Rani's Favorite Music: That swing thing

Hi everybody! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m glad you stopped by. This month, as you know if you’ve been with us in July, I couldn’t really decide what to talk about. I had too many ideas, and none of them really went together. They were just a jumble of ideas. A mess. Until one little thread showed itself, and a topic emerged. It’s my birth-month, so I thought that also gave me a good excuse to talk about myself for a while.

We’re talking about my favorite things! But we’re also talking about my favorite things and how they relate to my writing, because, you know, I’m a writer. So it made sense. Thus far, we’ve talked books and we’ve discussed some of my favorite shows and movies—and this week, we’re on the subject of music. And, for the first time, I’m going to talk about something that’s not directly related to my writing. But does help it, if I’m being honest. I’ll explain.

Rani’s Favorite Music: Caravan Palace

Yeah, I listen to electro-swing. I kinda love it. I’ve only honestly been listening to it since late last year, but I find myself really unable to get enough of it. I greatly enjoy it, and it gets me moving.

Let’s discuss that, shall we?

See, I discovered Caravan Palace because I was looking for music to dance to. If you didn’t already know by now, I recently took up belly dancing. Well, recently being I took it up last year. It’s great fun, I really enjoy it, and it’s a really good way to get my body moving. We writers tend to have some trouble in that regard. Our chosen profession requires that we sit on our bums all day and type (or hand write, or what have you). So, we don’t often get the chance to move around.

For me, that was where dance came in. I’ve been a big fan of exercise since high school, when I first took up exercise yoga (less Hinduism, more stretching), but I really needed something that would be a bit stricter on me, and that would be completely low impact (I have a needy knee). One of my friends is a belly dancer, and I’d been Facebook stalking all her videos and pictures for a few years… and then one day, last year, we started talking about it. And she told me there was a studio here in town, that I should check out. So I did. I went to a studio, and I was terrible at what the instructor was having us do that day. But you know what? I had so much fun in that class, suck though I did. I really enjoyed it. And I really haven’t ever looked back. I now find myself dancing time away at home, going to performances whenever I can, and really getting into the music.

And that’s where Caravan Palace comes in.

They’re great for moving to. The beats are sharp and perfect for belly dance, and the songs are just plain fun. I often find myself with Caravan Palace tunes stuck in my head for hours on end. And by listening to this music, by having a song like that stuck in my head, I can convince my little writer self to get off my butt and do something else, to just get up and dance for a few minutes—which, if I’m being honest, is a really good way to get out of a rut in writing.

See, as writers, we need to have something we do that’s in no way related to writing. We do. I know some of you will disagree with me, but it’s important for your own noggin that you diversify and be a well-rounded human being. Part of that means getting up and moving around, expressing yourself in an entirely different way.

For me, Caravan Palace helps with that. And I really love them for it.

[love]

{Rani Divine}