IS IT A BIRD...IS IT A PLANE!?

The British Marvel Annuals 75 ~ 78 A Pictorial Flashback.

2012-01-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

Click Image to see Larger Size.

KISS SHOWS BREAK ATTENDANCE and MERCHANDISE RECORDS

2010-07-26T16:49:00.000-07:00

(LIVENATION/KISS PRESS RELEASE)

ROCK ICONS KISS START THEIR 2010 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR, THE HOTTEST SHOW ON EARTH, WITH RECORD-BREAKING TICKET AND MERCHANDISE SALES

(LOS ANGELES) July 26, 2010 - Planning to see rock icons KISS (www.KISSonline.com) this summer during their 2010 North American tour, The Hottest Show on Earth? Plan on buying tickets in advance. This weekend, the legendary rockers started their 32-city tour with record-breaking crowds in Cheyenne, WY, and Minot (Bismarck area), ND. KISS is also the first rock act to completely sell out the grandstands in Minot (more than 15,000 people) - they broke Taylor Swift's 2009 gross merchandise sales record in both cities, and KISS gave back by donating more than $30,000 from their ticket sales to Wounded Warrior Care Project, a non-profit veterans organization.

"We know that times are tough for The KISS Army of fans and that's why we're giving back," said KISS bassist and co-founder Gene Simmons. "We're committed to giving our fans the biggest, baddest, most over-the-top show for their hard-earned money."

"While we give our fans the greatest show ever, we also want to help guarantee that our country's brave men and women who return from fighting overseas receive the medical care that they have sacrificed for and is owed to them. While our government is tied up in bureaucracy, the KISS Army has taken up the cause. We're donating $1 from every ticket sold to the Wounded Warrior Care Project," added KISS rhythm guitarist and co-founder Paul Stanley.

Throughout their 37-year career, KISS has sold 80 million albums, played for millions of people and become an integral part of American "Rock and Roll All Nite" as well as hits that they haven't played in the US in years.

The Hottest Show on Earth tour, produced by Live Nation, will trek through a mix of arenas and amphitheatres throughout North America. Tickets for shows produced by Live Nation are now on sale and, in order to help fans in a tough economy, the band is offering a special ticket promotion. For Live Nation amphitheatres that have a lawn, up to four kids aged fourteen or under can get in free with the purchase of one adult ticket. **

There is no other band in the vast history of rock music that has mesmerized generations of music fans in the same way as this revolutionary and iconic quartet that continues to acquire generations of new fans year after year.

For complete ticket and tour information visit www.KISSonline.com and www.LiveNation.com.

downthetubes.net news blog: Comic fans rally to help Leeds-based OK Comics store from closure

2010-07-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

Click below for full story:
downthetubes.net news blog: Comic fans rally to help Leeds-based OK Comics store from closure

To My Friend Russell

2010-06-13T05:12:00.000-07:00

Russell passed away on Friday 13th June 2008 in Poole hospital. I miss him.

Time Is Meant To Heal

(adapted/edited from a poem by
Kim Thompson)

You meant so much to all of us
You were special and that's no lie
You brightened up the darkest day
And even the grey-est sky

Many tears I have seen and cried
They have all poured out like rain
I know that you are happy now
'Cause you're no longer in pain.

Two years on I remember you
And what you used to say
You made each of us smile
And live to the fullest each day

They say in time it gets easier
I wonder if it's true
Because even after all this time
I still don’t have a clue

I was not ready to say goodbye
The disease just over took
So on this day we remember you
I take a second look

Our friendship is forever
Until death, did us part
Although you're away in body
You’re always in my heart

Original version © Kim Thompson

Thor Movie Interview and Footage

2010-06-11T03:47:00.000-07:00

From "Entertainment Tonight". The signs are good looks cool so far.

D.B.T.= Real Hope for the Anxious, Depressive and Self Harming Individual

2010-04-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

Having lived with clinical depression for many years I can vouch for this system of therapy as it was offered to me and accepted years ago. The methodology has allowed me to maintain a helpful outlook of and fairly effective interaction with the world outside my front door. If I had not been offered the treatment I feel I may well not have survived to spread the word.

Pictured: Marsha M. Linehan

Marsha Linehan is a Professor of Psychology, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences at the University of Washington and Director of the Behavioral Research and Therapy
Clinics, a consortium of research projects developing new treatments and evaluating their
efficacy for severely disordered and multi-diagnostic populations. Her primary research is in the
application of behavioral models to suicidal behaviors, drug abuse, and borderline personality
disorder. She is also working to develop effective models for transferring efficacious treatments from the research academy to the clinical community.
She has received several awards recognizing her clinical and research contributions, including
the Louis I. Dublin Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Suicide and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, American Psychological Association, as well as awards for Distinguished Research in Suicide (American Foundation of Suicide Prevention), Distinguished Contributions to the Practice of Psychology (American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology), Distinguished Contributions for Clinical Activities, (Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy), and Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Clinical Psychology (Society of Clinical Psychology, American
Psychological Association). She is the past-president of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy, a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychopathological Association and a diplomat of the American Board of Behavioral Psychology.
The treatment she has developed combines the technology of change derived from behavioral science with the radical acceptance, or “technology of acceptance,” derived from both eastern zen practices and western contemplative spirituality. The practice of mindfulness, willingness, and radical acceptance form an important part of her treatment approach.
She has written three books, including two treatment manuals: Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder and Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder. She serves on a number of editorial boards, and has published extensively in scientific journals.
She is founder of Marie Institute of Behavioral Technology, a non-profit organization that owns the company she founded, Behavioral Tech LLC, a behavioral technology transfer group. With them she is actively involved in developing effective models for transferring efficacious treatments from the research academy to the clinical community.

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is a therapeutic methodology developed by Marsha M. Linehan, a psychology researcher at the University of Washington, to treat persons with borderline personality disorder (BPD). DBT combines standard cognitive-behavioral techniques for emotion regulation and reality-testing with concepts of mindful awareness, distress tolerance, and acceptance largely derived from Buddhist meditative practice. DBT is the first therapy that has been experimentally demonstrated to be effective for treating BPD. Research indicates that DBT is also effective in treating patients who represent varied symptoms and behaviors associated with spectrum mood disorders, including self-injury.
Linehan created DBT in response to her observation of therapist burnout after repudiating patients’ motivation to cooperate in successful treatment. Her first core insight was to recognize that the chronically suicidal patients she studied had been raised in profoundly invalidating environments and required a climate of unconditional acceptance (not Carl Rogers’ humanistically "positive" version, but Thich Nhat Hanh’s metaphysically neutral one) in which to develop a successful therapeutic alliance. Her second insight concerned the need for a commensurate commitment from patients to (be willing to) change—subject to their skillfulness in the present moment—based on 'radical acceptance' of their dire level of emotional dysfunction.
DBT strives to avoid having the client/patient see the therapist as an adversary rather than an ally in the treatment of psychological issues. Accordingly, in DBT the therapist aims to accept and validate the client’s feelings at any given time while nonetheless informing the client that some feelings and behaviors are maladaptive, and showing them better alternatives.
Linehan united commitment to the core conditions of acceptance and change through the Hegelian principle of dialectical progress, in which thesis + antithesis → synthesis, and proceeded to assemble a modular array of skills for emotional self-regulation, drawn from Western (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy and an interpersonal variant, “assertiveness training”) and Eastern (e.g., Buddhist mindfulness meditation) psychological traditions. Arguably her signal contribution was to elide the adversarial paradigm implicit in the hierarchical modernist therapeutic alliance, using the deconstructive spirit of Hegel and the Buddha to substitute a postmodern alliance based on intersubjective tough love.
All DBT involves two components:

An individual component in which the therapist and patient discuss issues that come up during the week, recorded on diary cards, and follow a treatment target hierarchy. Self-injurious and suicidal behaviors take first priority, followed by therapy interfering behaviors. Then there are quality of life issues and finally working towards improving one's life generally. During the individual therapy, the therapist and patient work towards improving skill use. Often, a skills group is discussed and obstacles to acting skillfully are addressed.
The group, which ordinarily meets once weekly for two to two-and-a-half hours, learns to use specific skills that are broken down into four modules: core mindfulness skills, interpersonal effectiveness skills, emotion regulation skills, and distress tolerance skills.

Neither component is used by itself; the individual component is considered necessary to keep suicidal urges or uncontrolled emotional issues from disrupting group sessions, while the group sessions teach the skills unique to DBT, and also provide practice with regulating emotions and behavior in a social context.

1 The four modules
- 1.1 Mindfulness
- 1.2 Interpersonal effectiveness
- 1.3 Emotion regulation
- 1.4 Distress tolerance

The four modules

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one of the core concepts behind all elements of DBT. Mindfulness is the capacity to pay attention, nonjudgmentally, to the present moment. Mindfulness is all about living in the moment, experiencing one's emotions and senses fully, yet with perspective. It is considered a foundation for the other skills taught in DBT, because it helps individuals accept and tolerate the powerful emotions they may feel when challenging their habits or exposing themselves to upsetting situations. The concept of mindfulness and the meditative exercises used to teach it are derived from traditional Buddhist practice, though the version taught in DBT does not involve any religious or metaphysical concepts.

Interpersonal effectiveness

Interpersonal response patterns taught in DBT skills training are very similar to those taught in many assertiveness and interpersonal problem-solving classes. They include effective strategies for asking for what one needs, saying no, and coping with interpersonal conflict.
Individuals with borderline personality disorder frequently possess good interpersonal skills in a general sense. The problems arise in the application of these skills to specific situations. An individual may be able to describe effective behavioral sequences when discussing another person encountering a problematic situation, but may be completely incapable of generating or carrying out a similar behavioral sequence when analyzing his or her own situation.
The interpersonal effectiveness module focuses on situations where the objective is to change something (e.g., requesting that someone do something) or to resist changes someone else is trying to make (e.g., saying no). The skills taught are intended to maximize the chances that a person’s goals in a specific situation will be met, while at the same time not damaging either the relationship or the person’s self-respect.

