A couple blogs ago I mentioned that we watched a Metallica documentary. During the documentary they talked about combining with the San Francisco Symphony. I had a CD from 1999 Metallica S&M and it was my first experience with symphonic rock (I discovered Nightwish a few years later).
So I thought I would see if I could find this amazing piece - LO AND BEHOLD in 2019 - 20 years after Metallica S&M they did another concert. Metallica S&M 2 I order the DVD from Amazon ($11ish) and we planned on listening to it Friday night.
DJ and I get home from Tequilas and we figured we would play it as background music while we played some yahtzee and shot some pool.
I put the DVD in and we are preparing and then BOTH of us stopped. WHAT THE F*CK are we hearing? This is AMAZING!
The orchestra starts off and does a "solo" piece that ROCKS OUT!! WHAT? I LOVE classical music but always felt Shostakovich was the rockstar in the 1940s - THIS? a completely different animal.
We stopped and for the next 2.5 hours were literally glued to the most unique concert ever, SO SO powerful. The Symphony was not just background but an integral and equal member of the band. Typically most symphonic metal is the orchestra is just background - this? WOW
There is an intermission and the 2nd half begins with only orchestra and I will guarantee a lot of metal heads were turned on for the first time with orchestral rock with Scythian Suite Opus 20 II. I will also guarantee most the the orchestra had never been to a rock concert.
In the "extras" they interview the two conductors and they said it was "controlled chaos" but had no clue what the sound would be with an audience.
One cool thing was there was a "we will play YOUR songs if you play OUR songs" - I literally just got chills. Yesterday morning I found the trailer and played if for DJ she said "OMG - I just got chills and goosebumps - AMAZING"
I think every piece in the orchestra plays every note of the concert - the electric cello duet with Lars the drummer is unworldly and the crowd was in a frenzy.
https://youtu.be/yRCLe6_kBRc
Enter Sandman
I had to share - my friend Elwood "does not like music" - no really he said that. Me? If I had to choose between eyesight and hearing - I would choose hearing just so I would have music.
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This morning Max on Channel 27 WKOW posted another photo of mine in the morning - that's 2 in 2 weeks I think.
OK - nuff said - gotta rake leaves - the neighbors yard is way way too clean. He mows every 3 days AAAGH! LOL
SO - I have a new Doctor I had to meet as my old one retired (he was getting a little shaky anyway) and I needed bloodwork.
Got the test back and I was in near perfect condition. Blood Pressure is 124/72 heart rate is 64, all the different cholesterols were optimum and everything was look GREAT!
Then I get a call from my new young doctor - "You have Diabetes and need an appointment on changing your lifestyle ASAP" - WHAT?
Let's see - I don't eat unhealthy but I'm not a "healthy" eater. No real fast food or restaurants, not MANY snacks, beer is maybe 2 a week (seriously - I drink more wine then beer) my weight has been constant for EVER (about 6 pounds over weight) and my hemoglobin has been in the 5.3% range since 2003 when I started my yearly spreadsheet (yes, I have a spreadsheet with all my blood work numbers) but all of a sudden in one year it's 7.2%?.
The only thing I can think of is with Covid and my knee I have not been working out although my knee is no longer an issue . . . wearing a mask doing cardio is a issue. I do walk the dog every day but that is more like a lazy stroll as he is a sniffer and not a walker.
So now I need to be talked too and a lifestyle change? PERSONALLY I think it was blood work anomaly and I'm going to either say let's see what it is in a month OR can you tell me a specialist I can go too.
On a good note I had started working out again Nov 1st and my knee feels GREAT and no masks so that is a literal step in the right direction.
I DO have a "trigger finger" issue with my middle finger. Probably comes from giving it to all the gullible MAGA people that where "Way to go Brandon" caps (means F*ck Biden in their secret lingo). Is that the most asinine thing you have ever seen? They are cowards in my book. Why not just have a cap that says "I'm a gullible idiot".
And don't get me started on Aaron dumbass Rodgers - what a moron. I would be fine if he never takes another snap with the Packers. He's no leader in my view.
sorry sorry - I'm angry that my 2 hard boiled eggs decided to hang on as long as possible to the shell.
OH - we can fly helicopters on Mars but make an egg that deshells? can't do it.
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We watched David Byrne's American Utopia on HBO the other night - WOW - so so impressed. Every song is a unique adventure. You can't go wrong with 6 percussionist. A must see if you ever loved The Talking Heads
https://youtu.be/lg4hcgtjDPc
MEANWHILE - my brother is back from Idaho as he was researching history for book 2 of his trilogy and the City of Idaho Falls is 100% behind him and helping out. He visited the towns historical museum they said the yare 100% behind his book and will help in anyway. They ever have a recreation of the town when it was called Eagle Rock Looks like spring for the book to hardcover book to be published.
