'Prequelle' The New Album From Ghost Has Landed!

As you'll see, still in the midst of writing my review.... And won't probably finish it until tomorrow.

Was watching earlier. The album is/was due to arrive June 1st, so I had wondered if that was on Sweden's time zone and apparently it was... erm is! They sent out the link to the album download at Midnight Swede time and I've got... 20 seconds left of the download!

Most excited!

I read two reviews today though that gave rave reviews of the first of the album, but said by the end that the song quality trailed off. I think one lady gave 'Prequelle' a 7/10 and the other reviewer didn't 'rate' it as such, just went through a near track by track and also said that the last couple of tracks were "lacking"... But I am not either of those reviewers, nor do I know their taste in music.. So, I'll be the judge!

'Ashes' - Just an intro ditty, children singing 'Ring Around the Posies' As the albums 'theme' is loosely based on the 'black plague'

'Rats' - The first single with video, an awesome upbeat, stuck in your head hook. Tobias has that knack for hooks and for breaking down the walls of the corporate Rock radio fortresses, it's the hooks that count. 'Rats' obviously has to do with the black plague, as does 'Dance Macabre'. Most of us Ghost fans have had a couple of months or so to digest 'Rats' and it's grown on my ... Like the plague!

'Faith' - Maybe the heaviest track on the album, but not devoid of them great hooks.

'See The Light'

'Miasma' - The Instrumental track of this album, has that eerie, ghost-ish sounding keyboard, soe great rockin' moments, especially the dang sax solo! Hell's ya! When was the last Metal album out that had a sax solo anywhere? By anyone? GWAR had the bagpipes, as did Korn, but sax? Ghost brings it!

'Dance Macabre' - The second single off the album, we've had this for a few weeks.

'Pro Memoria'

'Witch Image'

'Helvetesfonster' - Unpronounceable... And good thing, it's an instrumental. I was mulling this over in my head outside... On each album there's been an instrumental or two. Some might consider this to be album filler. There's 10 tracks on the album plus 2 cover songs, while the instrumental's have their 'heavy' parts, maybe they are meant to cater to the musicians out there... I dunno. Tobias is a great song writer, that's undeniable (well at least to us fans), but the instrumental tracks are not really anything to write home to Momma about. Nothing really progressive, they could really have had lyrics thrown on them. So what is Tobias doing with these on the albums? I mean, I don't mind 'em, but I'm a lyric and chorus kinda dude.

'Life Eternal'

'It's A Sin' - The 'Pet Shop Boys' 'It's A Sin'... Ghost has been consistent with cover songs. The Beatles' 'Here Comes The Sun' was the track that got me to really listen to this band. They've done an ABBA cover (I'm A Marionette), which was fantastic. They did Army of Lovers 'Crucified' awesome... Depeche Modes 'Waiting For The Night' is amazing. The only cover I really didn't like was their Eurythmics 'Missionary Man' cover and funny that, because I hated Mary Manson's cover of 'Sweet Dreams'.

'Avalanche' - A cover of Leonard Cohen's. Before I realized that these were covers, I didn't much care for either of these two songs. Albeit I quickly realized that 'It's A Sin' was the Pet Shop Boys song, I felt like Ghost's cover of the Eurythmic's 'Missionary Man', that it was severely lacking in terms of being a great cover or song. I can get that Ghost is trying to cover songs that have to do with religion in one way or another, and that makes me half suspect we'll see a cover of 'Like A Virgin' or 'Like A Prayer' by Madonna. And again, it's odd that it was a cover song that turned me on to the band in the first place. If I had got a 'regular' download over the 'deluxe' version of 'Prequelle', and had never heard these two covers I would have probably loved this album all the more.

March of the Cataterpillars

Yes my friends, story time again, much to the season this story be, as caterpillars infest the city!

Now way back when I was a youngin', I don't remember which year, but it'd be the 1980's for certain.

New Brunswick was facing a major assault from the 'tent worm' caterpillars. Now, let's get this straight before anybody starts labeling my Brother's and I as 'potential serial killers' or anything of the ilk.
Back then the tent worm caterpillars were THE enemy. These things were everywhere. All over the trees, houses, streets, old ladies.. and this is NO exaggeration, you can message the Lockhart ladies to back me up or anyone else who remembers this time, there were so many caterpillars that trains had problems slowing down due to the caterpillar guts all over the rail ties! YUCK eh?
You'd be riding your bike and there was no way to stop from squishing the fuckers under your tires, sending their sometimes neon looking guts spraying out their back ends like stepping on a mustard packet...

So, the city declared war! Eradicate the bastards by any means necessary! The word went out that if you needed to make a bonfire in your yard to burn them, then so be it! If a forest fire broke out than at least it would be eradicating the caterpillars.
So, along with our Summer chores of lawn mowing and vacuuming the pool, throwing rocks at old people, we had to defend our yard. We each got clippers of some type and roamed the yard looking for their obvious 'tents'.

\We'd cut them 'houses' down, drag them back to our fire pit and then my Mother's boyfriend would throw on the accelerant and with a toss of a match *WHOOOSH*, they'd burn!
We'd watch them as they tried in vain to escape, the flames licking their long singed bodies back lit by fire... We'd swear they'd make this 'screaming' sound as they burn! AHhh sweet childhood memories of burning pests en masse.

But that was just the supervised violence... My Brother's and I, we had 'lil caterpillar circus'.... I mean, for all their devastation, the little fuckers were kinda cute, with their neat colors and furry bodies, they had these weird 'fly like; eyes... So, we'd keep them as erm, 'pets'... More aptly prisoners, the condemned... So we'd try to train them in our little caterpillar circus, walking the tight rope was a big one, we'd set them at one end and they'd have to cross the line, on the occasion that they'd fall off, well, usually instant death followed.. well, almost instant... Usually by decapitation, sometimes burning, sometimes under the tire of a bike, sometimes drowned in the pool and most hideously evil... C'mon, some other 'kids' from that time will have to back me up on this barbarism... *sigh* we'd toss them with or without some water on our grandparents concrete patio and watch them cook in the blistering hot Summer Sun.... alive....

Maybe I should have put a warning at the beginning of this blog... WARNING! Possibly offensive, grotesque content ahead! There ya go, you were warned.... After...

So, yesterday I was dragging my body out for a walk and noticed down by the river, the concrete trail had some caterpillar corpses on it... More than likely blindly killed by joggers and cyclists (Yeah, blame them!).

So I went back down this evening and sure enough, the trees had some armies for sure....

One tree I looked up, yep, there's a big swatch, then I happened to look a bit higher and there was a huge wiggling masse...

Ugly bastids! And then on another tree....

I've heard in the past they spray for these things and a couple of weeks ago, I saw this dude walking around injecting the trees using this crazy totally chrome weird looking.. erm gun?

And another tree....

BLEH!

Oh and Screw you Johnny James 'Dio'... Sending me video of Behemoth playing right now in Quebec... "I'll get you and your little dog too!"
He's at the SLAYER farethee well tour... Little whippersnapper!

