Life is what happens when you are making other plans~ John Lennon
An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind~Gandhi
The time is always right to do what is right~ Martin Luther King Jr.


Tuesday, January 19, 2016

For all the Harry Potter fans out there...

This title might catch your eye. For all the Harry Potter fans out there, it's going to shock you to know that Professor Severus Snape, played by awesome actor Alan Rickman, has passed.
His cause of death was said to be pancreatic cancer, a battle that I'm sure hardly anyone knew about.

So to honor his life, watch movies he's starred in and remember him for the awesome actor he was. Luckily his work in the Alice in Wonderland sequel, Through the Looking Glass, was completed before his death. If you've not seen him in the Alice in Wonderland movie, he did the voice of the Blue Caterpillar. His voice is VERY hard to miss. It's immediately recognizable

Filmography
Alice Through the Looking Glass
-The Blue Caterpillar (voice)
Eye in the Sky
-Lt. Gen. Frank Benson
A Little Chaos
-King Louis XIV
CBGB
-Hilly Krystal
A Promise
-Karl Hoffmeister
Lee Daniels' The Butler
-Ronald Reagan
Gambit
-Shabandar
Harry Potter Series
-(I'm just going to say Harry Potter series to save time instead of listing each movie in the series; you already know who he plays if you've seen them, lol)
-Professor Severus Snape
Back at the Barnyard (TV series)
-General Alien (voice)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
-Judge Turpin
Love Actually
-Harry
Blow Dry
-Phil Allen
Dogma
-Metatron
Galaxy Quest
-Alexander Dane
The Judas Kiss
-Det. David Friedman
Michael Collins
-Eamon de Valera
Sense and Sensibility
-Col. Brandon
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
-Sheriff George of Nottingham
The January Man
-Ed
Die Hard
-Hans Gruber

Glenn Hughes: From Deep Purple to Black Country Communion

I recently read this book and I have to say, it was awesome. It wasn't like most rockstar autobiographies; most of those talk about how awesome they became in music, etc.


IDK why, but for his age, he's handsome. Especially when he wears those purple aviator glasses!!
This one about Glenn Hughes tells it like it is. He tells the truth about his various relapses into substance abuse. How he had a heart attack and didn't know what it was. He talked about his relationships, his first marriage to a woman named Karen and how it all fell apart due to his substance abuse issues. He pulls no punches and doesn't deny anything that happened. He also adds little funny random thoughts in here, making it funny in some parts. Like one time after getting his knee operated on, he said he was obliterated out of his mind on painkillers and he was hanging off the second floor balcony of his hotel room in his underwear holding a crutch. He tells that cocaine and speed and whatever other substances he took ruled his life. That when he came down off the drugs, he had an insatiable craving for chocolate. He says that when you come down off drugs, you want something with sugar or fat in it. Because of that, he went into a newsagent one day to get chocolate only to be busted by someone who was supposed to be looking out for him. Not to mention he'll say that when he was high he'd grab a guitar and start singing and playing and writing music. He also adds that the drugs worsened his already hyper personality

He talks about how he ballooned up to 220 lbs and how felt he was unattractive because of his weight. Not to mention, he seems to have a thing for Swedish girls, because two of his relationships were with girls from Sweden. He talks about his love of reading and his interest in spirituality, about finding God and thinking he's saving his life. He credits his sobriety to hard work and God. Which I find incredibly amazing. I've always liked Glenn Hughes; he does amazing covers of songs. I love when he was talking about doing a Christmas album called A Soulful Christmas. He wanted to do it with a soul, R&B, jazz voice and not to do it, to quote him "do it like the rockstars who butchered the Christmas songs". I've listened to that album; pretty good. I'm going to have to go back and listen to more of his stuff now that I read the book.

Throughout the book, you'll see people quoting on him and talking about him. Like his mother Sheila Hughes and father William "Bill" Hughes, Tony Perry, the manager for Trapeze, his first major band, Tony Iommi, when he worked with Glenn on Sabbath's Seventh Star album, various women he was connected with, like Cherrie Curie, who said that when she reconnected with Glenn twenty years after she first met him, she saw him performing on stage and didn't even recognize him because he was overweight when she met him. She described him as a beautiful man with a beautiful voice and was shocked to find out that gorgeous man with a voice like an angel was the man she once knew.

He also says that he describes his drug craze as Jekyll and Hyde. His "Jekyll" side is the kind, sweet, loving Glenn Hughes that everyone loves while the "Hyde" side is the dark demon of his drug abuse, the side that makes him extremely paranoid thanks to the cocaine psychosis and makes him unable to love anyone. Not to mention, one time during one of his drug binges, he managed to set himself on fire, burning his hands and feet. While he was recovering, he went to the funeral of his then wife Karen's father. He says he feels bad about it, that it seemed like it was all about him. He talks about making amends to those he mistreated and that some have long since forgiven him and regained trust in him, which makes him feel good. He also talks about a girlfriend named Christine who berated his parents one day for his behavior. He talks about how his parents mean more to him than precious life itself. Awww. That's so sweet!! Not to mention, his mother and friends all say that he would have been an extremely good, loving father had he not been so far into substance abuse.

