Law and Order: SVU

 One of my favorite shows. I love watching shows about criminal justice. It's one of my biggest interests.

Summary

-This show follows the work of the Special Victims Unit, whose detectives are trained in the work of sexual crimes

Cast

-Mariska Hargitay: Olivia Benson

-Christopher Meloni: Elliott Stabler

-Ice-T: Odafin "Fin" Tutuola

-Richard Belzer: John Munch

-B.D. Wong: Dr. George Huang

-Tamara Tunie: Dr. Melinda Warner

-Dann Florek: Capt. Donald Cragen

-Kelli Giddish: Amanda Rollins

-Raul Esparza: Rafael Barba

-Diane Neal: Casey Novak

-Stephanie March: Alexander Cabot

-Danny Pino: Nick Amaro

Did You Know?

-Mariska Hargitay, who plays Det. Olivia Benson, is a fully trained rape crisis counselor when she's not acting

-In 2004, Mariska Hargitay created a foundation called The Joyful Heart Foundation. This organization is dedicated to help heal survivors of sexual crimes and start testing the overwhelming amount of untested rape kits and processing the overwhelming amount of unprocessed rape cases

-In an article in TV Guide, many survivors of sexual assault/abuse have approached cast members to personally thank them for showing their stories correctly on TV

-Richard Belzer, who played Det. John Munch, has carried his character over from Homicide: Life on the Street, from 1993, the 2000-era film called Homicide: The Movie and on Law & Order, where he played Det. John Munch. He had several crossover appearances as this character, ranging from an episode of The X-Files to an episode of The Beat, to an episode of Law & Order: Trial by Jury to the season three finale of Arrested Development and an episode of The Wire.

-Originally contracted to only appear in four episodes, Ice-T enjoyed appearing on the show so much he asked to become a permanent member of the cast

-Mariska Hargitay's real life husband, Peter Hermann, who plays Defense Attorney Trevor Langan, appeared in 33 episodes

-On Mariska Hargitay's desk is a photo of her real life mother, Jayne Mansfield

-Prior to landing her role as Det. Amanda Rollins, Kelli Giddish appeared as a rape victim named Kara Bawson in the 2007 season 8, episode 12 "Outsider"

-Det. Fin Tutuola's last name means "the gentle one" in Yoruba

-Two years prior to appearing as Casey Novak, actress Diane Neal appeared on the show in an episode as a woman accused of raping a male stripper

-Out of all the assistant district attorneys the show has had, which were all female, Raul Esparza, who plays Rafael Barba, is the first male assistant district attorney

-Season nine was said to have the largest number of main cast members in the show's entire history. The cast consisted of Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni, Richard Belzer, Diane Neal, Ice-T, Adam Beach, B.D. Wong, Dann Florek, Tamara Tunie

-This show is the longest running spinoff of the original 1990 Law & Order series. Other shows in this large group include Law & Order (1990), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001), Law & Order: Trial by Jury (2005), Law & Order: UK (2009), Law & Order: LA (20107), Law & Order: True Crime (2017)

-Olivia and Elliott were named after producer Dick Wolf's children

-From season one to season twelve, episode four "Merchandise", the precinct scenes were filmed in North Bergen, New Jersey. After this episode aired, the precinct scenes started getting filmed to the Chelsea Piers section of Manhattan, which was where the precinct scenes for the original Law & Order were filmed

-Several of the main characters had served in the military at one point or another. Dr. Warner (Tamara Tunie) had been in the Air Force, Det. Stabler (Christopher Meloni) was in the Marines, Captain Cragen was in the Green Berets, which was mentioned on an episode of Law & Order and Det. Tutuola was an Army Ranger

-Gary Sinise was the first choice to play Det. Elliott Stabler. But Christopher Meloni accepted, freeing Sinise to later appear as New York City crime scene investigator Det. Mac Taylor on CSI: NY and later as Senior FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jack Garrett on Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders

-In season fourteen, Det. Olivia Benson is seen wearing a necklace that looks a little like a small dogtag of a design seen earlier in the show. She received it from her psychiatrist after she was kidnapped and tortured, where the original model had been kept in evidence

-Longtime viewers often wondered about the sexuality of the show's resident psychologist, Dr. George Huang (B.D. Wong). His homosexuality was not confirmed until the episode "Hardwired", from season eleven, episode five.

