Happy New Year!!! Welcome to 2018! 'The Year We Make Contact'

Happy New Year folks! Hope you all had a wonderful evening....

When it comes to new year's eve, I'm a bit of a 'Scrooge'... Some people dislike Christmas, well I dislike new years... Not because it's the beginning of a new year and the end of an old... Just the ritual of the evening, is what I don't dig. I don't drink, a lot of my friends do and I love my friends, but being a non-drinker (due to my arthritis meds, not a real choice), though, those who know me, know I wasn't a big 'partier' or 'drinker'. It's just hard when you're not on that level and everyone in the room is...The biggest thing I don't like is this cities taxi service, which on a good day is a long wait. I swear the city has like 4 taxis/company! Years before, and I'm impatient when I want to go home, I'd get home at like 4AM because you just couldn't get a taxi! It's annoying... So I'm cool to ring in the new year with Elsa.
Although tonight, I had wanted to tune in and see some Canadian celebrations... CBC for the Maritimes had a half an hour slot dedicated to the new year for us back here (I imagine it's that way for each province), then it was back to mundane CBC shows...

Anyhow, enough bitchin'! SO, I was tuning into the tv and i saw a couple of Canadian celebrities talking about how awful 2017 was for everyone, it was a "horrible year", they said. I don't share that view. Sure I've had some awful events in my life, but I get on with it, I don't dwell on the negativity like that.
Sure Trumps president, sure people arn't happy with Trudeau. Sure North Korea's being belligerent, sure there's still awful things happening on the planet.
But get on with it, get over it, if you want 2017 to be a great year, then make it a great year. You're in the driver's seat. Make it a great year by your own power, by yourself, for yourself or for you and your loved ones. Let go of the hate and the sadness and realize that you're alive and have a roof over your head, you've got power (electrical) if you're reading. Be happy to be alive and "revel in your time" (original 'Blade Runner' quote).
If you want this year and every year to be a great one. Then make it happen. It's up to you!

Season's Greetings!

Well that was a great Christmas. A few days before the 25th, my good friend and mentor (when I worked in the 'live lighting & sound industry') Terry Daly was up for Christmas.
When I moved back, Terry lived in Fredericton with his wife Joanne and he commuted to his job in Nova Scotia working in the film industry there. A couple years ago, for financial reasons, they sold their house here in Fredericton and moved down to Chester, Nova Scotia. Before that time, I had spent a lot of holidays with the Daly family. They welcomed me into their home and I got to know many of their kin. So it's been kinda a 'tradition' of sorts that each year, when Terry and Joanne come up that I'll go and spend some time with them. This year they were up a couple days before Christmas, which worked out because I was heading to Saint John on Christmas eve.

So of course, for the holiday season, the East Coast HAD to get hit by a icestorm on the 23rd, I left for Saint John and my Brother's place on the 24th. My driveway (most driveways and parking lots) was sheer ice. I did put down enough salt to make traction and get me safely off my driveway for my taxi when I had to go to the bus depot. Last year I had gone down to SJ with my Brother's girlfriend's sister and her boyfriend.
Made it to SJ safely and of course on Christmas day, the East Coast was walloped by a snowstorm. While it snowed for nearly 8 hours in Saint John, it continued to snow into the night in Fredericton, along with high winds.
Always have a blast at my Brother's, his girlfriend and her children live right next door and they are a really wonderful family. The kids are just incredibly calm and happy, they don't scream and fight or yell, they are only as 'spoiled' as any other children at Christmas, but the mountain of toys and gifts are incredible. They had Christmas 'Eve' on Christmas day instead because the kids were with their Father.... Anyhow, Crystal, my Brother's g/f makes incredible food. Everything was so good and it means a lot to me to go down to stay with them.
So, what did I get for Xmas? Well, the usual, socks, nice warm, new socks... A couple shirts, including an awesome 'Punisher' shirt and a 'Spiderman' shirt. My Brother got me a collectible Todd McFarlane Spawn figure, which is from the very first toy run. This is cool because I actually own the first Spawn figure that came out in like 1994 or so. I also got a VR headset, just one you use with your phone, but it's pretty cool and there's some real cool videos out there for it. I got a 'Fidget spinner', these I think were made for children with autism, but quickly turned into 'THE' toy to have. I've started learning some tricks you can do with them and Elsa also seems to enjoy the spinner as well. I got a tie and some chocolate.
I did get one gift before Christmas and that was a Orion Spaceprobe 3 EQ telescope! I've always wanted one and when my Sister-in-law asked what I'd like for Christmas I just threw it out there as a 'dream' gift. This ain't one of them high tech telescopes that with a console you just press what you want to see and it 'takes you there'..... This is an old school manual telescope and it's up to me to learn how to use it and I'm totally game for it as space is one of my biggest passions. With my DSLR, I've taken pics of the Moon and that camera is pretty good, but I'll be able to see much more than the Moon! The Orion manual tells me I'll be able to see Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn but don't worry, I can't see.... URANUS! HA! Love 'Uranus' jokes hehe!  I'll also be able to view some deep space objects as well, like Nebula's and galaxies.
I got a lift home with my Brother's girlfriends sster and her boyfriend yesterday (Boxing day) and got home and the driveway wasn't cleared out at all, in fact I was the only person to traverse it since I left a couple days before. My neighbors are away and they'd said that if we had a major snowfall that they'd have someone over to plow me out, I mean, I don't drive, but still, it's good to have a clear driveway.
We had been up super early on Boxing day morning because it was the kids 'Christmas morning', so i was beat tired and was up late last night getting myself unpacked, fed, cleaned up and so on... So needless to say, I slept all day.... Oh right, I forgot to mention....
So, the 'icestorm', then the 'snowstorm', think that'd be enough for a week? No no, not in Eastern Canuckia.... Boxing day, after the storm has passed Environment Canada issued a new weather warning.
Now, it gets cold here, that's a given,, but when Environment Canada issues a 'Weather warning' for "Extreme cold", you know it's going to be UBER cold! -30 and below cold... For like the next 6-7 days for FUCK's sake! Sorry for the cursing, but that kinda cold deserves the swearing.. Fucking -30 and more as daytime HIGH's!! For SIX days!! But, i'll take the time to clean up, read up on my telescope and practice my 'Fidget spinner' tricks for the 'Fidget Spinner International Olympics next Summer!
I also was luck to get in some kitty snuggling at Crystal's.
I'll leave ya's with a cute kitty's pic. This is Sox and Echo... Such cute good kitties!

