HEAT

“The Godfather 2” features two remarkable actors, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, in the same film.  Regrettably they do not share screen time, as Pacino plays Michael Corleone developing his Mafia empire, while De Niro plays his father, Vito Corleone – more famously portrayed as an older man in the first movie by Marlon Brando – as a young man, ages before Michael was born.  Undoubtedly, though, both actors do a stellar job at portraying tough guys.

So I’m surprised this movie, Heat (1995), doesn’t get more attention.   De Niro plays tough criminal Neil McCauley, head of a gang of bank robbers including Val Kilmer and Tom Sizeless.   Pacino plays Vincent Hanna, LAPD, and the two are inherently at odds with each other.  This doesn’t stop them from a face to face meeting for coffee.  As they cannot resolve their differences amicably, inevitably the showdown we’ve been waiting for is on the way – at LAX.

In addition to the big two, plus Kilmer, the film also features Jon Voight, Dennis Haysbert, Natalie Portman, Hank Azaria (not playing a Simpsons character or Gargamel), Danny Trejo (“MACHETE!”), Henry Rollins, and Jeremy Piven. 

Needless to say there’s plenty of the delicious violence – err, “action” – all us testicle-equipped moviegoers love to see, with a minimum of touchy-feely nonsense the ovary-equipped moviegoers insist upon.  Hell, in that regard I’d put it ahead of “Reservoir Dogs” (in any case I prefer “Pulp Fiction” as Tarantino’s films go).  But for a romantic evening, it’s hard to beat this film.   Knock yourselves out.

Dark Animals

Recently I watched “Watership Down”, which has been around since 1978 and for whatever reason I never got around to watching it until now.  This is blog #666, but I have no special fascination with the number or anything else associated with it, so this discussion of darker animals will have to suffice.  Yes, I know this has no relevance to the upcoming Winter Solstice holiday, Saturnalia. 

Charlotte’s Web.   Book written in 1952 by E.B. White, most famous animated adaptation 1973.  Nominally this is an uplifting story about a pig, a spider, and other farm animals.  There’s even a rat, who provides the suitable dose of cynicism we can expect from such an animal and keeps this from being too nice and sweet.  Debbie Reynolds – Carrie Fisher’s mom and the star of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” – voices Charlotte, while Paul Lynde, the center square on “Hollywood Squares”, famously cynical, voices Templeton the rat.  While Wilbur escapes the Pork Chop Block, Charlotte herself doesn’t survive the story, but her children – thousands of spiders – will hopefully continue her legacy.  I don’t recall seeing Mr. Spider enter the equation at any point to make Charlotte’s pregnancy occur, but maybe I forgot something. 

Watership Down.   Everything I heard about this was always “whoa, dark!  Not for kids” etc.  I didn’t find it particularly cynical, but here’s the story.  The book was written by Richard Adams in 1972, the most famous animated adaptation dates from 1978.  Jon Hurt was the only voice I recognized. 

A bunch of rabbits live in one warren (rabbit complex).  One of them, Fiver, gets all these visions which predict something bad will happen.  Enough rabbits take him seriously to leave and try to find a new place to live.  Along the way they find a goose with an injured wing; in exchange for helping him restore his health, the goose acts as their aerial reconnaissance once he recovers. 

When they arrive at their desired destination, atop a hill, they find a competing warren run by some total asshole old rabbit.   It doesn’t help that apparently 100% of those rabbits who came here were male, and need female rabbits to continue the warren.  They find some “Does” at a farm, defended by a dog on a chain and a nasty cat, as well as some in the police state warren.

Eventually there’s a final confrontation.   For all the “darkness” bitched about, the good guys win, although some of the rabbits have to indulge in devious methods to achieve their goals.  The most cynical thing you might observe about this is a tacit acknowledgement that sometimes the good guys have to do things which aren’t entirely kosher in order to win, but since they’re up against thoroughly bad guys, the latter aren’t really in much of a position to complain.  The story contains many made-up words repeated sufficiently that their meaning can be fairly easily ascertained by the context, e.g. “Owsla”, the secret police/military arm of the warren.

  

Having said that, unlike the next installment, I don’t see “Watership Down” as an allegory for human behavior.  It looks more like a straight story about rabbits, period.  To the extent some human stories have some parallels (e.g. Homer’s Odyssey) that looks more like Adams simply used those as a template for this story rather than intending this story to act as an allegory for anything else.   Count it as appropriate for children in grades 7-12.

Animal Farm.  I’ve commented on Orwell on multiple occasions already.  My sixth grade teacher in Paris referred me to this back when we had a presentation on McCarthy, but I couldn’t digest the story with my limited intellect at the time.  I read it later and purchased the animated film on DVD.  My prior comments on this were actually fairly limited, so it looks like a more detailed description and analysis is appropriate given the current context.  Orwell wrote it during WWII but it couldn’t be published until after the war was over - an obvious critique of Soviet Russia while Hitler still breathes?  Wait a bit....  The most famous animated adaptation dates from 1954, obviously well within the Cold War. 

The animals on the farm overthrow the farmer and establish their own government, run by the pigs, ostensibly for the benefit of all the animals.  Initially the animals are excited and everyone does their part to help rebuild the farm and make it self-sufficient.  Boxer, the horse, naturally does most of the heavy work and the rest of the animals have no choice but to rely upon his brute strength to get things done.  They successfully fight off an attack by farmers to reclaim the farm (farmer with his colleagues worried that their own farms will suffer the same fate) – an excellent analogy to the Russian Civil War.   But the pigs begin dealing with the town banker (capitalist) and begin using the dogs, orphaned in that battle and now grown up under the pigs’ control, as enforcers against the animals themselves (Cheka > NKVD).  Eventually the animals realize that the pigs have simply taken over the role as oppressors and are running the farm for their own benefit, not that of the animals as a collective.  Cue famous addition to the barn-scrawled rules:  ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.

