Get ready for one of the most beautiful nights of the summer—not because of the weather, but because the Perseid meteor shower will be lighting up the sky this evening. And it’s arriving alongside a waning gibbous moon, just a few days past full, glowing bright for all to see.
If your skies are clear, you’ll have a perfect view of both the moon’s silver glow and the streaks of meteors tracing across the darkness. The Perseids are known for their magic—quick, bright flashes that vanish as suddenly as they appear.
It’s the perfect excuse to grab the hand of someone you love, spread a blanket on the grass, and lie back beneath the vast summer sky. The season is fleeting, and nights like this are rare. Step outside, breathe in the warm air, and let the meteors remind you that beauty often lasts only a moment—so don’t miss it.
It’s our annual tradition.. the panic mode has set in. We are on the ‘other side’ of summer.. the day are slowly shortening *(for now) .. and soon the heat we complain about will be filled with the smell of bus fumes and autumn air… The summer of 2025: No secrets during this nightmare..
The Summer of No Secrets
There’s something about the middle of summer that feels like a mirage. It’s hot, humid, sun-drenched.. But then you look at the calendar and realize: We are already on the way down. The days are getting shorter. The lightning bugs have peaked.. If you were lucky enough to see them. The school supply aisle is back. Halloween decor is back–that one we are ok with.
It always happens fast, but this year feels different. More abrupt. More exposed. Maybe it’s because, like everything else, even the season feels under surveillance.
Take the pop culture moment of the week: A CEO from Astronomer was forced to resign after he was caught on the kiss cam at a Coldplay concert snuggling with employee. Their spouses were undoubtedly as shocked as they were..
You’d think that would be the most wholesome thing to happen all year. But the clip went viral, and suddenly what may have been a private scandalous moment was up for public ridicule and attention.
And isn’t that the strange paradox of our time? Summer is supposed to be the season of lightness. Of youthful mistakes, of beach trips where no one cares what time it is. It’s the season of secrets. Of whispered confessions under fireworks. This is not a post to make excuses for them.. fate catches up. But in the ‘old days’ this was not a regular experience.
But now there are cameras. Everywhere. The joy is still there—just filtered through 4K resolution and comment sections. And sometimes the joy goes away when you realize others may be looking.
Beyond humans, it is fate itself that seems to view all. There’s a certain seemingly-paranormal eye that always watches, right?
Think about this: whenever you’ve done something in life that was a little mischievous or devious, you got caught. Maybe not at first.. it could take a few weeks. But something would happen where eventually the truth came out. Like Stephen King says—everything is eventual. Or it is just that there is really is no such thing as a secret that doesn’t eventually surface.
The CEO’s secret didn’t just come out, it became a meme. A supernova megatronic meme. You’ve probably already seen it, maybe even laughed at it. Your feed might be flooded right now with every possible variation of his shocked face photoshopped next to horror icons, sitcom stills, or surreal internet in-jokes. It’s funny. It’s wild and overexposed. And behind the laughter, there’s a real human moment—awkward, intimate, maybe painful—that’s now everyone’s punchline.
It feels like every summer now has its sacrificial billionaire. One year it’s a doomed submersible. Another, a PR disaster or a fall from grace. This year? A concert and a kiss. Comparatively tame, but just as culturally ravenous a feeding frenzy we have had in quite a while. If you’re rich in the summer of 2025, tread lightly. July heat won’t save you from the internet’s fire.
Since this is The Horror Report, we’d be remiss not to share one of the standout memes: Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ..
The truth hiding beneath the meme is darker: cameras are everywhere. Secrets are nowhere. The second you leave your house, you’re probably on film. And depending on how you feel about smart tech, you might not even be safe in your own living room.
So here we are…mid-July, drenched in sun and surveillance. Summer used to be a time for disappearing into the moment. Now it feels like we’re all starring in some strange documentary we never agreed to be in.
Here’s to the few moments that still belong just to us. If they exist.
