This book is reminding me of why I love the Hip, and Gord Downie in particular, and why my heroes went from being rebels who gave everyone the finger, to nice people who weren’t afraid of hard truths and dark places.
Loudmouth boors be damned.
Give me a soft-spoken purveyor of real things, dark and light, any day.
Target: 1400 words
Written: 1407 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: The Never-Ending Present, Michael Barclay
Comics: Youngblood v6 4-7
Music: Without You I'm Nothing, PlaceboOf just how bad you are at art.
How on another plane artists like Gord Downie, Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Leonard Cohen are.
How other people understand that.
How you’re a fucking peon and a boor, a shitpile no-talent with no future and no gravitas.
But hey, I wrote a book about the monster under the bed, and a guy getting humped by a dog, so there’s that.
Target: 1400 words
Written: 687 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: The Never-Ending Present, Michael Barclay
Comics: Bloodstrike v2 2, Youngblood v6 1-3
Music: Without A Sound, Dinosaur Jr.I do not understand what is happening with this book. I usually read for about an hour or so a day, which moves me usually about fifty to a hundred pages, depending on the depth of the text, font size, readability, how much dialogue the writer is prone to use, etc.
But this book, The Never-Ending Present, is weirdly entirely out of character. I read for an hour, to move maybe four to five percent on the Kindle. It shouldn’t take more than a week max; it’s now been five days and I’m only barely a quarter of the way through.
Not that I care that much, because it’s about the journey and not the target, but I’m definitely not hitting that reading target I set at the beginning of the year. A stretch goal for me was ninety books; I think of the minimum as a book a week. Basically, four to seven days on average per novel.
I may have to amend that if I’m going to read like this from now on.
Still, I’m enjoying it; anything Gord Downie is my spirit animal.
I just don’t understand why the slow pace, despite the effort.
Target: 1400 words
Written: 2345 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: The Never-Ending Present, Michael Barclay
Comics: Youngblood v5 76-78, Bloodstrike v2 1
Music: Within A Mile From Home, Flogging MollyThanks for inviting us.
Oh wait, you didn’t.
Still, it’s cool. I guess.
Enjoy being an old man. The rest of us are only getting younger.
Target: 1400 words
Written: 1457 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: The Never-Ending Present, Michael Barclay
Comics: Bloodstrike 29-30, Youngblood v5 73-74
Music: Wide Awake Bored, Treble ChargersUsually, we do this somewhere southern, but hey, Texas is fucking out.
Hopefully, the best birthday gift will come today, in Trump’s sudden downfall.
Target: 1400 words
Written: 1117 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: The Never-Ending Present, Michael Barclay
Comics: Bloodstrike 27-28, Youngblood v5 71-72
Music: With The Lights Out, NirvanaSeems to be a lot to think about this days.
Hopefully, that whole manifestation thing isn’t legit.
Target: 1400 words
Written: 764 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran
Comics: Youngblood v4 4-7
Music: Wish, The CureI’ll be honest. I grew up on tales of World War II. My grandfather was in the army, although he didn’t talk about it a ton.
He did tell me a story I turned into a book for a project in public school; years later, I’d find it and discover he’d related the Great Escape. He was proud of it though; I believe he was a medic. He still had his uniform folded and pressed in the attic, along with a number of commendations, letters from my grandmother and pictures of him in gear.
I should probably look into that.
Anyway, thanks, Grandad, for either punching Nazis or healing the ones that did, whichever it was.
I’m sorry we’ve let them come back into power. I am ashamed for us.
We will do better, I promise.
At least, I will.
Target: 1400 words
Written: 2203 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
Comics: Youngblood Imperial 1, Youngblood v4 1-3
Music: Winning Days, The VinesI don’t like guns. They’re everyone in movies, television and books, but they have never been a part of my life.
I’ve never fired one. Never even held one.
I haven’t been around one when it went off.
So, it’s hard for me to write about what the effects of such a thing are, how one reacts and all that, when one actually does. Unfortunately, it’s a crucial addition to this book. A late addition, but to really capture the zeitgeist of what it means to be a MAGA archetype, well, you need guns.
Second Amendment bollocks, really.
How fucking dumb are you people? You know if you get rid of the guns, then no one can get shot, right?
Of course, unless you’re an asshole who wants to shoot somebody, which I believe you all are, whether you admit it outwardly or not.
Fuckin’ stupid, man.
Target: 1400 words
Written: 2713 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: Quiet: The Power Of Introverts, Susan Cain
Comics: Spider-Man/Badrock 2, Chapel v3 1, Judgment Day: Alpha 1, Judgment Day: Omega 1
Music: Only The Strong Survive, Bruce SpringsteenAt least, that’s what this scene is screaming at me.
Why is everyone so calm, including the protagonist?
There are bad things happening, terrifying, awful, annoying, dangerous things.
You have my permission to freak out.
I am.
(Also, yay to Democrat gains in the elections; now, we pray there are enough of us to overcome the rigging, or that he doesn’t suspend elections altogether.)
Target: 1400 words
Written: 1340 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: Quiet: The Power Of Introverts, Susan Cain (it's me!)
Comics: Shattered Image 3-4, Youngblood v2 14, Spider-Man/Badrock 1
Music: The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle, Bruce SpringsteenNow, more than ever.
Remember.
When the masks come off, it will be the face of the hopeful that shine, and the face of the condemned that bleed with fear.
Remember.
Target: 1400 words
Written: 1623 words, novel: Bad Neighbours
Read: Quiet: The Power Of Introverts, Susan Cain
Comics: Shattered Image 1-2, X-Force/Youngblood 1, Extremely Youngblood 1
Music: Wild Horses, The Rolling Stones