Top Ten Countdown Music Blogfest

usic to inspire, music to get your feet moving, music to lull you to sleep... Alex Cavanaugh had a great idea for a blogfest - the Top Ten Countdown Music Blogfest, which took place on Monday.

Now, I know it's supposed to be top ten songs... But since I'm coming late to this anyhow, I'm going to fudge a little (sorry Alex!) and do bands. I promise I have playlists to back me up! Here goes, in no particular order...

Runrig!


The Divine Comedy! (I prefer their earlier albums, and have playlists for all of them, but let's go with album number three)


Crowded House! (No playlist for these guys, unfortunately (I really ought to make one for Neil Finn's Try Whistling This), but here's my favourite song.)


Gyllene Tider! (Here's what Per Gessle was doing before Roxette. Again, no playlist, I'm afraid, and I couldn't find a video with English subtitles. The title of this song translates as Love Is Not Blind, But Very Nearsighted.)


Super Furry Animals! (I also like Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, but they don't sing as often in Welsh.)


Blue Rodeo! (Of course, this playlist is permanently embedded at the bottom of my blog...)


Bruce Springsteen! (Alright, I know I could have found a more original song(and I do love The Promised Land), but there is that line "I'm sick of sitting around here tryin' to write this book", and I do have that feeling every once in a while...)


Manic Street Preachers! (Welsh but not in Welsh...)


Marion! (One of the bands I wish would reform. Two brilliant albums and then nothing. I wish I could get a playlist together but not all the songs are on YouTube. I'll stick with my CDs, I guess.)


Sezen Aksu! (I had to throw a Turkish artist in there, and who better than the current Grande Dame? Here's a bit of an oldie.)


Of course, this list leaves out my favourite punk bandsTheStoneRosesTheCurePulpLedZeppelinTheBeatlesTheRollingStonesPearlJamAliceinChainsStoneTemplePilotsGunsnRosesAgeofElectricArcticMonkeysGeneLesRespectablesTheSmithsMorrisseyTheCharlatansTheJamTheSmallFacesMesAieuxetc.etc.

And, oh yes - check in on the Round of Words in 80 Days! Well, let's see... I've been editing! But I'm still adding more scenes. I can only hope that this is because I'd left the first half of the novel so wide open, and that the latter half will involve a lot more editing and a lot less filling in blanks.

I took my first paragraph though (well, slightly condensed, actually) and entered it in Nathan Bransford's 4th Sort-of-Annual Stupendously Ultimate First Paragraph Challenge (I think I might have entered all four! At least the last three). Mine's entry 255, I think, out of 943 to date. Wow. That's a lot of first paragraphs...

The Inquisitors blindfolded her at the town gates. Before that, she had to watch and listen, unable to retort, as strange men growled and spat at her feet. Women crossed themselves and pointed her out to young children, whispering. If she lowered her head to avoid their gazes, the Inquisitors simply jerked it up again, one or the other yanking fistfuls of her hair under the hood of her cloak. She twisted in their grip, looking back down the road, but there was no sign of Brother Arcturus, her guardian. Had he led her into a trap?