Part 1: Just Saying Hi:
I’ve been light posting lately. This isn’t an accident. There are two main reasons.
The first is that winter is kicking my ass. The fact that the calendar says March while I’m still plowing February level snow is proof of that. Lugging yet another jug of diesel across the ice to my tractor so I can plow yet another round of snow that’s drifting like the fucking Sahara of doom really does take it out of you. I’m beat!
The second is more philosophical; I’m trying to post as I wish to be. If it’s merely negative or it’s shit you don’t need it from me. You can get it elsewhere. The internet is doing just fine at hyperventilating without my help. Jumping up and down pointing at the dumpster fire saying “There it is! It sucks!” doesn’t seem necessary.
Y’all know. Y’all just lived through the COVID panic. You either understand or you’re trying hard to not understand. Instead of bitching about the eleventh stupid thing to happen since yesterday I’m wisely checking out until some level sanity returns.
I’ll give you an example that has absolutely nothing to do with our current president who got more votes than any other candidate in American history. I’m interested in economics. I actually like studying it. I used to post about the federal debt. Then I stopped. I didn’t stop last year or last week. I stopped (more or less) when it was a done deal. Sometime in the second Obama administration the largest debt ever amassed in human existence went beyond my own personal event horizon. I can’t remember the exact number (perhaps ten trillion)? I came to the realization that it could not be resolved in a normal non-destructive manner and therefore it would be resolved in a big messy shitstorm. It wasn’t a matter of if, but when.
That was probably 10 years ago or more. Frankly I’ve enjoyed these last many years of whistling past the graveyard. I even got a good chuckle out of about three years of booming economy during the post “Hillary wasn’t coronated” shitstorm and pre-plandemic shitstorm. I couldn’t have enjoyed that respite if I’d been too focused on the inevitable doom. Maybe we have a few more years left, maybe we don’t. But I’m not going to fret about it on my blog. The timing is uncertain but the destination is known; so lets talk about sailboats and trees instead.
That’s why two (or is it three now?) banks going tits up didn’t merit much response. Why would it? Why comment on what we all knew that would happen? We all know what will eventually happen. No need for me to bitch about it. It’s not a new concept. I’ll post when I have a ray of sunshine in my heart.
Which brings me to part 2.
Part 2: Play It Loud!
I haven’t paid attention to the band Extreme. I had not the slightest clue that Nuno Bettencourt was a guitar God. But I just heard a song that absolutely set me back on my heels!
I want to share it with you. What a breath of fresh air! In a world where autotune bitch music oozes from the earbuds of empty headed drones en masse, I have found another of the very few who can shred. Hendrix and Satrani and Skwisgaar (and some others) have a new member at the table!
This may be the coolest thing I hear in 2023.
Warning! If you can’t do heavy metal, this may hurt. If you’re Boomerishly incapable of liking anything newer than the Beatles… run! If you think Garth Brooks is the apex of music… bail out! If you think that hippie upstart Bach went overboard with Toccata and Fugue in D minor… hurl your computer out the window. You’ve been warned. If this isn’t for you, that’s fine. Accept there are places you can’t go and leave the path unexplored.
Those of us who aren’t dead yet should take it in like it was meant to be experienced. Do the whole dose! Slam it down! Don’t half-listen while writing up your TPS reports. Do yourself a favor and grant yourself five minutes to a single purpose. Turn off the phone, tell everyone to shut up, crank up your speakers, and listen.
Let this be a reminder of a different level of engagement. The cell phone dancing monkey that can’t sit still for even one single song will miss the blast zone.
It’s four and a half minutes. You aren’t doing anything that important. Experience it properly. Shut out every distraction. Let it happen. When the two phase guitar solo hits you’ll thank me.
The universe has given you a gift. Enjoy it!
That’s the best headbanger I’ve heard in decades. Thanks!
While I am a Simon and Garfunkel guy, I found Disturbed’s version of “The sound of silence” awesome. And the video for it really slams the message into your soul.
Raining outside right now, turning my snowplow piles into a slushy mess.
Looking at building that walking stick style poke and plant system we talked about a few sessions ago. Need to start some seedlings. Thinking a few more mercy buckets of storage food might be worth a lot more than 150 dollars in the bank.
