Hey There.

Haven't had an opportunity to post up due to a family medical situation. My Grandfather had been acting a little unlike himself for the past few weeks and, long story short, they discovered a tumor on both his brain and his lung last Saturday.

Flash forward to this morning and the operation yesterday on the brain tumor went as best as possible. They removed everything they could via surgery and Grandpa got through just fine. I stayed until they brought him back to the ICU and he was really tired but okay.

The CT they did this morning showed no clotting and it seems everything was a complete success! He could be home as early as tomorrow afternoon. He'll start radiation treatments for the little pieces that could not be removed via surgery in 10 days and somewhere in that time frame they will also determine what to do about the tumor on his lung.

A (hopefully) long road ahead, but at least we got through one major issue okay. Today, I don't foresee myself blogging for a while...but that could change. Right now, music, pop culture and goofing around are kind of low on the list of priorities. Versus turning this blog way too emo, i'll just take a break until i'm ready to serve up the useless crap you look forward to on a not-quite-daily basis.

In the meantime, i'll offer one parting shot for ROCKTOBER and ask that you go give somebody you love a hug...life is too short and you cannot take it for granted.

On the Cover of the...

Rolling Stone? Pfffft. If you were into hard rock/metal in the late 80's, the only one of your favorite bands you would have seen accomplish that was Motley Crue in 1987. Even then, they were poster children for a venemous article ('Heavy Metal: It's Loud, It's Ugly and it Won't Go Away') that pretty much trashed the genre at that time. I was so incensed I cancelled my long-running subscription and found a new mag to curl up with while I listened to my new Bullet Boys cassette.

That rag was the glorious Larry Flynt-published RIP Magazine. Until it's arrival, (outside of Metal Edge, which i'll be talking about later) your options were either Circus or Hit Parader...the former not good for much else other than concert pictures to hang on your bedroom wall and the latter looked like they had a 12-year old for a design editor.

RIP was like the Cadillac of metal magazines...real interviews instead of monthly regurgitation of press clippings, professional photography versus photocopied fan photos and coverage of a diverse line-up of artists from death to speed to glam. Seriously, you could find an article on Anthrax sandwiched between pieces on Vixen and King Diamond. Plus (see above), where else could you WIN A GREAT WHITE LEATHER JACKET?!

But, like the genre it covered, the mag started to jump the shark w/ the grunge/alternative boom of the early 90's and eventually died off in it's attempt to stay relevant. Shortly thereafter, I went back to suckle at the teat of Rolling Stone, until the Internet pretty much rendered it as useless as a Great White leather jacket and 'artists' like Britney and The Backstreet Boys adorned it's cover. Hmmmm.

Yngwie For Africa

Hear N' Aid - 'Stars'

I deemed that Sam Kinison video in the last post the hard rock/metal equivalent of the 'We Are the World Video', only to remember there actually was a legitimately bad metal version of the whole Band Aid / USA for Africa trip called (get ready for this) Hear N' Aid. The tune itself was a pretty awful garden-variety sounding deal reflective of the times, but there was just as much big hair in the 'Do They Know It's X-mas' video (Duran Duran, hello?).

I have absolutely no idea what they were actually raising money for...it could have been to buy Kevin Dubrow the hair extensions for the Quiet Riot video I posted earlier. Who cares though, because...'We'rrrrrrrrrrrre STARS!'

Hahn(s) Across America

Sam Kinison - 'Wild Thing'



An awful cover tune from his excellent 'Have You Seen Me Lately?' album w/ the 1988-89 hard rock equivalent of the 'We Are the World' video to go along with it. More cameos from the 'who's who' of the genre during that time frame, than a double-sized issue of Metal Edge w/ fold-out poster of C.C. Deville. I can't believe it received regular rotation on MTV, even during metal's heyday on the channel. That said...R.I.P, Sam.

ROCKTOBER BONUS: The only thing more obnoxious than Jessica Hahn's freakishly altered breasts in that video? The follow-up vid for his cover of 'Under My Thumb' that came from his next album that MTV wouldn't air. Hmmmm...I wonder why?

NO ROCK'N'ROLL!

Quiet Riot - 'The Wild & The Young'

A perfect way to kick off ROCKTOBER, Kevin Dubrow and bandmates save us from a rock-less Wink Martindale-ruled future using only sequined marching band uniforms and a tune that sounds way too close to 'I Know There's Something Going On' by former ABBA member Frida.