If you don't hear from me in over a week on here, I've frozen solid....

STOP! Motion

Note: This Blog has been edited - 

So Ciaron Lewis (A La Neighbourhood Watch Lewis) and I caught the new Star Wars last night. I won't give it a 'review', NO SPOILERS, except to say that Dennis Rodman's cameo as JarJar Binks doing a break dancing scene was absolutely stunning. Speaking of 'absolutely stunning, this is all I'm going to reveal about the film, it's absolutely stunning!  I mean, it's Lucas Arts (although does Lucas even have anything to do with Star Wars anymore?), but what I'm getting to is that this is the baby of 'Scie Fi', it's like, all this new technology, they test it on other films first, but it's all for making Star Wars movie's as much at the pinnacle of technology as possible and yeah, it's a beauty.... Being high might've contributed, but who knows, I dug it.

Last night after the movie, I came home, did my usually nightly routine, got into bed and had strange weird dreams. Now, I've come this this conclusion, the realization, this belief, that the side you sleep on, how you sleep, reflects on what kind of dreams you'll experience.
I've slept on my right hand side for years... I dunno, it's most comfortable for me, I can't sleep on my back, because it's too hard on my back and I dislike sleeping on my stomach, so the right side it is (the left side I'll get to shortly).... I've slept on my right side for eons now, and I came to notice that I never had 'nightmares' and I never had many to any dreams that involved sexual content... Last year it dawned on me about this sleeping on my left side thing and I looked it up online.
So according to the 'Internets' from the website 'Everyday Health.com':
On your side. Sleeping laterally is the most common sleep position. Studies have found that right-side sleepers experienced more positive dreams and fewer nightmares than left-side sleepers.

So sleeping on your Left side, you tend to have more nightmares, sexual dreams... Sleeping on your stomach apparently will give you crazy nightmares and sexual dreams as well....

So last night, I dreamnt about what seemed to be a like a strip mall of bars with bands and really nice friendly women. It's been, jeez, like 6-7 years since I've dated a lady. I just don't find I have any desire to go through the motions of the 'games' that women say they don't want to play. This'll piss off maybe some women, but they SAY they don't want to play games, but they still do.... An example? Sure..... So, you're out and your online, say Facebook, and you've been dating this gal and you want both be honest, you don't want to play games, you want to be happy, in amour and this gal you went to school in elementary school messages you on Facebook, who knows, just to say "Hi" or just wants to add you. Being in a relationship, of course no secrets, so your girlfriend see's this girls added you. Now, this is where the "fun" begins... She may ask you about this 'chick', "Ohh, I see this girl added you? How do you know each other" You, 'Oh, we went to school together years ago'.... Now this is where the "game" can either be played or not. The girlfriend or vice versa, can decide at this point, to leave it be ( I mean really, it's just a school friend that you haven't even seen since grade 6-7, who knows, so there's NO real reason to question it further). But some women, they don't want to 'leave it be', so it beings, "Ohh, well why did she add you?", YOu, 'I dunno, probably just adding FB friends' (why does anyone add anyone?) - Girlfriend, "Oh, well she must like you, or why would she add you?".... What I'm getting at, is there's a lot of times that one has a choice, it's like a 'Y' in the road, one path is a silent happy one, no worries, who cares, it's just some 'girl' he went to school with, the other road is the slippery path to arguments, to suspicion and speculation.... This is the example of 'games' I have NO desire to give time to. 
Anyhow, every so often, I have a dream and in that dream is a beautiful woman, sometimes two, but they, unlike real life, are interested in me... I wake up thinking, 'Well maybe it'd be nice to have a girlfriend'... But to be honest, in the last 6-7 years that I've been 'on my own', I've been super happy, seriously, I'm not tryin to convince myself of that lol, I'm really content not having someone. I can... erm 'take care of myself' quite fine. I don't answer to anyone about anything. Go when, where, what time, how, when I'm back, where I've gone, all questions and answers that only come back to me and no one else. But, hey, I'm a man and I do love women. There's so many beautiful women around. Maybe someday it'll happen, but who knows, maybe it won't. 
I remember being a kid and always telling Aunt's, Uncles, cousins, friends, that 'I was never goin to get married' and they'd always say, "Ohhhh you'll change your mind, everyone changes their minds".... I've been engaged twice, I've been proposed TO, three times. But lol, I'm kinda glad, about at least one, I didn't say yes to. Why those 'engagements' fell apart, not for any nefarious reasons, just life or growing apart.
That dream last night, did stem from sleeping on my right side, it wasn't a sexual dream really, just nice, flirty, affectionate and as per usual vivid and 'movie-like'. I find my right-sided dreams are very movie-like, they are big theatrical productions.  
So yeah, great dream, sometime's I wake up and I'm just like, 'What the fuck was that about?'... But I don't think dreams mean too much, like many things, people read into them too much. I mean, sure, if you've been abhorrently abused or had some grave incidents in your life, yeah, it'll effect your dreams, but for the most part, I don't even dream about anything currently going on in my life. I usually didn't have dreams about being at work or playing onstage (I've only had one dream I can remember playing on stage), kinda weird I haven't as it's something that is so profound to me, it means lot to play live
*Note this next section is kinda the same post as 'Who Are You?' a post I made a few days ago, but I kinda expanded on it... Kinda:

Speaking of playing live.... The other day, for some odd reason, I got on a Black Sabbath kick. 
Musically, I've always liked to listen to that many other's are not listening to. It's what drove me to 'find' bands like Faith No More, Nirvana, Soundgarden long before most people even had a clue who they were. So the "normal" bands that a Metalhead or Rock aficionado would listen to, were not for me, and it's only been years later that I've 'discovered' catalogs of bands music that I love.
Some bands I kinda considered too 'cliche' to listen to... All the 'Metalheads' LOVED 'Sabbath Man' or 'Zepplin MAN!' - Still don't like Led Zep... AC/DC and this is a sin to say in New Brunswick, you can get shot for this one, but I HATE AC/DC... 'Back In Black' had it's spin on my turntable as a kid and then I moved ON... In fact, the only 'DC album I do like or did like, was 'Fly On the Wall', certainly not a 'BIG' AC/DC record...KISS is another 'standard' 'Rock/Metal' band I don't quite care for... Except 'Destroyer', they shoulda packed it in after that tour lol....
My Brother Gordie listen to a lot of the 'Classic' Metal / Rock bands: Van Halen, AC/DC, Judas Priest and I'll admit, I started out with the standards, Iron Maiden, Priest, Anvil. But nearly immdiately sought out heavier, stranger, wilder music.
So, Sabbath... I acquired their 'catalog' and was blasting some tunes, many favorites and they are divided near equally between Ozzy, Dio and Ian Gillian's works. But for some reason, I don't ever recall hearing the 'Sabbath song 'The Writ' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyXqWzZ_8sM
Love the song and it seems to be kinda relative to KISS' 'Destroyer' album, that what I took from it was at a time when the band was beginning to understand the 'game' of Rockstardom, the groupies, the sleazy record execs, all of them feeding hand and foot off of your fame... But one of the big thing's about this 'Sabbath kick' was that I found a song that was on a Sabbath tribute album done by a band called 'OLD' doing 'Who Are You'.... Simply mind blowing, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY4sCJtfUJU

So,.;///////////\'''''''''''''' - some input from my cat Elsa...

So, the music thing, IF, I do anything musically, I'd love to maybe do like a Sabbath Tribute, maybe record some Sabbath, Kyuss, Queens of The Stone Age covers... In the new year, I've been asked to record a song with a Saint John band, I won't say who, albeit to say they are one of my favorite New Brunswick bands, and I'm super stoked to help out on their next album. It's a HUGE honor that anyone would ask me to sing on their album. Huge honor.

Lately I've been thinking of that in a few years I'd move to the desert sands of Eastern Cali, Nevada, Arizona, but who knows, America may be on the verge of civil war, the middle East is in the state of perpetual war and fellow huemahns all over the World are beginning to reject their countries political systems, so who knows what'll happen in the next few years. I won't be going anywhere until after my Father passes, which hopefully won't be for a while.
Today I started to work on a project for a local project.
TimRayne and Arthur Thompson and a crew of incredible talented folk have been working on the 'Capital Project' A local documentary about Fredericton and the surrounding areas incredible music scene, past and present. Over, well over 80 interviews, live performances, it's a documentary, webseries and historic tome of this local music scene and the people who've made it up. For the project Tim's asked a few of us to work on some stop motion shorts for segues between chapters, genres and interviews. I'm quite excited to be part of the project, I've already helped out in the filming process, I think I've done 3-4 interviews with Tim about my history in the local scene and then to be asked to be part of this, erm part of the documentary is truly an honor. It'll be very cool, but since it's all part of something to be released later, I probably won't be able to share much more about it. But at a time when I've given up on pretty much everything I had been doing, it's a fun little project to keep me busy.

'Who Are You?'

In the 1990's, there was a compilation released of band's doing cover's of Black Sabbath
songs...

 Sabbath of course being one of the forerunners of 'Heavy Metal', each and every Rock,
Hard Rock, Metal and all of their sub-genres are influenced by Black Sabbath in some
fashion.

It's been said of Sabbath's 'evil' guitarist Tonny Iommi, that he had wrote EVERY single
'Heavy' riff there was to write and that all other 'Metal' songs are just variations in some
form of a Sabbath riff...

After the release of 'Nativity In Black' in 1994, which included bands such as: Biohazard performing 'After Forever', 10,000 Homo Dj's performing 'Supernaut', Type 'O' Negative performing 'Black Sabbath', Sepultura performing 'Symptom Of the Universe' and many
others... The highlight of this album was the 10,000 Homo Dj's... But their cover of
 'Supernaut', an incredibly heavy Sabbath song in it's own right, was MIND blowing...
 I thought at the time that was perhaps the pinnacle of "heaviness' in music..... Until I found another Black Sabbath compilation...

'Master's of Misery' was put out in 1997 by Earache records... and it drove Sabbath to a
whole new depth of just how "Heavy" their songs could go. A lot of the bands on this comp
 you'd probably not even recognize,

With band's like, Sleep, Brutal Truth, Pitch Shifter, Fudge Tunnel and my personal fave
of this bunch 'OLD'... 

In 1997, The genres of technical Death Metal, Industrial Metal, Stoner Rock and pure
Black Metal had merged and in this comp, they harnessed what was 'Evil' from Sabbath
 and ripped the Earth wide open to release a virtual Hell on Earth....

I had lost that Earache compilation and I'd also forgotten which song it was and by who I
was so obsessed at the time... Through the years since then, I'd search and looked at
all the 'Sabbath' tribute albums, but I was mixed up, I thought the song I was looking for
was a cover of 'The Wizard', because it's a perty evil tune... But I was wrong and earlier
I found that song that I was looking for....

Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you 'OLD' performing Sabbath's 'Who Are You' -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ssjNDtURI

For some reason I couldn't embed the video, I'll try later... That made this really anti-climatic!!

Well that sucks... This 'Blog' has an 'insert' video feature, where you can: 1. Upload a vid from
your computer. 2. Insert a Youtube video 3. Select on of your Youtube videos... But I can't get the
'Insert a Youtube video 'search' to bring up the video to OLD's version of 'Who Are You?'....
Can't find it at all. I tried the direct link, I tried all the words in different variations.. But to no
avail... Also, for some reason, it appears this blog entry is running over the sides and well it's
all formatted weird! Dang internet!

Someone Left The Freezer Door Open.....

And look at the mess it made.......

According to the news we got about 15-20cm of snow. The 'Farmer's Almanac' had said that this 'season', I'm guessing that's the end of 2017 / 2018 Winter, we're supposed to get 6 "major" storms.
I don't know if we can call this 'storm' we had last night as one of those 6, it seems nowadays the news/meteorologists call any time it snows a "storm"... But if it knocks one of those 6 off, we'll be scott free of storms until January, then just February, March..... SPRING!

UPDATE!: Well jeez, I was just looking up the 'Farmer's Almanac' story I saw for this Winter season coming up and on the right side of the CBC page, I saw all these 'weather warnings'... And saw that Fredericton was listed.... I thought that maybe, for some reason CBC hadn't removed the warnings for this last 'storm'... That's what I thought.
Apparently, there's another system coming Tuesday morning into the night. Maybe 15 more centimeters of snow, but then it's supposed to warm up and possibly change to freezing rain... Ahh gotta love the Maritimes and it's mixed bag storms....

Back to the Almanac.... from the CBC:
""Geiger said Atlantic Canadians should expect one storm in January, two storms in February and two in March.

Those storms are predicted to hit:

Jan. 20 to 23
Feb. 4 to 7 
Feb. 16 to 19
March 1 to 3 
March 20 to 23
"It'll be a substantial winter, at least according to the Farmers' Almanac," Geiger said in an interview with Information Morning Fredericton.

"There is at least one storm on [February] 4th to the 7th where we talk about 30 to 60 centimetres and, as you know, the amounts of snow can vary by small geographies," he said."

So there ya have it! Mark them on your calendar... I thought I had seen it say that we'd get this storm in December, but maybe that was last years... Whatever, it's snowed and there's no going back....

Are you afraid of clowns? I'm not.. I certainly am not, considering that I put on a 'creepy' clown mask when the band played our song, 'The Town Fair', about an evil... town fair.... I was going to post a photo of a clown, maybe 'Pennywise', but I figured that'd just scare any coulrophobics away (That's people who have a phobia of clowns)...
I was never much of a Stephen King fan. In my younger years, I had gone from reading comic books and books from the library on the supernatural and then onto H.P. Lovecraft books, introduced to me by Iron Maiden of course! So once I started to try to read King's book, I just didn't find them scary and in fact I found them rather boring.
In 1990, I was working and I worked a lot. I started working for Modern Building Cleaners after I had left High School in grade 10. Modern Building Cleaning was a local janitorial service that had most of the contracts in the city at the time. So being young, I let them put me to use. So, working mostly evenings and graveyard shifts, I missed a lot of the "evening" television programs on of the time. 'Married with Children', the early seasons of 'The X-Files', The Simpsons, Star Trek and on and on.
So I completely missed when 'IT' aired on television, though I remember all the hype around it, all my frightened friends. But by then, I'd seen a few King movies, of course the 'Shinning' is a classic, 'Christine' wasn't bad, Pet Cemetery, naw, now that great... 'Maximum Overdrive'? I mean 'cmon, it had AC/DC doing the soundtrack, so that alone was an X on that movie right away... The Creepshow movies were pretty good, I liked those. I watched 'Dreamcatcher' the other week and it was actually pretty good. I would say that, if anything, the movie's made from King's stories were better than the books/short stories.
After Lovecraft, I discovered Clive Barker and I mean, c'mon, let's be realistic here, even King himself said that Barker was the new King of Horror and I'd say it was very true. Barker explored horror's that King wouldn't have ever dreamed of.
So, the new 'IT' is just finishing, and you know what, even though I've never seen the origina, this wasn't too bad... I guess a sequel is coming in 2019.... Will they make 'Pennywise' into the new Freddy Krueger? Jason Voorhees? and make a bunch of super lame sequels, that would probably have been great original scripts, but then the producers and Hollywood bigwhigs get a hold of it and make them into really lame movies, like I believe they did with most of the original spin offs of Nightmare on Elm, Friday the 13th and Halloween movies... Time will tell... |Dang it, I still wanna post a clown pic!


Don't look down here.......

I told you not to.....

13 Assassins

So, in my spare evening time, I no longer watch ANY of the MASS amount of 'series' that they are currently ramming down everyone's eyeballs.

I just could no longer stomach all the 'reality' shows.

But movies, old movies, newer movies, that's been my thing. I've watched probably hundreds of movies... Foreign movies, North American movies...

I sometimes, get a thought in my head, like the other night, 'Samurai' and then go diggin for movies and make lists... I've seen all the 'Ninja' movies, more older than newer, but I found this film from Japan, 13 Assassins and it's mind blowing. So very well down, major effects, but in a simple way.

Now of course being a 'Samurai' story, it ain't pretty lol, there's a lot of bloodshed, a lot.... There's actually one point in the film where shit goes sideways.. I mean literally, the camera goes sideways as the blur of swords, men and blood fight on... There's one scene where blood explodes from a roof and I still haven't figured out what that came from.

But in the end, if you look at this another way, it's kinda a story about military soldiers and keeping an oath to protect their leader at ALL costs, defend him with your very life, even if he's a sick, demented tyrant, your duty is but one thing to protect your leader (No, I'm not insinuating that someone should take a bullet for trumpy).

The sign reads "Total Massacre"

Oh yeah, our first and probably last snow storm of 2017 is coming tomorrow night (Saturday, Dec 09).

According to The Weather Network:

Issued at 21:47 Friday 08 December 2017

Snowfall, with total amounts of 15 to 20 cm is expected.

Winter conditions expected across the Maritimes during the weekend.

A low pressure system will approach the Maritimes from the southwest on Saturday. Snow is expected to spread across southern New Brunswick Saturday afternoon. The precipitation will continue Saturday night and Sunday morning. Over the Fundy region, the snow will change to ice pellets along with a risk of freezing rain, and then to rain. Current guidance suggests snowfall amounts near 20 centimetres. Conditions are expected to improve later on Sunday.

###

Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow.

Lovely eh?

With the Rain....

Comes the 'pain'..... I don't like to talk about how I'm actually feeling too much..... Years ago, when I was going through the worst of this arthritic disease process, I used to bitch and moan about the pain, the agony of dragging this body around... And it got tiring, to myself and to my friends.

A few years ago now, my Brother's and I went to see my Dad and his partner Riet in Ontario. A couple of Riet's relatives were going through hard times with chronic pain and as everyone sat around, it turned into this 'pain 'fest' of these people talking about how miserable they felt and I was glad to sit back and not really say much. At the end, when those pain filled people had left, everyone talked about how exhausting it was to listen to that... I mean usually you wouldn't get all those people together maybe.

When I moved back here in 2012 I had worried for a while what people thought of me. My friends out West saw me go through some of the worst times in my entire life. Beaten into the earth, literally having to crawl upstairs, crawl to the bathroom... It was a horrible time and when I moved back here, I was in a much better place, I had my surgery on my left foot that reconstructed four of my toes. That had helped a great deal, my right foot still needs to be done, but I'll admit, I'm doing much better today than I was.
Or I was doing better. I've written already about what's happened health wise in the last year. It's been my worst year 'health wise' since I've moved back. Despite taking the time off from, well everything I was doing, I don't feel any better.... Well, a bit mentally better, but physically, no.

As much as I wouldn't want to blame my disease process on 'global warming', the temperature swings in the last year take their toll. That's what is happening tonight. The temps going from 0C to +10C or so tomorrow and I can feel it. The barometric pressure is the bitch, and those 'swings really hit me. I feel like I've been beat into the Earth.... I had this vision one time, that I was falling and the heat trailed behind me as I fell... Then when I saw the Lord Of the Rings Movie and the part where Gandalf is falling with the Belrog into the abyss, there's a shot of them falling into the 'inner earth' and the flames are what you see trailing, as they fall towards the inner lake.... That's how I feel. Beaten by the Balrog and falling infinitely...

There's no relief from this, except in sleep. So when bad weather comes along. I hibernate. I'll sleep all day if I have to, it's not productive, it's not healthy, but it's all I have.

Welcome To Sky Valley

Those of you who know me well, know how much music means to me and also know that I love all kinds of music.
Now I'm not going to brag here, but people who know me well, also know that I've 'found' a lot of bands before they hit it big. Nirvana was one, Soundgarden was another.
Almost all of it was by accident, but we have a great record store in Fredericton called 'Backstreet Records', it's been there since I was in my early teens. Our junior high school didn't have a 'play ground', so we students had downtown Fredericton at our beck and call for lunch hours. The comic book store and the record store were both usual daily stops for lunch hours, if not every couple of days. Backstreet Records is still open to this day and has just as great a selection of new awesome material as it did back then and Eric still works there (Eric was a dude who worked at Backstreet I think pretty much since it opened and later sometime bought the store of it's owner - There's also a Backstreet in Saint John, New Brunswick)!
Fast Forward to 1992
I'd generally judge an album by it's cover. if it had a cool cover and name and brutal or strange song titles, I'd pick it up, so band's like 'Smashing Pumpkins' and 'Nirvana' were captivating to me, Redd Kross, and Jellyfish, just as much.

When one day I found the Kyuss album 'Blues for the Red Sun', I was interested by it's blood red cover of the Sun, plus KYUSS was a weird word I've never heard before.

(Blues For the Red Sun - Kyuss 1992)

I bought up the cassette and took it home and like most albums I fell in 'love' with, it didn't leave my cassette deck for weeks.
If you're unfamiliar with Kyuss, they are a California band, from the 'Palm Springs' area in East California. Band's from this area are generally known as the progenitors of the 'desert Rock' scene.

Those NOT familiar with Kyuss might be more familiar with 'Master's of Reality' or 'Queens of the Stone Age'.
Flashback to 1987!
Like the West Coast, which was somewhere that I spent a lot of time at when I was in my teens, the desert regions of the Southern states have always been in my heart. In 1987, during one of our Summer trips across the continent with our Father (On his way to teach Summer session at a University in British Columbia), we traveled as far South as the Northern tip of New Mexico, we visited the Grand Canyon and then drove down South past Flagstaff, Arizona and into 'Death Valley'... I loved the dry Summer heat of the place and the terrain, all of it.
In Death Valley that day we drove through the temperature said that outside the car it was 110C, even with the car's air conditioning on we were all sweating in the car (sadly, I had brought a lot of my vinyl records with me for the stay in Victoria BC and they all melted). The place is so hot, (how hot is it??), so hot that every so many miles there's a huge water tank for drivers to spray off their engines and fill/cool radiators. At one of those stops, when Dad was cooling off the car, I got out and walked up the bank beside the road and over the bank, just to see what this place was like...
I could see the heat waves rising all around me and I could feel the heat rising past my legs... I walked out far enough and the bank was high enough, that when I looked back i couldn't even see the car, so it was like I was out in the desert all alone.... I loved it! I loved that heat (and I also love to cool down!)
When I listened to that Kyuss album, the music reminded me of that day in Death Valley, the music conveyed the heat and dryness of that area (though Sky Valley is hundreds of miles from Death Valley). Kyuss' music I told my friends would 'sear their brain pan'. I wasn't even a smoker of cannabis at that time and the music still had a profound effect on me and so did the next's album they put out 'Welcome to Sky Valley' - 1994 and 'The Circus Left Town' - 1995 and then sadly for us fans the band broke up. Just a little after 'The Circus Left Town' the band and their record company put out 'Wretch' which was music by former members before the release of 'Blues For the Red Sun' and a track or two from when the band was called 'Son's of Kyuss' and was also the name of the bands first EP....

It was odd tonight I watched a documentary called 'Low Sound Desert', which is a documentary on the South Eastern California's 'Desert Rock' scene, the film featured loads of bands I was both familiar and unfamiliar with.
Josh Homme, Scott Reeder and Nick Oliveri made appearances and when the documentary began to talk about Kyuss, well it wasn't good.
It seems that when 'Wretch' first came out around that area, well they said it sucked, the band was horrible, no one really liked them, one band member was beaten in sports by Josh Homme at school a lot lol.... And then, the band Kyuss exploded and everyone was shocked to see them end up on tour with Metallica in Australia...
Things settled down and the animosity (maybe a bit of jealousy) eased as Kyuss frontman Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri were very courteous about bringing 'scene' bands on tour with them, merely when asked to. The guys from other bands said that they respected what Kyuss did for the scene, but also mentioned that if you went to 'Sky Valley' and expected to hear bands that sounded just like Kyuss, "that you'd be sadly disappointed" (Although in the documentary, there were a lot of bands with that 'sound', the "stoner Rock" sound, low tuning, droning, and feedback).

I own the entire Kyuss discography and to this day have the original 'Blues for the Red Sun' cassette
I bought way back in the 1990's. I also have a huge love for Queens of the Stone Age and like Dave Grohl, there's not a thing that Josh Homme has released musically that I dislike, again, like Grohl, I don't believe it's possible for Homme to write a bad song.

SO check out 'Kyuss', Master's Of Reality' and of course 'Queens of the Stone Age', but also be sure to check out 'Fu Manchu' 'Excel', 'Life Leone' and 'War Drum'... Roll a big fatty or take it straight, but put on your sunglasses throw on the heater close by and close your eyes as you'll be transported into the deserts of California and if you're lucky, you'll even get out alive and unsinged.....

Kyuss -circa 1992

Incoming!

Man, I'm feeling this weather coming in tomorrow or something's up. I did walk quite a bit today and looked at Google to figure out that when I walk to and from Downtown, I'm walking about 2 miles and I do it just about every other day, so that's pretty good exercise.
So right now I'm not sure if I just walked too much today or it's the weather, but given that the temps been below 0°C and it's going to rise to +7 tomorrow, that's probably what's doing me in, that and it's not just my feet that are hurting more than usual, it's my back (an on-going issue in the last year or so is that when the weather changes are affecting my body, where I broke two ribs in the 1990's is coming back to haunt me. I have to stuff small pillows all around my body and back in an attempt to try and stop me from moving when I'm sleeping, as when I move, I can wake up screaming out).

Even a few fingers are giving me grief tonight.

Just an odd note. Yesterday when I was out for a walk, I was on the walking trail that runs parallel to University ave., I was wearing my headphones, rocking out to some tunes, when out of the corner of my eye, I see a what looks like a bumper, I turn my head a bit, as I'm accustomed to being over taken on my walks by other walkers, joggers, cyclists, skateboarders, lol old people with walkers and canes, but not quite so used to being over taken by undercover police cars on the WALKING trail.... Not sure what they were up to, guess probably looking for someone... They had their undercover cop car lights on, he may have even tooted the horn at me, but I didn't hear.

Anyhow, it was just weird... They passed me (there was a lady officer in the car, I'm guessing she was a cop, they were both plain clothed) and disappeared on Charlotte st.


Time to crash....

New Music (And other news)....

A couple weeks ago, just browsing around on Youtube, I saw this band in the side bar called 'Heilung'... Just the thumbnail caught my attention, it was very 'pagan' looking.... 'Interesting' I thought.... For some reason, though I didn't click on that thumbnail, the 'Heilung' video remained in the sidebar until yesterday (Nov.26.2017) I clicked on it.....

So, Heilung, according to their bandcamp page hail from Denmark, a music page on the band describes them as follows:

"Heilung is sounds from the northern european iron age and viking period. We used everything from running water, human bones, reconstructed swords and shields up to ancient frame drums and bronze rings in the songs.
The lyrics contain original texts from rune stones and preserved spear shafts, amulets and other artifacts. Furthermore poems, which either deal with historical events or are translations/ interpretations of the originals.
Every attempt to link the music to modern political or religious points are pointless, since Heilung tries to connect the listener to the time before Christianity and its political offsprings raped and burned itself into the northern European mentality.
Heilung means healing in German and describes the core of the sound. It is supposed to leave the listener eased and relaxed after a sometimes turbulent musical journey."

And what a band they are! Mystical, mesmerizing and majical! This I believe is part of the 'Norse revolution' to return to their roots.

Like so many countries and civilizations on the planet, the Norse were taken over by the 'christians', they had their religion appropriated and their customs demolished..... In some Norse countries the rejection of christianity has taken horrific turns, albeit I believe in no 'god', it was still shocking to see 'Norwegian satanists' burning down century old, magnificent christian churches. As much as I've detested christian and extremist muslims destroying historical sites, such as the 'Buddhas of Bamiyan' and while in Egypt in 2010 I saw the defacing of many ancient Egyptian temples by christian hands.... I don't like the destruction of historic sites, religious or not...

Yet I digress, in Denmark, 'Heilung' has taken to the war in the form of music and it's beautiful, wondrous, fascinating music

BAH! Unfortunately, It wouldn't let me link to the full concert, so, if you dig that video, check out the full show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1BsKIP4uYM&t=2s

lol and now my text won't change back to 'normal'..... Anyhow... Be sure to check out this band.

Before I left CHSR, I had the pleasure of meeting two relatively new bands, one from Halifax, Nova Scotia, called 'Dazor' and their bandcamp can be found here: https://dazor.bandcamp.com/

And 'Melonvine' from Moncton, New Brunswick. The fascinating thing about both bands is their sound is very 'Grunge'-like and the best part is, it doesn't seem to be on purpose. It could very well be their parents music had influenced their writing, 'Dazor' does cover the Smashing Pumpkins 'Cherub Rock' (as a 3-piece and it still ROCKS).... So check out these bands, you won't be disappointed...

Here's the link to 'Melonvine's' Bandcamp page: https://melonvine16.bandcamp.com/releases

In other news, I had a message from the director/producer of 'The Wasteland Zombies' music video for 'Kill Scene - Zombie Nation'... 

It was last January when the band and film crew drove to Moncton to shoot the music video at the 'Zombie Manor' a massive indoor zombie scare house just outside of the city of Moncton. The video had a second shooting day for the 'story-line', which involved some seriously scary models... The director had written to let me know that they had shot some pick up shots that will tie up the loose ends of the video and it will be back into a new editors hands. Because the video is part of this director's film 'Kill Scene', it was never the BAND's video, it's part of the movie and will make up part of the trailer for the film. 

Also because it's part of the movie, I can't say when it will be released. Jared Carney of 'Creeker Films' is an independent film maker and is going on a low/no budget but has already filmed several stories that will make up this multi-storied feature length film.

I also talked to the guys in the band and we're planning to record our two last originals we wrote, 'The Fire Breathing Liar' as well as 'Anubis Rising' sometime in March/April 2018. This will probably be the last project I do with the 'Wasteland Zombies' as I've lost the heart to continue to do live shows and continue on with the band. 

Today it was cold and we got some snow on the ground. Pretty much just a 'dusting', but it was snow.... I've told myself, 'that no matter the temperature', I've got to get outside and walk any day that I can. Leaving the station took away a major daily regime of exercise, as I used to walk up to the station almost every day, rain or shine, snow or blizzard... So, now I've got to keep up that walking as it also will help me acclimatize to the weather, as sure as the Sun rises each day, it's going to get a helluva lot colder!

February can't come soon enough!

"It's Been Such A Long Time......"

"I think I should be going..." -

So, wow, last posts appear to be from around 2006.... Though in my 'dashboard' it says some posts were made in 2016... But when I went to the 'main' 'There's No Way Back From Here' page, it only had the 2006 posts....

So I 'left' Facebook. I had for months ahead of 'leaving' been griping vocally both in public and online my growing disdain for 'Social Media'... It had become a necessary evil, having to post for the band, for the station and for the radio show....
When you're at the helm of a radio show that caters mostly to new indie Metal bands, you HAVE to keep up with what's going on, not only locally, but Nationally.
Then with the band, although I'd asked for 'help' from the guys before, I was essentially the one booking, promoting and taking care of all the social media sites for the band.
By mid October 2017, I was at wit's end.

