Music for writing

I'm of the belief that creative people are creative in lots of different areas. I, for example, spin and knit and sew and paint and well, lots of things.

But sometimes it's tough to get into the creative mood. Those juices don't always come on demand.

Those are the times I listen to music. And lots of it. There's just something about music that helps to inspire me.

And I like all kinds of tunes. As a child of the '80s, I fondly remember the "big hair bands" like Warrant, Poison, and Stryper. My first album was a Men at Work one. At some point I found a few country artists who spoke to me: Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift.

Then there's the classics. Sometimes it's better to have the instrumentals just so I don't get caught up in the words.

However, my favorite writing music has a Celtic undertone. Enya and Celtic Women are often heard from my office as I crank out a few thousand words for the day.

Like any other "mental devise," though, even my stand-by selections don't always work. I'm often in search of new bands, new songs to add to the mix.

What music do you suggest? What inspires you? What is good to write to?

Blessings!

Nichole

A dash of BlackMilk

What I love about being in touch with some of the avant garde happenings in Cape Town is that occasionally I get to play fly on the wall when stuff is created. As you can well imagine, this creates much fodder for my future writings. What I’d like to share with you today is a short film the BlackMilk productions crew created over this past weekend.

My husband is one of the directors and I’ve been behind the scenes for all their films. This is hardly as glamorous as it sounds, let me assure you, but with all the hard work also comes some pretty riveting entertainment.

On Saturday some of the BlackMilk crew dropped by my house so they could work on their shot list. Of course nothing is quite that simple. We’re talking about a bunch of creatives here.

At about 10pm they hauled out our cache of musical instruments and started making a god-awful racket with piano, accordion and violin. Which they recorded (well, of course).

Please bear in mind that none of them could actually **play** any of these instruments with any degree of proficiency.

They then started talking about doing a short film since they’re currently finding creative ways in which they can promote their DVD boxed set. So… On Sunday they got all dressed up, painted and posed…

And if you click through on the link here: http://www.youtube.com/blackmilkproductions#p/a/u/0/Sra94gOiSdI

Granted, I know everyone in this but when I saw the rushes as they came off the camera, I laughed so much I cried. I thought by the second or third time I saw this I’d not laugh as much but I was wrong.

You really have to watch this about two or three times just to get all the facial expressions. One day I’m sure I’ll write a novel about an indie filmmaking crew but for now I’m just stoked that I’m able to see things in action and watch these guys grow in their art.

It's a very inspiring to be surrounded by so many fascinating people and it's definitely making me feel that I'm not the only one fighting against mundania.

The idly curious are welcome to click through here to check out the official BlackMilk website. http://www.blackmilkproductions.com/