Rain

You perform Oomox on your cat?! That's disgusting! Nah, I do it too. To all 7 of them and they can't get enough.

I'm a huge KISS fan too. I couldn't possibly pick one favorite album but I have many friends who are huge fans of The Elder. My own guilty pleasure would probably be Unmasked. I just love a well put together pop rock song. Every year in Vegas, we have this thing called KISS Night in Las Vegas, put together by friends of ours. I've participated a few times - actually my profile pic was taken at KISS Night a few years ago - and my wife is invited every year. She also sang on their cover of I Still Love You which was released last year or the year before. Each installment is centered around an album and I'm guessing that The Elder should be featured sooner or later. I've spoke to hundreds of fans at those events, and no one has ever really put down any album - and we all have our "guilty pleasure". By the way, The Elder door is down here in Vegas too, at KISS Mini Golf. Here's a pic taken at my birthday a few years ago...

https://www.ajournalofmusicalthings.com/rip-rushs-neil-peart-dead-of-brain-cancer-at-age-67/ I have no words.

America's pastime, Canada style. Who wants to take their skates off for just a couple of summer days anyway... World Series, here we come!

3, 4, 7 are also my favorites! Coming from a heavy metal background too, I totally get what you mean. Although I'll always be a fan of the classics, in recent years I started broadening my horizon, with Shostakovich among others. I also became a huge fan of the work of Penderecki, Lutoslawski and such. Although, at the end of the day, for me, Beethoven's Late String Quartets represent one of mankind's greatest achievements. I don't know what it is - it just clicks with me.

I've been listening to almost nothing but Beethoven recently - except Elvis' Christmas records. I got myself a boxset of the complete String Quartets as well as one of the complete piano concertos as an early Christmas present this year. But for the last 2 days, it's Handel's Messiah - which I'm ashamed to admit I barely knew, save for some of the more obvious passages.

Not this year. We've been downsizing the zoo a bit in the last two years and I believe Santa got the memo.

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays you guys.

I know I don't visit often, but I was worried there for a bit...

So I went ahead and watched the first few episodes of Discovery - and unfortunately, I seem to agree with many old Trek fans. Personally, I find it very hard to see past the diversity + identity agenda. And agenda wrapped in an orgy of special effects. Obviously, when I mentioned that, it was implied by some people that I was - at least on some level - a racist phallocrat... So I asked myself... And then I remembered Star Trek Voyager, with not only a female captain but a a cast of 3 very strong women - Janeway, B'Elanna, and Seven of Nine. Actually, the male parts on the show never seemed as interesting to me. And the male cast is as racially diverse at is can be. There is no majority vs minority. And I loved that show. Even better than that- not until I though about it again yesterday did I realize that Tom Paris was the only white dude on the bridge. That's how much it bothered me... I also remembered my favorite show, DS9, with possibly my favorite captain. And as I was watching the 3rd episode yesterday, I realized that Discovery just is not interesting to me. It's got none of the philosophical debates, none of the moral questioning - it's about the individual, her identity, her inner conflicts. And explosions and big scary Alien types of monsters hiding in a dark ship and tearing people's limbs... This was supposed to be exciting, but it was not even that. Just a boring rehashing of every cliché in the book. My opinion - avoid STD.

The Four Lights episode is such a gem! The Cardasians are indeed fascinating. I've always been a fan of Mark Alaimo (Gul Dukat). I remember first noticing him in old episodes of The Incredible Hulk. And Robinson - man... A few years ago, our friends dragged us to a convention here in Las Vegas one early morning and as luck would have it, the panel consisted of Andrew Robinson, Mark Alaimo and Casey Biggs (Damar). Being a huge fan of Cardassians, I was happy that I went. If I remember correctly, the delightful Chase Masterson, aka Leeta, was the only other panelist that morning. I am not much of a groupie-type of person, so I didn't try to meet any of them afterwards, although I did contemplate shaking hands with Robinson when my wife insisted that I should get my picture taken with my favorite character. The main cast is fine, and of course I like Shatner, Stewart and all those guys. But to me, those Cardassians as well as a guy like Jeffrey Combs who has played so many memorable characters on most of those shows are the most interesting. And then of course, there is Louise Fletcher, aka Kai Winn aka Nurse Ratched. That lady can portray a detestable character like few others. And saying that just reminded me of Brad Dourif's performance on Voyager... And now I feel like watching Trek again. Oh well...

DS9 would have to be my favorite - characters have so much more depth to them than in other shows... There are a lot of grey areas, shade and light. Garak is one of my favorite ST characters and a great example of that. But I love all the shows - although it took me forever to get into the rest of them as I had no interest for any of the sequels to TOS until a few years ago. I have not yet watched Discovery but I am really not sure I will enjoy it. My best buddy - who never liked Star Trek - is a huge fan, and that sends me a weird signal because he also loved the Abrams movies - which I hated. I always felt like they were trying to make a Star Trek that would finally appeal to Star Wars fans. As much as I like both, I don't thing they mix together well... The Orville is a great show. My wife and I were hooked 5 minutes into the first show.