Emotion regulation

Individuals with borderline personality disorder and suicidal individuals are frequently emotionally intense and changeable. They can be angry, intensely frustrated, depressed, or anxious. This suggests that these clients might benefit from help in learning to regulate their emotions. Dialectical behavior therapy skills for emotion regulation include:

Identifying and labeling emotions
Identifying obstacles to changing emotions
Reducing vulnerability to emotion mind
Increasing positive emotional events
Increasing mindfulness to current emotions
Taking opposite action
Applying distress tolerance techniques

Distress tolerance

Many current approaches to mental health treatment focus on changing distressing events and circumstances. They have paid little attention to accepting, finding meaning for, and tolerating distress. This task has generally been tackled by psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, gestalt, or narrative therapies, along with religious and spiritual communities and leaders. Dialectical behavior therapy emphasizes learning to bear pain skillfully.
Distress tolerance skills constitute a natural development from mindfulness skills. They have to do with the ability to accept, in a non-evaluative and nonjudgmental fashion, both oneself and the current situation. Although this is a nonjudgmental stance, this does not mean that it is one of approval or resignation. The goal is to become capable of calmly recognizing negative situations and their impact, rather than becoming overwhelmed or hiding from them. This allows individuals to make wise decisions about whether and how to take action, rather than falling into the intense, desperate, and often destructive emotional reactions that are part of borderline personality disorder.
Skills for acceptance include radical acceptance, turning the mind toward acceptance, and distinguishing between "willingness" (acting skillfully, from a realistic understanding of the present situation) and "willfulness" (trying to impose one's will regardless of reality). Participants also learn four crisis survival skills, to help deal with immediate emotional responses that may seem overwhelming: distracting oneself, self-soothing, improving the moment, and thinking of pros and cons.

IT WORKS!

Jeffrey Catherine Jones: The Movie

2010-03-23T05:03:00.000-07:00

In his four decades as a painter and graphic artist, Jeffrey Jones has followed a unique path—one which began in the lowbrow realms of pulp novels and comic books in the early 1970s. In those lean years of economic stagnation and artistic experimentation, Jones and other pop culture visionaries helped to light the fuse for the creative explosion in American comics that would bring the world such classics as Watchmen, V for Vendetta, The Sandman, 300 and Love and Rockets. In this new documentary, a host of comics industry pioneers shares their memories of this vital time with a focus on Jones and his work, which continues to inspire fellow artists and fans alike.

The documentary features not only comic book artists but other comics industry professionals as well. Jones’s life and work are the highlights, but the effects of art—on an individual, on society, and as a business—are also discussed. How important and influential is art? Can it really save a person’s life, as its practitioners claim? How did it evolve from pure decoration to a commercial commodity? All of these questions will be examined as we explore the world of Jeffrey Jones.

The story of art is, in the end, the story of artists, and the whole can also be seen

Jeffrey Catherine Jones (edited autobiography)
Born, January 10, 1944, Atlanta, Georgia

I believe in Atlanta, Georgia in the year 1947. That was before I met my father. I was three and he seemed a myth. My dad, I was told, was
somewhere in a place called Germany, busy dropping bombs on people. I didn't believe in him.

In the mid-forties Atlanta was beginning to build itself into a place that I'd never again recognize. What I remember were ancient buildings,
ancient trees, and a drumming sound that "the South Shall Rise again."

There remain impressions along with false memories with which I've been storied. I was born into the great southern house of my grandfather,
resplendent with ivy-carpeted yards, privet taller than he and clay tennis courts, dry and powdery, spreading quietly behind gardens of Victorian
wildness. I remember garages of mystery: red painted wooden buildings with doors that never opened. Five cars wide, they spread across a gray
cracked pavement where I learned, first with stroller, then with uncertain feet, to walk.

My grandmother moved in and out of rooms like a shadow, leaving a glimpsed but not always certain presence. In the earlier part of this century
she had been an outspoken suffragette, marching and rallying womankind to awaken. Now she rarely spoke.

Memory: My great grandmother, tiny and sick and silent, dying in a great bed in a room somewhere in the back of the house. I was born right-
handed. When she died her death bed fell and broke my right collar bone. In a sling now I could only use my left hand. I am now partially
left-handed.

Memory: My great, great aunt, Ottoline, downstairs, secluded in a lace and sun filled room. She was the matriarch, 96 years old -- born just two
years after the great California gold rush. She spoke to me once of gold -- she had held a nugget, smooth and heavy in her hand, but had never
seen its brilliance because she was blind. Ottie had never seen anything. She had been born without sight. A large and kind woman who
occasionally, with the help of crutches that seemed to grow from her upper body, struggled out into the backyard. She also in 96 years had never
walked alone, nor run nor reached out toward the sun.

The grounds that spread about the house were green and lush and smelled of age and invention. My grandfather, Dunkie, we all called him was a
retired mechanical drawing teacher at Georgia Tech (‘Yellow Jackets' as a team -- "Georgia Tech, a rambling wreck and a hell of an engineer”) or
so I always heard. Above that mysterious row of garages, in a kind of attic, was a lengthy space he always called "the laboratory". Here he heaved
strange objects, built and rebuilt and at times cried, "Eureka!" as if he had invented or reinvented something.

When first I saw my father I must have been about three. Back from Germany, he telephoned, and expectantly my mother and I awaited his
appearance. When he knocked on the door there was a rush of big and little feet. My mother opened the door to the man she loved and said,
"Jeffrey, this is your dad." I was speechless, for he just stood there on the porch, moving not an inch -- huge, about ten feet tall, perfectly
straight, in full pressed uniform with bars and medals dripping from his chest. I don't remember what was said. I didn't know who this man was,
but I did know right then and there that I would be always defenceless against him.

-My life describes the stories of boys and men for thousands of years: boys who were beaten by their fathers, boys whose capacity for love and
trust was crippled almost at birth. Men, whose best hope for contact with other human beings lay in detachment, as if life were over. It's how we
keep, in turn, from destroying our own children and terrorizing the women who have the misfortune to love us, how we absent ourselves from the
tradition of male violence, how we decline the seduction of revenge. ___AFFLICTION

Ponce de Leon Avenue in the '40s, the street which ran before our house, was a wonder to a small boy. While I sat in rocking chairs along the
planked front porch, great overweight Dodges and Buicks chugged their way up the hill which led to Peachtree Street and the Fox theater (the 4th
largest in the world.) It was a city block of turkish domes, gilded with that precious metal mined in Delonega in the north. I sat there often
watching movies like "Gone With the Wind" on a screen that rivaled the sky. High across a hemispheric ceiling there were omnipresent stars and
clouds moving slowly and silently real. The lobby was carpeted and vast, narrowing to a golden stairway that led me to the show.

When I was young my passion was art, eventually comic book and fantasy art. I've seen a lot of people lose their childhood passions, not only for
art but also for life--just getting squeezed. I don't have any answers. My passion was and is my art. However, there was a time when I became
aware that I might be losing it. Having used my ability to draw to buy approval from my childhood peers, I entered the real world with my "cash"
in my pocket. I wanted to be published so badly that in the beginning I took on a lot of work that I hated. Ah, but maybe a million people would
see it and love me. I lived in fear. What happened? I found that the more I went to the drawing board or the easel to do work I hated, the less I
wanted to go there. I was losing my joy, and I found eventually that my joy was more important than approval. I began to get "difficult to deal
with" and began to lose jobs. I became determined to, well, not so much "have it my way", but to do work I loved. It's not so easy to pursue, or
even know what your heart's desire may be. We as human beings have different stories but we're all the same in that we identify the same feelings
in each and every one of us. Fear is probably the most basic. All else is built upon fear. Hate grows out of fear, envy out of fear. But I think that
basically fear is certainly self-centred. It is the fear of not getting what I want or of losing something I have that keeps me out of the perfection
of the present moment and suddenly living in the future. I have no control over the universe, of events yet to happen. Each and every moment,
if I need to, I must remind myself that right now everything is ok. Right now I am alive, and have in my life those things that remind me to stay
alive. I am loved, and more importantly I have the ability to love. There is an acceptance of events beyond me that I must have in order to
ground me and allow me to let go. What is the very best thing that can happen to me next? I don't know-but I always know what I want to
happen, and there I dare not go. So I ask myself some hard questions and I find, if I am fearless, and want what I have, the rest is a grand
adventure.

In 1951 or so, I, a six year old squirt, peered way up at a circular comic rack in a drug store and spied Kubert's TOR 3D comic. I had no idea there
was a Kubert back then, but I know that I suddenly wanted to draw comics, to create heroes (maybe to protect me from my parents and other
bullies in the neighborhood). I grew, I drew, I took art history and saw what painters had done with visions. Now I wanted to paint (to protect
myself from the bullies in life). I drew comics for fanzines starting around 1964 and did my first professional comic job for Witzend in 1966,
though it was published years later. I went "underground": Last Gasp comics, SCREW Magazine, The East Village Other, while fighting with
publishers all the while in New York. Comics are "real art" to me. The combination of words and pictures is a literal, vastly unexplored territory.
The only other combination of words and pictures at the time was illustration, which I quickly came to believe as immoral (even though I was a
part-time illustrator).

