#i love blackbirds ok. they make me sentimental

[leopardsealz]

the last vid i rbed is making me think abt eurasian blackbird song...1 of my favourites! they sing v early in the morning & the evening too. cant wait til they start singing again this year <33 btw here is a 1 hour vid of blackbirds singing if u are inch rested in hearing them

[llondonfog]

i hope you don't mind this being dumped here. my enemies-to-lovers anon on piratealt has gotten crowley stuck in my head for better or worse, and one particular thought annoys me more than any other.

he is, in my eyes, a grackle. not a crow. my neighborhood is absolutely overrun with them and always has been, so perhaps that is why this thought is so persistent, but he resembles one so clearly to me. they're blackbirds who tend to be shiny and blue, the males have long legs, and are frequently mistaken for crows. the tails also resemble his coat or cape.

they're an annoyance more than anything. they strut around and bully all the smaller birds until the mourning doves come along and scare them off. they also like to make a mess of the birdseed if only to spite everyone else.

...on a more story-related note, the thought of him being a red herring of sorts as a bird easily mistaken for a crow is certainly something.

but i digress. he's a grackle to me. and grackles ruin my bird feeders and terrorize the littler birds, so my annoyance only grows.

the way I am nodding my head and fervently agreeing with you!!!

ok but i love the concept that crowley is a grackle because i fully share your sentiments— growing up, our home would always be plagued by both grackles and starlings to a horrendous degree and drive away any of the other native birds that my mom would try to feed to the point she'd bang on the windows to try to frighten them off, only for them to blink at her with the most baleful apathy in existence lol they are opportunistic little beggars and the comparison to crowley? 1000% accurate.

also crows are so incredibly intelligent with amazing communication skills, and they're cooperative breeders which means they defend each other's young— does this sound like our esteemed and ever so kindly headmaster.

NO IT DOES NOT.

[abbeyroadie]

I know others have gotten that stupid question when someone finds out that you like The Beatles they ask, “Oh yeah? Name five Beatles songs that weren’t big hits.” The other day I told someone that my favorite Beatle is Paul McCartney and they said, “Ok, name five songs from McCartney’s solo career.” Laaaaaawd I have nothing to prove to anyone, but it always grinds my gears when people assume I’m only wearing a Beatles t-shirt for aesthetics, or I only love Paul for his looks. Bitch please.

So I compiled this list of songs that I first tried to narrow down to ten and quickly realized I couldn’t even narrow it down to twenty, lol. My favorite Paul McCartney songs post Beatles era are listed below with links to YouTube to hear each song. I left out anything he did as a collaboration just because this list is hella long already. Please feel free to add your favs as well!

~

36. Calico Skies

- I love the simplicity of this song. Paul’s finger picking on the guitar vaguely reminds me of the style of Blackbird.

 35. Put It There

- This song has a soft, sweet melody that always gets stuck in my head.

 34. The World Tonight

- “I go back so far, I’m in front of me.” Sometimes Paul’s lyrics are awesomesauce, lol.

 33. Call Me Back Again

- I love how this song kinda goes back to his roots. Very oldies, very bluesy. Lots of wailing Paul and great guitar licks.

 32. This One

- Might be a song for John if you squint sideways and upside down. Another one that’s a definite earworm.

 30./31. Venus and Mars/Rock Show

- I’m sort of cheating but these two songs def go together. Venus and Mars is very melodic and draws you in, jumping right into the rocker that is aptly named Rock Show. A great way to kick off the V&M album.

 29. C Moon

- This tune is very sentimental to my sister and me. As kids we’d run around the house singing it at the top of our lungs. Also, the beginning when Paul misses the intro and just keeps the gaff in the song makes it that much better, lol.

 28. Somedays

- A quiet song, Paul’s more thoughtful, reflective side. The dueling acoustic guitars and harp are especially lovely.

 27. Big Barn Bed

- I used to skip over this song because I thought it made no sense. Then one day it hit me how much fun it is. And now I wanna keep on sleeping in a big barn bed too, haha.

