ALICE NINE. have kicked off their nationwide tour and so far it sounds like they’ve been putting on incredible shows, even better than the ones I was able to attend last November. I’m so happy to know that they’re giving every performance their all leading up to 9/3 and enjoying the hell out of it in the process… meanwhile, Saga’s getting back into collecting Gunpura figures (my heart!), Arsenal’s still doing amazing and holding their own in the Premier League (great motivation for Saga, surely) and Hiroto started a coordinated, daily effort to get アリス九號.’s name trending, and it’s worked two days in a row so far! The best part about that effort is, all we have to do to keep the trend up is tweet just once a day, together, about the thing we all love: アリス九號. I love Show’s insistence on savouring each and every live as well — both in his note interview, and in this tweet:
Exhausting though they are, I’m glad lives are as much of a refuge and a pleasure for the members as they have always been for me as a fan attending — not to mention them being a sandbox for each song to grow during the performances.
It was magic.
It is magic.
A technician showed up at the apartment incredibly early yesterday morning (an hour earlier than I’d been expecting) in order to switch me to a new internet service provider, and even though Scout was giving me an expression of trepidation, he came right up to the technician as he was taking off his boots. That’s how Scout is — brave, and unwilling to let me face a dangerous or new situation alone. He’s such a good boy. What was particularly interesting, though, was that when people I know personally have come over, Scout has gone right up to them and sniffed their hands or rubbed against their legs, but he must have sensed that I considered the technician a stranger (albeit a friendly one) because Scout kept a polite distance from him the whole time, just as I did.
Later in the day I went out to meet up with the Ottawa Writers Circle for a casual in-person event, and despite my initial reticence at de-hermitting myself on a weekend (oh, the horror!), it was a great experience. I picked up several interesting ideas for new avenues to explore in terms of writing (mainly: narrative VR), and more importantly, I got to listen to elevator pitches, pain points, and the thought processes behind the works my fellows are currently writing (or had recently finished writing) which was both inspiring and motivating. I’d give all of their stuff a read. There was a ridiculous amount of imagination crammed into the seats at that pub.
Also reassuring (yet nerve-wracking) was the experience of giving my own elevator pitch and trying to describe the ever-weird TE novella, as I hadn’t really been discussing it with anyone in person up to this point (…does my therapist count?). I did post a somewhat snarky 1-star faux-review on the discord channel as part of one of our question of the day prompts though:
Too many random poetry interstitials. Author keeps trying to engage you in conversation yet constantly interrupts. Do not go into this acid trip of a forest.
Now I just need to word it in a less snarky, earnest manner and I’ll be good to go.
It was refreshing to be among like-minded writers.
An altogether good afternoon.