It was the fall of 1956. I was about 13, I guess, when my father decided to get rid of the stump. I had seen him staring at it for two seasons. A pine
tree had come down in our backyard. In 1956 there were no neighborhood backhoes and no chainsaws; there was, however, dynamite at the local
hardware store. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The first thing my father decided to do to get rid of the offending stump was to burn it out.
Gallons of kerosene and weeks of smoldering wood later we were left with a large black lump in the backyard. I could see my father wrestling with
himself. This stump had become the enemy, but Dad had been in WWII. There was only one answer, explosives. Ah, those were the days, the
innocent '50s, before "politics" and before terrorists-dynamite to be had by millions at the neighborhood shopping center. I had purchased the
fuse, by the foot, a number of times myself, for launching my homemade rockets, but I guess you had to be 21 to buy the dynamite. Daddy came
home with a brown paper bag, with a telltale fuse licking our air. He was smiling. Mama was scared. My father had told us a story many times,
from his Air Force days in England, when driving a Jeep along a runway a bomb had fallen out of the belly of a plane. The Jeep was destroyed but
my Dad just brushed himself off as he arose from a ditch. Now it was dynamite. I don't mean to make this a shaggy dog story but let's just say that
my father survived, the neighborhood survived, and our house had only three windows blown out.

It was 1961 and a friend and I, on a summer trip, found ourselves in Blue Valley, NC-named for it's abundance of amethyst crystals. We were
rockhounds. Give me a chalcedony ridge upon which to throw steel or even hematite, limonite or magnetite and I'll give you fire. That was a
season of plenty. One mineral led to the next and we eventually came to rest at a creek where we panned for gold and rhodolite (found only here
in all the world, washed down from the oldest mountains on Earth-erosion for the keeper).

Cherokee, NC was the base-a town of pride and history, also as the selling place of trinkets in an effort to survive the new world. There were
rivers of shale and slate in the valleys, dikes unearthed by water, risen from the remote geologic past. It was heaven in 1961. I still have a garage
full of treasures, from beryl to ruby.

I was married in 1966 to my college sweetheart, Mary Louise Alexander. We lived in Georgia for a while with three cats, Aeschelus, Medea and
Petronius the Arbiter. I remained in school, mostly because of the draft - "Weezie" worked for the phone company. One day we arrived home -
we left one window partly open so the cats could get in and out. I opened the door to find about fifteen cats sitting in the living room, apparently
having a group discussion. All fled. We moved to New York City in February of 1967 and our wonderful daughter, Julianna, was born in July of
that year.

Early one morning, I mean before sunrise, I walked into the Studio I shared at that time with Kaluta, Windsor-Smith and Wrightson. It must have
been sometime in 1978, I think, because by that time Michael and I had all but moved into the Studio, visiting our apartments occasionally only
to pick up the mail. We would cross paths about this time of day because I slept at night and Michael slept... well in 1978 he was a very important
sleeper. On this memorable morning, as I opened the big horizontal steel lock on the big steel door, I found Michael crouched behind his drawing
table, now swung into a vertical position, with a BB gun. A pistol. "Welcome to 'Desolation Row" he said as he peered with one eye over the top of
the table. I have to back up a month to say what led up to this seeming desperate situation. From the time we moved into the Studio in June of
1976, Michael came some months later, we heard scurrying noises in the quiet hours of the night. Mice. Well, at first some of us thought they
were cute and some of us didn't. By the time the mice added chewing on artwork, stacks of posters and electrical cords to their scurrying, (one
mouse was discovered stiff and dead with it's teeth still clamped to an extension cord) we all decided they weren't cute anymore. But we being
peaceful children of the sixties, "death to the mice" was not an immediate option. It was decided that the answer was 'Have a Heart' traps that
would capture them alive. Then what? Well Michael and I acquired an aquarium to house the mice in, sort of like pets. We couldn't find
authentic 'Have a Heart' traps but got some pirated copies at the local hardware store. Needless to say these didn't always work properly. Some
mice would get caught, some would get away and a few we would find dead or almost dead with a trap door pinning their rear ends halfway out
into the room. The mice we caught Michael and I would put into the aquarium and feed peanut butter. One midnight when we decided the
aquarium was full enough, Michael and I took it down the elevator from our 12th floor aerie to the lobby and out into the night. Across the street
we went, feeling for all the world like saviors of mice, to an empty parking lot. Buildings rose tall and dark on all sides of us and I guess we
wondered where the mice would end up. But that would be somebody else's problem. As we tipped over the aquarium with a stick, all the mice
swarmed out into the night. Yes, swarmed. They moved as a herd, a dark mass, back across the street and back into our building. Michael had
been sitting for hours behind his drawing board with his pistol, a BB gun, watching as a mouse would creep along the far wall beneath the
radiators. "The BBs don't really kill them", he explained. "They just get stunned." "What do you do with them", I asked. "I put them in a paper
bag and drop them out the 12th floor window", he smiled.

After a few years in NYC a friend of mine, a great artist, much older than me, the late Roy G. Krenkel, told me that I was the Master of the
Meaningless Gesture. Well, I do this in my art because I don't want to tell anyone anything. I want the people to bring themselves to the work, based on their own experience.

From about the age of 4 or 5 I knew I wanted to be a girl. Maybe I was born with a kind of gender
inversion-- some call it a birth defect. I know nothing of these things. I do know that my identification has always been with females-- in books,
movies, art and life. My best friends have always been female and I have always been exclusively physically attracted to females. So, along
comes puberty. Whoa! We were all confused, I know, but within that maelstrom was my desire for, and the desire to be, a girl. Until the age of 12
I knew nothing regarding sexual matters. I saw boys with girls. That's what I saw. In the south, in the '50s there were no gays and no lesbians,
and certainly no one like me. So I became secretive. In my own mind I became ashamed, guilty and worthless-- this was the road I started down
so long ago. After many years of therapy, and many years of trying to drink away the shame, I arrived, ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiip in the year 1998. In August
of that year I decided to stop the denial and start living as a woman. In October I finally obtained the name of and saw the leading expert on the
subject-- the New York endocrinologist who wrote and rewrote the book. After extensive tests, both mental and physical, I started hormonal
gender re-assignment therapy. It's been about ten years now, but back in May blood tests showed that I had become medically female.
The process continues. Hair and androgens are tenacious. As my doctor put it, "I will induce menopause in you so you can enter puberty again.
This time as a female." My development is just that. People have been unimaginably supportive, and slowly that shame is passing away. My wife, Maryellen, has been my backbone through all of this. I've never known such acceptance and love. People have also said to me how brave I must
be. If I understand courage to be self- possession and resolution in the face of fear, then there is certainly no bravery here. I had no choice really. There is certainly no fear of being female. Is it the fear of castration or the loss of testosterone-- that wall of defence around the precious
y chromosome-the fear they speak of? Who knows men? And I WAS one for 55 years!

Do I have a handle on it? Not on your life. I make it up as I go along. Love is daily and unafraid. I have lost and I have gained and I thank God
for all that is left.

Sources:
MaCab Films
Jeffrey Jones-Art

IT'S OVER WHEN IT'S OVER

2010-03-02T00:20:00.000-08:00

4.3.9pm
DIVUS
presents

IT'S OVER WHEN IT'S OVER
PAV MXSKI

Pictured is the author visiting his mother

Pav Mxski is a London-based artist and poet of Polish origin. At first a successful photographer of the English rave scene, later founder of a wild project called Slaginc, now pursues his own artistic work along with the written word. His art is a picture of a community uprooted, in need of social orientation and lacking an hospitable human architecture.

music
PANENSKE OSTROVY band
and other thematic repercussion

Opening Thursday, March 4, 2010, 9 pm
DIVUS UNDERGROUND
Karlin Studios, Krizikova 34
(across the car park behind "corso" building)
Prague 8 - Karlin, Czech Republic

Exhibition open till march 31, 2010
(after opening book your visit
at production@divus.cz
or call +420 777 717 779 )

A Long Time Ago...

2010-01-21T06:12:00.000-08:00

This excerpt is from an article written just prior to
the original release of "The Empire Strikes Back"
it appeared in issue 22 (possibly June 1980) of
Starburst Magazine, then being published by Marvel Comics Ltd.
Tony Crawley is the writer credited on the feature. Other regular
contributors were John Brosnan, Phil Edwards,
John Fleming and Mat Irvine.

(All images are copyrighted 1980 by Lucasfilm Ltd)

THE MAKING OF STAR WARS
THOUGH IT HAS TAKEN THREE YEARS,
THE SEQUEL TO THE PHENOMENALLY
SUCCESSFUL MOVIE STAR WARS, IS
FINALLY WITH US
TONY CRAWLEY LOOKS AT THE
MAKING OF THE FILM AND SOME
OF THE PROBLEMS FACED BY
THE CREATIVE PEOPLE INVOLVED

Above:
One of Ralph McQuarrie's pre-
production paintings.

It's that time again. George Lucas science fantasy
time! As Star Trek finally disappears inside Disney's
Black Hole, the world's stage is set for the
Star Wars sequel. Well, not the sequel the
continuation ... the next chapter. Part Two! Well,
no, not quite that either. Part Five, to be precise, in
George's nine-part saga set in that distant galaxy
far, far away. In short: the world's most
expensive and most successful movie serial is
coming back. The Empire Strikes Back is about
to make its strike, folks.

Whatever George likes to call it, however he likes
to number it, it is for all intents and purposes, a sequel,
and probably the world's most eagerly awaited sequel
since Godfather II. And as Godpop II, as it's more
familiarly known, is just about the only sequel film to
have improved upon its forerunner, there's a lot
riding on the new Lucasfilm production. Not least,
George's reputation as the maker of the world's
most successful movie . . . which has been earning as
much as 140,000 dollars a day.

