Too Old To Rock'n'Roll, Too Young To Die

No, not the Jethro Tull album (1976).  Ironically, Ian Anderson is still touring today.  So much for that. 

My topic comes up due to Judas Priest replacing Glenn Tipton with Andy Sneap on its current Firepower tour of the US.

Glenn Tipton has Parkinson’s Disease and has had to stop touring (though he did play the most recent JP show…).  There’s some dispute as to whether he’s in the band or not.  My understanding is he’s become like Brian Wilson in the Pet Sounds and later era Beach Boys), contributing in the studio but with a live replacement for the tour.

For the upcoming tour, he’s been replaced by Andy Sneap, much to the annoyance of K.K. Downing (second from left above), who quit several years earlier (2011) and resented not being asked to fill Tipton’s shoes.  This has opened a whole can of worms.  As I understand it, Tipton actually wrote and played on this album, along with Downing’s replacement (and youthful lookalike) Ritchie Faulkner.  As noted, Downing QUIT the band several years earlier, and my impression is that it was under bad terms but everyone concerned kept their mouths shut out of mutual respect and tactfulness.  It was NOT because Downing was too old to tour and had to retire for health reasons, the usual excuse these days.  But when the Tipton/Sneap deal emerged, Downing felt no longer compelled to hold his tongue.  As I said, a can of worms.  One thing is certain:  Sneap, not Downing, has replaced Tipton on the current tour.  We’ll see how well he does and IF Downing can repair any damage.

Judas Priest (Black Star Riders, Saxon), at Anthem, DC.  This is a brand new music venue in Washington DC, on a newly developed pier/wharf district just southeast of 395 and the 14 Street Bridge.  It opened last fall with the Foo Fighters being the first act to play here.  In terms of format it’s a bit like a larger version of the 9:30 Club:  big floor/standing room with seats up on the edges.   The original 9:30 Club at 930 F Street (1980-1996) had a capacity of 200 standing, probably a minority of that standing room actually anywhere near the stage. We saw Faith No More (The Real Thing tour), Hawkwind, Nik Turner’s Hawkwind, and Type O Negative (headlining) (RIP Peter Steele) at this venue.  The new version, at 815 V Street, is much larger: 500-1200, most being floor standing room (except Steven Wilson’s show, which was floor seated), with some upper level sitting areas.  This new venue is much larger: 2500-6000. 

The Black Star Riders went on first, and I immediately recognized Scott Gorham, former Thin Lizzy guitarist, at stage right playing – you guessed it – a Les Paul through Marshalls.  Only one TL track: “Jailbreak”.  Although Gary Moore is deceased, classic Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson is still alive and playing music.  If anyone knows why he hasn’t played with Gorham in decades please let me know.

They were followed by Saxon, who still have Biff singing and Paul Quinn on guitar, plus Nigel Glockler on drums.  “Heavy Metal Thunder” closed the set.  Thank you.  We’d first seen Saxon back in Paris in the 80s on the Innocence is No Excuse tour.  Along with Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, Saxon are one of the few surviving bands from the so-called New Wave of British Heavy Metal which emerged in England around ’79-81, after the punk movement finally lost steam.  Whereas Def Leppard morphed into a pop band with Hysteria, and Iron Maiden developed their sound without straying too far from their NWOBHM roots, Saxon has been by far the most faithful of the three in trying to remain true to their roots of 1980.  Fortunately we’ve seen them a few times in the past, mostly as headliners in smaller clubs, and they were always honest and high energy.  My brother even got his picture taken wiff Bith. 

And then… The Priest came on, and it was sad seeing two relative unknowns on guitar:  Ritchie Faulkner replacing K.K. Downing, even down to the long blond hair and Flying V; and as noted above, now Andy Sneap on a Gibson Explorer (or clone) (similar to mine before I swapped in EMG81s and a mirror pickguard).   Faulkner joined the band in 2011 and is on Redeemer of Souls (second newest album), Firepower (newest, freshly released album), and the live video Epitaph, which I have on DVD.  Our last JP show was in 2009 at Merriweather, the tour when they played British Steel in its entirety, so this was our first time seeing them live with Faulkner.   Sneap did a fair job of replacing Tipton.  Ian Hill (bass) and Scott Travis (drums) were as solid as ever.  “Painkiller” made it into the set, apparently the band’s most popular late-model song, but I never cared for it.  “Saints In Hell”, a song I much prefer, also made it, for the first time ever since its original release on Stained Class all those years ago (1978); “Beyond the Realms of Death” is my favorite from that album, and fortunately we’ve seen them play it on prior tours, just not this one.   For me the top song of this set was “The Ripper”, but my prayers to have Sad Wings of Destiny played in its entirety instead of British Steel have fallen on deaf ears.  On Epitaph they did play “Never Satisfied”, from Rocka Rolla.  Fingers crossed for “Run of the Mill”. 

