Where Worlds Collide

Time to launch the Five Songs Meme into the blogolivejournalfacebooksphere once again.

It’s quite simple - list five songs, preferably accompanied by a word or two explaining their significance. Not your five greatest songs of all time, but five songs you’re really into at the moment in time.

• Mostly Autumn - Unoriginal Sin.
  Listening to last years excellent “Live 2009″ album reminded me of just how powerful a piece of music this is; some tremendous multilayered harmonies that show just what a band with three top-class female vocalists can do, and carries an incredible emotional charge. It’s also one of the relatively few recent Mostly Autumn songs where Heather Findlay is the sole composer of both lyrics and music. Quite unlike anything the band have done before, I wonder how much this song is an indicator of the sort of direction Heather might take in her solo career.
• Breathing Space - Questioning Eyes
  Breathing Space’s big epic was the Classic Rock Society’s song of the year for 2009, and was a worthy winner. Like the previous song, it’s one where knowing something of the back-story heightens the emotional impact; for me, just hearing the intro always brings a lump to the throat. There’s a great YouTube video of the first ever live performance of this song at Bilston Robin 2 last May, a gig at which I was present, and I remember congratulating co-writer Iain Jennings immediately afterwards.
• Panic Room - Dark Star
  Yes, another female-fronted prog song, I’m afraid. This song is to “Satellite” what “Apocalypstick” was to “Visionary Position“, only with dramatic organ chords instead of the spiralling electric violin.
• Dream Theater - Trail of Tears
  DT’s “Falling into Infinity” album gets some stick for being too slick and radio-friendly, and reeling in the extended muso jams that characterised just about everything else they’ve ever done. Only right at the end of the album did they get to do a 13-minute epic, and this is that. John Petrucci’s solo is just jaw-dropping.
• Gustav Holst - Mars, Bringer of War
  Before I discovered rock’n'roll in my teens, I listened to a lot of classical music under the influence of my parents. I always loved “Mars”, and it’s probably the reason than as soon as I discovered Rock I headed straight for the section labelled “METAL!!”. This may have been written in 1916 and be played by an orchestra, but this is surely one of the first ever heavy metal instrumentals. And of course, it’s in 5/4 time, which is very Prog.

To join this meme, choose your five songs, and list them on your blog, Livejournal or whatever. If you don’t have a blog, just leave an entry in the comments here.

At the beginning of what all but a few diehard pedants agree is a new decade, a lot of people are getting reflective about where they were ten years ago. Reflections range from the trivial to the profound. Some of mine:

• I had just been made redundant in the aftermath of a failed merger, the ultimate fallout of which was to see the CEO jailed for stock fraud.
• I was wishing people a Happy New Year on CompuServe rather than on Twitter and Facebook
• I had never heard of a prog-rock band called Mostly Autumn.

Haven’t seen ye olde Five Songs Meme on the blogoljfacebooksphere for ages, so it’s time to set it shambling forth again.

It’s quite simple - just list five songs you’ve been listening to a lot lately. Give the reasons why if you want; that bit is entirely optional.

• Breathing Space - Questioning Eyes
  Some people have claimed that a song is diminished if you know who a song is about. I think that’s total cobblers. This is a real lump-in-the throat song precisely because I know what it’s about.
• Barclay James Harvest - Poor Man’s Moody Blues
  I never saw BJH in their prime, but I bought their 1987 live album “Live Dates”after seeing the John Lees Barclay James Harvest at the Cambridge Rock Festival last month. It’s got a lot of the standards like ‘Child of the Universe’, ‘Mockingbird’ and ‘Hymn’, but it’s this one that particularly stood out for me.
• Blackfield - Hello
  Closing song from their self-titled first album. Blackfield are very good at melancholy.
• Parade - The Diamond
  I need to do a full review of “The Fabric”. This is one of my favourite songs, some heart-melting vocals from Anne-Marie Helder, and great guitar playing from a certain Mr Josh.
• Arena - Purgatory Road
  “When the Martians land on London town”. Arena are the Saxon of prog; It’s corny as hell, but knows it’s corny, and doesn’t care. This one stands out from the album “Pepper’s Ghost”.

