My favourite movie is ‘The Usual Suspects’. Writer Christopher McQuarrie and Director Brian Singer weave an intricately layered crime drama that has stood the test of time since its debut in 1995. Honourable mentions go to the Coen Brothers ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?’, a fantastic retelling of Homer’s Odyssey and ‘Layer Cake’ a British crime drama starring Daniel Craig.
2. Who is you favourite actor and actress?
For my answers to this question, I will stay with the classic definition of gender while acknowledging times are changing.
Favourite Actress: Cate Blanchett. She has received many accolades over the years and is considered one of the best actresses of her generation. I particularly recall her performance in ‘The Shipping News’. Her performance was the highlight of a well-crafted film although not in the Hollywood sense.
Favourite Actor: Kevin Spacey. Separating the man from the work I have to say he is one of the best actors I have seen. His work in the aforementioned ‘The Usual Suspects’ and ‘House of Cards’ is outstanding. I don’t ascribe to cancel culture and the way it’s meted out in today’s world however there are people who the facts show to be reprehensible and I think it is safe to say his work in real life is less impressive.
3. Do you attend or have you ever attended a live theatre production?
I have attended many shows over the many years I’ve walked the planet. My very favourite was ‘Showboat’ which I saw at the formerly named Ford Center for the Performing Arts in North York. (A former borough of the now amalgamated City of Toronto.) The music was sublime and one of the leads had the deepest, most soulful voice I’ve ever heard live. Magical.
4. Have you ever wanted to be an actor/actress?
Not in any serious sense. Certainly not as a career but who hasn’t wondered what it would be like to walk across the stage, silver screen or beam into millions of homes. For those who achieve stardom, it’s a lifestyle those of us mere mortals can’t really begin to fathom. For others in the industry, I’d imagine it is a very tough life.
Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Tuesday, at 9:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States) I will post an image I have captured myself, featured from another blog or plucked from one of the Interweb’s many royalty-free image sites. You as the writer are to use that image as a point of inspiration to craft a masterpiece of fiction in four lines.
The image for this week is a symmetrical perspective shot of a very long corridor receding into the distance. It is painted white with alternating triangle sections and areas open to the surrounding space. The triangle structures dwarf a single person walking in the corridor.
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading the tales you spin. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their masterpieces.
It was only 10:00am, but it felt like midnight. With self-loathing, he replayed every detail. Paralyzed yet conscious as each button released between his fingers, her body twitching as his hand pursed her thigh. Charlie had grown accustomed to the spasms, a side effect of the sedative.
He recalled the first time it happened. Startled, he instinctually pounced, wrapping his hands around the woman’s neck. Letting go after confirming she hadn’t woken and watching the bruises darken through the night. The next morning he could hear gravel in her voice as she fled.
Although I could read the calendar this week my comprehension of how it works is suspect. Truth be told when I got home from work I started watching The Night Agent on Netflix. One in the morning and four binged episodes later with the blog completely on the backburner I crawled into my empty bed and fell fast asleep. So Sunday Digest is a Monday feature this week!
Have you ever started a new job, well new position at the old job and found that a series of predecessors had cocked it up so bad, this is sounding like it belongs on the Monday Peeve, it may take months to recover. So far I’ve found four different filing systems, with parts of each file in different physical and electronic locations. Pieces of files missing or buried in unprotected predecessor emails, or encrypted in a generic mailbox so that I cannot access them. Worse the only way to access the encrypted files is to have the original sender or recipient open it and many of those people have moved on to new jobs and locations. Of course, the encrypted emails should have been decrypted and moved to the corporate cloud where access can be granted outside the encryption process. Apparently, too much effort to click and drag! A week and a half in and I already have staff asking about the status of their requests for which there are no files anywhere or key pieces from their file including personal information is completely missing.
Time for a musical interlude and a chance to breathe, found myself listening to a lot of Glass Animals this week. I love the creativity of this band and one of my faves has to be Space Ghost. Plus the video is one of the most bizarre things I’ve ever seen.
The rest of the world has gone mad, I think. Sure Trump was indicted by the Grand Jury (about effing time) and I saw one of the funniest memes about it. It is nice to see the racist orange man getting his comeuppance even if he gets off in the end one can only hope the stress takes years off of his pitiful existence. My only concern is if they get the legal shit wrong it could boost his run for another term in the White House. A risk that would be catastrophic for America and the free world.
Even more puzzling is Russia taking the lead of the UN Security Council for April. How in the name of God we can let that happen is ridiculous and shows how toothless our governmental and international governance models are broken. I read somewhere that Ukraine is incensed at the notion of the Russian State dictating the agenda at the UN. Do you blame them, as Putin continues to murder innocent civilians and military personnel protecting their homes the rest of the world allows them to dictate proceeding in an international forum that is responsible for keeping the peace between nations. Shit like this further erodes trust in government agencies as the world hurtles toward anarchy.
My Blue Jays (like I own the team) got off to a great start with a win in St. Louis but then dropped the next two. Everyone says it’s early and in baseball terms it is but it was a frustrating opening series for a team projected to make the post-season. Pitching is still a concern that I don’t think the front office has adequately addressed. Here’s hoping next week is better.
