E.R. Torre's Blog, page 18

The New 2021 Novel Update #7

Two days ago, on Thursday the 2nd of September, I finished the read-through and red-ink revision of Draft #3 of my 2021 Novel (no spoilers yet regarding its title) and begun typing those changes/revisions into the computer.

I’m very happy with the book but, given the events that have happened to me, there’s a great melancholy to reading through the book. There are things that occur in it which… I dunno. It’s almost like when I started this book and finished up the first draft and as I worked through the second draft I had -unknowingly- a premonition of the things that would happen to me.

Mind you, I don’t believe in psychics, I don’t believe in most of that supernatural stuff, but I have read studies I don’t entirely comprehend regarding the nature of time and there are some who feel it isn’t quite the linear process we tend to feel it is.

Do we sometimes get a hint of things to come? Can the future affect our present?

Again, based on some of the stuff I wrote I wonder.

Regardless, I’ll soldier on. I truly hope to finish up this book and release it by later this year or, at worst, early next.

It’s another good one, if I do say so myself.

THE NEW 2021 NOVEL UPDATE #7

Two days ago, on Thursday the 2nd of September, I finished the read-through and red-ink revision of Draft #3 of my 2021 Novel (no spoilers yet regarding its title).

I’m very happy with the book but, given the events that have happened to me, there’s a great melancholy to reading through the book. There are things that occur in it which… I dunno. It’s almost like when I started this book and finished up the first draft and got through the second draft I had a premonition of the things that would happen to me.

Mind you, I don’t believe in psychics, I don’t believe in most of that supernatural stuff, but I have read studies I don’t entirely comprehend regarding the nature of time and there are some who feel it isn’t quite the linear process we tend to feel it is.

Does we sometimes get a hint of things to come? Can the future affect our present?

Again, based on some of the stuff I wrote I wonder.

Regardless, I’ll soldier on. I truly hope to finish up this book and release it by later this year or, at worst, early next.

It’s another good one, if I do say so myself.

The 10 Worst Songs By Great Artists…

…at least according to faroutmagazine.com:

The 10 Worst Songs By Great Artists

As with many such lists, one has to take it with a grain of salt… after all, opinions about artistic works, whether they be music, movies, TV shows, books, etc. are just that: Opinions.

I have to admit, I’m strongly familiar with only two of the songs listed while I have heard, but haven’t felt much one way or the other, about a few of the others.

As a HUGE The Beatles and David Bowie fan, of course I’m quite aware of The Beatles’ Revolution 9 and Bowie’s The Laughing Gnome.

The former was presented on The Beatles’ White Album, another of the spectacular later day albums The Beatles released before ultimately breaking up, and truthfully I can’t argue with this as being perhaps the worst song The Beatles released.

Revolution 9 is artistic noise, a collage of sound that for me, anyway, means little. Having said that, I’ve listened to it a few times and while it isn’t my cup of tea, I can’t say its completely without merit. It just doesn’t work for me and, if push comes to shove, as I said above, I’d agree this is probably the worst “official” The Beatles release.

As for David Bowie’s The Laughing Gnome…

The fact of the matter is that David Bowie’s career followed a slow trajectory up. He produced quite a bit of stuff before finally getting his act together. The Laughing Gnome IMHO is an inoffensive, silly little song that means nothing one way or the other and was a product of a young artist who still didn’t have his course set.

How can one view that as his “worst” work?

Indeed, I’d be far harsher with any “bad” songs released post Space Oddity, when David Bowie was clearly a lot more confident of his musical skills and might have released here and there a song which doesn’t measure up to his usual levels of brilliance.

For example, and while I don’t necessarily view it as his worst, the song Too Dizzy released on what David Bowie himself considered his worst album, 1987’s Never Let Me Down, was stricken from future re-releases of the album on Bowie’s insistence. He apparently hated the song that much!

So, perhaps, we can look upon this instead of The Laughing Gnome as Bowie’s worst… at least when it comes to the artist’s own opinion!

Marc Bernier…

The above name is unfamiliar to you?