I’m not tagging anyone - If you want to pick up the meme, post to your own blog, livejournal, facebook wall or whatever and link to it in the comments.

Another meme, from The Ministry of Information

1. Last film you saw in a cinema?
It’s so long since I last went to the cinema that I can’t actually remember

2. What book are you [re]reading?
Currently halfway through Charlie Stross’s “The Atrocity Archives”.

3. Favourite board game?
Can’t single out just one - I can name Railway Rivals, Illuminati (which isn’t technically a board game, but plays like one) and Arkham Horror, which is always fun, but takes ages.

4. Favourite magazine?
I don’t think there are any I now buy religiously every month, they all seem to have gone downhill lately - “Continental Modeller” has become “Obscure Bolivian kettle monthly” and “Classic Rock” seems to have turned into a Guns’N'Roses fanzine.

5. Favourite smells?
Bacon. Vegetarianism, cured!

6. Favourite sounds?
Fender Stratocaster played through a Marshall amp by someone that knows what he’s doing
A real Mellotron (Yes, I know the response to that is “have you ever tried to lift a real Mellotron”)
English Electric 12CSVT diesel engine on full power - such as a class 37 climbing that grade out of Weymouth.

7. Worst feeling in the world?
I don’t really feel like answering this one.

8. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up?
“I suppose this means I have to get up”

9. Favourite fast food place?
Murray’s sandwich bar in Alderley Edge

10. Future child’s name?
Hessian for a boy, Rafia for a girl. That is not a very serious answer.

11. Finish this statement. “If I had lot of money I’d..”
Buy a house with a basement big enough for a big US-Style model railway layout.

12. Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
No! There is a teddy bear named “Isambard” in the house, but he sits on the sofa.

13. Storms - cool or scary?
Cool, provided you’re under cover.

14. Favourite drink?
Coffee (white, one suger)
Old Specked Hen
Leffe Blond

15. Finish this statement, “If I had the time I would”
Build that US-style basement buster with the money from question 11

16. Do you eat the stems on broccoli?
No. The stems don’t get as far as the saucepan

17. If you could dye your hair any color, what would be your choice?
I like it the colour it is now, thank you.

18. Name all the different cities/towns you’ve lived in?
Slough, Reading, Sale, Cheadle Hulme

19. Favourite sports to watch?
Cricket

20. One nice thing about the person who sent this to you?
He didn’t exactly ‘send’ this to me, but he does appear to like Marillion, giving him better taste in music than 99% of the population.

21. What’s under your bed?
Dust.

22. Would you like to be born as yourself again?
That’s just a fundamentally silly question.

23. Morning person, or night owl?
Night Owl.

24. Over easy, or sunny side up?
Eggs, ugh.

25. Favourite place to relax?
Horse Cove, south Devon (between Dawlish and Teighmouth). Unfortunately they’ve put up some of those horrid pallisade fences ruining the view.

26. Favourite pie?
Shepherd’s pie

27. Favourite ice cream flavour?
Vanilla

28. Of all the people you tagged this to, who’s most likely to respond first?
I’m supposed to tag people?

This meme comes via The Ministry of Information. Judging by one or two of the questions, I think it originates from somewhere in MySpace. I’ve omitted a couple of questions for which I couldn’t think up sufficiently witty replies.

1. Where were you for New Year 2007?
Slough, where my parents live, a much-maligned town.

2. How did you get the idea for your MySpace name?
Combination of my first name and the username I use on a lot of music-related forums, which also happens to be my domain name.

3. What are you listening to right now?
“Standing In My Shadow” by Breathing Space, not coincidentally the song I’ve currently got on the MySpace profile.

4. Has the death of a celebrity ever made you cry?
Who are these ‘celebrities’ of whom you speak, and why should they mean more to me than real friends and relatives?