I don't know what made me think of Stone Temple Pilots 'Sour Girl' today.. Oh wait, yeah, it was an article with the new singer and they asked him if there were any STP songs that were "Off limits" for him to sing and he said "Sour Girl" but it's more of a band thing than him and that it's a very personal song that Scott Weiland wrote (about his divorce)..
Never much liked the band. I liked a couple of the songs. 'Sour Girl' being one.

fin.

..."For You Are No Longer Alone... Walk With Me In Hell"

Walk with Me in Hell

Lamb Of God

Pray for blood

Pray for the cleansing

Pray for the flood

Pray for end of this nightmare

This lie of a life can as quickly as it came dissolve

We seek only reprieve

And welcome the darkness

The myth of a meaning, so lost and forgotten

Take hold of my hand

For you are no longer alone

Walk with me in hell

Pray for solace

Pray for resolve

Pray for a savior

Pray for deliverance

Some kind of purpose, a glimpse of a light in this void of existence

Now witness the end of an age

Hope dies in hands of believers

Who seek the truth in the liar's eyes

Take hold of my hand

For you are no longer alone

Walk with me in hell

Walk with me in hell

Walk with me in hell

Walk with me in hell

Walk with me in hell

Walk with me in hell

Take hold of my hand

For you are no longer alone

Walk with me in hell

Walk with me in hell

Walk with me in hell

You're never alone

You're never alone

You're never alone

You're never alone

You're never alone

Walk with me in hell

Songwriters: Chris Adler / David Randall Blythe / John Campbell / Mark Morton / Will Adler

THE Best footage yet of the chipmunks! 'Skit' Up Close & Personal

So, I got some peanuts the other day. I had put some out and watched as both 'Skit' (Who I've found out is a female) and 'Chippy' both went right past the peanuts, they picked up bird feed all around them with 'Skit' even pushing a peanut aside to get some bird feed on the ground.

So today I put some more peanuts out and they came and got them. The next step was to get my camera as close as I could to them foraging the peanuts. I haven't seen 'Chip' around tonight, but 'Skit's' been at the food like mad. I don't give them the peanuts all the time, just as a 'treat' for my experiment in getting close to them. Once I feel they are both cool with the camera and more comfortable with me being around them, which in the last couple of days, both 'Skit' and 'Chippy' will let me pass right by them, like no more than 2/3 feet away and they don't mind. So next step will be to see if they will feed from my hand.

Stay tuned!

Tempus Fukit!

Just ordered myself a special Birthday gift. I've been good most of the year and haven't shopped online for much as I've been trying to lower my 'collecting' habit. BUT, I couldn't resist. I have Ghost's first album on CD and then 'Infestissumam' and 'Meliora' on vinyl... So I got the T-shirt/Vinyl pack of  'Prequelle', to be released June 1st. BUT, with my purchase I got 'Rats' and 'Dance Macrabe' 320/Mp3's and I think if they release any other singles, I'll get access to those and of course a download of the full album on June 1st.

I was saying to a friend the other day about how lucky I felt to have seen Ghost on their second tour... But I was wrong. I actually caught them on their very first North American tour, which makes it feel all that more special. This band is going to be among the first to replace the 'Arena touring' acts of this century, such as Iron Maiden, Ozzy and the other 'dinosaur Rock' acts.

Mark my words, you'll see!

Tobias Forge, who is the genius behind 'Ghost' has the best of ideas and planning. He's learned a lot from touring with Iron Maiden and others. And it's all in the planning and management, that's where success lies. Mark your goals, stick to them, make a 1, 3, 5, 8, 10 year plan and stick to your guns and you will achieve success (Oh it also helps to have some sort of creative genius in your band).

"Are you on the square? Are you on the level? Are you ready to swear right here, right now before the Devil?"

In the sign of the times, computers talk to you, cameras want to tell you to do stuff... Google+ took several of my photo's, on it's own and made this cool animated 'gif''

Seasons In The Abyss (AND, Thank you ...

Thanks again for everyone's Birthday wishes. Again, I'm so very fortunate to have so many awesome friends and family!
Ya'll RULE! (Not to be confused with Ja'Rule!)

SLAYER... And yes, when you type 'SLAYER' it should be in all caps. When you say 'SLAYER', you don't just say it, but you kinda yell it, like 'SLAYYYERRRR'.... and throw the 'Metal Horns' up, both of them if you can! \m/ \m/

A long time favorite of mine and at one time THE most brutal Metal/Thrash band out there.
SLAYER are of course part of the "Big Four": Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and of course, 'SLAYER'.

I saw them a couple of times in concert, one of the times was absolute crap (Well sonically it was spot on, but visually....). It was at a time when Mike Fields and I deemed ourselves 'too old' for getting in the 'pit' of a SLAYER concert, so we sat and watched them, but they had, on each side of the stage the humongous, massive, strobe lights.
There were warnings coming into the arena that "Strobes would be in use and if you suffered from epilepsy or other seizures you shouldn't come in...
Watching that show was like constantly blinking..- Being 'stoned' as fuck probably didn't help. It was awesome to see them, but it was hard on the head.

The band announced a few months ago that SLAYER's reign was coming to an end. The band is "retiring" and unlike many other bands that have had their "Last ever tours", only to come back a few years later, you can probably count on SLAYER keeping their word.

The many years have been a rough go for the band. Co-founder and guitarist Jeff Hanneman died from pretty much alcohol, the man gave himself 'cirrhosis'. I had wondered...
OK, hold the phone here. So, I had written this blog much earlier and then came back to it... But earlier when I wrote about Jeff Hanneman's death, I had attributed it to an infection that Jeff got from a spider bite, but when I went to Wikipedia, it claimed that the cause of death was the cirrhosis. So, when I came back to my blog here now, I was still kinda thinking that a spider bite had to do with something about Jeff, I was sure that there had been some news, years before that he'd got bit by some spider, the article I found says that he was in a hot tub and was bitten by a spider (though he didn't notice it until a bit later, probably because he was drunk) and then once he saw the spider bite, knew he was going to be quite sick from it. The article does go on to state that the spider bite infection and complications that arose because of it, may or may not have contributed to his liver failure. So there ya go! Fucking spiders! Took out one of thrash Metal's biggest icons! Which is total bullshit because them dark creatures are supposed to be working for us, not against us!!

Lead singer and bassist Tom Araya was suffering bad neck pains because of his thrashing head movements, it caused the disks in his neck to calcify and he had to have a neck operation to remedy the issue and well, can no longer whirl his head about and head bang.

Formed in LA in 1981, the band started out pretty much as a Judas Priest cover act, dawning the same leather and studs as their idols.
The band soon had other plans to become altogether something far darker and evil than Judas Priest could ever dream.

Young SLAYER

The first album, released in 1983 was 'Show No Mercy' and was only a hint at the evil path that SLAYER would take.
Now ya gotta think, around '83, there were very limited bands that were truly 'evil'/. Venom, Possessed, Mercyful Fate and a few others first carried the banner of 'Evil Metal', but SLAYER was the loudest and fastest, for a time certainly kicking Motorhead aside as one of the 'loudest/fastest' bands around.

