Entry tags:
It's all right
It is July! And I have written over 75,000 words of fiction! Which means I met my year's goal in only six months. Hooray! Granted, the magic spreadsheet says that only about 43000 of those are finished+posted, and 71,000 were for the d_f anon meme (which means I have 28000 words of WIP sitting on the anon meme, shhh.)
What I should aim to do for the rest of the year is either: a) turn out 75000 words of original fiction, or b) increase the finished/unfinished ratio. Or I could just keep filling random meme prompts as long as the meme goes on. I am... debating.
***
Yard sailing today! No big sales, probably due to the holiday, so all I ended up with was $1.75 in: Two Dover coloring books and an "Easy-To-Make Castle" book (the Dover books are Art Deco, and Dinosaurs with Feathers. The Castle is a gag gift for certain people who have spent three years trying to build a castle;) also a half-gallon plastic water bottle to replace the one that failed me awhile back.
***
So![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
commodorified posted We Have Fed You All A Thousand Years, a music mix for going to the barricades; and then sara posted De America, Yo Soy, her mix of angry leftist music, and then lotesse posted Oh, Freedom on a similar theme. And I downloaded them all, and they are all awesome. If you have any leftist passion in your heart, you should go listen.
So I thought I'd pay it on.
Only, nearly all of my going-to-the-barricades music is still trapped on the external hard drive that failed, so I'm cheating. :P This is a songmix that's been sitting on my hard drive for almost two and a half years - since January 21, 2009, in fact. What it is, basically, is my account of going to see Barack Obama's presidential inauguration, done as a fanmix instead of a journal or a photopost - a combination of songs that were played there, songs that should have been played there, and songs that got stuck in my head anyway. I meant to post it way back then, but kept coming up with new things to tweak, and it didn't happen.
So, given the occasion, it's less go-to-the-barricades and more 'cautious hope liberally mixed with engrained bitterness and cynicism', but I figured what with the new election campaign starting upAUUUUUUUGGGHHH, and the holiday and stuff, maybe I'd finally post it.
The covers are photos taken on the Metro - the Washington DC subway system - after and before the inauguration.
1. This Land Is Your Land - Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger at the "We Are One" concert
Basically the point at which I decided the ceremony might be worth going to in person was when I caught the inaugural concert on TV, and Bruce and Pete were singing "This Land", and they sang all the verses. Anyone who sings all the verses of "This Land" is my people.
2. American Tune - Eva Cassidy
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered / I don't have a friend who feels at ease / I don't know a dream that's not been shattered/ or driven to its knees / but it's all right, it's all right / we've lived so well so long / and when I think of the road / we've traveled on / so far away from home / so far away from home
3. America - Simon and Garfunkel
So to get to DC for the event, I had to take the MTA commuter bus from Annapolis to the MARC train station at the airport the day before, so I could spend the night at my sister's place and get the shuttle from Leesburg on the day of. I'd done it a few times before, and I was one of about three people I ever saw on that bus at mid-day. The driver knew me. And he guessed why I was going into the city, and it was the first of several really interesting conversations-on-public-transit I had that weekend, which may have been the best part of the whole experience. Thus my "bus-ridin' song."
4. The Freedom Train - Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters
The first of several points in making this mix when I went 'Why are all the people who sang this song white?'
Which leads into another train conversation: the only other locals in the car and I got to talking about public transit, and while I knew the local transit is segregated - the first times I'd ever experienced being the only white person in the room were on DC city buses - I'd never had it pointed out to me this starkly: he'd worked in a tourist hotel in the city. He told me that if people came up to the counter, and asked if there was a public transit route to get somewhere, and it wasn't on the subway, then: if they were white, they were supposed to say, "Sorry, you can't get there with transit." If they were anyone else, they would show them how to use the city buses.
So this song stays on the mix, just for that.
5. American Patrol - Glen Miller and His Orchestra
One of the marches played on the speaker systems before the actual show started. Everyone who has played in a school band in the US knows this song in their bones.
6. Tip O'Neill/Washington Hornpipe - Sue Richards
The guests started to arrive. Starting with the good guys. And a lot of people who had worked for lifetimes to see a president like Obama, which is something I try not to forget even when he's being his most infuriating. I forget why I decided to use Tip O'Neill's song `for this, except that I kind of fangirl him. (I blame my grandfather for my ~feelings~ about old-style Democratic politicians.)
7. The Imperial March - Skywalker Symphony Orchestra
And then the bad guys arrived. :P I know Peter Mandelson had it first, but the song just works so well for Cheney.
8. National Emblem March - composer Ed Bagley
Another song played at the event, presumably as something involving a flag happened.
