Day: July 3, 2022

Sadje’s Sunday Poser — I’m a Swinger

Fandango6 Comments

For this week’s Sunday Poser, Sadje wants to know…

Do you like being on your own and what’s your favorite place to spend alone time?

I think everyone needs a little alone time every once in a while. And when I need to recharge my batteries on my own, I go outside, weather permitting, to my back deck where I have a swing chair like the one pictured below hanging from my pergola. My backyard has beautiful views, the sounds of a running waterfall and birds chirping, and it’s a great place to relax, unwind, and enjoy the serenity. It’s a beautiful day today — sunny and 66°F — and that’s where I am right now as I compose this.

On those occasions when the weather is not conducive to sit outside, but when I feel the need to be alone, I will go into my home office, which has a sleep sofa in it, and will relax in there. I will do some reading, listen to music, or just shut my eyes and chill out.

Who Won The Week — 07/03/22

Fandango10 Comments

The idea behind Who Won the Week is to give you the opportunity to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.

This week’s Who Won the Week designee should be no surprise to anyone who follows American politics and/or my blog. The winner is Cassidy Hutchinson.

She was a special assistant to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. And on Tuesday, Hutchinson, now 26, distinguished herself as the most powerful witness yet in the House Select Committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. And as one of the most forceful and compelling aides to testify about the former president’s bizarre and violent behavior during his four years in the White House, her compelling testimony blew the roof off the committee’s hearing as she offered a stunning, blow-by-blow account of Trump’s unhinged behavior on the day of the deadly assault on the Capitol.

Hutchinson testified that Trump was warned that his Jan. 6 rallygoers were carrying knives, clubs, brass knuckles, stun guns, and spears fastened onto flagpoles and, outside the perimeter, even AR-15s. But Trump still demanded they be let in to the rally site before the march to the Capitol. “I don’t fucking care that they have weapons,” she quoted Trump as saying. “They’re not here to hurt me.”

So congratulations Cassidy Hutchinson for having the courage to publicly testify before the House Special Committee. She knows she’s going to be raked over the coals by Trump (who has already characterized her as “a total phony” and “a leaker,” and asserted that he hardly knew her) and his Republican sycophants.

What about you? Who (or what) do you think won the week?

If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.

One-To-Three Photo Processing Challenge — July, 2022

Fandango10 Comments

For this monthly prompt from Kate at The Squirrel Chase, the idea is pick a photo you want to play with and process it using three different methods. The photo I’m featuring today is a child’s rock climbing wall on a wooden swing set we have in our backyard for our grandchildren to play on.

All processed photos were made using apps available for the iPhone or iPad at Apple’s App Store. Also, all images, including the original, were resized (shrunk) to make them quicker to load (and to take up less space in my WordPress media folder).

The original photo
Processed using the Prisma app
Processed using the Glazed app
Processed using the Sketch Master app

Which image do you like best?

Song Lyric Sunday — Looking Glass

Fandango15 Comments

I’m substituting for Jim Adams for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday. But Jim selected this week’s theme based upon a suggestion from Amy (aka E.M. Kingston) to focus on One-Hit Wonders, where an artist or a group had a song that reached the top without any follow-up successes. Have you ever heard of the group Looking Glass? I thought not. But you might be familiar with their song “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl).”

“Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl)” was a 1972 song by American pop rock band Looking Glass from their debut album, Looking Glass. It was written by Looking Glass lead guitarist and co-vocalist Elliot Lurie. The single reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and was ranked by Billboard as the number 12 song for 1972.

“Brandy” was based on the name of Lurie’s high school sweetheart, Randy. It tells the story of a musician torn between his love for a life at sea and his love for a barmaid in a busy seaport harbor town that serves “a hundred ships a day.” Though lonely sailors flirt with her, she pines for one who has long since left her because he claimed his life, his love, and his lady, was “the sea.”

Looking Glass never came close to matching the success of “Brandy,” and by 1973, Lurie had left the group for a solo career.

Here are the lyrics to “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl).

There's a port on a western bay
And it serves a hundred ships a day
Lonely sailors pass the time away
And talk about their homes

And there's a girl in this harbor town
And she works layin' whiskey down
They say, Brandy, fetch another round
She serves them whiskey and wine

The sailors say: "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl)
"What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl)
"Yeah, your eyes could steal a sailor from the sea"

Brandy wears a braided chain
Made of finest silver from the North of Spain
A locket that bears the name
Of the man that Brandy loved

He came on a summer's day
Bringin' gifts from far away
But he made it clear he couldn't stay
No harbor was his home

The sailors say: "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl)
"What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl)
"But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea"

Yeah, Brandy used to watch his eyes
When he told his sailor stories
She could feel the ocean fall and rise
She saw its ragin' glory
But he had always told the truth, Lord, he was an honest man
And Brandy does her best to understand

At night when the bars close down
Brandy walks through a silent town
And loves a man who's not around
She still can hear him say

She hears him say "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl)
"What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl)
"But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea"
It is, yes it is,
He said, "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl)
"What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl)
"But my life, my lover, my lady is the sea"

FOWC with Fandango — Blame

Fandango14 Comments
FOWC

It’s July 3, 2022. Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “blame.”

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. Please 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. Show them some love.