Sunday, August 26, 2007

My Music, My Muse

This post is a part of the Etsy Bloggers Street Team Blog Carnival. This week's topic is "Your crafting “helpers” — pets, kids, muses, etc." and is being hosted by Nora Bella over at her blog.

BuddiesSince my crafting room has been designated a kitty-free zone (can you believe that they eat paper?), these two cutie pies are shut out in the cold, cruel world (napping in dad's chair) while I craft.

And so, I end up in my own little world of paper, glue, floss, and prismacolors while I create. All alone--just me, the sunshine, and my trusty stereo. My stereo (that's it, up on that shelf there) was a gift from my parents when I moved into my first apartment. It can hold up to 5 cds, play tapes, and pick up most radio broadcasts with a little finagling of it's wire antenna.

Setting Up the Craft Room-Lightbox I like to listen to soothing music while I work--things that melt and flow into the background so I can use the melody to move me along, but not feel rushed. The soothing effect of the music also puts me into a sort of meditative state, where I can work steadily instead of being distractable and impatient. If I am not feeling particularly crafty, often just turning on my music puts me in the mood.

So what exactly do I listen to? Rarely the radio, as the commercials and the chatter break my flow. Instead I have my CD changer queued up with:

Depeche Mode Violator
Lightly dark but utterly hypnotic, the deep voice of the lead singer and the thrumming beats keep me happily working. I was introduced to Depeche Mode in high school by the friend I would later room with in college. Love this album.

Savage Garden's Self Titled Album
I fell in love with Savage Garden about the same time everyone else did--somewhere between "I Want You" and "Truly, Madly, Deeply"--only my love never left. Their smooth melodies, subtle harmonies, and bittersweet lyrics resonated with me then and now. I listened to this CD on loop for months when I first got it. I listened to it endlessly on loop while working on paintings for my Art Studio classes. And I still listen to it almost anytime I sit down to work.

Dido No Angel
My husband bought me this album for Christmas one year and I was initially unsure whether I should just return it or not. "Thank You" had been beaten to death by radio stations unable to venture out of their 40-60 "top" songs. Although I had originally liked the song, I had given up on it as whiny and overplayed. But we had a 6 hour drive back home, so we popped it in the player anyway, and I fell in love. This is one of the rare CDs that I listen to on loop where I know very few of the lyrics, but I LOVE the melodies. This is one of those mellow, soul connecting CDs and it soon became a quick favorite to create to.

Cindy Thompson My World
I bought this CD on a whim (looking for new music to put in my CD player on those long car rides home) on the basis of a single song, "Always Liked That Best". The album did not disappoint--sweetly lyric with tales of everyday love cherished and lost, it captured my heart easily. This is an album I love to sing along to (although I rarely do while creating because my attention is elsewhere) because of it's "everywoman" nature and unpretentious style.

4 comments:

  1. great taste in music! :) Our cats eat paper too, in fact our male gets all excited when we put down newspaper for him to lay on and play, it ends up in tatters lol

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  2. I am out of it when it comes to music and movies for that matter. I understand completely why you don't listen to over commercialed radio. When I do turn on a radio it is to NPR which doesn't play much music.

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  3. I love having on music while I create too! I've got such an eclectic range and taste in music that it can be anywhere from Metallica to Madonna, Billy Joel to Billy Holiday, Aretha Franklin to Alanis Morrisette. . . Well, you get the idea.
    -Janine

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  4. : )

    Alicia--hehe, our cats will eat books, post-its, tissue paper, packing paper, paper bags...but they LOVE sprial bound notebooks. *shakes head* They are so cute though! : )

    Cozy--I don't mind the radio so much if it's just background noise, but when crafting I like a certain "feel" and used car ads just don't work. Lol.

    Janine--I need to come raid your CD collection! I'm always so far behind the times when it comes to knowing about new/old/different artists. I had never heard "80s" music until about 10 years after the fact. ^_^

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