The E.P. 'Haunting the Chapel' was released in 1984, followed up by the band's second full length release, 'Hell Awaits' and by this time the band was starting to annoy the churchies even landing on the PMRC's evil and satanic, vile and disgusting list. (For those that don't know, the 'PMRC' - The Parents Music Resource Center' was a tribunal created by Al Gore's wife, Tippy 'Tippy' Gore and went to great lengths to get bands like SLAYER, WASP, Alice Cooper, Frank Zappa, Public Enemy and many others silenced, but this led to people like Twised Sister's Dee Snider to go before congress and give them a piece of his highly intelligent Metal mind. In the end, it was all settled with the 'Warning' labels you'll find on certain band's album jackets)

Then 'Reign In Blood' came out and everything changed. With themes of violence, satanism, Naziism and other evil and vile subjects the band was starting to gain notoriety and the PMRC certainly helped them like they helped every band on their lists at that time. I mean, when Mom tells you "No", that means "Yes"! "Don't be buying that evil SLAYER music!"... And it was done.... What did they think was gonna happen?

It was the album's 'South of Heaven' and 'Seasons In The Abyss', plus SLAYER stepping into music videos that really ripped the belly open and spilt the guts.
'South of Heaven' and 'Seasons In The Abyss' are probably the bands most popular albums. But SLAYER continued to pump out the evil and bloody tales for many more years to come. At times, it felt like they might break up. With Hannemans death, the loss of their absolutely incredible drummer Dave Lombardo, who quit the band (possibly due to animosity he created by joining various side projects, like Mike Patton's bands and others - he's even played drums for The Misfits reunion).

After Seasons In the Abyss, SLAYER went on to release a further 7 albums, including 2 live SLAYER albums.
Also on the anniversary for the release of 'Reign In Blood', the band did a one-off performance in 2004 where the band played the album in it's entirety and played the final song 'Reign In Blood' while blood literally rained down on the band, soaking them in realistic 'fake' blood (Except for Hanneman, he was a real pussy and stepped to the side and only got a bit of blood on him, I mean, c'mon man! What the fuck!?? Just once? For that moment in time and he has to side-step the blood. Pffft, maybe that's why the spider bit him!). They used a rig commonly used in the film industry to achieve this effect. It's basically a grid of tubes that water is pumped through and then out of sprinkler types nozzles to make a great 'rain effect', obviously in SLAYER's case they used fake blood.

After Jeff passed away and Dave Lombardo quit, they were replaced by 'Exodus' guitarist Gary Holt and on drums from 'Testament' and 'Exodus' Paul Bostaph.

SLAYER 2019 line up

I have great memories of living in Victoria in 1989, driving around in my buddy Chris Flintoff''s car with SLAYER just blasting out to all the tourists in the inner harbor. A clear way to piss off any member of the establishment, yuppies, preppies or lovers of Country music... Toss on some SLAYER and it's bound to have some humorous room clearing effects (Leaving space to mosh it up!)

So, very sad to see the band go, and heartbroken I couldn't see a show of the final tour, especially because they have Behemoth with them... You could barely ask for a more evil show!

Lets shut up and listen;

Slayer's first music video ' War Ensemble'

The band's second video 'Seasons In The Abyss' - filmed in Egypt on the verge of the Gulf War

The lovely tune 'Silent Scream' is a fine example of singer/bassist Tom Araya's most excellent penmanship. A lyrical whirlwind of evil, sick and twisted lyrics it's no wonder the band raised Tipper Gore's ire so much.

Be sure to read the lyrics along with the song!

SILENT SCREAM

Nightmare, the persecution

A child's dream of death.

Torment, ill forgotten

A soul that will never rest.

Guidance, it means nothing 

In a world of brutal time.

Electric, circus, wild,

Deep in the infants mind.

Silent Scream

Bury the unwanted child.

Beaten and torn

Sacrifice the unborn.

Shattered, adolescent [sings: another child]

Bearer of no name.

Restrained, insane games

Suffer the children condemned.

Scattered, remnants of life,

Murder a time to die.

Pain, sufferaged toyed,

Life's little fragments destroyed.

Silent Scream

Crucify the bastard son.

Beaten and torn

Sanctify lives of scorn.

Life preordained

Humanity maintained.

Extraction termination

Pain's agonizing stain.

Embryonic death,

Embedded in your brain.

Suffocation, strangulation,

Death is fucking you insane.

Nightmare, the persecution

A child's dream of death.

Torment, ill forgotten

A soul that will never rest.

Innocence withdrawn in fear.

Fires burning can you hear

Cries in the night.

Songwriters: Jeffery John Hanneman / Kerry King / Tomas Enrique Araya

Silent Scream lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

I'll leave you with a random photo I took today of the church I attended as a child, Fredericton's Christ Church Cathedral

Birth Day - A Day Of Birthing! (Thank you all for your BD Wishes)

First off, THANK YOU ALL, for your birthday wishes! It's so very much appreciated and I'm so very fortunate to have so many great and close friends! Love you all! 

Yes, yes my friends, on this day in 1972 I was brought forth into the World.

My Mom, was young and the man who had knocked her up, well he took off as soon as he found out she was with child.

According to information I have, my Mom's parents wanted to keep me, but my Mom's sister talked them out of it and I was put up for adoption.

The family that adopted me, Waddell/Cody, though she already had two boys (My Brother's), it was always my adopted Mom's dream to adopt a child... So down to the pound they went and saw me in my cage and fell in love with me and the rest is history!

Had a very pleasant day, on my 46th year on the planet. Got up, shit, showered and shaved, then made my way out for a walk and in the end headed downtown to meet up with my Brother Scott and Sis-InLaw Andrea and headed to their place for a BBQ. Scott BBQ'd us some deelicious steaks, had some cake and watched a great thunderstorm.

Last weekend when my cousin Leanne was up, she dropped off some over-flow of family heirlooms.
Our great grand-father was a prolific writer. Not sure how many novels he wrote, but it's upward of 40/50 I think. So, sadly, as family members have passed away, these books have made their way through the family. I've never actually had any of the collection, but now I do. All the books are first print, some in great condition, some in not so great condition. But I'm proud to add them to my collection of books.

The following people share the same birthday as I - To say their birthday is ON May 25th!:

Mike Meyes, Ian McKellen (Gandalf), Musician Paul Weller, Klaus Meine (The Scorpions singer).

So, Hippy Barthday to them too!

I always used to post this on friends FB pages when it was their birthdays, so, I'll give myself a dose of my own medicine!

Thanks again everyone!! 

A Perfect Circle Ain't No New Tool

But it'll have to do for now.

It's been 12 years since '10,000 Days' was released, which was the band 'TOOL's' last album.

Last year rumors were abound that the band was recording tracks, which gave way to that rumor being confirmed.
Then last week at one of TOOL's last concerts (Last until the new album touring begins) Maynard Keenan "begged" (according to Blabbermouth's report) his band members to finish their tracks so he could record his vocals and put that suckah in the can (finish the album).

