Well, we are old enough to have been around for the original (it came out in 1985). I'm just loving the fact that we are in an era where Kate has become a "big star" finally. She was always a bit of a fringe artist in North America compared to the UK. "Running Up The Hill" was probably her biggest NA hit.

A little surprised I haven't seen this before, but someone posted a performance from Laufey's run on Iceland's Got Talent last month. She's only fifteen in this performance and already pretty solid on both vocals and piano. I remain a bit skeptical of the whole talent show boom but it has given us a few good, interesting artists like her.

I think Platoon kind of killed my taste for war movies. At least for real world ones. A Vietnam movie by a Vietnam vet (Oliver Stone) that kind of showed war in all its ugliness. Do still watch some s-f and fantasy fare that fits the war movie tag but even there, I lean more to smaller scale works nowadays. Princess Bride, Labyrinth type stories moreso than Lord of the Rings.

Good morning, y'all. Sunny and nice in my part of the world.

For coffee, we got Kicking Horse Three Sisters medium.

In the teapots, we have Assam and Darjeeling (going all Indian today).

Cold beverages are refreshed and soda stocked.

Hot water is on standby for other teas, hot chocolate.

No progress on a comp entry yet but definitely on my radar. Probably just going to grab a stray thought and start writing in hopes it goes somewhere.

Later, alligators.

And the song that first twigged me to the movie was the powerful "This is Me" performed by Keala Settle.

Throwing in a song from a musical might be cheating a bit, but someone mentioned Les Miz already and The Greatest Showman was actually a movie musical, not an adapted stage musical. And it has some amazing music in it from the songwriting team of Pasek and Paul, who also wrote the songs for the stage musical Dear Evan Hansen.

In the story, the song "Never Enough" is sung by the legendary 19th century Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale". The character was played by Rebecca Ferguson but the singing was by Loren Allred. Here Allred gives a live performance accompanied by David Foster.

Learned today that Sir Andrew Davis, a brilliant conductor who led the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1975-88, has died after 2 year struggle with leukemia. I saw him conduct the orchestra on two occasions. They used the Centre in the Square in Kitchener, Ontario, my birthplace and home from 1965-1989, to record some of their albums and usually also did a public concert of whatever they were recording. One was Holst's The Planets. Forget what the other was. Besides Toronto, his position included chief conductor of the BBC Symphony, music director and principal conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, music director of the Glyndebourne Festival (where he met his wife, the late soprano Gianna Rolandi), and chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony in Australia. His son Edward Davis is a composer. I mean, with a conductor for a father and a singer for a mother, it was almost impossible for him to not be musical.

Here Davis conducts the lovely Meditation from the opera Thais. This album with the Toronto Symphony won a Juno award (Canada's counterpart to the US Grammy).

Quote by verbal
I plan to watch baseball and then watch Rebel Moon. It’s supposed to be awful, but I’m in the mood for big dumb sci-fi.

Interested to hear your reaction. The consensus I'm hearing on another site for both parts comes down to looks beautiful but otherwise seriously terrible.

Cleaning day. And I've been nursing a headache with associated back and neck tension. Feeling a bit better now so going for a walk. It's gorgeous out right now. Well, maybe a bit on the cool side but I prefer things a bit cool. Heat bothers me more than cold.

Gettiing late but I'll do a half pot of Las Chicas Don Rey's Private Reserve Medium Dark. There's Japanese green tea and Lime Fizz herbal in the teapots.

Later, alligators...

My list of favourite singers is pretty long nowadays but they pretty much all have one thing in common: They are, by and large, women. Yeah, there's some guys in there, but I would guess that if I listed them, the top five, maybe even top ten, would be ladies. Floor Jansen, Violet Orlandi, Laufey, Marcela Bovio. Heck, even my favourite metal "growler" is Alissa White-Gluz.

Anyhow, here's one of them. I've posted about Violet Orlandi before. She gets the credit/blame for introducing me to Swedish rock band Ghost and her latest is a cover of their "Mary on a Cross".

Lake. And not a big one. I'm nervous on water.

Hot porridge or cold cereal?

The problem with this comp, for me, is that my head is just racing with ideas. Different takes on the idea, different genres, and so on.

Good morning and Happy Weekend!! Today we have Deathwish Dark Roast in the coffee pot. Teapots are filled with Scottish Breakfast and Sunday Tea (vanilla black tea). Pitchers are washed and refilled with iced tea and lemonade. Hot water is on standby for other hot beverages.

Quote by Cora
Pinky, my miniature pinscher chihuahua, loves sticking her head out the window. She's tiny so I don't keep the window rolled down far for her. She also gets over stimulated so she's constantly crying and wiggling but I usually am able to calm her if I have her lying against my leg.

