fanmix: like death or birth - a tuesday skyline mix
Cross-posted: fanmix, banui_love
OMG, FINALLY. My very first fanmix, finished only a week and a half late, which is practically on time for me. :p Honestly, though, I had the mix mostly done--chosen, anyway--pretty much on time, except I had fifteen million other things to do, and it's taken me since then to find time to make the covers and write up rambling commentary on each song and stuff.
Once upon a time there were two superheroes who lived in Boston. She was Tuesday Aiken, 23 and blue-haired, a guitarist in an indie-folk band called Talking of Michelangelo (Eliot references FTW). He was Ian Braddock, high-school English teacher, older than her and not particularly satisfied with a life that's not going the way he hoped it would when he was younger. She was telekinetic; he could teleport and phase his body through things, only he learned to use his powers later in life and had quite the frustrating time learning to control them (but that was okay too, because his awkwardness was always cute). Neither had any fondness for dorky names, cheesy costumes, or clichés in general. Together, they rode the subway, laughed, dealt with grief, saved the world, and fell in love.
Or something like that, anyway, seeing as faeriemaiden has only posted six scenes from this story on tuesday_skyline and doesn't even quite know who the villains in this story are. But if she ever gets more done, it's going to be one heck of a story.
The other story behind this: she originally made her own fanmix nearly a year ago (yes, the links still work, or again, rather), and has been talking for quite a long time about how a second mix is sort of in the works. I kept suggesting songs for it that probably didn't fit the tone of the mix, and finally I decided--well, heck, I'll just make my own Tuesday Skyline mix. Because it needs more fans, and because a lot of songs fit well for it, and it made a good (late) birthday present. Of course, this also means that I'm doing a lot of guessing and projecting on the characters, since there's not much canon to work with, but...there you go. These songs are in something resembling order. If you squint and look at them sideways they're in some kind of order, anyway. Original images from the covers are by Kamil Vojnar, taken mostly illegally from GettyImages.
like death or birth - a tuesday skyline fanmix
(zip with songs and cover art; all mp3s)
“Flying,” said Tuesday, “is something like death. Or birth. I haven’t decided which.”
boston - augustana
I think I'll go to Boston,
I think that I'm just tired
I think I need a new town, to leave this all behind
Tuesday left home at 18 and came to Boston to live with her brother, Neil. Good a place as any to start life over, especially when there wasn't much back in England except a lot of dysfunction with her mum.
i play music - rosie thomas
So I play music, that's what I do
When I sing I lose myself
There's nothing more I'd rather do
Lord knows I've tried everything else
Music helped. That was one thing she always had--growing up confused about parents and powers, saving the world, dealing with Neil's death.
supergirl - krystal harris
I am Supergirl
And I'm here to save the world
But I wanna know
Who's gonna save me
Yeah, okay, so this is basically an annoying pop song...but come on, it had to go in here. I don't know how much Tuesday actually wonders this, but she does strike me as the sort of person--because she's generally so upbeat and cheerful in her own quirky way--that other people turn to when they have problems. The fact that she's telekinetic and can fly doesn't hurt. So when really bad things happen--like leaving home when she's barely an adult because she can't take it anymore, or losing Neil maybe five years later--who saves her?
amy's song - switchfoot
Yeah, she's a freedom fighter
She's a stand up kind of girl
She's out to start a fire
In a bar code plastic world
Amy, in this song, is apparently already dead. Tuesday's not. Otherwise, this is quite the Tuesday song. She's the sort of person who can make people feel more alive--more human, more like they can do things--just by being around them. She's passionate and determined and opinionated, and she wants to save the world or maybe just change it. Either way, she's not just going to sit around.
one girl revolution - superchic[k]
I wear a disguise
I'm just your average Jane
The super doesn't stand for model
But that doesn't mean I'm plain
If all you see is how I look
You miss the superchick within
And I christen you Titanic
Underestimate and swim
I am a voice yet waiting to be heard
I'll shoot the shot, bang
That you hear 'round the world
I'm a one girl revolution
Because Tuesday is the ultimate Superchick, and because--even though she's in a folk band--she seems like the type who would have very eclectic tastes in music.