Overall set:  Firepower (new); Running Wild; Grinder; Sinner (!); The Ripper (!!!); Lightning Strike (new); Bloodstone; Saints In Hell; Turbo Lover; Angel; Evil Never Dies (new); Some Heads Are Gonna Roll; Breaking The What?; Hell Bent For Leather; Painkiller (zzz); Encore: Hellion/Eclectic Eye; Metal Gods; You’ve Got Another Item On Its Way; Living After Midnight.  Nothing at all from Rocka Rolla, Point of Entry or Ram It Down. 

Ironically, with Halford replacing original singer Alan Atkins (far right in the picture above) ages ago (before the first album was even released) this makes bassist Ian Hill (far left) the only remaining original member left, similar to Deep Purple, Ian Paice being the only member to serve in all lineups from 1968 (Mark I, Shades of Deep Purple) to the present. 

To go a step further, the current touring lineup of Foreigner has NO original members left, though guitarist Mick Jones (getting too old to tour) has played with the lineup in the past and has apparently given his blessing to this one.  I don’t know where singer Lou Gramm is these days.  The Eagles are down to Don Henley, although Don Felder is alive and active (touring separately as he doesn’t get along with Don Henley), and Joe Walsh still tours with them.  Blackfoot is touring without Ricky Medlocke, himself in Lynyrd Skynyrd which only has Gary Rossington left.  Wishbone Ash only has Andy Powell, but that’s because he won’t let Martin Turner into the band.  Ted Turner and Steve Upton are retired.  I don’t know if their absence is because Powell insists on keeping the profits to himself and touring with paid musicians, or whether Ted and Steve would rejoin even if Andy asked nicely and agreed to share $ with them on acceptable terms.   [Mind you, Rick Wright was demoted to paid musician on The Wall tour, but since that tour lost money, he was the only member of Pink Floyd to actually make money on that tour.] 

All these bands are getting old and losing their original members, leading some fans to accuse the current lineups of being little more than officially sanctioned tribute bands.  This is nothing new, though:  the Marshall Tucker Band lost Toy Caldwell ages ago (1993), and the Sensational Alex Harvey Band (SAHB) actually toured without Alex Harvey after his death.  

The fans seem to be split on this.  One segment refuses to see a band under these circumstances, no matter how well the band actually plays on stage; the other segment is willing to see the band IF the replacement members do a respectable job and know their places.  I took a chance and saw Wishbone Ash back in 2002 despite Andy Powell (as noted above) being the only original member, and I’m glad I did.  The rest of the band is competent and they play all the classic songs well.  Holding out for the return of both Turners and Upton means missing some good shows. 

Van Halen recently got David Lee Roth back, but bassist Michael Anthony was not invited back even though he was ready & willing to do so.  I suspect Eddie was paying his son Wolfgang nowhere close to the cut Anthony would be justified in asking for, so it’s money above all.  Having said that, we saw the show with Roth and he was fine.  Then again, we had never seen them play earlier with him (1984 and earlier tours) so the only comparison we had were the OU812 and F.U.C.K. tours with Sammy Hagar. 

Hell, there were people bitching that Tommy Clufetos was touring with Black Sabbath instead of Bill Ward on this final farewell tour.  But Ward has NEVER been consistent since 1978, dropping off tours as early as Mob Rules and Born Again, and only showing up again briefly in 1999.  Expecting him to tour now is downright idiotic, as is a boycott of a tour with Clufetos on drums.  

Finally, the big NO NO here was the infamous Deep Purple tour of 1980.  Rod Evans was the only original member left.  The Mark IV lineup had broken up back in 1976 and the other members were scattered through other bands like Rainbow and Whitesnake; fellow Mark I veteran, bassist Nick Simper, wisely refused to join this fiasco.  Yet they claimed to be Deep Purple and played Mark II and III material as it was their own.  Surely a distinction can be made between this blatant ripoff and an older band trying to bring music to the fans with as many original members as can reasonably get up on stage and play. 

One more thing I’d like to point out.  Not only musicians, but us fans as well are getting older and dying, whereas some fans are younger and had no opportunity to see the band play decades ago with its classic lineup intact.  For the latter group, the current lineup is the only option.   If you’ve seen the band play back in the day and don’t want to waste your money on what you consider a glorified tribute band, save your money and stay home.  As for me, intent on seeing the band in as many different lineups as possible, regardless of how many past shows I’ve seen, I’ll spend the money and see the show and won’t bitch that so & so is too old to tour, is dead, doesn’t get along with the rest of the band, or for whatever reason, good or bad, isn’t on the tour.  And I’ll enjoy sitting in the seat you might have taken if you weren’t staying home.  We all win.

