To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive

Because it seemed to be that time again. (Actually, it's probably as far from that time as it could get, seeing as all these new Vividcon vids are coming out. You should go watch those rather than read my ramblings.)

Some of these songs have appeared on my music recs before. The rest will likely appear in the next edition.

Windmills – Toad the Wet Sprocket
I spend too much time raiding windmills
We go side by side
Laughing till it's right

There's something that you won't show
Waiting where the light goes
Maybe anywhere the wind blows
It's all worth waiting for

This feels like a John Crichton (Farscape) vid to me, especially the "anywhere the wind blows" lines. Plus, you know, there's that episode in S4 where he pretends to be Don Quijote, for reasons I can't remember at the moment. What I like about this song is that the tempo is slow enough to permit lingering clips that don't have a lot of movement, but the guitar picking pattern would allow quicker cuts and lots of motion without it feeling odd. Plus there's that nice dramatic moment in the middle ("Call on the porters..."), which would be awesome to fit ever more epic footage to, and finish off with a Starburst.

Man, I haven't seen an episode of this show since PK Wars came out back in...was it 2004? I should do a rewatch some day.


A Good Day (Morning Song) – Priscilla Ahn
morning
sunrise
open my eyes

and i can tell it's gonna be a good day

They lyrics sound cheerful, right? Well, the song is very ethereal, almost sad, and it cuts off sharply at the end. I feel like this would be a perfect song for images that read against the text of the lyrics. Specifically, I'm thinking it would work for a character going into a situation which he or she didn't expect to survive. Ideally, there'd be another character the main character has a relationship of some kind with, and this other character doesn't have to go into this situation. There'd be a lot of slow-mo to fit the music.

My immediate thought is Marcus sacrificing himself for Susan, but the song is longer than the available relevant footage. (I suppose the song could be edited down, but I hate doing that.) Hmmm. My other thought is Sheridan preparing to die in "Sleeping in Light," or perhaps Roslin and Adama taking their shuttle trip at the end of BSG, with footage from when she was healthier earlier in the series spliced in at appropriate intervals. It really feels like it needs visuals of someone suiting up, preparing a weapon, etc., though. Maybe everyone preparing for the big stand against the Reavers in Serenity? (I feel like Xena would have a ton of that kind of footage, actually. As might Space: Above and Beyond.)


To the Stars – Erin McKeown
to the stars! to the stars!
we are lit within
by all we've been and by
all we care to be
to the stars! from the wars!
we'll wake up a little this morning
a little better than
we were before

This screams Marcus at me. He's just so...optimistic, and idealistic, and yet he's got a bit of an edge, all of which this song also has. I'm not sure how much Marcus's idealism, etc., comes across visually, though—I think it's mostly in what he says and how he says it—so this is a fanvid that will likely remain in my head.


Coney Island – Antje Duvekot
so will you hold me until we crumble
under a dying august moon
buy me an old-fashioned rootbeer
'cause one day the old world will lose
and we'll go dancing on the levy
with the sun beneath our feet
'cause time passes with such violence
we're just heart beats on a sea

'cause in a world so full of troubles
i think that we've seen enough
and they'll still be here tomorrow
when the sun comes up

I think this might have been written for Depression-era film. I would suggest the obvious ones, except this is a waltz, and Fred and Ginger did everything in 4/4. Woes.


Our Town – Kate Rusby
Up the street beside the red neon light
That's where I met my baby on a hot summer's night
He was the tender and I ordered a beer
It's been forty years and I'm still sat here.

Can't you see the sun sinkin' fast
And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts, well
Go on then kiss it goodbye
But hold on to your lover 'cause your heart's gonna die.
Go on then and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can't you see the sun's goin' down on our town, on our town
Goodnight.

Northern Exposure, ensemble. Obvious vid is obvious. Mostly I'd like to do this to wash the taste of the second half of S6 out of my mind, and because I hate the version they used in the series (yeah, Iris Dement's is the original, but lord, I hate that twang). Rusby's is much better.

Of all of them, "Our Town" is the one I'm most likely to actually make. "A Good Day" is the one I'd most like to make, if I can ever figure out what to make it of.

*

In other news, I appear to be on a nonfiction kick. I just finished Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was excellent (I bought it mainly because it cost five cents, and so my low expectations were greatly exceeded) and am now in the middle of Blue Highways, which is also quite good. Last week, I read American Nomads, the author of which I don't remember, which apparently was a retread of this book with historical narratives and figures inserted at odd junctures. I like Least Heat Moon's better. Next up is the one major Cather novel I've yet to read, Song of the Lark, though I may make a detour through another James Alan Gardener novel first.