Music Monday (150): Laura Mvula, Jocelyn Brown

 Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: Laura Mvula is going to have new music later this year, and I'm excited about it. She also recently released an EP with new version of some of her songs and a cover of I'm Still Waiting by Diana Ross. I like all of  the songs on 1/f. Check out the original and the new version of Sing To The Moon.

Andrea: This week I'm listening to Somebody Else's Guy by Jocelyn Brown.

Have an amazing week!

What are you listening to this week?

Short Stories I Read In January

It’s the 26th of February. So it’s time to talk about all of the short stories, miscellaneous posts, and podcast episodes I read or listened to in January.

The Karyōbinga Sings To Jiro by Riyu Ando (Strange Horizons; Issue: 11 January 2021) Note: there is a podcast version of the story available from Strange Horizons

The first short story I read In January was The Karyōbinga Sings To Jiro by Riyu Ando. This was such a simple and lovely story. The writing flowed. The story was good. It seemed to deal with loss, remembrance, and staying in familiar and comfortable places and spaces. It was done so well and overall it was an excellent read.

#Selfcare by Annalee Newitz (Tor.com, January 19, 2021)

#Selfcare is the second short story I tackled in January. It was a lot, and I also loved it. #Selfcare was an easy read with a great message. It’s the kind of story that heavily focuses on social commentary—think gig economy and other topics relevant to today—except there was a slightly paranormal twist and a few hints of horror. This story had a great cast. I really liked Edwina, her friend, and the supporting characters. I also liked the direction Newitz took the plot. Overall, #Selfcare was pretty great.

Your Own Undoing by P H Lee (Apex Magazine, January 19, 2021)

Your Own Undoing was fantastic. It was an engrossing read, and I found it way too easy to really get into this story. For starters, it was written in first and second person, with a narrator telling the events of the story to another character. It was great. Your Own Undoing essentially tells how a scholar and sorcerer takes in a new pupil, whose penchant for darker magic and thirst for knowledge negatively effects everyone around them—specifically the character the story is being told to.

From around the web…

• Truth as Fiction: When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo (Alex Brown; Tor.com, January 6, 2020)
• Understanding Horses: Calculated (and Uncalculated) Risk (Judith Tarr; Tor.com, January 11, 2020)
• Sheree Renée Thomas: A Kind of Wonder (Locus Magazine, December 21, 2020)
• Andrea Hairston: Conjure the World (Locus Magazine, January 11, 2021)
• Milk Teeth (Octavia Cade; Uncanny Magazine, Issue Thirty-Eight, January & February) 

I Listened to Coping Mechanisms by Tayla Parx

One artist I’ve had my eye on is Tayla Parx. I knew her first through her work for other artists like Ariana Grande (Thank U, Next) and Khalid (Love Lies, featuring Normani). Her debut studio album was one of my favorites of the year it was released, and since then I’ve been eagerly waiting for the follow-up to We Need to Talk. Well, that second studio album is here. Coping Mechanisms was released on November 20, 2020. I was pretty late getting to the album, but I’m glad I made time to give it a full listen.  

We Need To Talk had a very mainstream pop feel and sound to it. While Coping Mechanisms has a somewhat different tone without losing the essence of its pop roots, and there were other sounds mixed in—think R&B. As a consequence, Coping Mechanisms feels like Tayla Parx honed familiar sounds into a style distinctly her own.

Coping Mechanisms opens with a song called Sad. It had a mellow vibe that acts as a perfect way to ease into what’s to come after. It goes right into Dance Alone, which is one of my top favorite tracks from the album and gives a smooth funky vibe with the guitar and synth sounds in the backtrack. While System—another favorite of mine—had a harder tone and electronic vibes. It was as equally good as the rest of the album. Some of my other top favorites included Fixerupper, Bricks, and Residue.

Coping Mechanisms was a fantastic, fun, and memorable foray into Tayla Parx’s work. It was a solid album, with excellent lyrics and catchy beats found on every track on its twelve song list. I was left with an overall positive impression.

Music Monday (149): Allie X, Kelly Rowland, Jinjer, Fat Boys & Various Other Artists

 Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: One afternoon, I was surfing through my spotify recommendations, and I eventually landed on a page of new releases from artists I already follow. One of the songs I listened to and instantly added to my playlist was GLAM! by Allie X. I adore this song for its punchy, retro-pop brightness, and I wanted to mention it on the blog.

Adri: Hello, this week I'm listening to two vastly different artist I love. The first is Flowers by Kelly Rowland from her new EP, K. And the second, more on the metal side, is Pisces (Live Sesson) by Jinjer

Andrea: This week, I'm spotlighting music, performed, written, and/or produced by the late  Prince Markie Dee (Mark Morales). Prince Markie Dee was a member of the Fat Boys and later  released music with his band, Prince Markie Dee and The Soul Convention. 

Can You Feel It by Fat Boys

Mark Morales, Darren Robinson & Damon Wimbley

Typical Reasons (Swing My Way) by Prince Markie Dee and The Soul Convention

Songwriters: Mark Morales, Mark Rooney, Raymond James Calhoun & Damon Johnson

Real Love by Mary J Blige

Songwriters Cory Roony & Mark Morales

Do You Think of Me by Mariah Carey

Songwriters: Mariah Carey, Walter Afanasief, Cory Roony & Mark Morales

Prince Markie Dee (Mark Morales)

February 19, 1968-February 18, 2021, RIP

What are you listening to this week?

Review: The Case Study of Vanitas volume 6 by Jun Mochizuki

Title: The Case Study of Vanitas

Series: The Case Study of Vanitas #6

Author: Jun Mochizuki
Source/Format: Gift; Paperback
More Details: Manga; Fantasy; Alternative History
Publisher/Publication Date: Yen Press; December 24, 2019

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     

Synopsis from Goodreads...

On the trail of the Beast of Gévaudan, Vanitas and Noé are led to the heart of the incident and the noble house of d'Apchier. There, they discover that a brave, heartrending wish to save a daughter from a vampire's fate became the haunting first cry of the Beast itself...

Note: there may be mild spoilers for volumes 1-5

It has been a couple of months since I last picked up a volume of The Case Study of Vanitas. Last time I checked, volume 5 ended with the main cast stuck in an odd time warp like situation while searching for the truth behind the Beast of Gévaudan's sudden reappearance. There was so much going in this volume, and I almost don’t know where to begin.

It was good.

I still feel excited whenever I step back into this story. Mochizuki’s artwork is, as always, gorgeous and expressive. There’s a perfect balance between visual storytelling and information imparted by dialogue.

From the beginning of the series, there have been a number of mysteries woven into the plot alongside major conflicts, and finally some of those long sought answers are appearing. Volume 6 was no less interesting of course. It was still just as action packed and atmospheric as the previous entries in the series. Plus this one moved the story further into this arc.

The Gévaudan storyline is shaping up to be one of my favorites, second only to the vampire masquerade a few volumes back. One note I forgot to mention when I reviewed volume 5 was that I thought the plot was building toward more backstory. I was right. From the way the world is set up, there has been more than enough evidence shown that there was a major conflict between vampires and other people sometime in the past. Volume 6 dipped its toes into that. There was backstory abound here for some of the key characters in the series—like Jeanne, Ruthven, and Chloe—as well as adding more world building. I’m glad so much of it was delivered with minimal interruption, because it afforded a clearer picture of what happened in the past and what it had to do with the current events. Yet despite the answers provided in volume 6, there are still many outstanding mysteries.

Overall, volume 6 was excellent, and I’m looking forward to the next one.