Below:
The assassin Boba Fett.

Since Star Wars came out way back in
1977, it has been milked, ravaged,
dissected, re-directed and thoroughly
ripped-off from Italy to Canada. There
have been so many badly-made, horren-
dously-conceived, quickie copy-cat
movies, that even the most devout sf
movie fan has become a little tired of all
those clones of Luke, Leia, Han, Darth
Vader and the robots running and
spinning around in a flurry of movies,
most of which seemed to have cost about
56 and a half pence or the producer's son's pocket-
money — which ever was the cheapest.
Their scripts were lamentable and the
special-effects diabolical. This sick
succession of cash-in movies have all but
killed the good name of science fiction,
or if you prefer, science-fantasy, in the
cinema.

George Lucas, therefore, has a lot to
answer for... and a lot to make up for.
He has nothing to beat, of course. But he
has had to work damned hard to make
sure he retains our interest.
So what chances does Empire have of
making any impact on our jaded palates?
Quite a lot, as it happens ... or as we
fervantly hope it happens. If only because
of the way that George Lucas and his
production partner, Gary Kurtz, go
about making movies. Star Wars has made
them not only millionaires (and then some),
but film-makers with the greatest
degree of independence in
Hollywood, or indeed the entire film
world, since the days when Chaplin, Pick-
ford and Griffith first set up their own
shop, United Artists.

As I write all this, however. The
Empire Strikes Back is still shrouded in
almost total secrecy. I know a little of
what went on behind the scenes since
shooting began in Norway on March 5,
1979, but George 'n' Gary have most of
their secrets well under wraps until
opening night in America — and the
European premiere at the Odeon,
Leicester Square (farewell. Black Hole!)
on Wednesday, May 21.
So at this juncture, I cannot exactly
report if they've worked the oracle a
second time, if they've lived up to their —
and indeed our — high expectations. We
can only report what's been going on ...
and why ... as we await the outcome.
George Lucas, after all, is in the
position of someone like Dr Christian
Barnard after he performed the world's
first heart-transplant operation. What
does he do for an encore? Barnard, as it
happened, did not do a great deal —
everyone else did instead. For the last few
years, it looked as if the same thing was
happening to Lucas — except the Star
Wars transplants proved so ineffectual.
Hence our anticipation of his new operation!

The initial problem with the new movie is not
the story, not the effects — which are bound to
be even more super-polished this time, because
of the extra money available, and indeed because
of George's own in-house effects work via one
of his new companies, Industrial Light and Magic.
No, the numero uno problem with the new flick is
the cast. Obviously, all the favourites are back in line
- Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, Carrie Fisher as
Princess Leia, Harrison Ford as Han Solo, Dave Prowse
inside Darth Vader's breathing mask, Kenny Baker and
Anthony Daniels locked into the metallic overalls of
R2-D2 and C-3PO, Peter Mayhew all furred up anew
as Chew-bacca, and yes, even Sir Alec Guiness'
Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi in a special reprise stanza.
That is both good and bad news. Naturally, we
all want to see these guys back in action
again. But we have already ... in so many other
sf movies of late. Of course, the originals have to
be better than the cheapjack clones — or
should be. For Star Wars, George Lucas chose
an ensemble cast; the main trio of Hamill,
Fisher and Ford had to gel together as
a unit, or he would have selected another
threesome entirely. Last time, his screen
newcomers were in unknown territory. George
directed and he alone knew where and
how he wanted them to go. But it's
obvious that he cannot merely rely on
the same crew of characters. New creations
have to be brought in. Billy Dee Williams,
in the main, as Baron Lando Calrissian,
"the charismatic boss" (it says here) of
a mining colony in space, and an old
buddy of Han Solo. Fine. A black
man in space is hardly new, but
rarely touched upon either. . .

But since 1977, Star Wars has become more
than a movie. It is a multi-million-dollar
business corporation. And so, merchandising
requires new characters . . . The toy manufacturers
cannot keep churning out R2 and 3PO toys from
here until doomsday. And so, enter a cuddly, friendly,
eight-foot high beastie called a Tauntaun — you say, town-town.
It's no vast rival of Chewie, you ride
this beast like a camel. Or you do
on the frozen planet of Hoth.

There is also another very special new creation,
around which the shrouds of secrecy still hang heavy.
Very heavy indeed. The clue is the best
known new name on the Empire poster. Frank
Oz. He's Jim Henson's partner on The Muppet Show,
responsible for, among others, Fozzie Bear, Animal,
Sam the Eagle and, of course, Miss Piggy. Now he has
come up with a new character for George. He created,
designed, activated and acted . . . Yoda.

The new characters will mix in with the old,
who are changing format rather than face.
Carrie Fisher, for example, is turning into a kind
of John Ford Western heroine (the way Luke Skywalker
was a Fordian youth last time). "She's now torn between
two men," explains producer Gary Kurtz. The men are
Luke and Han, of course. "She will be
more positive and less passive," adds Gary.
Unfortunately, he didn't say that to me, otherwise
I would have asked what on earth he was talking
about. Leia was hardly ever passive in the first film . . .

Kurtz sounds more on the ball when he discusses
the "new" Luke. "He was naive — now he is growing up
and learning how to use The Force. The nucleus of the
whole saga is his mental and spiritual training.
He is the prime user of The Force but he
still is not ready to take over entirely
from Ben Kenobi," Well, of course not.
He has at least four more chapters to go
if George manages to make his entire serial .

"Now we have familiarised the audience
with the basic environment, we can introduce
even more imaginative extensions of it, while
at the same time bringing some more emphasis
to heightened emotional relationships between
the characters." — Gary Kurtz, producer.

According to Kurtz, Harrison Ford has a problem, too.
Or rather, Han Solo has . . . Oh, I don't know, the way
Kurtz articulates it, it sounds as much Ford's problem as Solo's.
"It's one of decision," says Gary. "Does he want to take part in
this new organisation that is growing up against the Galactic Empire
or does he want to go off and fight as a freelance?" Or put it another
way: does Ford want to stay with the series, the new organisation
that is growing up against the Hollywood empire, or does he want
to go off making as many films as he can, as indeed he has since 1977 . . ?

On the subject of the film itself, Kurtz has this to say: "We feel that now
we have familiarised audiences with the basic environment, we can
introduce even more imaginative extensions of it, while at the same time
bringing some emphasis to heightened emotional relationships between
the characters." Very American is Gary Kurtz. I think he means that
Han Solo gets to kiss Princess Leia ...

The new director, as by now I'm sure we all know, is Irvin Kershner,
making his first sf film at age 57. "I happen to love science fiction,"
he says, "and I've been reading it since I was a kid. Perhaps hindsight
will place Star Wars into perspective, but this is certainly true - it
appealed to the child in us all." George Lucas wrote the story for
the new film. Leigh Brackett, a prolific and talented screenwriter
and science-fiction novelist, completed the first draft of the script
just before her tragic death in March, 1978. Brought in for the final
polish was Lawrence Kasdan, now a firm member of the Lucasfilm
set-up. His original script, Raiders of the Lost Ark, is about to start
shooting at George's old hunting-ground, Elstree studios, with
Steven Spielberg directing. Spielberg will also direct Larry's
next script. Continental Divide (NOTE: Speilberg did not end up
directing the film, the script was filmed instead by director,
Michael Apted and released in 1981). Just as many of the first cast
were brought back for the new adventure, so were various key
specialists behind the scenes. Robert Watts became associate
producer, Norman Reynolds, art director last time, takes charge
of production design. Paul Hirsch, from De Palma's Obsession
and The Fury, remains the film's editor, Stuart Freeborn
is make-up supervisor, and handles all "special
creature design." John Mollo designed the costumes and John
Williams, naturally, penned the new score. Williams, Reynolds
and Mollo were among the seven Oscar-winners on Star Wars,
by the way.

An intriguing
pre-production design painting by Star Wars regular, Ralph McQuarrie.

New to the team were Ken Russell's favourite camera ace. Peter
Suschitzky, and Brian Johnson, replaced John Dykstra — the
Battlestar Galactica rip-off merchant — as supervisor of the mechanical
special effects at Elstree. Once shooting was over, Brian, who has
worked on everything good in sf from 2001 to Alien, joined up with
Richard Edlund and Dennis Muren, for the creation of the
post-production effects at George's Industrial Light and Magic facility.
Brian's bunch have all been toiling like mad for the past year in California,
working on the miniatures and opticals ("the buck stops at opticals,"
says George), plus various stop-motion and animation sequences for
animals and other mechanical creatures. Their work will, so I hear,
somewhat bury the achievements to date of the great Ray Harryhausen.
(To Be Continued)

Marvel UK in the early Nineties

2010-01-12T04:29:00.000-08:00

Lew Stringer's frighteningly excellent blog has a very interesting "behind the scenes" snippet on Marvel UK's history:

Blimey! It's another blog about comics!: Marvel UK in the early Nineties

An Alternative Viewpoint

2010-01-02T04:56:00.001-08:00

Our real enemy is not the one living in a distant land whose name or policies we don't understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it's profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us
- Mike Prysner

Gareth Thomas' (soon to be) Ex Wife Speaks

2009-12-28T05:26:00.000-08:00

Photo by Paul Lewis

Jemma Thomas comments on her soon to be ex husbands' (Gareth Thomas) public announcement concerning his sexuality (he is gay),

'He released me and in doing so he released himself. Gareth could have waited for years to tell me, wasted my life, and where would that have left me? I was only 30 when he told me, still young enough to meet someone else and have children.'
Today, Jemma lives in Spain where she works with her mother Judi, 61, for a furniture company. She moved there 18 months ago for a fresh start. She wanted to be where no one knows she was the wife of the sporting legend and to escape the scrutiny which accompanied the break-up of her marriage.
'It was hard for me staying in Bridgend. Everywhere held a happy memory of my time with Gareth, all my friends were the friends we'd spent our weekends with as a couple,' says Jemma, whose divorce from Gareth will be finalised in the New Year. 'I needed to move on. We both did.'
Jemma and Gareth grew up in neighbouring villages near Bridgend, and were friends long before they became lovers. Before he turned professional, Gareth was Jemma's postman.
'All the girls used to go and watch the local rugby team to check out the talent and have a look at the boys' legs,' she says. 'I was never very interested in rugby, I was only interested in Gareth. I was besotted with him.
'He was great fun, laid back, happy-go-lucky, and we had such a laugh together. Rugby was his passion. I always watched him play, but it was a running joke between us that, even after 15 years together, I still had no idea where the try line was.'
In 2005 Gareth Thomas led Wales to its first Grand Slam victory since 1978
Until their marriage in 2001, their courtship was 'on-off '. Gareth has admitted this was as much to do with his confusion over his sexuality as with his total commitment to rugby.
He had his first gay encounter at 18, an experience which he says left him feeling ashamed, so much so that he pushed his feelings into a remote corner, where they sat like a knot in his stomach 'waiting to leak out'.