apathetic way to be - relient k
I must admit, all the words you spoke, I hated
Cause I don't see just how I can be motivated
Enough to break a sweat over a dying race
It seems our fate is something we've already embraced
And the half of me's all about apathy
And the other half
Just doesn't care
"I suppose half of my life could be considered as having given up on the world, although mostly I can only remember being busy and having absolutely no time to think about anything." -Ian
quiet as a mouse - margot & the nuclear so and so's
When I woke my back was broke from lying on the floor
Sunlight poured through all the cracks in my front door
Wake up you've got a lot of things to do
Wake up the sun is rising without you
Turns out the world--particularly the part of it that Tuesday inhabits--doesn't want Ian to give up and not care. Yeah, the world's falling apart, and yeah, he can't change everything. But he can still do something.
first breath after coma - explosions in the sky
[instrumental]
And he does. Still wants to give up sometimes--lots of times--but hang it all, he's not going to sleep his life away.
kryptonite - 3 doors down
If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman
If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand
I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might
Kryptonite
Of course, being a superhero carries its own burdens. Suddenly, getting to work on time and dealing with classrooms of rebellious teenagers doesn't seem like such a huge responsibility. Trying to save people's lives--that's huge. And he's just an English teacher. How's he supposed to handle this superhero thing?
superman (it's not easy) - five for fighting
I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
Men weren't meant to ride
With clouds between their knees
Tuesday's powers first manifested when she was a child, so she's had a good long time to get used to them and become decently adept at using her telekinesis. Ian...not so much. The whole thing still feels unnatural to him at times, and the logical part of him rebels against it now and then.
waitin' for a superman - iron & wine
Tell everybody
Waiting for Superman
That they should try to
Hold on the best they can
He hasn't dropped them, forgot them or anything
It's just too heavy for Superman to lift
The sort of song Ian might listen to on a bad day when he's feeling really emo and things are a little too much. He's late to work, most of his students don't turn in their papers or listen to a thing he says (in fact, he's pretty sure one of them climbed out the window when his back was turned, and another spent time chipping off gum stuck underneath his chair and flicking it at other kids), a fellow teacher snaps at him for letting a container of tapioca rot in the teachers' lounge fridge and he doesn't even like tapioca, and then he and Tuesday spend half the night trying to help people and not quite making it on time once or twice and maybe somebody dies anyway. The ones they do save don't even say thank you. (And then he's so tired when he finally gets home that he loses control of his powers, falls right through the bed, and spends fifteen minutes trying to extricate himself from a mess of shoes and boxes and dust bunnies.)
the poisonjester's mask - solas
There was tear gas in the poisonjester's mask
Shed a tear, dear, for the clown
Tried to fight fire with water
It went down on the ten o'clock news
I bought the paper and walked back to where I'd parked
The man on the movie theater steps
Can always find his needle
But I wonder where's the thread?
They love Boston. Love it. It's home, it's beautiful, it bleeds history and stories and sound and life and magic. But dang, it's got problems, and they know that better than anybody.
better - regina spektor
If I kiss you where it’s sore
If I kiss you where it’s sore
Will you feel better, better, better
Will you feel anything at all
Will you feel better, better, better
Will you feel anything at all
Sometimes it's hard to believe that even their efforts are doing anything. They're only two people. On a good night, maybe they can save a couple dozen people from being mugged or raped or what have you. How many more didn't they save? Is it really making a difference? Their powers let them do more than most people can, but it still doesn't seem like enough. It's just a handful of people out of millions.
hero - chad kroeger
And they say that a hero can save us
I'm not gonna stand here and wait
I'll hold on to the wings of the eagles
Watch as we all fly away
Problem is, that attitude's just as bad as Ian trying to give up on the whole human race. If they can do something, they're going to do it, hang it all. Even if they can't save the whole world--and who knows, maybe they can--they're going to do as much as they can. What else are they supposed to do?
