Hey Elizabeth! That is super cool that you made it to Los Angeles. Are you still here or did you just come out for the Cinegear show? I saw that it was one of your hashtags. If you're here for a while and need anyone to go to Disneyland with, just let me know. L.A. is an awesome place with so much to see and I hope you are enjoying your visit! I'm glad you got to see the Walk Of Fame and the Observatory, and Paramount Studios. You've got "one up" on me there.....I've never been to Paramount. Driven past, but never been inside. :)
What else have you seen, and did you take any more pictures? Did you see Grauman's Chinese? How about the Sunset Strip? Have you seen The Whisky or The Roxy? Have you had a chance to see the beach? Malibu, Santa Monica or Zuma? I could show you a lot of different places, but I know you must have come out here for a specific reason, maybe Cinegear or something else.
Well anyway, whatever the situation - post more pics! And if you feel like it, write a little bit about your impression of our city. I know you don't use Facebook anymore, but maybe just this once.....
I would love to know what you think. :)
Anyhow, keep having a blast if you're still here, and if you've left, come back again soon.
And don't forget about Disneyland. Man......I haven't been since 2011.....and I can't go by myself!
(well, I mean I could......but it wouldn't be as much fun). And the new Star Wars Land just opened.
As the saying goes, "L.A. 's The Place". Hope you are enjoying your stay. :)
I have been off work since Friday and have been going on hikes, which are nearly impossible to do anymore on workdays. Today I went out to Whitney Canyon in Newhall and had a very nice time. I've been to Whitney perhaps 15-20 times since 2014, when I began hiking in earnest. It's the place I photographed a deer a couple of year ago, and it has some lovely forested hollows and a narrow canyon trail section with wildflowers in bloom in the Spring. That is what I saw today, tons of flowers all over the place. I think it explains the number of people that were on the trail; at least a dozen or more. In the past, I have never seen more than one or two hikers and often I am alone in the vast park.
This evening was a Western Night on screen. I watched an episode of "High Chaparral", a fantastic series that I saw as a kid and am really enjoying now, and also a 60 minute Tim Holt Western, which you know all the plots to, so I'll not go into detail, haha.
I have recently begun reading a book I purchased last year, but which sat in the queue for a while simply because it is a physically large and heavy book and thus was not conducive to being read lying down or held in one hand like a paperback. This was a book I needed to read sitting upright in a chair with the book in my lap, and - like hiking - this is not easy to do given my work schedule and my need to relax when I am not at work (or go for my walks, etc.) Book reading is generally done "on the fly", lying down to relax, a lightweight book held aloft in one (possibly two) hands, with easy reach adjustment made for eyestrain or fuzzy vision.
The book in question is called "Only Death Is Real", an ominous title by any author, but given extra gravity by the authorship of Thomas Gabriel Fischer, aka Tom G. Warrior of Celtic Frost fame.
Tom G., along with the band Venom, basically invented Black Metal. The book is the story of his beginnings as a musician, how he overcame a horrible upbringing with an insane mother to discover metal music as a refuge. Judas Priest and Iron Maiden were his heroes as a teen (as they were for all of us), but he wanted something even heavier to give voice to how he was feeling inside.
In 1981 he discovered Venom. They became his musical saviors and his inspiration to form a band of his own.
Tom Fischer's story could be instructional and hugely inspirational to any musician playing in any style, let alone metal. I am kind of astonished as I read, because I did not know many of the details of his life or musical background.
Before he formed Celtic Frost, he had a band called Hellhammer. I believe I mentioned them (and maybe the book, too) in a recent blog. You'll have to forgive me if I repeat myself. I write so much and have little time to read over what I've written, so I often forget the contents of previous blogs, but anyhow, Hellhammer was the precursor to Celtic Frost, and Thomas Gabriel Fisher was the founder of both bands.
Here's what is so impressive :
He was just a teenaged kid from a small village in Switzerland. He never picked up a guitar until he was 18. In that respect I can identify. He and his cohorts formed a band (Hellhammer) even though they could barely play their instruments. The practiced every day, still weren't very proficient, but had an opportunity to record a demo tape. Through sheer and relentless perseverence, and the quitting of band members, Tom G. kept going. He did not live in Hollywood or London. Switzerland had only a minimal music scene and was a conservative country.......how could he possibly have made it?
He did not even pick up a guitar until 1981.
He and his band Hellhammer were still complete amateurs on their instruments as late as Fall 1983. They had a demo tape circulating that was so poorly executed that it was considered a joke by local European record labels.
But Tom G. had an Artistic Vision that was not going to be denied. He wanted to have the heaviest band on the planet, because heavy music had saved his life. He was unique as a musician in that he didn't smoke, drink or take drugs. For him, it was all about music, and even though he didn't know how to play, and didn't own a guitar until he was 18, he was 1000% focused on his goal.
This book is blowing my mind, because I saw Tom Fischer and Celtic Frost at Fender's Ballroom in September 1986. Celtic Frost by then had two albums out, both of them classics. The first was called "Morbid Tales", and the second was the legendary "To Mega Therion" with it's cover by HR Geiger.
Only ELP had a cover by HR Geiger.
Now Tom had one too, only five years since he first began playing guitar, and only three years since he was playing for his friends in a basement rehearsal space with the sub-amateurish Hellhammer.
And now, just three years later in 1986, he was touring America with Celtic Frost, having recorded an album of genius called "To Mega Therion", which is on my list of the all-time Top 30 albums ever made.
Tom Fischer's story is a story for the ages, and one any artist might read for instructions on how to keep focused in the face of insurmountable odds.
He is also an excellent writer who tells a gripping tale. You feel like you are with him every step of the way, and in my case it brought back sympathetic memories of my own attempts to have a band during the same time period, and all the distractions and frustrations that went with it. And the joy, too.
"Only Death Is Real" is one of the greatest rock n' roll stories I've ever read. The book is big and heavy, just like Tom's music, so I'm reading it sitting up, with the book in my lap.
But it's still a page turner, and packed with photographs too, from early Hellhammer onwards.
If you are a fan of Tom G., it's a must read. If you are a metal fan, ditto.
But again, it's a book for anyone who doesn't fit in. Tom shows you the way out. ////
That's all for tonight. See you in the morn after yet another sleep in, lol.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo tons of love xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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