Nice to come over here and see all the cheery posts about the comp. I just had to go medieval on someone's ass on the site I admin so mood is a bit off.😒

takes a cookie and a tea and scowls in the corner chair

Good morning and Happy Friday! It may be Friday 13 but we lucky people have got ... comp winners!!!! Congrats to our top 3, Kat, ShyThespian, and (not a poet) verbal!!

Announcing The Winners Of The Beyond The Veil Competition! | Stories Space

So while you peruse that illustrious list, enjoy some Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee or some Yorkshire Gold tea. There's also Raspberry Royale for thos wanting something fruity in their tea. And I've washed the pitchers and made fresh iced tea and lemonade for those needing something cool.

Later.

Woo hoo! Congratulations all. Good top three there. Even verbal who claimed he wasn't good at poetry. 😉😊

(Dang, did I time my morning visit well, or what?)

And then a man whose career predates the births of all the members of Nightwish, even 60-year-old Troy. David Gilmour is best known for his tenure as guitarist and singer in Pink Floyd, which he joined in 1967, but began his musical career in 1962 and continues to this day with a new solo album out a week ago. This is the title track, which reunites David with Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright. And the song is probably the most Floyd-ish sounding track I've heard so far from the new album.

Nightwish dropped a bit of a surprise when they announced the release of Ocean of Strange Islands as the third single from upcoming album Yesterwynde. That makes originally announced third single Lanternlight (a personal choice of lead singer Floor Jansen) to be the fourth when it comes out on the album's release date. Ocean... is much more in the vein of classic Nightwish in style than it's two predecessors, even if the soft ending featuring the uillean pipes of Troy Donockley is a bit unexpected.

(Just mowed the lawn and it's a bit toasty today)

Good morning! Nice September weather continues around my area, though it's getting warmer. Got a day off work with a few things to do.

Putting on some Nicaraguan Dark Roast coffee from Las Chicas. Teas are Scottish Breakfast and Vinyl Cafe (unique blend named for a Canadian radio show). Looking good on the cold beverages.

How's the world where you are?

Quote by danadmin

The dot denotes the post you linked to, so for example https://www.storiesspace.com/forum/site-announcements-and-members-feedback/dot-on-latest-post?page=1&post=210674 would link to Mendalla's post.

Thanks, Dan. That makes sense. So since the time of last post in the New Posts list is a link to the last post, it gets the dot if I follow that link?

(The) Evil That Men Do

The recent return of nu/alt-metal greats Linkin Park came as a bit of a surprise, given vocalist and founding member Chester Bennington committed suicide in 2017. However, co-vocalist/rapper/multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda and other surviving members recruited a couple new faces, including vocalist Emily Armstrong of the band Dead Sara, and are now back in action. New album From Zero is due in November. It's a controversial move given Chester was much-beloved among their fans but Emily is a solid vocalist and has the right voice for it so there's hope this might work out. Here's one classic and one new song from the livestreamed concert where they introduced her.

Air mixes many different elements.

Carnival of Souls (one of the best, spookiest horror movies of its time)

Autumn, though both have their appeal and are superior, IMHO, to Winter and Summer around here.

Apple pie or pumpkin pie?

Just noticed that on the latest post in threads, the poster's avatar has a "dot" in the top left. Like the snip of James' avatar below. Is that new? Does it mean anything beyond it being the latest post in the thread?

EDIT: I did not intend that picture to be that big. Not sure it blew up like that.

Thanks for the setup (and cookies) Cora.

The new COVID shots aren't approved up here yet so I'll probably get mine with my flu shot. Those usually start in October here. Haven't done RSV but should probably ask my doctor. Not sure if it is covered at my age yet, though.

Royal Wedding tea sounds interesting (even if I am very much not a monarchist).

Quote by Cora
Thank you for all the well wishes. They were very kind.

Nice to see you starting to get active again. It has been way too quiet around here. Hopefully will liven up as the announcement date for the comp approaches at the end of the week.

Quote by verbal
Big debate tonight! The whole world is watching!

Might as well just put them in the ring and give them boxing gloves given how "debates" in politics tend to go these days. 🙄

Quote by verbal
I now have an implant in my jaw - it’s like a little nut into which they will screw in a new tooth in six months. I am a little woozy but okay.

