I love the winter...

snowflake_challenge  - Day 3



This has actually always been my biggest problem: if I  HAVE to be creative then I can't be, if I MUST have an idea, then I can't think of any. It was a problem at school, at uni and even at work. That's why I shy away from writing-challenges. Too much pressure. It works better with art. At least my recent participation in bandom_holidays was a lot of fun for me.

@gerardway tweeted today: "Any time I make any kind of art- paint, music, writing-I like it at first, then I hate it,then I stick it out, then I love it"

I'm not very good at sticking it out yet, so my writings are mostly very short, but I'm going through the other phases he mentions as well. In the end I'm only putting out what I really love, so even if noone else might like it, at least I will.

I'm not constantly creative, but when I have an idea I cannot stop until I have written it down or made the first draft. An inspiration can be something I'm suddenly thinking about, a prompt, a tweet, anything actually. I don't have much time for creativity outside of my long work-days, so I'm patient and don't try to force it.

My biggest motivation to create are my own ideas and of course I love positive feedback, be it kudos or comments. But what I found out over the last years is that being in a community with other people being creative and excited about what they do also helps me a lot. When I see filled prompts in bandom_meme I feel inspired to try things myself. When my small circle of the first fandom that I was in held the Drabble Day challenge, releasing prompts every hour for one day, I started to have ideas, even if there were only sixty minutes until the next prompt.

The snowflake_challenge  also motivates me because it shows the fannish-enthusiasm of so many people and therefore it's a wonderful way to start the new year.

During my lurking activities I've been seeing more and more people doing this music meme.

♪¸¸¸.•*¨*♫ ♫•*¨*•.¸¸♪♫•* Music and meme - I just couldn't resist! ♪¸¸¸.•*¨*♫ ♫•*¨*•.¸¸♪♫•*

*starting itunes*

How many songs/tracks: 2941, 8 days, 15,49 GB

Sort by song title:
First Song: A.M.180 - Grandaddy (from the Album "Words for Snow")
Last Song: 99 And A Half Just Won't Do - The Detroit Cobras (from their album "Seven Easy Pieces") - I have no idea where I got this song from.

Sort by time:
Shortest track that is by a band: A Call To Arms - Beirut (0:19) [trumpets, basically]
Shortest Song: Last Christmas - Manic Street Preachers Live @ The Brighton Centre, Brighton. UK - 2007-12-14 (0:38) [yes, it's a cover of that Wham-song]
Longest Song: Only Skin - Joanna Newsom (16:53) [from the album "Ys" which is also the shortest album name I guess]

Sort by artist:
First Artist: Adam Lambert
First Artist really beginning with A: Adele
First Artist who's last name begins with A: Allen Alexis [not sure which is the last name then.  - Who is this anyway?]
First band: Air
Last Artist: 2raumwohnung [i.e. Zweiraumwohnung, so a definite Z]

Sort by album:
First Album: Acytelene - The Walkabouts (but I only have one song by them "Devil in the Details")
First album that I really have as album and it's not called Acoustic Live: The Adventures Of Ghosthorse And Stillborn - Coco Rosie
Last Album: 26½ - Fehlfarben
Last album really beginning with Z: "Ziggy Stardust" - David Bowie, although that's cheating because the album really is called "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars".
So, when I'm not counting EPs "Ys" by Joanna Newsom makes its reappearance here.

Top Three Most Played Songs:
1. Rewind the Film - Manic Street Preachers (11 plays)
2. This Is The Day - Manic Street Preachers (4 plays)
3. We Were Never told - Manic Street Preachers (4 plays)

I must admit that I don't listen to songs on itunes very often, which explains the numbers. I use itunes to feed my ipod. And I use my ipod to listen on shuffle mostly. In my car I still use the old-fashioned CDs.

Search:
I wasn't sorting out doubles, for example album- and live-version, also counting EPs as albums.
Death: 13 songs, 2 albums, 1 band, no genre [I'm not listening to Death Metal]
Life: 26 songs, 7 albums, no bands
Love: 110 songs, 12 albums, 5 bands
Hate: 4 songs, 1 album (NME Love Music Hate Racism), no bands
You: 200 songs [also included the "you" in "young" because I'm not able to search differently], 22 albums, 2 bands
Sex: 3 songs, no albums and one artist, but it's only because there's sex in Sussex (Johnny Flynn & The Sussex Wit)

Bonus Search:
I must admit that I don't really have many Bandom-songs in my itunes library. That didn't stop me from searching some terms:
Panic: 1 song ("Panic" - The Smiths), 1 album ("Panic Prevention" - Jamie T.)
Disco: 3 songs ("Backfire At the Disco" -The Wombats; "Disco"  (Demo) - Lana Del Rey; "Disco Heaven" - Lady Gaga)
Chemical: 1 song ("Chemical World" - Blur), 1 band (which actually is MCR! "Song 2" and "F.T.W.W.W.")
Romance: 1 band [see above]
Fall: 14 songs, 1 album ("How the Mighty Fall" - Mark Owen]
Boy: 30 songs, 2 albums, 9 artists/bands
Cobra: 1 band (The Detroit Cobras)