Mr Bernier has the dubious distinction of being the third conservative anti-vaccination radio host to die from COVID-19.

You can read about him -and the other two hosts- who passed away in this article by Daniel Politi and presented on Slate.com:

Marc Bernier becomes the third Anti-Vax radio host to die from COVID 19

His death follows the deaths of Phil Valentine of Nashville and Dick Farrel of Florida, both of whom when they were hospitalized with COVID-19 decided that maybe the virus was indeed serious and urged their friends to vaccinate. For both of them, alas, it was too late and the virus took their lives.

However, for Mr. Bernier, it appears his final tweets suggested he remained an Anti-Vaxer even to his death.

I really don’t get it.

You hear about people being so anti-vaccine and anti-mask yet they fall for bullshit “treatments” like hydroxychloroquine and, more recently, ivermectin, a horse de-wormer (!!!!), instead of, you know, getting the free vaccine that has been proven to help against COVID-19.

It’s almost like they know, deep in their souls, that COVID-19 is serious but have so convinced themselves that the liberal media, Fauci, and the CDC, are somehow trying to bamboozle them with the approved vaccines and therefore IF they try anything, damned if they’ll do whatever Fauci or the CDC of FDA recommend… and therefore they go to dubious bullshit artists and stock up on their bullshit drugs and recommendations.

…whew…

Truly makes me wonder when a chunk of society collectively lost their damn minds and are so intensely sure their negative feelings toward such figures is justified they will go the extra mile to somehow “prove” their ideas/notions are right.

Even when it might mean they do so at the risk of their very own lives.

Hurricane Ida…

Really hard to look at the news and the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, which slammed into the Louisiana coast yesterday.

CNN has a block of news devoted to updates regarding the storm:

Hurricane Ida Live Updates

Each year that passes and I remain living in a hurricane prone area, I scratch my head and wonder why I do so.

To those who don’t live in such areas, you just don’t know the “joy” of living the summer months watching updates on the tropics and possible systems that develop there.

August in particular is one of the worst months, though September isn’t all that far behind, where one watches and worries about what might happen.

I’ve lived through too many near misses and at least a handful of “direct” hits, including Katrina which passed over our area as a Category 1 Hurricane before exiting into the Gulf of Mexico where it rapidly gained strength and eventually -and devastatingly- hit roughly the same area Ida has now hit.

To say the least, I feel for the people there and extend my sympathy and fervent hope for better days to come.

Coronavirus Diaries 39 & Other Things…

So I just checked my blog entries and was shocked to find its been two weeks since I last posted.

Where the hell has the time gone?

First though: Sorry for the dearth of posts. Given the situation regarding the passing of my parents at Champlain Towers, I’ve spent so much time dealing with the family business while going to lawyers and banks to deal with what my parents left behind.

Truthfully it feels like I’ve not had a chance to properly grieve yet, given how each day is filled to the brim, it seems with things we need to take care of… and what’s to still come.

On top of all this, I’ve tried to find time to keep writing, and hopefully I’ll soon make it through the 2nd draft read through of my new novel.

Concerning COVID, I’ve noticed that more people are taking the virus, and the need to vaccinate, seriously. I suppose the news of the Delta variant has finally made at least some of those who foolishly felt the vaccine was unnecessary or that the virus’ potency was overblown into finally realizing that, yes, you can die from it, regardless of your obnoxiously strongly held political beliefs.

Over the weekend we had another somewhat prominent conservative, this one a radio host, by the name of Phil Valentine, died at the age of 61 and after a month of dealing with COVID. Once he realized how serious the situation was, he reportedly changed his views on the vaccine.

Too late for him, it turned out.

But if you think everyone who has a close brush with death suddenly turns, you’d be wrong.

Newsweek had the story of Maine GOP Representative Chris Johansen attending an anti-vaccination rally days after his wife died from COVID.

Un-freaking-believable.

Even worse, it appears he had COVID -though he seems to now deny it- and may well have given the virus to his late wife.

Anyway, the good news is that vaccination numbers are up, so at least there’s that. We have reached the point where we want as many people as possible vaccinated so that we can head off any new variant of COVID which could potentially render the vaccines irrelevant.