-In real life, New York City does have a Special Victims Unit, but it's called Special Victims Division

-The show bases many episodes on real life events. One episode, "Glasgowman's Wrath", was based on the 2014 case "The Slenderman Stabbing" in Wisconsin. The show also brings awareness to concepts such as fat shaming, anti-vaccine people, cyberbullying, teen pregnancy pacts, human trafficking.

-Jeremy Irons started appearing as Dr. Captain "Cap" Jackson, a self-proclaimed sex addict who was changing his ways and tried and later succeeded in earning trust from Benson and Stabler. He helped them in a child molestation/murder case. The character admitted he slept with his lesbian daughter's object of affection, who came with them on a summer vacation. This similar situation also happened in the 1990s film Lolita, where he played a character named Humbert. He was a well-educated man with a strong, uncontrollable lust for his teenaged stepdaughter

-Many times during the trial, the person on the stand is asked if they recognize the person they're there on behalf of. The ADA will then say "Let the record reflect the witness has identified the defendant." In real life trials, the person testifying is asked to identify where the defendant is sitting and what they're wearing to provide accurate information

At the End of the Day: The Story of the Blaze Bayley Band

 I just officially finished reading this book via e-book version. At first, I was hesitant to read it; I didn't know if I would like it. I didn't want to be like those Iron Maiden fans that only read this to see what the days of Blaze were like in Maiden. I'm thankful that I am genuinely curious about his solo career. But so far, this book is great. It has funny moments and sad moments. It's written by the band's second drummer, Lawrence Paterson. The book is written in two styles-the first half of the book covers Blaze's early life, with bands Wolfsbane and Iron Maiden and the second half covers the first incarnations of the Blaze Bayley band and random thoughts by various band members who have passed through the various lineups. All in all, a good book

-Born Bayley Alexander Cooke on 5/29/1963 in Birmingham, England, Blaze went through what he would call "a family that is not complete". In other words, his parents divorced. Divorce is a word he doesn't like to use; most likely because he might find it odd or disrespectful or such. He went to live with his father, a burgeoning actor, when he was 16. Of course, being in the performing arts, it was only natural that, in some way, this would rub off on the young Bayley Cooke

-Young Blaze and his friends would create stupid nicknames for each other since it was the waning era of glam rock when he and his friends got into music. Someone suggested Blaze and it stuck. There were times in the band Wolfsbane when one of the band members would need a guardian, of a sort, to look after them and they ended up pointing to Blaze, most likely since he was probably the oldest. Which is strange because he was 5'5'' and the rest of the band members were over 6'. He joined Wolfsbane in 1984 and stayed with them until it seemed like they had reached their limits. In the 1990s, Iron Maiden was on the hunt for a new vocalist, as Bruce Dickinson had left to pursue a solo career. But, Bruce would have the last word over the split from Maiden. He had started mouthing off about Steve and the rest of Maiden in the media. When Blaze did leave Maiden, he promised that he would not do what the other guy did and that's mouth off about Maiden. He left on a good note and to this day, Blaze and the rest of Maiden are still the best of friends

-Some of the funny moments from the book include Blaze going to Steve Harris' house in Essex and being greeted by Steve's massive Great Danes. To get to the audition, he borrowed his girlfriend's Ford Fiesta. Upon reaching his house, he didn't realize that after he got out, Steve's dogs relieved themselves near Blaze's car. He stepped in their mess and unbeknownst to him, he tracked that mess through Steve's house. Blaze laughs at the thought and he thought "That's it; I'm bloody fired!" Steve and Blaze spent the first hour of their new writing session cleaning dog mess out of the carpets

