Quote by AnnaMayZing
However, although such t music will become classic in the future, I would say that it isn't in that category in the present.

LOL. Tell that to the streaming services. If it is orchestral or even vaguely operatic vocals (think Sarah Brightman or Three Tenors), it often gets socked into classical nowadays. Lines are very blurry. Legendary classical label Deutsche Grammophon released a live album of John Williams' film music (conducted by Williams himself) and that gets tagged classical due to who released it. If "All the Works..." had been released as a separate disc titled "Holopainen : Orchestral Suite No. 1 : All The Works..." rather than being part of Human : || : Nature, I can almost guarantee that someone would tag it "classical".

Voces8 is a vocal octet from England who have been putting out some fantastic work for a couple decades now. Founded by brothers Paul (formerly a bass-baritone but no longer sings, focussing on management of the group and its educational programs instead) and Barnaby (counter-tenor and music director) Smith, they sing repertoire from the Renaissance to the present, with the present including settings of popular music as well as contemporary choral works by composers like Eric Whitacre and Christopher Tin.

But since this is the classical thread, here's a couple of their performances of older works.

Some Bach

And a double motet by 16th century English composer William Byrd

The blonde soprano in these is Eleanor Cockerham who is an amazing singer in her own right. She left Voces8 a couple years ago but comes back from time to time, esp. when they gather with their associated groups and students to form larger choirs.

Pass the plate, I'm hungry.

Can You Read My Mind? - Maureen McGovern (written by John Williams and Leslie Bricusse)

Vice

Ah, cute kitty. gives cat a pat

Dingo

I have tried but I don't seem to "go under" very easily so kind of gave up.

WYE flip a coin to make a decision that really mattered?

Depends on the music, but I tend to leave bass kind of middle on car systems (which tend to be bass-heavy), maybe turn it up a notch if I'm using buds on a phone or something else that is weaker on the low end. But, again, the music matters. Metal sounds better with a bit of extra bass, not so much smooth jazz.

Old school damp mop or Swiffer?

Quote by AnnaMayZing

I just found this on YouTube. Everyone knows Running Up That Hill was by Kate Bush, but doesn't it just suit Eivør? It was as though it was written for her!

Anneke van Giersbergen does a great one, too. Dutchies on Floor Jansen's fansite have told me she did a whole concert of Kate Bush covers once.

Quote by redwriter
Arrival at hospital 3.00pm---return home 2.00am.

If it makes you feel better, Canadian ERs are like that, too. My son once waited 13 hours for stitches.

Good morning, world! Wet here. Showers and periods of rain through until the weekend. But I am getting my winter tires off since it seems that the cold wet stuff is done with us.

Putting on some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee. Form the tea crowd we have Scottish Breakfast and Original Earl Grey.

Okay, not really the world, just civilization as we know it. There's all kinds of ways people have ended the world. Sometimes that's the story. Sometimes it's the backstory to a post-apocalyptic adventure.

There are, of course, a few common ones.

Nuclear war seems to be on a comeback after seemingly falling out of favour for a while after the Cold War ended. It's a fairly realistic one, too, even if a lot of post-nuke fiction gets a bit too gonzo.

Plagues are another realistic one and COVID-19 kind of reinforced that, even if it did not prove civilization-ending itself.

Asteroids or similar celestial phenomena as the cause of our downfall have actually been around for a long time. When Worlds Collide dates to the thirties as a novel (a film followed in 1951) and has another planet on a collision course with Earth. Of course, since the realization that an asteroid impact caused, or at least contributed to, the downfall of the dinosaurs, this now seems a lot more realistic than maybe it did back then.

Then there's zombies, which became popular after George Romero's "Living Dead" movies came out. Sometimes they fall under the "plague" category but not always. In Night of the Living Dead, the cause is never identified though there's mention of a satellite mysteriously crashing to Earth. In the horror-comedy Return of the Living Dead, it's experimental nerve gas that starts the ball rolling. So, really, they are kind of a thing unto themselves that sometimes overlaps with others.

Alien invasion. One of the oldest in modern literature, dating to H. G. Wells' still classic The War of the Worlds (serialized in 1897, published as a novel in 1898). The reasons for these invasions vary. Some are full-on military invasions (e.g. the aforementioned War of the Worlds), some are trojan horses (e.g. the TV series V), still others are subtle infiltrations (e.g. the various iterations of Invasion of the Body Snatchers). And, yes, zombie alien invasions are a thing.

