Zombie - The Cranberries

Relaxing would help my back.

Real, for sure. AI could be a nice tool for editing photos but I would rather have a real photo to start with.

Work from home or head to the office?

Quote by WriterGirl
They stopped in Halifax and mainly explored the boardwalk. Saint John port has been her fav! She went to the sea caves yesterday.

Saint John is a nice area. Haven't spent a ton of time there but have passed through a couple times. I nearly became a Haligonian. Had I found work down there so my wife could have remained at Dalhousie, we could have ended up there. I'm kind of glad we landed back here, though. That region has had its struggles. Right now, it's another part of Canada having wildfire problems. Nova Scotia basically closed all their provincial parks to try to minimize risk of more fires starting.

And the dancing gorilla bops into the cafe. Whoa, we needs some coffee and tea.

Brewin' up some Deathwish Dark Roast coffee.

For teas, how's about some David's Breakfast and Buddha's Blend.

Washed up the pitchers for some fresh lemonade and iced tea (unsweet, of course).

Lots of goodies still around. I think there's some of the ice cream sandwiches in the freezer, too.

Been having a bit of a rough ride recently. Bout of depression yesterday morning, then a bad backache. Still stiff today, but it's better. No idea what I did but it does feel like an injury.

So, needless to say, nothing serious happening in the writing department. Got a long weekend coming but also got yard work that's been neglected so not sure how much time I'll have even then. And my vacation looms a month from today, which will take me away from any opportunity to write for two and a bit weeks. OTOH, it's a tour of Greece and the Aegean so maybe inspiration will be had.

For every artist who makes in big in any genre of popular music, there's plenty of very talented artists toiling away out of the spotlight and under the radar. Which is too bad. Half the time, their as good as or better than the big names and just haven't caught a break. Harley Olivia of Toronto, Ontario is one of those. Great metal/rock vocalist who quit a career as a flight attendant to pursue music but is very much still a local artist. So I'm going to post her on a few sites of my acquaintance. This is one of her originals in a performance from Gussapolooza in Cookstown, Ontario (I know where it is but have never been there, just zipped by on highway 400).

(A) Nightmare on Elm Street

Low

Taylor Momsen first came to public attention as an actress in movies and TV, appearing on Gossip Girl among others. However, she was singing as early as her appearance in How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), when she was seven years old. In 2012, she gave up acting to focus on singing. At that point, she had already been lead singer of The Pretty Reckless for three years. TPR is a solid hard rock band in the vein of Halestorm, with whom they have toured. Perhaps most notably, they got the nod to open for AC/DC on the Power Up tour last year. The band dropped this new single this week.

Quote by verbal
I'd love to see a fjord, Ape. I didn't realize Canada had them.

Saguenay is an odd duck being where it is (Eastern Quebec off the mouth of the St. Lawrence). I think there's some further East and North (Labrador, Newfoundland). Might be some in Northern BC as you get up closer to Alaska but not sure. The West Coast of Norway and Alaska seem to be the places to really see them.

Quote by WriterGirl
My twin is up on the eastern part of Canada on her port stop today. I can’t wait to see the pics!

I always find it interesting that we get cruises coming to Canada. Maybe because my wife lived in Halifax (the most popular one) for a couple years early in her academic career, I don't see it as all that special. Nice, but not port stop material. But, as I said, that might just be the product of having spent a fair bit of time there at one point.

Now, we did encounter cruisers in Saguenay Fjord in Quebec. That's probably more what I see would see as cruise stop material. Southernmost fjord in the northern hemisphere, large park with lots of hiking and sightseeing options. Sailing up the fjord to Chicoutimi would be spectacular.

Swedish melodeath band Arch Enemy released their album Blood Dynasty back in the spring, but dropped a new video today. The song is one of my favourites from the album, heavy as hell but also featuring a melodic, clean-sung chorus.

Better

Words are units of meaning.

Love Actually

Speech. I don't really have the memory capacity anymore (I speak from talking points so pages are kind of irrelevant).

Race the clock or race other people?

Nice day here. Sun is out, not too hot, I'm feeling myself again (which really points to the weather as the culprit).

As of now, I have been married for 32 years. Wow. Should have a few more to go, too. Was not a big ceremony, but it was nice, meaningful one.

(scarfs an ice cream sandwich)

Yawn

Glances around, sees Cora is gone, takes LAST

Deep fried tarts sounds delish but lethal in their way. scarfs two YOLO, as the kids say. 😀

Good morning. Still grey and wet in my parts but after a dry spell, it is welcome. Suppose to get better by the weekend.

Fatigued again. Thinking it's the weather but we'll see when it clears tomorrow and Friday. If I perk up, that kind of seals it.

Joker

Xanadu - Rush (or Olivia Newton-John if prog isn't your speed)

Imagination is soul of art.

Water skiing might be better. At least I have the crew of the boat to rescue me when I inevitably bomb out and panic.

Give a speech solo or be part of a panel?

Quote by literary_echoes
Are you playing with the idea that the "joke" lake monster was never really a joke? Or is this more about how family mythology can manifest in unexpected ways? Either way, the combination of personal history and mythological dread sounds like it could hit some powerful emotional notes beneath all that kaiju destruction.

More about how those summers at the cottage and the silly games we got up to have lingered with me, I think, along with my love of monster stories. I'm long past the stage of actually thinking there are monsters in that lake (well, aside from some rather large trout that ended up on our barbeque).

Valley of the Queens - Ayreon

The author's page for it on Smashwords for those who may be interested. Apparently, it is book 1 of a series. Two other books can be found on the author's Smashwords page (click his name in the page linked below).

The Clock Forgets Me

Time is usually more of mechanism for organizing a story and moving it along. So in a time travel story, the paradoxes and weirdness fall more into plot or maybe even as a "macguffin" than character. I do like a good time travel story but this is clearly a different thing. The idea to make time function more like a character is intriguing. Thanks for calling attention to it.

Quote by CuriousAnnie
And it's cold, I am hesitant to say very cold as there are those of you who don't think 13 C is a serious winter temperature.

Add a negative sign and then we can talk. 😉😁 13 is Spring in my world.

I forget where I first heard of The Last Dinner Party. They're a young, relatively new pop act from the UK that's putting out some pretty interesting music. Watched their set from this year's Pink Pop (big pop-rock festival in the Netherlands) and quite enjoyed it. They have one studio LP out and a second coming soon. Here's a couple songs, one from each album.

Horror Express