Creative Genius

 Well, ladies and gentleman....what can even be said? I remember, back in the Fall of 1977 (give or take a month), there was this movie playing at the Nuart. If you're from Los Angeles, you know that the Nuart, which sits right off the San Diego Freeway in West L.A., is the city's premier art-house theater. It was famous in the 70s for hosting Saturday night screenings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", in which dedicated fans of that flick would show up and recite dialogue back at the screen, as the action was happening, or they'd toss glitter around. "Rocky Horror" and the Nuart became synonymous around this time, but in September or October 1977, word got around about another movie that was "in residency" at the theater, some crazy thing called "Eraserhead". It was supposed to be really weird.

Back then, David M. (or "Grimsley", as he later became known) was often at the forefront of new artistic discoveries. For instance, he found out about The Runaways before anyone else in our group of friends. And he heard about this movie, the name of which alone seemed reason enough to see it. I mean....why would anyone call their movie "Eraserhead", right? You wondered that when you were seventeen years old, especially in 1977, when the world was still basically the normal world.

At the time, I was just getting into art house flicks. I don't know if I'd seen "The Last Wave" yet, but Peter Weir was the first major discovery for me. Anyway: so we went to see this film, it was photographed in stark, richly textured black and white (you'd never seen a "look" quite like it), and I'll never forget the opening shot, of Henry's head, shown sideways, with his electrified hair and a worried look on his face. There's a foreboding planet in the background; it's like Henry's mind is in outer space, and all of this is accompanied by white noise that builds into a whooshing sound, like an interplanetary wind. The soundtrack sort of continues that way for the whole movie, but right from the get-go, you knew you were watching something very different, and it just kept getting weirder.

I remember we noticed David Lee Roth in the audience before the movie started, except to us, he was "that guy from Van Halen" because the band wasn't world famous yet. But the thing was, "Eraserhead" must've been too weird for DLR, because he got up and walked out about halfway through.  I was engrossed, and by the time the scene with "Bill" came up, where he stares at Henry at the dinner table, after asking him "what do you know?" and Henry says, "Oh...not much of anything", I knew I was watching genius.

That was David Lynch, who died yesterday. He became my favorite filmaker and artist-in-general and has remained so up to the present moment. He is one of those people who feels like family, like EVH, and to me, David Lynch and Walt Disney are the two greatest American creative geniuses of the last century.

I was fortunate to meet him twice. The first time was at a small art gallery on the Westside. They were showing some of Lynch's drawings. This was in 1995, when I was working on my Northridge Meadows documentary. The late (sometimes great) Dave Small was with me. He was producing the doc (paying for it), and lo and behold, David Lynch just so happened to be at the gallery that afternoon, interacting with the visitors. Me & Mr. D went up and told him we were making a film, and what it was about ("that building from the Northridge Earthquake") and we asked for his advice. "Call PBS", he told us. That's a perfect anecdote for today, January 17th, because it's the 31st anniversary of the quake.

The second time I met him (just to shake his hand and say hello, fanboy-style) was at the pre-release premier of "Inland Empire" in 2006 at the Hammer Museum. And, I've seen Chrystabell four times in concert. Lynch was at two of those shows, to introduce her. You also know her for her role in the 2017 "Twin Peaks" re-boot. The last project David Lynch released was a musical collaboration with Chrystabell called "Cellophane Memories"....

Last year, when he revealed he revealed he had emphysema and couldn't leave his house, he said he might still try to "direct remotely". Knowing him, he might've meant it in the spiritual sense, too. I'll bet he can "direct remotely" from Heaven (cue Julee Cruise)....

It's hard to believe so many of my heroes are no longer here: Neil Peart, Edward Van Halen, Pete Rose, David Lynch. Good thing I don't believe in death and try to stay connected to The Other Side.

Well anyway.