Roommates

As I’ve probably mentioned countless times already, I went to college at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP).  I couldn’t get into West Point, and with my GPA and SAT scores, plus my parents being from Maryland, I was guaranteed admission and in-state tuition at Maryland’s state university.  Moreover, the College Park (main/flagship) campus is huge, beautiful, and conveniently located just outside of DC and close by to Gaithersburg, where I grew up.  Though I had really wanted to go to West Point, I wasn’t too disappointed to be going to UMCP.   I didn’t want a small campus in the middle of nowhere, nor a city campus like Boston University or George Washington University.  UMCP gets on screen for “National Treasure” (Cage’s character consults an expert on campus) and “St Elmo’s Fire” (Frat Row for Rob Lowe’s character). 

Unless you either avoid college or spend it commuting from home, you’ll probably spend it with roommates.  Freshmen start out with doubles, working their way to a single by senior year.  My friends Phil and Baron even went off-campus, which changes the picture slightly.   With my parents overseas all four years of my journey at UMCP, commuting from home was not an option (though my brother still stayed on campus his senior year even with my family back in Gaithersburg by then) and my father deemed living off campus not worth the hassle of giving up the convenient ability to walk to class.  Anyhow.

I’ll use first names, adding last initials if necessary to distinguish parties with the same first name.  The high rise dorms were named after Maryland county seats, e.g. Hagerstown, Bel Air, Ellicott, (though I’ve yet to see a Rockville Hall), whereas the low rise dorms were named after counties in Maryland.   In a double you share the room with a roommate, whereas a single you have to yourself.   Depending on the circumstances, you might have a double to yourself (see below). 

With one major exception, all my experience with roommates was bad.  Part of the college experience is having to learn how to deal with unpleasant people you don’t like, total strangers who you have to live with.  It’s not on the syllabus but it’s part of what college inevitably teaches you, one “benefit” of living on campus.  Just like how to drink irresponsibly. 

Freshman Year (F86/S87).  Hagerstown Hall (high rise) (double).  Mike P., from Mount Airey, Maryland, my only good roommate for those whole four years.   We got along fine.  During the spring semester he was gone substantially due to chemotherapy.   Since he’s still alive today, and friends on Facebook, I’d say he kicked cancer.   We caught the Jimmy Page concert at the Cap Center in 1988.

Sophomore Year (F87/S88). Talbot Hall (low rise, renovated) (double).   Fall:  Greg.  Spring:  Mike B.   Greg wasn’t too bad, but he did get into a fight with my best friend Phil after a party we threw in our suite.  He transferred to Towson State, north of Baltimore; I believe he was from that area.   Mike B. came in from Denton Hall, a high school buddy of Chip & Woody from Hagerstown.  He was a major league asshole, and got kicked out of the dorm system before Spring Break for a prank he pulled in Denton.  He successfully got into Kappa Alpha fraternity and into their house, later getting Woody and others into KA as well.  Because he was kicked out mid-semester, Mike B. was not replaced for that period and I had the room to myself for the remainder of the semester. 

The minor irony here is that these assclowns were all from Hagerstown, Maryland, yet none of them were living in Hagerstown Hall, where I had been for my freshman year.  Years later I had a few court cases in Washington County, Maryland, of which Hagerstown is the county seat.  So I eventually got to see this small, unimpressive town 30 minutes west of Frederick, the latter being the second largest city in Maryland after the big one, Baltimore.  Oh, and my dad died in the hospital in Hagerstown in December 2004.  Life has a strange sense of humor. 

Junior Year (F88/S89).  Talbot Hall (Fall)/Montgomery Hall (low rise, renovated) (spring).   Fall:  Eric S.  Spring:  John.  Not learning my lesson with Mike B., I pulled in Eric S., another of Woody’s Hagerstown comrades.   Eric S. was just as much an asshole as Mike B.   I wound up moving to Montgomery Hall (finally in the dorm named for the county I was actually from!) for the spring semester, only to get another asshole roommate, John, who racked up $300 phone bill arguing with his GF Mary back in northeastern MD.  His parents finally paid the bill for him that summer after his incessant promises to pay were all bullshit.  By the way, I found out the hard way that Maryland, though not a particularly large state by American standards, is large enough that some parts of it qualify for long distance calling rates.  The more you know…

Senior Year (F89/S90).  Montgomery Hall.   A SINGLE.   The guys in the suite next door, with whom I got along fine (see below) let me know that the guy in their big single, Eric T., would not be coming back in fall, making that room available.  Thanks to them, and a letter to Resident Life, I got it.   Not only that, it was a big single.  Fortunately, Gene, who had the small single, didn’t voice any objection.   Finally I had a decent living situation.

Due to judicious scheduling and course choice, I managed to complete 156 credits and two separate degrees, a BA in Government & Politics and a BS in General Business, in 4 years, though it took a full summer with two sessions (4 classes) between sophomore and junior years, and a half session (2 classes – COBOL and Money & Banking, dead end classes which weren’t prerequites for any other classes).  This allowed me to start law school at George Mason University (now the Antonin Scalia School of Law) in the fall of 1990. 