-Another hysterical moment came when he had formed the Blaze Bayley band and they had gone to rural England to record one of their albums. The house, which was owned by one of the band members, had a roving army of chickens out front that could only be pacified with food. One of the band members, Dave Bermudez, who's from Columbia, forgot about pacifying the chickens with peanuts and was forced to flee the hungry poultry invaders. Another hysterical moment is when the band went to South America and they were offered a barbecue on the beach. They were starving and joking about which band member they would eat. All eyes went to Blaze because as one band member put it, "He had more rations and we would become more famous".

-More hysterical moments come from various band members describing the tales of a working metal band, travelling via the various airlines. Apparently, the thorn in the side of the Blaze Bayley Band as far as airlines goes is Ryan Air, out of Ireland. One band member called them Leprechaun Airways and described the stewardesses with descriptions that were crazy-person-laughing worthy. This band member described one stewardess as yelling everything as if in a crisis. He said "I would love to have seen her in a real emergency". He also describes the process of getting your luggage through customs, calling some of the airlines who charge for luggage Luggage Nazis.

-In addition to the woes of the various airlines and luggage-weighing patrols at the airport just waiting to tack on additional charges for luggage, various band members describe the venues they played. At one concert in Russia, the band's dressing room was a tent set up over waist high grass. They could catch frogs if they wanted to in their dressing room. Or how some places didn't have working toilets. This would backfire as an unnamed band member had a sudden gastrointestinal attack and needed the solace of white porcelain. Another moment describes the band going out for a curry somewhere in England and hitting up Burger King later. Apparently food poisoning was the order of the day; the King had his revenge and he chose Blaze as the primary recipient. Blaze was sick almost as soon as he left the stage

-Something I didn't know was that Blaze was married. He had married a woman named Debbie, who he known for a long time. Debbie had convinced Blaze to go back into music after leaving Iron Maiden. He was working a dead end job just to make ends meet and he was suffering from clinical depression. She did, however, laugh at the fact he was arrested for assaulting someone in a hardware store, where he was working at the time. He had encountered a customer who proceeded to call him fat, ugly, among other names. Blaze leaped over the counter to start assaulting the guy and, of course, the cops were called. He told the police "Don't let me see him. If I see him, I'm just going to go after him again". He said that she had helped him out of a dark time in his life and it sounds like she was not only his wife and manager, but best friend.

-Debbie ended up becoming manager of the now known Blaze Bayley Band. She would act as manager for them and one day, after a gig, she complained of a headache. She was taken to hospital and put in a medically induced coma. The cause was said to be a massive aneurysm. All of the band members were worried about her, Blaze more than anyone. Especially considering she was his wife. After a few weeks, she seemed to turn for the better, making progress and was even doing physiotherapy. Whenever Blaze could, he visited her in the hospital and played music for her on headphones. The Blaze Bayley song "When You Were Gone" is about her. It's said to be one of the more popular songs from this band. But then, she took a turn for the worse and ended up succumbing to her brain aneurysm, which caused subdural bleeding, which couldn't be stopped. When she died, everyone was stricken with grief. They had lost not only their manager, best friend who made them laugh until they cry and whipped them into shape as a band, but their own singer's wife. At the funeral, Steve Harris had flown in to pay his respects to Debbie and be there for Blaze. A lot of people, including Blaze's band members and even Blaze himself, thought that was incredibly sweet. But Steve is as nice a person as ever. He wanted to be there for his friend during his time of need.

-After Debbie passed, the band needed new management and was able to get a new manager. But this lady would last as long as she could without enduring the stress of managing a band. She said that it all became too much for her, even though all the guys were decent, down to earth people.