Are you guys dreading Trump's inauguration? You shouldn't. If I can do a 180 on him, anybody can. Watching clips from the confirmation hearing for Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth, I'm realising who the clowns were all along, loudmouths like Adam Schiff, who I used to think was great. What a total jerk he is, and unfortunately he's emblematic of the politicians we have here in California. I'm sure you've seen the clips of the truly evil Gavin Newsom, grinning and sashaying as he talks about the fires. He's a straight-up nutjob; no wonder his nickname is "American Psycho". Then there's the inept Karen Bass, who was in Africa when L.A. went up in flames. Both she and Newsom should resign immediately, and I most humbly ask my Democratic friends to please not support politicians like these any more. Wokesters like Newsom, Bass and the legendarily horrific Kamala must be kept out of office permanently (God forbid Newsom gets recalled and she becomes our next Governor....yikes!). Me? I will never vote Democratic again, but if you must do so, vote for someone who isn't an extremist, and who is competent...and intelligent. Someone like Jerry Brown, or Mayor Riordan (now he was a great Mayor who greatly helped us in the aftermath of the quake). And that's enough politics for today.

Thanks for reading and God Bless. Tons of Love as always.       

Just Checking In (January 11, 2025)

Hey guys, I just wanted to check in, say hi and see how everyone is doing. I hope none of you had to evacuate, or if you did, that you are back in your homes and safe from the fires. We're all in shock; I think this is the worst thing that's happened to the Los Angeles area since the Northridge Earthquake. Seeing the damage is profoundly sad (goes without saying) and yet it's hard to stop watching the news. I haven't been to Pacific Palisades many times in my life, but I did go as a kid, to visit my "uncle" Rod Serling and once to tour the iconic Eames House. I hope both are safe and have not been burned. The main thing I remember about the town was how green it was, with trees and vegetation everywhere. It was like this Tropical Town at the end of Sunset Boulevard, down near the beach, past Hollywood and all the glamour. Last night, you could see the fire cresting the top of the Santa Monica mountains, just east of Reseda Boulevard. There was this big orange glow that looked like part of a Hieronymus Bosch painting, and you could actually see the flames. We get a lot of fires in California, but many of them are in wilderness areas. The last major structure fire I recall in this area was the Sayre fire in Sylmar in 2008. That was horrible, but this is far worse. As everyone is posting: "Pray for Los Angeles" and may God Bless the victims... 

I don't have much to report, no movies either, but I've been watching a riveting Youtube series called "Vietnam Voices", created by a reporter from the Billings Gazette newspaper in Montana. I've been interested in the Vietnam War since childhood. It dominated the news at that time, and I've had "the military" in my dna from my dad.

I used to be 100% anti-military in my youth (when I was nineteen or twenty), but that is no longer the case, and knowing my life history now (which I never knew before), you could say I am 100% pro-military, for the protection and defense of our country. It's a long story but you get the gist, and if you know me you get more than that.

But I've been interested in Vietnam since about 4th grade (1968/69), right after Flower Power ended and the Chicago Riots began. Clean, peaceful hippies turned into (or were replaced by) bearded, scraggly, violent "protesters" (one Vietnam vet said "they weren't protesting against the war, but because 'I don't want to go'"). Me? I am now almost 65. I was fortunate to be born after WW2 and Korea and was too young for Vietnam (and way too old for Iraq qnd Afghanistan), but I revere the guys who served in those wars, because bad guys must be stopped, and yes, there was a good reason for Vietnam because the Communist regime and Ho Chi Mihn were decidedly bad. But the politics of the time prevented our soldiers from winning that war; almost all wars are started by elites and politicians with economic interests to protect (see "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath), but I am on the side of the soldiers, every time.

I highly recommend the "Vietnam Voices" series. Watch one interview and you'll want to watch them all. In some of them, the veterans are asked if they've seen any of the movies made about the Vietnam War, and if so, which did they find the most accurate, realistic and representative of their experience. Almost to a man, they named "We Were Soldiers" as the best of the bunch. Second was "Hamburger Hill." Of course, many of us loved "Apocalypse Now", "Platoon" and "Full Metal Jacket", but according to the guys who were there (commenting in the interviews and in other clips on Youtube) these films are not accurate representations of the Vietnam experience. Anyway, check out the series if you are interested. One more film I'd recommend is the little-known "84 Charlie MoPic".

I'm currently listening to "The Last Will and Testament" by Opeth; "I Want Blood" by Jerry Cantrell; and "Rosemary Hill" by Sixpence None the Richer. Each is great from start to finish...

...and of course - as always - I am working on my latest book and The Overall Project. I will have the book published no later than July 4 (did I already tell you that?) (and it might be much earlier), but the book after that - folks, the book after that is gonna be such a whopper. Hint: it's not about 1989, but it's in the same vein, and I just bought the box set of all eight "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies to help me prepare. I know those movies were a Big Deal for the bad guys.... 