All summer housing was in New Leonardtown, an apartment complex on the other side of Route 1 back behind Frat Row.  Apparently New Leonardtown was easily able to accommodate all the summer students, as the units were half empty during this time.  These had kitchens.  My buddies Dave B. and Ken were living in Old Leonardtown our senior year, an older set of apartments right next to New Leonardtown, so I spent considerable time hanging out with them there. 

Summer ’88.   A single in New Leonardtown for both sessions, from after Memorial Day to the middle of August, and I finished up the summer with my family up in New York City for the end of August.  Jeff & Dave F. (Diamondback photographer) were in one double, the other single and double being empty.  Dave F. articulated the clever and plausible theory that New Coke was Coke’s way of switching from sugar to high fructose corn syrup in Classic Coke without anyone noticing.  Well, aside from those of us like my brother who can taste the difference and make it a point to buy Mexican Coke, which has sugar.  

My brother actually came down from NYC and stayed with me in the suite for much of the summer.  This was also the summer I got my first car, a 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier, which served us well until 1991.  It was a great summer for concerts:  Pink Floyd, Van Halen Monsters of Rock (Metallica, Dokken, Scorpions, Van Halen) at RFK, Iron Maiden & Judas Priest at the Cap Center, and AC/DC at Madison Square Garden.   

Summer ’90.   A double to myself in new Leonardtown.  I can’t recall who else might have been in the suite, and I was only in it for the first session, going back to Paris in mid-July.  That ended my stay at University of Maryland, College Park. 

Suitemates.   The high rises are all doubles and singles.  In the newly renovated low rises, they had suites without kitchens and either three doubles (Talbot Hall) or two doubles and two singles (Montgomery Hall).  So the suitemates are those in the same suite but not the same room. 

Talbot Hall:  Woody & Chip, Bill D. & Scott, then Chris.   Scott was not an issue, though he moved out, replaced by Chris.  I got along with him even though he didn’t actually like me.  Same deal with Chip & Woody, both from Hagerstown.  I had met Woody at Freshman Orientation and been friends with him during freshman year.  It was a coincidence that I wound up moving to a suite in Talbot Hall that he and Chip also moved into.  Bill D was not a problem either, and he was a former roommate of my buddy Dave.   Bill, Dave & I are still friends today, though I haven’t met Bill since college. 

Montgomery Hall.   Senior year:  Marcus & Jay, AJ & Bill M; Gene in the small single.  Except for Gene, they were all Theta Chi brothers.  Jay actually brought me to a 2 a.m. party at Theta Chi.  Had I not been a senior I might have considered rushing Theta Chi, as I actually got along very well with them. 

Other Roommates.  My best friend Phil was on campus at George Mason University for his first two years, and for much of that time his roommate was a Costa Rican guy, Victor.  They got along fine and even wound up living in a house in Centreville with Victor’s fellow Costa Rican, Mariano.  Baron had a roommate for his first year, in Wicomico Hall, before getting a single in the same dorm the next year and then moving off campus for junior and senior year.  While he was living in Bel Air Hall at the beginning of his college experience, my brother Matt had a roommate, Dave K., from somewhere northwest of Baltimore.  He got along fine with Dave K., later getting a single in Montgomery Hall.  So of all of us, I had by far the worst roommate experience.  

Ulysses vs. Jason & The Argonauts

Recently I watched the 1594 Kirk Douglas film, “Ulysses”, which is about the famous Greek hero of the Trojan War.   Thankfully it was shorter than “Spartacus” and easier to tolerate.

Basic story.   A long time ago, Greece and Troy were at war.   Troy was a big city in what is now called Turkey, in the far northwest corner, now known as Hisarlik, close to Canakkale.  It had HUGE walls (huge, I tell you, no one has bigger walls, they were fabulous – we totally got Mexico to pay for them) which the Greeks couldn’t deal with.  So our good friend Ulysses (also known as Odysseus) came up with the brilliant idea of leaving a huge wooden horse behind as a “whatever, we lost” gift.   Like idiots, the Trojans opened their gates, pulled in the horse, and at night the Greek soldiers hidden inside got out, opened the city walls, and let their comrades in to sack and destroy the city.  Game over for Troy.

However, in doing so, Ulysses pissed off Poseidon, aka Neptune, the god of the sea, and so he had a bit of trouble getting home to Ithaca (an island off the west coast of Greece), to his wife Penelope and his now-grown son Telemachus.  His major problems were (A) cyclops (one-eyed giant) who trapped him and his crew in a cave, (B) Sirens who sing, and (C) the sorceress Circe, who turned his crew into pigs.   Ulysses was able to overcome all of these, though it took him 10  years – on top of the 10 years the Trojan War lasted – to finally get home.  His wife was VERY patient.