All three stories are worthy in and of themselves, probably suitable for enjoyment by children in increasing age and maturity (Charlotte’s Web >> Watership Down >> Animal Farm).   Perhaps follow this up with Pink Floyd's epic tales of dogs, pigs, and sheep.   :D     

R.I.P. Joel Brigante

My brother recently sent me a picture of a tombstone in Paris, which sadly includes someone I knew:  our old guitar teacher, Joel Brigante, who apparently died in 2001.  He’s buried with his parents, who survived him, in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in northeast Paris, along with Jim Morrison and other famous musicians.  After eulogizing President Bush I, I’ll take the time to do so with Joel.

Sometime in 1980 or so, I tried taking guitar lessons with our school’s science teacher, Mr. McLeavey (sic).  I seem to recall him being a Beatles fan but don’t recall him being into anything heavier.  His first lesson was some strumming technique light years away from AC/DC or Black Sabbath, the type of music I wanted to learn.  Since it appeared that our teacher was not on the same wavelength, I gave up the lessons almost immediately and forgot about playing guitar. [Incidentally our French teacher at the same school, also named Joel, was actually closer to us in musical tastes, having a fondness for heavy metal.]

Fast-forward five years later, to August 1985, and my brother came back from a lesson with a different teacher, and immediately played me the opening riff to Whitesnake’s “Saints & Sinners”.  WHOA.  Mind.  Blown.  Not the whole song, much less the solo, but the riff to a song I actually knew!   I went the next week and learned – to my recollection – “Highway to Hell” by AC/DC, then several Black Sabbath songs.  

This teacher, Joel, with an apartment on the lower east side of Paris (Montgallet was the metro stop), on the fifth floor of a building with no elevator, wouldn’t bore us with music theory or mindless routines, or show the least contempt for the contemporary metal we wanted to learn, even if it appeared miles away from his own preferences, which seemed to be jazz.  He’d patiently listen to the cassette tape we brought, figure out the riff in question by ear, and teach us how to play it.  If we wanted to learn anything more esoteric or theoretical he’d be happy to teach and encourage us, but he was mainly happy to teach us anything.  I’ve lost track of how many songs he taught me, but in addition to AC/DC and Black Sabbath, he also taught us some Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Rush – “2112”.   Somewhere deep in our records might be the blank tablature sheets with metal riffs handwritten, song title at the top in his handwriting, for all those songs he taught us. 

Once I brought him a book of Judas Priest sheet music, focusing on the early stuff – “Dreamer Deceiver” was the song I wanted to learn.  He took a look at it, listened to the music, and told me the two were not the same.  “The band doesn’t bother to reduce their music to sheet music, someone at the publishing company does, and no one bothers to check to see if it’s actually correct.”  Tablature, which is actually designed for guitar, is much easier.  Joel expressed the opinion that for the most part, it’s a waste of time for a guitarist to learn to read sheet music. 

For Christmas in 1985 we received our first electric guitar, an Ibanez Roadstar II in black, essentially one of their earlier Strat copies (three single coil pickups and a tremelo) but still looking like an Ibanez and not a Fender.  I bought a Strat copy – cherry sunburst and maple neck – with my earnings from working at the US Embassy in Paris over the Christmas holiday, making tourist passports and learning about Hawkwind from Bernard, the French guy who ran things.  The following Christmas I got an actual (Japanese made) Fender Stratocaster, black with rosewood fretboard, which eventually led to a US-made Vintage Reissue model (’62) (black with rosewood fretboard) which I traded in for my current Fat Strat (made in Mexico but with a humbucker in the bridge position).  I’m glad to say that the passion which Joel sparked in 1985 has continued to the present day. 

Joel would also purchase guitar effects from the local stores and sell them to us at cost, especially if it was something valuable like MXR Distortion.  He also sold my Strat copy AND my Japanese Fender Stratocaster for me, without taking a commission.

My brother had more interaction with him than I did, actually playing out with him on occasion, for which my father helped as a roadie, carrying equipment up and down those flights of stairs at his apartment.   (This must have been when I was in college and Matt was still in high school).

I recall his own guitar was a Gibson ES Artist, which was an ES335 model with active electronics.  He actually gave me a ton of contemporary Gibson sales materials, from which I learned about the RD and other models.  This put me on my way to accumulating the four Gibsons I have, though none of them are ES or RD models.

To this day, I still play guitar.  We moved away from Paris in 1990 and sadly did not keep in touch with him.  This was before the Internet and email, so you’d have to write or call someone.  If there was a way to speak to him in the Great Beyond, I’d ask him about King Crimson, Frank Zappa, the Grateful Dead, and all the more complex music I’ve gotten into beyond AC/DC and Black Sabbath – though those two bands remain my favorites even to this day.   Above all, to be able to jam with him would be the ultimate.  Who knows what the afterlife has in store for us?  We’ll find out eventually.      

George HW Bush

I tried going to the post office on Wednesday, December 5, 2018, A.D., and found it closed in memory of George HERBERT WALKER Bush, who died the week before.  The next day, because no other former presidents had died, and regrettably the current President was still living and breathing, the post office was open, so I could mail out what I needed mailed out.  So this makes my blog quest a little easier. 