In it's place as somewhat of a place holder, Maynard's other band 'A Perfect Circle' released their first album in a while called, 'Eat The Elephant'.
There's some media I guess with the album that has a hologram video for the song 'TalkTalk'.

So they released a 2D version of the hologram video for those who didn't buy the album or that particular release with the hologram:

And if you want to see some absolutely mind blowing animation, check out 'Vicarious' from TOOL. An absolute visual stunner. Combining the arts and talents of  Adam Jones and surrealist artists and messiah to some, Alex Grey.

That oughta have blown your skull wide open.

And now for something completely different.

I had just remembered this video, it's so cryptic and well produced... Allegedly it is said to be predicting WWIII in 2018.

!!BONUS KITTY PICTURE!!

This might very well be the best photo of Elsa, ever.

Two Different Kinds of 'Millenniums" - The TV Show Vs The Pop-Star

[Please notes there's been some edits]

What do Lance Henriksen and Robbie Williams have to do with one another? Not much really....

Most of you are aware that I had a part to play in the special make-up FX for the television series 'The X-Files'. That show, at it's peak the most watched and popular television show on the planet Earth (and maybe beyond), was created by Chris Carter, a former surfer from California who also dreamed up another show that the special make-up FX shop I worked for and did effects for that series as well.
'Millennium', and we'll turn to Wikipedia for the most correct description: "Millennium is an American television series created by Chris Carter (creator of The X-Files), which aired on Fox between 1996 and 1999. The series follows the investigations of ex-FBI agent Frank Black (Lance Henriksen), now a consultant, with the ability to see inside the minds of criminals, working for a mysterious organization known as the Millennium Group."

This series, as well as 'The X-Files' pushed the envelope for violence on television at the time. In fact, the FOX Network as a whole did. Shows like the 'Simpsons' and 'Married With Children' were all part and parcel to the violence and depravity we see on networks today.

Back in the day, the American's 'Standards and Practices' oversaw for the FCC, what was allowed and not allowed to be show on TV in America.

The 'Demon' from Episode 2 'Gehenna' - I fabricated the wings that folded in and out

I can remember we'd get faxes from the head office (Ten-Thirteen Productions) listing what we could and couldn't do. Blood couldn't be "too red", dead bodies were not allowed to be shown "With their eyes open".
Word had it at the time that after each 'X-Files' and 'Millennium' episode Chris Carter would get a phone call from an unnamed woman at Standards & Practices' and they'd have long arguments over what the latest episodes had shown and it was during these conversations that Carter was pushing further and further what we'd see the next weeks and months.

Gelatin 'tongue' from 'Millennium' Episode 4 'The Judge'

At the shop, when we got the first scripts for 'Millennium' we couldn't believe our eyes. Most episodes consisted of murdered men and women, violently killed, chopped up, burnt, eviscerated, tape over mouths and nose.. For us, and this is kinda sick, but for us, it was awesome! This was our bread and butter, aliens, monsters, dead bodies. It's what we did. We brought forth from Carter and the other writer's imaginations, the evil and ghastly, bloody and violent ideas into reality.
We actually had an RCMP forensic adviser who worked with us on the show, to try and get 'right', how a dead body looked after being dead for days, what a burnt body would look like, what a 'bloater' looked like (A bloater is someone who's been found dead in the water after some days).

At one point the RCMP adviser came into the shop and showed us his "presentation" that he gave to students and detectives new to the job. We actually saw things that most of the public never saw or even heard of.

'Burn victim' made of gelatin and latex

I've been watching, after many years, the series in full (Millennium), which only lasted three seasons. It's kinda fun to watch these and see an effect we made, because you forget all the 'jobs' we did for each episode, what those episodes were about. I have a 'tongue' from Episode 4 'The Judge' in my basement (don't worry, it's made of gelatin, which was kinda my specialty at the shop - making effects out of gelatin not just tongues).
The series had some problems. It didn't seem to get it's footing. Was it too violent? I don't think so. I think it was the writing. Season 1 was sort of serial killer/occult prophecy filled, while season 2, was more occult-ish and then the last season was a mix of both. Perhaps this drove people off...

When you watch shows like, Game Of Thrones, Hannibal, American Horror Story and so on. You can thank us that worked on the television shows of the 1990's for the crazy graphic violence you see today.

I think the most frequent questioned I'm asked when people find out that I worked on shows like 'Millennium', 'The X-Files' and piecemeal work on others is, "Do you miss it?"....

It's a hard question to answer, because I do and I don't. I'm sure the industry has changed an awful lot since the 1990's. It's an unhealthy industry or was, we worked nearly 7 days / week and missed most holidays. Why? because we loved being apart of what we did. Working on two television shows, you have an episode (or two in this case) that you're working on, two you're getting ready for, perhaps one or two that are in second unit shooting... So it was a lot, a LOT of work.. But we did have a blast. Working on set, which I wasn't there as much as most of our crew, was exhilarating, some find it horribly boring, but getting to watch everything going on is a great thrill, then getting to see the work you did, being shown on televisions all over the globe? It's awesome, very rewarding. We worked hard and partied harder and I'd never change being apart of all of that for anything in the World.

The 'Other' Millennium.....

Of course after I left the make up FX shop, I was hired at Electronic Arts and ended up in the motion capture department, where we worked with a lot of pro athletes from the NHL, NBA, FIFA and others.
One week during a production meeting we were told that we'd be working with an international superstar for a FIFA 2000 promo. When they said that "Robbie Williams" was going to be doing some guest motion capture, I was thinking, 'Robin Williams? The comedian?' But I was thinking, that couldn't be right... They were calling him "Robbie"... So, instead of embarrassing myself to ask about this "Robbie Williams", when I went home I 'Googled' the name.
I really had never heard of the boy band 'Take That' or of  'Robbie Williams', why would have I? I didn't listen to ANY radio, we worked so much I didn't know who was popular in the Pop and Rock World of the day, so I was quite surprised to learn just who this guy was.
Let's let Wikipedia do the talking again, "Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer, songwriter and actor. He was a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995 and again from 2009 to 2012. He has also had commercial success as a solo artist.
Here's Robbie and one of his bigger 'hits':

Williams rose to fame in Take That's first run in the early-to-mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and group members, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch a solo career, in which all but one of his 11 studio albums have reached number one in the UK. Williams also released seven number-one singles. On 15 July 2010, he rejoined Take That. The group's subsequent album Progress became the second fastest-selling album in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century at the time. Gary Barlow has since confirmed that Williams had left for a second time, although the departure was amicable and that Williams was welcome to rejoin Take That in the future."

So I've explained the whole Motion Capture thing before, but to catch up; When I worked for Electronic Arts Canada, in Burnaby, my job as a MOCAP Operator was to get our 'talents' (actors, stunt people, athletes or international superstars), into their mocap suits. These black suits, had Velcro on them, on which 'markers' were affixed to certain joints of the arms and legs and parts of the torso, as well as the head (usually a pair of glasses).
The 'talent' would go onto the floor (Or 'Capture space'), where there were over 20 cameras that captured their movements and those were translated digitally to wire frame skeletons (at the time). Those wire frame skeletons were then sent to animators and the moves that were captured, whether it be for hockey, soccer or some first person shooter, are then plopped into your video game (of course the animators and coders have much work to do). Motion Capture allows for realistic movements of animated characters.