In general, he talks about the type of stuff you would find in almost any biography/autobiography. Where he grew up, when he was born, how he got into music, etc. It's a very good book especially if you are a Deep Purple/Glenn Hughes/Trapeze fan!

Monday, January 11, 2016

A Sad Day, A Sad Day Indeed

Most recently, "Ziggy Stardust", "The Thin White Duke", however you refer to him, David Bowie turned 69! How amazing is that?!?!? Not to mention, he also recently released a new album, Blackstar. But I regret to inform all Bowie fans, including myself, that The Thin White Duke, has passed away at the age of 69 on Jan. 10. It was said that he went peacefully and fought courageously from an undisclosed 18 month battle with cancer. His family asks fans to respect his privacy. But I'm sure fans out there will be blasting their Ziggy Stardust and Bowie music as loud as their radios will allow!
Born David Robert Jones on 1/8/1947, he was inspired to go into music thanks to Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti". After that, he took on a devotion to learn all instruments, ranging from piano to ukulele to bass. The song of his that would launch his career, no pun intended, was the 1969 hit "Space Oddity" about the massive hype of space travel

Saturday, January 2, 2016

2015 in review

Since the year is coming to a close, time to look back at all that I have accomplished for this year

I went to my first music festival
-Rock on the Range, an annual hard rock/heavy metal music festival in Columbus, Ohio. It's at formerly Columbus Crew stadium, now MAPFRE Stadium. It's three days of hard rock and heavy metal, like Woodstock on steroids, lol. I got to see Judas Priest and Linkin Park in concert, in addition to tons of up and coming bands. I also got to see Slash with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. I do think I should have seen Priest when they came to the Horseshoe Casino here in Cincinnati the next day, but then my sister wouldn't have gotten to see Linkin Park. I felt better that she could see the band and plus, I got killer pics of the band for her, so she's happy, lol!!! It's a win-win situation: we both got to see our favorite bands and she got to check out Rob Halford and Glenn Tipton, who she will think is cute until they die, lol!

I got my first car
-This happened back in August. I bought my first car. A fire engine red 2007 Chevy Aveo LT hatchback. Of course, when I tried to put in the car seat cover I got for Christmas last year, which was a Kiss Love Gun seat cover, it took me a half hour. Apparently the people who made it didn't think about the fact that some car seats have attached armrests. No matter; I simply put the cover over the armrest. I don't use the armrest anyway.

Bought a book on Phil Collen
-Being a Def Leppard fan since college, I had to read this. Not to mention Phil Collen is, in my opinion, one of the cuter members of Def Leppard. It has nothing to do with his six pack abs. He can be skinny as a rail and I'll still like him! In fact, I have to say that all the guys in Def Leppard are amazingly handsome for their age. Don't want to forget them

Bought a book on Paul Stanley
-I honestly never thought this would happen. After reading the book, I'm glad I bought it. It was a very good book. He seemed very open and honest with himself, even to the point of occasionally putting himself down. After reading about all the bullying he endured because of his ear deformity, it makes me sad to think people are like that. They bully those they see as an easy victim. But he managed to by pass all that and become a musician, a world-famous, award winning musician at that

Saw my first tribute bands
-In September, me and my sister saw our first tribute bands in concert. We never knew there were tribute bands out there. Until now. We saw Highway to Hell, an AC/DC tribute band, at Bogarts, a massive concert venue here in Cincinnati. I have to say-Highway to Hell is THE band to see if you are an AC/DC fan. You'd think the real band was playing with how good these guys are. Not to mention, what's really awesome is that one of the guys in the band, named Rod, who plays guitar, looks EXACTLY like Malcolm Young. Talk about going for authenticity. All looks aside, these guys are amazing. You need to see them if you ever get a chance.
-We also saw Mr. Speed, a Kiss tribute band thanks to free tickets we got after leaving the Highway to Hell concert. Nothing better than free tickets!!!! You put these guys and the original lineup of the real Kiss together, you won't be able to tell the difference. The guys in Mr. Speed and the guys in Kiss' original lineup look alike. There are a few differences here and there. Like in Mr. Speed, Alex Lords, who is supposed to be "Gene Simmons", has a tattoo of a bat against a moon on his right arm while Gene Simmons has no tattoos. Not to mention Mr. Speed has no egos, that we know of. Me and my sister got a picture with the band. But there was a near fight that broke out. Some people ahead of us created their own line and cut everyone and when me and my sister went up to get a picture, one of the women said rudely "I was here first". Thankfully, everyone else thought it was rude of them to do that. Including this man behind us who had his little girl with them. They both had their faces painted like Peter Criss, awesome! It was so cute, so adorable!!!!