9. Short People Got No Reason to Live - Randy Newman
Did I mention it was crowded on the mall? It was literally standing room only, as in, you could not fall down, there wasn't room. I felt kind of bad for the people who brought kids to have them witness history, because they weren't witnessing much. When someone had a medical emergency we had to pass them hand-to-hand.
And of course this song also connects back to the original US Civil Rights movement. Even if the civil rights movement might prefer to forget that sometimes.
10. God Bless America - composer Irving Berlin
Played at the event. Sung along to, obviously. Possibly sung along to as "God Bless My Underwear" by some of us though. (I am still bitter that the Stewart/Colbert rally was more interest in cleverness and celebrity than stuff that could actually be sung to.)
11. Defenders of Marriage - Roy Zimmerman
WHY, OBAMA, WHY RICK WARREN? WHY?
12. The Lord's Prayer - Barbra Streisand
And yet I am still enough of a sucker that the en masse recitation of the Lord's Prayer afterward got to me. Even if I wish they hadn't gone there. (I think Barbra is singing it because I happened to already have that track.)
13. America (My Country 'Tis of Thee) - Marian Anderson
Sung by Aretha Franklin at the event, but I really, really hated her cover (possibly because of the way she paused so dramatically after the first syllable of "Country"), so instead have Marian Anderson, singing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the Revolution turned her away.
14. Hail Columbia/President's March - composer Philip Phile
Welcome your new Vice President. This song has a very interesting history, by the way, which I won't go into here.
15. Air and Simple Gifts - Anthony McGill, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma and Gabriela Montero
Composed for the occasion by John Williams; played live by the all-star quartet assembled for the occasion. And by 'live' of course I mean 'faked while a pre-recorded tape was played', and by 'composed for the occasion' I mean 'sort of ripped off from Rite of Spring and the Amish only not as good', but if that's not a metaphor for the American presidency I don't know what is.
16. Hail to the Chief
Welcome your new President! I think both this and Hail Columbia came from Archive.org, which is a great source of old American music.
17. Yell Fire! - Michael Franti & Spearhead
I kind of liked the President's inauguration speech. It had some fire in it. And this was the song that got me through the tail end of the Bush presidency. And they were sort of on the same theme?
18. America - Allen Ginsberg, backing by Tom Waits
And now it's time for the poet laureate. I think this is the poem I wish had been read, instead of the one that actually was, although that one was actually pretty good, and I liked the 'praise song' inspiration, but I think I was ready for some bitterness by that point. (This would also be an awesome inauguration speech, actually. Or even better, someone's last lame-duck State of the Union address...)
19. Funkin' Lesson - the X-Clan
And then there was the benediction, and I got some! Best speech at the whole event, seriously, and yet half the crowd was already leaving. Why didn't they have Rev. Dr. Lowery do the opening prayer? WHY? He was awesome and spoke for me more than any of the others did. (This track got on here because I one spent a week at a community organizer training camp alongside one of the original members of the X-Clan. He, also, was awesome, just so you know. And it was a training camp that Obama did back in his early organizing days.)
20. The Star-Spangled Banner - We Are One Concert (everybody)
From the pre-inauguration concert, not the inauguration itself, mostly because that one was easier to get. And the ensemble was amazing.
21. Democracy - Leonard Cohen
It's coming through a hole in the air / from those nights in Tiananmen Square / It's coming from the feel that this ain't exactly real / or it's real but it ain't exactly there / from the wars against disorder / from the sirens night and day / from the fires of the homeless / from the ashes of the gay / Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
22. The Stars and Stripes - composer John Philip Sousa
Recessional. Everybody was leaving. Except the ones with webbed feet, who were just waiting to re-conquer their domain. And we didn't - we decided to stick around and let the crowds clear.
23. Junk Man - Mildred Bailey
Let the crowds clear, and look to see if anyone dropped Metro cards that still had money on them. (I'm still spending Metro money I picked up that afternoon.) There was SO MUCH TRASH OMG, America, you are a pig. I also rescued up about a dozen of the free flags they were giving out, which people had just dropped to be trampled in the mud, O:, why would you go to something like the Inauguration and then do that? America, something is wrong with your patriotism. (The flag on the mix cover is one of those.)
24. Cheeseburger in Paradise - Jimmy Buffett
We thought about hanging around in DC to have dinner at some little local hole-in-the-wall place. And then we thought better of it, even if the crowds were almost completely gone within three hours. Instead we went to some chain-corporate 'diner' in Northern Virginia and had overpriced, oversized burgers and fries. Which is possibly the most American thing we did all day.
25. National Anthem in Four Correspondent Harmony - Stephen Colbert, Ed Helms, Rob Corddry, Samantha Bee
...no, actually, going back to the apartment and immediately watching the Daily Show coverage was pretty American too.
26. Big Balls - AC/DC
For the record, I really disliked Michelle's gown. (But then I hate all the inaugural gowns since Ladybird's, pretty much.)