 26. With a Little Luck

- One of those uplifting, positive tracks that Paul is so freaking good at creating.

 25. Young Boy

- Just the way Paul sings “looooooong” and “strooooong” at the end of a couple of the lyrics. And the guitar solo kicks ass too.

 24. Goodnight Tonight

- Ooh boy, where to start with this song? First and foremost, that BASSLINE. Perhaps it’s a disco-ish dance number that meets electronica? I don’t even know. John said he didn’t like this song but he loved Paul’s bass playing on it, so there you go, lol.

 23. Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty-Five

- This one is very upbeat, but the slowed down intermission with the “ooohs” is what makes it interesting to me. It also includes some amazing piano playing.

 22. Hi, Hi, Hi

- I prefer the live version of this song, but it’s tons of fun no matter what.

 21. Junk

- A very soft tune that would have fit perfectly on The White Album. Very stripped back and almost sad.

 20. Off the Ground

- Paul at his very best at creating melodies that are catchy and fun and don’t delve too deep. “I need lovin’, you need lovin’ too.” And you can’t forget the hand claps and la la las! Good luck getting this song out of your head.

 19. Live and Let Die

- I’d be surprised if you haven’t heard this song sometime in your life. It’s one of those songs where you hear it and go, “Wait, I know this song. This is Paul McCartney?!” He be James Bond like that, heehee.

 18. Dear Boy

- I’ve heard this song is about Linda’s ex. Some think it’s about John. Either way, it’s a catchy little tune.

 17. Take It Away

- This is a great song even before you realize how amazeballs Paul’s bass playing is on it.

 16. Monkberry Moon Delight

- Y’all, WHAT EVEN IS THIS SONG?! I don’t know, but it’s so freaking FUN! Paul’s poor voice though. I feel like he probably couldn’t talk for a week after laying down the vocal track, lol.

 15. Too Much Rain

- Ugh, this song is so beautiful and so sad at the same time. Paul trying to be optimistic as always.

 14. Dear Friend

- Is this a song about John too? Maybe. Probably. A haunting melody with a solitary piano for most of it, with a heavy feeling of regret, at least imo.

 13. Band on the Run

- Here you get three songs in one, not unlike the Abbey Road medley but completely different as well. Paul knows how to kick off an album, that’s for sure!

 12. Maybe I’m Amazed

- I prefer the live version of this song too, but it kicks you in the gut no matter what. Paul loved Linda so much, and he lets everyone know it.

 11. Tug of War

- Ok, I don’t know if this song is about John. It could be. It sounds like Paul’s talking about something…more. “In another world we could stand on top of the mountain with our flag unfurled.” “We will be dancing to the beat played on a different drum.” What is Paul trying to say exactly? Many have debated the lyrics to no end. You decide.

 10. Too Many People

- This is FOR SURE about John, and the breakup of the Beatles. And it started a song war between John and Paul that would go on for years. But it’s also a bop, lol.

 9. Here Today

- This is Paul speaking to John after John’s death. And it’s completely heartbreaking. I have to be in a certain mindset to listen to this one.

 8. Hope of Deliverance

- If this song doesn’t get your foot tapping and your head bopping, idk you might want to check your pulse.

 7. Silly Love Songs

- DAT BASS THO. For real, this song is built around Paul’s bassline and it’s amazing! Also, this was Paul basically giving John the finger for making fun of his “granny shit” and “silly love songs.”

 6. Jet

- This is one that I crank up in my car and it may or may not make me drive a little faster, lol. I love it so much.

 5. Little Lamb Dragonfly

- A two for one! Both songs are lovely, but I particularly love the dragonfly lyrics and melody. (Yes, this song is possibly about John as well (“how did two rights make a wrong?”), but it’s debatable.) Listening to it once usually isn’t enough for me.

4. Little Willow

- Whew, this one makes me emotional. The guitar, the lyrics, the piano, Paul’s voice – all so soothing and unbelievably soft and achy. It breaks my heart in the sweetest way.