Happy New Year

Howdy Folks, and Happy New Year. Sorry I haven't written. I can't guarantee that "I'm back", or that I'll be blogging even as much as I did last year (which was very little compared to years past), but I just wanted to let you guys know that I'm still here, still alive, hanging in there, etc....and I trust you are, too. I hope you had a nice holiday season. I very much enjoyed seeing the Christmas lights on my nightly walks. I sure do miss Christmastime with Pearl, and before that, with my parents, but I can feel them in my heart and know they are with me always. New Year's Day was always a big one for me and Pearl. She loved the Rose Parade (so do I) and because KTLA re-ran it all day long, I'd just leave the TV on that station and let it play...

I'm finalizing my second book, which I hope to have out by my birthday (or July at the latest). As with "Pearl the Wonder Girl", it will also feature me and Pearl, but this time it's the story of my years as her caregiver. I can't give you the title just yet, but you'll know it in a few months.

I went to a concert a couple weeks ago : Sixpence None the Richer at The Troubadour on December 15. Do you guys like them? I became a fan pretty much from the get-go, way back around the turn of the milliennium when "Kiss Me" was constantly on the radio. They also had a huge hit with "There She Goes." I love Leigh Nash's voice, and the clean sound of the guitar melodies. But they are more than those two hit singles. They have a ton of longer, deeper songs on their first three albums. They were billed as an alternative Christian band, which is a label just like any other label (King's X was called a Christian hard rock band), and I don't know if that had a detrimental effect on their career, or what happened, but the thing was...they should've been huge. Maybe it was because they arrived at the end of the '90s rather than at the beginning or midway through, when '90s music was on the way out and Rap & Electronic "music" was on the way in (and hasn't left and seems like it won't ever go away).

They broke up in 2004, and though they've made music intermittently since then, they never toured and it felt like "what should've been" for Sixpence never reached fruition. But now they're back, with a great new EP called "Rosemary Hill" (you'll know why I love that title), and if the Troubadour show was any indication, they've got a second chance ahead of them if they stay together. They may not ever play The Forum, but they've got a rabid cult of fans who hollered and applauded after every song like you'd see at a heavy metal concert. I was right in the middle, about 12 feet from Leigh Nash. It was like getting to see Linda Ronstadt or (name any great singer you can think of)...

Anyway, I love The Troubadour. It's like The Whisky - you just walk in and there's the stage. I took the bus there again, like I did for David Gilmour at the Hollywood Bowl in October. No subway this time. Four buses from my apt. to The Troub. Not as complicated (or as bad) as it sounds. Smooth connections, minimal waiting. I didn't take my car because it's got some issues (overheating, gotta get it repaired so I can go to Disneyland).

I ask you: is there anything more important than Disneyland? The answer is no. Thanks for playing.

My life remains off-the-charts. If I (or you) thought it was weird the last time I wrote you, well...

It's long since left the Solar System. Thank goodness the (potential) emergency situation I referred to in my last blog has been eliminated. It was like a prayer being answered. Thank You, Lord.

I wanna get back to hiking this year. Would you believe I haven't been out on the trail since June? Yep, and that's no good. I do have a new, six-mile mega walk (featuring many Important Landmarks!) that I've been going on every night since late November, so I'm definitely getting my exercise, but man I miss my parks. Such is life when you decide you want to write books...because it's not just writing...you also have to do research (which takes a lot of time), then you have to compile and organise everything, and edit...and when you're in the process of learning everything you never knew about your life...it's hard to "do all the other stuff you used to do" before you decided to write books.

I miss singing, too. I'd love to sing in choir again. Maybe somehow I can make that happen. I love all my friends at the church.

I miss taking pictures....("But Ad, it was your decision to write books") ("Yeah, but I didn't know it would be so time-consuming") ("Yeah, but look at all the stories you have in the works") ("That's true") ("Okay stop talking to yourself") ("Okay")

I can't even believe I didn't go to Disneyland last year. There ought to be a penalty for that. I should castigate myself in some way...

Maybe if I go twice this year (or four times) I can let myself off the hook.

Are there any fellow Disneylanders out there who'd like to go with me?

Well anyhow, Happy New Year and I'll try to write more often. But even when I don't, please know that you're always on my mind.  

