I couldn’t watch it because the music was that bad. . . On the other hand, it was the music that turned me on to Babylon 5, and it was the music that got me to play the sci fi MMORPG Anarchy Online, my first MMO experience. . .

Now the ideas and thoughts of my youth are returning to me, and you know they’re not half bad. I dunno if *I’d* wanna be the one to handle an online audio zine, that could be tricky, but it is definitely a neat idea, and I still believe that music plays an important part in the SF/F genres we love to watch so much.

Hymn mediums to use
-the computer/internet
-MP3 players/iPods
-CDs/tapes

Learning/Memorizing
-for uplift to sing out loud or to yourself
-listen to music only CDs as well as music with voices to mix up to help you learn them and be familiar with them
-pick one you’ve never sung before and learn it
-announce a hymn in RS and then sing it without books at the end of the month
-practice with child/grandchild or alone
-if you play an instrument try learning a new hymn per month
-have kids who are learning to play an instrument learn hymns on that instrument
-conduct yourself for better practice
-memorize all hymns so you can be hands free for all songs

Sing/Read/Hum/Listen to them while
-in the car (eliminate road rage. . .)
-doing chores
-cooking
-getting ready for church
-doing finances
-playing games
-surfing the internet
-getting ready for bed
-before/after scripture reading
-brushing teeth in morning/evening
-quieting squabbles
-set as ring tone
-set as alarm clock
-feeling you’re tired
-feeling you’re angry
-feeling down/sad/sick/blah

Family Home Evening
-Family devotionals
-Open/Closing
-Learn a new hymn
-Ask children for the favorites
-Pick a hymn, study it and corresponding scriptures
-Read the Friend and find hymns to go with the theme.
-Pick a hymn to learn and listen it all week until it is learned
-Read as poetry
-Learn a primary song with children (teach them, or learn it together)

Other personal and family use
-Use as background music for any daily task
-Hum throughout the day and think of the words
-Sing blessings on the food
-Personal devotions, write your own hymns or verse
-Carry a small hymn book in purse or car
-Sing primary songs and hymns as lullaby’s to kids

Other musically wholesome ideas and thoughts
-The hymns makes a person more spiritual and makes you feel good all day.
-Listen to the tabernacle choir and other spiritual music on Sundays, you may find that you’ll enjoy it so much you’ll listen to it during the week as well.
-Take the family to symphony concerts
-Open your heart and feel the beat.
-Listen to and feel sounds of the environment
-There is a song/hymn for every subject, if you can’t think of or find one make it up!
-Put out instruments to just be played with.
-If a hymn is going through your head, look it up, as it may be trying to tell you something.
-Get a hymn book for yourself and when you hear a hymn you like mark it in your book, even if you can’t read the music you’ll be able to ask someone else to help you learn it.
-Learn the mechanics of music to further appreciation through understanding.

Free hymns and primary songs at www.LDS.org

Go to lds.org → Gospel Library → Music
Music will give you the options to obtain the MP3s themselves for download or listen to them via the interactive music player.
Resources will give you learning helps with special needs and becoming familiar with the hymn book.
Learning Materials will help you teach others and help you learn more about music.

Curious about this I looked up Origa. Apparently she is a Japanese woman of Russian descent. She has worked with Yokko Kanno in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Gundam (both of which are sci fi anime).

I have 3.9 hours worth of Origa in my iTunes, how did I not know this? I suppose it was something my husband purchased at some point and never got around to telling me about it. It’s all labelled as pop, but it’s not like american annoying pop. This is subtle.

Here is a wikipedia article on her: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/>Origa She has a nice voice. Her music is not overly complex but is rich in its simplicity.

On youtube you can listen to “Rise” from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bOhI-P6de4

However, after listening to a few songs, thus far Aurora is my favorite, and if you are a Final Fantasy X (a sci fi/fantasy mix RPG for the PS2) fan, you’ll like the video as well. It was suprisingly good. Spot on. I want a hi-rez version of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi_5JH49gsg

The song, “Yoru no Melody”, the one that caught my attention in the first place, is not on youtube or on playlist.com though a few of her other songs are, including the two mentioned above. This is too bad because “Yoru no Melody” really does have a nice melody. It caught my attention while I was in the middle of doing some cleaning and I’ve listened to quite a few times already. Though, admittedly not nearly as much as I have with “Aurora.”

I asked my daughter Hazel who is now five years old, “how does this song make you feel?”
She said, jumping, “HAPPY!”
I confirmed, smiling, “It makes you feel happy?”
“Yes, and it makes me feel good and like Jesus is my Savior.”

How positive is that?
Children learn best through music and movement, and role playing – getting actively involved in whatever it is they are doing or learning. Children’s hymns plays a vital role in helping children learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This hymn is the most well known children’s hymn. Everyone at least knows the first verse and if not that, the chorus.
The words are as follows:

1. I am a child of God,
And he has sent me here,
Has given me an earthly home
With parents kind and dear.

[Chorus]
Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,
Help me find the way.
Teach me all that I must do
To live with him someday.

2. I am a child of God,
And so my needs are great;
Help me to understand his words
Before it grows too late.

3. I am a child of God.
Rich blessings are in store;
If I but learn to do his will
I’ll live with him once more.

So who’s talking?
…
this is me letting you think about it first before I give you the answer.
…
The child.

Who is the child talking to?
…
ponder ponder.
…
Their Parents.

Now, here’s the question. Is it true?
Look at the words, “has given me an earthly home, with parents kind and dear.”
Was that true for you? And if not, is true for you children? Are you kind and dear?
How sad would it be for a child to sing this song, come upon these words and think, “but not me, I don’t, mine are always yelling at me, and mean to me?”

When you receive one message at Church and then another message at home, it causes a cognitive dissonance. A confusion. Things are all nice and happy sounding at Church but the reality tells you something different. It is very important for the messages at Church and the messages at home to be the same. You can not create a two strand braid without both strands.

Is this song true for your children? Are you a parent who is kind and dear? And if not, what are you going to do about it? I have known people who hated this song because it was not true for them, and they didn’t start getting over it until the age of 25 or my age (29) and one gal was nearly old enough to be my mother before she got over that this song effectively being a lie for her.

So I ask again, is this hymn true for your children? Is it true?

It is very important for these hymns to be true for your children.

And I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.