The Battle Vest Project

When I was a young Metalhead, I had the 'advantage' that every Summer we'd be cruising across the continent with Dad and we'd usually stop in to some pretty major cities along our travels to Victoria, British Columbia.
The advantage was, my Brother Gordy and I got access to all these incredible head shops (big stores that sell all kinds of 'Heavy Metal' & 'Punk' merchandise: Shirts, Jackets, hats, toques, buttons, pins, patches, spikes, wristbands, flags,, lava lamps and on and on).
I had the 'Metallica - Metal Up Your Ass' T shirt with the glow in the dark guy frying in the electric chair on the back! My jean jacket had a 'Iron Maiden - Powerslave' big back patch on it. I had this wicked 'Jump in the Fire' demon metal pin.. I HAD a really frikin' awesome skull ring.. Which I lost the year after I moved back here... I had all the good shit!

Nowadays, I got WAY too many shirts.. Long sleeve T's... Ugh so much 'stuff'.. But most of it's pretty 'Metal'.

I'd been wanting to do a Metal 'Battle Vest' for quite a while now. When I was at CHSR I had begun to get in some patches, The guys in Neighbourhood Watch threw some swag at me when I went out on their reunion tour and their kick ass patch was in there.. and I had begun to collect Metal patches but I was missing the main component... A denim jacket or vest to sew them on to...

You see, as a 'Metalhead' the 'Battle Vest' is a very cool component to our attire.. It's a further statement, that you're looking at a 'Metalhead'.
Usually adorned with patches by your favorite bands, this shows strangers that come upon you, what you're into. And that can make or break a potential relationship, especially if your 'Battle Vest' is covered with 'Winger'/'Poison' and 'Mötley Crüe' junk....

YOu might fight a total 'Blackened Metal' friend by noting the patches on his /her Battle Vest,.. Or maybe they are all Hardcore and Punk patches.. Punk Rockers also do the 'Battle vest' thang...

Here's an example of a great 'Battle Vest':

Not my 'Battle Vest'

So this past week I got myself a denim vest, I've ordered a large back patch for the.... back.. That's generally the main.. item.. On the center of the back, usually you'll find one large back patch, it's the 'big one'.. It generally is maybe your favorite band or the first patch you got, but almost, almost every 'Battle Vest' will have that one big patch on the back and then the rest of the jacket is made up of small and various sized patches.

So, here's the beginning of mine. I was going to wait until I got the big back patch, but I thought, 'Nah, I can start on the front!'

So that's where it'll all begin!

The beginning of my 'Battle Vest'

This is the last time you'll see the vest until it's 'complete', that is, it has enough patches on it, that's it worthy for public consumption... Really, I'd look even dorkier than I do if I went out with just these patches on it!

I am goin to document the making of the jacket on video and it'll be a 'how I made out'/'How to' video...And it'll be available.. much later on.. Though I plan to try and get this suckah up and running in a few months.

Stay tuned!

The Coming Storm & Some Capital Project Suggestions

Yes, yes, my friends a storm is coming! How big will it be? How strong will the winds be? How many will lose power? Who knows!?

According to Environment Canada:

"3:42 PM AST Wednesday 06 November 2019

Special weather statement in effect for:

Fredericton and Southern York County

Rain and snow followed by colder temperatures expected over New Brunswick beginning Thursday afternoon into Friday, with a cold and blustery day in store for Saturday.

A weather system is expected to bring rain to southern New Brunswick beginning Thursday afternoon with snow expected over northern regions, with the rain/snow boundary likely across central New Brunswick. Rainfall amounts of 15 to 30 millimeters are possible over southern sections with 5 to 10 centimeters of snow possible for the northern and central areas of the province Thursday night.

As colder air moves into the province from the north on Friday, flurries or periods of snow could give an additional 5 to 10 centimeters of snow to central and eastern areas of the province. Reduction to visibility could create potentially hazardous driving conditions Friday afternoon and evening.

