(grumpy ape post deleted)

Good morning!!

Welcome back, Kat. A month bopping around Europe sounds like so much fun. Something I have in mind, probably for after retirement, too.

Vibes to your family on the loss of your b-i-l. Losing him during a joyous family occasion must have made it hurt all the more.

Cora, take it easy and get yourself well.

There's Jamaican Blue Mountain waiting to fill yer mug if you're a coffee person. For the tea drinkers, there's Scottish Breakfast and Raspberry Royale. Pitchers are washed and cold beverages refreshed.

Later, alligators!

Vibes, Gil. Have only dealt with dementia myself and that was enough. Having both parents in different situations like this sound horrible and stressful.

New month, new list of calls. As usual, it's pretty eclectic. See if there's anything that might suit your writing.

We got:

• Winter themed speculative fiction and poetry

• Morgana le Fay stories

• Speculative poetry about "Outlaws"

• Victorian industrial horror

• "Honest essays about contemporary relationships"

• And so much more

» 32 Themed Submission Calls and Contests for September 2024 (authorspublish.com)

Nice to see that the Popular Stories feature slider on the Stories page is all comp entries right now. 😊

Quote by verbal
We aren’t supposed to say anything yet, but she just got first place in a national essay competition and won actual money!

Cool. I haven't written an essay in eons but was pretty good at it in high school and university. Congratulations to the kid.

Mine just changed jobs. Moved from a former startup that gotten eaten by a multinational to another startup, albeit a big one.

They say it's not a real comp until a gorilla enters.

Okay, not really. But a gorilla has entered the comp. Have a boo and see what you think of my simian versification.

https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/poetry/on-the-beauty-that-lies-beneath

In other news, there's some Colombian Medium Roast awaiting you in the coffee pots.

If tea is your thing, how about some Irish Breakfast or Duke Of Earl?

And I gave the pitchers a wash and made fresh unsweet iced tea and lemonade for those what need a cold one. Sodas are stocked up, too.

No need for cold beverages here today. Just got back from an errand and had the seat heater on in my Civic. Only 14C right now and must have been colder overnight. Forecast high is only 20. So, yeah, it's September.

Hope you're all well and enjoying the long weekend if you're in a place what has it.

Comp entry has gone to the queue. So I made it with five days to go. But damn it, I'm going back to writing blank verse. This one has a rhythm and rhyme scheme and that took more work than the actual content.

There's some Nicaraguan Dark Roast brewing in the coffee pot.

Teas are English Breakfast and Lemon.

Looking good on the cold drinks.

Looks nice out. Hopefully my left knee, which was giving me serious grief over the last couple days, is better today so I can get out and enjoy it.

You have to use the share link, not the address.

(On the video, click Share, then Copy Link on mobile or the blue Copy button on desktop)

I am getting close. Needs some refining but the basic structure is done. Even have a cover image picked and prepped.

A while back, YouTube music influencer Nahre Sol did an interview with Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan. And that got me interested in his work and more broadly in the modern jazz scene. Hamasyan is jazz-trained but uses jazz more as a base than his only influence. Nahre even discussed how metal, esp. the complex rhythms of bands like Meshuggah, is an influence on his work. Being Armenian and still residing in his homeland, the music of his culture is a huge influence and presence. His new album, Bird of a Thousand Voices, is a concept album drawing on Armenian folklore with a diverse set of musical themes and ideas. Jazz, prog, metal, electronic (eg. Vangelis and Kitaro), folk, and probably more that I am missing. Amazing work. This is from it.

Grey day here but that might improve if the forecast is right. Off to the optometrist later. Nothing major, just routine exam and maybe tweak a scrip.

Coffee is Deathwish Dark Roast. Teas are Assam and Earl Grey. Cold drinks are looking good. How's your (long for some of us, I guess) weekend going?

Quote by verbal
I sold a story a few months ago, and it appears the magazine has gone under, the month they were going to feature me. Sigh. I tried contacting them. Crickets.

OMG, that's crazy. But I guess publishing is a pretty volatile business nowadays. Many of the markets in Artists Publish are online ones now.

Yay! Peaches! Yeah, I've been loving 'em. One of my top three favourite fruits, really. Grapefruit, Mac and Empire Apples, Peaches. Blueberries would be high on the list, too.

And another Dutch singer draws near to releasing her third solo album. Charlotte Wessels put out another video from The Obsession this week. The album is up for pre-save on Spotify now, too, if that's your streamer of choice.

And from reviewing the track list, I see that Alissa White-Gluz appears on Charlotte's album as well. The two have collaborated several times both in studio and on stage so it's not really a surprise to see another collab.