As you all may well know, President #41, George Herbert Walker Bush, the father of George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, died last week.  He was old.  Barbara Bush, his long-faithful spouse, had died last April.  Here are my thoughts.

WWII Pilot.  Navy pilot.  No bone spurs.  One of our last Presidents who actually served in combat.  He served with distinction in the Pacific, was shot down, rescued, and continued flying missions until the end of the war.

Brief review of recent presidents’ military records:

Trump.  Exempt from draft during Vietnam War for medical issues.

Obama.  Too young to serve in Vietnam (born in 1961).

Bush II.  Served in Air Force National Guard during Vietnam, widely seen as a military role unlikely to have him sent overseas.

Clinton.   Somehow avoided inhaling weed in London during Vietnam War.

Bush I.  See above.

Reagan.  Exempted from overseas service in WWII due to poor eyesight, but served in Army doing training films with chimps who were non-communist.

Carter.  Was at the Naval Academy during WWII and in the nuke sub service during Korea. 

Oil Man.  After the war he finished up at Yale, joining both Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) fraternity and Skull & Bones.  He went back to Texas and became an oil millionaire by the early 60s.  Although he apparently had help from his father, Prescott Bush, his natural talent was also considerable and substantial.

Congress.  He served as US Representative for the Seventh District of Texas, which includes Houston, from 1966 to 1970 (two terms).  In that year he ran for Senate but lost to Lloyd Bentsen, the future VP candidate for Dukakis (see below).

CIA Director.  In the 1970s he was director of the CIA.  There’s an SNL sketch in which Garrett Morris’ character, a private citizen, is invoking his prerogative under a FOIA claim to view his file, and the CIA officer, played by Dan Aykroyd, solicits all sorts of incriminating information from him in order to “narrow down” the search in a room hopelessly disorganized.  On the wall are portraits of Gerald Ford (President) and George HW Bush (CIA director at the time).   Though aside from that, I’m not aware that Bush Sr. had any major impact, for the better or worse, on the Agency nor any notorious deeds. 

Vice President.  Ronald Reagan easily beat Jimmy Carter (and Jon Anderson) in 1980, making GHWB the Vice President.   At some point Reagan was incapacitated, possibly due to the John Hinckley shooting, and Bush became acting President.  This prompted all sorts of chuckles, including from Doonesbury (Garry Trudeau, current PM of Canada).  Of course, the laughs would be on them when he easily defeated Dukakis in 1988.

Voted.  I actually voted for him both in 1988 and 1992.  In ’88 he easily defeated Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis, the former governor of Massachusetts.  That was not only my first vote in a Presidential election – I was 19 – but also the only election in which the candidate I voted for actually won, though given that many of my votes were for Libertarian candidates that’s hardly much of a distinction.  My most recent non-LPA vote was for Mitt Romney in 2012.  

Personal Meeting.  He was the only President I actually met in person.   At some point when he was vice president, I shook his hand at the US Embassy in Paris.   This was at one of these “meet the VP” affairs in a modest room with about 100 people present.  Then later on, when he was President, he came by the same room under the same circumstances and I got to briefly shake his hand as yet another anonymous crowd member.  In neither case did I have any opportunity to speak to him directly or assassinate him. 

Administration.  He took office as President on January 20, 1989 and left office, replaced by Bill Clinton, on January 20, 1993.  The major events of his term were the Gulf War in January 1991 and a massive recession in 1992.  The latter erased any political capital from the former.  Invoking SNL yet again, there was a sketch well before the recession, when the President’s Gulf War popularity made him appear politically invincible in the upcoming election, so the presumed Democratic candidates, including Bill Bradley and Mario Cuomo, all zealously attempt to convince the party faithful NOT to nominate them to be defeated by Bush in the election.  Of course we know what really happened.  I don’t recall Bill Clinton being one of the potential candidates in that sketch. 

Dana Carvey.  As with every president, #41 was subject to his fair share of ridicule and satire, but his somewhat subdued nature made this a bit of a challenge.  I’d say his most famous portrayal was on SNL by Dana Carvey, with such catchphrases as “not gonna do it….wouldn’t be …prudent…at this ….juncture”.  Unlike our current Orange Fuhrer who can’t accept Baldwin’s humor, GHWB was a fairly good sport about Carvey.  This article does an excellent job of discussing this

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/12/dana-carveys-george-h-w-bush-impression-saturday-night-live/577186/

Overall I don’t have any many negative impressions of #41.  He was a standard issue Republican without any major scandals.  The US kicked Saddam out of Kuwait and went no further on his watch.  Others may disagree, and with both his son (#43) and the current occupant, inevitably I think recollections of #41 are going to be more favorable now than they were when he was in office.  And I know someone on Long Island who may have far more to bitch about than I do.   

Type O Negative

I recently had a dream that myself and some other person – female, but I can’t remember who – were hanging out with Peter Steele, initially getting along with him, but eventually he turned creepy and stalking us.  We managed to get rid of him, somehow – without killing him.  Then I woke up and realized, “he’s dead.  No need to be concerned about him anymore.”

A friend of mine turned me onto the New York City band called Type O Negative.  I started with Bloody Kisses – still my favorite – and eventually collected the rest. 

Lineup.   Peter Steele on bass & vocals; Kenny Hickey on guitar; Josh Silver on keyboards; Johnny Kelly on drums.

Discography.  Slow, Deep and Hard; The Origin of Feces; Bloody Kisses; October Rust; World Coming Down; Life is Killing Me; Dead Again.