 3. Mull Of Kintyre

- Arguably the biggest hit of Paul’s solo career, it’s like the Hey Jude of its own time. And it has freaking BAGPIPES, lol. This is one of those songs that you’ve heard before, but you don’t know where and you don’t know how, you just have. It will stick with you for a long time.

 2. Let Me Roll It

- This song. THIS SONG. Ughhhhhhhh. So sexy I can’t even begin to explain. You just have to listen and let it take you there. Another one where the bassline makes you want to weep. Tingles. Tingles everywhere.

 1. Wanderlust

- This will forever be my favorite solo Paul McCartney song. Completely underrated and simply magical. George Martin has said that this is Paul’s greatest vocal performance and I wholly agree. His voice is so pure and melodic, I sometimes get emotional listening to it. The song as a whole just checks all the boxes of what I most love about a Paul McCartney song – beautiful, melodious and timeless. There’s that old jokey saying, “If this ain’t played at my funeral, I ain’t going.” Yeah, this is that song for me.

[a-heart-of-kyber]

you can taste every fire and hold every song 

a playlist for Lilliwicket Brambleloch

(gnome bard/wild magic sorcerer)

.

.

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do you tear yourself apart to entertain like me?

Track List

1. Second Child, Restless Child: The Oh Hellos 

See, I was born the second child With a spirit running wild, running free And they saw trouble in my eyes They were quick to recognize the devil in me

2. Hopeless Wanderer: Mumford & Sons 

So when your hope's on fire But you know your desire Don't hold a glass over the flame Don't let your heart grow cold

3. Free: Broods 

I have lived my life so perfectly Kept to all my lines so carefully I'd lose everything so I can sing Hallelujah, I'm free

4. Black Bird: Evan Rachel Wood (Across the Universe)

Blackbird singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly All your life You were only waiting for this moment to arise

5. Bird Set Free: Sia 

No I don't care if I sing off key I find myself in my melodies I sing for love, I sing for me I'll shout it out like a bird set free

6. Brave: Sara Bareillis 

You can be amazing You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug You can be the outcast Or be the backlash of somebody's lack of love Or you can start speaking up

7. Shut Up and Dance: Walk the Moon 

Oh, don't you dare look back. Just keep your eyes on me." I said, "You're holding back," She said, "Shut up and dance with me!" This woman is my destiny She said, "Ooh-ooh-hoo, Shut up and dance with me.

8. Good Morning Fire Eater: Copeland

Wake up your eyes and darling your smile. The day is done and everyone's gone now. You can taste every fire and hold every song. The world has moved, be quick enough to not miss it now. So wake up your eyes and darling your smile.

9. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up): Florence + the Machine

I must become a lion hearted girl Ready for a fight Before I make the final sacrifice

10. Gasoline: Halsey 

Are you high enough without the Mary Jane like me? Do you tear yourself apart to entertain like me? Do the people whisper 'bout you on the train like me? Saying that you shouldn't waste your pretty face like me?

11. The Chain: Fleetwood Mac

And if you don't love me now You will never love me again I can still hear you saying You would never break the chain.

12. Hercules: Sara Bareillis 

I've lost a grip on where I started from I wish I'd thought ahead and left a few crumbs I'm on the hunt for who I've not yet become But I'd settle for a little equilibrium

13. You Don’t Own Me: Grace (regretfully featuring g-eazy)

You don't own me I'm not just one of your many toys

(it’s more the sentiment ok)

14. The Weight of Us: Sanders Bohlke

There are thieves, who rob us blind and kings, who kill us fine but steady, the rights and the wrongs invade us, in innocent song I'm not ready, I'm not ready for the weight of us, for the weight of us for the weight of us, for the weight of all of us

15. Elastic Heart: Sia

And I will stay up through the night Let's be clear, I won't close my eyes And I know that I can survive I walked through fire to save my life And I want it, I want my life so bad And I'm doing everything I can Then another one bites the dust It's hard to lose a chosen one

