Things That Made Me Happy This Week, Week Eighty-Four

[glenniebun]

• Even though I have a considerable backlog of music I haven't been able to listen to at work due to a few things that've greatly reduced the time I can spend on my headphones, I've found myself returning to the Prometheus expanded CD of Quigley Down Under again and again. It's a great pick-me-up--a light and breezy listen, with an expansive western-

Comments

[glenniebun]

I keep getting random cool pages like that using a special method I call "reading lots of blogs."

I'm not quite sure where to direct you to start. Personally, I started off with a Star Trek compilation, since I was already a fan of the franchise. Tell you what--send me your address (in an email if you have my address, or a comment you delete right after posting or something like that) and I'll send you a few discs to see what you might like. After all, there's a staggering variety in the types of music available; I typically need a big, bold theme to sink my teeth into, which limits the field somewhat but not a whole lot.

When/whether/how much a source film affects the quality of the music can get complicated. While there're musical sequences I like more because they were attached to film scenes I love, there's a great deal of good music written for awful movies (and vice versa). Also, a great deal of my favorite music comes from films I haven't seen; I usually find it best to judge the music on its own unless remembering the scene will give the music a boost.

I hadn't heard anything about a William Minor movie. His story seems...un-film-like, to say the least.

[glenniebun]

[glenniebun]

I wanted to give you a little update, since I'm sorry to say I haven't been able to get these discs out yet.

I tried to burn the two ready-to-go discs last night, but found that my CD burning program crashes whenever I try to open it. Lovely. I'll try to make some time to burn them at work this week, plus the disc of selections that I'll have to make from my random-listening directory (narrowing down a directory that exceeded CD size long ago), but don't be surprised if it doesn't get out the door until late in the week. You'll definitely get it, though, since I'm interested in seeing what parts you like and connect to better.

[glenniebun]

Update: since nothing came in for me to do at work today, I had time to sort out two discs of selections for you, so you're getting four total. I was shooting for one originally, but there was just too much I didn't want to cut. Those're burning now; I'll probably get them in the mail tomorrow morning. Cheers!

[debkatz]

Cheers indeed!!! You sir, have truly gone the extra mile. I can't wait to load them on the Ipod and stuff my head full of your tunes. Any suggestions on how to listen? Is it ambient listening, where I carry it with me all day while I do various projects versus meditative listening? I am very jazzed! This is great and I will let you know which compositions light me up!!! Thanks again for even thinking of doing this!

[glenniebun]

The two discs of selections cover a wide range of styles, from romantic to epic to action to placid to ambient (less ambient, to be fair). Since the selections come from a LOT of sources, they're fine to stick on your iPod and hit shuffle as you do whatever. That's pretty much what I do at work when I'm not listening to a specific CD straight through. (I'm not sure about the technical side since the tracks are in mp3 form and I've never had an iPod, but I'm sure you can figure it out.)

The two mixes are regular audio CDs that you can play in any stereo or rip for whatever computer listening you want. Just remember that on those two, each track blends seamlessly into the next (with only a couple of exceptions), since they were made to be complete CD-length listens.

I'm jazzed too! I tried to balance the more...active...music with some other emotions, but it might still be really slanted toward Big Brassy Action Stuff. I can't wait to see what you think. Also, I hope you can decipher my handwriting in the accompanying letter--I started writing in all-caps some years ago because my cursive was totally indecipherable, but by now I think my caps have gotten almost as bad.