November 6, 2024

 Well folks, God Bless America. Yesterday was a great day, though I'm not here to rub it in because I know what it's like to be on the losing end, and until just about 12 weeks ago, I was as ardent a Democrat and committed anti-Trumper as anyone, until George Clooney and Van Jones pulled an Ides of March job on Joe Biden and replaced him with the worst presidential candidate in the history of politics. I said she was gonna get creamed on the day she was coronated, and I was right. The thing with Queen Kamala (who used to pronounce her name "KA-muh-lah" before it morphed into "commala") is that she was like an evil character from a fairy tale, cackling at the world, full of herself, in favor of policies so absurd that you wondered if she was serious. ("Open the borders!" "Defund the police!" "Let the rioters out of prison!" "Legalize theft!", et al) And she was serious, of course. That's what made her so dangerous. She was like a "Batman" villian. She wanted mayhem. She didn't like civilized society. She didn't like people. She was only in love with herself. On top of that, she was a dim bulb. And like an evil fairy tale queen from out of the past, it was easy to recognise her, to see her coming from a mile away, to see who she really was behind all the word salads and comical accents. So thank God she is gone, and may we never see the likes of her again. Let's hope she takes George Clooney and Van Jones with her. I may be done as a Democrat, but to my friends who will always be Left, I say, "whatever you do, please don't pick someone like Queen Kamala EVER AGAIN." And reject the Far Left in general. God Bless. And don't worry, because this time it's Friendly Trump as President. His daughter-in-law and campaign chairwoman Lara Trump did a brilliant job with the makeover, turning him from Mean Trump to McDonald's Trump. And it's not just Trump, but Team Trump, with J.D. Vance, Elon, Bobby Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard (there's your first woman president), and many more. It's a coalition presidency and good things are gonna happen. As things stood, with the current administration, it couldn't have been much worse. So keep your chin up. We may have some daylight ahead.   

I don't have a whole lot to report that you don't already know about. I will say that yesterday was one of the greatest days of my life, and not just because America rejected Queen Kamala. A big part of my work involves memory recovery, and I remembered something yesterday that made my heart soar. And today is a wonderful day as well because it's the birthday of a very special person, who may even know what it was I remembered because she is a supergenius! I'll leave it at that for now.

Though it's been an amazing week, with David Gilmour, Halloween, the Election and The Wonderful Memory all in a seven day period, this does not mean that everything is well. See the last blog for emphasis. Things are even crazier in my life than they were when I last wrote, and you could almost say I'm in an emergency situation. I sure hope it doesn't come to that.

Here I was, in July (only four months ago), having just published "Pearl the Wonder Girl" (available on Amazon!). I was so excited. I had a real book, complete with pretty cover and everything. I'd written and designed it myself, a real bookstore book. And I had another book in the can, almost ready to go. All I had to do was give it one more proof-read, maybe a tiny bit more polish, then I'd be all set to release it, maybe by the end of this year. That was my plan, in July, to have both books out by the end of this year.

But then All Hell Broke Loose.

Things were uncovered that set my world on its end. The second book threatened to become two books. My third book, a rewrite of "What Happened in Northridge" would now take five lengthy books to complete.

I hope to get re-organized now that the election is over. I've got a massive investigation to complete. I'm gonna miss Depressed Ginger, Red Eagle, Election Time Channel and the great Megyn Kelly, who've been part of my daily coping mechanism through the summer. Before the infamous June 27 debate, I wasn't really paying attention. Then suddenly, I couldn't look away. Those podcasters, and other shows on Fox (like Gutfeld, Laura Ingraham, Jesse Waters, The Five, and the brilliant ladies on Outnumbered), they got me through all those tumultuous days. But now I've got so much work to do that I can't have any diversions or interruptions. I also need a bigger living space.

There are other issues (near emergency) that are far more pressing, but I have faith that God will help me.

Happy Birthday to the aforementioned Wonderful Person. I wish you a beautiful day. To everyone, we've still got a couple Monty Movies to watch and we'll try to get back to regular blogging. Stay tuned.

November 1, 2024 (David Gilmour)

Howdy folks, and Happy November. I'm sorry I haven't written for a while, but right now I'm really straining to keep the blog going. There's just so much going on, most of it not good, and because I don't wanna report nothing but negative stuff, I've opted for the last couple weeks to remain silent. You'd do better these days to read The Book of Revelation, and you should be reading your bibles anyway. I'd say we're in the End Times, and I almost hope we are because I can't stand any more of this.

