Hello again! Sorry I've been remiss in providing new reading material for the week. These things usually take about an hour or more to put together and since I only have about two hours to do anything in the evening after my commute, I only sometimes eat that time up with blogging. As long as I knock out a couple a week you'll be sated, won't you?
Link Removed
We begin with a brand of acrimony unique to the past 10 years of human development, the ability to have Internet feuds with people in far-away cities whom you only know as text. If you look to your left under "Blogs" you may note one is removed. Yes, one of our clubhouse told me to stop posting on his blog and removed my link, so I'm responding in kind. This is all politically-inspired, largely by the Rick Santorum post below. The blogger in question was musing on his blog how "cruel" my opinions were on the Santorum incident and when I moved to explain my position he told me to "go away" and for his readers to ignore me.
With all of the political punditry I've offered here it has amazed me, first, that for some reason I am Republican fly paper. Where are all the Internet-loving, Democratic, artsy weirdos who are supposed to show up to agree with me? Despite the fact I'm constantly delivering my message to a small, Bush-supporting audience who never sees it my way have you seen me telling anyone to go away, or for anyone to close their ears to anyone else's opinion? Nope. If you think there's any truth to your opinions and you have confidence in your ability to back up your position then there's no need to get teary-eyed, fall in the floor and pound your little fists. You're not going to get very far as a columnist or commentator that way. Tim Russert will have you removed from the set. The only people who act like that are dopes who can't defend their ideas until Rush Limbaugh tells them what to say. Link removed!
My Christmas List
Aw, but let's turn our attentions from such geekdom, for `tis the season to be jolly! Time to make a list of what goodies we want Santa to bring. Unfortunately I got a Millenium Falcon and an Atari a couple of decades ago, so now I'm running short of ideas for things to want for Christmas. Here's what I've come up with so far. Contribute ideas if you can:
1.) Rush Replay x3 three DVD set
2.) M-Audio Oxygen v. 2 MIDI keyboard controller
3.) Pink Floyd The Wall two CD set
Of course I'm also thinking about what I should get my parents. My mom likes O - Oprah magazine so I'll probably be giving that for the third or fourth year in a row. My dad is disinterested in everything and hasn't show much excitement about anything I've bought him so he'll be receiving a lump of coal in his stocking. What do you buy for the man who hates everything? Submit suggestions at the comment link below.
The Nadir of My `80's Metal Rennaisance
Back in 2003 a friend gave me a bootleg of Van Halen demos from their beginning years and ever since I've been on a trip back to 1985, reading about the bands and purchasing the tunes that were the soundtrack to my adolescence (at least on the weekends I was over at Scott's house).
In collecting the works of Ratt and Dokken I've also dipped my finger in metals I wouldn't have dared touch as a tepid teen, and maybe I've reached a new low. To my dismay I've found myself enjoying the works of...Iron Maiden! Axe-wielding monsters, album titles like Number of the Beast and, frankly, their hairspray-less hairdos that were thought to be very redneck-y at the time, were a strong turnoff when I was 14. Since then I've found that if you take away the graphics and sensationalism you have songs that, I dare say, are almost Journey-like. "Run to the Hills," for example, is built around the extremely catchy melody rather than the guitar, as is the case in most metal. "Aces High" is another good one. "Flight of Icarus." "22 Acacia Avenue." That's all I've heard. Pretty good stuff, though.
More later.
"Fuck off throwing these shoes up here, you asshole!"
I see there used to be a 2-CD Iron Maiden greatest hits that was called "Best of the Beast" that contained the highlights and then some, including the Paul DiAnno and Blayze Bailey eras. Now it's whittled down to a one-disc set, though, so "The Essential Iron Maiden," also two discs, sounds like a better bet now.