So, back to my job. We'd suit up the talent, then take continuity photo's of the marker placements ...

Myself in a 'MOCAP suit' as an example of the 'continuity' shots we'd take

and then we had a director direct them through a 'moves' list. Again, whether it's soccer moves, kicking the ball, heading the ball or for hockey, shooting, scoring, celebrations, it's all captured by myself and my co-workers. We arm the cameras, there's a 'call for 'action' by the director, cameras roll and capture the move, the move is 'cut', cameras stop, the move is named and numbered and saved.

So, for 'Robbie Williams', he was coming in with international media as a promo for the FIFA 2000 game. 'Robbie' is quite football player (isn't every Brit?)... I had still no real idea just how 'big' this guy was.

Like, just look how incredible famous this fucker is:

So, it's game day. We were all set for the talent to arrive and the door to the green room swings open and in walks Robbie Williams...
Now, I'm not a star-struck kinda guy. I've met the Rolling Stones, worked for Marilyn Manson and on the TV shows, met many of the stars we worked with. And I still really didn't digest WHO Robbie was. So to me, it was just some loud mouthed Brit.
After some press interviews and introductions, myself and my co-worker Ryan took Robbie into the dressing room and told him to git nekid!.. Well, keep those undies on! And suit up! Once 'Robbie' was away from the press and handlers, he was a great guy, we had conversations about tattoo's, he has quite a few and was asking about my tattoos, sports and just shot the shit. Guy talk ya know. He was a really down to earth guy, wasn't egotistical with us whatsoever.

We got 'Robbie' suited up and once we opened the door and came out of the dressing room 'Robbie' lit up again; brash, loud, and flowing with so much ego it was hard to believe it was the same man I had just been talking to...

I was astounded at the time, during the shoot, Robbie would go out and do some high energy crazy soccer moves, then each and every single break in a shot, he'd want to go out for a smoke. I was put in charge as a "handler" to make sure he only had a few puffs off his "fag", time is of course money.. But the amount this guy smoked and then would turn around and his energy to play soccer was kinda astounding. At the time, Robbie was allegedly not on any drugs, though like many Rock and Pop stars he's had his time with drugs and alcohol and has gotten 'clean', I think a couple of times.
We finished up his capture and on the way out, while photographers were snapping photos for magazines all over the World and video cameras rolled, I was right with Robbie and threw a towel over his shoulders and he through his arm over my shoulder as we walked off the studio floor together. It was a moment to be sure. I'd always wished I had asked the MOCAP dept. for their footage of that event. Because damn it, it was pretty cool.
While only with Marilyn Manson did I ever ask for an autograph, I felt with Robbie, it was an instance that I needed to have down. So, I took one of the Polaroids we used for continuity of the markers and asked him to sign it. he didn't make it out to me, but, well he's the photo:

I know most if not all of my 'Metal' friends would be thinking "Who gives a fuck about this guy?"
To this day, I don't own any of his albums, I am a fan of a few of his earlier 'hits'.
 But it still kinda moves me to this day to think back to this time and know I got to spend time with one of the World's biggest Pop stars, like, one on one and got to hang out with him a bit. As I said, once away from the handlers and press the guy was just like you and I.
It was a very cool day and one I'll always remember... I've often thought of trying to sell the Polaroid to some crazed 'Robbie' fan, but I think I'll hold on it.

Here's the opening for FIFA 2000 which featured Robbie Williams song, 'It's Only Us' as well as MOCAP footage of FIFA player Sol Campbell and the MOCAP of Robbie Williams

Sol Campbell, that's another story. We shot some MOCAP with him as well (Different shoot day). When Sol came in I met him and it was just him and I in our green room. I handed him his MOCAP suit and pointed to the room where he could change. All of a sudden Sol, just dropped his pants, and I guess by his own choice, was 'going commando'... and I was like, 'Whoa! Um.. yeah, uh, there's a change room there...' but he'd already slipped into the MOCAP suit... As he had gone in the suit commando, I told Ryan to maybe put the suit through the washer and dryer twice....

Holy Crap! i just found this video that I'm in! I appear at .46 seconds!

Johny Depp Can Sing?

OK, there's been much todo about 'The Hollywood Vampires', the "uber band" filled with Heavy Metal & Hard Rock idols and.... Johnny Depp.

Yes, that Johnny Depp.

Now, I've known he's been a 'decent' guitarist for some time, having seen clips of 'Hollywood Vampires' playing live and also Depp's appeared, oddly enough on stage with Mary Manson several times.

Then this video appeared on Blabbermouth today of Depp singing the David Bowie classic 'Heroes'.

I braced myself, and it was actually very very well done. Even way better than Alice Cooper singing Aerosmith's 'Sweet Emotion'.

Check out the vid here:

Not bad for a pirate eh?

The album should be interesting and maybe Depp can work off paying his incredible debts with his share of the bootie reaped from the 'Hollywood Vampires' album sales!

I know we've already passed the 1 year anniversary since Chris Cornell took his own life.

Love this song and the movie. Oddly enough, Duran Duran's 'View To A Kill' is also one of my favorite 'Bond' themes.

Odd Fact!: This James Bond 'Theme" never appeared on the actual soundtrack. The only song written for a Bond film that never did. Cornell was greedy and kept the song as part of his solo album!

BONUS Vid! (Just for you late clickers):

Rain is coming, time to hibernate like the Chipmunks in their underground bunks.
The last rainy day was brutal. Temps diving down to around freezing then up well above 15 in the day. Just flogg me like jebus in a Mel Gibson flick!

Exoplanets & Earth 2.0

For nearly 30 years Hubble Telescope has been in orbit giving us on Earth amazing photo's and science from beyond our solar system (and within!). Hubble first was launched in 1990 and when they first went to take some awesome photos with it's then uber high tech cameras, all they got was fuzz. Fingers pointed, blame flew until they realized the fault lay in the polishing machines that polished Hubble's lens... Doh! It had polished the lens to useless.
So, with space cowboy dexterity, and the very first mission of it's kind, the Hubble telescope was lassoed by the space shuttle Columbia and then was fixed and put back into commission in 2002.

From then on it's been absolutely incredible photo's and information gleaned by this science instrument in space.

Albeit on earth, other telescopes have also aided in the search for planets outside of our solar system, science instruments like Hubble have been one of the best pieces of science created by huemahnkind.

But Hubble can't and won't last forever.

Enter TESS and the James Webb Telescope.

Launched just last month, the 'Transiting, Exoplanet, Survey Satellite - AKA 'TESS', took it's first test photo last week.
From the NASA website, TESS's mission is, "The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is an Explorer-class planet finder. In the first-ever spaceborne all-sky transit survey, TESS will identify planets ranging from Earth-sized to gas giants, orbiting a wide range of stellar types and orbital distances. The principal goal of the TESS mission is to detect small planets with bright host stars in the solar neighborhood, so that detailed characterizations of the planets and their atmospheres can be performed.

