PRIORHOUSE INTERVIEW with FRANK ANGLE @Beach Walk Reflections

Hello Readers, I was pleasantly surprised when Frank informed me that his 148th Beach Walk Reflection post was featuring some Priorhouse photography. The theme this week is WEEDS and I invite you to check out Frank’s post HERE. 

My top quotes from Frank’s post: 

1. “Life involves times of being deep in the weeds with troubles and problems. While some may get weeded out because they are unfit, unwanted, or unqualified, there are times when we must plow through the weeds to find a better place.”

2. “I think about how weeds relate to personal life. Everyone has a variety of weeds, thorns, and coarse stems in life – things that grow and crowd more desirable thoughts, traits, and actions. Our minds need to minimize weeds to grow and learn throughout life. I think about how biases, prejudices, and ignorance are weeds in our personal and mental gardens.”

3.  “The bottom line is that weeds make the most of what they have.”

This is also a great time for a mini interview with Frank. And in case you missed it,  last month’s interview featured author Ana Linden (here).

I am sure that many readers already know Frank because he blogged for years at “A Frank Angle“ – and he had a huge following there. This Priorhouse post from 2018 – here– has some of his stats he shared on the 10-year anniversary.  Frank then took a blog break and eventually came back with the idea for the (very popular) Beach Walk Reflections series.

“My wife and I walk a lot during our winter as snowbirds in the south – something we’ve done since 2017. Our southern getaway can be cold, then again, no matter how cold the temperature gets on the beach, it is always warmer than home.

The roots for Beach Walk Reflections dates back to A Frank Angle. My aim here is to share my thoughts hoping to stimulate your thoughts.”

~ Frank Angle (here) 

Frank is also a contributor on the Sorry….Less blog (here) and that leads to the first question.  

PRIORHOUSE: I enjoy the articles on your blog and when featured over at Marc’s place, which is the Sorry…less blog. How often are you a guest writer for Sorry…less blog?

Frank: When I closed “A Frank Angle” – Marc invited me to post on Sorryless whenever I wanted to contribute. Because of the way I’m wired, I always submit a draft to Marc for approval/disapproval. Other than the monthly transitions, we don’t have a set schedule. After all, sometimes I’m spontaneous.  

PRIORHOUSE: Yes, you are spontaneous but you also seem to have consistent structure with your posts and seasonal planning. Today is September 7th, 2022 – and that means there are 115 days left in the year. Do you have any specific goals or plans for the rest of 2022?

Frank: My wife and I love to travel and Covid put a dent into our travel plans. We hope to complete one more trip before the end of the year. We simply hope we are able to go, so I’m not saying where.  

PRIORHOUSE: Out of all the beach walks you take – what is your favorite beach to stroll on?  I like the Emerald Coast in Florida’s panhandle. They have that clear, green water and white sand. So Destin, FL is a top walking beach for us.

Frank: Because the world has many great beaches, here’s the type of beach that I like. The beach at the waterline should be easy to walk: relatively flat with fine sand that is packed into a seemingly solid surface. I don’t like sinking. There are many wonderful beaches on the entire Panhandle region of the gulf. 

PRIORHOUSE: I was pleasantly surprised to open your email, Frank, noting that the Priorhouse photos were going to be featured in the beach Walk Reflections post.  I was starting my day with a cup of coffee and so I was wondering what beverage you start the day with – do you have Coffee? Tea? Water?

Frank: My preferred morning drink is orange juice. Coffee is not my everyday thing, but I will occasionally have coffee when I’m out. Tea is good in the afternoon or the evening. 

PRIORHOUSE: After our recent email exchange, our family watched the start to Amazon Prime’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (2022) series. Are you a fan of Tolkien’s Hobbit or Lord of the Rings?

Frank: I am not really a Lord of the Rings fan. I saw the first movie, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), but because I did not read the book, the movie was just okay.  Are you enjoying the current Amazon series? 

PRIORHOUSE: No, I did NOT enjoy the start to the Prime Video series. I actually had to stop watching because the writing was so shallow and it was not in the credence with Tolkien’s essence. My advice to the folks at Amazon is to spend more money on a team of writers and in that team, include some literature experts. It will be money well spent!
If Prime Video is going to spend so much money on filming a series (location, costumes, makeup, music, editing, etc.) then they should invest more money into the basic writing and script development. This seems to be a common problem with a lot of Amazon Originals (IMO) – where many of their shows have below average writing with sophomoric details. Or their shows start strong and then fizzle into flat stories. Sometimes the acting is flat as well – but the studio really needs to hire literature experts who can contribute to advanced story development.  Because the current series is set thousands of years before the events of Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, they need to have literature experts offer important insight and information for story alignment, plot layers, and enriched character development. 

PRIORHOUSE: Okay Frank, Let’s end this mini interview with some music. What do you prefer for easy listening or relaxing?

Frank: My taste in music is very wide, so my choice is whatever comes to mind. I like instrumentals, so sometimes it’s New Age or classical. Other times it’s some of my favorite ballroom dance music, which isn’t orchestral! It may be classic rock, collections of our favorite songs we hear at the beach, or even an Argentina Tango station on Pandora.

PRIORHOUSE: The pandora tango station sounds interesting – and I found this Argentinian Tango instrumental on YouTube: 

PRIORHOUSE: Thanks for your time Frank. This mini-interview was fun.

Frank: It was my pleasure.

PRIORHOUSE:  Oh and Frank did NOT mention Marijuana, which many folks think of with the word  “weed” (and he sure didn’t need to “roll” that into his post because it was quite complete) – but I thought I would close with a photo of some resin art I saw at an art booth last week. 

This was the bottom of a tray and a lady named Jody bought it for $25.00

Closing reminder to readers –

Please check out Frank’s post – he has done a great job exploring weeds – how we view them, how we manage and remove/use them – how weeds adapt and grow, how not all weeds are bad, and then some of his thoughts offered life metaphors. Like the two quotes mentioned at the start of this post: “There are times when we must plow through the weeds to find a better place.” and “The bottom line is that weeds make the most of what they have.” We humans often need to plow through to reach a better place and the plowing can give us a better appreciation – and then we also can make the most of what we have – because contentment is learned. 

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