Concerts « Kelly A. Harmon

Monday, August 27th, 2012

What’s Your Favorite Candy Bar?

Photo of a Mars Bar Candy Bar by Evan Amos I received an unusual question via email from a co-worker today.

She meant it rhetorically, because she’d asked so many others in the email. But it was fun, so I answered her back.

For your edification, here’s the question:

What’s your favorite candy bar? Ice cream? Cruise ship? Bribery tool? 😉

And the answers are:

Mars Bar – I was so disappointed when they discontinued it in 2002! But, they brought it back a few years ago, so all is well.
Mint Chocolate Chip – I love peppermint!
Royal Caribbean – I need to go check if there are any specials. It’s been a while since I’ve taken a cruise…
Time!! – which is a difficult commodity to grant – although there are many creative ways for you to give me some. Barring that, I can be bribed with Books, CDs of my favorite bands, and concert tix!

So now I turn the question around to you guys:

What’s your favorite candy bar? Ice cream? Cruise ship? Bribery tool?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mars Bar photo by Evan-Amos.

Friday, July 6th, 2012

Writing Prompt – Woof! The Dog Days are Here

Sliced tomatoes - photo from the ARS Image Gallery, USDA It’s not even mid-July and the dog days have arrived. The weatherman predicts triple-digit heat today and even hotter triple-digit heat tomorrow.

Makes me wish I were floating on a raft, catching some rays, reading a really good book.

(To be sure, I’d also be wearing a hat and sunglasses and be slathered from head to toe in sunscreen. I don’t tend to burn, but I don’t want shoe-leather skin by the time I’m 50….) 🙂

What do you think of when someone says dog days of summer?

I think of high school summers: lazy days on the hammock, sunning myself on the deck, crazy corn-field parties at night, loud music, driving with the windows down, dancing.

Here’s Your Prompt:

Write about what you like to do when it’s too hot too move outside. Or, write about hot-summer memories.
Are you completing a character sheet for a work in progress? Write about what your character does/likes/did during long, hot summers.
Write about a summer job.
A prompt just for today, July 6: On July 6 the first picture post card was made. If you could make a postcard, what picture would you put on it? Who would you send it to? What would you say?
The real foundlings, the children of the gutter that are picked up by the police, are the city’s wards. In midwinter, when the poor shiver in their homes, and in the dog-days when the fierce heat and foul air of the tenements smother their babies by thousands, they are found, sometimes three and four in a night, in hallways, in areas and on the doorsteps of the rich, with whose comfort in luxurious homes the wretched mother somehow connects her own misery.
~ From: Waifs of the City’s Slums in How the Other Half Lives, Jacob A. Riis, 1890.
Dog-days of summer word association. Write whatever comes to mind when you hear one or any of the following words or phrases:
- lazy days
- ice cream
- steamed crabs
- street festivals
- swimming
- water balloon fights
- tree houses
- bullfrogs
- home-grown tomatoes
- on the beach
- car washes
- roller coasters
- ice cold watermelon
- open-air concerts
- berries plucked and eaten off the vine
- lightning bugs, fireflies, glow worms, dragonflies, June bugs, Japanese beetles, moths, mosquitoes, chiggers, deer flies, hover flies, see-me-nots, bumble bees, ladybugs
There in the morning, still, while the fierce strange scent comes yet
Stronger, hot and red; till you thirst for the daffodillies
With an anguished, husky thirst that you cannot assuage,
When the daffodillies are dead, and a woman of the dog-days holds you in gage.

~ Epilogue, from Amores. D.H. Lawrence, 1916.
Uses your senses. Choose one sense: sight, smell, touch, sound, or taste…and only write about that:
- The smells of summer
- The sights of summer
- The sounds of summer
- The touch of summer
- The tastes of summer
Let not experience disqualify or excellence impeach him. There is no third term in the case, and the pretense will die with the political dog-days which engendered it.
~ From Roscoe Conkling’s speech nominating Grant for Third Term for President, 1880

Good Luck!

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

M3 Concert Rocked…

Okay, so it’s a bit off-topic for a writerly-type blog, but I’ve got to tell you that the M3 Concert last night rocked. (I won’t be verbose, promise…only about 600 words…)

Don’t like glam or metal? So sorry.

A lot of bands were on the ticket, causing the venue (Merriweather Post Pavilion) to set up a second stage (for the second rate?) acts. The ballot (playing in reverse order) included: Twisted Sister • Ratt • Extreme
Kix • Dokken • Slaughter • Y&T • Gilby Clarke • Keel • Jetboy • L.A. Guns • Jani Lane – Formerly of Warrant • XYZ • BulletBoys • Carmine Appice’s Slamm • and Steel Panther.

M3 was a full-day event, celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Twisted Sister’s album Stay Hungry.

I was soooo into seeing Carmine Appice (one of Rock’s greatest drummers) but I didn’t realize that Slamm!! was a drum band. Three kits, garbage cans, plastic buckets, etc. They were good…but I got bored after about three songs.

Jani Lane (formerly of Warrant) wore eye shadow and liner. Not his usual style. IMHO, he looked like a clown. I was never a huge fan of Warrant, and I just couldn’t get over the creepiness of his eyes. On the other hand, he played something new…and it sounded pretty good.

I missed Y&T. [Rats] Love their music…and have wanted to hear them live for while now….

Never heard of Keel before. (Surprised to learn they’ve been around for 25 years!) They sounded pretty good. Might have to buy their album.

Dokken blew all the young guns away. Don Dokken is what, a grandfather? He claimed to be hung over, but I wouldn’t have guessed it. [Dokken’s been touring in Europe for several months. Don said, “It’s great to be back in the US where there’s some sun…and where I can talk to people. I only speak Californian.”

Extreme. Uh…what the heck were they doing there? These guys were odd-man-out in the genre department as far as I’m concerned…. Not a band I’m fond of. Moving on…

To be fair, Ratt played well. (I never like them.) But definitely too loud in the pavilion (never thought I’d say that about music…)

Dee Snyder of Twisted Sister put on an awesome show, coming out on stage in his glam outfit of yesteryear….definitely not what I expected (after all, every other rocker who performed forswore the hairspray and glitz for this occasion). I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Not familiar with Dee Snyder and his buds from TS? Here he is:

Dee is the one with his mouth wide open.

He quipped on stage: “The people with back stage passes are getting old. [pause] I’m getting old. The bad news is: I look like an aging drag queen. The good news is: I’ve always looked like an aging drag queen.”

All I can say is this: I want to know what brand of cosmetics he sports: he ran around on stage, under the hot lights, for over an hour, and that stuff didn’t run or melt. I want some of that. In more subtle colors.

Despite the almighty greatness of Twisted Sister (not my favorite band, BTW, just the flavor of the day) Kix definitely stole the show. And I’m not saying that because I’m biased. (Kix hails from the Baltimore area – Hagerstown, MD, to be exact) and well, so do I…hail from the area, that is.)

This is Kix:

I think Twisted Sister exuded the same amount of enthusiasm and high energy that Kix did–and their music was tight…but the crowd was more into Kix. I think that kind of vibe contributed to their overall performance. Very symbiotic.

An excellent show all around.

Thanks for listening.

What’s Your Favorite Candy Bar?

Writing Prompt – Woof! The Dog Days are Here

M3 Concert Rocked…

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