'Before our marriage I had no idea, no suspicion at all, not then anyway. That would come later,' says Jemma. 'He was just like all the other lads and dated a friend of mine before we got together at a friend's 18th birthday party.
'He was incredibly loving, caring, romantic, passionate and emotional. He was always buying me flowers and presents, telling me how much he adored me. I felt so confident in his love for me, I trusted him 100 per cent.

'I remember, just before Christmas in 2000, we were lying in bed together in our cottage and he jumped out of bed, switched on the light and then knelt down and said: "Shall we get married?" I replied: "Why not?" I had not a second's hesitation. He was all I wanted.
'And the saddest thing is we really did have the perfect marriage - apart from this grey corner which was secretly eating away at him. We never argued about anything, we just spent the whole time laughing and having fun. We had a great circle of friends.
'We were both desperate to start a family. Gareth adored children and was great with all our friends' kids. He would have made a brilliant father,' she says.
Jemma suffered her first miscarriage a year into their marriage. Gareth was with her, holding her hand when a hospital scan revealed the baby she was carrying had died in the womb ten weeks into her pregnancy.
'We were both in tears. Gareth was absolutely heartbroken, but all he cared about was making sure I was all right. He couldn't have been more loving and supportive,' says Jemma.
'We were both keen to try again as quickly as possible. When it's your first, you just accept it as one of those things, so in many ways the second miscarriage at nine weeks was devastating. It was an awful time for both of us.'
After the second miscarriage, in the summer of 2003, Gareth stayed home from the Wales tour of Australia and New Zealand to comfort Jemma, and she says his support meant everything to her. He took her on holiday to Cyprus to recover, and without his love during this time, Jemma says she would have been utterly destroyed.
Jemma was behind Gareth's move from Wales to the French Club Toulouse in 2004, giving up her job as a payroll manager with a furniture company to move with him to France. Indeed, it heralded a stunning period of triumph in Gareth's rugby career. In 2005, he not only led Wales to their Grand Slam victory, he won the Heineken Cup with Toulouse and was voted BBC Wales Sports Personality Of The Year.
The following year, however, their world fell apart. In early 2006, Gareth stood accused of leading a player revolt following the sudden departure of the Wales national coach, Mike Ruddock.
Then Gareth - already nursing a rugby injury - collapsed with a ruptured artery and suffered a ministoke, following a TV debate in which he defended his team against charges of 'player power'. Not long after this, Jemma suffered her third miscarriage.
'It was a very fraught time. I was very worried about Gareth's health after his mini-stroke and anxious about my pregnancy. I had a chest infection and wasn't feeling great,' says Jemma.
Gareth and Jemma Thomas at home in happier days
'I was so worried about the baby, we went to hospital for a scan, and it destroyed us when we were told I had miscarried either that morning or the night before. How can you ever feel normal again after losing your third baby?
'It was the worst time of our lives, everything seemed to be spiralling out of control and we seemed to be trapped on an emotional rollercoaster. Gareth has always been a very private person, and he started spending hours alone, walking along the beach, reflecting on things he would not talk to me about.
'My intuition told me something was wrong, but whenever I asked Gareth he'd say "nothing's wrong" and change the subject.
'He'd tell me he was going somewhere, while he was on tour, and then I'd find out that he'd been somewhere else. I started to ask him where he'd been, where he was going, if there was someone else. Then I'd feel guilty and angry with myself for even doubting him. I felt certain Gareth would never have cheated on me with a woman, so I started to wonder if he might be gay, because I couldn't think of anything else. I'd started to hear gossip about his sexuality, but thought it was just some locker room banter and pushed it to the back of my mind.
'There wasn't a night when he didn't come home, when he wasn't on tour, and our love life was normal. Me and the other rugby wives would joke about how much we were doing it, while the boys were training, and we were no different from anyone else.
'He loved me so much he had to tell me the truth'
'Then, he phoned me one day and said: "I need to talk to you." That night he admitted it, saying: "You have to know the truth. I am gay."
'It was the worst day of my life. It almost felt as if someone I loved had suddenly died, but he was still standing there in front of me. Alive but lost to me. I didn't feel anger - if anything, I felt sorry for him.
'If it had been another woman, I think I would have thrown myself off a cliff, because it would have destroyed every ounce of my selfesteem. But the fact he'd been with men, strangely almost didn't feel like cheating to me.
'This was who he was, something I could never have changed, something that was nothing to do with his feelings for me as a woman.
'I knew that whatever he had done had not been done with malice towards me and I could see how much he was suffering and how sorry he was for hurting me. Gareth was still the same Gareth I'd fallen in love with. He was just as loving and caring as he was before. He didn't change at all, so for a month nothing happened and both of us thought that somehow we could stay together because we depended so much on each other.'
But Jemma was in turmoil. After a month of drifting along, as if nothing had changed in their marriage, she returned from France to Wales.
'I had to tell my parents because I just didn't know what to do. I stayed up with my dad Trevor talking until 3am and I told him everything,' says Jemma.
'I remember my father saying: "Poor lad, what must he have been going through all these years." There was no anger or aggression, just enormous sympathy for both of us.
'I knew I still loved Gareth, but that our marriage could never survive this, no matter how much we both wanted it to.
Gareth and Jemma Thomas had three miscarriages during their marriage
'I had always trusted Gareth 100 per cent and knew that I would never be able to trust him again. Every time he went out, I'd be thinking "Where is he going?" or "Who is he seeing?" and it would destroy our love for each other. So I phoned Gareth to tell him I wasn't coming back to France.
'He was sitting on our bed in France in tears, and I was sitting in Wales in tears, but it was the right thing to do. I knew I couldn't stay with Gareth knowing that I had 90 per cent of him, but not all.' In 2007, Gareth retired from international rugby, left Toulouse and returned to Wales to play for the Cardiff Blues, with whom he hopes to play out what remains of his career.
For three years his family, friends and team-mates have known the truth, which has made not a jot of difference to their feelings or respect for him.
'Gareth and I were still the best of friends and in some ways it was as if nothing had changed. He'd call me every day, come round to see me, want to spend time with me and buy me presents,' says Jemma.
'We were still together, but living parallel lives. It was very hard for us to let go of each other, and we would often end up in tears, because the love between us was still there.
'I was still helping him with his career, advising him on looking at new avenues for when his rugby career ended. 'We remained incredibly close, but one day I realised that this situation wasn't helping either of us. I think he was still blaming himself for hurting me and didn't want to just let me go, but it had to happen if either of us was to move on. My parents have had a house in Spain for many years, and one day my mum said: "Why don't you move out here for a while?"
'It was the best thing I could have done for both myself and Gareth. He was upset when I told him, and for a while we hardly had any contact, but I'm a very strong person mentally and this is the way it has to be.
'With Gareth coming out publicly and our divorce being finalised in the New Year, I feel a chapter is closing and, although I feel sad and wish it could be different, it's for the best.
'This is who Gareth is and it is something which cannot be changed, but it has been so hard coming to terms with that. It would be easy for me to think that if I hadn't married Gareth, I might have met and married someone else, but I don't regret a single day I spent as his wife.
'If we'd had children, I think I would have wanted to stay married to him for their sake and that wouldn't have been good for either of us, so while I grieve for the babies we lost, perhaps these things happen for a reason.
'He will always love me, but he cannot turn himself into a heterosexual. If he could, I would still be married to him. We will always be the best of friends and I couldn't feel prouder of him than I do now.'
Excerpted from an article by Helen Weathers

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1237397/When-Gareth-told-gay-man-I-loved-died.html#ixzz0azPvWDMX

Stevie Nicks Leather and Lace

2009-12-17T13:23:00.001-08:00

Stevie Nicks - Leather and Lace
Uploaded by jpdc11.

1986 was the year I first saw this video from a compilation of Stevie Nicks promo's called "I Can't Wait", it ran for only twenty six minutes and featured the following songs:

Stop Draggin' My Heart Around /Stand Back / Leather and Lace / If AnyoneFalls / Talk to Me / I Can't Wait.