To the good people of the world, I say "Prepare Ye the Way of The Lord"! That's the title of an anthem we used to sing in choir. And to the bad guys, I say "Run to the Hills!" That's a song by Iron Maiden. Run to the hills, bad guys. Run while you still have time, though it won't do you any good in the long run because "King is Coming". That's a song by King's X.

On the good side, I saw David Gilmour in concert at the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday night. I went by myself, took public transport round trip, and you know what? It wasn't half bad. For one thing, it's not like the old days when, if you missed your bus, you had to wait 45 minutes to an hour for the next one. I can remember many a junior high school afternoon standing at the Nordhoff/Amestoy bus stop, waiting and watching for the RTD, and as every kid knew, it wasn't coming. A watched bus never boils. But this is fifty years later and the buses and subway trains run every ten minutes, and with even greater frequency at peak hours. I left at 4:30 and got on the 240 Metro bus at Reseda and Superior (i.e. "The Street That's 'Just A Little Bit Better" Than All Other Streets"). The senior fare was 75 cents, with a free transfer to the Orange Line, which took me from Reseda and Oxnard to the Noho Red Line Station on Lankershim and Chandler (the Orange Line goes past a very dear address, en route). From there, the fare was another 75 cents for the tube. My train left two minutes after I boarded. I got off two stops later at Hollywood and Highland at 5:45, just 75 minutes after I started my trip. I doubt I could've driven to Hollywood that fast in rush-hour traffic. The total price was just $1.50 versus the ten bucks in gas and even more in parking fees had I driven. Getting back, by the same method, cost just 35 cents (senior fare at off-peak hours and free transfers). $1.85 round trip. Yeah, the bus is a little cramped, and there are occasionally sketchy people on board, but this time the trip was unobtrusive and efficient.

I walked up the hill to The Bowl and got there by 6:10, which was very early but I wanted to take no chances because I had to go to the box office for a paper ticket. I purchased mine when the Gilmour shows went on sale in May, knowing an electronic ticket wouldn't upload to my flip phone, but there was no way I was gonna miss David Gilmour, so I bought it anyway (Section S, dead center, incredible seat) and did what I did for The Who two years ago: went to the box office, showed the nice lady my flip phone, told her "I'm a Cave Man", and she got me a paper ticket. Then I had ninety minutes to kill before showtime, so I went up to my seat, watched the sun go down behind the hills, watched The Cross light up on the adjascent hillside, and meditated on The Current State of My Life. I was blowing my mind in both good ways and bad, and then the Bowl went dark and David Gilmour came onstage at 7:42.

I've seen DG four times now over a 44 year span beginning in 1980, when I attended the very first concert of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" tour on February 7 at the old L.A. Sports Arena. That was the night the stage curtains caught fire from the pyrotechnics and, for a minute, everyone thought it was part of the show. I also saw Gilmour play the solos from "Comfortably Numb", which - come to think of it - may have been the first time he played them in front of an audience, and of course, he was and remains God.

The next time I saw him was in April 1994 at the Rose Bowl. Pink Floyd was his band by then, they were touring for "The Division Bell" (my favorite album of all-time), it was three months after the earthquake and six months after my first memories returned. It is tied with the California Jam for the greatest concert I've ever been to.

22 years went by until I saw him again, in 2016 at the Hollywood Bowl. By that time, I was 56 and working as Pearl's caregiver. My life had changed so much since that Wall show in 1980. Just to give you some perspective, when that show happened, John Lennon was still alive. I had yet to meet Lilly. My goodness.

In 2016, DG was 70 and touring for his solo album "Rattle That Lock", a solid effort yet not near the level of "The Division Bell". Still, he was as great in concert as he ever was. I am sure I reviewed it here at the blog, and I probably said it was once again tied for the greatest concert I'd ever seen.

This brings us to Wednesday night, October 30, 2024. David Gilmour is now 78. The first time I saw him, he was one month shy of 34. My life since 2016 is so remarkably different that I don't know what to say anymore, and it's almost impossible for me to review the concert because it's too personal and imbued with symbolic-but-very-real meaning. In fact, I can only symbolize it in metaphors, or "summing terms". Wednesday's concert was 1962, it was Edwards Air Force Base, it was Meadows, but most of all it was Lorne Street School. If you know what I mean by those things, then you know a little bit about me.

