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Sat, Jun 14, 2025

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Music Notes

by Amethyst Angel 💐

Rated: 13+ · Book · Music · #2313403

A blog about music from my unique perspective (also a spot for some poetry I’ve written)

A blog, generally about music, usually for projects hosted by Jeff

. I may also write about the 48-Hour Media Prompt Challenge if I don't feel like writing a story or poem inspired by the given song. Other bits of poetry or different topics of discussion might end up here as well.

This is the poem which earned my blog its green ribbon, courtesy Brian K Compton

"Renewal"

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Cubby

about 8 hours ago
In response to "Bard's Hall, June 2025, Entry 5"

I love this! And I love the selfie with Eeyore! I hope you leave it there.

My granddaughter also likes Squishmallows. And I love donkeys and so does she. And Eeyore is just a hoot, lol.

What a great read. I enjoyed this very much.

Thank you for sharing another awesome piece of yourself.

1 Like

Sum1

Jun 12, 2025 at 5:49pm
In response to "The Bard's Hall, June 2025, Entry 3"

As I get used to looking at other's blogs, I'm often amused at some of their thoughts. For this entry, part of what you wrote was, One thing I need to keep working on is patience, both here and in real life. I have the disruptive tendency to panic at the beginning of the month, spinning my wheels knocking as many things off my to-do list as quickly as possible, because I'm afraid something terrible will happen and I won't have a chance to do anything anymore.

I look at that in an entirely different way. Doing all that early on is front loading your schedule. What I mean is, getting things done early on so you can relax, or maybe concentrate on what may require more time, more resources. It can also be thought of as being pro-active, not reactive. Both of those are things I try to do on a day-by-day basis.

1 Like

Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ

Jun 12, 2025 at 2:54pm
In response to "The Bard's Hall, June 2025, Entry 3"

That's what Wikipedia says. It's not always dead on accurate either.

1 Like

Amethyst Angel 💐

Jun 12, 2025 at 2:14pm
In response to "The Bard's Hall, June 2025, Entry 3"

Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ

1993

That’s what comes of using Shazam for metadata. I’ve noticed they don’t always get the year of release correct. Thanks!

1 Like

Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ

Jun 12, 2025 at 1:07pm
In response to "The Bard's Hall, June 2025, Entry 3"

You are a very dedicated, super busy person! Good for you keeping up with all those writing contests. I'm just trying to keep up with daily things needing to be done right now. I guess "BARD'S-WITCH Bingo!"

And keeping up with "The Bard's Hall Contest"

blog entries , not to mention crediting "The WDC Angel Army"

is keeping me busy enough so far.

Yes, the songs have a similar voice. Here's what I found:

"Runaway Train" was released in 1993, not 2004, according to Wikipedia. The song "Runaway Trains" by Tom Petty, which is often confused with Soul Asylum's song, is actually an older song.

1 Like

StephBee

Jun 9, 2025 at 5:44pm
In response to "The Bard's Hall, June 2025, Entry 2"

Thanks for sharing so much about how music has made an impression on your life. I think music speaks to our souls on the same vibrational levels our souls are, so certain music appeals to us, if that makes sense.

For me, I'm a big 80's fan. 80's music and the beats resonate with me. Duran Duran the big one from the 80's. I've enjoyed Stevie Nicks songs, mainly from the 70's and 80's. I really liked Dreams.

I believe musicians should be compensated for the work they produce. My husband has the family on an Itunes account which is great because we can listen to what we want and I think it's a fair price. My favorite is listening to live music - I think that's what really made my trips to Catalina Island for the 4th of July so special, is that USC marching band would open the golf cart parade. When I was stationed in Germany I saw several acts live including Madonna, Fleetwood Mac, Guns and Roses and Queenriche. Live music just stirs the soul. When I'm in the car, I like listening to JackFM out here in So Cal.

Back in the late 80's early 90's when I was stationed in Germany it was my mission to build the ultimate stereo set so I'd go to different stores (AAFEES) around the country buying pieces here and there I have a set of Pioneer speakers and Bose speakers that would great and they're over 30-35 years old. I've got a pre-amp, power amp all hooked up to apple device, but I've got a vinyl player, a CD player, and an old cassette player. When I play music through my amps and speakers like that, it still sounds good.

Smiles
Steph

1 Like

Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ

Jun 8, 2025 at 9:20pm
In response to "The Bard's Hall, June 2025, Entry 2"

Music has always played a big part in my life. My mother's side of the family were very musical--played instruments, my mother even played the bass.

