redfiona99

Tumblr seems to have stopped randomly blocking posts as porn so no "poor tumblr pornbot" updates (I am less annoyed by the wave of spambots than I was by blockbot ...)

For the second year in a row, my most reblogged post was a music video, this time, it was Eurythmics "Who's That Girl"

Economics:

House prices: Have they actually gone up in your neighbourhood? - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41582755 From 2017

Miscellaneous:

What Sean Hughes wanted to happen after his death - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-41651280

Music:

Ed Sheeran's Shape of You was written in just 90 mins - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-41650916 Although if the music plagiarism case is found to be true, there might be a reason for this

Sport:
Football:

Leeds United players and staff donate pay to boy's cancer care - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-41652398 Even Leeds are capable of being nice

Ivorian Kalou buoyed by Hertha's anti-racism protest - https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41653261 From 2017

For so long, my go-to answer for this was No Surface, All Feeling, but it doesn't work to describe me anymore. In a good way, I am probably more mentally healthy and general more together than since I was, I dunno, 11, but it does mean that, although "No Surface, All Feeling" is still a cracker of a tune, I need another answer to the question.

As we know, ask and the Manics provide (they are still my band, they will always be my band).



I think it's that sense of tentative hopefulness, hope that it will get better, even when experience has not always born that hope out.

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I was intrigued by the way the meme only included singers in the question. I think there's a thing that musicians who play the same instrument all sound alike which isn't true.

For instance - I didn't even need to look up to know that that was Brian May playing God Save the Queen on the top of Buckingham Palace because he has a really round sound on his notes.

A less glorious moment - I was watching the first RDJ Sherlock Holmes in the cinema and made my poor unfortunate friends stay in the hope that the end credits would tell me whose version of Rocky Road to Dublin that was. Now somehow, I'd missed Luke Kelly but John Sheahan's fiddling I'd recognised -

It might be because I was a child string player (cello FTW!) but there is a difference, and it's probably a mixture of pressure on the string, angle on the finger, weight of bow and so on.

I'm going to play an example.

Two very famous violinists playing the Csárdás, which is one of those showboating tunes that everyone plays at some point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zozUqZch0Vo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKhWGphCf4E - just ignore the frill at the front, Vengerov can't help himself.

Those are the same tune - arranged differently granted, and with much though I <3 him, a lot of Vengerov showing off - but you can hear how differently they address the violin.

Since I already mentioned "Rare Old Times" in the answer for a song that makes you sad, and in an effort to prevent me using either The Corries (The Massacre of Glencoe, Green Fields of France), The Dubliners (Spancil Hill, the Pogues And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda or the Manics (because one album has She is Suffering and This is Yesterday and they're not even the saddest songs on there) for yet more answers (because, warning, these artists provide the answers for the rest of the meme), you may have the film soundtrack music that breaks me:

May It Be because, well no, I still get damp round the eyes on the topic of Boromir.



Misty Mountains (because it's a Dwarf folk song and you've noticed I am susceptible to folk music and the tragedy of the House of Durin)



And



Because yes, Gladiator has a mostly happy ending (for values of that) and yet, I am in floods at the end of the film.

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I was going to go with the Habanera from Carmen, because of all the things Bizet never got a chance to write, but, in keeping with today's news,



Although choosing just one track was difficult, because there was so much that was so good.

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Giving away my mid-90s roots.

So Symposium, glorious pop punk. Who then disbanded, half of them forming Hell is For Heroes who got far more good press despite being roughly 0.0001% as good as Symposium.



(Since I do love them dearly - Symposium - Fairweather Friend (TOTP) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKPVZqWe_C0)

In a similar vein, 3 Colours Red



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Or the reason why I called it "social media-ish".



My music taste does not, in fact, change with time ;)

After a couple of prompts that were difficult to impossible, it's nice to have an easy one.

Because of course my answer to this is Patti Smith's Gloria.

Original recorded version here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPO0bTaWcFQ

Live version on Jools here



Partly because I do like live performance and partly because Patti Smith performing it is just marvellous.

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Is it just me or is that a terribly difficult question to answer?

I have gone with Hoppípolla because it sounds like hope for the universe.



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