There is something intrinsic about David Gilmour and his music. His guitar has that "radio" tone that only the early Beatles ever got. I'm not talking about the way he plays, which is entirely different than The Beatles. I'm talking about that Radio Tone.

The light show was suggestive of (or was deliberately evoking) another time, a Downtime (or just prior to The Downtime), lost now to all but a few. Does anyone besides me and the Office of Naval Intelligence remember the Downtime? Well, David Gilmour seems to. I realize this "review" may not make much sense to most readers, but it's as accurate as I can get, and what else could I have said? That it was "the greatest concert I've ever seen"? Yeah, but you probably already knew that.

This time was extra special because he brought his angelic daughter Romany on tour. I mentioned in a recent blog that she was introduced to the world as part of the Gilmours' "Von Trapped Family" podcasts during Covid. She sang and played harp, with her Dad and solo, and she was so good that many fans including myself called for an official collaboration. Now, she's appeared on his recent album "Luck and Strange" and sings lead on two songs, one of which - "Between Two Points" - she performed Wednesday night at the Bowl. Everything about the show was "off the charts" as I like to say. They played 2 hours and 20 minutes of music, and during intermission, a cheer went up among the fans as it became known that The Dodgers had just won the World Series.

So that was a Very Good Night indeed, and so was Halloween.

I went for my usual walks, including a Reseda walk that encompassed Lorne Street School. If you know why I did that, you probably have a top secret clearance at ONI or ONR. Reseda rules. It is my favorite town in the world, and Lorne is my favorite school, and on Halloween night, the streets surrounding the school were like a giant block party, with every house lit up and decorated to the hilt, and more trick or treaters on the sidewalks than anywhere else in the area, which was already very crowded. My Northridge walk was good, too, and of course I love The 'Ridge, but not as much as I love Reseda, and I absolutely detest and protest what's been done to 9032. Drive by and see it for yourself. It looks like a prison bunker.

But yes, the last two nights were amazing, amidst everything else that is going on. Now, we head to the election, and if Trump wins, we may have the slightest chance for daylight...

I will write you again when it's over. Stay tuned.

October 18, 2024

Howdy folks. I hope you've had a good week and are surviving the election season. I'm feeling a little less tense now that Trump is leading (slightly) in the polls. I'm constantly on Youtube, though, watching all the prognosticators (Red Eagle Politics and Depressed Ginger are my favorites), and I won't be able to completely relax until it's over. I went to see Judas Priest on Tuesday (Oct. 15) at the Youtube Theater in Inglewood, inside the SoFi Stadium complex. Had a double traffic nightmare on the way down - it took 45 minutes to get from my apartment to the 405 freeway onramp at Nordhoff. That's 45 minutes to go 4.5 miles, and no, I am not exaggerating. After that, it was smooth sailing all the way to where the 405 connects to the 10. Then, about 6 miles before the Manchester offramp, the freeway turned into a parking lot. All told, it took two hours to go 27 miles. I won't be going to any more venues that require using the 405, but this show was more than worth it. I also got to see the outside of the massive (and massively impressive) SoFi Stadium. It's without doubt the Stadium of the Fyoochum. I'd love to see the inside but I imagine a Rams game must cost minimum 200 bucks, so alas, it will probably never happen. Inglewood has scored big on the stadium/arena front. They've now got the Intuit Dome opening just down the schtreet from The Forum and SoFi. It's gonna be hard for Staples Center and LA Live to compete. You have to walk halfway around SoFi to get to Youtube, a smallish, 4000 seater similar to Nokia at LA Live. Inglewood is trying to put Staples out of bidness, but I like Nokia better because you can take the subway there. Driving on the 405 is a Grade A nightmare. Even getting to the 405 is hell. 45 minutes to go four and a half miles...

Can you say "Escape from L.A.?" Please, Mr. Trump, make America great again. Los Angeles used to be such a great, great place. Now, it's Blade Runner.