For the sake of history, we will re-broadcast what we wrote in 2002 on the HORROR REPORT .. IT is strange, so many summers ago now, ancient history .. but I remember the feeling when I wrote this post. It was very late at night.. I think in that point in my youth I was drinking BUD ICE (remember that? ) .. and I was listening to classical music loudly when I wrote this stream of midsummer consciousness .. a rerun presented to you in 2025, the year of our lord:
March on, march on! Triumphant. Let the music roll The bombs bursting in the air of the hateful The tide running low and then high, bringing in pond of the ocean on the rivers of the barge The maiden is singing through the window at her bride to be. The widow is singing at the graveyard of her husband that was. The music rolls on. March on, March on! Louder, louder! Swiftly
Suddenly, the perils of the future become apparent. Marching down the aisles of the school and college. The grade school has no boundary, but the high school has pain. The college has promise but the reality has no gain.
The music rolls on. Slower. Triumphant none the less. Chills running down the spines of parents in their seats and in their heavens and hells. MORE. Here they come. Students and gang members and drunks and dug addicts. Ready to march into the uncertainties of life. More and more. MORE come down. More music rolls. They take their seats. Surrounded by God and Satan all on one chair. Chills moving through the bodies of those even without feelings. A hush comes over the crowd…. Crack open a cold one. Light up a hot one. The music says the days are numbered The time is over. It keeps playing. Rewind. Fast Forward, it doesn’t leave your head. Blood flowing, grandmothers growing. All in the night. All at the drop of a hat.
The bottle gone empty. The blunt blunted. The police are here. Students and young adults don’t know where they are because their parents never gave them direction. Their parents never gave them direction because they lost the path. The battles that raged were won by no one and fought by everyone. We are lost. We lost. They lost us, now we can’t even find a war to fight. No one wants to fight a war that is un-winnable
But the march goes on. The beat continues. More and more walk down that aisle for their fateful visit with the hand of time. It gets no easier, does it? IT gets only more painful. The hand extended, the face stony. The music greets them like a violent storm in the night. They need to listen but they dread to hear it. The beat marches on with their feet. Platform and leather soled, their hats and tassels turn. They’re finished.
On with life! On with death! On with hate! And on with crystal meth. It doesn’t get any better, does it? Civil marches and freedoms goodbye. Holy alliances oout the window. Fear and loathing sense their home. Something has gotten into our blood. We are bloodless?
The music rolls on. Coming to a conclusion.; Wind blows and doors slam. What the hell are we even doing this for? We’re dreaming the impossible, nightmare visions of reality in our lives. All this and the march keeps marching, the beat keeps beating.
There is something about hot midsummer nights and fires–it complements that humid air.. it almost cools the aura around you when you swelter in the orange glow..
Tonight, July 5 2024, the fire was enjoyed by Stormy … and the sounds of Richard Syrett reruns of Coast to Coast AM made it even more perfect..
Enjoy these nights. The wonders of autumn and winter come soon. Days are already shortening..
Stay by that fire. Stay warm even when the heat goes away.
It has been hot before.. a review of newspaper headlines from decades past reveal that we have had heat waves in June. but when they happen, and when they happen so early especially, they feel brutal.
They also always remind me of the Frank Miller BATMAN comic, especially this piece of art of a hot and steamy Gotham City baking in a summer heat wave.
The art pictures Gotham’s magnificent twin towers in 97 degree heat.. No relief was on the way. As a matter of fact, later that day the Joker was going to do much more damage on the “David Endochrine Show” …
Heat.. Hot.. hotter..
It is like staring down a barrel of a constant stream of oppressive heat..
Days like today feel like the midnight sun from the Twilight Zone is really happening..
Oppressive is not the word for this. Phoenix is just one of the many locations globally right now dealing with terrible heat and extreme summer conditions. 
I’m sure there’s many places around the globe that are enjoying beautiful sunny beach weather but for the most part, it seems like everyone’s pretty miserable with the summer of 2023 
The temperatures are “very extreme,” said Matt Salerno, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix. “We’re talking 10 degrees above where they normally are.” The city set another heat record on Monday: eight consecutive days in which the overnight temperature never dipped below 90 degrees.
The heat is particularly brutal and inescapable at the sprawling homeless encampment in central Phoenix known as “The Zone.”
There are barely any trees and, this July, people have been suffering second-degree burns after they pass out or fall asleep on the hot asphalt and sidewalks.
There are few sources of running water other than donated bottles and portable wash stations. So a spigot outside a shelter often has a line of people pouring water over their heads and filling up five-gallons jugs to take back to their tents.