Got three tattoos
-I never, in a million years, thought I would ever get a tattoo. But that changed. At the end of last year, I made a promise that I would get a tattoo because I wanted one and it was one thing on my bucket list. And in January of 2015, that happened. I got my peace sign daisy tattoo on my left arm, inspired by the belief that I am a darn hippie, to quote my step-dad and sister and also my love of all things 1960s and 1970s. Then in March I got my geisha tattoo on my right leg, inspired by my love of all things Japanese culture. Then in June, I got a koi fish jumping out of the water with Japanese maple leaves surrounding it.
-My mom thinks that women with too many tattoos is trashy. I don't agree with her; it all comes down to placement. If they are placed in certain spots, yes it looks good. But if they are overlapping each other, then there's a problem, but it all comes down to how you view it. Me and my sister are of the opinion that it's our bodies. We'll do with them what we want. But of course, when I said that I didn't think it was trashy, she said "Okay, go ahead and get tons of tattoos. No guy will want a woman with too many tattoos. You'll probably grow old and die alone because no man is gonna want women covered in ink. It's hillbilly-ish". I tried to be nice about it, but forget it. My mom is VERY opinionated and set in her ways. She will always think she is right. So I don't bother wasting my breath trying to prove something. And she VERY RARELY admits she's wrong! Not to mention, she's also very nosy. If I order something off the internet, she wants to know what it is. If I tell her it's a CD of Dusty Springfield, which I ordered recently for my birthday, she gave me this weird look and said "Why do you like her? She's not even remotely good". I sadly have to lie when it comes to that. Heck, when I bought a few of Iron Maiden's albums recently, she said, with that same stupid look "When did you start listening to them?" And I was honest with her. My supervisor at work listens to them and one day recently when we were not very busy, she saw me listening to my music and said "Caitlin, come here for a second". I honestly thought I was in trouble but she said simply "You like Judas Priest?" After nodding, she said "Listen to these guys. They're really similar to Priest. You might like them". And the song she played was "Flight of Icarus" by Iron Maiden. She must have seen me smiling because I liked the song and said "I take that smile that you like them. That's Iron Maiden. It's their song "Flight of Icarus" from their Piece of Mind album." Anyway, my mom is very set in her ways about everything. She thinks it's some kind of phase I'm going through because I listen to a lot of old metal. It's not a phase; I'm just trying to expand my musical tastes. That also includes some newer bands, like Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch, Sixx A.M., Velvet Revolver, Duff McKagan's Loaded, etc.

January Birthdays

Since it's January, time to say Happy Birthday to the following people

Jeez, it seems like only a few of the people born in this month are not from Britain, lol

Ian Hill
-Birth name: Ian Frank Hill
-DOB: 1/20/1951
-Where: West Bromwich, England
-Best known for playing bass guitar for British metal band Judas Priest
Malcolm Young
-Birth name: Malcolm Mitchell Young
-DOB: 1/6/1953
-Where: Glasgow, Scotland
-Longtime guitarist and co-founding member of AC/DC with brother Angus Young
It still saddens me to know he's not in the band anymore.
Richie Faulkner
-Birth name: Richard Ian Faulkner
-DOB: 1/1/1980
-Where: London, England
-Played with Lauren Harris' band prior to joining Priest
OMG is he beautiful!!!
Paul Stanley
-Birth name: Stanley Bert Eisen
-DOB: 1/20/1952
-Where: Queens, New Yoerk
-Has an older sister named Julia who suffered from severe mental problems
Yup, still cute!
Rod Stewart
-Birth name: Roderick David Stewart
-DOB: 1/10/1945
-Where: Highgate, London, England
-The story that his previous job was as a gravedigger is a myth
Jimmy Page
-Birth name: James Patrick Page
-DOB: 1/9/1944
-Where: Heston, Middlesex, England
-When Led Zeppelin broke up, he wouldn't allow anyone to perform "Stairway to Heaven" because he felt that only one man could truly do it justice-Robert Plant
David Bowie
-Birth name: David Robert Haywood Jones
-DOB: 1/8/1947
-Where: Brixton, London, England
-Despite the fact that one eye looks brown, both his eyes are blue. One pupil happens to be dilated from a fight and looks darker than the other, giving him the impression of having two differently colored eyes
Orlando Bloom
-Birth name: Orlando Jonathan Blanchard Bloom
-DOB: 1/13/1977
-Where: Canterbury, Kent, England
-Because of his role as the elf Legolas in the Lord of the Rings series, he made archery popular in the UK
So cute! Love his accent!
Rowan Atkinson
-Birth name: Rowan Sebastian Atkinson
-DOB: 1/6/1955
-Where: Consett, County Durham, England
-Best known for his two most humorous roles: Mr. Bean and Blackadder
Phil Collins
-Birth name: Phillip David Charles Collins
-DOB: 1/30/1951
-Where: Chiswick, London, England
-When Led Zeppelin performed at Live Aid, he sat in on drums for the late John Bonham
James May
-Birth name: James Daniel May
-DOB: 1/16/1963
-Where: Bristol, England
-Plays piano, flute and saxophone proficiently
Georgia May Jagger
-Birth name: Georgia May Ayeesha Jagger
-DOB: 1/12/1992
-Where: London, England
-Spokesperson for Rimmel London cosmetics
Janick Gers
-Birth name: Janick Robert Gers
-DOB: 1/27/1957
-Where: Hartlepool, England
-Despite playing guitar right handed, he's actually left handed