But Judas Priest redeemed the whole trip. They were so far off the charts, and it's quite an accomplishment because few other (no other?) bands have done what they have done, which is to replace two classic members and still present a show of equal brilliance. It's a different kind of show, admittedly, because Tipton and Downing were legends, whose twin solos not only cut to the bone through the musculature of the riffs, but were also highly musical. As blistering as the solos were, they had memorable melodies, you could whistle them. Such was the level of musicality in that era. But the heart and soul of the band is now the Faulkner/Sneap duo. They look like two pirate ship captains from the 16th century, flying the JP Flag proudly, riffing with the same power and exactitude as their predecessors while soloing with a fusillade of notes in the modern style. Watching them, you understand why Britannia rules the waves and likely always will. It's Judas Priest on steroids. Metal God Halford is singing (almost) like it's 1981, and his range is light years better than in 2005, when he was overweight and giving up on the high notes. Now, he's killing it (with a little help from a delay/sustain on occasion). But overall, it's become the Richie Faulkner show. He's the best of the "shredder" guitarists. Yeah, he plays a trillon notes, but he's an emotive shredder, and now that I think of it, he may be the only member of that category.

Grimsley (who came with me) mentioned that Scott Travis has improved. "He's turned into an octopus"! And I agree. He used to be a solid-but-mechanical metal drummer who relied on the double kick bass drum pattern. He's more inventive now, playing to accommodate the song, which is what made Dave Holland so great. Holland will always be the drummer who gave Priest their gigantic, booming sound, but Travis has finally come into his own. It was a jaw dropping show. We had trouble finding the car (I street-parked to avoid the fitty dollar parking fee) but the drive home was a piece of cake. 

  I've been revisiting the Judas Priest catalogue since then, reaquainting myself with albums like "Defenders of the Faith" and "Turbo". This got me thinking about the history of Heavy Metal and it's worth noting that the first Black Sabbath album was released in England on February 13, 1970, two months before the breakup of The Beatles was announced on April 10 of that year. Think about the musical vision of Tony Iommi, who was just 22 at the time. To single-handedly come up with that sound, in the era of early Elton John and James Taylor? I mean, The Beatles were still together when he invented those riffs. The music on that first Black Sabbath album arrived so far out of left field (even considering the presence, at the time, of heavy artists like Deep Purple, Cream and Jimi). Who ever heard anything like the song "Black Sabbath"? My goodness. I've come to think of Tony Iommi as a musical mastermind the equivalent of Sirs Blackmore and Page. He invented heavy metal, but the point is that his sound was as radically different as possible at that time. Could his Italian heritage have had an influence?  

Anyhow, that's my musical news of the week. Everything else is As Usual. I'm trying to acclimate myself to the realization that "1989" wasn't limited to that year but has been an Ongoing Thing, at least through 2009. I'm poring over my journal from '09, looking for clues. According to the daily entries, it was one hell of a psychic year. I wonder if the bad guys felt this. Do they have psychic abilities, or are they just connected by their iPhones? I am gonna blow this thing out of the water, I can guarantee you that. My journal is the key. Well, that and my amazing memory of course.

This being Halloween Month, I've been watching nothing but horror movies, so we'll resume our Montgomery Clift retrospective in November. We only have two more Monty Movies to go. In the meantime, I've been sticking to old favorites like Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, in movies I've seen multiple times. Last night, I watched "The Old Dark House," and I've harped on this before, but James Whale has gotta be put up there on the Mount Rushmore of directors and artists in general. I know he was inspired by German Expressionism, but he took it to another level by making it larger-than-life. He basically invented the "under the chin" Monster Lighting and gave his creatures a realistic look. Frankenstein really does look like he's made out of cobbled-together body parts. Whale excelled at making the gruesome look real, and he could also do Sinister: look at the mean-spirited performance he got out of Claude Rains in "The Invisible Man". He's got three horror classics to his name (the two I've mentioned and "Bride of Frankenstein"), one near-classic in "Old Dark House", and he also directed the definitive 1936 version of the classic musical "Showboat" with Irene Dunne and Paul Robeson. But we're talking Halloween, and the thing with "Frankenstein", "Bride of Frankenstein" and "Invisible Man" is that they are age-proof. Those three films are as scary and weird now as they were upon release 90 years ago. Maybe even scarier and weirder (because nothing is weird anymore...)

Well, anyhow, I somehow keep going in the midst of all this madness. The bad guys have someone (or some system) that protects them, or This Thing would've been over years ago. They don't go to jail, even though some of them have done monstrous things that law enforcement must surely know about. I mean, if I know what they've done, if I've been able to figure it out and remember it despite everything that's been done to me to block and bury my memory, then surely the police know, or the FBI, or someone. So yeah, the bad guys are protected in some way, and seem blase or blithe about it. They seem not to have a care in the world. But God is gonna get 'em, and one day they will be surprised. That's all I know for certain. 