I should have had that done a while ago but pandemic concerns and then general reluctance to have more surgery. Since the pandemic I've had cataracts and hernia. The missing tooth hasn't been a problem so far. Cataracts and hernia were.

Putting on some Tobermory Grotto coffee. Teas are Darjeeling and Raspberry. Fresh iced tea and lemonade are in the fridge. Sodas are stocked up.

Lovely day (week, even) here. How's things out there?

Thanks for the heads-up Molly.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's Monday!!!

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood Morning!!!

There's some Really Dark Roast in the coffee pot. Teas are Assam Organic and Earl Grey. Cold bevvies are looking good.

See you 'round, y'all.

Quote by WriterGirl
Lastly, I’m not sure how much artists like her and Beyoncé can control the ticket price.

At this point, something needs to be done about Tickermaster, and they are not the ones to do it. It should be an anti-trust issue at this point. The fiasco over the tickets for the Oasis reunion has surely got to be the last straw. The company used "dynamic pricing" meaning prices changed based on volume of sales. Oasis was, needless to say, a popular ticket so prices went nuts. And then there's the usual problem of scalpers scooping up ticket and reselling them at exorbitant prices. In some countries, TM even facilitates that through their own site, though I think some constituencies cracked down on that.

Banging my head to a playlist of death, death core, and sundry metallic noise.

Coffee is Deathwish Dark Roast (fitting). Teas are Assam Organic and Yorkshire Gold. Washed the pitchers and mixed up fresh iced tea and lemonade.

Discovered I actually had a cover image downloaded to use on The Healer's Secret (linked but you won't be able to go there until it's reverified, I think). I think it's from the period when I was looking at compiling and expanding the three Tana stories into a novella. Got it to the appropriate size and it is now awaiting approval. Still fond of that trilogy, even if the followup has kind of lost steam after one story.

Rock on, peeples!

Sharon Den Adel of the band Within Temptation packs an incredible voice. So does Finnish rocker, and former Nightwish lead, Tarja. So how about Sharon covering a Tarja song? I'm in.

Within Temptation is doing some concerts with Tarja (crossing my fingers for performances of Paradise (What About Us), the amazing collaboration they did years ago) and this cover is the first in a tit for tat cover game WT is doing with her and annisokay, another band they are doing dates with.

And until we get the cookie crew back in shape, here's some off the shelf goodies. Bag is under the counter if you need to replenish them. Maple leaf creams are an old favourite of mine.

It's Friday! And you know what means! WEEKEND!!!!!

So let's have some Ethiopian Yirgacheffe from Fire Roasted for coffee.

Teas are Vinyl Cafe (a local blend named for a famous Canadian radio show) and Assam.

Cold drinks look okay.

Got plans for the weekend, folks?

Quote by Molly

As I'm sure you've all seen we now have our covers showing beside our stories. I think it's a fantastic addition. If you find any missing or broken please let me know.

Nice change but all my pre-SS 2.0 stories need new cover images. They look awful as "thumbnails" since they were landscape rather than portrait in those days. Some I can do with cropping but others might need new images. A project for a vacation or holiday period, maybe.

Dutch symphonic metal band Delain basically blew itself apart in 2021, replacing the entire lineup except founder and keyboardist Martijn Westerholt. Lead singer Charlotte Wessels went solo in the wake, leaving Martijn to replace one of the best and most experienced of the female metal leads. And he found a great young voice to do the job. Diana Leah has been excellent in the new lineup of the band, singing both new material and Wessels-era classics with skill and enthusiasm. They released the first single from an upcoming EP today.

It's been more than three years since bassist-singer-songwriter Marko Hietala left the band Nightwish and went quiet for a year. But he's been back for a couple years now and the good stuff just keeps coming. A reunion and reconciliation with former Nightwish lead singer Tarja; tours with her and Dutch singer Anneke van Giersbergen as well as on his own; a reunion with Tarot, the band founded by Marko and his brother that launched his career; and two new solo singles, the latest of which dropped yesterday. Hopefully, we are looking at a new album in 2025 but nothing's confirmed yet.

Woo hoo! A dozen poems.

(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!