5. Do you live in a zoo?
Er, no. These questions are starting to get silly.

6. What did you do this morning?
Got up, had breakfast, and returned to Slough from Colchester

7. What does your mother do for a living?
Retired.

8. Where do you work?
Alderley Edge, in the heart of Footballer’s Wives land

9. What are your favourite smells?
Bacon. Vegetarianism cured, instantly!

10. What are the last two digits of your phone number?
The same as the class number of the North British built electric locomotive preserved as part of the National Collection. If you keep on asking silly questions, I will give sillier and sillier answers. So there!

11. What was the last concert you attended?
Mostly Autumn at Crewe Limelight on the 19th December.

12. Who was with you?
I went on my own, but met up with a lot of the usual suspects once I got there.

13. What was the last movie you watched?
It was so long ago I’m not even 100% what it was; it may well have been Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit. I told you it was a long time ago.

14. What do you dislike at the moment?
That the bad guys seem to be actuve in Pakistan, and this is going to have repercussions on the rest of the world. And I found a friend of mine died on boxing day.

15. What do you crave right now?
Coffee. I knew I’d turned the kettle on for a reason.

16. Did you dream last night?
Yes, but it was pretty surreal, and I can’t remember what it was about.

17. What was the last TV show you watched?
May well have been the last one of “Later with Jools Holland” on Friday, which I watch in the increasingly vain hope that there will be someone decent on there.

18. What is your favourite piece of jewellery?
I’m a non-goth bloke. I don’t do jewellery.

19. Name someone on your Top 8 who is just like you?
I think this refers to my MySpace Top 8 friends, most of which are bands. Those that are not bands would probably sue if anyone suggested I resembled them.

20. Who is your best friend of the opposite sex?
My sister. Do relatives count?

21. Who last IM’d you?
I haven’t used IM for ages, and I can’t remember who it was.

22. What side of the bed do you sleep on?
Left.

23. What colour shirt are you wearing?
Dark blue.

24. What colour is your razor?
I have a beard, so I don’t own one.

25. What is your favourite frozen treat?
Swedish glace; a dairy-free ice cream that actually surprisingly palatable.

26. How many tattoos/piercings do you have?
I’m not a Goth. Please pay attention.

27. What are your favourite stores?
Waltons of Altrincham. Until 30 seconds ago, I didn’t realise they actually had a website.

28. Are you thirsty right now?
No. I’ve now made that coffee from question 15 now.

29. Can you imagine yourself ever getting married?
Maybe.

30. Who’s someone you haven’t seen in a while and miss?
I can think of quite a few friends I haven’t seen for ages and really ought to catch up with.

31. What did you do last night?
Been very traditional and place charades. Have you ever tried to act out “Windows 98 user guide”?

32. Do you care what people think about you?
Only people that matter.

33. Have you ever done something to instigate trouble?
Does wearing an Odin Dragonfly T shirt to a Fish gig count?

34. Do you like your nose?
Well, it’s the only nose I’ve got.

35. What colour is your room?
The room I’m in right now is white.

36. When was the last time you worked out?
Not sure if walking to and from the railway station every day counts.

38. Where do you live?
Cheadle Hulme in Cheshire

39. Are you an aggressive driver?
I don’t drive.

40. Who is your cell phone carrier?
T-Mobile

41. What is the thing you’d most want to change about yourself?
I’d like to be able to think of the right words to say to someone at the time, rather than 20 minutes after the event.

42. What colour is your car?
I don’t have a car.

43. What is your favourite colour?
Banger Blue.

44. Do you like mustard?
In moderation.

45. What do you tell yourself when times get hard?
“Bollocks!”

46. Would you ever sky dive?
No. If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.

47. What do you sleep on?
A bed? I agree with NRT here; this is a silly question. I am a human being, not a cat…

48. Have you ever bid for something on eBay?
A few times. I’ve won two N gauge locomotives, an Arnold BLS Re4/4, and a Roco SBB Re4/4iv

49. Do you enjoy giving hugs?
Yes

50. Would you consider yourself to be fashionable?
Fashion is an evil conspiracy to dupe the gullible and insecure.

51. Do you own a digital camera?
Yes, although getting into gig photography is starting to expose the limitations of my present one.