This is the copy from back cover: In the mid-70's, when Stevie Nicks joined the already popular Fleetwood Mac, her highly distinctive, deeply sensual voice, and her intensely personal songs immediately helped propel the band to supergroup status. For her part in their immense popularity, she has emerged a major figure in contemporary music. As of 1986, she has released three albums on her own and they all achieved platinum-record status. Each is distinguished by several huge hit singles and videos, and they have been collected here for the first time. From "Bella Donna" comes her concert video of "Leather and Lace" and her haunting duet with Tom Petty on "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around." Hits from "The Wild Heart" album are the defiant "Stand Back" and the sensually choreographed "If Anyone Falls." From "Rock A Little," two hits are featured, "Talk to Me" and the title track video of "I Can't Wait." Both are stunning visual extensions of Stevie's compelling and truly unique mystique. In all of rock and roll, there is no one quite like Stevie Nicks. Now her solo video debut is here. And the wait is over.

The Country Roads of Chris (Dog Oil) Raddings

2009-11-29T04:21:00.000-08:00

(Photo by Sheila Godfrey)

Biography-
Chris Raddings: Musician

Born in: Leeds, West Yorkshire, U.K.
Date of Birth: 21/11/63
Schools: Scholes Infants School, Mirfield, Bradford, West Yorkshire, U.K. / Whitechapel Middle School, Cleckheaton, Bradford, West Yorkshire, U.K. / Whitcliffe Mount Secondary School Cleckheaton, Bradford, West Yorkshire, U.K.

Chris is the youngest of three children, he has a sister, Elaine and a brother, Andrew. He left school in 1980 and continued his studies at Batley College of Art & Design, specialist subject: Interior Design. The college catered for a wide range of diciplines from Fine Art to Fashion Design and consequently included an eclectic mix of characters amongst it's scholars and lecturers providing the perfect environment to broaden the mind! However by 1982 Chris left the school having decided to follow an alternative and more satisfying career path working with disadvantaged children. He soon discovered he could incorporate his talent for vocal and musical performance into this new work and get a good response from the kids.

It is interesting to note that, although Chris had joined or helped out a few bands during his time at college they were mainly styled after the music of the time, post punk and new wave pop, which though enjoyable was not quite right for someone who's second record LP was Johnny Cash's "Itchy Feet - 20 Foot Tapping Greats". It would be some years later around 1986 that he began to really take his passion for Country Music to the people through live performance. The New Wave of Country was progressing and Artists like Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam and Randy Travis were breaking into the mainstream music charts, the public was finally waking up to Country Music and regular bars and clubs were beginning to book more Country performers.

The Summer of 1986 brought with it an opportunity for Chris to travel to the U.S.A. and help out kids suffering with diabetes at B.U.N.A.C. Although hard work it was rewarding and paved the way for a second longer trip to the U.S. in 1988 where he gained employment in a Massachusettes childrens home and stayed for two years before returning to the U.K.

By this point (around 1991) Country Music was quite well established in the mainstream and the likes of Garth Brooks were appearing regularly in the media and on the charts. Chris now back in the U.K. was employed by Kirklees Council Childrens Homes and he began performing in his spare time for the growing Country Music fan base at various festivals and venues.

In 1999 it was time for Chris to go back to college. Combining his passion for music with his chosen career path he began a BA Honours course in Creative Therapies at Bradford University and completed it successfully in 2002. In 2001 in addition to his College course he began working for the mental health charity MIND in Bradford, West Yorkshire which led to his involvement with community music groups Performance Express and Musical Arc (a resource for people with learning disabilities). Since 2003 Chris has also lent his professional and musical talents to other organisations including the J G Music Room, a music group at the Shipley Resource Centre and a Saturday morning music group for Bradford Council's Kids In Care (which explains why he has on occasion cut it a bit fine for his own Saturday gigs!)

Now Deputy Manager of MIND in Harrogate and Manager of MIND in Ripon, Chris continues to involve himself in music and social projects for various charities and local authorities, somehow still finding the time to play live for Country fans at events and festivals all around the U.K. Chris married Fiona Louise Taylor on December 16th 2006 and Fiona gave birth to Chris' first child, Eleanor Taylor Raddings on April 7th 2009. The family, including Fiona's two sons Oliver and Alex live in Harrogate North Yorkshire.
Chris' Facebook Fan Page

Threads

2009-11-25T03:25:00.000-08:00

Happy accident, serendipity I don't know but somehow while on holiday in the Czech Republic I was able to help in the casting for this video. As it turns out I think it's worked rather well, I particularly like the imagery of the gently burning guitar.

More music from Simon P Kelly can be found on his myspace music profile and the album Coming Home In The Light from which this single is pulled is available now (e-mail Simon via his myspace profile).

Incidentally, the evocative lyrics to all the songs are written by my friend Richard Eccles who's also a very talented poet and all around creative powerhouse. My thanks go out to Richard for allowing me to play a tiny part in the completion of this project.

Playwrite Aleksei/Aleksej Arbuzov (1908-1986)

2009-11-08T14:54:00.000-08:00

Biography of the playwright Aleksei /Aleksej Arbuzov

(May 26, 1908) Born in Moscow to a Russian father and Greek mother.

(1918) At 10 years of age he loses his parents and is cared for by his aunt.

(1922) First contact with the theatre world when hired as an extra at the Marinski (Kirov?) Theatre of St. Petersburg.

(1924) He goes on to develop his skills in a theatre studio.

(1925) Enters a drama school.

(1927) Graduates drama school.

For some time he directs a touring troupe and puts on plays in Leningrad. Also he takes on the literature department of the first sovkhoz theatre in the capital area of Russia.

(1930) Goes to Moscow and writes in the magazine "Stage Club". In the same year writes his first play, "Rank" (the first of the 30 he would complete).

(1934) Writes his first comedy, "Six Lovers" (inspired by his experience in sovkhoz).

(1936) Writes the play, "Long Way".

(1938) Writes "Tania" .

("Long Way" and "Tania" become to be considered the two most successful of his plays).

(1939-1944) With director Pluchek he forms a group that plays for the troops at the frontline. At the same time with Pluchek he also creates a drama school.

(1947) Writes "Get with Youth" .

(1953) Writes "European Chronicles" and "Years of Wandering", (the latter he considered his best play).

(1959) Writes "Twelfth Hour" and "Irkutsk Story".

(1965) Publishes the well known play "The Promise" which is then performed in 66 Russian theatres that same year (1636 performances).

(1967) Writes the play "Nocturnal Confession".

(1971-1981) Manages the Young Dramatist studio in collaboration with other significant teachers like L.Petrousevkajia and A. Kazanchek (thereby heroically aiding many then unwanted playwrights).

(1975) Writes his last play "Old Fashion(ed?) Comedy".

Arbuzov was married three times and fathered a son and two daughters. He lived most of his life in Moscow and almost all of his plays were written in Gialt. He was secretary for the Moscow Writers Association and vice-president of the International Theatre Institute.

Arbuzov passed away on April 20, 1986.

Arbuzov's plays are published and directed all over the world. He also wrote many movie-scripts such as "Poor Marik" (U.K.), "Old Arbat Fairy Tales", "Old fashion(ed?) Comedy", "The Choice" (Poland), "Memories" (France) and various others, some further details can be found at The Internet Movie Database:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0033469/

This post is edited from the original piece posted on Alice in Theatreland: http://www.aliceintheaterland.info/arbuzov_en.html

Footnote:
"The Promise" by Aleksei Arbuzov.
Translated by Ariadne Nicolaeff and adapted by Nick Dear.
Broadcast 08/11/2009, 20:00 on BBC Radio 3.

Synopsis:
As Russians fight off the Nazis in the savage 1942 siege of Leningrad, three teenagers are thrown together in a war-torn apartment block. Having lost everything, they forge relationships that bind them together and a new hope that keeps them alive - the promise of a better future.

Lika ...... Ruth Wilson
Leonidik ...... Harry Lloyd
Marat ...... Russell Tovey
Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.

KISSONLINE.com > News > KISS - MODERN DAY DELILAH

2009-08-19T10:17:00.001-07:00

KISSONLINE.com > News > KISS - MODERN DAY DELILAH FULL TRACK NOW STREAMING. RELEASED TO RADIO WORLDWIDE TODAY!!

Posted using Share This

SONIC BOOM Cover Insight Deluxe!

2009-08-17T16:11:00.001-07:00

SONIC BOOM Cover Insight Deluxe!

Posted using ShareThisTHE RETURN OF KISS
August 17, 2009

By Michael Doret

I've been waiting a few months to be able to talk about this-and I have talked about it to some degree in a few online interviews, but not really in any detail. Back in April of this year I received a telephone call from out of the blue-from somewhere in South America. At the other end of the line was KISS' Paul Stanley. It'd been more years than I cared to remember since we last spoke. That was when I had done the cover art for "Rock and Roll Over"-KISS' 5th album and their 2nd to go Platinum. So you can understand my surprise when Paul asked if I'd be interested in designing the cover art for KISS' first studio album in 11 years-which Paul himself was producing.

That's when I started remembering how exciting it was the first time around, to have been involved in that fast-paced world of entertainment and music. For me it had been a far cry from doing the corporate logos, magazine and book covers I had been working on at the time. An "edgy" job for me then was doing a spread for High Times (yep, they've been around for a while)! I've always enjoyed the fact that doing what I do has enabled me to straddle many different design worlds, from the fairly straight to the totally off-the-wall. I always tried to say "yes" to just about anyone who was adventurous enough, and had the vision to see how having me design for them could work to their advantage. At any rate I had said "yes"to KISS the first time around (even though I had no idea what I was doing), so of course I again said yes to Paul. We agreed to meet when he returned at the conclusion of their South American tour.

