Rain

Instagram Buffoon: Are you a beatmaker? Me: Actually, I've studied classical music, I've dabbled with traditional jazz as well as traditional music from many cultures, I can read and write charts, I play an actual instrument - even a few of them. I have, on multiple occasions, played music and sang live on stage. I also like to amuse myself by indulging in rudimentary sound design and, yes, I sometimes "make beats". But since I do not require a laptop to make music, I believe the proper term would be "musician".

David Bowie - China Girl

Scorpions - China White

The Neon Judgement - Chinese Black

Curve - Chinese Burn

Listening to Sixx and Lee's little speeches during the show, you get the impression that both of them have taken hammers to the head a few times. It would be safe to assume that their collective IQ barely adds up to the number at the bottom of their shoes.

From way back when I discovered the Beatles as a teenager. I was obsessed with the song of the name, and I started signing my drawings and art projects with it in school. It iss a shortened version of my old early 2000's IM nickname, too. Also, I love rainy days. In actuallity though, it is not my nick name. In real life, a lot of pople call me... The Dark Lord. ? I would never call myself that, obviously - except as a joke. That one I got from a girl at work in the early 2000's. She started calling me that and the rest of the people picked up on it and it stuck with me ever since. Even my boss called me - and still calls me - that. I've left that place in 2008 but the name stayed with me - some people (not very close obviously) don't even know my actual name. Even my ex-wife used to refer to me by that name when we met and started dating. The funny thing is that, I had never seen the Star Wars movies in English at that point, so I was completely oblivious to the reference. But I always wear black, I am tall, I have broad shoulders, and people always told me I looked like a knight or a prince or whatever, so it seemed to be just another one of those.

Mötley Crüe. It was a negative impression, but an impression nonetheless. Not that I was expecting any different. Except Mick Mars. He was cool. More seriously, The Cure in Montreal in 2008. They played for almost 3 hours. Robert Smith doesn't look like the healthiest person on earth but he really surpised me, especially when he put the guitar down for some songs and ran around on stage. I realize that 2008 is not that recent. But I'm old and I don't go out often.

I don't remember the last time I watched the news - but whenever I got pulled in and went through a phase of keeping up with the world, it was via written, online sources. I bought my last tv in 1997 when I moved in with my first wife, and left it to her we broke up in 2001. I didn't get another one until my second wife bought one in 2013. Although, we're essentially talking about a big display to stream Netflix, Prime and such. These days, I usually stream something like an episode of Seinfeld during my lunch break because I hate hearing myself chewing. Most of the time I won't even finish it. Then I'll sit in front of an episode of something or a bit of a hockey game for half an hour with my guitar before I go to bed. It takes me days to watch a full game. I honestly don't know how people manage to keep up. The only occasion on which I spend serious time in front of the tv is on my day off, when I usually try not to spend a minute in front of the computer. But I mostly watch Japanese movies movies - since I'm studying the language, it's like soft homework. Or then documentaries and historical movies.

As much a I admire Flood, yes, indeed...

I'd recommend being careful with the use of big names. Weaker people tend to drop them, and there are few things as annoying as name dropping.

Metal Church - Metal Church

Stone Temple Pilots - Church on Tuesday

lol Gene wouldn't think highly of me. I really don't own much in terms of memorabilia and never did. Besides that mug, I have an Alive tin plate, a few t-shirts, a set of bobble heads, a few books and a few posters rolled up in a closet somewhere. The albums and a few DVDs, of course. Every time I see serious collectors showing their stuff, I feel kind of overwhelmed. Even guitars - 4 or 5 is more than enough for me. At some point, it seems I would feel like an employee in a museum, as if my stuff owned the place and I was only a guest, carefully tip toeing around. Maybe a defence mechanism, since we were kind of poor when I was a kid, so I couldn't have afforded it, anyway. I've yet to make it to his museum here in Vegas, but I saw videos showing only parts of the collection, and even that felt overwhelming. I did collect girlfriends named Melanie at some point, but that's a different story...

Robert Johnson - Malted Milk

Dr Feelgood - Milk and Alcohol

And what about those ads...

A long time ago it seems, I decided to no longer follow the news, as the only thing it accomplished was to make me miserable. What I do enjoy however is to dive into old 70’s magazines that I purchase on eBay and to read articles about then-current issues. I have just finished a fascinating little piece form July 1974 about the impact of the 1973-74 oil crisis on the record industry, and how it is affecting vinyl production, which in turn makes record companies cautious of releasing double albums, and how they are dropping artists who aren’t as commercially successful as their most mainstream acts, and hesitate to sign up new acts and give them adequate promotion. Unbelievable, right? Who would have thought? It also seems that the quality of the records is affected as manufacturers try to extend their supplies with all kinds of products - which has an audible effect of the end product. Meanwhile, even though the cost of production has only increased by 8 cents per record, the retail price has increased by ONE dollar! I'm thinking of sending them a heartfelt letter! Also - it would seem that a young fellow named Billy Joel may have quite the bright future ahead of him thanks to his latest record simply titled Piano Man. I have my doubts, but we'll see. At any rate, THAT is my kind of news. And how about that sweet, musty smell, uh?

Van Halen - Loss of Control

Pink Floyd - Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

The first on that came to mind. I knew I could count on you!

Laura Branigan - Self Control

D.R.I. - Gun Control

Sword - Outta Control

The Clash - Remote Control