April Birthdays

 Since it's April, time to say Happy Birthday

Jet Li

-Birth name: Li Lian-jie

-DOB: 4/26/1963

-Where: Beijng, China

-Known for performing martial arts extremely fast

Ritchie Blackmore

-Birth name: Richard Hugh Blackmore

-DOB: 4/14/1945

-Where: Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, England

-He is known for rarely giving interviews, as he is said to be intensely private

Peter Davison

-Birth name: Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett

-DOB: 4/13/1951

-Where: Streatham, London, England

-His mother was born in India because his father was serving as a British Army officer stationed in Calcutta at the time

Paul Nicholls

-Birth name: Gerald Paul Greenhalgh

-DOB: 4/12/1979

-Where: Bolton, Greater Manchester, England

-His father was a roofer and his mother was a psychiatric nurse

Jeremy Clarkson

-Birth name: Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson

-DOB: 4/11/1960

-Where: Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England

-He is known on Top Gear for his extraordinary reactions

Jamie Bamber

-Birth name: Jamie St. John Bamber Griffith

-DOB: 4/3/1973

-Where: Hammersmith, London, England

-Spoke with a perfect American accent on Battlestar Galactica. In fact, since Edward James Olmos played the father of Bamber's character, Lee 'Apollo' Adama, Olmos had to wear blue contact lenses to make his eyes appear blue, like Bamber's

Eddie Murphy

-Birth name: Edward Regan Murphy

-DOB: 4/3/1961

-Where: Brooklyn, New York

-Known for his goofy laugh and funny facial expressions

Sebastian Bach

-Birth name: Sebastian Phillip Bierk

-DOB: 4/3/1968

-Where: Freeport, The Bahamas

-Out of his entire school class in The Bahamas, he was the only Caucasian student

March Birthdays

 Since it's March, time to say Happy Birthday!

Michael Imperioli

-Birth name: James Michael Imperioli

-DOB: 3/26/1966

-Where: Mount Vernon, New York

-In 2003, he took up taekwondo to help him quit smoking

Steve Harris

-Birth name: Stephen Percy Harris

-DOB: 3/12/1956

-Where: Leytonstone, London, England

-During the writing of 1995's The X Factor, Steve, who is usually the primary songwriter, had been undergoing massive amounts of stress at the time, leading to an overly ominous tone on many of the album's songs. This led the album to be more adult oriented than geared towards all ages

Elizabeth Jagger

-Birth name: Elizabeth Scarlet Jagger

-DOB: 3/2/1984

-Where: New York City, New York

-Has a half brother named Lucas

Carrie Underwood

-Birth name: Carrie Marie Underwood

-DOB: 3/10/1983

-Where: Muskogee, Oklahoma

-She gained fame in music from appearing on American Idol

Michael Caine

-Birth name: Maurice Joseph Mickelwhite

-DOB: 3/14/1933

-Where: Rotherhithe, London, England

-Served in the British Army during the Korean War

Elton John

-Birth name: Reginald Kenneth Dwight

-DOB: 3/25/1947

-Where: Harrow, London, England

-He suffered from drug and alcohol addiction in addition to bulimia. He also suffers from epilepsy

Dee Snider

-Birth name: Daniel Dee Snider

-DOB: 3/15/1955

-Where: Massapequa, Long Island, New York

-Shares a birthday with Bret Michaels of Poison

Eric Idle

-DOB: 3/29/1943

-Where: South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England

-In 2002, he beat Charles Barkley and Martha Stewart on the celebrity edition of Jeopardy!

Freema Agyeman

-DOB: 3/20/1979

-Where: London, England

-In 2000, she graduated with a BA in performing arts from Middlesex University. She also took courses in theatre at Radford University in Radford, Virginia in 1998

Gary Oldman

-Birth name: Gary Leonard Oldman

-DOB: 3/21/1958

-Where: New Cross, London, England

-One of his best known roles is that of Sex Pistols member Sid Vicious in the biopic Sid & Nancy

Angus Young

-Birth name: Angus McKinnon Young

-DOB: 3/31/1955

-Where: Glasgow, Scotland

-Does not consume any alcohol

February Birthdays

 Since it's February, time to say Happy Birthday!

