CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

Yes, two in a row, that makes me look a total slacker doesn't it! But it's not as bad as it looks, this is kind of a bonus tour as the tour timescale went a bit off earlier in the year.

Anyway, enough excuses: This week the CSFF Blog Tour is looking at Raven's Ladder by Jeffrey Overstreet, so without any further time wasting, put on your best DJ voice and dive into the Top Ten Raven songs...

10. DJ Pavo: Raven
It's the track the spotty oik down the road always plays too loud as he drives home at 3 in the morning.
9. Lou Reed: The Raven
Normally Mr Reed would rank higher, but this barely qualifies as a song, being more a recitation of Edgar Allen Poe with a little Lou Reed magic. And be warned, it goes on for about 10 minutes...
8. The Stranglers: The Raven
Nordic-inspired post-punk goodness.
7. Dan Fogelberg: As The Raven Flies
Sounds a bit Jefferson Airplane-esque to these ears...
6. The Alan Parsons Project: The Raven
Edgar Allen gets the full mid-70s prog-rock treatment here!
5. Runestone: The Raven And The Moon
Because every top ten needs at least eight minutes of weird New Age Celtic instrumental. Doesn't it?
4. Marion Raven: Here I Am
Norwegian pop-rock with a girl vocal, it's always good...
3. The Orb: Raven's Reprise
At least this week's obligatory (should that be Orbligatory?) piece of electronica comes from someone you've heard of.
2. The Tunnel Singer: Corvus
Ok, so maybe I'm being unusually clever with the title, but seriously, I love this music! This may be writing music, possibly even a soundtrack number for a future story...
1. The Alarm: The Day The Ravens Left The Tower
Should I be concerned about a Welsh alt rock band singing about the collapse of the kingdom? (This will be English mythology then! Hurrah!)

I'll linkify it later (maybe), in the meantime Spotify users can listen here: Raven Top Ten.
Everyone else will have to track them down elsewhere for your listening pleasure while browsing these blogs:

Brandon Barr
Rachel Briard (BooksForLife)
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Shane Deal
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

CSFF Blog Tour vs Tuesday Tunes

This month the CSFF Blog Tour is looking at Lost Mission by Athol Dickson, so your Tuesday mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find ten songs vaguely related to the title, and form them into an entertaining blog post tenuously related to the Tour...

10. Gabriella Cilmi: On A Mission
I know, it came out like a month ago.... far too up to date and modern for a Top Nine place.
9. Lost at Last: Mission
That's better. Obscure electronica, this I understand.
8. Adem: Last Transmission From The Lost Mission
This I absolutely don't understand. But then, Adem is the bass guitarist in a band called Fridge, so maybe it doesn't matter.
7. Tricky: Mission Accomplished
Tricky was part of the alternative music scene in Bristol back in the day. This track is no Aftermath, but has a fitting title.
6. Queensryche: The Mission
Big-haired (probably) rock music from the 80s. Gotta love it!
5. Enigma: Endless Quest
Well basically I was running short, and a Quest is sort of like a Mission. What do you mean it wasn't that sort of a mission? It's got the panpipes from Sadeness and everything! Enjoy.
4. Farace: Mission Impossible
Nothing to do with Ethan Hunt, but eight (count 'em!) more minutes of obscure electronica for you to enjoy here.
3. The Sounds: Song With A Mission
Swedish retro-new wave! You couldn't make this stuff up could you?
2. Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen: Mission: Impossible
Mission: Inevitable more like, as this is in fact the theme from the 1996 Tom Cruise movie, by the other two out of U2.
1. The Mission: Mr. Pleasant
We had to include at least one track by The Mission (or The Mission UK if you're of the American persuasion), and by pointing you to this one I can introduce you to a lesser known Kinks song too.

Spotify users can listen here: Lost Mission Top Ten. Everyone else will have to track them down elsewhere for your listening pleasure while browsing these blogs:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Amy Browning
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

CSFF Blog Tour: Lost Mission by Athol Dickson

Wow, are we here again already? It seems like only a couple of posts since the last tour.... Oh, right.

Anyway, this month my fellow bloggers and I have been reading, or at least thinking about reading, Lost Mission by Athol Dickson. Which isn't science fiction. Or fantasy. At least, not in the strictest, where-to-look-in-Waterstones sense.

Apparently, it's 'magical realism'. Which is towards the infra-red end of the fantasy spectrum. Is that a thing? It should be. High fantasy, sword and sorcery stuff way out in the UV end waiting to give you cancer if you're over exposed, and things like magical realism - the 'real' world with just one or two elements slightly askew - hidden in the infra-red, where you need a special camera to actually see that they are even fantasy.

That analogy needs a little work doesn't it? Anyway, my point, and I vaguely recall that I had one when I set out on this post, is that this 'almost, but not quite, entirely unlike fantasy' kind of sub-genre is actually the sort of thing I might read. Which is possibly why some of my tour mates didn't really get it.

To find out what they did think, you will need to get clicking:
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Amy Browning
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

Fish Custard

Somewhere on teh intarwebs, someone must have drawn a comparison between the Eleventh Doctor and his first post-regeneration meal. Something like how all the ingredients are great, but please, not all together! Only that doesn't work, because Eleven and Amy Pond seem to work well together. It's a little early to tell, of course, what with the Doctor still cooking and everything, but, well, the first episode with the new Doctor didn't suck.

And that is as far as I'm going to go on the subject at this point; I mean, I can't criticize too much a show with a Hitch-hikers homage and a real Mini in it, and I've read/heard too much of 'the assistant is too sexy' or 'the Doctor isn't sexy enough' to be bothered joining in, even on a more intelligent level. Oh OK, I'll join in a bit: she's alright for a redhead, but seriously, have you people not seen Billie?

Um, anyway..... I'm not too keen on the new opening credits, but that's incidental. If the opening episode is any indication, it seems the new team have got a good balance between scary and funny, and between fish and custard for that matter, and as long as Eleven turns out to be a half decent incarnation and the whole thing doesn't descend into a horrible teen drama in spacetime as the younger cast might suggest (oh dear, I came across prematurely middle-aged there, I do apologise. You know you're getting old when the Doctors are getting younger, etc. etc.)

I'll cast judgement on the new Doctor properly next week, once he's properly cooked. For now there's not much else to say, I'll just hit publish before I have that crisis of confidence that I miscounted and we're on Twelve now, or Ten....