Live.  I managed to see them a few times.  The most important show was the first, headlining at the Old 9:30 Club in DC on May 10, 1994.  Then two opening slots, for Danzig at Mike’s Eighth Avenue near BWI in Maryland, November 29, 1994, and as one of many opening acts at the first Ozzfest at Nissan Pavilion (now Jiffy Lube Live) on May 24, 1997.   Excellent shows, but again the headlining one is the one I remember most.  Peter Steele would talk back to the crowd, a New York thing about hecklers.

The sound is heavy and gothic, with Steele having a deep voice.  “Black #1” and “Christian Woman” are my favorites, plus their counterintuitively slow and heavy cover of “Summer Breeze” - all from Bloody Kisses.  They also covered Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl”.  Think Black Sabbath slowed down even more, similar to Electric Wizard.

Steele was the heart and soul of the band.  6’8”, certainly imposing, and handsome enough to pose for Playgirl in 1995, a move he later regretted when too many guys paid attention to it.  He died in 2010 of a heart aneurysm.  I’m glad I saw the band in concert at least once as a headliner, and I’ll have to make it a point to listen to TON a bit more often again in his memory. 

One more thing. I can't speak for any of the band members, but years ago when I donated blood, I ascertained my blood type.  Take a wild guess....

The True Fans

Here’s a Wednesday blog as Thursday is Turkey Day and I don’t know if I’ll be in the office on Friday.  Plus there are some football games played on Thursday – all between division rivals.  So the topic might be appropriate.

As you may know, I’m on the Book of Faces and a fan of the Minnesota Vikings, which I have been since the late 1970s, a time when their quarterback was the much-beloved (at least by Vikings fans) Fran Tarkenton and the team had just lost its fourth and final Super Bowl.   Notwithstanding its 6 NFC Championship losses since then, a few of them agonizingly close, I still support the team and hope it will finally win the Big One.  That is, win the NFC Championship and THEN beat the Chiefs, Dolphins, Raiders or Steelers.   Or whichever AFC team it’s up against, possibly even the Patriots.  Hey, Eli Manning is 2-0 and Nick Foles is 1-0 against Tom Brady, so it can be done.

Anyhow.

Obviously there are Vikings pages on the Book of Faces and us Vikings fans might have cause to dispute things between ourselves.   In observing and participating in these spirited discussions I’ve observed three types of fans.

Type C:  The Fair Weather Fan.   We all know the type:  sporting team gear when the team is competitive but oblivious to the sport itself otherwise.  We love to wrap ourselves in the warm cloak of self-righteous contempt against such fans.   Of course.  Not sure how many Vikings fans are like that now, as the team isn’t exactly dominating its division.  Actually, with both the Bears and Lions getting competitive, along with our hated rivals the Packers, no one team can be said to have a lock on the division championship.  It may well get down to the wire this season, with the losers not even guaranteed wildcard slots.  We’ll see. 

Then there’s the Type B:  The Fanatic.  No matter how poorly the team is doing and how strong its opponent, regardless of whether we’re playing an away game and our star players are all injured, this fan loudly proclaims, with utmost conviction and sincerity, that we’ll win the game.   More to the point, this fan accuses anyone who doesn’t share his optimism as a Type C fan.  Huh?  Come on.   We’re Type A.

Type A:  The Realist.  We support the team even if it’s 0-16 (fortunately the Vikings have never been that bad, unlike our pals in Detroit) or if the coach is obviously a moron.  We’ll cautiously support the team against all opponents but feel free to express skepticism when the opponent is relatively stronger.  Our worst fault is Monday morning quarterbacking.   I try to avoid this, and stick to simply making observations I know are supported by the facts and evidence, because I can’t claim to know nearly enough to exceed the skills of even our most incompetent coach.   

Ideally we should all be Type A, supporting the team through thick and thin but not mindlessly cheering when the team does stupid things or loses games it should win.  Personally, the Type B’s strike me as the same type to support popular demagogues – how many Type B Vikings fans not only voted for Trump but still support him even now?  No clue, but I have my suspicions.  

Now, repeat this for the other 31 teams in the NFL, all the MLB baseball teams, the NBA teams, the NHL (probably quite a few Type C Capitals fans nowadays, Ovechkin being far more ubiquitous than he was before), and so on.   And knock yourselves out this Thursday.   Hopefully Mike Zimmer has a plan to beat the Packers next Sunday.   Or perhaps tie again?

Sell Out!

One beef I hear quite often is that bands “sell out”.  That is, they betray their fans and their heritage by changing their sound to sell more albums and make more money.  I’d like to address this issue.

As professional musicians their job is to write and record music, then perform it, to a sufficient level of competence that a critical mass of people are willing to purchase the music and pay to see them perform it.  It would be odd to suggest that a band deliberately write music to minimize their audience and income.   “We need to write music good enough that people actually buy it, but not so good that too many people like it.”

Having said that, I rarely watch the Grammy award shows and almost never listen to the bands and artists who win the most.  My own tastes center around AC/DC and Black Sabbath, plus stoner rock, the Beatles & Beach Boys, and progressive rock like Pink Floyd (who played stadiums in the late 70s, including Montreal!) and King Crimson (not the same level of popularity).   Some bands I like only play clubs and very likely will never play any larger venues:  Clutch and many stoner rock bands.  But if by some miracle Clutch had a top 10 album and were thrust into a spotlight headlining hockey arenas or music festivals, I’d be just as happy to see them there as I am to see them at the current places they play, mainly small local clubs.

Here are some examples.