TESS will monitor the brightness of more than 200,000 stars during a two year mission, searching for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits. Transits occur when a planet's orbit carries it directly in front of its parent star as viewed from Earth. TESS is expected to catalog more than 1,500 transiting exoplanet candidates, including a sample of ∼500 Earth-sized and ‘Super Earth’ planets, with radii less than twice that of the Earth. TESS will detect small rock-and-ice planets orbiting a diverse range of stellar types and covering a wide span of orbital periods, including rocky worlds in the habitable zones of their host stars."

Cool video on TESS's orbit and mission:

In conjunction with other telescopes on Earth, TESS will help grow out knowledge on exoplanets, their formation and make up. Do these planets exist in the 'Goldielocks' zone? The zone, like Earth is in, that's not too hot and not too cold, but just right for life to take hold and thrive?
But there's also new hopes for life in not so friendly 'zones' of solar systems.
Recently, data gleaned from the probe Galileo, showed that the water/ice geysers on Europa, orbiting the planet, Jupiter, may have chemical signatures that could show us that life is possible on these 'ice planets' that have liquid oceans beneath miles of ice crust. Likewise, the planet Saturn has an ice planet, Enceladus, and it too is promising.

So, mmissions like TESS, Hubble and ground based telescope arrays are ever searching for more information and proof of life beyond our solar system.

The Next Gen On The Horizon

Probably my most anticipated mission in the near future is the James Webb Telescope. This is like Hubble V.10.0 - It's a monster of a satellite in it's size and capabilities. Now due for a launch in May of 2020, this date has been pushed and then pushed again due to flaws and unforeseen issues that have arisen in it's construction.
The JWT's missions, according to NASA once again, "The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST or Webb) will be a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror.  The telescope will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana in 2020.

Webb will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.

Webb was formerly known as the "Next Generation Space Telescope" (NGST); it was renamed in Sept. 2002 after a former NASA administrator, James Webb."

With each new planet found, with each new bit of information we speed closer and closer to learning more about the universe and our place in it. We'll learn which planets will have life on them, maybe even what kind of life. Are their other huemahns in space? Or are they all like 'E.T.' or Jar Jar Binks?

Exciting times are ahead and I'm waiting on the edge of my seat with each one of these probes heading into space or powering up on Earth.

The answers are out there!

Pre- Birthday Weekend Dinner

So last evening I was taken out to dinner at the 'King Street Ale House' (It's on King St.!) by my Brother Scott, my Sister in-law, Andrea and my Cousin from Halifax, Lianne with her husband John..

Had a great mean, I ordered the BBQ Baby Back Ribs & Wings.. Dee-Licious!

Was great to catch up with my cousin. I dunno about most families, but ours, I think, is pretty odd. We don't talk much to relatives, sometimes we don't talk to much with one another. It's not that we don't love our family, it's just the way it is it seems. There's cousins that I have no clue where they are or what they are doing. Aunts and Uncles I haven't seen since I was a teenagers.

When we were young and we still lived at our place off Waterloo Row, 'Elmcroft place', we used to have massive family reunions and get-togethers. Mind you we had a huge property and a huge swimming pool, so maybe that was why. Of course a divorce in a family can lead to many great divides and splits.

I do have some friends who have families where the Mom's side might come from a 'well off' background and the Dad's not to 'well off', so you get kind of an 'us vs them' attitude and there's that kind of division.

Anyhow! Back to supper! It was great to see Lianne and John, I hadn't seen them since their last visit I think 2 years ago we figured. So there was quite a bit to catch up on.

After we ate I got some presents from Scott and Andrea, the bag was ridiculously heavy! What could they have got me!

Some great books! They know I love to read and I love to have great books. So, book 1:
'The Golden Age of Piracy' written by: Benerson Little, who is a former Marine, as well as a pirate aficionado, writing many books on the subject, appearing on many documentaries about them as well.

I don't know if Scott knew that I was 'into' piracy. I have collected some 15 movies on the subject, no, not all of them the 'Pirates of The Caribbean' series, although I do enjoy those movies.
They have given me great books on ancient Egypt and the Knights Templar and really understand my passion for history.
They also clearly understand my passion for space! As the next two books were both on that subject.
Book 2 is: 'The Astronomy Book' - a virtual tome of information on all things in 'outer space', "written in plain English is filled with short, pithy explanations that cut through the jargon". Any books that will cram more information about my favorite place is a great edition to my library.
Book 3, is  'Night Sky Atlas', filled with star maps, coordinates and information for those beginning their journey with a small telescope or binoculars.
So, quite excited, I've already dove into the 'Golden Age of Piracy' book.

The books came at a perfect time. The weather changed quick last night, the temps dove down, rain came down, then today they shot back up to warmer regions, all this was a slap to my system. I stayed in bed most of the day, napping and reading.

Elsa's such a good kitty, as long as she has food she'll leave me alone and sleep with me most of the time I'm in bed. Piggey Sue, my last cat on the other hand. I had to be up, whether she wanted food or not. Piggey had many tricks up her sleeve to wake me up... From scratching my face, to licking my nose and eyes, with that sandpaper like tongue. Piggey would always find a way to get me out of bed.

Looks like not a bad week ahead, some possible rain Wednesday, my aches and pains probably won't stabilize until after Monday, as we have another great dip in temps tonight, with even a 'frost warning' in place (we have had several in the last couple of days).
My birthday looks not too bad. No plans. Usually have a BD get together, but I've been so out of touch with almost everyone I'd feel bad sending out a note to come to dinner.
The birthday dinners I've had previously, I never had them put together with the expectations of cards and presents, but just to be with friends that I like. On the other hand, not having the dinner doesn't mean I don't like my friends anymore haha.

I was going to put together the telescope that I got for Christmas from my Brother Scott and Andrea, but I didn't feel like even rolling out of bed let alone following instructions and put the 'scope together. It'll happen soon enough, the weather is agreeable and the night skies are open (well except on obviously cloudy nights). I am a little worried about Elsa and dust and hair. I've got to save up for a case for the telescope to keep it safe from all of that.

Anyhow, I'ma go fall down somewhere.

I Interrupt Your Programming To Bring You:

This brand new song and video from 'Ghost'....

See all the 'stars' in the video? Grooving, dancin', singing to the track? That means that since they love it, you have to as well. It's the way of the World. Don't bother to resist. You know it's awesome.

Have a great Friday evening, I'll be in my nerd voice chat.

Oh, here's an extended 'Chippy & Friends' video!

The Further Adventures of 'Chippy' & 'Skit'

Broke out my DSLR today. Just not getting satisfactory pictures or video with my cellphone.
But as you can see by this first video of, I think Chippy, the quality is mucho better.

Here's some of my first pix from today. I've got a small shitty tri-pod, but it does the trick:

 Chippy

Chippy

That's 'Skit' ... Skittish, but warming up to me. You just have to be patient and quiet and move slow.