Any favourites? If you were doing apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic fiction, how would you end civilization as we know it?

Yes, I'm contemplating whether to do something in this vein, if not now then eventually.

And Violet again. She credits this to Whitesnake but their version is actually a cover of a 1974 song written by Michael Price and Dan Walsh and recorded by Bobby Bland. And it has been covered myriad times in myriad genres. Violet and her band get bluesy for this one, and I think her voice is fantastic for this sound.

Quote by AnnaMayZing

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Fanfare for the Common Man.

Funnily enough, I watched that just the night before you posted it. Nice performance and cool that they shot it in the Big O, as we Canucks call Montreal's Olympic Stadium.

Nightwish's last studio album Human : || : Nature turned 4. Came out just in time for the pandemic to force almost a 2 year postponement of the tour. Great album, though. My favourite track, and one of my all-time favourite songs, is "How's the Heart?". The original rocks harder and features the full band, but the acoustic version featuring Troy Donockley on guitar accompanying vocalist Floor Jansen first appeared around the same time as the album. This performance is from a livestreamed virtual show they did during the pandemic.

Does orchestral music written by a rock musician for a rock album count as classical?

(Final track from All The Works of Nature Which Adorn the World, disc 2 of Nightwish album Human |: Nature)

Hire - Fire

Depends where on the Internet it was recommended, but generally not.

WYE purchase cut-rate meds over the Internet?

Can you ever be happy?

Baboon

Terminator 2 : Judgement Day

Another Day in Paradise - Phil Collins

I do like some modern dance and find traditional ballet a bit dull anymore, so probably modern or maybe modern-influenced ballet.

Electric or acoustic instruments?

My in-laws couldn't come over for our wedding but we would have had the same issue. The family members who did come spoke enough English to manage.

Coffee is on. Went with a nice, basic Columbian dark roast. Yay, Juan Valdez!!

Teapots are filled up with English Breakfast and Russian Caravan.

I see the cold drinks are starting to get some use so I've mixed up fresh iced tea and lemonade along with restocking the sodas.

Hot water is available for teas or, if anyone still drinks it in April, hot chocolate.

So come on in! We're ready fer ya!

Quote by tinhatcat

I don't remember when I started writing exactly but it was before high school. Other than basic grammar and composition I haven't had any formal writing instruction, it was just something I always enjoyed. I had an awesome teacher who really encouraged me. When I was in Grade 11 I wrote a story in English class that used the word "F***", something that was absolutely unacceptable at the time. The teacher loved the story and asked me to read it in class including the f-word. I got a standing ovation from the class although I'm pretty sure it was because I got away with swearing in class rather than the story itself. I didn't think that at the time and I think the reaction was a big factor in continuing to write. It was the first time I ever shared anything I wrote publicly. (A variation of this class reading crops up in a story i am currently working on.)

Great story in and of itself. I did some writing through school but was too much of a nerdy "good kid" to have done that. Then in university I actually started toying with writing explicit sex and that sort of thing. Thanks for sharing your story and hope to see some writing from you on here.

Maybe if I really, really, really wanted it more than anything else on Earth, but I'm generally kind of cheap that way.

WYE take an otherwise uninteresting or problematic job just for the money?

Play music to bring joy.

Harp - Harm

You Can't Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones

(Ape now wonders if anyone has started a Stones cover band called "Gather No Moss" 😜)

Zebu

Vanessa was almost in a class by herself when she started. Now we've got plenty of violinists and other instrumentalists combining classical training and pop/rock backgrounds. Some don't even do much classical (e.g. Mia Asano).

Chinese-American cellist Tina Guo has spent a lot of her recent career working with film composer Hans Zimmer, playing on some of his soundtracks and also appearing live with his touring orchestra. She also does everything from metal to classical. Here she gives a nice performance of Elgar's "Salut d'Amour".

And a piece she co-wrote with Zimmer for the DC movies, Wonder Woman's theme. Since Tina is a bit of a wonder woman herself, it fits nicely.

I have decent a USB headphone at work and decent wired buds for home/mobile. Prefer headphones but not by a long stretch. And it's mostly that I'm not always comfortable having stuff in my ear given my right ear has issues already.

Ballet or opera?

Remains of the Day