Much to my surprise the "Rock and Roll Over" cover had in recent years become one of the most-if not the most-talked about piece of art in my portfolio. It was a little bewildering to me how over the years that cover had become an icon for this iconic group. I've been contacted by more people about my KISS artwork in the past 6 or 7 years than in all the years prior, and more than any other piece I've ever done including the New York Knicks logo. So the expectations for this new art I was to work on were quite high.

When Paul Stanley came by my studio to discuss how to proceed on the art for the cover of their upcoming CD/DVD package "Sonic Boom", I had no idea what to expect. I hadn't met with him since working on Rock and Roll Over, and had very little memory of what that had been like. Any anxiety I had melted away when we started talking. Paul is a "gentlemen's gentleman" and I immediately felt at ease talking with him-as if all those years had not intervened since the last time we had spoken. After some small talk he explained what he was after with the new cover art. His vision for this album was to make it as vital and raw as it had been when they did RaRO. He felt that that had been some of the best work that they had ever done, and wanted the new album to recreate that energy both musically and visually. While he didn't want me to reprise what I had done with my art for the earlier cover, he did want me to try to capture some of the same spirit, attitude, energy, and look that I had instilled in that piece. Also one of his stipulations was that unlike RaRO (where I had created abstract, graphic versions of the KISS personas) this time he wanted photographic representations of the four group members in full makeup.

When I did RaRO I had a 12" canvas to work on. Now with CD covers and digital booklets that canvas had been reduced to less than 40% of its original size. Designing in a 4 3/4" space poses some very different problems from what I faced while working on covers for vinyl releases. In fact the older cover design would not have worked at that size, it's many elements would have felt crowded into a small space. So the elements of Sonic Boom had to be bigger, bolder-and fewer. I made the decision to make the title the main focus of the graphics, moving the other elements (faces, KISS logo) into prominent-but subordinate-roles.

So I set about putting pencil to paper and trying to solve this the way I solve any other design problem. I did not want to get psyched-out by thinking too much about how the new design would compare with RaRO. That cover had taken on a life of its own and had become a pop culture icon. Creating an iconic cover could not have been one of my goals. All I was capable of doing was to try to create the most compelling graphics possible within the parameters and limitations that had been set out for me. So I started out at the core of this design by creating what I call a "word constellation" out of the title. I tried to make it communicate its meaning visually by not only making it angular and "explosive", but also by creating a shape that was somewhat suggestive of flight-a "flying wing", if you will. Bearing in mind the symmetrical, mandala-like layout of RaRO I started designing the new piece as a field growing out of the center of the square, with the four members faces moving outwards from the center, and capped with my version of the ubiquitous KISS logo.

It took about a week for me to develop my sketch to the point where I felt confident in what I had come up with. As I had done with RaRO, I felt so strongly about this cover design that I decided to not present any other options-I wanted this to be the ONE.

UN stalls on Myanmar statement

2009-08-13T03:51:00.000-07:00

Back in the middle of May I was moved to blog on the plight of the unjustly incarcerated Aung Suu Kyi, since then the case has rightly garnered great publicity. Here is an update on the situation:

The UN Security Council has failed to agree on a statement condemning Myanmar for extending Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest, a verdict the opposition leader called "totally unfair".

Diplomats cancelled a meeting of the 15-member council on Wednesday and instead held talks with China and other member states that have expressed concern over how the UN should respond to the Nobel peace laureate being detained a further 18 months.

A US-drafted statement condemning Aung San Suu Kyi's detention at her home in Yangon and demanding the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar was discussed on Tuesday.

But several countries, including Vietnam and veto-wielding China and Russia, said they wanted to consult with their governments before acting further on the text.

'Respect sovereignty'

China then called on Wednesday for Myanmar's judicial sovereignty to be respected and warned international powers to stay out of the country's internal affairs.

Beijing has long adopted a policy of non-interference with Myanmar and has helped keep the impoverished nation economically afloat through trade ties, arms sales, and by shielding it from UN sanctions over rights abuses.

In return, China is assured of a stable neighbour and access to the country's natural resources.

The US-drafted text "condemns the conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi and expresses grave concern about the political impact this action has on the situation in Myanmar".

It calls on the Myanmar government "to release Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners".

It also underlines the need for the military government "to establish the conditions and create an atmosphere conducive to an inclusive and credible political and electoral process with full participation by all political actors".

On Tuesday, a court in Yangon convicted Aung San Suu Kyi for breaching the terms of her house arrest, following an incident in which American John Yettaw swam uninvited to her home.

'Totally unfair'

Yettaw, a Vietnam war veteran who suffers from epilepsy, was sentenced to seven years of hard labour and imprisonment.

Aung San Suu Kyi was given three years hard labour and imprisonment, but chief military ruler Than Shwe signed a special order commuting the sentence and ordering her to serve 18 months under house arrest.

The 64-year-old opposition leader, who has spent 14 of the last 20 years in jail or under house arrest, said the verdict was "totally unfair", according to Nyan Win, one of four lawyers allowed to visit Aung San Suu Kyi at her home on Wednesday to discuss an appeal.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said the conviction was totally unfair and the court's assessment of the case was not just," Nyan Win, said, using an honorific for older women in Myanmar.

But she remained cheerful and alert, Nyan Win said, and seemed happy to be home after spending the last few months in Insein jail where her trial was held.

Plug...Plug...Plug

2009-07-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a taste of Psychodialetical:

Adam Black's LOCUS

2009-07-07T04:37:00.000-07:00

Do you like horror, monsters and sexy ladies with potty mouths? You'll love this book! Plus you're in luck 'cos its free to view here. Even if you don't usually go for the subject matter you should check it out, unlike a lot of the genre, this strip has a great story with mystery and plot twists aplenty. If you prefer the traditional paper comics, get the print version from IndyPlanet instead: Issue 1 Issue 2 Issue 3
This book will be a monster, don't miss out!

Down the Tubes

2009-06-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

My thanks to John Freeman and co for the bang up editing job they did on my original blog posts. See the result on the Down the Tubes Blog

NASA Calling...

2009-06-14T05:49:00.000-07:00

I found this 24/7 stream while browsing the WWW. Great for geeks like me. Enjoy!

Blimey! It's another blog about comics!: Malcolm Douglas (J.T. Dogg)

2009-06-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

Comic artist and illustrator Malcolm Douglas passed away in hospital on Sunday March 22nd 2009 after suffering from cancer. He was 54. Read more about his work here:

Blimey! It's another blog about comics!: Malcolm Douglas (J.T. Dogg)

Fleetwood Mac UK Tour 2009

2009-06-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

2009 UK Tour Dates:

October
Thu 22nd Glasgow SECC & Clyde Auditorium (The Armadillo)
Fri 24th Dublin 02 Arena (Unconfirmed, not listed with Live Nation or Ticketmaster yet)
Tue 27th Manchester Manchester Evening News Arena (MEN Arena)
Fri 30th London Wembley Arena

November
Mon 2nd Sheffield Sheffield Arena
Tue 3rd Birmingham The NIA (National Indoor Arena) Latest info

Psychodialetical Available Now From Amazon.co.uk

2009-06-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

Grab It!

Free Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Suu Kyi

2009-05-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Norwegian committee that awarded Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 has called for her immediate release from prison.

"Her recent detention in prison is totally unacceptable. She has done nothing wrong",

said a statement from the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which rarely comments on past laureates.

"We sent this because it is a matter of the life and health of a laureate",

its nonvoting secretary, Geir Lundestad, told The Associated Press.

The protest added to a storm of international appeals to Myanmar's military government to free the 63-year-old Suu Kyi and accelerate genuine moves toward the restoration of democracy in the country, which has been under military rule virtually continuously since 1962.

Suu Kyi was taken Thursday 14th May 2009 from the lakeside home where she is kept under house arrest to Insein Prison to be charged with violating the terms of her detention by allegedly sheltering an American man said to have swum across a lake last week to sneak into her residence. She and two women helpers who live with her are set to be tried Monday.

Suu Kyi has already spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention without trial for her nonviolent promotion of democracy. She was scheduled to be freed May 27 after six consecutive years of incarceration but now faces up to five years in prison if convicted, according to one of her lawyers, Hla Myo Myint.

"She is now is being held in a 'guest house' within the prison compound during her trial proceedings", said another of her lawyers, Kyi Win.

The charges are widely seen as a pretext for the ruling junta to keep Suu Kyi detained past an election it has scheduled for next year as the culmination of its snail's pace 'roadmap to democracy', which has been criticized as a fig leaf for continued military control.

Many other prominent dissidents received long jail terms last year, which could hurt any opposition effort to contest the polls.

The Nobel committee statement urged the immediate release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. "Free elections should be held as soon as possible", it said.

The international uproar against Suu Kyi's detention is hardly unprecedented, as Western nations and human rights groups have long offered support for Suu Kyi in her David vs. Goliath battle with the generals, whose regime holds more than 2,000 political prisoners, according to estimates by the U.N. and independent human rights groups. But even as the international pressure has grown, peaking in September 2007, when the army violently quashed mass pro-democracy demonstrations the junta has shown little inclination to compromise.

Despite political and economic sanctions imposed by the United States and many Western nations, it can rely on support from neighboring China. Myanmar's other big neighbor, India, also tries to keep in the generals' good graces to counter the influence of China, its regional rival. Many Southeast Asian neighbors are also inclined to hold a live-and-let-live policy toward Myanmar, with which some have significant trade and investment links.

Neither India nor China have officially commented on the latest moves against Suu Kyi. Singapore, however, called it a setback for Myanmar's political reconciliation process.
"We reiterate the call for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from detention", said a Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry statement, also mentioning concern that her health could deteriorate in prison. Suu Kyi has recently been ill, suffering from dehydration and low blood pressure.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was deeply troubled by Myanmar's decision to charge Suu Kyi for a "baseless crime", and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "deeply disturbed" by the development. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for her immediate release. The New York-based group Human Rights Watch accused the junta of taking "advantage of an intruder's bizarre stunt to throw Aung San Suu Kyi into one of Burma's most notorious and squalid jails on trumped-up charges".