Saturday will be sunny but remain cold and blustery across the province as temperatures will struggle to reach the freezing mark in many areas."

And if you watch the accompanying video, you'll see some flurries and some furries.

Now for some Capital Project recommendations:

Be sure to check out these bands and their spotlight vids... Sorry Tim, I ain't linking 'Scotty & The Stars'....

Kill Chicago:

These guys are really awesome. They got a 'radio Rock' feel to them, I've kinda had a 'Foo Fighters' vibe to them, but they got their own style, this is the kind of Rock that gets signed, great hooks, catchy chorus' and well written songs. 

I would have to guess that Zach was just a youngin' when DreamKick and The Wasteland Zombies were around (he's 10 years younger than myself). But he's grown up, immersing himself in the local scene. As a teen he and a friend campaigned city hall for the 'right' to put up gig posters and he is responsible for those poster stations up around the downtown core. Which is HUGE. I won't get into my rant about how no one posters today, with the exception of ... The Capital and me, when we had shows or when a band actually took me up on postering for them (ok, ok, other bands have postered)

He then made his way in to the Capital and now, if I'm not mistaken, he's running the whole Capital complex, which includes two other pubs. So he's always been someone that has been great and super huge asset to our scene. He's brought in so many bands, so many genres and truly gave bands a home to play when there were next to none.

Anyhew! I don't know much about the rest of the gang in the band. I know Dillon their drummer as he does video work for Tim... The singer is a teacher (I know that from the Capital Project movie) and I believe one of the Bowie kids is in the band... Not David Bowie!

Young Satan In Love:

Ahh 'Young Satan In Love' - Mark Bragdon (sp?) he and my Brother Gordy have a great acid trip story, it was funny to hear both sides of it... But it's not for me to relate here.

I think of YSiL as, kinda Mr. Bungle, Redd Kross like, funny, silly, but not quite as mainstream I guess. Their shows are filled with theatrics, props, crowd participation.. If you've never seen Young Satan In Love... Make sure you do! They are great to see on 'date nights'!

NOT Click bait! I've Finally Caught Elsa On Video!

HA! Now I can prove I ain't crazy!

For years I've typed out, stories of Elsa, jumping up on my bed's... footboard, gingerly, and expertly walking along it's edge, over to some of my late Grandfather's artwork, which is presented in glass frames... and then 'slapping' it with her paw, sending the painting swinging back and forth on it's wire...

The 'big one' is the huge glass pained etching of a British knight that I have, she'll go and slap that one too and today, I caught her!

Enjoy! Oh and there's some tree rat and chipmunk footage for those of you aching for that!

Here We Are Again.... And So There Were Two!

Short-Tail and the 'Munk that climbs up on the table are still about. Though it took forever for the Table 'Munk to get it's butt over for some peanuts!

Time Changed happened so now I'll just have morning, afternoon to get some footage. There's a great clip from later in the video that I chopped out and put it at the beginning. So cute.

Enjoy!

FUCK! GRRRR BLOGGER!!!! (The name of this website I used for my Blogs... For the last 3 days, each time I click the 'Add Photo' or 'Add Video' icon, either a blank white box comes up, or just 'text' with no graphics appears.. At least with the latter I can eventually link the YouTube video... But tonight's it's not even letting me do that...

So, here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX4wNwOs4QY

I'll try Publishing it, then try it again....

Blade Runner & Chipmunks AND Elsa ATTACKS!

Back in 1982 my Father took me to see the movie 'Blade Runner'.... My Dad took me to see a LOT of amazing movies, that being that young, I don't know MAYBE I shouldn't have seen? Compared to 'R' rated movies now, Blade Runner is really a breeze.. Conan the Barbarian, another movie Dad took me to, that had several decapitations during the opening of the movie - My Dad's girlfriend at the time got up and walked out, he followed her shortly and I watched Conan by myself..