Continuing with Simone's solo debut, she and Arjen made the brilliant decision to close the album with a gorgeous acoustic ballad, "Dark Night of the Soul". With Simone backed by piano and cello, it is a beautiful and perfect ending to the album.

Alien : Romulus

Round things can roll away.

Let's twist again, like we did last summer. oo...or not. That kind of twisting we can do without. 😜

And good morning to y'all.

Kind of grey and muggy here. Had some wicked storms roll through yesterday evening and there's a chance of shower or thunderstorms today. In short, it's wet here again.

Coffee is Jamaican Blue Mountain. Teas are Darjeeling and Raspberry Royale. We look good for cold beverages.

Have a good day!

Love that cover, Bear. Nice blurb on the back, too. Congratulations.

I took a course on Latin poetry in university (my undergrad major was Classics) and out of that I got a couple favourite poets.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, known in English just as Horace, wrote poems that were mostly on the shorter end. Some were reflective, some satirical. His Odes are probably his best work, or at least my favourites, but his Epistles get into a bit more detail of his philosophy (he was basically an Epicurean).

Publius Virgilius Maro, aka Virgil, is best known for his epic The Aeneid, especially the romance of Aeneas and Dido which forms the fourth chapter. He also wrote the Georgics and the Eclogues, shorter, more pastoral works.

The two knew each other and were part of a circle of poets around Maecenas, who functioned as kind of Augustus Caesar's minister of culture.

Eight of Horace's odes with both English translations and the Latin original:

Horace: Eight Odes translated by Ranald Barnicot | The High Window (thehighwindowpress.com)

Virgil's Georgics in English translation:

Virgil (70 BC–19 BC) - The Georgics: Book I (poetryintranslation.com)

For The Aeneid, I am fond of Robert Fitzgerald's translation which is still available in print and ebook, I think.

Yeah we've got a really annoying computer issue at work right now.

So Cora is now the new cookie lady? 😊 Maybe I should write a poem about cookies. But not sure how to make that fit the theme. Cookies from beyond the veil doesn't sound terribly appetizing, really.

Ape here. Coffee is on. Went with a simple dark roast from somewhere. Teas are English Breakfast and Kittie Zoomies (verbs left some in the cupboard and I want to use it up). Wash the pitchers and made fresh iced tea (NOT Kittie Zoomies) and lemonade. With Sara not around, thought we were running short on goodies so I picked this up at a local bakery.

New album out yesterday that is almost doomed to make my year's best list. Vermillion is the debut solo album from Dutch metal mezzo Simone Simons, who has been the lead singer of the band Epica since its founding 20+ years ago. She collaborated with another amazing Dutch musician on this, guitarist/producer/songwriter Arjen Lucassen of Ayreon and Star One. The results are a true work of beauty.

The final single, which came out with the album, features another singer I adore, Montreal's Alissa White-Gluz. Alissa is best known as the lead singer of melodic death metal band Arch-Enemy for the past decade. While Alissa's voice isn't quite in the same operatic range as Simone's, she is a strong clean singer and also one of my favourite harsh vocalists (her main voice in Arch-Enemy) and both voices get a workout here.

Weekend coffee is on. Some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe.

For teas, we got Scottish Breakfast and Buddha's Blend (white + jasmine green w. hibiscus).

Cold drinks looking good.

Nice weekend here. In fact, we are getting the nicest weather we've had all summer right now, though it's getting a titch warm for my taste (29C tomorrow).

Poetry time. Or story time. Not sure which yet, but I will endeavour to do some writing.

Cello in metal is not new with Tina Guo. The Finnish trio Apocalyptica have been doing it for a long time. But the Chinese-American cellist really rocks in her show at Wacken Open Air this summer. She's not new to the festival, but I am not sure if she ever performed a set of her own before. Usually, she's been there as a featured artist with other bands. And get a load of that cello in the first one.

Lime mostly these days, but both are good

Jazz or blues?

Quote by verbal
I once shook Richard Nixon’s hand!

Washed it thoroughly afterwards I hope. 😁

Never shaken hands with anyone higher up than a mayor. Did get nodded and smiled at by Pierre Trudeau once, not long before his retirement from politics.

Quote by JamesPBear
We'll see what happens, and I'll make a formal announcement when it's all done.

I can't ... bear the suspense.😎

(Flees giggling)

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Mooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooorning!

Ape is rocking out to Verimillion by Dutch singer Simone Simons. She's a redhead so do the math on the album title. More in the music thread later.

Coffee is Deathwish Dark Roast. Teas are Assam and Raspberry. Pitchers of iced tea and lemonade are washed and filled. Sodas are ready. And I've added some flavoured soda water (Bubbly, if you know that) to the mix.