27. All Quiet on the Potomac - from Ken Burns' 'Civil War'.
Party at the Crossroads / 100 mb / direct download
What I should aim to do for the rest of the year is either: a) turn out 75000 words of original fiction, or b) increase the finished/unfinished ratio. Or I could just keep filling random meme prompts as long as the meme goes on. I am... debating.
***
Yard sailing today! No big sales, probably due to the holiday, so all I ended up with was $1.75 in: Two Dover coloring books and an "Easy-To-Make Castle" book (the Dover books are Art Deco, and Dinosaurs with Feathers. The Castle is a gag gift for certain people who have spent three years trying to build a castle;) also a half-gallon plastic water bottle to replace the one that failed me awhile back.
***
So
commodorified posted We Have Fed You All A Thousand Years, a music mix for going to the barricades; and then sara posted De America, Yo Soy, her mix of angry leftist music, and then lotesse posted Oh, Freedom on a similar theme. And I downloaded them all, and they are all awesome. If you have any leftist passion in your heart, you should go listen.So I thought I'd pay it on.
Only, nearly all of my going-to-the-barricades music is still trapped on the external hard drive that failed, so I'm cheating. :P This is a songmix that's been sitting on my hard drive for almost two and a half years - since January 21, 2009, in fact. What it is, basically, is my account of going to see Barack Obama's presidential inauguration, done as a fanmix instead of a journal or a photopost - a combination of songs that were played there, songs that should have been played there, and songs that got stuck in my head anyway. I meant to post it way back then, but kept coming up with new things to tweak, and it didn't happen.
So, given the occasion, it's less go-to-the-barricades and more 'cautious hope liberally mixed with engrained bitterness and cynicism', but I figured what with the new election campaign starting up
The covers are photos taken on the Metro - the Washington DC subway system - after and before the inauguration.
1. This Land Is Your Land - Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger at the "We Are One" concert
Basically the point at which I decided the ceremony might be worth going to in person was when I caught the inaugural concert on TV, and Bruce and Pete were singing "This Land", and they sang all the verses. Anyone who sings all the verses of "This Land" is my people.
2. American Tune - Eva Cassidy
And I don't know a soul who's not been battered / I don't have a friend who feels at ease / I don't know a dream that's not been shattered/ or driven to its knees / but it's all right, it's all right / we've lived so well so long / and when I think of the road / we've traveled on / so far away from home / so far away from home
3. America - Simon and Garfunkel
So to get to DC for the event, I had to take the MTA commuter bus from Annapolis to the MARC train station at the airport the day before, so I could spend the night at my sister's place and get the shuttle from Leesburg on the day of. I'd done it a few times before, and I was one of about three people I ever saw on that bus at mid-day. The driver knew me. And he guessed why I was going into the city, and it was the first of several really interesting conversations-on-public-transit I had that weekend, which may have been the best part of the whole experience. Thus my "bus-ridin' song."
4. The Freedom Train - Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters
The first of several points in making this mix when I went 'Why are all the people who sang this song white?'
Which leads into another train conversation: the only other locals in the car and I got to talking about public transit, and while I knew the local transit is segregated - the first times I'd ever experienced being the only white person in the room were on DC city buses - I'd never had it pointed out to me this starkly: he'd worked in a tourist hotel in the city. He told me that if people came up to the counter, and asked if there was a public transit route to get somewhere, and it wasn't on the subway, then: if they were white, they were supposed to say, "Sorry, you can't get there with transit." If they were anyone else, they would show them how to use the city buses.
So this song stays on the mix, just for that.
5. American Patrol - Glen Miller and His Orchestra
One of the marches played on the speaker systems before the actual show started. Everyone who has played in a school band in the US knows this song in their bones.
6. Tip O'Neill/Washington Hornpipe - Sue Richards
The guests started to arrive. Starting with the good guys. And a lot of people who had worked for lifetimes to see a president like Obama, which is something I try not to forget even when he's being his most infuriating. I forget why I decided to use Tip O'Neill's song `for this, except that I kind of fangirl him. (I blame my grandfather for my ~feelings~ about old-style Democratic politicians.)
7. The Imperial March - Skywalker Symphony Orchestra
And then the bad guys arrived. :P I know Peter Mandelson had it first, but the song just works so well for Cheney.
8. National Emblem March - composer Ed Bagley
Another song played at the event, presumably as something involving a flag happened.
9. Short People Got No Reason to Live - Randy Newman
Did I mention it was crowded on the mall? It was literally standing room only, as in, you could not fall down, there wasn't room. I felt kind of bad for the people who brought kids to have them witness history, because they weren't witnessing much. When someone had a medical emergency we had to pass them hand-to-hand.