Tony Iommi

-Birth name: Anthony Frank Iommi

-DOB: 2/19/1948

-Where: Aston, Birmingham, England

-Is the only member of Black Sabbath to have appeared on every album

Duff McKagan

-Birth name: Michael Andrew McKagan

-DOB: 2/5/1964

-Where: Seattle, Washington

-On 5/10/1994, he had a near death experience when his pancreas exploded. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors connected this to prolonged abuse of drugs and alcohol. Doctors told he needed to change his lifestyle and he's been sober ever since

Rod Smallwood

-Birth name: Roderick Charles Smallwood

-DOB: 2/17/1950

-Where: Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England

-Initially, he didn't want to go back into managing bands after having a rough time with former band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel. He initially thought about pursuing a law degree when someone gave him an EP for an up and coming band called Iron Maiden. After listening to it, he reconsidered music management and chose to become their manager, which he's been doing since then

Adrian Smith

-Birth name: Adrian Frederick Smith

-DOB: 2/27/1957

-Where: Hackney, London, England

-Is goof friends with Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen

Alice Cooper

-Birth name: Vincent Damon Furnier

-DOB: 2/4/1948

-Where: Detroit, Michigan

-He plays golf to keep himself sober

Steve Irwin

-Birth name: Stephen Robert Irwin

-DOB: 2/22/1962

-Where: Victoria, Australia

-DOD: 9/4/2006

-Where: Queensland, Australia

-In January 2004, he almost faced child endangerment charges when he was holding, in one arm, his then one month old son Robert and using his other hand to feed a 13' crocodile. Steve and his wife Terri claimed and proved that no one was in danger

Matt Groening

-Birth name: Matt Abram Groening

-DOB: 2/15/1954

-Where: Portland, Oregon

-He is the creator of the famed cartoon series The Simpsons

George Harrison

-DOB: 2/25/1943

-Where: Arnold Grove, Liverpool, England

-DOD: 11/29/2001

-Where: Los Angeles, California

-Discovered Hinduism in the late 60s, early 70s and was a fervent follower until his death. In fact, one of the last things he did before he died was take a special trip to India and went to all the special places in the Hindu religion and even bathed in the Ganges River

Vince Neil

-Birth name: Vincent Neil Wharton

-DOB: 2/8/1961

-Where: Los Angeles, California

-He punched Guns 'N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin at the MTV Music Awards on 9/11/1989. Stradlin suffered a cut lip from one of Vince's rings

Rachel Bolan

-Birth name: James Richard Southworth

-DOB: 2/9/1963

-Where: Toms River, New Jersey

-He's a big punk fan, especially of bands like The Ramones and The Sex Pistols

Henry Rollins

-Birth name: Henry Lawrence Garfield

-DOB: 2/13/1961

-Where: Washington, D.C.

-In December 1991, he was sharing a house with his good friend Joe Cole, son of actor Dennis Cole, when the house was broken into. The robbers shot and killed Cole and to this day, this case remains unsolved

Rickey Medlocke

-DOB: 2/17/1950

-Where: Jacksonville, Florida

-Had a short stint with Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1971-1972. But he's mostly known for being the frontman/guitarist for Southern rockers Blackfoot

Billie Joe Armstrong

-DOB: 2/17/1972

-Where: Oakland, California

-He wrote the Green Day song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" as a tribute to his father, who died of esophageal cancer on 9/10/1982

Johnny Van Zandt

-Birth name: Johnny Roy Van Zandt

-DOB: 2/277/1960

-Where: Birmingham, Alabama

-He is the younger brother of Lynyrd Skynyrd founding member and vocalist Ronnie Van Zandt and brother of .38 Special vocalist Donnie Van Zandt