52. What celebrities have you been compared to?
See my answer to question 4

53. What does your 19th text message say?
My primeval mobile phone doesn’t let me archive more than a dozen or so, so I have no idea.

54. How ’bout your 30th?
See previous answer.

55. Who did you hang out with last night?
Parents, brother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew, niece. It is Christmas, after all…

56. What are you doing this Saturday?
Don’t know yet. Got any suggestions?

A long time since I’ve done any memes. This one was started by PZ Myers at Pharyngula as a means of demonstrating evolution in cyberspace. Like my source, I am not going to tap anyone; pick it up as you will.

First, the rules:

There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”. Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations:

• You can leave them exactly as is.
• You can delete any one question.
• You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question. For instance, you could change “The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…” to “The best time travel novel in Westerns is…”, or “The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…”, or “The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…”.
• You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”.

You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.

Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions.
Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

The lineage:

• My great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Flying Trilobite.
• My great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is A Blog Around the Clock.
• My great-great-great-great-great-grandparent is Primate Diaries.
• My great-great-great-great-grandparent is Thus Spake Zuska.
• My great-great-great-grandparent is Kate.
• My great-great-grandparent is Finally Maturing.
• My great-grandparent is Parts-n-Pieces
• My grandparent is I See Invisible People.
• My parent is Dave Does the Blog

The Questions and Answers:

• The best adult novel in SF/Fantasy is: The Book of the New Sun
• The best scary movie in modern pop culture is: The Wicker Man
• The best happy song in classic rock music is: Sabra Cadabra
• The best cult novel in historic fiction is: The Baroque Cycle
• The best concept album in progessive rock music is Brave

A meme being propagated by The Psycho Chicken. In which you must name your ten favourite songs beginning with a letter chosen by whoever you picked up the meme from. I my case, Psycho Chicken gave me the letter “H”.

I don’t really have time to go through my entire CD collection and listing everything beginning with H (I don’t have an iTunes library that can do it in a flash!) So there are bound to be some glaring omissions. But I can recommend these ten.

• Hallowed Ground - Paradise Lost
• Harvest Moon - Blue Öyster Cult
• Harvest of Souls - IQ
• Hasan I Sabah - Hawkwind
• Heaven and Hell - Black Sabbath
• Heroes Never Die - Mostly Autumn
• Hey Hey, My My (Out of the Blue) - Neil Young
• Hollow - Mostly Autumn (But played live by Breathing Space)
• Hotel Hobbies - Marillion
• How I Feel Today - Odin Dragonfly

I’ve tried not to include the same artist more than once. Yes I know counting “Hollow” as a Breathing Space song is cheating, but it’s my blog, and nobody else is going to rules-lawyer me! For the record, Half a World, Half the Mountain, Heart Life and Helm’s deep were all in the short list.

If you want me to choose you a letter, leave me a comment!

A meme from Psychochicken, in which you have to list your ten most played artists, then answer some random questions about each one.

You’re supposed to base this on which artists feature most in your iTunes or last.fm playlist, but I play all my music by putting CDs into the stereo. So this list is very much a guess, based on what albums have been getting a lot of plays in the last few months.

1. Marillion
2. Porcupine Tree
3. Mostly Autumn
4. The Reasoning
5. Fish
6. Rush
7. Blue Oyster Cult
8. Within Temptation
9. Thereon
10. Rainbow

What was the first song you ever heard by 6?

Can’t actually remember. My first encounter with Rush’s music was from a college friend that played me their live album “All the World’s a Stage”. So it was probably ‘Bastille Day’, the opening track on the album.

What is your favorite album of 2?