Finally at home, he had to rescue his wife from a crew of horny suitors trying to replace him.  He did so firing an arrow through a row of axeheads.   Happy ever after.  Aside from Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn is in here as the most arrogant and capable competing suitor. 

Ulysses is not to be confused with another famous Greek mythological hero, Jason, as in “Jason & the Golden Fleece” and the Ray Harryhausen film, “Jason & the Argonauts”.  This stop-action animation film from 1963 is cited by Tom Hanks as his favorite film. 

Jason was a Greek hero who had a ship called the Argo, staffed by his crew of Argonauts.  His goal was to get a Golden Fleece (golden sheep skin) guarded by the Hydra (multi-headed dragon).  Jason also (A) fights huge golem Talon, (B) rescues blind dude harassed by harpies, (C) gets through the crashing rocks, (D) fights skeleton warriors raised from dragon teeth, and (E) hooks up with sorceress Medea.   It seems there was a cyclops in this film too.

Both had a quest, made more difficult by monsters and magic, and both aided and opposed by the gods and goddesses.  The Jason movie had far more special effects, thanks to Harryhausen, though there was plenty of magic in “Ulysses”.  Oddly, the same actress, Silvana Mangano, played both Penelope and Circe.  Both are worth watching and enjoying, particularly if you’re a fan of Greek mythology.

The Other Side

I feel compelled to address a broader issue in this country:  rampant hostility.   Since the Florida shooting, I’m seeing a plethora (!) of memes on both sides, tinged with contempt for opposing viewpoints.  I’m pro-gun, myself, but I don’t assume my opponents are idiots simply for disagreeing with me.   And calling each other idiots really doesn’t get anything done.

Gun Control.   When someone shoots up a school, we have to wonder how they acquired access to the weapon in the first place.  Naturally, the weapon itself didn’t kill all those people.   Every day, lawful owners of AR15 do not kill other people.  Criminals kill people with illegally obtained weapons – mostly handguns – and as usual criminals by their nature ignore the laws, including gun control laws.  Knife attacks occur all too frequently.  And again, in the aggregate, more people successfully defend themselves from violent crime with legally owned weapons than are killed in school shootings.   The Armed Citizen, a feature in the NRA’s American Rifleman magazine each month, chronicles exactly that – lawful use of weapons by private citizens in legitimate self-defense - complete with cites to the original news source.  But somehow I doubt gun control advocates are reading the American Rifleman each month – if at all.

Sometimes they cite a combat veteran as being against the Second Amendment.  “I’ve seen what my own M4 carbine rounds do against the Taliban and other enemy combatants, and it boggles my mind how anyone can argue that civilians should have access to weapons like these.”  Combat veterans are in a position to see the damage these weapons can do, and are as entitled as any of us to their political opinions.  But this isn’t Starship Troopers:  you don’t need combat experience to have the right to vote.  Timothy McVeigh was a combat veteran:  does that make his attack in Oklahoma City OK?

Anyhow.  I don’t blame people for wanting to solve the problem.  However, I will oppose any effort to disarm lawful gun owners who aren’t killing anyone or causing problems.   Restrictions on guns for children or the insane, strikes me as a reasonable compromise which is reasonably calculated to address the problem without affecting the rights of sane adults.

Fact: there are highly intelligent Trump voters.  There are highly intelligent Hillary voters.  There are highly intelligent Sanders voters (they’re not all clueless theater majors).  Hell, there were highly intelligent Marxists, and highly intelligent Nazis and SS officers.   That also applies to many senior Al Qaeda and ISIS leaders.  Of course, highly intelligent doesn’t necessarily mean “moral human being”, but it does mean “not an idiot”.

I also see people on MY side use ad hominem attacks – insults instead of arguments – and proffer poor and easily refuted arguments to support my side.  I have to shake my head as being ineptly defended is just as bad as being competently attacked. 

Donald Trump.  I’ve noted earlier that he’s no Hitler.  I’ll add that while I’ve seen my share of inarticulate, misspelling ALLCAPs MAGA maggots, there are others who can spell properly and form coherent sentences who did vote for Trump.   Generally these are people who held their nose to vote for Trump because they disliked Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton.  Remember her?  She hijacked the Democratic nomination from Bernie Sanders, arrogantly asserting that it was her turn to be President, after seeing Barack Obama take what she felt was hers back in 2008.   Arguably more hawkish than Trump, and recall it was a Democrat, LBJ, who sent US troops to Vietnam in 1965 and a Republican, Nixon, who took them out.  As popular as her husband may have been, no one really likes Hillary.  Trump got less votes than Mitt Romney, and he still won, which means Trump was elected as much because Hillary was unpopular as because he himself was so compelling as a candidate. 