we are - ana
Keep watching from your picket fence
You keep talking but it makes no sense
You say we're not responsible
But we are, we are
You wash your hands
You come out clean
But fail to recognize the enemy's within
You say we're not responsible
But we are, we are
"With great power comes great responsibility." That's not a Tuesday Skyline quote, obviously, but it's appropriate. Tuesday and Ian have a job to do, in large part because everybody else pretends not to see that they all have to act to change the world.
peculiar people - mute math
We are peculiar people
We are peculiar people
There is more to who we are than meets the eye
We are peculiar people
We are peculiar people
We will shed our human skin and learn to fly
Because Tuesday can fly, and because they're both extraordinary, as much as Ian might not believe that.
the dress looks nice on you - sufjan stevens
I can see a lot of life in you
I can see a lot of bright in you
And I think the dress looks nice on you
I can see a lot of life in you
Ian to Tuesday. Remember what I said about how alive she is? Maybe he was drawn to somebody who at first didn't seem at all like him because he needed somebody like her to shake him out of his apathy.
the zenith - starflyer 59
There she goes under blue skies she swirls by
There you go on the blue side she's on your side
I know the love is moving
And there you go under blue skies she swirls by
Ian to Tuesday again.
dreams - the cranberries
All my life
Is changing everyday
In every possible way
And all my dreams
It´s never quite as it seems
Because you´re a dream to me
Okay, so this is kind of getting on the sappy, shippy side of things, but they're adorable, and Tuesday really did shake up Ian's life in a lot of different ways. I mean, can you imagine any of his students predicting that he'd end up going out with an indie-folk guitarist with blue hair?
brightly wound - eisley
It's happening all the time
When I open my eyes
I'm still taken by surprise
I hold sunlight and swallow fireflies
And it makes me want to cry
This strikes me as a good Tuesday/Ian song. I'm not sure why, especially since--to my knowledge--the vast majority of the story takes place within the city of Boston, and this song feels like it's out in the country somewhere.
envelopes - sleeping at last
A blindfold of wings
Held us from perfect sight,
While savaing unready eyes.
All will be lost, all will be well.
All will be loved when living is hell.
We'll cry dead leaves to grow.
Think Tuesday doesn't have wings just because they can't be seen? Nah. She's got wings all right, and she's going to save the world with them, one way or the other. Ian's got them too; he just doesn't entirely know it yet.
city of blinding lights - u2
Neon heart, dayglo eyes
A city lit by fireflies
They're advertising in the skies
For people like us
And I miss you when you're not around
I'm getting ready to leave the ground
Oh you look so beautiful tonight
In the city of blinding lights
The perfect Tuesday/Ian song in a number of ways.
a painting by chagall - the weepies
Sometimes rain that's needed falls
We float like two lovers in a painting by Chagall
All around is sky and blue town
Holding these flowers for a wedding gown
We live so high above the ground, satellites surround us
Flying references, The Weepies, and some kind of city. Plus Jolene had it tagged as "sounds like boston" on last.fm.
skyline drive - mae
Sometimes I drive or ride with my eyes closed tight
because if the skyline looks this way
then I don't want to sleep tonight
Never giving up, always seeking light,
we must always try, try with all our might
Because it's currently going by "Tuesday Skyline," and because the story's a lot about not giving up, after all, innit?
on your wings - iron & wine
How we rise when we're born
like the ravens in the corn
on their wings, on our knees
crawling careless from the sea
God, give us love in the time that we have
Life and love and why. And wings.
umbrellas - sleeping at last
When fences divide our land,
I would catch bullets with my bare hands.
Because you were meant for amazing things.
I sort of think either Ian or Tuesday could catch bullets if they were careful enough. Plus the beginning of this song takes about bringing a child into the world, and Tuesday wants a big family even if Ian just gets adorably flustered when he's asked about, you know, marriage.