“Fear of the Blank Planet”, their latest. An amazing piece of work that manages to combine all the best elements of all their earlier work. The fact that one or two tracks are vaguely reminiscent of Dream Theater is a feature, not a bug.

What is your favorite lyric that 5 has sung?

I’m more of a ‘music’ person than a ‘lyrics’ person, which makes it difficult to choose a lyric without it being coloured by whether or not I really like the song musically. But Fish has written some great lyrics in his time, both acidic political stuff, and heart-on-sleeve personal ones. Let’s go for one of the former, ‘Big Wedge’.

I found a new religion yesterday
I’d just cleared immigration JFK
A priest got in a Cadillac
The shoeshine boys sang gospel
And God and his accountants drove away

You’ll see him coast to coast on live TV
In a stadium rocked by Satan just the night before
The collection from the faithful it is tax free
It will pay for his presidential campaign and his yacht

How many times have you seen 4 live?

Twice, once at the Uplands Tavern in Swansea, once at the Limelight Club in Crewe

What is your favourite song by 7?

‘Astronomy’, especially the live version from the album “Some Enchanted Evening” with that superb solo from Buck Dharma. Incredible combination of atmospherics and hard rock, with wonderfully high wierdness lyrics. Frustrating that I’ve seen the band live five times and have yet to hear it live; they’ve always played it on other dates on the same tour, but their rotating setlists catch me out everytime. Bah!

What is a good memory you have involving the music of 10?

Hearing ‘Eyes of the World’ on Nicky Horne’s late night show “Your Mother Wouldn’t Like It” on Capital Radio. That was the one song that turned me on to symphonic hard rock, and made me realise there was a lot else out there than the rather one-dimensional new-wave stuff that was all the fashion at the time.

Is there a song of 3 that makes you sad?

Would have been “Find the Sun”, except that knowing how the story ends doesn’t leave me feeling sad any more. Then the intro of “Heroes Never Die” brings a lump to my throat every time I hear it, but that’s not a complete song. So I’ll go for”Half the Mountain”.

How did you get into 3?

I first bought their album “The Last Bright Light” after hearing ‘Half the Mountain’ on a magazine cover disk. But it wasn’t until two years later when I first saw them live that everything clicked, and my life has never quite been the same since.

What was the first song you heard by 1?

Can’t actually remember. First time I heard any of their music was the 1981(?) Reading Festival, before they’d released anything on record, and I don’t remember the setlist. “Forgotten Sons” was the one that stuck in the mind, though.

What is your favorite song by 4?

Presumably their superb live version of Karnataka’s ‘Talk to Me’ is disqualified on the grounds that this meme is about recordings rather than live performances. And their album “Awakenings” is so full of great songs that no single one really stands out. I’ll go for ‘Fallen Angels’ since it’s the one that keeps getting stuck in my head.

How many times have you seen 9 live?

Never. They’re one of these bands that seldom tours the UK, and when they do come over here it’s just a one-off date in London.

What is a good memory you have involving 2?

Seeing them live at Preston last month.

Is there a song of 8 that makes you sad?

Can’t think of one off the top of my head.

What is your favorite album of 5?

Difficult one; although his career’s had it’s ups and downs, there have been several good ones over the years. I think “Raingods with Zippos” is my current favourite.

What is your favorite lyric that 3 has sung?

Now, I’ll readily admit that Mostly Autumn are not really about deep and meaningful lyrics; they’re very much about music first and lyrics second. But there’s something about the apocalyptic imagery in “Fading Colours” that’s appealed to me enough to use it as inspiration for an space opera RPG character.

They tore the rudders from our ships
And turned the forests inside out
The broke the ladders
That took us to the moon
And pulled the anchors from the sky

Yes, that’s where the collapsing beanstalk elevator from Gavilan comes from. The song also explains why on this forum I’m nowhere near Telford anymore, not even over the rainbow.

What is your favorite song of 1?

One song? That’s impossible!

