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| Hahahaha. This is my grandmother's Aussie Shepherd/Collie mix Abby to a T! |
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| Awwwww, a baby skunk!!! |
Sunday, June 28, 2020
More funny dog photos
Since everyone is under lockdown for coronavirus (COVID-19), I think it's high time to get more funny dog photos under way. These adorable fuzzy angels bring nothing but joy, laughter, giggles, confusion and more to us. They certainly confuse us when they do things you have to stop and wonder about. But even that brings a smile to our faces. And some of the captions are so true if you either had a dog, have a dog or know a dog.
Funny Dog Pictures
Who can resist these big and little and all size in between cuddly angels? Dogs are here to bring us joy, laughs, giggles and love and more. And sometimes they do stuff that leaves us wondering "What is wrong with you?"
https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/hilarious-memes-for-dog-lovers/
https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/hilarious-memes-for-dog-lovers/
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| "They went that way" |
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| Before and after photos of this dog being called a good boy |
Joe Elliott says he's having vocal issues
The longtime Def Leppard vocalist says that in recent months, he's been having vocal problems. He says that when he became sick in 2016, he worked for five long months to try and save his voice. Def Leppard was forced to cancel some dates because of this particular issue
Fellow band mate, guitarist Vivian Campbell was quoted as saying that if he didn't stop performing, he could risk "irreparable damage" to his vocal cords. In an interview with The Express, Elliott mentioned "We did one of those rock cruises, and I had to pull out. I introduced the band and then watched from the side." Watching other singers fill in for him, he recalled "This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen."
From the same interview, he said "I took a five-day break thinking "This has always sorted me out in the past." It didn't have to cancel a tour. ...I had to take five months of working every single day for an hour or two with my vocal coach, who's also a shrink in many respects."
This coach had some strong positive, uplifting words for Elliott. He helped Elliott believe he could resolve the issues, but "it took a long, long, long time." The job description didn't include teaching Joe Elliott how to sing, but it did include how "not to use your voice."
Joe was warned that it might not work out, despite the fact the situation seemed to be resolving itself. "When I got pneumonia and I got the hundred-day cough, it totally destroyed my vocal cords, to the point where my throat doctor said to me "If you weren't you, I'd tell you to retire because this is never going to get better."" Thankfully it did work out. Elliott says "It's stronger than it used to be, best it's ever been."
From the same interview, he said "I took a five-day break thinking "This has always sorted me out in the past." It didn't have to cancel a tour. ...I had to take five months of working every single day for an hour or two with my vocal coach, who's also a shrink in many respects."
This coach had some strong positive, uplifting words for Elliott. He helped Elliott believe he could resolve the issues, but "it took a long, long, long time." The job description didn't include teaching Joe Elliott how to sing, but it did include how "not to use your voice."
Joe was warned that it might not work out, despite the fact the situation seemed to be resolving itself. "When I got pneumonia and I got the hundred-day cough, it totally destroyed my vocal cords, to the point where my throat doctor said to me "If you weren't you, I'd tell you to retire because this is never going to get better."" Thankfully it did work out. Elliott says "It's stronger than it used to be, best it's ever been."
16 Amazing Facts about Ritchie Blackmore
Everyone who either listens to Deep Purple/Rainbow or at least has some semblance of knowledge about "The Man in Black" has their own theories about who he is or how they think they know everything about him. Here are some facts you may or may not know about "The Man in Black".
BTW, even though it says 16, the person who compiled these facts put 14 twice!
https://www.needsomefun.net/ritchie-blackmore-facts/
https://www.needsomefun.net/ritchie-blackmore-facts/
1. His full name is Richard Hugh Blackmore
2. He was born on April 14, 1945 in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England to Violet and Lewis Blackmore
3. His father gave him his first guitar when he turned 11. He often rode to a guitar tutor on his bicycle, making a long almost 6 mile trek from there to home
8. In 2004, he was ranked #16 on the Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time by Guitar World
9. April 2016 marks the year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Deep Purple
10. Blackmore gives credit to fellow guitar legend Eric Clapton for helping him to develop his own style of guitar playing and use of vibrato in 1968 or 1969
11. Robert Walser, a famous musicologist defined Ritchie Blackmore as "the most important musician of the emerging metal/classic fusion" in 1993
12. Ritchie derived the name of his post-Deep Purple band Rainbow in part from the famed Rainbow Bar and Grill, a legendary music hangout on LA's Sunset Strip
13. He was once quoted as saying "I like popular music - I like ABBA very much."
14. According to Rolling Stone Magazine's 2011 "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", he comes in at #50
15. Guitar World ranked "Highway Star" and "Lazy" at #19 and #74 on, presumably, list of good guitar solos
16. Blackmore said he picked up the guitar because he wanted to be like Tommy Steele
17. He is credited as an inspiration and precursor to the so-called "guitar shredders" that came to fame in the mid-1980s
A few additional facts...