OMG, FINALLY. My very first fanmix, finished only a week and a half late, which is practically on time for me. :p Honestly, though, I had the mix mostly done--chosen, anyway--pretty much on time, except I had fifteen million other things to do, and it's taken me since then to find time to make the covers and write up rambling commentary on each song and stuff.
Once upon a time there were two superheroes who lived in Boston. She was Tuesday Aiken, 23 and blue-haired, a guitarist in an indie-folk band called Talking of Michelangelo (Eliot references FTW). He was Ian Braddock, high-school English teacher, older than her and not particularly satisfied with a life that's not going the way he hoped it would when he was younger. She was telekinetic; he could teleport and phase his body through things, only he learned to use his powers later in life and had quite the frustrating time learning to control them (but that was okay too, because his awkwardness was always cute). Neither had any fondness for dorky names, cheesy costumes, or clichés in general. Together, they rode the subway, laughed, dealt with grief, saved the world, and fell in love.
Or something like that, anyway, seeing as faeriemaiden has only posted six scenes from this story on tuesday_skyline and doesn't even quite know who the villains in this story are. But if she ever gets more done, it's going to be one heck of a story.
The other story behind this: she originally made her own fanmix nearly a year ago (yes, the links still work, or again, rather), and has been talking for quite a long time about how a second mix is sort of in the works. I kept suggesting songs for it that probably didn't fit the tone of the mix, and finally I decided--well, heck, I'll just make my own Tuesday Skyline mix. Because it needs more fans, and because a lot of songs fit well for it, and it made a good (late) birthday present. Of course, this also means that I'm doing a lot of guessing and projecting on the characters, since there's not much canon to work with, but...there you go. These songs are in something resembling order. If you squint and look at them sideways they're in some kind of order, anyway. Original images from the covers are by Kamil Vojnar, taken mostly illegally from GettyImages.
like death or birth - a tuesday skyline fanmix
(zip with songs and cover art; all mp3s)
“Flying,” said Tuesday, “is something like death. Or birth. I haven’t decided which.”
boston - augustana
I think I'll go to Boston,
I think that I'm just tired
I think I need a new town, to leave this all behind
Tuesday left home at 18 and came to Boston to live with her brother, Neil. Good a place as any to start life over, especially when there wasn't much back in England except a lot of dysfunction with her mum.
i play music - rosie thomas
So I play music, that's what I do
When I sing I lose myself
There's nothing more I'd rather do
Lord knows I've tried everything else
Music helped. That was one thing she always had--growing up confused about parents and powers, saving the world, dealing with Neil's death.
supergirl - krystal harris
I am Supergirl
And I'm here to save the world
But I wanna know
Who's gonna save me
Yeah, okay, so this is basically an annoying pop song...but come on, it had to go in here. I don't know how much Tuesday actually wonders this, but she does strike me as the sort of person--because she's generally so upbeat and cheerful in her own quirky way--that other people turn to when they have problems. The fact that she's telekinetic and can fly doesn't hurt. So when really bad things happen--like leaving home when she's barely an adult because she can't take it anymore, or losing Neil maybe five years later--who saves her?
amy's song - switchfoot
Yeah, she's a freedom fighter
She's a stand up kind of girl
She's out to start a fire
In a bar code plastic world
Amy, in this song, is apparently already dead. Tuesday's not. Otherwise, this is quite the Tuesday song. She's the sort of person who can make people feel more alive--more human, more like they can do things--just by being around them. She's passionate and determined and opinionated, and she wants to save the world or maybe just change it. Either way, she's not just going to sit around.
one girl revolution - superchic[k]
I wear a disguise
I'm just your average Jane
The super doesn't stand for model
But that doesn't mean I'm plain
If all you see is how I look
You miss the superchick within
And I christen you Titanic
Underestimate and swim
I am a voice yet waiting to be heard
I'll shoot the shot, bang
That you hear 'round the world
I'm a one girl revolution
Because Tuesday is the ultimate Superchick, and because--even though she's in a folk band--she seems like the type who would have very eclectic tastes in music.