Everyone always says end on a positive note. Despite the mess at work and in the world I have to say I’m grateful for all I have and with spring here and warmer weather on the way I am looking forward to getting back outdoors and into the garden.
Now it’s time for the ‘week in review’ portion of this post…
Five Word Weekly Challenge
Ponderings, Paula at Light Motifs tale of forbidden high school romance.
Think, Think, Think… where Sadje takes us into the mind of a student contemplating the weight of work she needs to complete.
Vitamin D | A beach tale written for multiple Fandango #fowc dailies.
Winter’s Last Gasp | It has been a while since I last posted in the photography category on Greg’s blog. I find the camera, like myself, tends to hibernate over the winter. This one was from my phone and was posted for bushboy’s Last on the Card challenge.
Welcome to Five Word Weekly. Each Monday, I will post five random words to Greg’s Blog at 5:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States). Your task is to craft prose or poetry using any or all of the word prompts. How you participate is entirely up to you. Your work(s) can be a single piece, a series of stand-alone projects, or an epic serial. Let the words be the inspiration that takes you wherever your imagination leads.
Here are your prompt words for the week of April 3rd, 2023:
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading what each of you conjures up. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their responses.
This was the last image on my phone for March and I am hoping it is winter’s last gasp for 2023. I guess time will tell.
Image was captured in March 2023 in my neighbourhood, Waterloo, Ontario Equipment: Google Pixel 7 Pro (Rear Camera) Settings: 19mm | 1/110 sec. at ƒ/3.4 | ISO12600. No additional processing. Watermark added via Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop.
Edelman lay on the beach basking in the glow of the midday sun. I watched the suntan oil sizzling on his skin as he explained that skin cancer was a fallacy spread by big pharma and the government. Although unclear on the motive he insisted it was connected to vitamin D production and much more sinister than profits and corporate greed.
The conversation slowly turned from conspiracy to a sales pitch. I’m not certain what he was trying to sell but he insisted that he took care of himself and explained that his vitamin D was silky smooth and creamy like milk.
“Would you like a…”
I was certain he was going to say ‘taste’ but just as the words should have been escaping his lips a couple of spry young punks kicked up sand into his face as they ran past. I wasn’t spared as the spray shot across my mid-rift and into my bikini. As I moved I could feel the grit chaff against the tits.
Edelman was spitting sand (and venom) as he jumped up and took pursuit. He was a hulking man with muscles popping out everywhere and washboard abs that would make Dwayne Johnson swoon. What a marvellous specimen I thought as I stood up. I tugged at the bottom of my bikini top while bouncing up and down. Hundreds of lucky white granules fell to the ground as the related ruckus erupted just up the beach. Those poor lads weren’t going to know what had hit them.
I picked up my towel and headed in the other direction. Sure he may have been a smoke show but thank God I wouldn’t have to hear about vitamin D any longer.
Is there anything more culturally inappropriate than the tomahawk chop? I can’t think of much that makes me cringe more than watching a stadium full of Braves fans do its rendition of a Native war chant while some yahoo with a drum and Aboriginal feathered headdress beats on.
This month Chel’s Terrible Poetry contest asks us to write a terrible poem about cultural appropriation using the triolet form. I have chosen the English iambic tetrameter model. To heck with my French heritage, I say let them eat cake! Now let the terribleness begin…
Aah wah aah wah wah a warriors hum, Back and forth the tomahawk chop. Warpaint, feather headdress, and drum, Aah wah aah wah wah a warriors hum, From what century did you come? Ratta tat tat tat, make it stop! Aah wah aah wah wah a warriors hum, Back and forth the tomahawk chop.
It is the start of another baseball season and I say “go, anyone but Atlanta, go!
Welcome to another edition of T-Shirt Wisdom Wednesday for March 29th, 2023. This hump day feature is exactly what it sounds like. Every other Wednesday (bi-weekly) I will post a graphic that is funny, poignant, witty, honest, crude, toothsome, with bite, or just plain old ridiculous. Some I’ll have plagiarized directly from a chest near you. Others may not have been spotted in the wild but they probably should be out there.
For this one, I have two variations on a theme to celebrate MLB Opening Day on March 30th. Let me know what design you like best.
Design One
Design Two
For those who aren’t baseball geeks, 6-4-3 is how a short to second to first double play is recorded on a baseball scorecard.
Suggestions are always welcome. If you come across something you think is worthy of being pasted across someone’s chest and paraded around publicly jot it down and send me a message. If it makes the cut I will whip up a graphic design template and use it in a future post. Any suggestions used will include a shout-out and link to your blog on the week it posts.
Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Tuesday, at 9:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States) I will post an image I have captured myself, featured from another blog or plucked from one of the Interweb’s many royalty-free image sites. You as the writer are to use that image as a point of inspiration to craft a masterpiece of fiction in four lines.
The image for this week is a person holding a yucca plant to look like spiky hair above the image of a skull on the front of the black t-shirt they is wearing. The subject’s face is hidden behind the plant.
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading the tales you spin. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their masterpieces.
Greg's Blog 