@tashas-hideous-laughter @aceofwonders @mattymurdox @ofsinnersandsaints @maryam0revna @justasheeponabeach

[itinerantscribe-blog]

Day 5 of 56

So, first weekend of latest foray into abstinence upon me. 5 days in, usual suspects, I mean symptoms in evidence. Wait, wait, they aren’t symptoms at all, they are not even by products, they are the beneficial effects of expunging alcohol! They are welcome.  Once again I find myself up by 5 am, witnessing the wondrous birth of a new day over and over again. The euphonic choral accompaniment to to the onset of a new dawn of potential, of energy, of peace, received so differently according to which period is in ascendancy, tea totality or its opposite. In these phases of liberation, I embrace this chorus with good cheer and a ready welcome, my winged friends and I sharing those early moments in concert and harmony. When the contrary phases achieve dominion, the mellifluous song morphs into an unbearable cacophony, cleaving my soul and shattering my slumber forcing me to wake to to endure yet another cursed aftermath of the morning after the night before. What an extreme contrast between which I oscillate.  The blackbird, the robin, the chaffinch and warbler too, just a few of my early morning companions who bless or haunt me with their inevitable vocal presence and my inevitable one of two states. Extremes. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6_LYIdYxz4

Absence of alcohol, all of it, it just entirely re-defines and re-shapes in such an indescribably beneficial manner my outlook, my sentiment, my sense of well being, my health, my everything. Why oh why do I not remain on this path in perpetuity? Why do I re-visit the very thing that with the flick of a finger re-edits all of the above? Why oh why for the sake of a few hours of indulgence in some coloured, sugar infused liquid, do I sacrifice the unsullied delight in the simplest of things like a bird’s song? Is it worth it? After  nearly 6 decades on the planet you think I’d know the answer. 

The young lady I am assisting, she has made her first 5 days alcohol free for longer than she will admit. We both know it’s longer than she has pretended it to be. I am not her father, not her mentor, not her guide nor her conscience. But I am proud that she has managed to achieve a milestone. I thought she would falter last night. She had warned me the night before that she believed she would stumble barely out of the blocks. She was almost apologising in advance of the transgression. It was a meeting you see, a large gathering which was hers to conduct and oversee. To speak even, to a large audience, a frighteningly large audience. Public speaking. Standing there as a throng of anonymous faces direct their unbroken gaze on you, piercing, probing, collective eyes boring into your soul and penetrating your essence. Oh my. I didn’t know she would be speaking. I had sent her a text early morning however, just to fortify her resolve. In the text exchange that follows, I shall refer to her simply as her. As always, no clues as to her identity are contained within that which ensues and if appropriate, I have excised anything that would compromise her. I have told her I think she too should blog, illuminate her situation, declare to the world proudly and boldly. She won’t do that. Yet. She thinks such a path would make it too real. Think about that. She thinks it would make it too real....

So, just to repeat the context. She had advised me on day 3 that she would be hosting a large event on day 4 late afternoon and that she had little faith in the likelihood of surviving sober something that is not an infrequent activity within her working remit but which to date has been underpinned with excessive ingestion of booze. Hard booze. My first text went out 8.21 am yesterday.

me: Are you going to have to have a drink every time you have an event like today? For the rest of your life? Four weeks time sober you could have an event like this everyday without a second thought. Don’t sacrifice all the benefit you are engineering for yourself for the sake of one meeting. Don’t go if there is even MINIMAL risk. 

I received no response and just got on with my day, bearing in mind I have my own position to consider and cultivate.  Understand please do, lest you level accusations of hypocrisy my way, that it was and is in my interests also that she doesn’t fall. I will not drink while she doesn’t, of this I am certain.  At 10.35 I tried again.

me: So? How’s the day looking for you?

her 10.48: I don’t feel well. Am in (city). Dressing the part. Acting the part. All while eyeing up the cast and extras with deep suspicion. Everything feels wrong.