Sort of a Deadwood, Hell on Wheels book with an astounding amount of research and history, a historical drama. It's in one of the final editing stages. Every character has a large back story (not in the book). It's the real deal. He did say Mormons might not be too happy but back then they were like the MEGA crowd - a bunch of crazy propaganda people.
There was a suggestion in the comments about instead of a cabin in the woods for $275 per sq foot to instead get a "Fancy Park Motel" instead. WELL - that would be GREAT for 2 people but 2 grown ups with 3 kids it might get tight and really - those are $240 a sq foot houses. LOL AWESOME cute though.
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We watched three documentaries this weekend. Two on AXS TV which is outstanding for music and concerts and one on NETFLIX.
First was Metallica and how they never ever even thought about becoming famous. Their first 3 albums were sort of bombs with big drums, big guitars and zero bass guitar and they pretty much figured to be a lifetime road band playing small gigs and eeking out a living.
Then their next album was actually produced by someone who knew what they were doing - the Black album, which STILL sells 1 million copies a year.
There is a story about how one of their slow songs was calling for an orchestral part and they contacted a conductor Michael Kamin who had never heard of Metallica. He did his thing and sent it back and NEVER heard back for them. Not one word. vapor ware.
A year later he saw them accepting an award and heard them fir the first time live. THESE GUYS ARE GOOD!! He went back stage and introduced himself and they all got up and shook and and said they LOVED LOVED what he did . . . but they went a different direction. He hung out a while and they kicked around the idea of Metallica playing with a full orchestra.
Nothing happened.
EIGHT years later Kamin's agent, out of the blue calls him and says - Hey - so and so from Metallica wants to do a concert with you . . .WHAT????
Metallica S&M was my first experience seeing metal rock and a full symphony orchestra (San Francisco Symphony ) and if I would have seen this earlier in my life I would still be playing cello. And thus my absolute love for symphonic metal.
https://youtu.be/qJj3xrkqdWU
Then we watched a thing following Alice Cooper.
Our band Wonderhorse in highschool sort of took some the groups theartics and used them and our grammy nominated drummer wore eye makeup like Vincent (who became Alice). Mike Marquart went on to play for A Flock of Seagulls and created Windmark Recording and can be heard on a number of recordings with Coldplay, Jeezy, J. Cole, YG, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell, Kanye West, and Kendrick Lamar . . .but I digress
Seems Alice was HATED in Los Angeles and were a road band surviving on peanuts and booze. They got a gig in Detroit with MC5 and stole the show with their antics. HOWEVER - they were made UBER famous by something they did not even do at a different "fest".
They were suppose to play before John Lennon and near the end of their gig they had feather pillows that they ripped apart and with a fire extinguisher and feathers were going nuts on stage.
Then from somewhere a chicken (nobody knows where the chicken came from) appears and Vincent (who soon becomes Alice Cooper) does a " I HONESTLY thought chickens could fly" thing and tosses it into the crowd thinking it would fly away . . . . . . It didn't.
The crowd was in SUCH a frenzy never seeing anything like Cooper before the chicken met its demise and chicken parts were thrown onto the stage. WELL - media says Cooper ripped apart a chicken on stage which was not true but . . . . . . as you can imagine . . with every newspaper in the country reporting it the band had to make media appearances and they only wanted to talk to one person - Alice Cooper. WELL - Alice Cooper was the band, not a person.
WHO IS ALICE COOPER . . . . SOMEONE has to be Alice Cooper and they all pointed at Vincent.
So Vincent becomes Alice Cooper and as the years go by he becomes more and more and more Alice and less and less Vincent and drinking continually until he goes into rehab.
Time goes by and he is sober but his bandmates are snorting coke and . . well . . .he can do coke . . it's not beer right? And he gets deeper and deeper into cocaine until one night he has locked himself into his house and a chunk of coke the size of his fist. He has not slept for 3 days and at one point he looks in a mirror and his eyes are bleeding. He sees this and realizes its not makeup - it's blood and in that one second he says at that point he had to make a decision - live or die. An ephoney.
He goes to bed - sleeps for 14 hours, gets up and tosses the coke down the toilet, calls his parents and said I need Help.
Goes to rehab where for the first time in a decades he is not Alice Cooper but Vincent Damon Furnier again. And that is the Alice Cooper we see today, a scratch golfer with 29 albums who still tours.
I saw Alice Cooper a few times.
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Then there is a documentary on NETFLIX called The Attack of the Movie Cliche'
https://youtu.be/BC_mPcjsh1M
Rob Lowe who is a cliche' himself (I totally love Rob lowe) helps us understand. It's fascinating and a little disconcerting when it comes to The Hero Negro. There is a reason nobody brags about The Green Mile or Bagger Vance. And then there's The Wilhelm Scream which is an industry inside joke.
A scream created in the 1950s and still used today in hundreds of movies. When you hear it you will know.