Gary Johnson.  Of course, I didn’t vote for either of them:  I voted for the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson.  Of course, he wasn’t particularly charismatic and didn’t do himself any favors by not knowing where Aleppo was – he should have known someone would ask him about US’ proper role in the Syrian conflict.  But he got 3% of the vote.  That may not sound like much, but it’s 3x his 2012 vote tally of 1%, which itself roughly matched the prior record for LPA, the 1980 Clark-Koch ticket. 

By now I’m solidly Libertarian.  I have to shake my head, though, that many Libertarians refused to support Johnson.    Up until 2012, he was a Republican, albeit a successful two term state governor of New Mexico.  

 Was he a solid, 100% Libertarian?  Did he rise through the ranks of the party and do his time in the trenches?  No.  But his closest competitor for the LPA nomination, Austin Peterson, was 35  years old – the bare minimum to qualify for president – and had zero political experience.  

Here’s a news flash.  About 1/3 the country’s voters are Democrat, 1/3 Republican, and 1/3 independent.  This means to win, a candidate has to appeal to independent voters.  A candidate who ONLY appeals to his or her own core constituency will be giving a concession speech on Election Night. 

If the Republicans and Democrats can’t elect a President on their own, certainly the Libertarians, who could probably fit in a football stadium, can’t.   Expecting everyone else to vote for your guy because he’s ticked all the boxes yet has zero relevant experience at any level of government is not realistic, though our current President may either be the 800 lb gorilla exception to this or a growing trend.  We'll see.

ANYHOW.

Let’s work together here.   Don’t assume your opponent is an idiot because he or she disagrees with you.  Don’t insult your opponent because he or she disagrees with you.  Make some good faith effort to find a mutually agreeable solution.  If you can’t, agree to disagree and leave it at that.  (Then call your local congressman.  :D)

My Arsenal

Guns are in the news again.  My Facebook posts put me on the NRA side of this issue, though I am a civilian with no combat experience and also no personal experience with violent crime, either as victim or aggressor.  I do like guns, however, and over the years have accumulated a few.  Here is my arsenal, such as it is.

Beretta 92FS.   Handgun, 9mm caliber. For quite some time, the standard issue handgun of the US military.   Beretta has the distinction of being the oldest Italian gunmaker – since the 1500s – and about the only one which knew what they were doing during WWII, such that Germans would use Beretta submachine guns themselves.  This gun also shows up in popular culture, notably “Lethal Weapon” (the gun Riggs, i.e. Mel Gibson, carries) as well as the first “Boondock Saints” film.  9mm, with a double stacked 15 round magazine.  It’s on the large side, about the largest gun you can reasonably carry concealed.

Ages ago I bought one new, then sold it to a friend.  More recently I bought a used one at a gun show in Manassas – so I’ve owned two, though not at the same time.  For a brief time, I had a concealed weapon permit and carried the new Beretta, but not on a regular basis.   

Mauser KAR98K.  Bolt action rifle, 8mm Mauser (7.92x57) caliber.   In 1898 Mauser finally made a bolt action rifle for the Imperial German Army, the Gewehr 98.  Shortly after, they came up with a much shorter carbine.  Fast forward to the 1930s, and they simply decided to split the difference with one rifle in between the two in length and just go with that as standard issue for everyone.  It’s bolt action with a 5 round double stacked internal magazine, which can be fed from stripper clips.  The bolt is turned down.

There are millions of copies of the 98 model alone, with Yugoslavia being responsible for a lot of them – their M48, made shortly after WWII, is probably the most common, though they were making copies before WWII.  Spain, Belgium, Argentina, Poland, Turkey and China are other big Mauser fans; Mausers were so common and popular in China that the Chinese simply referred to all rifles as Mausers.   [Incidentally, up until 1937 the Germans were supplying Chiang Kai-Shek and his Nationalist Chinese army not merely with Mauser rifles but also the M1935 helmets most often associated with WWII German soldiers, so Chinese soldiers in the early stages of the war, 1937, have a distinct German appearance.]  The US Springfield was such a blatant copy of the Mauser that we ended up paying Mauser royalties on that rifle.  I made it a point to get an actual WWII German K98. 

Ages ago when living in Paris and buying German WWII stuff from the local store, OPTAS, I picked up the bayonet that goes to this gun.  Decades later, immediately after acquiring the rifle, I pulled out the bayonet, and it fit exactly.  Awesome.

This was the standard infantry rifle of the German Army during WWII, plus the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine (to the extent the air force and navy need infantry weapons) and the ever-popular Waffen SS.  According to the markings, this rifle was made in 1942 by Steyr, which used Mauthausen camp workers to make their weapons.  Note, because quantities of the more advanced Gewehr 43 (semi-auto) and StG44 (select-fire assault rifle) were limited, no more than about 400,000 of each, the bolt-action K98 remained in production throughout the war.  