I'm totally thankful I got to see these iconic movies in the theater. I think a lot of those movies certainly influenced me and shaped parts of my creativity.

I just came across an article on the BBC about 'Blade Runner Then and Now' - Because the Blade Runner made in 1982 was set in the uber, so far distant - we must have colonies on other planets by then - future of 2019!

So I'm not gonna go through the article bit by bit, I got a 'munk vid to throw together, but suffice it to say, sure, there's TINY similarities to that dystopian high tech future as laid out in Blade Runner.

LOL there's not much.. We sort of have some barely tested VTOL like helicopter/airplanes.... But that ain't no flying car.... There are people working on it. But the infrastructure to support even the cheapest of alternative transportation modes are probably still decades away.

Robots are nowhere near anything like the 'clone droids' of Blade Runner, synthetic huemahns made to work on the 'Off World colonies' and in Blade Runner, it's not made out to sound like 2019 is our first time in  space either... So there's that, space exploration, which I've lamented we're so sadly far behind (and if you look at those movies made in the '70's or '80's - any of them that showed our future, we've barely reached any of it).

Check out the BBC article here: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-50247479

Now the Chipmunks!

Feelin' Better

Thanks for all your kind words on FB. I slept a good chunk of the day and did feel a bit better when I got up, got moving around.
Sometimes I think I really get to feel how bad I am when I'm towards the end of my Naproxen (anti-inflammatory) coursing through my body and then once I take it (every 12 hours), well not once, about an hour or more later I begin to notice it's effects. These 'shatter' gummies are most excellent, they really do the trick. Can't wait for all the new products to be unleashed in I guess January now.


SO! It's been a helluva long time since I've posted a video and it wasn't for lack of trying. I must have 3 to 5 days of video, went to work on it and it just never got done and then the next day, i'd take more video and then it didn't get made... I'd start editing, working on stuff but just been too busy.

But then yesterday eve, while waiting for Ciaron (We went to see the 'Joker') and all of a sudden 'CallYou' is being so skittish I ain't even bothering to try and get her to come to me, these two 'munks show up. The 'ShortTail' and this other one... I dunno, it's got a mark on it's hind end like 'Buddy's 'mother' did... But I just can't accept that she's survived that long and this one doesn't seem big enough to be that old.  I dunno... Anyhow... Enjoy, not many more of these left.

AND as a bonus, here's a couple of Fall photo's I've taken over the last couple of weeks:

6:06 A.M.

How are you supposed to sleep when both of your hips are screaming in red hot pain?

My hips have bothered me on and off through this arthritic journey. They've not been my biggest issue, but having a fucked up walking gait and compensating for one bad foot over the other has taken it's toll.

Around 2004, my then rheumatologist told me that by the looks of my feet, knees and hips I'd be permanently confined to a wheelchair in a matter of years.
When I first saw her around the Fall of 2001, I was still in the wheelchair from the rapid onset of psoriatic arthritis that was destroying my feet, heel to toe.
Once I had been diagnosed and was receiving proper medications, in conjunction with going to physio therapy 3 days a week, we'd managed to get the wild uncontrolled inflammation under control, but my disease process was so intense that that's what led my rheumatologist to make that shocking statement about being confined to a wheelchair.... It's 2019 and I've been 'lucky' that my hips HAVE held up on me this long.

Likely one of the most frightening times in my life were those first months when my feet got so bad I did fear losing the ability to stand.
It was a very very humbling experience at age 26 to wind up in that wheelchair, to go from standing and being in really quite decent health to a wheelchair in only a matter of months was a mind fuck....

Anyhow, I've got some really, really great 'shatter' gummies. ... I think its going to be a gummy day. It's also 'Methotrexate Wednesday', so the day was a write off anyhow.
Maybe this pain is due to the incoming storm that's aimed to hit us by early tomorrow morning , I don't know,  but this ain't a fun time....