-He was married three times. His first wife was a German woman named Margrit Volkmar. He was married to her from 1964-1969. His second wife was Amy Rothman, the daughter of a prominent Long Island, New York doctor. He was married to her from 1981-1983. His third wife is Candice Isralow or Candice Night, which is her stage name. He met her in the mid 1990s at a soccer game, where they became fast friends and he only recently married her, in 2008. About six months into the relationship is when the romance was said to have started
-He has three kids. His oldest son, Jurgen, with whom he is estranged. He also has a daughter named Autumn Esmerelda and Rory Dartanyan, both of whom he had with Candice
-He is the youngest of two kids. He has an older brother named Paul
-In 1971, he suffered a massive breakdown. It was during the Machine Head tour that he suffered from a massive emotional breakdown. He was not at rehearsal and one of the roadies was sent to look for him. They found him in his room, in the corner, crying. When the roadie managed to find out what was going on, he babbled about constantly being on the move, not staying still for long and all the pressure of touring. The roadie got him to a doctor, but all Ritchie could do was cry. The doctor prescribed tranquilizers and he spent much of the 1971 tour zoned out on tranquilizers to battle his depression
-He became known as the master of pranks because when he first started working. It was at the London Airport when he was 16. He worked with the radios, despite not having technical knowledge. He was sent to fix the radio on one airplane, and of course, had no idea how to fix it. It took some time and the pilot figured out Ritchie didn't know what he was doing. Come to find out, his coworkers had set him up as a prank and were in stitches. From then on, he would become the master of pranks and ensure no one got the better of him. But over the years, people pulled pranks on him, but it seemed to backfire.
-What initially drew him to Ronnie James Dio was his amazing singing voice. After talking, the two discovered a love of the same period in time-Renaissance, Medieval. Essentially the first lineup of Rainbow was the band Elf; some of the members were fired, but Ronnie was kept and Ritchie played guitar
2. He was born on April 14, 1945 in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, England to Violet and Lewis Blackmore
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| 4. His guitar tutor was none other than then-legendary musician Big Jim Sullivan. He taught young Ritchie how to use all his fingers, including his thumbs |
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5. Prior to forming Deep Purple, Ritchie had used a Hofner Club 50 guitar and a Gibson ES-335, but from 1970-1997, he used a white Fender Stratocaster
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6. In the 2009 biopic Telstar, Mathew Baynton played Ritchie
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7. He joined Deep Purple in 1968 after accepting an invitation from Chris Curtis
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9. April 2016 marks the year he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Deep Purple
10. Blackmore gives credit to fellow guitar legend Eric Clapton for helping him to develop his own style of guitar playing and use of vibrato in 1968 or 1969
11. Robert Walser, a famous musicologist defined Ritchie Blackmore as "the most important musician of the emerging metal/classic fusion" in 1993
12. Ritchie derived the name of his post-Deep Purple band Rainbow in part from the famed Rainbow Bar and Grill, a legendary music hangout on LA's Sunset Strip
13. He was once quoted as saying "I like popular music - I like ABBA very much."
14. According to Rolling Stone Magazine's 2011 "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time", he comes in at #50
15. Guitar World ranked "Highway Star" and "Lazy" at #19 and #74 on, presumably, list of good guitar solos
16. Blackmore said he picked up the guitar because he wanted to be like Tommy Steele
A few additional facts...
-He was married three times. His first wife was a German woman named Margrit Volkmar. He was married to her from 1964-1969. His second wife was Amy Rothman, the daughter of a prominent Long Island, New York doctor. He was married to her from 1981-1983. His third wife is Candice Isralow or Candice Night, which is her stage name. He met her in the mid 1990s at a soccer game, where they became fast friends and he only recently married her, in 2008. About six months into the relationship is when the romance was said to have started
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| Ritchie Blackmore and Amy Rothman |
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| Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night |
-He is the youngest of two kids. He has an older brother named Paul
-In 1971, he suffered a massive breakdown. It was during the Machine Head tour that he suffered from a massive emotional breakdown. He was not at rehearsal and one of the roadies was sent to look for him. They found him in his room, in the corner, crying. When the roadie managed to find out what was going on, he babbled about constantly being on the move, not staying still for long and all the pressure of touring. The roadie got him to a doctor, but all Ritchie could do was cry. The doctor prescribed tranquilizers and he spent much of the 1971 tour zoned out on tranquilizers to battle his depression
-What initially drew him to Ronnie James Dio was his amazing singing voice. After talking, the two discovered a love of the same period in time-Renaissance, Medieval. Essentially the first lineup of Rainbow was the band Elf; some of the members were fired, but Ronnie was kept and Ritchie played guitar
Saturday, June 20, 2020
Priest or Maiden?
It's almost always a given. There's always going to be a competition between bands. You can like one band, but not the other. You can't like both. That's what the typical situations always seem to be. You can't like both Metallica AND Megadeth. It's one or the other. That's the way it seems with Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. It's one or the other. I like both. Simply put!
KK Downing talks about the healthy competition between Midlands legends Judas Priest and London metallers Iron Maiden.
