Do you give credit to the blogger who inspired your post?
Yes, I do. If I write a post that is in response to another blogger’s prompt, I always link back the prompt (or prompts) that inspired my response. If inspired by a photo or image that another blogger used, I do the same.
If I’m not responding to a prompt, but to something another blogger posted about that inspires me to create my own post, I will definitely mention the blogger who inspired my post and, if applicable, link back to their post.
I would hope that other bloggers would do the same when responding to one of my prompts or to a post I published that inspired them. It’s common courtesy to do so. And rude not to do so.
We are hosting out-of-town guests this coming week, so my blog time will be limited. I have scheduled my daily FOWC with Fandango prompt and a few other prompts, but in the interest of keeping our guests entertained and engaged, I probably won’t have a whole lot of time to respond to your comments or to read your wonderful posts.
I will do my best to at least read your responses to my prompts this week, but I expect to back at full speed after next weekend
John Steiner, the blogger behind Journeys With Johnbo, has this prompt he calls Cellpic Sunday in which he asks us to post a photo that was taken with a cellphone, tablet, or another mobile device. I thought this might be fun so I decided to join in.
The photo below was taken with my iPhone a few days ago. When I lived in New England, the autumn colors of the falling leaves on the trees were stunning. But where I live now in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of the trees are evergreen. And for those trees that are deciduous, more often than not, the leaves go from green to a dull brown before falling to the ground.
So when I spotted this tree with bright reddish-orange leaves in the backyard of one of my neighbors, I had to feature it this week. It’s a flash of red in a sea of green.
If you wish to participate in this fun cellphone photo prompt, please click on the link to John’s post at the top of my post to see his photo and to read his instructions.
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim is going with a theme suggested by Paula Light of Light Motifs II. The challenge is to find songs from artists who have famous musician parents. I am going with Bonnie Raitt. Bonnie’s father was the celebrated Broadway singer John Raitt (Carousel, Oklahoma!, The Pajama Game). Her mother was the accomplished pianist/singer Marge Goddard. The Bonnie Raitt song I am featuring is “Nick of Time.”
Bonnie Raitt is an American blues singer and guitarist. “Nick of Time” was the third single from her 10th solo album of the same name. The single was released in May 1990 and was a Top 10 Adult Contemporary hit. It also won Raitt a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.
The album, Nick of Time, was a reflection on love and aging after enduring a personal and professional slump. She was dropped from her record label, was shattered by a failed romance, and had become addicted to drugs and alcohol. Fast approaching 40, she decided it was time to turn her life around and got clean and sober — just in the nick of time. Not only did the album revive her career, but it was also her first #1 hit on the Albums chart and earned three Grammy awards, including Album of the Year.
In an interview, Raitt said that the midtempo ballad “came from a part of me that hadn’t yet seen the light of day. I wanted to dig deep and honor the changes in my life. Writing it gave me a sense of confidence and self-awareness that helped me break through some stifling self-doubt. While writing the song, instead of comparing myself to greats like Jackson Browne and Randy Newman and then giving up, I was just writing for myself, as a gift for the miracle that had happened.”
The song title, Raitt said, had a double-edged meaning. ‘Nick,’ as in just in the nick of time, and also the wear and tear of time and the nicks it leaves on the body and the spirit.”
The first verse (“A friend of mine, she cries at night…”) was taken from a conversation she had with a heartbroken friend who was nearing middle age and desperately wanting a baby.
The second verse (“I see my folks, they’re getting old…”) was inspired by observing her elderly father sleeping in the car during a road trip. She recalled, “In his vulnerable state I could see he was getting older and could really feel what it was like for a body to age. This whole idea of time and it being more precious as you age, I realized this would be what I’d write about.”
The third verse (“You came along and showed me…”) pulled Raitt back from the edge of the abyss when love came to the rescue. But, she said, it wasn’t about anyone in particular. “It was about a bigger, more universal love.”
Here are the lyrics to “Nick of Time.”
A friend of mine she cries at night And she calls me on the phone Sees babies everywhere she goes And she wants one of her own She's waited long enough she says And still she can't decide Pretty soon she'll have to choose And it tears her up inside She's scared Scared she'll run out of time
I see my folks, they're getting old And I watch their bodies change I know they see the same in me And it makes us both feel strange No matter how you tell yourself It's what we all go through Those eyes are pretty hard to take When they're staring back at you, oh
Scared to run out of time
When did the choices get so hard? With so much more at stake Life gets mighty precious When there's less of it to waste
Scared to run out of time
Just when I thought I'd had enough And all my tears were shed No promise left unbroken There were no painful words unsaid You came along and showed me How to leave it all behind You opened up my heart again And then much to my surprise
I found love, baby Love in the nick of time (Love in the nick of time)
I found love, darling Love in the nick of time (Love in the nick of time)
I found love, baby Love in the nick of time Ooh ooh ooh ooh yeah baby Oh oh oh found love In the nick of time Thought I'd give it up Give enough babe oh babe
It’s November 6, 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 “hallucinate.”
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.
This, That, and the Other 