State of the TAM - Sept 27
It is windy enough here tonight! I got the dogs out early when it was ONLY piddling down, so they’re happy enough to snooze the night away.
@dublinsfm104Well, Storm Agnes is definitely here… 🤣 #stormagnes #ireland #weather [image error]Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
I have, however, pulled a muscle in my back. It’s fine…unless I pick something up, turn suddenly, bend down, or sit in my normal pretzel position. Also, don’t blame my pretzel posture for my pulled muscle! I did that through sheer athletic excess! To be exact, I bent slightly funny when I went to get the dogs steps out of the back of the car. Then I made a weird noise.
So I’m on painkillers, watching Yellowjackets Season 2 (story was more compelling in season 1, but we get more Misty this season so it events out?), and drinking some soup. …I need to take up an exciting hobby IMMEDIATELY, don’t I?
Until then, I’ll stick to planning out GRL! And if you are going to GRL this is VERY PROBABLY where you can find me.
I would go so far as to say it’s very, very probable. I am just bad at times!
Pupdate of the Week
@tamoorewritesI think Jax and Izzy have gotten too used to these treat balls! #staffiesoftiktok #enrichmentfordogs #cutenessoverload #treatballs [image error]Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
Also Izzy being VERY DIGNIFIED.
@tamoorewritesThe alternate treat balls are confuzzling Izzy. [image error]Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserShout Out of the Week
Happy release day to R.L. Merrill!
From the author of Foreword Indies Finalist Summer of Hush and BookLife Prize Quarterfinalist Brains and Brawn comes a new installment in the series, a contemporary gay romance with a side of time travel and magic.
Musical prodigy Kallos Alexandrou has played his calliope for countless visitors at Errante Ame’s Carnival of Mysteries, but his one-year residency has come to an end. Scars from a terrible tragedy in his past are the only explanation he has for his loss of speech and memory, but it’s time to move on, so when a music festival sets up next to the carnival, Mr. Ame sends him off with identification, a bottomless billfold, and a set of new clothes. Outside the carnival’s perimeter, Kal finds himself in an unfamiliar world surrounded by strange instruments and vibrant people like nothing he’s ever seen.
Ryan Wells is the troubled and celebrated lead singer of the metal band Backdrop Silhouette. He’s brought more than his share of baggage on the last cross-country Warped Tour, including harsh restrictions placed on him by his parole officer and the band’s label, but it’s the treatment from his bandmates that have him feeling unsettled. After a tough morning, he spots a strange young man playing carnival music on a keyboard backstage, and the sound takes him back to a particularly vulnerable time in his youth. Intrigued, Ryan asks the young man’s name, but he flees only to appear later as a replacement stagehand for the tour.
An invitation from the band Hush to ride on their bus gives Ryan and Kal a welcome distraction. They find the camaraderie and support they’ve both been craving…as well as a little magic and a fresh new romance. But personal secrets and the music business make relationships difficult to maintain, and when the tour ends, Ryan and Kal will have to make a choice: move forward together on an uncertain path, or let fear keep them from trusting that sometimes you really can have everything you desire.
Art work/Mural on side of building in Ballymoney.
Relating to Ballymoney’s former nickname “cowtown”
Check out Beautiful Northern Ireland for more…
Must Read of the WeekCome for the mass, stay for the curses. Never say the Irish can’t multi-task!
The Quest to Pick Up the Lost Lifting Stones of IrelandA strongman is on a mission to uncover and lift these forgotten tests of strength.
Photographs: David Keohan, Getty Images; Collage: Gabe Conte
For centuries, Ireland’s stones were more than just a feature of the rugged landscape: The ability to pick them up off of the ground had deep practical and spiritual meaning. Lifting stones were used in tests of manhood (and, in a few cases, womanhood), hoisted at funerals to honor the dead, carried at weddings in celebration of the couple, and used to determine whether a man was strong enough to earn work as a farmhand. But in the 18th and 19th centuries, during British colonization, the practice largely vanished. Most of the stones remained untouched where they were last lifted.
This is how the man they call Indiana Stones came to be standing in the middle of a churchyard 60 miles north of Dublin, bale hook in one hand, crowbar in the other. He notices that something immediately feels wrong about this place: It’s too new, too pristine. If he’s going to find––and attempt to lift––a 400-year-old rock once stood upon during secret Catholic mass gatherings, and used to invoke curses upon one’s neighbors, it’s not going to be here.
I still don’t know what happened there. Mass madness! Chaos! Sheer disregard for the laws of man and Tescos.
@tamoorewrites @tamoorewrites ♬ original sound - tamoorewrites [image error]Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