apathetic way to be - relient k
I must admit, all the words you spoke, I hated
Cause I don't see just how I can be motivated
Enough to break a sweat over a dying race
It seems our fate is something we've already embraced
And the half of me's all about apathy
And the other half
Just doesn't care
"I suppose half of my life could be considered as having given up on the world, although mostly I can only remember being busy and having absolutely no time to think about anything." -Ian
quiet as a mouse - margot & the nuclear so and so's
When I woke my back was broke from lying on the floor
Sunlight poured through all the cracks in my front door
Wake up you've got a lot of things to do
Wake up the sun is rising without you
Turns out the world--particularly the part of it that Tuesday inhabits--doesn't want Ian to give up and not care. Yeah, the world's falling apart, and yeah, he can't change everything. But he can still do something.
first breath after coma - explosions in the sky
[instrumental]
And he does. Still wants to give up sometimes--lots of times--but hang it all, he's not going to sleep his life away.
kryptonite - 3 doors down
If I go crazy then will you still call me Superman
If I'm alive and well, will you be there holding my hand
I'll keep you by my side with my superhuman might
Kryptonite
Of course, being a superhero carries its own burdens. Suddenly, getting to work on time and dealing with classrooms of rebellious teenagers doesn't seem like such a huge responsibility. Trying to save people's lives--that's huge. And he's just an English teacher. How's he supposed to handle this superhero thing?
superman (it's not easy) - five for fighting
I can't stand to fly
I'm not that naive
Men weren't meant to ride
With clouds between their knees
Tuesday's powers first manifested when she was a child, so she's had a good long time to get used to them and become decently adept at using her telekinesis. Ian...not so much. The whole thing still feels unnatural to him at times, and the logical part of him rebels against it now and then.
waitin' for a superman - iron & wine
Tell everybody
Waiting for Superman
That they should try to
Hold on the best they can
He hasn't dropped them, forgot them or anything
It's just too heavy for Superman to lift
The sort of song Ian might listen to on a bad day when he's feeling really emo and things are a little too much. He's late to work, most of his students don't turn in their papers or listen to a thing he says (in fact, he's pretty sure one of them climbed out the window when his back was turned, and another spent time chipping off gum stuck underneath his chair and flicking it at other kids), a fellow teacher snaps at him for letting a container of tapioca rot in the teachers' lounge fridge and he doesn't even like tapioca, and then he and Tuesday spend half the night trying to help people and not quite making it on time once or twice and maybe somebody dies anyway. The ones they do save don't even say thank you. (And then he's so tired when he finally gets home that he loses control of his powers, falls right through the bed, and spends fifteen minutes trying to extricate himself from a mess of shoes and boxes and dust bunnies.)
the poisonjester's mask - solas
There was tear gas in the poisonjester's mask
Shed a tear, dear, for the clown
Tried to fight fire with water
It went down on the ten o'clock news
I bought the paper and walked back to where I'd parked
The man on the movie theater steps
Can always find his needle
But I wonder where's the thread?
They love Boston. Love it. It's home, it's beautiful, it bleeds history and stories and sound and life and magic. But dang, it's got problems, and they know that better than anybody.
better - regina spektor
If I kiss you where it’s sore
If I kiss you where it’s sore
Will you feel better, better, better
Will you feel anything at all
Will you feel better, better, better
Will you feel anything at all
Sometimes it's hard to believe that even their efforts are doing anything. They're only two people. On a good night, maybe they can save a couple dozen people from being mugged or raped or what have you. How many more didn't they save? Is it really making a difference? Their powers let them do more than most people can, but it still doesn't seem like enough. It's just a handful of people out of millions.
hero - chad kroeger
And they say that a hero can save us
I'm not gonna stand here and wait
I'll hold on to the wings of the eagles
Watch as we all fly away
Problem is, that attitude's just as bad as Ian trying to give up on the whole human race. If they can do something, they're going to do it, hang it all. Even if they can't save the whole world--and who knows, maybe they can--they're going to do as much as they can. What else are they supposed to do?
