Quote by Mendalla

Another entry!

https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/supernatural/out-of-the-lake

Not sure if redwriter will be around to plug his own story, but I happily recommend it. Terrific ghost story with a nice surprise at the end.

Lunar New Year, an herbal blend that was a "bonus" on a tea order back in January.

Another entry!

https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/supernatural/out-of-the-lake

Oh hell, we need one with Regine on leads, too. From 2017.

And from 2007 Austin City Limits. This is such a great live band but I have not heard anything about them touring recently.

Someone (Ping?) brought up Arcade Fire a while ago. They posted this yesterday, a song from a 2012 appearance at Austin City Limits.

Quote by AnnaMayZing
I know someone who may be interested in this factoid. The singer, Elina Siirala, is a second cousin to Tuomas Hollopainen!

Cute. Music does seem to run in families, eh (definitely does here in Canada where we have had multiple bands consisting of family members). Heavier than Nightwish, more of a power metal sound.

Editing a post with an embedded Youtube video is still very messy. I ended up deleting and reposting one after editing made all the text disappear after hitting Submit. Only the video showed up. But if I clicked Edit again, the text was visible in the editor. So recommend deleting and reposting if you need to edit a post containing a video. Might affect External image links, too, but have not tried.

Indie singer-songwriter Kina Grannis managed to get her latest album out this week. She's close to giving birth to her first child so she got it released just under the wire. Minimalist music with lots of emotional content. Beautiful stuff.

And with that out of the way, I am putting on coffee and kettle and settling in for a dreary, wet Saturday.

My new fantasy story is in draft here and I am going to give one last read before pulling the trigger and moving on to the sequel. Will be interested to hear good comments about it since I have really slaved over this one and think it might be one of my best. And whether others are actually interested in a continuation. I am kind of hanging the sequel on a throwaway line that I realized could be fleshed out.

Favorite Bond stuff is something I'm a bit averse to doing these days since life has kind of kept me from getting caught up with Craig. However, absent his series, here's my picks to the end of the Brosnan era.

Best Bond - Timothy Dalton. Controversial, perhaps, but no one prior to Craig caught the real essence of the character better than him IMHO, and I wish he'd had better stories and writing, though I am probably one of the few Bond fans who loved License to Kill. Still wish we'd had more from him but studio and legal crap delayed things too long and he opted out of a third by the time they were ready to start again.

Second (formerly first) - Sir Sean, of course. For all his flaws, Connery was a hell of an actor and it showed in his early Bonds like Dr. No and From Russia With Love. But he also phoned in his last couple, clearly getting bored of the part.

Best Song: as already stated, Moonraker

Second: Like Ping, can't really pick just one. Maybe Goldfinger or the John Barry-Tim Rice composition All Time High (from Octopussy). And, as mentioned, You Know My Name from Casino Royale by the late Chris Cornell is a fave, too.

Worst: The Living Daylights, Aha. Or maybe Live and Let Die (yeah, that's probably another controversial one)

Best Bond "Girl": Can't argue with Dame Judi Dench. Best M ever. And I've really only seen her Brosnan M but her intro, when she dresses down Bond for his lack of respect for her, really set the stage. And I hear Craig M is even better.

Best Q: Desmond Llewelyn, of course. Longest lasting actor in the Bond series (17 films from 1963 to 1999). Yes, he descended into self-parody later on, but I think the writers get more of the blame than he does. But I haven't seen Whishaw yet. Honorary mention to Peter Burton, who actually played a character closer to Fleming's original in a brief appearance as Major Boothroyd in Dr. No (Llewelyn then took over the part in From Russia With Love).

Best Bond Actor's Real-life Spouse, I shall skip. Cassandra Harris, Pierce Brosnan's first wife, might be a contender, though. She sadly left us too soon (ovarian cancer) but was responsible for introducing Brosnan to Albert Broccoli of Eon Productions during the filming of For Your Eyes Only, in which she had a small role. I think, though, it is the only case of a Bond girl being married to a Bond, though his tenure came after her passing.