The beagle I mentioned couldn't sit still. Wanted to keep running from window to window. Which, in the back seat of Dad's '82 Chevy Bel Air, meant running across us.🙄

Quote by DenimAngel
Millytigger the puppy is doing great she loves to travel .. car rides are her favorite thing .

Our beagle loved car rides ... too much. He would always be trying to get his nose out a window so he could sniff the air flowing past the car.

Fresh cookies, eh. A diabetic friendly pecan divine and strawberry shortbread should go nice with some afternoon tea. I've put on pots of sencha (Japanese green) and Canadian blueberry for those not wanting to be too caffeinated later in the day. Also put on fresh coffee, too, though. Since I know some people prefer to be caffeinated all day.

Quote by Cora

Thank you for making me laugh, as you often do. You have quite a humorous side to you, Mendalla. 🤭

I wish I could capture that more in my stories. There's a couple on (censored) that go there but I always seem to end up writing fairly seriously here. Not sure why I find it easy to drop an off-the-cuff quip like that but not to incorporate them into my stories. Part of me wants to be Mark Twain but my Stephen King and J. R. R. Tolkien sides seem to keep winning (though King can be pretty funny at times, really).

Act now, don't just think.

I'm sure you could somehow make the Mets fit this comp theme. I mean people think they're a baseball team, right? 🤣

Quote by Cora
Technically this is a miniseries but I very much like the work of Hans Zimmer. I think most of his work is done with war movies, i.e. "The Thin Red Line."

He does everything. Hans is like the German John Williams nowadays. He did a lot of the DC superhero movies, a lot of Christopher Nolan's movies (e.g. Interstellar and Inception), the recent Dune I & II. Even did the last Bond movie. And still finds time to tour with his own orchestra performing his works in major concert venues.

Speaking of the last Bond movie, while Zimmer did the score, the theme was by Billie Eilish and her brother Finn O'Connell and it's one of my favourite Eilish songs.

From The Princess Bride:

Love is a beautiful feeling.

Since she was the reason YouTube recommended that in the first place, here's Laufey herself with the NSO doing her hit, "From The Start". I think it's no secret I adore this young up-and-coming multitalented performer.

And from a recent appearance at Kennedy Center with the National Symphony, Jacob teams up with Icelandic jazz singer-songwriter Laufey and English singer-songwriter dodie for an amazing performance of "Wild Mountain Thyme" that includes some of his trademark audience singing.

I have known of Jacob Collier for a while and have seen videos of his rather unique audience interactions. But this may be the first song of his that I have listened to and it's a beauty. With the brilliant folk-country mandolinist Chris Thile and Madison Cunningham along for the ride, this is just wonderful.

Back aches after lifting things.

Vent - Went

Hey, I gave you an "out", right? 😉

The banner says $150 and your post and the comp page say $100. Or is that a joke about the comp theme?😁

This is a terrific theme. My brain is stewing over it already.

And it's timely. I need some focus for my writing. I am way overdue for a new story here and maybe this will get my head into a space where I can get one out.

Quote by Molly

Look above your post. I beat you to it.

Sneaky. Posting while I was typing. That's hardly fair.🤣

Good morning! Anyone else notice there's a comp banner up on the front page? No announcement post yet but it's there and links to a comp page. Awaiting Molly's official announcement before I say more.

Putting on some Tobermory Flowerpot Island coffee. Teas are Red Rose and Cream of Earl Grey.

Quote by verbal
Gonna start Fallout tonight.

Have you played any of the games? I hear the series is fantastic but I'm always wary of videogame adaptations for games I know little to nothing about. Which means I'm still waiting for that epic Space Invaders premium TV series. 😀

Quote by Cora
My eye isn't fully healed but I'm near close to full recovery.

Glad to hear. Take it easy and get thyself well.

I've had dizziness. The classic is the night I passed out in my son's room. Had just started on BP meds and I guess I wasn't used to having my BP artificially lowered yet. Got dizzy, then fainted.

And in breaking news:

A man in Colorado is apparently being held hostage by his cats. Their demands include his wife's immediate return and a year's supply of catnip.

😋

Hey, hey, good morning, happy day!

That's a new song I'm going to write. Guaranteed hit. It will be done as melodic death metal. 😲

😜

Okay, no. Sounds more like some kind of chipper pop tune or maybe old-fashioned rock and roll (I'm hearing a lively 50s dance tune a la Bill Haley and the Comets there).

We's gots coffee, Kicking Horse 454 Horsepower Dark Roast. And we's gots tea, too. Russian Caravan and Canadian Breakfast. There's hot water for other hot beverage and I've washed and refilled the cold drinks.