And of course this song also connects back to the original US Civil Rights movement. Even if the civil rights movement might prefer to forget that sometimes.
10. God Bless America - composer Irving Berlin
Played at the event. Sung along to, obviously. Possibly sung along to as "God Bless My Underwear" by some of us though. (I am still bitter that the Stewart/Colbert rally was more interest in cleverness and celebrity than stuff that could actually be sung to.)
11. Defenders of Marriage - Roy Zimmerman
WHY, OBAMA, WHY RICK WARREN? WHY?
12. The Lord's Prayer - Barbra Streisand
And yet I am still enough of a sucker that the en masse recitation of the Lord's Prayer afterward got to me. Even if I wish they hadn't gone there. (I think Barbra is singing it because I happened to already have that track.)
13. America (My Country 'Tis of Thee) - Marian Anderson
Sung by Aretha Franklin at the event, but I really, really hated her cover (possibly because of the way she paused so dramatically after the first syllable of "Country"), so instead have Marian Anderson, singing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after the Daughters of the Revolution turned her away.
14. Hail Columbia/President's March - composer Philip Phile
Welcome your new Vice President. This song has a very interesting history, by the way, which I won't go into here.
15. Air and Simple Gifts - Anthony McGill, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma and Gabriela Montero
Composed for the occasion by John Williams; played live by the all-star quartet assembled for the occasion. And by 'live' of course I mean 'faked while a pre-recorded tape was played', and by 'composed for the occasion' I mean 'sort of ripped off from Rite of Spring and the Amish only not as good', but if that's not a metaphor for the American presidency I don't know what is.
16. Hail to the Chief
Welcome your new President! I think both this and Hail Columbia came from Archive.org, which is a great source of old American music.
17. Yell Fire! - Michael Franti & Spearhead
I kind of liked the President's inauguration speech. It had some fire in it. And this was the song that got me through the tail end of the Bush presidency. And they were sort of on the same theme?
18. America - Allen Ginsberg, backing by Tom Waits
And now it's time for the poet laureate. I think this is the poem I wish had been read, instead of the one that actually was, although that one was actually pretty good, and I liked the 'praise song' inspiration, but I think I was ready for some bitterness by that point. (This would also be an awesome inauguration speech, actually. Or even better, someone's last lame-duck State of the Union address...)
19. Funkin' Lesson - the X-Clan
And then there was the benediction, and I got some! Best speech at the whole event, seriously, and yet half the crowd was already leaving. Why didn't they have Rev. Dr. Lowery do the opening prayer? WHY? He was awesome and spoke for me more than any of the others did. (This track got on here because I one spent a week at a community organizer training camp alongside one of the original members of the X-Clan. He, also, was awesome, just so you know. And it was a training camp that Obama did back in his early organizing days.)
20. The Star-Spangled Banner - We Are One Concert (everybody)
From the pre-inauguration concert, not the inauguration itself, mostly because that one was easier to get. And the ensemble was amazing.
21. Democracy - Leonard Cohen
It's coming through a hole in the air / from those nights in Tiananmen Square / It's coming from the feel that this ain't exactly real / or it's real but it ain't exactly there / from the wars against disorder / from the sirens night and day / from the fires of the homeless / from the ashes of the gay / Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
22. The Stars and Stripes - composer John Philip Sousa
Recessional. Everybody was leaving. Except the ones with webbed feet, who were just waiting to re-conquer their domain. And we didn't - we decided to stick around and let the crowds clear.
23. Junk Man - Mildred Bailey
Let the crowds clear, and look to see if anyone dropped Metro cards that still had money on them. (I'm still spending Metro money I picked up that afternoon.) There was SO MUCH TRASH OMG, America, you are a pig. I also rescued up about a dozen of the free flags they were giving out, which people had just dropped to be trampled in the mud, O:, why would you go to something like the Inauguration and then do that? America, something is wrong with your patriotism. (The flag on the mix cover is one of those.)
24. Cheeseburger in Paradise - Jimmy Buffett
We thought about hanging around in DC to have dinner at some little local hole-in-the-wall place. And then we thought better of it, even if the crowds were almost completely gone within three hours. Instead we went to some chain-corporate 'diner' in Northern Virginia and had overpriced, oversized burgers and fries. Which is possibly the most American thing we did all day.
25. National Anthem in Four Correspondent Harmony - Stephen Colbert, Ed Helms, Rob Corddry, Samantha Bee
...no, actually, going back to the apartment and immediately watching the Daily Show coverage was pretty American too.
26. Big Balls - AC/DC
For the record, I really disliked Michelle's gown. (But then I hate all the inaugural gowns since Ladybird's, pretty much.)
27. All Quiet on the Potomac - from Ken Burns' 'Civil War'.
Party at the Crossroads / 100 mb / direct download