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It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Part 1

So I have decided to start a new series that involves music, since most of my content revolves around video games, fantasy, and reading. Music is a big part of my like, it's what I majored in in college, and I want to share it with you. Basically what I'll be doing is sharing songs I enjoy listening to, talking a little bit about it, and then linking you to a video of the song itself (putting it into the actual post will clog up my blog). Since Christmas is right around the corner, I thought that I would start off with some of my favorite Christmas songs/carols. These are ones that are more traditional- I'll post another one in a day or two with more modern Christmas songs. Hope you like these!

• Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht/Oiche Chiuin

This is absolutely my favorite Christmas carol of all time! While the English version (a.k.a. Silent Night) is nice, I prefer the original German version a lot more. The Gaelic version is also very nice. Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht is the German and Oiche Chiuin is the Gaelic, in case you were wondering, and the links are performed by the St. Thomas Boys Choir & Enya, respectively.

• Carol of the Bells

Whether it's the instrumental or vocal version, I love this song. Both the Celtic Woman & the Philippine Madrigal Singers versions are good.

• Coventry Carol

This song is a traditional English song, I believe, and it is so haunting to listen to. It's even better when sung in a cathedral where the sound just echoes. I like the Hayley Westenra version, but especially the Westminster Cathedral Choir recording.

• In the Bleak Midwinter

Another Engish traditional song, but this time performed by the Gloucester Cathedral Choir. Very pretty song.

• The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71A

There should be no explanation as to why I enjoy this one. Composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

• O Holy Night

Was originally a French Christmas carol called "Minuit Chrétiens", but was translated into English by John Sullivan Dwight. Just a typical Christmas carol, but I like the fact that the chorus is so powerful, lyrically and dynamically. I couldn't find a version on YouTube that really caught my interest, but the Josh Groban version isn't too bad.

• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Another traditional English carol first published in 1833. I really like the Annie Lennox- it's pretty cool.

• Still, Still, Still

This song originated in Austria, so it is highly appropriate that I'm linking you to the Vienna Boys Choir recording.

• O Tannenbaum

Another German song, my fellow Americans would recognize this song as "O Christmas Tree". This, as with Silent Night, I feel like the original German is better than the English translation. Nana Mouskouri sings it in this recording.

• Don Oiche Ud I mBeithil

The last one for this post is a Gaelic Christmas song that I think is truly beautiful. In this version, The Chieftains play the instrumental parts with Kevin Conneff singing the lyrics.

The Hobbit Behind the Scenes #9- Post-Production

Lord of the Rings Music- Piano Guys Style!

Pretty Much...This Weekend's Gonna Suck

Late Medieval Humor

My Favorite Book Designs

With the holiday season upon us, this blog is probably going to get very...uh, techy, with all the video game stuff coming out, so I thought I would post something a bit more literary before all that comes up. This is another YouTube inspired video (there's gonna be a lot more of these in the future- I think they're good for getting ideas to write about), but this time I got the idea from Sanne of Books and Quills. I'm not going to rank them, for one- because I find it really difficult to definitively rank things, and two, sometimes I just want to share things with people without making it some kind of contest. Anyway, here are some books/series that I really like the art style and/or the design of the cover and spine. To be honest, it's mainly about book series, but there are a couple standalone books in there

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind

This is not because Terry Goodkind is one of my favorite authors, but it certainly makes the experience of reading his books more enjoyable. Even though the design is pretty simple, in this case I just like the art that is on the covers. My favorite ones of the series are "Wizard's First Rule", "Stone of Tears", "Soul of the Fire", "Faith of the Fallen", and "The Pillars of Creation". After book 7, the artwork got really boring- I think they hired a different person. I will say that as much as I like the covers, I do think that they could have done a better job of designing the spine. The publishing company basically copied the cover for the spine- it has the same picture on it, but smaller. Not that that's necessarily bad, it's just...well, boring.

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan

This is another one of my favorite authors, but where Goodkind's art kind of lacks, Jordan's cover art shines. The art is very good, but my favorite part is that the whole books is one art piece. By that I mean that the art wraps around the whole book, so the spine and the back side are just as interesting. The main characters might be on the front cover looking awesome, but on the back side, you might see some shady characters following them, watching in the shadows. Very cool. I love all of these covers, there isn't a single one I don't like.