Chippy in the foreground & Skit in the back. Got some vid of Skit, chasing off Chippy. I'd had thought it'd be the other way around. Maybe 'Skit' is a she...

Couple of the birds that frequent the feeder. I think they are a 'couple' as they always come together. Haven't searched out exactly what species they are yet. 

In other news, the X-Ray went well this morning, well, until she figured out that I had a "double ponytail"! ... She was like, "Ok, a couple more, turn on your side here and ... Oh! Do you have a double ponytail??" and then she walked off to her assistant on the computer "whisper, whisper"... Comes back. "Well, we'll have to do a couple positions over again... You didn't say you had a double ponytail!"... And I'm thinking... 'Um, you didn't ask ANYTHING about whether I had 'A' PONYTAIL!'... Anyhow. all went well... Now, we await the results.

Kingdom of The Spiders!

OK, seriously, what's up with all the spiders? Man, there's been a bunch that are all hanging out where the wall meets the ceiling!

What's worse than having spiders? Attempting to kill them and they end up escaping and then you don't know where the fuck they went or what their motives now are!!!

I got some 'spider killer' but I don't wanna use it in the house because of Elsa... I usually just use it for my 'Shack Out Back'... Don't need no big freakin' barn spiders chillin' out while I'm havin' a puff!

Fuck you dolphin!!

X-Ray day! No answers today, but hopefully soon!

And the bottom of the T.V. Screen says, "CBC Canada's 24 Hour News Network", but all I'm seeing is this bullshit about the 'royal wedding'... There's not been ONE 'news story' yet.... Guess I'll check out CTV or Global... Pathetic, what am I paying a cable bill for??

'Chippy The Chipmunk & Friends' - |Even Closer Encounter

Described in the video, but I went out to put the bird feeder under some cover. I've found that when the rain makes the feed on the outside rim of the bird feeder moist, that the critters lose interest in it, so when it's about to rain, I've been putting the feeder in a dry place.
When I closed my apartment door I saw the chipmunk dart from the base of the feeder right over to the steps leading into my backyard... Almost like it was greeting me. It certainly didn't run off in fear.

Also in this video, a couple of birds that frequent the feeder popped by. They too seem to be growing used to me being around and don't seem to look at me as a threat.

And then! Well, just check out the vid!

The 'Tallica

Crabbe Mountain, Central Hainesville, New Brunswick circa 1985;

Lawrence Rhinelander invites me into his VW Beetle to smoke a 'J'. Before we spark up, he pops in this cassette into his cars tape deck and cranks it.
"Ever heard of these guys?" - The band is frantic, the music is as heavy as Motorhead mashed with Venom and some other bands of the era. I'm hearing lyrics like, "Strapped in the electric chair", "Shouting gun on they run, through the endless grey, On they fight For their right, yes but who's to say"... This albums is amazing.
My first listen to Metallica. I didn't even know that Lawrence was a 'Metalhead'....

I had got into Metal around 1983/1984. mostly introduced to many of the bands I love through a family friend, whom I delivered papers to their house on Alexandria St. Mike Belyea loaned me so many albums. He was the first to feed me Metal, albeit my older Brother Scott had a brief stint listening to Metal maybe around 1983/'84 and I had got a couple of the albums he had bought.

I remember getting 'Master of Puppets' and my Mom's boyfriend, Ian Barry had a 'ghettoblaster', a pretty sleek one that I'd borrow when I wasn't pissing Mom off with the stereo and ancient amplifier I had in my room.
The opening track to Master of Puppets is of course 'Battery', that starts out with some pacifying acoustic guitar. I remember Ian coming in and hearing the beginning and going, "Hey, this is nice stuff"... Probably a bit of a shock to him considering what I was normally listening to. I warned him that the soothing sounds wouldn't last long. 'Battery' kicks in to over drive and he promptly left the room.

In 1988/'89, the 'Damaged Justice Tour' came to Moncton, New Brunswick. As openers they had Queensryche (while other lucky places got to see Faith No More). Queensryche was out promoting their 'Operation Mindcrime" album and being an opening band, the PA equipment (and those running it) did not give them any justice... Ha Justice? Get it? 'Damaged Justice Tour'? Bwaah!

Mike Fields, Grant Forsythe, John Robinson, Mark Wall, Marc Vienneau and I all piled into Mike's beater car, it was January or February, we'd all been partying the night before at night 1 of Peter Rowan's 'Maritime Independent Music Festival' - A three day indie music extravaganza held at the Capital Exhibit Center on the FREX grounds. Grant's band 'Neighbourhood Watch' and my band 'K.G. Wolfe' were both playing Sunday for the festival's 'Metal/Punk' day.

So, right after the Friday night shows ended, we took off to Moncton, driving through the night, I remember the bottom of Mike's car was rusted out and every time we'd hit a bump, we'd hear this loud scraping sound.
When we got to the Moncton coliseum, just around daybreak, a couple of us got out of the car and got down on the cold ground on the side where we had heard this 'scraping' noise coming from and could see Mark Wall's red sweatpants through the bottom of the car. It looked like a long pieces of steel was the only thing holding up the drivers seat from becoming one with the road.

We drove around the coliseum parking lot for a while, doing foolish teen craziness like hanging on to the open car door as we sped across the pavement, sliding along on just our sneakers on the ice and snow that blanketed the arena's cement.

We then decided we needed food. So we went to Moncton's McDonald's and I can't quite remember how it happened, but Mark V and I were in the car and Fields ended up putting his boot right through the window, showering us with glass. This was gonna be quite the day.

Between that incident and the evening was a blur, probably due to sleep deprivation, but I do remember standing in line to get in, the crowd pushing against the door. The cops and the security on the inside bracing themselves for whatever was about to happen... We were close to the front and someone in another line next to us managed to bust the window to the door with their foot or something, the cops inside, clambering to arrest the perps...

Once inside, the concert started began. I can't remember who else was on the bill aside from Queensryche, but at that time, I LOVED that 'Mindcrime' album. In my opinion to this day, it's the best album they ever released, it was a shame to see them sound so bad that night. The crowd, more aggressive Metalheads, certainly didn't appreciated the progressive cohesiveness that the band was at the time. Again, the sound work over job they got as an 'opener' didn't help.

We were mostly all together when Metallica took the stage and at some point in the mayhem we were all separated.
That show was a killer, wicked show. Metallica giving the performance they'd been known for. They had the big 'Doris - Lady Justice' statue that was built throughout the show only to be toppled during the peak of 'And Justice For All'...

At the end of the show, it took some time for all of us to find each other and when we did, one was missing.

Word had it that during the concert, Mike Fields had been crowd surfing and several times had gone over the barrier into the loving arms of the security guys, who'd pick you up, and then throw you to the left. The last time someone saw Fields go over the barrier, he was pushed to the Right....

We didn't know it, but what had happened when Fields got pushed to the right was that instead of a loving security guard, there was a cop, who grabbed Fields and whisked him off not to be seen again.

So, we gathered that Fields must be in jail. Arrested for what? Crowd surfing? Nuh uh, that didn't jive at all.