(Gotta admire her euphemistic use of language. I wish I could feign ownership of that metaphor, but alas, all her work)

me 10.50: Don’t catastrophize. Look for evidence that everything is wrong. You won’t find any. Don’t let your mind betray you.

me 11.55: Don’t look for excuses TO drink.

Then our exchange ceased. I returned to my quotidian activity, thinking before expelling further consideration to the subject that she would not survive. It wasn’t until 7.07 pm that the crisis erupted and texts assumed complexion of ferocious ping pong exchanges.

her 19.07: I think one is ok.

her 19.08: We can agree that one. (She’s seeking a collective alliance, share the liability, dilute individual responsibility. She’s seeking endorsement)

me 19.08: No we can’t.

me 19.08: We have already agreed something else.

her 19.08: Please.

her 19.08: Just one.

her 19.09: Say yes.

me 19.09: I can’t stop you. You can stop you. You haven’t even given it a chance. If not now, when? There is no when. There is only now.

By now I am thinking she has already had one, by now I am trying to call her but the phone moves straight to voicemail. By now I believe she doesn’t want me to talk to her, she doesn’t want me to try talking her out of a step that would bring to a highly premature conclusion this enterprise. Finally, she answers the phone. I have no idea at this point that she has already completed the most arduous element of the event, the public speaking element. But indeed she has completed it. She had completed it unaided by chemical or pharmaceutical or alcoholic participation. The conversation was protracted, she told me how the hall was awash with available alcohol. I had to remind her England, and the rest of the western world and much of that beyond is awash with alcohol, there is always temptation, accessibility. The call ended. She told me normally at these things she would drink until the early hours, leave only when she would otherwise be the only one left. I was sure she would succumb, it was only 4 days into her own odyssey, she had exposed herself too soon, she had placed too much pressure on her fragile shoulders. She shouldn’t have gone....

her 22.07: Done. Heading home.

me 22.08: Drink free?

her 22.09: 100%

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxAKFlpdcfc

me 22.11:Truly well done. You haven’t sacrificed tomorrow for a couple of hours tonight. Thought you’d crack today.

her 22.12: So did I, with your help (that was nice of her, no need, I’m doing it for me as much as her) and a colleague at the event steering me away from the bar anytime I got near, it was a success. Don’t feel great for it yet but hoping I will.

me 22.12: You absolutely will.

I mean really, how great is that? How well do that girl do? Outfuckingstanding. So, so impressed with her resolve, especially given the additional ingredient of what would be a nerve challenging ordeal of public speaking for anyone! 

me 07.53 this morning: How do you feel gliding soberly into a weekend free of roughness probably for first time in years?

her 08.12: Odd, I woke waiting for the usual to hit me and then remembered, I’m fine (how lovely is that feeling!!!). For the first time in forever I don’t feel like a failure, I don’t feel pathetic, I don’t feel useless. There is hope. I am ok! Feel a bit embarrassed about the evident desperation which must have been observed last night (who cares? she succeeded, who cares what anyone else thinks?) but I think I might be able to actually do this. (she had better not split an infinitive again lol)

me 08.15: Careful with what you think! Positive is good but gentle! That breeds complacency. Day by day. Aren’t you pleased you didn’t drink yesterday? You wait til you pass weekend. 

me 08.17: Carry a Mars bar with you at all times (she doesn’t know I am a major shareholder in Mars Ltd, ssshhhh). That pack that comes in two small ones. it’s your emergency measure!

her 08.17: Extremely pleased. I’ll go to the shop in a bit.

End of transmission. 

How good is that? I am so, so pleased for her. I admire her strength. But eh, wait a minute. Why can’t anyone talk to me like I spoke to her? Why can’t  I talk to me like that?? How come then, that given my quarter of a century seniority on her, I have not yet conquered this in entirety? Are we back to choice? Is it because I had no-one with similar exposure talking to me when I was her age? Well, I have some thoughts on that, well of course I do! But I think for now, this blog will take refuge in weekend respite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy9_lfjQopU