Michael Pickell

Song mood: All Star by Smashmouth.
I started naming characters.
Next step write a scene of a party that has the victim and the suspects.  Write the murder scene.  Write a synopsis of what the characters were doing at the time of the murder.  Brainstorm ideas for clues and air tight alibis.Either the victim or the murderer was a bully.  Who has this nature or this belief: it isn’t enough to just win, the other or the oponent must be humiliated.  I haven’t decided which it will be.  It makes more sense for the victim to be the bully as that would give motive.
I didn’t do much this weekend, but drive around.  Getting stamps on my Nebraska passport.  I like it, reminds me of geocaching.  Yesterday I listened to the Thin Man while driving around.  The book and the movie were very similar.  The movie veered a bit to keep within the 90 minutes.  But I liked the way the movie did the story.  The book had a section, basically a short story, that had no relevance to the book what so ever.  The dia…

Song mood: You and Me by Lifehouse.I saw Lifehouse twice.Both small venue, which was odd because they had a song that was on the billboard charts for 55 weeks.I saw them in Fargo, ND and in Aberdeen, SD.But maybe small venues were their thing. Hanging by a Moment is one of my favorite songs of all time, mainly because I love the bass-line.
I finished reading Death on the Nile.  I guessed who was murdered and who did it.  I was a bit off on how it was done.  And had I been paying attention to one small clue, I would have been right on how the events took place.  Anyway.  I dare say sometimes Agatha Christie borders on Hallmark type mysteries.  In this book there were two newly formed couples.
Next up on reading: Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones.  I will be going through my books and making a list of books that I need to read by the end of the year.  In this instance I will be physically placing the books in order.
In my dream this morning, I was hanging out with a friend fr…

Song mood: Manic Monday by the Bangles.This is absolutely the one band I want to see in concert.Which would make me take a trip to California.Not that I would mind, it’s just that California is not nearly as interesting to me now as it was when I was in my twenties.I would rather go to New England.
One of my grade school friends send me texts like: watch Mutha Don’t Want to Go to SchoolToday by Extreme.  And I’m not into hair bands anymore.  When I played guitar, it’s was pure ego fueled by teasing by other guitarists to want to imitate the hair bands.  To be able to play fast scale solos.  If I were to listen to Extreme, I would list to their their album: III Sides to Every Story.  It wasn’t as popular as the first, but they had a symphony orchestra and was much more a masterpiece than anything they did.  I probably listened to that album the most of all their work.I have long realized that it was pure ego that has kept me back as an artist, if that is what I wanted to be.  Ego dictat…

Song mood: Love is Strange by Mickey & Sylvia.
I watched We Have Always Lived in the Castle.  An adaptation of the Shirley Jackson novella by the same name.  I thoroughly enjoyed that movie.  Merricat is a very interesting woman.  I haven’t read the book yet, but I will.  I’ve read The Haunting of Hill House.  We Have Always was perfectly done.  Crispin Glover was phenomenal as Uncle Julian, who has the most interesting line in the whole movie.  The book, is a must read, which will go on my long list of books.  Lots of good actors.
I’m two thirds of the way through Death on the Nile.  I’m probably two thirds of the way through Broken Angels.
Next week, I’ll be able to wear my boots.  The weather will be nice.  Which is why I didn’t want to get a new pair of running shoes.  I can buy the running shoes in spring once it gets warm enough to go running again, if I ever go running again.  I may be content with walking.
Tomorrow will be another day, except that I don’t have to go to work to…

Song mood: Everyone Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears.I would love to see them in concert, if they still do that sort of thing.
So the long weekend is coming up and I don’t know what to do.  Except that I have my Passport Nebraska brochure.  I foresee a trip to Ashland.  I should get some writing done.  We’ll see.
My copy of Night of the Mannequins by Stephen Graham Jones arrived in the mail.  Currently I’m reading Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie.  Seventy pages in and I’m trying to work out who will be murdered.  There’s one obvious character: the rich socialite who is played by Gail Godot in the movie that comes out next month.  When I finish that I will go on to the book that arrived.Currently I’m listening to Broken Angels by Richard Morgan.
Tonight, I came to the conclusion that I need a writing partner.  Someone whom I can bounce ideas off of and someone who can suggest a poem to write.  Instead I look at some poems on twitter and IG.  But then how do you ask someone …