In the younger days, I loved going to see my favorites on stage with my friends in Boston. Some pretty memorable times indeed. I got to meet some... got guitar picks and even a drum stick.

Souvenirs of days gone by. Now my hearing is fading on me from all the speakers' amps roaring in my ears.

Cool video!

Thanks for this view of a big part of your world.

Sumojo

Jun 7, 2025 at 2:54am
In response to "The Bard's Hall, June 2025, Entry 1"

Kåre เลียม Enga

Hi Kare, i can’t help but feel concerned when WdC members have cause to be anxious. I can understand it to a degree and do my utmost not to feel obliged/forced/ compelled to enter everything which is offered. WdC can be addictive and we need to understand that. It’s quite refreshing when one decides to have a month off— that is of course not including the Contest Challenge— after all I’ve been doing it for years!

1 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Jun 6, 2025 at 10:00pm
In response to "The Bard's Hall, June 2025, Entry 1"

I feel overwhelmed by contests this month so I'll have to be more careful of deadlines.

1 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Jun 6, 2025 at 9:45pm
In response to "Rude (synopsis inspired by song)"

I'd never heard of the song. Very catchy. Video well done. Simple lyrics; simple song.

I seldom do these challenges because 1. I don't hear about them in time or 2. They don't force me to write and I need to be inspired if there's a deadline. And lastly, 3. I write so much regardless.

June 13, 2025 at 8:05am

#1091393

The Bard's Hall, June 2025, Entry 4

Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ

StephBee

"The Bard's Hall Contest"

Ever since I had a smartphone, I was using Google Docs to stash notes on my dream novel. I had everything in my head that I wanted, and I scribbled down character studies, themes, worldview, plot points, settings, sample scenes, and even goofy little things like a pop song ringtone and make and model of car for each character. I collected stock photos and pictures of actors that looked like my characters. Even the heroine's dog, Barkley, became embodied in a stuffed Wire Fox Terrier. I did everything except write the novel

I was always interested in designing my own book covers, and made myself a bunch of amateur digital collages which were more like concept boards than anything else. In those days the novel was called It Takes Courage.

In 2017, though, my novel obsession was pushed aside by my music obsession. I grew and matured and learned so much about the world, that when I peeked back into my old Google Doc a few years later, I was rather embarrassed at how naive and simplistic I had been.

So the novel returned to its place in my head, where I lived in the ever evolving yet steadily looping world I'd created in a way similar to Peter Pan's Neverland. It was always in the back of my head to write it someday.

One of the fun things I did in 2023, prior to joining WdC, was to install the Novelist app on my brand new Galaxy phone. If I remember correctly, I did so because I had installed Hoopla and read some fiction for the first time in several years, and it had reignited my novel dream.

My attempt at using the app petered out soon enough, but with a fresh look at committing my same old novel ideas once again to words on a screen, I gave it a new title: All My Secrets Away, inspired by the chorus of the 2007 OneRepublic song Secrets.

With the new title came a desire for a new book cover. I realized by now that a square, collage style image wasn't especially professional. This novel rehash was during my AI art obsession, so naturally I turned to Wombo Dream to help me make a cover.

In those days, AI art was generally super primitive, only beginning to rise out of a “primordial slime” of abstract blobs and swirls. I played around with prompts and settled for an approximation of a hand held up, sending off a flock of birds.

As you can see, it was an awfully sloppy image, but I liked the concept and how it related to the revealing of secrets.

So… after WdC, I discovered I didn't really want to write a novel at all. Apparently what I thrive at is short stories. I've spent the past two years honing my writing skills, moving away from my old constantly looping Neverland into a vastly more interesting and mentally healthy space.

Recently, though, it occurred to me that using today's advanced language model AIs, specifically ChatGPT, I would now be able to create a far more professional book cover exactly to my specifications. I could even have it add the title, without needing to bring the image file into a conventional photo editor to add text like in “the old days.”

So that's what I did. The image ChatGPT gave me is precisely what I wanted and what I described to it. The process was simple; the ability to write conversationally instead of in the brusque way the dedicated AI art generators expect is a huge improvement.

So… yeah. Two covers of a novel I will probably never write, but that occupied my headspace for a number of years. It grew with me, matured with me, and when I no longer needed it in my head, it was tucked away into various corners of my Google suite.

Here also, OneRepublic's Secrets

Words: 660.

Comment

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