Aerosmith.  Originally a classic rock band in the 1970s with an excellent album, Toys in the Attic, years later they hit it big with Permanent Vacation and other similar albums.   These are clearly more commercially oriented than Toys in the Attic, though you can be sure they continue to play the older material live.  Did they sell out?  Probably.  Are they worth seeing?  Sure.   Is the new material worth listening to?  Maybe on Spotify, but I wouldn’t spend my money on it.

Metallica.   Three thrash-defining albums with Cliff Burton on bass:  Kill ‘Em All, Ride the Lightning, and Master of Puppets.  Cliff died touring the last album, replaced by Jason Newsted, and the band blew everyone away with …And Justice For All.  Here’s an example of an album which achieves commercial success based on its merits rather than any deliberate attempt to sell for the sake of selling.  I’d argue the following album, self-titled Metallica, aka the Black Album, is more of the same, roughly the same running time of music divided into 12 songs instead of 9.   Because if you really thought the Black Album was the sellout, you’re wrong: it was the next album, Load.   Subsequent albums Re-Load and St. Anger gave us more of the same, Death Magnetic as well, and Hardwired…to Self-Destruct sounds like a return to the more traditional Metallica sound.

We saw the band tour recently in 2017, but the last show we saw was 1997, on the Load tour – our first show was (yes, I’ll mention it yet again) Donington 1985, on the Ride the Lightning tour.  We were not impressed with Re-Load through Death Man-getic and only Hardwired persuaded us to return to the camp.    

Def Leppard.   Did they sell out?  Yes.  Did they get away with it?  Remarkably, yes.  Initially yet another New Wave of British Heavy Metal band like Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Metallica-inspirers Diamond Head, Def Leppard had a forgettable debut album, On Through the Night, a killer second album, High’n’Dry (my favorite) produced by John “Mutt” Lange – the man responsible for AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, Back in Black, and For Those About to Rock (We Salute You) – and an excellent, if somewhat more commercial third album Pyromania which blew the doors open for them.   The next album, Hysteria, really threw off the pretense of metal and said, “ladies, line up here.”   However, it did eventually catch up with them after subsequent albums simply gave us more of the same and fans lost interest.  They still tour, but none of the albums have come close to matching Hysteria’s sales. 

Pink Floyd.  Here’s a weird case.  Obviously Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall sold far more than Piper At the Gates of Dawn through Obscured By Clouds, the prior albums.  But arguably they should have – they are much stronger albums.  How often does anyone listen to “The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party” or “Sisyphus” (Mason and Wright’s studio contributions to Ummagumma)?  I certainly watch “Live at Pompeii” and enjoy Atom Heart Mother, but I’d say the later material is still better.  

  

Some bands actually go backwards, starting out trying to sell millions of albums and then switching to simply writing whatever material they feel like, without any concern for sales.

Deep Purple.  Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, bassist Nick Simper, and keyboardist Jon Lord were frustrated with the lack of success of their respective bands in the late 60s and recruited singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian Paice to form Roundabout, quickly retitled Deep Purple.  From spring 1968 to summer 1969 they had three albums, Shades of Deep Purple, Book of Taliesyn, and (self-titled) Deep Purple, but despite touring the US opening for Cream and Vanilla Fudge, couldn’t get anyone much interested in them.  Their material was 50% covers and generally calculated to sell – and didn’t.   By July 1969 they’d persuaded singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover to quit their now-stagnant prior band Episode Six and by early 1970 had In Rock out in the record stores.  This was followed by Fireball and Machine Head.   Note, of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and this band, only Deep Purple released a live album, Made in Japan, at the same time as the tour it was recorded on.  The band only became successful AFTER it stopped trying to be successful.  So much for that.

The Beatles.   Same deal here.   The earlier material was intended to move units, by Sgt. Pepper they decided to stop touring and record whatever they wanted to.  Of course, by then they had established themselves as a band people wanted to hear, so John-Paul-George-Ringo aren’t quite the same as Ian G-Roger-Ritchie-Jon-Ian P (aka Deep Purple Mark II).  Be that as it may, they also quit touring, foregoing what could have been lucrative tour income – if only they could get all those screaming girls to shut up.   

Note:  Frank Zappa is famous for hating the Beatles, and my understanding is that he disagreed with the prior analysis of Sgt. Pepper representing a break with their prior commercial tendencies, cynically concluding that the band simply changed its tactics but not its strategy.  In fact, he titled his third Mothers of Invention album We're Only In It For The Money and designed the cover as a deliberate parody of Sgt. Pepper's famous cover.  It's hard to miss the point Zappa was trying to make.

Oddly, he liked the Monkees, who if anything were far more egregious than the Beatles.  Zappa’s distinction was that the Monkees themselves were trying to break out of the commercial prison they’d agreed to play in, insisting on playing their own instruments on the albums and writing their own material.  Fair enough, except that the Beatles had been doing so since Please Please Me.  I can scarcely imagine that the Monkees themselves, or their biggest fans, would compare Headquarters to Sgt. Pepper.   Mind you, the bands themselves got along with each other, and the Beatles encouraged the Monkees to expand beyond their original commercial constraints.  In terms of 60s psychedelic idiocy, Magical Mystery Tour and Head are probably about equal.  Getting back to Zappa’s assessment of the Beatles, though, even Rubber Soul and Revolver are far different than Please Please Me, “Tomorrow Never Knows” lights years apart from “Love Me Do”.   I’m a big fan of Zappa, but I’m also a fan of the Beatles, and on this issue I’ll side with the Liverpool guys over Frank.