The Legend of Drizzt series by R.A. Salvatore

The art of this series is also very well done, and like The Wheel of Time series, there's unique art on the back side as well. Is it just me, or do fantasy (and to some extent, sci-fi) have the best book art in literature? A lot of other book genres have good book design, but the art to me isn't always as good (there will be an exception to this later in the list though). My favorites from this series (of the ones that I own- there's a LOT of these books now) are "Exile", "Sojourn", "The Crystal Shard", and "Streams of Silver".

The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tokien

Here we go- finally a single novel and not a series! This is the only book of Tolkien's that I have where I like the book art for. As much as I love Tolkien's books, I seem to have all of the ugly versions of it, and still haven't replaced my movie tie-in copies of The Lord of the Rings (gasp!). I'll definitely upgrade in the future, but for now I'll just have to make do. How can you not like the art of this book!? It was done by Alan Lee himself! I shouldn't have to explain myself further.

The Chronicles of the Cheysuli series by Jennifer Roberson

This series was originally eight books, but I have the omnibus edition, which pares it down to 4 books- each with two of the original books inside. This series, and this author for that matter, should be getting a lot more attention than what it has been receiving. They're wonderful books and I highly recommend that you pick them up if fantasy lit. is your thing. Anyway, I like the artwork of these books (duh, that's why this is on the list!), but I don't really have a good reason for it... I just do.

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

This may be a little weird, but as good as the cover art for the Harry Potter books is, the main reason I like them (other than the incredible writing of course!) is the design for the spines. I have the full set- I think it's called the treasure box set? The front cover art is good, especially for The Goblet of Fire (which also happens to be my favorite book in the series). What I like about the spines is that they have a cool diamond patter, almost argyle-like in complementary colors. The spine for The Half-Blood Prince for example has diamonds of forest green down the middle, and the sides are of a more lime/avocado color.

The Iliad & The Odyssey by Homer

Now for these two books, I'm talking about the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition- the ones translated by Robert Fagles. Mainly I just like the design and the color scheme of the covers. The art on the top half of the book is cool, but mainly I just like the combination of the blue, white, and beige parts of the cover. That, and I feel like they make my bookshelf look a bit more sophisticated. I'm not really sure why- I just do.

The Nathaniel Starbuck series by Bernard Cornwell

Even though there's about 6 different fonts on the cover of these books, I still like them. The pictures behind the text are cool as well as give it a more "old-timey" feel for lack of a better description. The gold behind the title also makes it stick out against the brown and black background (it looks kind of brown in the picture, but it's really more of a gold color in person). My favorite cover in this series is for book three, which is called "Battle Flag"- pictured above. The red and blue really pop out at you in comparison to the otherwise dark background. Really cool covers!

Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell

Honestly, whoever Bernard Cornwell and/or his publishing company gets to do the cover art for his novels is freaking amazing! You should really check out his books, for both the art and the awesome writing! I like the close-up of the knight's armor, but (it might be too small to see here) there's also flecks and blotches of red all over the cover and the spine, making it look like it was sprayed with blood, which I think is a cool effect.

Borders Classics/Barnes & Noble Classics

A lot of people have the Penguin Classics or Oxford Classics books, but I have been buying the Borders Classics and the Barnes & Noble Classics series (since Borders went out of business). I do like the Borders Classics a little more in their design, like the fact that the author's name at the bottom looks handwritten, and the two different pictures that give it texture. Other than that, they're pretty similar. They both have a colored bar where the title of the book goes, and a cool work of art that applies to the story itself. Hopefully one day I'll be able to have a full set, minus the authors I would never read (*cough*Bronte & Austen*cough*).

My Latest Obsessions- Nov. 2012

Lately I've been trying to write more content for this blog and not just post links or videos of things I think are cool. I hope to be adding more content in the future, and this (hopefully) series is a start. I got the idea for this from Kristina Horner (italktosnakes on YouTube) with her "Things I'm Into" videos that she posts every month. Mine will be set up a lot like hers, but since we're two completely different people (duh!), the content will be quite varied. So, here we go!

