date stamp: 8 p.m. gmt, june 29, 2009

Travel and a hectic production schedule are keeping me away from the blog, leaving little time for me to organize my thoughts, let alone arrange into some sort of eloquence here. No matter. The words and images from this date stamp speak for themselves.

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Manchester, England
GMT
(8 p.m., local time)

It's been a lovely day, the sort of summer's day we don't get every year. And with sunshine comes optimism. So, I was optimistically on my way to date-stamp the curry-mile, that colourful slice of Mumbai in Manchester, when I saw the sign. A sign. Of the times we are living through. On the banks of the river Mersey - yes the river of ferry-crossing-across-fame - (it does pass through the Mancunian Metropolis) - atop the grassy bank, where people should be sitting outside, drinking and chatting, there are instead boarded windows and doors and a littered yard fenced off with wire fencing.

The closed pub, credit crunch symbol of the UK.

— Peter Spencer
Screenwriter

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Toronto, Ontario
Canada
GMT -5
(3 p.m. local time)


Today's date stamp finds me enjoying a dinner at a very unique establishment in the city of Toronto. A Spanish tapas restaurant where there is live 'Flamenco' dancing. Nothing helps digestion better than the pounding of feet on a wooden platform.

— Svet Rouskov
Screenwriter

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New York, New York
United States
GMT - 5
(3 p.m. local time)

This is taken from the fire escape of my office building. I think it's a sort of urban garden for the florist shop, but since I have a terrible sense of direction, I'm not 100% sure. This is the joy of Manhattan - somehow, even in the tiniest of spaces, there's room for an oasis!

— Mrinalini Kamath
Playwright, Filmmaker

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Raleigh, North Carolina
United States
GMT - 5
(3 p.m. local time)

Mondays.

I hate Mondays.

And when I see this sign I know I’m one-third of the way
home with only fifty more miles to go. Seventy-five miles
each way. One-hundred-fifty miles a day. Just to work.

It’s really not so bad though and I do love the drive home.
An opportunity to unwind. An opportunity to think.
To think about writing. To think about my latest screenplay.
To plan my writing Weekend. I work for the weekend. I live for the weekend. But I still hate Mondays.

— Michael Scherer
Screenwriter

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Louisville, Kentucky
United States
GMT - 5
(3 p.m. local time)

My daughter Sarah snapped this picture of friends at Seneca Park, in the late afternoon. She turned 12 today. It was a perfect summer day for a walk, for swinging, for a swim and a cookout. Later, at dusk, the girls caught lightening bugs, roving across narrow lawns on our tree-lined street, into neighbors’ yards, like gamboling nymphs. Ah, youth! And summer nights!

— Jeanne Hammond
Screenwriter

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Westlake Village, California
United States
GMT - 8
(12 p.m. local time)


Yoga done, one load of laundry in the machine, another waiting for a turn in the tumbler. Only noon, and already you've made it into the shower — a personal victory of the summertime variety. Just a few finishing touches now, a sweep of blush, some mascara and gloss, and the rest of the day is yours to do with as you see fit. This is true luxury, this free time, and you're grateful for it.

— Pamela Schott
Author, Screenwriter

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Tikrit, Iraq
GMT + 3
(11 p.m. local time)

This was the view of my world, an hour before the start of 30 June. Dark, quite, not much moon. Alone. Many people, I suspect, fear darkness because of the great unknown. I have come to embrace it, for all the potential it holds. It's fitting, then, that this was my image heading into 30 June.

— Art La Flamme
Blogger/Army Serviceman

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Elsewhere in the world:

Abbey Road

London, England
United Kingdom
GMT
(8 p.m. local time)

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Venice
Grand Canal
Italy

GMT +1
(9 p.m. local time)

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Paris, France
GMT + 1
(9 p.m. local time)