If that should happen, we would quite literally be back to square one.

Needless to say, this would be the absolute worst possible scenario.

Get vaccinated, people. Let’s move forward instead of back.

Coronavirus Diaries 38

Honestly, I thought things would be much better now.

What with vaccines becoming common place and anyone can get one here in the United States, I really would have thought people would be flocking to get vaccinated for COVID 19 and surely the rates of the disease would be dropping by now…

Right?

Alas…

So it turns out that far too many people remain deniers of the virus. I suspect many of these people are the same ones who lose their shit at the idea of wearing -gasp!- a mask… as if that’s some kind of major infringement on their personal liberty.

Give me a fucking break.

Sorry if I’m sounding sour, but I’m getting really sick of this.

You don’t want to deal with Coronavirus anymore? Guess what, there’s a real easy solution:

Get vaccinated.

If you’re one of the brainwashed fools who think vaccines are some kind of liberal plot and that masks don’t really do anything let me offer two bits of advice.

First: Get your head out of your ass (ie, all those idiotic Right Wing bullshit articles out there).

Second, perhaps you should read this article about Dick Farrel, a Right Wing radio host who, like too many of these Right Wing types, had nothing but disdain for Dr. Fauci and felt vaccines and masks were stupid.

You can probably guess what happens next. The following article, presented on theguardian.com, tells us about how…

Rightwing radio host and anti-vaxxer Dick Farrel dies of COVID

Read the article if you want to, but the bottom line is as tragic as it is expected.

The 65 year old Dick Farrel, who had a plethora of wonderfully wrongheaded -and just plain wrong- opinions about COVID, vaccines, and Dr. Fauci, contracted the virus and, once in the hospital, realized his mistake…

…and it was too late.

From the article

(Dick Farrel) reportedly changed his opinion about vaccines after falling ill and later being admitted to hospital before passing away on 4 August aged 65. “He texted me and told me to ‘Get it!’ He told me this virus is no joke and he said, “I wish I had gotten [the vaccine]!”

Get vaccinated, people.

Please.

Markie Post (1950-2021)

This is the type of news that both shocks and depresses me… as if I needed more of that…!

, known best for roles in the TV show Night Court (1984-1992) and The Fall Guy (1982-1985) has passed away at the age of 70 after a three year battle against cancer.

CNN offers a good article/encapsulation of her acting career here.

For me, Markie Post was an actress who I must admit I had a bit of a crush on back in the day. She was an incredibly beautiful woman but her looks weren’t all… she was quite good in Night Court, holding more than her own with the large cast…

As one gets older, one of the very sad things one comes to find is that people who, in your mind, are frozen in time.

For me, Markie Post was one such person, forever young and beautiful. Frankly, it was something of a shock to realize that not only was she 70 (again, in my mind she’s frozen in time to her early 30’s), but that she passed away at that age… nowadays that seems too young.

Good night, Attorney Christine Sullivan.

The New 2021 Novel Update #6

Please forgive me the lag between postings.

Either Thursday or Friday of last week -I can’t remember too well!- I finished the 2nd draft of my new 2021 Novel and I’m very, very happy with it.

It still has a little ways to go before I feel it can be released, perhaps another three or so Drafts, but like my previous novel, Terminus Island, it feels like I’m much further along with the story versus some of my other novels. Those novels, as I mentioned before, required up to 12 Drafts before I felt they were good to go.

I suspect this one might take between 6-8 Drafts, if that many.

Despite all the major stuff my family and I have gone through these past couple of months, I’m cautiously optimistic I may find the time to finish off this book and release it by later this year.

No promises, mind you -I don’t want to curse myself!- but if things work out, it might just happen!

Sketchin’ 106

It’s been, needless to say, a very long month.

Feels like my head has been alternately in the clouds and under the ground.

Time does heal and the pain and confusion are less… though my days seem to be filled with so much to do.

I did manage to carve out a little time to revisit one of my nostalgic favorites. Hope you enjoy it!

Buster Crabbe, the king of the serials and the first man to play both Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers!