We finished watching Game of Thrones: Season 3 on Blu-Ray this weekend. I really love the opening soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi, so I kicked up Pandora and made a new station adding the string version of The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby. You can listen to a free version of this on the Dallas String Quartet‘s website. It’s hard to separate out the soundtrack from the strings, which is why I started with The Beatles, but this station has turned up some new performers like 2Cellos and The Section Quartet. I teeter toward percussives and I love what instrumentals can do to explore the full range of an instrument’s capability. It’s especially helpful to listen to these songs while writing — no words. Well, that and let’s be honest. This is loads better than muzak. Loads.

For example, here’s a great example of percussive guitar. You can listen to two guitarists on TED talks, Usman Riaz and Preston Reed. Riaz is a self-taught guitarist who picked up his skills from YouTube! Just astounding amounts of creativity.

I have to say, though, I am curious what my frog hears. Ever since we moved him to a new (and much larger) tank in my office, he’s been very opinionated about the music I play. Sometimes, he even sings along.

Mood: Zen. For a Monday and a week filled with ridiculously cold weather, this is a good thing.
Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Only two. (Yep, I counted.)
Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Still recovering.
In My Ears: True Faith by The String Quartet
Game Last Played: Sonic All Star Racing Transformed
Book Last Read: Lovecraft’s Monsters anthology
Movie Last Viewed: Game of Thrones Season Three. I have strong feelings about the Lannisters.
Latest Artistic Project: *Still* *still* *still* need to take pictures… It’s on the list!
Latest Fiction/Comic Release: Last Man Zombie Standing
Latest Game Release: Freedom Flyer
What I’m Working On: Primarily tie-in games work and novels.