In general I find this tendency to scream “sell out” whenever a band begins to achieve more commercial success to be the rock equivalent of “snowflake” status.   It’s really convenient that this seem to happen AFTER the person has already been seeing the band in concert.   Anyhow.   Sometimes the material sells more because it’s better, sometimes not, not necessarily one or the other.  As noted, there’s Def Leppard and there’s Pink Floyd.  Decide after listening to the music itself, NOT because the band wound up at the Grammys.   

NRA Wish List

I’m suffering writer’s block this Friday.  This is blog #660, and of course I prefer to avoid repeating myself – not that I’m aware of anyone actively searching the blog archives or calling me out on repetitions.  I haven’t seen any memorable films or finished any books, and I suppose there’s a limit to how many times I can bestow praise and esteem on yet more bands distorting Orange amps (what happened to Marshall?  Well, at least Monster Magnet still uses those) while invoking bongs, blunts, 4:20 etc.  Nor am I inclined to talk about drugs, legal or otherwise, constantly, or bitch yet again about the guy in the White House.

I’ve already commented at length fairly recently about my arsenal, such as it is, so I’ll wax poetic about the weapons I want.

Class III.  Technically full-auto weapons are legal if you the patience to go through the BATF procedures.  The issue really isn’t paperwork, it’s money:  these guns had to have been in the US before 1986, so regardless of how many million were made during WWII, if it wasn’t brought into the US before 1986, it can’t be brought in now.  The biggest problem is that they are EXPENSIVE.   Of course they go through ammo quickly as full auto weapons, but they’re expensive to buy.   Unless someone knows of a PPSH for less than $1000?  I didn’t think so.

Having said that, my Class III Wishlist would be:

1.         MG34 or MG42.  German WWII machine guns.   [8mm Mauser.]

2.         MP EMP aka Erma.  A German submachine gun used in the Spanish Civil War and by SS units during WWII.  Wood stock with a foregrip and slits in the cooling sleeve.  [9mm]

3.         PPSH SMG.  Famous Russian WWII submachine gun, used a 71 round drum magazine.  Also used by North Koreans and Chinese during the Korean War.  This has a fairly high rate of fire, 900 rpm. [7.62x25mm].

Normal Weapons Ordinary People Can Afford.

Luger.  We have the replica, but actual Lugers are not that expensive – well, aside from those chambered in .45.  I just never got around to buying one.  [9mm]

Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mark III.   The WWI variant.   Classic bolt action, [.303 caliber, as invoked in “Breaker Morant”].  As seen in countless movies if the British or Canadians are involved.

Springfield Armory Saint.   I sold my AR15 awhile ago, replaced it more recently with an AK47, but I dare say anyone’s arsenal should include an AR15.  This is the most recent version with all the refinements, but remarkably it costs less than $1000.   And it looks nice, though I miss the M16-looking ones; the one I used to own looked exactly like an M16.  Nowadays too many have some bizarre handguard that looks like there should be a gaming computer somewhere inside.  [.223/5.56mm]

FN FAL.  Eons ago we bought toy versions of this in Belgium, of all places.  It’s semi-auto. The Brazilian Army uses them, and with Bolso taking power I’m sure the Exercito Brasileiro will get more publicity in the near future.   I’d go with the 21” variant.  DSArms sells one for a sane price.   [.308 (7.62x51) (actually the two aren’t EXACTLY the same but whatever)]. 

Gewehr 98.  The original Mauser rifle for the German Army, first used by Germans in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 in China, then throughout WWI, until replaced in the 1930s by the 98K.  Best seen in “All Quiet on the Western Front”. [8mm Mauser.]

Gewehr 43.   Since I already have a WWII Mauser 98K, this would be next step.  Germany’s copy of the Garand, i.e. its attempt at a semi-auto infantry rifle to replace the bolt-action K98 and thus come even with US forces, didn’t do too well, and the STG44 was more popular with Fascists even if made in similar numbers (400,000).  I saw one at a gun show for $2800.  Maybe I’ll find one for cheaper when I actually have the money.  Not counting on it.  [8mm Mauser.]  

Joe Rogan

Recently I had the good fortune to watch two Joe Rogan comedy specials on Netflix Streaming.   The man is seriously funny.   As so often happens when I discover something I like, I go on the Interweb and look for more stuff by the same person.  With regard to Joe Rogan, this is what I found.

NewsRadio.   A network sitcom from 1995-1999.   The main actors are Dave Foley – best known from “The Kids in the Hall” – and Phil Hartman, best known from Saturday Night Live, particularly his dead-on portrayals of Reagan, Bill Clinton and Frank Sinatra.  Sadly his wife had some serious issues and killed him and then herself.  Not good.  Maura Tierney, the patient mom in “Liar Liar” opposite Jim Carrey, and Stephen Root, later playing Milton in “Office Space” and more recently the Man in the High Castle himself, plays the boss.  

Where does Joe Rogan fit in this?  He’s the radio station’s electrician, who comes in periodically to make off color remarks and set up Dave’s laptop for Internet porn. 

UFC/MMA.  He became interested in jiu-jitsu, karate, and mixed martial arts, eventually achieving more fame and notoriety as an announcer (e.g. for UFC) than a participant, according to his website he achieved black belt at age 15.  [I took aikido for several years in the late 90s and finished up with a first degree black belt.   I suppose a Steven Seagal blog may be coming up in the distant future, but no promises.]

Fear Factor (2001-2006 and 2011-12).   I zoned out on this when it was on, as I’m not a fan of reality shows, let alone one which has the contestants doing all sorts of weird, gross and disgusting stuff.  He may have been an excellent host for all I know, but the subject matter of the show is too far distant from my interests to induce me to watch simply for his sake.

The Zookeeper (2011).  Kevin James' marginally memorable film about a zookeeper.  Rogan plays his romantic rival for the love of Stephanie (Leslie Bibb).  He seems to be playing an evil version of himself, in any case far more entertaining than James, and in that regard competitive with Ken "Venom" Jeong and the animals themselves for being the true stars of this movie.  

PodCasts.    These are long but intriguing.   So far I’ve only seen the one with the mushroom guy, Paul Stamets (#1035), but he’s done many others.  Most are with MMA people and fellow comedians, but here’s a nonexhaustive list of the ones who I recognized and interest me:  Kevin Smith (three times), Anthony Bourdain, Doug Benson, Bobcat Goldthwait, Tommy Chong, Maynard James Keenan (singer for TOOL), Andrew Dice Clay, David Lee Roth, Paul Stanley, Joe Perry, Gary Johnson, Jesse Ventura, Jordan Peterson, Scott Adams, Ronda Rousey, Jay Leno, Roseanne Barr, Diamond Dallas Page, Larry Sharpe, Elon Musk, Henry Rollins, Neil Degrasse Tyson, Russell Peters, Dave Foley, Andy Dick (both on NewsRadio), Adam Corolla, James Hetfield, Shirley Manson, Jamie Foxx, Pauly Shore, Russell Brand, Danica Patrick, and Mel Gibson.  As I said, non-exhaustive.  These are fairly long, so I have neither the time nor patience to watch them all.

Standup Comedy.   By now I’ve seen several amateur comedy shows at clubs and one professional:  Russell Peters at Atlantic City.  Rogan himself has been doing it for 20 years, but as yet I haven’t seen him and don’t see that he’s currently touring.  I have seen his two Netflix Comedy Specials.  These are stand-up shows filmed for and shown on Netflix:  the ones I’ve seen are his two most recent:  Triggered (2016) and Strange Times (2018).  Add him to Ali Wong on my list of comedians I care enough to consider seeing live.

Politics.  Rogan is libertarian, so I share his views.  He’s pro-weed and pro-liberty, and not shy about supporting libertarian causes and candidates (Larry Sharpe and Gary Johnson were both on his show).   Not only that, he’s vocal about this in his comedy shows, so by all means knock yourself out.  Somehow I doubt he’ll run for any office, but we’ll see.  Who imagined we’d have the current President?

Classic Rock Magazine

I recently picked up the October 2018 issue of Classic Rock Magazine (Issue #254), cover story on Led Zeppelin.  If the issue tally is any indication – 13 issues per year including the twelve months and a summer edition – the magazine has been around since 1999.  My earliest issue is #85, from October 2005, with the cover story on Hollywood Rocks.  I can’t say my collection is complete, I started diligently getting the issues in 2008.  My buddy Phil got me a gift subscription a few years ago, but at the moment I’m reliant upon Barnes & Noble.  It’s a British magazine so here in the US we’re about a month behind them.  

Last winter the parent company went out of business, and for a brief bit it seemed as though the magazine would stop publishing.  Fortunately Ben Ward (singer for Orange Goblin) rallied a campaign to seek a new owner and the magazine was saved.   So far as I can tell there are no missing issues.  Excellent.

The earliest rock magazines I recall are CREEM and Rolling Stone.   My only recollection of CREEM is a negative reference to Black Sabbath (Ozzy and “dark goons who flanked him” – Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler), and Rolling Stone struck me as too politically oriented and also hostile to Black Sabbath and other  heavier bands I preferred. 

Then came KERRANG!.   We started reading this in Paris, purchasing it at W.H. Smith on Rue de Rivoli off of the Place de la Concorde, just blocks away from the US Embassy.  Kerrang! loved Black Sabbath and the heavier bands.  They really loved Faith No More, giving The Real Thing a maximum 5K score, which led us to catch the band at the old 9:30 Club in DC in fall 1989, followed by an opening slot in 1992 at RFK (Angel Dust tour) for Metallica (Black Album Tour) and Guns N’Roses (Use Your Illusion Tour).   Then we moved back to the US and lost touch of Kerrang! for awhile.  When Classic Rock came around, we eagerly caught up that, and I recognized some names like Geoff Barton from Kerrang!. 

The magazine features obituaries, “look who’s back”, full length articles, and then the following:

The Hard Stuff: New Albums.   Guess what?  They review new albums.  Now they have a 1-10 rating.  I’ve yet to see anyone get a 1 rating, and a 10 rating is also rare, so consider an 8 or a 9 the effective maximum.  There are also Round-Ups on Melodic Rock, Sleaze and Blues, specific categories.

The Hard Stuff: Reissues.   By now bands are reissuing earlier material, generally remastered and with extra tracks.  Some are better than others.

Buyer’s Guide.  They’ll focus on a particular band (this issue: Todd Rundgren) giving two Essential (Classic) albums, Superior (reputation cementing), Good (worth exploring) and AVOID, which is what they consider the band’s worst album.  I find the latter to be fun to read.  Occasionally they concede that even the band's worst album is still worth listening to, the rating simply being relative. 

Live.  Big portions for music festivals like Download (today’s Donington Monsters of Rock) and lesser entries for regular shows, though I notice they’re seeing shows in the US and not just the UK. 

