Hey Elizabeth : That was a nice picture of you with the baby sheep! Are you at a farm? Or maybe if you are staying with the lady who took the photo, perhaps the Kid belongs to her. A baby sheep is a Kid, right? I think so, lol, but anyhow, I am glad you are having a great time, and the Sheep Motif lines up with what I was writing about the movie "Montana" a couple of nights ago, in which Errol Flynn portrayed a "sheep man" encroaching on cattle ranchers in Big Sky Country. So maybe you are still reading the blog after all, or if not you, then maybe the sheep is, haha.
But yeah, a very sweet picture. Animals rule. :) Keep having a blast in Iceland! :)
Today the Valley was definitely not an Ice-Land (bad pun; c'mon Ad, cut it out), in fact it was 108 degrees.
So you know it was the perfect time to head out to Santa Susana for a hike to the top of The Slide.
The truth is that I had been feeling gypped on this Summer. Sure, we had a handful of triple-digit days back in June, but since then we've been hovering in the low 90s and down to the upper 80s. Positively Springlike it's been, but not Summery, save for perhaps the five aforementioned days many weeks ago. I had mentioned to Grimsley that I was gonna ask for a refund on my Summer. Grim hates hot weather. I love it. You decide who is The Nutty One, lol. But in any event, just as my refund was about to be processed, I have withdrawn my request, as this entire week is predicted to be 105 or higher.
I think I can trace my love of heat back to Kid Memories (there's that word again -"Kid") when school was out and it was super hot and we were all having a blast. When I was 16, we would play baseball in 100 degree heat. It always made me feel energised, though I can understand 100% why most folks don't like it. Also, I think I associated it with Summer Fun. And I love both - Summer, and Fun.
Anyhow, the refund request has been cancelled, and even though this has been mostly a wimpy Summer, it is now being made up for with a scorching finish. And, since here in L.A. our Summer lasts until Halloween (give or take a few days), we still have a chance for more "Nice" Weather (hehe).
No movie tonight, though I did watch an episode of "The Prisoner" (1967), Patrick McGoohan's short lived but brilliant series about an Intelligence Agent Who Knows Too Much. I am on Episode 11, with six more to go.
I am about a third of the way through Noel Monk's Van Halen book, and am learning that - according to Monk, who should know - that David Lee Roth was not only the leader of the band from an ambition standpoint, but that he was "by far" in Monk's words, the smartest guy in the band. I have read versions of this assessment before, but Monk insinuates that the Van Halen brothers are basically musical geniuses (meaning Edward mostly) but near-dumbells in other respects - general education and overall smarts. Roth was a Pasadena Rich Kid, son of a doctor who lived in a mansion, and the Van Halens were close to dirt poor, living in a small bungalow in the same town.
Monk is blunt in his writing, and there is a lot about Roth that is not pleasant either.
But what blew me away was the money. Would you believe that the band Van Halen, who went on their first national tour (with Journey and Ronnie Montrose) after the release of their hugely successful debut album in early 1978, were being paid $750 bucks a week?
Collectively, as a band. $750 dollars a week by Warner Brothers, which - when roadies were paid, etc. - left each band member with about 100 dollars in income, per week. Plus a 25 dollar per diem for food.
This is while their album was going Gold within a month or so, and Platinum not long after.
Now, they wound up recouping a lot of money as the years went by, and each member is no doubt fabulously wealthy nowdays. But it's a stunner to read the way in which new bands were treated, even Van Halen who had already proven themselves to sell out shows and sell tons of albums.
It reminds me of Sammy Hagar's story in his book "Red", in which he talks about coming off the first Montrose tour in 1974, which was done by the band in support of a very popular debut album (also on Warners and also produced by Ted Templeman). When Sammy came off the tour, he found that he was so broke he had to apply for food stamps.
Of course, the financial aspect of record company support in those days meant huge promotional budgets and recording costs that had to ultimately be repaid by each band. Record sales would be detracted from the total, and concert revenues and such. But when you read Noel Monk's view of these practices, and he was an insider, you can see how badly many artists were taken advantage of.
Van Halen might have wound up nearly as broke as when they began, if they had not been able to get out of their initial contract with Warner Bros.
This book is a real eye opener to the way things worked in the music industry in those days.
Highly recommended for Van Halen fans. :) ////
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