Mosin-Nagant 91/30.  Bolt action rifle, 7.62x54R caliber.   One of the earlier bolt action models, a joint design of Belgium and Russia.  This served as Russia’s #1 rifle in the Russo-Japanese War (1905), WWI + the Russian Civil War, then WWII, though by that time the PPSH submachine gun became more popular.  It’s usually seen with a spike bayonet on the end (which I have).   This is the full-size rifle, with bolt facing straight out, not the carbine version or the sniper version (bolt turned down).  Best chance of seeing this on countless Soviet propaganda posters.  Vasili Zaitsev, the famous Soviet sniper played by Jude Law in “Enema at the Gates”,  used the sniper version.  [His fictional rival, Major Koenig, played by Ed Harris, of course uses the Mauser Kar98k.]

Model 1917 Enfield, bolt action rifle, .30-06 caliber.   My mother’s father, i.e. my grandfather, served in the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France during WWI.   Our soldiers in the trenches facing off against the Kaiser used either the 1903 Springfield (the more famous and popular model) or this one, the Enfield.  In practice, 75% used this one.  My grandfather died when I was a baby, and no one else in the family knows which one he carried, so I played the odds and got this one.  It’s about as fun to shoot as any other bolt action and fires the same caliber as the Springfield, BAR, M1 Garand and any .30 Browning machine gun.   I have the bayonet as well, something long enough to make the Huns nervous.

AK47.  Semi-auto rifle, 7.62x39mm caliber.   A few years ago, a shooter caused the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, New Jersey to be shut down briefly, although he didn’t actually shoot anyone.  I realized that my three bolt actions, though firing full power rifle rounds, were not really suitable for contemporary “s**t hits the fan” circumstances, so a modern semi-auto rifle was probably a better bet.  I bought this one.   It’s all black (no wood hardware).  I never bothered to get the bayonet for this one.   Although it won’t fire full-auto, cosmetically it looks identical to the familiar rifle of the modern Red Army, the Warsaw Pact, and countless guerilla and jihad groups. 

[Update 4/19/20].  AR15.  Semi-auto rifle, 5.56mm (.223) caliber.  Back around 1994 I purchased a new one, with a full 20" barrel and cylindrical handguard, looking exactly like an M16A2.  I took it to the range in Warrenton (Clark Brothers) once, and soon after sold it.  More recently I finally managed to replace it with a Springfield Armory Saint.  This has a 16" barrel, collapsing stock, and various other goodies which I'm not fully aware of, except to understand that Springfield took its time to develop its own AR15, and when they did so, they chose to incorporate all the design features which have been developed over the years for civilian AR15s.   They even designed their own proprietary handguard.  I'm very pleased with it.  

And in the past…

Walther PP.  Handgun, .380 caliber.  Just a little bigger than the famous PPK (“Bond, James Bond”), in the same caliber.  This has a smaller 7 round single stack magazine. 

....

Upcoming?  Well, not in the market for any more purchases, but I would love an FN FAL, which would give me a semi-auto weapon in .308 (7.62x51) caliber.  Moreover my budget precludes any Class III (full auto) weapons, which are insanely expensive.

As noted, I haven’t been in a situation to use any of these in combat or crime.  I take them to the range – NRA or otherwise – and fire them there.  Bolt actions are actually a bit more fun to shoot than semi-autos, as you have to work the bolt after each shot and load the internal magazine.  With semi-auto you simply pull the trigger over and over again, reloading via magazine.  In the event I need a gun, I have several choices. 

Morbidly curious:  most plausible victims.   Since I haven’t killed anyone with any weapon I’ve ever owned, who has?  Several are vintage military weapons, acquired well downstream of whoever might have originally wielded the weapon in any combat situation.

The AR15 and AK47 are/were semi-auto civilian weapons, as was the PP.   I sold the AR15 to a friend, and bought the AK47, and the PP, from the same friend, whose character is known as definitely non-criminal.  So no blood at all on those. 

Beretta.  “Defense contractor surplus” is what I was told.  Meaning some Blackhawk mercenary might have shot someone in Baghdad.  Most plausible victim:  JIHADI.

Mauser.  As noted, made in 1942, at a concentration camp.  By this time the Einsatzgruppen were phased out in favor of the death camps.  The rifle could have gone straight into the hands of a local SS camp guard, issued to a Waffen SS soldier, or a Wehrmacht soldier.   In that case the likely victims would be, A) concentration camp inmate, B) Russian soldier, or C) Allied soldier.  I’d say B is most likely.

Mosin-Nagant.   This appears to be Soviet era.  Possibly used to kill a kulak, though more likely fired at a “Fritz”.  Perhaps reissued in Korea, in which case the targets would be UN soldiers, but WWII is the most likely scenario.  Most plausible victim: WWII German soldier.

Enfield.  Some were issued to US troops in the far East, some to British Home Guard, but most to US soldiers fighting in France in WWI.   Most plausible victim:  WWI German soldier.  (Sorry, Kevin).

