I think it was my dear friend Dr. Splanchett who first introduced me to Pogo, a couple of years ago. In case you are unfamiliar with Pogo, he is an electronic musician (real name: Nick Bertke) who samples sounds from movies, television shows, and real life to create entirely new music.
I’ve been listening to his stuff a lot recently while editing, cleaning, cooking — pretty much everything. There’s a lot of motion to Pogo’s remixes, which keeps me motivated and moving. His music is also by turns ethereal and incredibly catchy; I often find myself humming his strange, made-up melodies as I go about my day.
And the best part is? It’s the kind of music that doesn’t distract me from what I’m doing. In fact, it almost lulls me into a productive trance.
Check out some of these fantastic remixes:
I think his A Little Princess remix, “Whisperlude,” is my favorite. The music is dreamy and lovely, and the music video itself is just gorgeous:
Not only are the remixes fun to listen to, the accompanying music videos are awesome as well — especially that last one, the animated Wizard of Oz!
I highly recommend checking out Pogo’s website. You can purchase high-quality MP3s of these and other remixes for super cheap. He also posts fascinating behind-the-scenes videos demonstrating how he crafts these remixes.
Y’all, I’m pretty scared about moving to New York.
I’m excited, too, don’t get me wrong. But, oh my god. The closer it gets to moving day, the more I find myself thinking, “So, you realize you’re crazy, right?”
Rationally, I know it’s not crazy, this move. People do it all the time. Even people who, like me, have only ever lived in one place and for whom picking up and moving is not a matter of “Ugh, I’ve got to get AWAY from this place, I HATE it,” and more a matter of “I want to try this. I’m going to miss home and my family and friends — DEEPLY — but I want to try this. I have to.” It’s not that I don’t like my home. No. I just want to see what else is out there.
And that’s great and all, but it also makes it much harder to leave. I’m not running from something; I’m running toward something, and that’s much more difficult to do.
So, I’ve found myself driving a lot lately, since I’m selling my car and won’t have easy access to one in the city. I love driving. Love it. I love racing down the highway (smartly, of course; I’m an excellent driver; I buy my underwear at K-Mart) and letting the wind run through my hair, or singing at the top of my lungs, or cranking up my favorite Hans Zimmer score and letting my brain percolate some story ideas. I love driving for miles under a big Texas sky.
Below are some of the songs I’ve been listening to, because the car is one of the few places I’m allowing myself to get emotional over leaving because, you know, I HAVE A BOOK TO WRITE, and also, I’ve got to get in the wild highway singing while I can:
And then, for a change of pace (and when I feel like avoiding the danger of crying while driving), I’ve been listening to a lot of Hans Zimmer’s Angels & Demons score lately. The problem is it makes me want to drive like ninety miles per hour. I cannot emphasize enough the dramatic WONDROUSNESS of this music. Add a little epic to your day:
Just . . . just go to like 5:40 in on “Air,” the track below. Just do it.
You want to go driving and crank it up now, don’t you?
Recently, I’ve been listening quite a bit to the score for Black Swan, and let me just say right now that if you haven’t seen that movie, you really should. I hate doing that annoying, in-your-face “YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE IT IS SO GOOD” thing, but . . . you have to see this movie. It’s so good. I thought about that movie for days after I saw it; I still think about it.
For me, one of the most affecting elements of the movie was the score. Director Darren Aronofsky‘s go-to composer, Clint Mansell (who did amazing work on Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, and Moon, among others), combined excerpts from Tchaikovsky‘s original Swan Lake score with his own dark, electronics-infused style to create an utterly disturbing musical palette of genteel ballet meets psychological destruction.
I’ve been a fan of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet for years, having owned and listened to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra‘s recording (which apparently is somewhat obscure?) since I was rather young. The story has always fascinated me, and so has the music; it and The Nutcracker made me a Tchaikovsky fan for life, from an early age.
So, Black Swan was a huge treat in every way. Check out some of these tracks (warning: I would not suggest listening to these at night or in the dark or when you’re alone, unless you’re willing to get kind of freaked out):
“Nina’s Dream” – This track draws material directly from the “Introduction” to the ballet, and it’s all nice and peaceful and full of lyrical oboe — until about twenty seconds in, when the darkness starts creeping in with a percussion hit and high-pitched strings. And at about 1:40, as the music crescendos, so do Mansell’s subtle but unmistakable electronic swirls, like a dancer spinning and spinning, unable to stop.
“Mother Me” – Have you ever seen Carrie? I have, and the creepiest part of that movie for me was Carrie’s crazy mother. Similarly, one of the most disturbing aspects of Black Swan was Nina’s overbearing mother, as she tried to live out her unrealized dreams through her daughter. This track is sweet and tender, befitting a mother and her daughter — but just slightly off. Even from the beginning, we know something’s not right here.
“The New Season” – And here’s where things start to get really creepy. I love the repeated-note motif that starts about thirty seconds in, which Mansell pulled from one of the Dances of the Swans in the ballet’s second act.
“A New Swan Queen” – This might be my favorite track from the entire album. It accompanies the scene in which Nina finds out she’s won the role of the swan queen, which made me get all emotional in the theater (few people cry as well as Natalie Portman). The first half of the track is all ballet pageantry with just a tinge of foreboding; then, halfway through, this incredibly unnerving electronic ticking begins, evoking imagery of picking at one’s nails or cold water dripping from a faucet in a dark room.
“Opposites Attract” – Pulse-pounding, insatiable, inexorable music accompanying a pivotal scene (OR IS IT?) between Nina and her dark-side doppelganger (OR IS SHE?). Really good music to write to.
“It’s My Time” – I feel like this should be called “It’s My Turn,” but whatever. Anyway, this is when things in the film REALLY swirl into a frenzy and is some truly disturbing music. I love the scratchy violins (I think that’s what that is?) at about :28, their unnerving sounds, striking at random, turning everything into just-under-the-skin chaos.
“A Swan Is Born” – This music is pulled almost entirely from one of my favorite scenes in the ballet, the entrance of Odile (the black swan) and the evil Von Rothbart at the royal ball. Obviously, this also marks a pivotal scene in Black Swan, as Nina triumphantly unravels.
“A Swan Song (for Nina)” – This music accompanied the closing credits, I believe. The first half is a lovely, elegiac piano variation on the Swan Lake theme; then, in typical Black Swan style, the music switches about halfway through (signified by the sound of glass shattering!) to the dark side, if you will — dissonance, pulsing electronics, and shrieking strings to finish out the album and leave you doubting your own sanity. Yay!
~*~
What about you? Have you seen Black Swan? Do you, like me, just love Clint Mansell? Any other Swan Lake fans out there?
Claire is a Texan living in New York City! She writes fantastical stories, and her daemon is an ocelot but sometimes a unicorn. When presented with the choice to high five or not to high five, she will always choose TO HIGH FIVE. Her first novel, THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, due out August 28, 2012 from Simon & Schuster BFYR, will probably give you nightmares. Or at the very least make you buy a nightlight. Her second novel, THE YEAR OF SHADOWS, due out Fall 2013, also from S&S, involves several ghosts, a girl obsessed with Death, and a rather irascible cat. Her third novel, WINTERSPELL, due out in Fall 2014, also from S&S, is a young adult retelling of The Nutcracker, full of faeries, bloody swordfights, and forbidden romance.
Claire is a Texan living in New York City! She writes fantastical stories, and her daemon is an ocelot but sometimes a unicorn. When presented with the choice to high five or not to high five, she will always choose TO HIGH FIVE. Her first novel, 