In October one of the band members informed me that he needed time off for the family and I am the only one in the band who'se 'free'... No wife or ex wife, no kids, no mortgage, no debts, no girlfriend... I am free from many of the obligations that the rest of the guys have. So when I was asked to take some time off, well the whole band, I knew it was ok, it was going to be a long hiatus though, from Fall 2017 until maybe Spring 2018. This really took the wind out of my sails and given all I do for the band, the connections, the bookings etc... I took it personally... I didn't think this band member resented me or what I did, I just felt, 'I've done all this stuff, we've got plans and gigs taking us up until Christmas into the new year and now we've got to put it all on hold'... I'll honestly say, I was gutted.
So when that happened, I just shut down. I had no desire to go anywhere or do much. I had no desire to go to the radio station where I work as the music director, I had no desire to do the Crazy Train and well the band was dead in the water, so I didn't have to do anything about that.
I walked away from Facebook, which I'm not at all sad or upset about in any way. Neither of my Brother's use it, my Father doesn't use it... My Sister and Sister in-law both do, but all these people i can keep in touch with by email or phone.... So despite hitting this depression, I was happy to lose |Facebook.
I had begun to feel pressured to keep everything relevant. I had to keep posting for the band, I had to keep posting for the Crazy Train radio show. which also involved being in touch with bands I was playing, was going to play and had played... Messaging all the time....
Not that they came right out, but if I didn't post for the station, I wasn't being a team player... The station is non-profit and does need all the help it can get, but to feel guilty for not posting or sharing something for the station was stressful as well.
I know I had quite a few people on my personal FB account that followed my posts and I feel a little bad for fading away... I've not deleted ANY of these accounts, I've just really walked away from it.
Will I come back? Doubtful... Again, I've lost all desire to contribute to all these things. Although with the band, I am hoping in the new year to get together and record the two last originals we had written, they were some of my favorite ever written in my time as a musician... I was happy with the songs, happy with our shows... But I wasn't happy with the end results. All the promotion, all the leg work then to just have a handful of people show up for gigs and it's not because we suck, it's the state of the local industry. There's only one bar in Fredericton to play at. So we started to edge out into the woods a bit lol, and then we'd end up coming home at like 4:30am.... I'm too old for that shit, which is a chumpy thing to say, because there's plenty older than I am, locally and around the World who are doing what I was doing and more..
It's my arthritis that is the real kick in the nuts.. Has been since it took hold of me. Within the last two / three years, I've done more than I had done in the last decade and it took it's toll on my health.

Like with most diseases, once you add stress and you get tired, you lose sleep, then the disease takes advantage of that. Doing all that I did, as fun as it was, as much as I loved it. I burnt out...

My family was concerned. Of course they were. I'd been so attached to all of these extra curricular activities for over 4 years now. Then in just a phone call/ email, I was done. I was out.

What also kinda made up my mind about not going back to these activities, was that when I left... No one cared.... I've only had a handful of people check up on me. And let me put this straight here. I didn't leave these activities to get attention... but I was kinda taken back that no one cared. No one's written to ask, "Hey, where is the Crazy Train??" Very few wrote to ask, "Hey are you ok?" and only a handful of people when I've run into friends in public have asked about the band... Mind you, it was no secret we'd played some of our 'last shows' until we recorded and produced our album.

It also came to me a few weeks after not doing any Crazy Train shows, all these bands I've supported for the past few years, all the people who told me how much they enjoyed the show.... Nothing, not a word from anyone, so it dawned on me that no one is missing it. No one cares.... Which is disappointing in it's own way...

Going forward.... It's been a great break from all this. No worries about putting the radio show together, no worries about booking the band (and the worries that comes with that)... No worries about being at the station. Each day, most of them since I left everything. I've done not too much. Cleaned up my place, rested. I try to get out for good walks every day... I'd read recently that any amount of walking, no matter how fast or far is super beneficial. WAY more than not walking....
I do dread the coming Winter, but it's coming and nothing can stop that...

I've got plans. I do. In February I'll be heading to Arizona for about a month or so. An old friend who lives in Victoria BC, was super smart and when the US housing market had crashed in around 2007, well she was smart and bought a property in a small town just South of Las Vegas, but it's not in Nevada, but Arizona, in the 'four corners' where four states all meet. I have no plans but to rest there, let the arid nature of the place suck the moisture from my bones. I'd much prefer Egypt of course, but that's not in the cards financially and well it's not one of the safest places on the planet.... But where is aside from my backyard... Even then a vicious squirrel could attack me!

After that, in March/April the band will reunite to record those last two originals... Who knows, maybe we'll do a 'farewell' gig.. I wouldn't mind that... But if we do, I'd like for it to be an event, a spectacle.. A real show.... We'll see....

Beyond on that, I'm tossed between taking an archaeology course at the University of New Brunswick and writing my memoirs. I've got a good chunk of that written, more of an outline than anything... But would anyone buy it? I won't know until I do it...So we'll see...

So that's the scoop, that's where I've been, what I've been up to. I've not officially hung up my hat and left the radio station and radio show. I've got a slew of repeats playing for a while... I know the station is upset it's turned out this way, but in some ways it's their own fault, in other's it's out of their control.

Now that I've left social media for good, though never say never right? It really feels like "There's no way back from here"