Oh, Sigur Rós, I forgot how easily you make me cry...

Flipping through a few songs on shuffle on the iPod, I landed on a live version of "Viðrar vel til loftárása" (which, hey! I still spelled right on the first try! but I don't know the codes for special characters on linux...), a concert I downloaded ages ago but had never listened to.

It starts out so light and sweet, there's a long silence before the piano gently comes in... a verse or two is played, a sweet purity in the song, and then the band goes silent. For a long, long time. The crowd stays silent, then applauds, then is silent...

And the band suddenly flies into the second portion of the song, the part where everything opens up and expands, the strings rush in like waves on the shore, and everything just soars up into the stars...

And then it closes with just a few strings, gently playing, as a lullaby.


...I sat there for a few minutes afterward, tears in my eyes, asking myself how people had found themselves able to applaud, to yell approval, when all I could do was sit here stunned and breathless, crying at the sheer ecstatic beauty of the song.


I haven't watched the video in a few years, and it's stunning, so heartbreaking and haunting... and I need to go watch it again now.

(And then I'll churn out today's 1,667 words. promise.)

Labels: art, music, sigur ros

 
Cross-posting from the NaNo blog, because I don't blame anyone for not slogging through that blog, and I think the content is relevant to everybody. :)


I love Chris Baty.

For the uninitiated, Chris Baty is the crazy who started this whole whirlwind adventure that calls itself NaNoWriMo. And every week, of every November, he sends out pep talk emails, which always lead to both giggles and warm fuzzies of camaraderie and encouragement.

Closing this week's:

"I didn't say this in the Week One pep talk because we'd only just met and there's really only so much cornball sentiment from a random guy on the internet that anyone should have to tolerate in one month. But here's the truth: You have a book in you that only you can write. Your story matters. Your voice matters. The world will be richer for you seeing this crazy creative escapade through to 50,000 words.

This may be hard to believe given the craptastic state that many of our manuscripts are in. But there are great, unexpected things ahead for you in Weeks Three and Four. And there is someone out there who has been waiting their whole life to read the book you're writing now."


That... is exactly why I drag myself through the slog of 50,000 words every November. Because I think (I hope) he's right. And not just about me, but about everybody - everyone views the world from a different place, with different eyes, seeing different hues of every color in the world.

So, yay for Chris Baty. <3

Labels: art, nanowrimo, navelgaze, writing