In an interview with YouTube interview Metal Wani, he said "We were quite ahead of those guys. I'm really glad that Iron Maiden have been successful and did what they did." He was asked to look back on the early days of Judas Priest, during the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and think whether there was "a lot of rivalry" between Priest and up-and-comers Iron Maiden. In the same interview, Downing notes "No, I think we were way ahead of those guys. You know, we released our first album, 1974's Rocka Rolla, in the early 1970s, so we were already a headlining act, we'd already done TV shows and stuff like that. And then they were a new band, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, together with Def Leppard, I guess; Saxon, maybe and Diamond Head and some other bands. There weren't that many, really when you think about it. But, no, we were just finishing up the 1980 album British Steel album and Iron Maiden were to support us on our British tour and I've never heard of them, but there was rivalry because they made announcements to the press that they were going to blow the bollocks off Judas Priest, you know?"
He also noted "They kind of looked like us, but it was that rivalry to start with. Obviously, the guys were young, they were full of energy and enthusiasm. The guys went on, obviously, became a great band. I'm really glad that Iron Maiden have been successful and did what they did because when people think of heavy metal at the top: Sabbath, Priest, they'll say Maiden and not too many other bands. So if you take Maiden out of there, you got Priest and Sabbath, who else are you going to put in the top three?"
Metal Wani asked "When you were looking back and revisiting some of those memories, you've got this incredible catalog of music that you've created, was there any particular song or album that jumped out that you're most proud of?"
KK Downing replied "Well, no. Yngwie Malmsteen, he was asked a similar question and he says "All of my albums, they're my children, they're my babies." It's a very good answer, really, because we do feel like that, you know? Obviously some of the fans have their favorites, but to us, they're kind of big parts of our lives because we did the writing, the recording, the touring, you know, making videos with those, even the less successful ones. I think if I were to pick one out, I would probably pick 1976's Sad Wings of Destiny, British Steel, 1982's Screaming for Vengeance was our biggest-selling album. I would probably include 1984's Defenders of the Faith."
As a final note, he added "1990's Painkiller was a very important album, really, not just for the band, but in the genre of what we do. It was a turning point for 1990...
"In the '90s, it all got kind of darker, musically, and we started to take on the darker, heavier, thrash metal, death metal, speed metal, industrial metal, there's that many different types of metal. So I was thinking "What are these guys trying to do, burry classic metal into the ground?" That was kind of happening in a way, and then classic metal started to come back."
KK Downing talks about the healthy competition between Midlands legends Judas Priest and London metallers Iron Maiden.
In an interview with YouTube interview Metal Wani, he said "We were quite ahead of those guys. I'm really glad that Iron Maiden have been successful and did what they did." He was asked to look back on the early days of Judas Priest, during the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and think whether there was "a lot of rivalry" between Priest and up-and-comers Iron Maiden. In the same interview, Downing notes "No, I think we were way ahead of those guys. You know, we released our first album, 1974's Rocka Rolla, in the early 1970s, so we were already a headlining act, we'd already done TV shows and stuff like that. And then they were a new band, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, together with Def Leppard, I guess; Saxon, maybe and Diamond Head and some other bands. There weren't that many, really when you think about it. But, no, we were just finishing up the 1980 album British Steel album and Iron Maiden were to support us on our British tour and I've never heard of them, but there was rivalry because they made announcements to the press that they were going to blow the bollocks off Judas Priest, you know?"
He also noted "They kind of looked like us, but it was that rivalry to start with. Obviously, the guys were young, they were full of energy and enthusiasm. The guys went on, obviously, became a great band. I'm really glad that Iron Maiden have been successful and did what they did because when people think of heavy metal at the top: Sabbath, Priest, they'll say Maiden and not too many other bands. So if you take Maiden out of there, you got Priest and Sabbath, who else are you going to put in the top three?"
Metal Wani asked "When you were looking back and revisiting some of those memories, you've got this incredible catalog of music that you've created, was there any particular song or album that jumped out that you're most proud of?"
KK Downing replied "Well, no. Yngwie Malmsteen, he was asked a similar question and he says "All of my albums, they're my children, they're my babies." It's a very good answer, really, because we do feel like that, you know? Obviously some of the fans have their favorites, but to us, they're kind of big parts of our lives because we did the writing, the recording, the touring, you know, making videos with those, even the less successful ones. I think if I were to pick one out, I would probably pick 1976's Sad Wings of Destiny, British Steel, 1982's Screaming for Vengeance was our biggest-selling album. I would probably include 1984's Defenders of the Faith."
As a final note, he added "1990's Painkiller was a very important album, really, not just for the band, but in the genre of what we do. It was a turning point for 1990...
"In the '90s, it all got kind of darker, musically, and we started to take on the darker, heavier, thrash metal, death metal, speed metal, industrial metal, there's that many different types of metal. So I was thinking "What are these guys trying to do, burry classic metal into the ground?" That was kind of happening in a way, and then classic metal started to come back."