Literature *This will include books as well as comics (web-based or otherwise)

~The Sword of Truth series~

As you can probably guess from my "What I'm Reading" posts, I have been reading this series by Terry Goodkind for a while now- and I love it! Yes, the books are ridiculously long, but I think that it's a good thing. Why would you want something that is fun, engaging, and high quality to be really short? The depth that Goodkind goes into is great, and he tackles more complex and sometimes adult issues, and does it in a careful, respectful way. The only complaint I would make about the series is that Goodkind has the annoying habit of reminding the reader of past content... a lot. If I read the previous books, I already know this content you're "reminding" me of, and don't need to hear it again. An occasional reminder is good, especially if you're pretty far in a series and you're referring to an event in a much earlier book. It just seems like it was put there solely for the purpose of growing the word/page count. Honestly, other than that, I really like this series of books, and I would highly recommend them to any avid reader- especially if you love fantasy!

~Questionable Content~

Holy moley, I have spent so much time on this web comic lately, it's not even funny! This comic has been around for a while (they have over 2000 comics- and counting!) and I just found out about it last week. The characters are awesome (Pintsize is my favorite, of course *pictured above*) and the story is engaging. All in all it's a delightful way to use my free time :)

~Dumbing of Age~

This is another recent web comic find from tumblr that I've been getting into as of late. Set on a college campus, and has a wide variety of characters, with an art style that doesn't make me want to gouge my eyes out. By that I mean that I can tell what the heck the author is trying to portray in each frame, it's cleaned up, and the text is large enough and clear enough for me to read. Tackles some intense topics sometimes, and I think that the creator pulls it off- most of the time. Sometimes when religion comes into play it gets taken a bit too far, but it doesn't take away from the comic much- the fact that I still read it proves that. You should at least give it a try! While I don't like this one as much as Questionable Content or the other web comics I read (blog post on those to come), I still really like it.

Games *Video or otherwise

~Dungeons and Dragons~

Back in college, my friends got me into D&D, which I had wanted to play for a while. Now that I've graduated, I haven't really found anyone to play with yet, but that hasn't stopped me from enjoying this awesome hobby! For the past couple months I've been working on creating a campaign that is based in the world of a book I was working on a while back. I wasn't having much success with writing the book, but I loved the world I created (and which I'm still working on), so I decided to make it into a D&D campaign! It's been working out pretty good so far. The main things that I've been focusing on lately have been the plot (main quests as well as side quests) and fleshing out the map. Lots of fun!

~The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim~

If you've read my blog at all- even in the past couple days, you could probably guess how much I freaking love this game. I've been getting back into playing it again after a short hiatus due to mods conflicting with the Hearthfire DLC (which I still have yet to play on my PC copy!). Now that I believe I've fixed the problem and started over with new characters, I think I'll be playing this more often. This will especially be true when the newly announced Dragonborn DLC hits the shelves (I posted the trailer for it on my blog today). I am SUPER excited for this DLC, as it looks to be bigger than Dawnguard was (and I loved Dawnguard!).

~Minecraft/Tekkit~

I think I will always play this game- it only gets boring if your imagination runs out of ideas! Plus, the Technic Pack mod collection adds a TON of new content and possibilities of play. While my ideas aren't the greatest (and certainly aren't very original), it is still very fun to build things and beat up creepers and endermen.

Music

~Lake Street Dive~

I recently heard about this group from a friend of Facebook who had posted a video of one of their performances. I liked it so much that I bought both of their albums and one of their EPs. The lead singer's voice is freaking gorgeous, and the musicianship is top notch. I absolutely LOVE their cover of "Rich Girl" by Hall and Oates! Go listen to their cover of I Want You Back by The Jackson 5 and you'll fall in love with them like I did!

~John Williams~

John Williams is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest name in film composing these days, and there's a reason why he's at the top. I've known about his music for a long time, but I just recently got back into listening to his soundtracks on my iPod. His ability to create wonderful and memorable melody lines is uncanny. I had the opportunity my freshman year of college to see him conduct the San Diego Symphony live. It was so awesome- one of my favorite concert experiences of all time! It would be hard for me to pick a favorite of his, but I guess if I had to, his Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Amistad, and Harry Potter soundtracks would be my top 5 picks. Also, John Williams Is The Man!

Skyrim Dragonborn DLC Trailer

Just Ignore The Flautist's Hands

Awesome!