Day: July 28, 2019

Wanna Know You Better

Fandango23 Comments

922CBCD7-897C-42D2-B067-0DB8570BD7C4Sadje, at Keep It Alive, tagged me for this thing called “Wanna Know You Better,” which is the brainchild of Riya Gupta at World of My Thoughts.

The steps for this challenge are:

  1. Title the blog post as “Wanna know you better.”
  2. Mention Riya’s blog and the one who nominated you. Done and Done.
  3. Copy all the questions and answer them one by one.
  4. You may create your own questions for your targets (it will be fun).
  5. Pass the game as a challenge to any of your favorite bloggers and mention them in your post.

So here we go. First, 10 “briefly explain” questions.

1. What really makes you angry?

Dog owners who don’t pick up their dog’s poop.CCA36FEA-58AA-4C7F-92A6-31BD4B534CC8

2. If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Boring!

3. What is your biggest fear?

That Donald Trump will be re-elected in 2020.54147FD2-891E-4B16-82C5-B2916B727F87

4. What has been your best moment this year?

The surprise birthday party my wife and kids threw for me.

5. If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be?

For my own piece of mind, someplace off the grid, with no internet connection, WiFi, cell service, TV, or radio. Maybe after a year, some degree of sanity will have returned to humanity.

6. How do you relieve stress?

Marijuana-infused gummies. 😱B41F9330-FE63-4A8A-B958-39CFDAEA5B9A

7. Would you rather go to space or to the bottom of the ocean?

If I could go there via virtual reality, either. Otherwise, neither.

8. What’s your favorite season?

Fall.

9. What’s your favorite sports?

Major League Baseball.

Did you like Riya’s blog?

I never read it before today, so I’ll have to let you know.

Now, 10 this or that questions:

What would you prefer?

  • Beach or mountains — Mountains with ocean views.
  • Ice cream or milkshakes — Ice cream. Ben & Jerry’s Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream, to be specific.
  • New York or Paris — Parlez-vous Français?
  • Ugly genius or good looking stupid — Good looking genius.
  • Pizza or Burger — Yes.
  • Summer or Winter — The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.
  • City or Village — I’m an urbanite.
  • Spring or Autumn — Autumn.
  • Mathematics or Science — History.
  • Train or Airplane — Depends upon whether time is of the essence. If not, definitely train.

So I’m going to tag any blogger who wants us to get to know him or her better.

Wild Thing

Fandango8 Comments

528842B1-D4F3-47F7-BE02-94B182329526She was a wild thing, like no other girl I’d ever dated. There’s no doubt about it that she led a wild, wild life, the polar opposite of my rather tame, mundane life. And that’s what attracted me to her. When I was around her, she made my heart sing.

When I was with her we would do things that I never ever thought I would do. Wild things. Sometimes things that were over the top, on the other side of the line, barely legal, and occasionally, just a little illegal.

My friends, those who knew me best, didn’t understand what I saw in her. They thought that I needed to tame her, like an animal trainer might try to tame a lion. But it was the wild, untamed beast in her that drew me to her. My life to that point had been ordered, deliberate, routine, and incredibly boring, and my wild thing was anything but that. She turned my life over on itself, topsy-turvy. And that is what made being with her so exciting, so thrilling.

One day I said to her, “Wild thing, I think I love you, but I need to know for sure.”

She looked at me, tears in her eyes. “If you don’t know for sure, it is not meant to be.” She turned around and walked out of my life.

My friends all said, “We told you so.” They were delighted that I returned to my ordered, deliberate, routine life.

But I miss my wild thing. She moved me.

6FE7EA18-405C-43BB-8D4D-12B5F9453CACWritten for the Music Challenge from Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie. Jim Adams presented us with the Talking Heads’ song, “Wild Wild Life” and then challenged us to focus on that song and use it for inspiration in any form of creative expression that we can share with the writing community. The first thing that came to mind for me was the 1965 song by the Troggs, “Wild Thing,” Written by Chip Taylor, and I based this post on that song. The drawing at the top of this post is by Andrea Hrnjak.

Wild thing
You make my heart sing
You make everything groovy
Wild thing
Wild thing, I think I love you
But I wanna know for sure
Come on and hold me tight
I love you

Wild thing
You make my heart sing
You make everything groovy
Wild thing

Wild thing, I think you move me
But I wanna know for sure
So come on and hold me tight
You move me

Wild thing
You make my heart sing
You make everything groovy
Wild thing
Oh, come on, wild thing
Shake it, shake it, wild thing

Song Lyric Sunday — Movie Time

Fandango14 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has asked us to select a song featured prominently in a movie. Well, for me this was a no brainer. My wife’s all-time favorite movie is “Pretty Woman” with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. And the 1964 Roy Orbison song, “Oh, Pretty Woman,” was eventually the basis for that 1990 film.

Written by Orbison and Bill Dees, “Oh, Pretty Woman” spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1964. The record ultimately sold seven million copies and was ranked the number four song that year.

Orbison was writing with his songwriting partner, Bill Dees, at his house when he told Dees to get started writing by playing anything that came to mind. Orbison’s wife, Claudette, came into the room and said she was going to go into town to buy something. Orbison asked if she needed any money, and Dees cracked, “Pretty woman never needs any money.” Inspired, Orbison started singing, “Pretty woman walking down the street.”

The song tells the story of a man who sees a pretty woman walking by. He yearns for her and wonders if, as beautiful as she is, she might be lonely like he is. At the last minute, she turns back and joins him.

“Oh, Pretty Woman” was Orbison’s last big hit. His career faded fast, but was revived in the ’80s when prominent musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison cited him as an influence and invited him to join various projects. He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and joined The Traveling Wilburys with Dylan, Tom Petty, Harrison, and Jeff Lynne. As he was enjoying this career revival, he died of a heart attack on December 6, 1988 at age 52.

Here are the lyrics to “Oh, Pretty Woman.”

Pretty woman, walkin’ down the street
Pretty woman the kind I like to meet
Pretty woman I don’t believe you, you’re not the truth
No one could look as good as you, mercy

Pretty woman won’t you pardon me
Pretty woman I couldn’t help but see
Pretty woman that you look lovely as can be
Are you lonely just like me

Pretty woman stop awhile
Pretty woman talk awhile
Pretty woman give your smile to me
Pretty woman yeah, yeah, yeah
Pretty woman look my way
Pretty woman say you’ll stay with me
‘Cause I need you, I’ll treat you right
Come with me baby, be mine tonight

Pretty woman don’t walk on by
Pretty woman don’t make me cry
Pretty woman don’t walk away, hey, okay
If that’s the way it must be, okay
I guess I’ll go on home, it’s late
There’ll be tomorrow night, but wait
What do I see?
Is she walkin’ back to me?
Yeah, she’s walkin’ back to me
Oh, oh, pretty woman

FOWC with Fandango — House

Fandango28 Comments

FOWCWelcome to July 28, 2019 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “house.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.