For all the Motorhead fans out there...

I'm sure the title will catch your attention, especially if you are a Motorhead fan. If you've seen the news recently, you'll quickly find that Ian Fraser Kilmister, better known to the world as 'Lemmy' Kilmister, has passed. When I heard about this, I couldn't believe it. When I read the stories concerning his death, I almost burst into tears. Even though I don't listen to Motorhead, it makes me sad because I know people who do listen to these guys and it feels like the world just got a little colder, with the loss of another good person.

There was no way you could hate him. He never did anything wrong. He was a major charmer with the ladies, which I find awesome. He loved his Jack and Coke, which, I find cool. In a way, I guess I'm showing my support for Lemmy by drinking what he drinks. I propose a toast for Lemmy. The world may have lost you, but the angels now have gained you. Give the angels something to really rock out too. This goes for Motorhead's drummer, Phil Taylor as well. Give the angels some real headbangin' stuff!!
Despite not being considered handsome by most, I really like this picture of him. He's handsome in his own way!
According to Ultimate Classic Rock, Lemmy died from an aggressive cancer on Boxing Day, which is the 28th for those who don't know the date. He was only 70. In today's world, where people are living to their nineties and hundreds, that is considered VERY young!

Not surprisingly, the band commented on the issue, saying they "cannot begin to express our shock and sadness; there aren’t words. We will say more in the coming days, but for now, please … play Motorhead loud, play Hawkwind loud, play Lemmy’s music LOUD. Have a drink or few. Share stories. Celebrate the LIFE this lovely, wonderful man celebrated so vibrantly himself. HE WOULD WANT EXACTLY THAT.” They also revealed how their leader spent his final days: "He had learnt of the disease on December 26th, and was at home, sitting in front of his favorite video game from The Rainbow which had recently made its way down the street, with his family".

This isn't the only one of the many health issues plaguing the Motorhead front man. During the recent summer, he was diagnosed with a lung infection, forcing six shows to be cancelled. In 2013, he suffered from a hematoma and had to be fitted with a defibrillator to fix those problems. He maintained a light, humorous attitude about it. "Apparently, I am still indestructible". As I read that he kept his sense of humor up, it makes me smile.

For those unfamiliar with how he came to earn his notorious moniker, he was always in the habit of bumming money off of people, as in "Lemme a fiver". After seeing The Beatles play at the Cavern Club in Liverpool at 16, he knew what he wanted to do-guitar. After doing stints with bands like The Rockin' Vickers, the Motown Sect and the Rainmakers, he moved to London in 1967 to try and establish a career in music. His more famous work would include working as a roadie for the Jimi Hendrix Experience before moving on to work with psychedelic rockers Sam Gopal in 1968

In 1972, he joined Hawkwind, the famous British sci-fi rock band before getting fired in 1975 for possession of drugs on tour. During his stint with the band, he appeared on four of the band's albums playing bass guitar: he played on Doremi Fasol Latido and Space Ritual. He even managed to sing lead on one of Hawkwind's best known songs, "Silver Machine". With that music bug still biting, he set in motion plans for a new band. Forming this band with former Pink Fairies guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox. The band was dubbed "Bastard" and later changed their name to "Motorhead" after the slang term for meth users. Their debut single was "On Parole", which was the final song Lemmy recorded with Hawkwind

To this day, Motorhead's most successful albums include Overkill, Ace of Spades, Bomber. The era when these albums were released was topped off by the highly successful No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith, in an era when live albums were beginning to become successful. These are some pretty impressive stats considering Motorhead was often labeled "the worst band in the world". They can be too bad if tons of people worldwide are jamming to these guys every second of every day of every year and are mourning the loss of the iconic metal legend. Despite numerous lineup changes and the speed and thrash metal movement arising, Motorhead still remained kings of metal!


RIP Ian Fraser Kilmister, aka "Lemmy" Kilmister. You will be extremely missed!