Somewhere during the evening or perhaps the day, we'd run into a couple of other friends from Fredericton/Oromocto, they had a hotel room, so we'd all gone there after the show (and perhaps before the show). We were all kinda freaked out over whatever had happened to Fields. Grant decided to take charge and the only option we had was to go to the Moncton police station to see if we could find Mike. He was our drive there, I'm not certain if Mark Wall had his car keys or if Mike had them, but it was his car and we'd be stuck in Moncton without him.

So Grant and I, maybe a couple other set out to get Mike outa the clink. When we got to the police station, it was decided that Grant would go in and querry about Fields. The rest of us punks probably were not adult enough to face the cops. So, in went Grant and after some time, he emerged with Fields.

So, Mike had a story and it wasn't a good one. That last time that Fields had gone over the barrier, he'd been pushed into the direction of that cop and that cop proceeded to grab Mike in a half-nelson and pretty much carry him off the coliseum floor, his feet barely touching the ground. He was taken into a hallway and then tossed into a paddy wagon that was filled with drugged out, violent, drunken concerto-goers. There he remained until the end of the concert and then they were trucked off to the Moncton jail.
Mike HAD been arrested, but what was the charge you might ask? Well, that must have been something that the cops were asking themselves at one point as well.
That night and most days, Fields was wearing a denim jacket vest with artwork on it that he had done himself. If you don't know Mike Fields, then you don't know that he's one of THE most amazing artists this area has ever produced. On the back of his denim jacket, he' done some artwork paying homage to one of his favorite Hardcore bands of the time, M.D.C.
Now 'M.D.C.' stood for at the time, Millions of Dead Cops (and one other album, 'Millions of  Dead Children)... The denim jacket Mike was wearing said, 'M.D.C. - Millions of Dead Cops - Use Cops as fertilizer'... So, that didn't go over too well with the local constabulary, but it wasn't enough to charge his with any crime. So in the end, they charged Mike with carrying a prohibited weapon... What? What weapon? Well, the cops dug deep for this charge! The "weapon" was a ring. Yes, a ring that Fields was wearing, the ring, a perhaps pewter had a grouping of spikes on it. I believe it was called a 'Crown of thorns'... So, with that little gem, they charged Mike Fields and he was to appear in court in a few months time.
Once Fields was let go, we all headed back to the hotel room and got little sleep. As I recall, that single bed hotel room had something like 7-9 people all crammed into it. With a single or perhaps double bed, it didn't give a lot of people room to sleep. I think I slept underneath a desk that was in the room.
We got up early as we had to be back in Fredericton in time to get ready for our perspective shows. I think we played in the afternoon sometime and Neighbourhood Watch a bit later in the day, perhaps the evening.
What I really remember now was that Grant had been sick with a cold the whole way to Moncton and I had sat beside him, so by the time we got back to Fredericton, both Grant and I were sick as dogs.
But we both had great shows and that weekend was one for the memory banks. So much had happened since that Friday to Sunday evening.

The next day, the Daily Gleaner and other provincial papers carried stories about the "mayhem" that Metallica had brought forth in the wake of their show. Many were arrested that night, before, during and after the concert. There was one particular paragraph about some punk ass kid who was wearing a jacket that had 'M.D.C. Millions of Dead Cops, Use Cops for Fertilizer' and then went on about other hooligans that had been arrested.

A couple of months later Mike's court date came up and he and his Father, Lou (rest in peace), drove up to Moncton for his hearing... Once in court and his trial began, the arresting officer never showed up and the case was thrown out of court.

Those trips to Moncton for concerts were always memorable. I believe on two occasions we almost died in car wrecks either going to or coming back from Moncton.

Metallica, Thanks for the memories!

Now, like many Metallica "fans" or former fans. I was a huge Metallica fan up until about halfway through the 'Black' album. There were some amazing songs on that album and some disappointing ones. 'Enter Sandman' I have quite a bit of history with as Dreamkick had managed to somehow get an advanced copy of the track when it was released as a single and we decided to pick it up as a cover in our set.
So by the time it became HUGE, we had been playing the song for quite some time. I've always said that we might have played the song more than Metallica had (had the time) because some nights people would go crazy for it and we'd end up playing it two or three times in the span of a night.

After that, I really had no interest in what Metallica had put out. There were a few songs here and there, 'Fuel' was pretty good, 'I Disappear' wasn't too bad. But I did not buy a Metallica album until 'Death Magnetic', which still to many is a horrible, horrible album. But once the 'remastered' version was released, it became a less bitter pill for your ears to swallow.

Their most recent release, 'Hardwired to Self Destruct' I think is THE best album since 'And Justice...'.

The tour has been massive. The guys have learned a lot in the many years they've been together. Colossal mistakes like 'Lulu' with Lou Reed and the 'Through the Never'... Which Mike Fields actually appears in a few times (had I stayed in Vancouver for another year, you can bet I woulda been by his side!)... That movie, if you can call it a 'movie' had amazing concert footage, but the 'story', if you can call it a 'story' was ridiculous and completely unnecessary, but the band probably knows that well by now.

Metallica has been known for great and innovative stage show for some time and with the Hardwired tour, they didn't let down.
What I first saw as a bunch of dumb 'video cubes' that they had suspended above the audience and stage soon became a really amazing and super cool effect system. I had recently seen a documentary on the tours effects (posted below) and really took a different position on this tours effects after seeing that mini-doc about how this tours effects came together and what they do.
These cubes weigh around 500lbs a piece, are filled with cameras and other computer driven systems. There's quite a few of these cubes and weighing in at 500lbs, then plus the rigging and wiring is quite something for riggers and stadium owners to contend with when bring the band to their town.

I had also seen a 'pro-shot' video of the band performing their single 'Moth Into Flame' and was amazed at these flying lights that all swarmed out during the song and began to form great patterns and flew around with such precision and fluidity, I was kinda dumbfounded.. How'd they do this effect?? My guess was drones... and my guess was right.

Really kicking myself for leaving Vancouver sometimes, While I did get to see nearly ever single band I'd ever wanted to see and then some. I have missed some really great tours. Iron Maiden with Ghost. This Metallica tour and I'll be missing SLAYER's farewell tour with Lamb of God and Behemoth (who'd I'd like to see more than Slayer or L.o.G. !)
It will be interesting to see where and what Metallica does net. It seemed to take them a couple albums to get their footing again. It would seem they've won back a lot of fans who'd left them over their music or the NAPSTER fiasco or other reasons. Can they keep them? Can Lars even continue being the drummer? You watch the band play now and Lars, who used to wind up like a Major League Baseball pitcher just to hit a cymbal, is now looking like he's treading water as he drums. His gut has gotten bigger this tour, when you'd think playing each night would have diminished it. James Kirk and Rob seem to be holding their age well and I could not see the band continuing without Lars, James or Kirk.

Check out this near 40 minute documentary on the Hardwired Tours effects and staging, it even goes into the bands catering.

Maybe someday I'll see the band live again. But if not, I'll definitely always have those memories of that chaotic weekend back in 1988/89.

Moth Into Flame (with drone action!)