For space is wide and good friends are too few.
Every autumn, every spring
Her touch changes everything
She knows the way down, and the way back up
Come taste Her secret in this cup
“In This Cup,” a neopagan song by Ben Newman, downloaded from his website, with lyrics and chords available here
This song is just…charming. I don’t have another word for it. I love Ben’s style, always unassuming but poignant.
I am the flame that sparks the ember
I am the thunder in the deep
I am a broken tree upon a far hill
a song to make minstrels weep
“Naming,” by Beth Kinderman and the Player Characters, about Kvothe, from Patrick Rothfuss’ trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle
so I’ll see you across the water
still the one & still my daughter
still you grow
& your list is getting shorter
& it’s you who gave the order for you know
all men must die
“Across the Water,” a song for Arya Stark by Beth Kinderman & the Player Characters. I got to hear this live last year at a hotel room party (the way it’s meant to be heard), and let me tell you, the outro is a very good time if you’ve got a receptive audience.
Braw and bold, he went a-raiding;
stout and strong, he went to war.
Long his lady will be waiting;
Gilbert’s greatsword strikes no more.
Apparently, there was an SCA contest for best elegy, so Leigh Ann Hussey wrote a song for the “death” of a player in “Steal the Sheep” earlier that day, a game where teams compete to move a stuffed sheepskin across a field.
“Gilbert’s Greatsword,” or “Elegy for Gilbert de Langspee,” by Annwn. The percussion on this is tabla, played by Aditya Gurajada.
I picked up some stones & then
I made myself a labyrinth
built the walls so high til I
could not see the stars
so tell your metamorphosis
that it is not invited here
those sounds you’re hearing now
are anything but minotaurs
“Refusal of the Call,” by Beth Kinderman, from her upcoming concept album The Hero’s Journey. The Bandcamp description includes this quote from Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces:
“Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or ‘culture,’ the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved. His flowering world becomes a wasteland of dry stones and his life feels meaningless—even though, like King Minos, he may through titanic effort succeed in building an empire of renown. Whatever house he builds, it will be a house of death: a labyrinth of cyclopean walls to hide from him his minotaur. All he can do is create new problems for himself and await the gradual approach of his disintegration.
We’re raucous, rude, and rowdy
And ask us if we care!
We have our boisterous buddies
And food that we don’t share
We’re foremost at a party
And rearmost in a fight
And if you think you’re tougher
We’ll just say that you are right
A tribute to crows, the birds with the best life philosophy. “Raucous, Rude, and Rowdy,” lyrics by Mercedes Lackey, sung by Paul Espinoza (I think)
Never think a servant cannot
Have his own free will
Never think that those who serve
Do not know how to kill
Owlflight: Song Of The Hertasi Water Killers – Mercedes LackeyDamn, I loved these books. And the hertasi were flipping awesome.
This manipulation buries my twisted truth
This modification carries my future youth
So I shall be what I’ve become
Femme fatale
“Femme Fatale,” from Leslie Hudson’s concept album about fictional redheads. I picked one of the better-known characters to post; this one is about Black Widow.
The Oracle
You think I have been beaten
You think he took the sky from me
You think I have been trapped here
Yet I’ve never been more freeI am the hero of my own story
I am the knight tearing towers down
I am the dragon within the fortress
I am the queen forging her own crownI am not a footnote
I am not a sacrifice
I am not your martyr
I’m not yours to sanctifyI am the voice that lights the shadows
I see the structure of strife and storms
I call the lightning to strike the shades
I am the sybil amidst the swarmsYou think I have been beaten
You think he took the sky from me
Well I was never vanquished
I’m stronger than he’ll ever be
Have you seen the ne’er-to-do, locked up in ‘Ark Avenue’,
On that famous thoroughfare, with some toxin in the air,
High hats and Arrow collars, green spats and lots of dollars,
Spending every dime, on a wonderful crime!If you’re blue and you don’t know where to go to,
Why don’t you go where chaos sits,
Gotham on the fritz!Femme fatales who wear a day coat, two-faced men,
Or leather bound coats, perfect fits,
Gotham on the fritz!Dressed up like a winged flying sleuther,
Trying hard to look like Ol’ Lex Luthor (super duper),
Come let’s mix where Cobblepots walk with their sticks,
Or umbrellas in their mitts.
Gotham on the fritz!Kitty cats all wear a diamond choker,
Harley walking with the man who broke her (what a joker),
You’ll declare it’s simply insane to be there,
And cower as they battle wits,
Gotham on the fritz!(I was bored. This happened. Deal with it.)