Heavy Load.  Tacked on at the very end. Here they ask rock stars some deep and heavy questions.  Not necessarily embarrassing, but they do give the star an opportunity to cop up to regrets and wrong choices.  Give them credit for tailoring the questions to the specific star.   Gene Simmons:  “There is no negative to being Gene Simmons.”

PROG.  Apparently they had enough material on bands like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Yes, King Crimson, etc. to warrant an entire spinoff magazine.  Rick Wakeman has a highly entertaining column, which itself could be argued is worth the price of the magazine.  Generally they review something like 30 albums of this genre alone, of which I might recognize 5 bands.  I used to buy this regularly, now I only do so if the cover story (Camel, Opeth, Pink Floyd) catches my attention. 

Bonus Disc.   Now they simply have a link for a download, but until recently you actually got a physical CD with material.  I’ve accumulated dozens of these, far more than I can actually listen to, and sadly 80% of the material are new bands slavishly copying the same bands we’ve known for years.  If you have the patience you might find one or two tracks from a CD which prompt further investigation.   By now I’ve stopped bothering.

Source of Inspiration.   With Facebook around these days, Classic Rock might as easily be a source for me to put down more albums on my Amazon.com wishlist, as be reviewing albums I already purchased on my own.  I’ve noticed that the UK and Europe are more widespread in their attention to different forms of music.  In the US the mainstream only focuses on bands which would play the Grammys.   But in Paris, Brant Bjork’s new album was front and center in the vinyl racks at FNAC, and Hawkwind get a review in Classic Rock magazine, even if they’re not nearly as big as they were during the 70s when Lemmy was still in the band.   Hell, Clutch get strong attention from CRM, though as yet no cover story.  

Wes Anderson

I caught director/filmmaker Wes Anderson’s most recent film, “The Isle of Dogs”, animated with an all-star cast.   By now I’ve seen all the films he directed, which all have a similar whimsical quality like Tim Burton, though much more mundane than supernatural.  And of course, no one beats David Lynch for weird, right?  Here’s a subject where most of my assessments will be negative, so bear with me if you’re a big Wes-head. 

Bottle Rocket.  First film.   A pair of friends, Dignan (Owen Wilson) and Anthony (Luke Wilson), playing friends rather than brothers, engage in a series of incompetent thefts and robberies, with James Caan as a mentor and some Hispanic maid as a love interest.  It wasn’t particularly memorable, interesting, funny or exciting.  I watched it once and then promptly forgot almost all of it.

Rushmore.  Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) is an improbably versatile student at Rushmore, a private school in Houston, Texas.   Actually he puts all his energy into extra-curricular activities instead of, not in addition to, his studies, so his success doesn’t match his ambition.  He vies with a wealthy businessman, Blume (Bill Murray) for the affections of a teacher, Rosemary (Olivia Williams) who eventually falls in love with Blume.   Max and Blume fight, then make up.  Again, somewhat dull.

The Royal Tenenbaums.   The story of three NYC kids of a powerful but corrupt father Royal (Gene Hackman): Chas (Ben Stiller), Richie (Luke Wilson), and Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow).  The kids started out talented and ambitious as youngsters but seem to bottom out as adults.  There’s crap going on with Owen Wilson and Bill Murray’s characters, Royal fakes cancer to win back his wife (Angelica Huston), and other stuff happens.  Confusing and only borderline funny.  Watch once and that’s it.  See a pattern?

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.   Sea shit with Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, and other people, Murray’s character being somewhat like Jacques Cousteau.   Watch it once and sink it deep.  Bye bye. 

The Darjeeling Limited.  Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, and Jason Schwartzman on a train in India.  It’s Wes Anderson, so of course Bill Murray is in here somewhere.   Dull adventures on a train in India.  That’s it.  NEXT.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Stop-action animation about a thieving fox played by George Clooney.   Actually fairly entertaining as Wes Anderson films go, but only marginally less forgettable.  Bill Murray?  Check.  Jason Schwartzman?  Check.  Owen Wilson?  Need you ask?   Possibly made more endurable with herbal enhancement.

Moonrise Kingdom.  Scouting in New England in the 1960s.   Bruce Willis is here for a change, giving a good account of himself.  Edward Norton, Bill Murray (yes, again), and Jason Schwartzman (yes, again).  More dull than amusing, but by now we know what to expect from Wes Anderson.  Herbal enhancement may induce earlier slumber before finishing this one.    

The Grand Budapest Hotel.  Some hotel in what looks like Austria or Hungary.  Ralph Fiennes is the main guy but the usual suspects including BILL MURRAY are back in yet more idiosyncratic yet forgettable roles.

 

The Isle of Dogs.   A weird animated film about dogs banished from mainland Japan to an island of trash.  Mayor Takayashi, who orchestrated the ban by falsifying evidence of a health crisis surrounding the dogs (created by himself, in fact) finds that his adopted son Atari has gone to the island in search of his own dog, voiced by Liev Shreiber.  The main dog, a stray (Bryan Cranston, a dog version of bad-ass Walter White minus the meth) finds out stuff.  Scarlett Johansson voices a show dog, Nutmeg.  The humans all speak Japanese and are voiced by Japanese actors, Ken Watanabe and Yoko Ono being the only notable ones.  The dogs get the A list of actors including the usual suspects (yes, Bill Murray).  Some good action and adventure and a likable outcome.  Another movie I’ll watch once and never again.

All of these films are somewhat lighthearted and humorous in a very subtle, passive-aggressive way.  It’s so dry as to be like dirt and sand.  Is this supposed to be ironic or cynical?   Whatever else it might be, it’s so low-key as to be extremely dull – at least to me.   Enjoy or not at your own risk.