October 13, 2024

(late edit) : Before you read this blog, I beseech you to watch this interview:

 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1609653943295093

Once you have watched, pass it along. Thank you.

Now, for the blog...

Well folks, I don't know what to tell you. I apologize for being late again, but it's getting harder to write about things "fun and light" when there is so much evil being uncovered. There's also the onrushing election, coming at us like a runaway train, and I don't know about you but it's got me laser-focused because I've never been so worried, politically, in my life. I won't be able to relax until this woman is gone.

Did you guys see that video of Obama lecturing those young Black men, like he was their Dad? He treated them not as individuals but as a group. He even called them "brothers" (which he pronounced "bruthas"). How insulting. What an a-hole. Unlike everyone else, I never was enamored with Obama. Lefties thought he was The Messiah (wrong!) but to me, he was just the jerk who, with the help of a-hole David Axlerod, shoved Hillary out of the way of the 2008 nomination. I was a poll worker in the General Election that year (in West L.A.). We worked that day from 6:30 am to about 10 pm. I'd never seen such a long line in my life, and when it was announced that Obama won, cheers went up and horns honked in the street. I thought, "okay, people love this guy" and as the years of his presidency went by, I "kind of" grew to like him. He seemed personable and the fact that he made Hillary his Secretary of State definitely helped. But still, he wasn't much of a president. More of a slick, used car salesman. He tried to force everyone to buy Obamacare and he made the war worse in Afghanistan. In foreign policy, he wasn't much different than the Neocons, and I thought he was really just George W. Bush in a Democratic suit. The difference was that he was a much better speaker. And, sorry, but I couldn't stand Michelle. She was the most arrogant, ungracious First Lady the country has ever seen. Some say she's an America Hater.

Well, anyway. I'm disappointed that even Bill Clinton is stumping for Kamala Harris, who makes the Obamas look like Red State Patriots. Maybe he'd be the puppetmaster if she won, I don't know, but let's forget politics for the moment...(I'm thinking of moving to a Red State).

We've got 2009 to deal with. My life gets more revelatory with each day, and I realize I've been surrounded by bad guys for most of my life. One thing I want to absolutely stress, with zero doubt, is that Lilly is not included in that group. No matter what has happened in her life, or what her experience has been, she is a good person. I say this in case she is reading. I know she's on the Good Side and I'm on her side in every way, even though I haven't seen her for almost 30 years. And I know God will bless her, now and always.

This 2009 thing is so far off the charts that it almost leaves me speechless. The audacity of certain people knows no bounds. Unfortunately for them, it will also be their downfall, because hypnosis wears off. Memory eventually returns, especially when you work as hard as I have to bring it back. Karen On A Mattress In The Living Room.

These people thought they could do whatever they wanted in life, step on whoever they wanted, persecute and threaten whoever they wanted. Hound and hassle whoever they wanted. They like to control things behind the scenes, and when caught, they try to stage-manage their situation, communicating in secret to keep their stories straight.

They also blackmail each other, or threaten blackmail. One guy, a particular asshole, has an "if I go down I'm taking everybody with me" mentality.

I've been thinking a lot about Pat lately. He died broke. He lived in his car and in homeless shelters for most of the last year of his life, while he was dying of cancer. He was flat broke after working since he was 13 years old. I thought about that, and I wondered, "what happened to his money? Surely he had some savings after fifty years." I thought about the people who showed up at his memorial service who didn't really know him, and I wonder: was Pat being blackmailed? And even if it wasn't a monetary blackmail, was he being blackmailed or threatened in other ways, by the people I am talking about?

I ask this because Pat is a central figure both in 1989 and 2009. Oh yes. Pat, for all his involvement in bad scenarios (and with the wrong people) was the only person who ever tried to explain things to me. On August 11, 1989, after the Freddy Krueger movie at the UA Granada Hills (which many of the bad guys attended), he tried to explain to me what was happening in my life, which was monumental. He knew more about my life than I did. For that effort, I thank him.

There's no turning back now, from all of this. This has got to be the Endgame. The bad guys have got to be defeated. I've done all I can, and I'll keep going, but there is no turning back from what I know.

The hour of the wolf is over. ///