I, Tonya

The Winter Olympics are back, and with them, figure skating.   The Russians, banned from competing as a national team due to their prior misconduct, do so as an aggregate referred to as “Olympic Athletes from Russia”.   The US is competitive, but so is the Italian couple.  I don’t pay nearly as much attention as the “intimate female companion”, affectionately referred to as Panda due to her Shanghai origin, of which she is rightly proud.   Likewise, she zoned out on the downhill skiing which intrigued me more.

We both enjoyed this film, starring Margot Robbie, best known as Harley Quinn in the “Suicide Squad” film (DC Universe) in the title role, but also Sebastian “Winter Soldier” Stan, Captain America’s buddy Bucky (Marvel Comics Universe) as the ever hated and ridiculed Jeff Gillooly.   Intriguing that the film came out around now, but not in wide distribution.  Our show at the local megaplex was under the radar, not even on the main list of movies.  But the seats were nice.

The 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, featured the dramatic competition on the US team between sweet, charming Nancy Kerrigan, vs. maybe-rough-around-the-edges Walmart Queen, Tonya Harding.  I can’t profess sufficient discernment to tell you which of the two was a better ice skater, though Harding apparently earned the distinction of being the first American skater to successfully complete a Triple Axel.  NO, this did not mean Harding slept with Axl Rose three times, as plausibly as we might attribute that to Harding.  My subjective impression is that they were both about the same skill.

I also don’t know much about Kerrigan’s background or social life at the time, but it seems Harding came from a lower class background and had the poor choice of picking Gillooly as a mate.  According to the movie, they were on-again, off-again, though they did marry.  Gillooly was physically abusive, though Robbie’s portrayal implies that Harding was probably in pari delicto.

According to the film, Gillooly asked his buddy Shawn Eckhart to send a death threat to Nancy Kerrigan to freak her out and put her off her game.  Shawn took it upon himself to hire a hit-man, Shane, to assault Kerrigan with a collapsible baton.  Harding claimed to be innocent, and the film appears to exonerate her – it’s a bit more vague about Gillooly, though later he’s shown confessing.  I’ll hold off on accusing Harding herself of being in the loop.  Decide for yourself. 

The end result was that Harding came in 8^th, Kerrigan #2 (silver medal), and Oksana Baiul won the gold – she remains unnamed in the movie.  Harding was banned for life from figure skating.    

Robbie doesn’t bear a huge resemblance to Harding, but she does bring the attitude, somewhat like Harley Quinn on skates.  We’ll see if she comes back for more HQ in the future.

Baby Logan Lucky Driver

Two films I wasn’t sufficiently motivated to see in the theaters, although I saw the movie posters for Logan Lucky in the Paris Metro.  They’re both DVD-worthy but not much else.  Both involve cars & crime and have all-star casts.

Baby Driver.  Baby (Ansel Elgort) is a getaway driver permanently addicted to iPods and mixes.  As a driver, he’s quite effective, though it’s this annoying import drift s**t we’ve been smacked with incessantly in the “Fast & Furious” movies (ZZZ).  The mastermind is Doc (Kevin Spacey).   Baby dates the cute flapper chick from Downton Abbey (Lily James); here she’s a cute waitress.   Flea and Jamie Foxx have roles, as does Don Draper (Jon Hamm), against whom they later face off against.   Lots of action, some modestly clever dialogue, but mostly the convergence of multiple talented actors in a marginally entertaining “robbery & chase” flick.   Here Spacey is kinda phoning it in, as if Frank Underwood has a part-time job as a bank robbery mastermind; likewise, Hamm dials Draper’s moxie and arrogance up just a little as Buddy.  As you might imagine, the prior heists go fairly well, it’s the final one which goes FUBAR.  Baby’s ultimate destiny is probably the one thing which distinguishes this film from hundreds of other similar ones.

Logan Lucky.   A pair of brothers, Jimmy and Clyde (Channing Tatum & Adam Driver) conspire to steal from the Charlotte NASCAR speedway.  In particular, under the midfield there’s a cash receptacle from all the concession stands, which as you might imagine tends to accumulate a larger amount of cash during races.  With the help of a safecracker and his younger brothers (Daniel Craig + Brian Gleeson & Jack Quaid) they manage to weasel it through.   Lots of NASCAR stuff here.   The Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan, is here as gluten-free NASCAR driver Dayton White, and Seth McFarlane plays a particularly obnoxious and unsympathetic Brit, owner of White’s team.   Darrel Waltrip and Jeff Gordon play themselves.  I’d say it comes together fairly well, so job well done.  By the way, with the beard, Channing Tatum looks like Doug Benson pumped up to XXL.  Maybe they should make a movie together.

I pick Adam Driver to play Roger Waters.  Is it a stretch to pick Leonardo DiCaprio as David Gilmour?  Hit me with your Mason and Wright casting choices.  If the Doors got a movie, we deserve one about Floyd.