One new category:

Best Bond Car: None of the movie cars. 1933 4.5 litre supercharged Bentley, which appeared in the early novels including the famous crash in Casino Royale (in the movie, he crashed an Aston, I think). For film cars, though, I am fond of the Aston Martin DB.5, which has appeared in several films but was most important plot-wise in Goldfinger.

Quote by gillianleeza
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption was an excellent novella

The Body, filmed as Stand By Me, is another King classic that was neither horror nor supernatural. Terrific coming-of-age story.

Honeydew. Not a melon fan in general but I can handle those.

Loud, fast music or soft, mellow music?

Quote by Ping
Or as near as perfect as Adele's, which IMHO, is the best Bond song of all.

I would still give it to one of the John Barry-Shirley Bassey themes, probably Moonraker (Goldfinger is more famous, but Moonraker is a more refined composition). Adele pretty much based Skyfall on those and Bassey at her peak was a better singer. But it's all a matter of taste, I guess. And I love You Know My Name by Chris Cornell but it is a thing unto itself and not really a "classic" Bond theme.

Another muggy, rainy evening here. Yuck. No real plans for the weekend ahead. Writing maybe. Basically done the fantasy story I've been slaving over. Just read it over and it is definitely in the "tweaking obsessively" stage. The plot and major scenes haven't changed in the last few iterations. Need to get on with the sequel so maybe I will post it this weekend.

Quote by DenimAngel
Do you know how long it would take to bake 215 cookies ?

I think Mom beat that with her Christmas baking some years. Batches for the church cookie exchange, batches for various seasonal events, batches just for the family... And she also did homemade fruitcake.

Sigh, now I am getting nostalgic.

Kettle is on, sencha is in the pot.

Try bribing them with cookies 😊

Sencha

Me oh me on my, wasn't that a party!

(Old song)

Alberta

The latter. I like being funny but I like being smart more.

WYR eat an apple or eat apple pie?

Skate. Never tried skiing, don't plan to start (plummeting down hills ain't my cuppa)

WYR watch figure skating or hockey?

Nepal

Quote by Ping
It’s almost 2025. Where’s the space ship I was promised?

Save yer pennies and give Mr. Bezos a call. If a 90 year-old out of shape retired actor can handle a ride on Blue Origin, surely you can.

Quote by etairay
Who wants to play tag tag you're it ..sorry folks no playing on SS

checks game threads

Looks like playing is very much allowed on here.

Good evening. Kettle is on. I'm having a lemon-ginger herbal myself.

The All-Consuming World by Cassandra Khaw. Transhumanist cyberpunk with an all-female all-queer band of mercenaries in the old "getting the gang back together for one last score" plot

Time to give this a bump, I think. Six entries so far including Tams, who just went up this afternoon. We hit the two week mark tomorrow with about 17 days to go after that. Still lots of time to get in on the action, folks. Last comp we hit 15 entries and I think at least one of the ones last year hit 16. Can we better that mark this time around?

Quote by Rumple_deWriter

Well, let me tell ya, it's like this, somehow managed to login and and am now trying to create a post -- only to face the reality that I have nothing to say. (sigh)

Bottom line is sometimes I can login to SS, but that's never, ever doable on Lush. I'm thinking about asking Nic if I can park what is now not working on SS and Lush and create new profiles even though the Lush/SS policy has always been one account only. That way, if the current snafu is cleared up, I can go back to my oldies but goodies.

If anybody has any thoughts about any of this, let me know like, anytime.

:glasses8:

Sounds like a new account would be something to try. As long as TPTB know what you're doing and approve it, you should be good.

Nice to see you.

Torrid - eatery

Base - Bare

Mast - Mash

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic

Head empty. No thoughts; only Matt.

Just popping in for a tea and a cookie.