we are - ana
Keep watching from your picket fence
You keep talking but it makes no sense
You say we're not responsible
But we are, we are
You wash your hands
You come out clean
But fail to recognize the enemy's within
You say we're not responsible
But we are, we are
"With great power comes great responsibility." That's not a Tuesday Skyline quote, obviously, but it's appropriate. Tuesday and Ian have a job to do, in large part because everybody else pretends not to see that they all have to act to change the world.
peculiar people - mute math
We are peculiar people
We are peculiar people
There is more to who we are than meets the eye
We are peculiar people
We are peculiar people
We will shed our human skin and learn to fly
Because Tuesday can fly, and because they're both extraordinary, as much as Ian might not believe that.
the dress looks nice on you - sufjan stevens
I can see a lot of life in you
I can see a lot of bright in you
And I think the dress looks nice on you
I can see a lot of life in you
Ian to Tuesday. Remember what I said about how alive she is? Maybe he was drawn to somebody who at first didn't seem at all like him because he needed somebody like her to shake him out of his apathy.
the zenith - starflyer 59
There she goes under blue skies she swirls by
There you go on the blue side she's on your side
I know the love is moving
And there you go under blue skies she swirls by
Ian to Tuesday again.
dreams - the cranberries
All my life
Is changing everyday
In every possible way
And all my dreams
It´s never quite as it seems
Because you´re a dream to me
Okay, so this is kind of getting on the sappy, shippy side of things, but they're adorable, and Tuesday really did shake up Ian's life in a lot of different ways. I mean, can you imagine any of his students predicting that he'd end up going out with an indie-folk guitarist with blue hair?
brightly wound - eisley
It's happening all the time
When I open my eyes
I'm still taken by surprise
I hold sunlight and swallow fireflies
And it makes me want to cry
This strikes me as a good Tuesday/Ian song. I'm not sure why, especially since--to my knowledge--the vast majority of the story takes place within the city of Boston, and this song feels like it's out in the country somewhere.
envelopes - sleeping at last
A blindfold of wings
Held us from perfect sight,
While savaing unready eyes.
All will be lost, all will be well.
All will be loved when living is hell.
We'll cry dead leaves to grow.
Think Tuesday doesn't have wings just because they can't be seen? Nah. She's got wings all right, and she's going to save the world with them, one way or the other. Ian's got them too; he just doesn't entirely know it yet.
city of blinding lights - u2
Neon heart, dayglo eyes
A city lit by fireflies
They're advertising in the skies
For people like us
And I miss you when you're not around
I'm getting ready to leave the ground
Oh you look so beautiful tonight
In the city of blinding lights
The perfect Tuesday/Ian song in a number of ways.
a painting by chagall - the weepies
Sometimes rain that's needed falls
We float like two lovers in a painting by Chagall
All around is sky and blue town
Holding these flowers for a wedding gown
We live so high above the ground, satellites surround us
Flying references, The Weepies, and some kind of city. Plus Jolene had it tagged as "sounds like boston" on last.fm.
skyline drive - mae
Sometimes I drive or ride with my eyes closed tight
because if the skyline looks this way
then I don't want to sleep tonight
Never giving up, always seeking light,
we must always try, try with all our might
Because it's currently going by "Tuesday Skyline," and because the story's a lot about not giving up, after all, innit?
on your wings - iron & wine
How we rise when we're born
like the ravens in the corn
on their wings, on our knees
crawling careless from the sea
God, give us love in the time that we have
Life and love and why. And wings.
umbrellas - sleeping at last
When fences divide our land,
I would catch bullets with my bare hands.
Because you were meant for amazing things.
I sort of think either Ian or Tuesday could catch bullets if they were careful enough. Plus the beginning of this song takes about bringing a child into the world, and Tuesday wants a big family even if Ian just gets adorably flustered when he's asked about, you know, marriage.