What is your favorite song of 10?

‘Eyes of the World’, as previously mentioned.

How many times have you seen 8 live?

Never. They played Manchester a couple of months back, but it sold out too quickly.

What is your favorite album of 1?

They’ve done many great albums, and their best ones are so different from each other that they’re hard to compare. But I always keep coming back to “Brave”.

What is a great memory you have considering 9?

Not having seen the band live, I don’t have any really strong memories. I do remember discussing their music with someone wearing a Thereon t-shirt at a Karnataka gig in Manchester.

What was the first song you heard by 8?

‘Intro’, the opener from “The Silent Force’. One of those tracks with vocals but no lyrics, so whether it really qualifies as a ‘song’ is questionable. But it’s still great, with that sweepingly cinematic choral intro followed by Sharon den Adel’s soaring soprano vocal. Not bad for something of less than two minutes in length.

I’ve always thought the worst thing about Apple Macs is the people that use them. Unlike Acorn Archimedes users (remember them?), who were just to be pitied, Mac-heads compound their deliberate choice of the computing equivalent of a Betamax VCR with an air of insufferable smugness. They think lame cartoons like this are actually funny.

Charlie Brooker thinks the same way. He takes as his starting point Apple’s current ad campaign.

Mitchell and Webb. They are a logical choice in one sense (everyone likes them), but a curious choice in another, since they are best known for the television series Peep Show - probably the best sitcom of the past five years - in which Mitchell plays a repressed, neurotic underdog, and Webb plays a selfish, self-regarding poseur. So when you see the ads, you think, “PCs are a bit rubbish yet ultimately lovable, whereas Macs are just smug, preening tossers.” In other words, it is a devastatingly accurate campaign.

I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don’t use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.

Predictably the comment thread gets deluged with indignant responses from humourless Mac-heads.

(Link from The Ministry of Information)

The Xmas meme comes via Scott

Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Cannot bear egg. Ugh! So it will have to be Hot Chocolate, although I’d prefer mulled wine or a winter beer. (Something like double chocolate stout will do nicely!)
Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Have to be wrapped. This is the reason why all presents must be rectangular, and nothing non-Euclidian in shape is allowed. That wooden rocking horse many years ago cost me an awful lot of SAN.
Coloured lights or white on tree/house? Coloured ones.
Do you hang mistletoe? Haven’t for many years.
When do you put your decorations up? Last Sunday before. That way the needles on the tree last until the traditional January 6th.
What is your Favourite Christmas dish (excluding dessert)? Christmas dinner with turkey and everything else; especially the brussel sprouts. (Well, not just the brussel sprouts).
Favourite Christmas memory as a child? Dragging a christmas stocking down the stairs with the words “Father Christmas did come! {Bump} Father Christmas did come! {Bump}”
When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I can’t actually remember that one.
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Used to many years ago.
How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Tinsel, lights, baubles and one really kitsch white mouse that my mother absolutely hates. There used to be a Teletubby (Po), but she disappeared one January 6th and was never seen again.
Do you know how to ice skate? No. Never actually tried, but since I’m Mr Absolutely No Coordination Whatsoever it’s probably best that I haven’t.
What’s the most important thing about the Christmass for you? Family.
What is your Favourite Christmas dessert? Christmas pudding and brandy butter.
What is your Favourite Christmas tradition?. Eating toast at one o’clock in the morning after coming home from midnight communion on Christmas Eve. I’m not quite sure how that tradition got started.
What tops your tree? A star.
Favourite Christmas Song? Got to be traditional carols like Hark the Herald Angels Sing, O Come All Ye Faithful and Silent Night. Didn’t get the last of those on Sunday’s carol service, but I am expecting to hear it performed at the Mostly Autumn Christmas show at Crewe on Wednesday. As an unrepentant prog-rock fan I can make room for Greg Lake’s I Believe in Father Christmas, but I share Scott’s dislike of tacky drivel like Grandma got run over by a reindeer.