— Read on dnyuz.com/2023/07/18/in-phoenix-18-days-of-extreme-heat-with-no-end-in-sight/
The following was originally posted on the HORROR REPORT on July 25, 2002 at 9pm:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0PHWKRFgZ0]
March on, march on!
Triumphant.
Let the music roll
The bombs bursting in the air of the hateful
The tide running low and then high, bringing in pond of the ocean on the rivers of the barge
The maiden is singing through the window at her bride to be.
The widow is singing at the graveyard of her husband that was.
The music rolls on.
March on, March on!
Louder, louder!
Swiftly
Suddenly, the perils of the future become apparent.
Marching down the aisles of the school and college.
The grade school has no boundary, but the high school has pain.
The college has promise but the reality has no gain.
The music rolls on. Slower.
Triumphant none the less.
Chills running down the spines of parents in their seats and in their heavens and hells.
MORE.
Here they come.
Students and gang members and drunks and drug addicts.
Ready to march into the uncertainties of life. More and more.
MORE come down.
More music rolls.
They take their seats.
Surrounded by God and Satan all on one chair.
Chills moving through the bodies of those even without feelings.
A hush comes over the crowd….
Crack open a cold one. Light up a hot one.
The music says the days are numbered
The time is over.
It keeps playing. Rewind. Fast Forward, it doesn’t leave your head.
Blood flowing, grandmothers growing. All in the night. All at the drop of a hat.
The bottle gone empty. The blunt blunted. The police are here.
Students and young adults don’t know where they are because their parents never gave them
direction. Their parents never gave them direction because they lost the path.
The battles that raged were won by no one and fought by everyone. We are lost. We lost. They lost us, now we can’t even find a war to fight.
No one wants to fight a war that is un-winnable
But the march goes on. The beat continues. More and more walk down that aisle for their fateful visit with the hand of time. It gets no easier, does it? IT gets only more painful.
The hand extended, the face stony. The music greets them like a violent storm in the night.
They need to listen but they dread to hear it. The beat marches on with their feet. Platform and leather soled, their hats and tassels turn. They’re finished.
On with life! On with death!
On with hate! And on with crystal meth. It doesn’t get any better, does it? Civil marches and freedoms goodbye. Holy alliances oout the window.
Fear and loathing sense their home. Something has gotten into our blood. We are bloodless?
The music rolls on. Coming to a conclusion.; Wind blows and doors slam.
What the hell are we even doing this for?
We’re dreaming the impossible, nightmare visions of reality in our lives.
All this and the march keeps marching, the beat keeps beating.
It happens this time of year. Every year.. the moment when you’re staring at a beautiful summer sunset only to realize how early it’s leaving us.. how short the days are becoming.
Sure, there’s plenty of heat coming.. Scorching conditions of August, dog days of the month. They will undoubtedly occur.. and when the first burst of cold air comes in it will make us feel alive.
But we’re also be saying goodbye to the summer season.. the months of the year where the great ball of light in the sky makes us feel alive. Amazingly alive.
I have come to love the sun.
When I was younger and less skilled in the game of life, the summer was a dreadful time. I hated the heat, the storms.. the sultry conditions of the night. As I grew older, I began to realize how important this time of year was.. how amazing and life giving the heat can be, even when you’re sweating through T shirts and wiping your brow..
So here it is again.. back to school purchases being made. End of summer clothing sales on racks.. And yes, even Halloween candy slowly starting to rear its head at convenient store counters. Signs of the season..
Signs of the dying season.
Fireflies are still littering the air at dusk in a beautiful serenade to the night. But the lights are dimming. There are less of them now, more darkness .. More crickets .. Sounds of late summer mating.
It will all go by very fast now. Enjoy it.
Enjoy all of it.. every bead of sweat.. every ray of sun.. Every last minute of light before darkness sets in..
Before the cold..
Before the summer ends.
…But this was an amazing, wonderful, and memorable weekend. Not because of anything amazing but simply because it was simple.. Days at the park under blue skies with my son.. No plans, just winging it.. amazing weather .. Good food and fantasy.. All of it was just memorable. And all without a phone. It can happen.
Hope yours out there was just as fine.. The summer season begins. Now if only every day is like these days, I’ll love those days.
