Rain

Never had a chance to visit Toronto, unfortunately. As a Leafs fan, I would very much like to, but I guess what I would actually like to see would be the old Maple Leafs Garden and the city the way it used to be. The vision I get through tv shows filmed in Toronto leaves me with an impression that matches your description of it. I guess a lot of places went though a similar process in recent decades. When I arrived in Quebec City in 2001, there were always punks and goths hanging at Square D'Youville, and there were all those cool bars down on St-Jean. Within a few years, it lost all its grit and slowly became a very sterile place. By the time I left in 2010, it had been completely gentrified, with the occasional goth night organized by old timers in location with no real vibe at all. From what I heard, one of them actually takes place in a tiny restaurant, too... Weird. So I completely get what you mean.

Infant Sorrow - Furry Walls

The Cure - Play for Today

The Cure - Play

The Misfits - Green Hell

Miles Davis - Blue in Green (from one of my all-time favorite albums).

A Perfect Circle - Counting Bodies like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums

Back in the 70's and 80's, people looked back on the 50's. In the 90's and 00's, the 60's and 70's were in. Now it's the 80's and 90's turn (you may have heard that they're doing a That 90's Show). Just the usual - 40-50 something looking back on their golden years and making them fashionable. For a lot of people I guess, tastes are settled by the time they reach their early 20's. Personally, I'm fond on the 70's and very early 80's (the previous decade always lingers for a few years into the next). But I find lots of things that I like musically in every decade, although not as much in the late 10' and 20's. I am an old grumpy man, now. My reflex would be to say that I am not a huge fan of the 80's globally, although time has made a lot of things more palatable. I had no taste for mainstream music back then - for me it was about Metallica, Celtic Frost, Slayer, Voivod, and all those guys. And the only movies I cared about were horror movies, so I'd never seen most of the big popular movies of the 80's until very recently - things like The Breakfast Club, The Goonies, Ferris Bueler and all that commercial stuff... I already thought fashion sucked back then so I dressed all black and wore black jeans and t-shirts or shirts. Some things like simplicity and the colour black never go out of fashion. Still, after all these years, even through the mainstream culture, I can get a glimpse and a taste of the things that I enjoyed during those years. One thing I do remember is that movies and tv shows always gave a very poor representation of "alternative" cultures. So if Hollywood made a movie with some youth listening to heavy metal or punk (usually a caricature of them), they typically* didn't secure the rights to actual metal music we liked. They'd pay some guy to write a generic approximation that sucked hard. That's one of the reasons I was so blown away when I watched The Crow and heard the soundtrack the first time - these were bands that I loved, like Nine Inch Nails, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and The Cure. No generic copies. Things had started to change. *There were rare exceptions of course.

I used to love KFC when I was a kid, although I actually preferred another smaller chain called Dixie Lee. The last time I went back home in 2010, I made a point of going to Dixie Lee and it was just as good as I remembered. And my (now ex) wife absolutely loved it, too. Then a few years ago I suddenly had this urge to eat KFC. It had been decades. Well, it really wasn't good and my body wasn't happy with my decision for the next 2 days. I felt like a semi-clogged toilet. Restaurants chains can change radically from on country to another - even from state to state. Back home, A&W was my favorite (fast food) burger and fries place. Down here, I found it to be no better than McDonald or Burger King. Same with Applebees which I loved in NY but which is rather passable down here in Vegas. I think I've had Jack in the Box once and found it quite average. Never been to White Castle - although I was curious to try because of that Harold and Kumar movie... Anyway, I never eat fast food anymore, but I would probably indulge every now and then if there as a A&W that tasted like the ones back in Quebec.

Jane's Addiction - Mountain Song

Megadeth - Mary Jane

Rush - Cinderella Man

Marillion - Cinderella Search

Back on topic... Cinderella - Sick for the Cure (Because the only prescription is more cowbell).

A tad late but it's always celebration time down here in Vegas so Happy Birthday to you!

Great stories, my friend! Thanks for sharing.

Unless you ask boxing gloves for Christmas.

I didn't know that but I had a hunch that you'd chime in on this one for some reason. If I remember correctly, I first heard of them when they opened for Accept on the Metal Heart tour, shortly before they embarked on the Sacred Heart tour with Dio (man that's a lot of hearts in there, including Rough Cutt's album sleeve). That first album made an impression on us back then, but they seemed to fall off the earth after that - and we'd soon moved on to heavier music, anyway.

Festivus starts in a few hours. She can air her grievances then. (Yes, yes, I finally caught up with the rest of the world and watched Seinfeld).

Rough Cutt - She's Too Hott

April Wine - Too Hot to Handle

UFO - Too Hot to Handle

Joni MItchell - Both Sides, Now

Ozzy Osbourne - One Up the 'B' Side

Judas Priest - Raw Deal