When I heard Disturbed’s version of Sounds of Silence I was blown away. I assumed no human could ever beat Simon and Garfunkel at their own game. I also think it takes balls of steel to even try. But Disturbed’s version is definitely better. What a risk to take! If the cover hadn’t turned out incredible it would have gone down in flames of failure.
Incidentally, look for the satire “Sounds of Starbucks”.
I’ve been plowing snow so much I can’t even think about planting anything. I know the winter will end but this is a harsh one and it ain’t giving up easy.
I remember my German Grandmother always had a “ridiculous” amount of stored foods. She always had a massive garden, chickens, a pair of yearling pigs and during the Great Depression kept boarders with jobs as to have “Real Money” (Her words) to pay for taxes.
I wish I had more of her practical information, but I was young enough to think it was fun to help Grammy in HER garden for the cookies later.
That half of my family once were bankers in Weimar Germany until they fled to NYC to work on the docks until they got better jobs.
The Disturbed song and video remind me of what I never really learned from Grandmoms stories. The silence and the loss.
We will relearn them.
Go long stored foods, gardens fail for many reasons.
Only tangentially apropos (being in regard to music) I thought you might enjoy this given our previous interaction regarding this song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EV-Y9GZsx0
*reprises role of snickering squirrel scampering away*
Thank you for that link!
I had no idea Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart had anything to do with vampires. I should have guessed. Now that I reflect on it, vampires fit with it pretty well. I love the song even though most things in that genera don’t float my boat. It’s a bit of a guilty pleasure. It’s operatic, has a huge orchestrated feel, Bonnie just about has an orgasm while singing it, and the video is the gayest weirdest estrogen fantasy ever put to film. How can you not like that? Now that I know it’s got a vampire sex background and inadvertently pissed off Meatloaf it’s just that much more perfect. (Incidentally, I’m sure Meatloaf could have belted it out pretty well too, but I’m glad the universe handed this one to Bonnie.)
If the snow is drifting, you do not need a snowplow. Just fire up a leaf blower!
Now if instead it is heavy wet snow, THEN you need the plow.
Great song. Hard rock and metal are not dead and the shit coming out of Japan is insane good. Many great groups here is my fav band Maid. Best thing is they have like 7 albums out and over 100 great songs. Best ones are live.
Here is a very fun song giving you an idea.
Yes rock and roll is alive and kicking still, mainly in Japan. Example:
Hmm, never heard of this outfit Extreme and I’m a certified Life Member Headbanger.
Something tells me that this tune is only a tease of what that guy can do so thanksalotman, I’ll be wasting even more of a nice sunny day checking for more.
Spring is coming, late like last year but it is coming, I promise.
Man I can’t wait for spring. I keep glaring at my motorcycles like it’s their fault. I had planned a few winter camping trips but they never happened and that’s probably why I have cabin fever. Now I’m hoping for a spring hot tent overnight or two but not until the weather mellows. I’m in no mood to deal with two feet of snow “for fun”.
Mushrooms ‘ll be poppin’ inside a month so, we’re closer to the end o’the tunnel. Thanks for the tune.
There is real music being made today. It just isn’t being made by music controlled by the America music industry. All they know is AutoTune and drum machines and the like. But European bands have musicians who can sing, play real instruments well enough to do live shows. And a few of them are great at guitar.
But you won’t find them by listening to the radio.
Why does it feel like I’m watching for a squall line?
Zendo Deb is absolutely right, we have corresponded and agree on a lot of music. Let me start you down the rabbit hole(s). Sabaton, Swedish metal band whose songs a about military history mostly. Blind Guardian, metal band with a great singer. Symphonic metal bands, metal with operatic female vocalists, Nightwish, Epica, Within Temptation, Visions of Atlantis, Therion, etc. Goth metal bands, Lacuna Coil and Mono Inc are hot. Now this just barely scratches the surface there are many more, some gone and some still active. Ayreon is a special case, metal operas with science fiction themes with a star studded line up from many different bands.
Always , always, always seek out the live performances, the crowds add so much to the enjoyment. Here’s one song to start you, Floor Jansen and Simone Simonds doing a live duet in front of Epica’s band and a full orchestra, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLaB_4TmwKM
simply amazing.
Part two?
Not a bad idea but I’ve got other plans. I’ve got two posts half written and they’ll go live when I get my ass in gear and finish them.