John William Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Missouri, swam across a lake to see Suu Kyi for reasons that remain unclear. He is also under arrest and to be tried next week for violating the security cordon around Suu Kyi's house.His wife, Betty Yettaw, described her husband as eccentric but peace-loving and "not political at all". According to his ex-wife Yvonne Yettaw, he said he went to Asia to work on a psychology paper about forgiveness. She said he belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormons, but that it was unlikely he went to proselytize for the church or convert Suu Kyi.

Associated Press writers Jocelyn Gecker and Grant Peck in Bangkok, Doug Mellgren and Maria Sudekum Fisher in Kansas City, Missouri contributed to this story.
(Edited from PR-inside.com News Headlines)

Disclaimer: This news article is copyrighted by Associated Press and published by PR-inside.com. If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact ap-online.com. PR-inside can not assist or help you giving information about this News articles.

POWERADE RUGBY'S INNERGEAR Campaign

2009-04-20T17:05:00.000-07:00

The following billboard ads were all over the U.K. a month or so back, Paul Sackey, Steve Borthwick and Shane Williams,in different rugby style poses, all apparently starkers except for a thong (later removed by retouching the photos). I was struck by the quality and sheer impact of the shots. The press and poster campaign-"Innergear 6 Nations Rugby" was created for Powerade by:

Creative agency Mother
Copywriter Mother
Art director Mother
Planner (creative agency) Mother
Media agency Vizeum
Media planner Nick Halas
Photographer Alan Clarke
Photographer's agency Webber Represents
Retouching company Bayeux

But there's more to the campaign than the billboards, the Powerade website features a video that takes you behind-the-scenes at the photography shoot with exclusive interviews from Paul Sackey, Steve Borthwick and Shane Williams detailing how the Speedmachine, Bulldozer and Playmaker felt about getting their kit off! See it by clicking on the link at the end of this post.

VIDEO LINK:

http://www.poweradegbrugby.com/Page/Campaign.aspx

Bristol Cartoon Illustrator Showcases Work

2009-04-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

(From PR-Inside.com News Alerts)

Cartoon Illustration Exhibition

Mr H (aka Jerry Holliday) will be exhibiting his illustration work with a series of small framed prints and larger Foamex pieces.

Jerry has dabbled in stylish cartoonry since the age of ten and along with Luke Fay and a group of artists published Bonafide comic magazine in the mid 90's which published the work of prominent Bristol artists such as Nick Walker and FLX.

"I grew up inspired by the old underground 60's comics and the story aspect is what is exciting to me. I try to convey a story in my work and a lot of this series of pieces has derived from stories I am writing", explains Mr H.

In recent years Jerry has been heading up freelance design and web agency Code 9 and finishing a storybook which he has printed segments from for two upcoming exhibitions.

The first on 26th-27th April 2009 is part of the Bristol Art Fringe will see a combination of open houses and exhibitions at public bars around the Montpelier area of Bristol. More details and an Art Trail Map can be downloaded from
bristolartfringe.org

Jerry's work will also be on show at Bristol's youngest and smallest art-gallery Room 212 (www.room212.co.uk) on the Gloucester Road in Bristol between Apr 26 - May 03.

Press Information:
Bonafide Media

P.O Box 2724
Bristol

Contact Person:
J.Holliday

Phone: 0117 9076220

Web: http://www.jhollidaydesign.co.uk/

Major KISS Announcement

2009-04-05T13:55:00.001-07:00

KISS invade Mall Cop

2009-03-30T11:13:00.000-07:00

Cool film clip from Paul Blart: Mall Cop (showing now throughout the uk)

A Chronicle of the Psychodialetical Universe...New Retro Comic-Book

2009-03-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

"A Chronicle of the Psychodialetical Universe" is a collection of specially enhanced episodes from the retro sci-fi web comic "Psychodialetical". It features a brand new wrap around colour cover and an all new unpublished story. The collection runs to 56 pages including the cover and details of how to order a copy will be available soon. In the meantime a preview is available by clicking the module below:

Psychodialetical to appear in print!

2008-12-14T06:25:00.000-08:00

Most IMPORTANT KISS news of the new Millenium

2008-11-18T17:44:00.000-08:00

Paul Stanley 'open to the idea' of recording a brand new KISS album… KISS rhythm guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley has confirmed to the Clog that the band are seriously considering recording a new album.

Rumours of a brand new KISS release first surfaced last week on photographer Ross Halfin’s blog. Now Geoff Barton has taken it upon himself to grab the Classic Rock poker and agitate the embers of speculation (poetic, huh?!).

Barton recently talked to Stanley and asked him:

What does the future hold for KISS?

It looks like we’ll be touring Europe as well as the States next year. You’ll be getting more of what you saw at the Download festival this past summer – the KISS Alive! vibe amped up to the max. There might even be a new KISS album at some point. I have been ambivalent to the idea in the past but I’m much more open to it now.

Why is that?

Well, I thought that I'd be content for KISS to remain a heritage act, just playing our greatest hits – Detroit Rock City and all that. But the new KISS line-up with Tommy Thayer (guitar) and Eric Singer (drums) is proving to be so good, so strong in spirit, it would interesting to see how we perform (new material) in the studio. I must stress that no recording time has been booked at this point. But it if we were to go into the studio, the intention would be to make a KISS album in the style of our 1970s recordings. A classic KISS album, unmistakably.

NB: The current KISS lineup has recently recorded studio tracks together~ new performances of KISS classic tracks of the 70's and 80's for a Japanese only release (more info here). The warm reception it received from fans and decent sales could also be a factor in changing Stanley's point of view.

(Read more in the January issue of Classic Rock, on sale December 10.)

Edward Hughes: poetry...truth & lies

2008-10-12T14:49:00.001-07:00

Settlement

After a time,
(Some 19 years or so),
I asked him,
Boldly,
And straight out,
If we had a relationship.
He denied it flatly.
Relieved,
I went on loving him the more.

Edward Hughes

Misplaced

Where are all those things?
I can't remember.
Still, I have the symbols.
What were those things like?
We were not acquainted,
But I painted pictures.
How many of those things were there?
I reach for the matchbox.
What could those things mean?
We need to talk.
What about?
Squiggles, daubs, and matchsticks.
What about those things?
I lost them long ago.

Edward Hughes

Ascendancy

When Mother died there was an absence.
It wasn't her;
Mum's still a fixture
In many a memory,
Each sharper than mine.
Her's was a life taken
In its unsuspecting flow,
Before appropriate time.
This yawning gap
Served as a warning:
Fickle fullness leads not to resolution;
Everything must some day drain.
I now look for lightness,
Not light.
I'm eyeshut to fleeting image,
Immune to all experience,
And ready to discharge any ballast.
I'll keep going so long
As my ration allows.
I seek permission to float free;
Untethered from illusive gravity.
To look down
On the filled world,
And its emptying.
To really realise
The scant sound portion
That's rightly mine.
To rise above,
And simply dream the real,
As all ideals unwind
Midst the down-there dying.
To relish earthiness,
Aloft,
Where truth abounds,
Scorning the buried world.

Edward Hughes

Christ! Rather You Than Me

I thought I'd shook
Your dust from my feet,
And left you behind entire.
But some part of you
Did more than stick,
By stealthy insinuation
It slipped right through,
And so I carry this alien piece
Inside;
A cancer
Set in place to deride
The bigger part
That once was mine alone.
I resent its insistent voice
Putting down my faint self's
Waning plea.
And worst of all
Its bragging right
To claim the better part of me.

Edward Hughes

When We Are Allowed

Before the end,
I'd like permission to be,
And, only then,
To do.
It's not a lofty state.
Nor an amber sealing.
It merely pre-suppposes
Having,
To destruction,
Failed to do
All those things
Expected by others
And yourself.
Let's face it;
Unless you're really- you
In the doing,
The end is dressing gown tears.
The not-really you,
Driven by imaginary needs
(Yours and others),
Spasms with futile jerks
Towards the insatiable fiction
Around good works.
You're on the treadmill
Of an illusory useful life,
Going nowhere,
Red faced, and perspiring.
Step-down.
Take five.
Allow the really-you
To breathe,
And come alive.
Find refuge
From all the needy,
And their stinging,
Needful,needing.
Stop feeding
The gaping maw.
Show all not-reallys
The open door,
Including your not-really self,
If needs be.
(Which they probably aren't).
There is damnable difficulty
In fishing any real
From a deluded soup,
But we need to!
Mind though,
Dont re-route to existential;
There,
Vain utterers,
Schmoozing beggars all,
Prove metaphysical stutterers,
Held in Heidegger's thrall.
Their language;
Knave-made silk,
False-promises fulfillment
From deeds arising
To satisfy the needy, and their ilk.
As if there's meaning in
Damp fireworks fizzing stoic.
As for aggrandizing
Empty hopes, and infant dreams
As a dignifed- absurd joke,
It's bloody patronising.
Let's eschew,
And return to
Non-Ontological basics:
You are,You will,You do,
With pre-lapsarian grace,
In,
What should have never been,
An empty, alien place.
Let's make it now our familiar redoubt,
Keeping all the grasping,needy,clamour out.
Come home,
And make ready to finally act
On your being-as-becoming
Exhaled through living's fact.

Edward Hughes

Darkening Day, Lightening Mood

Lengthening days,
And I mistime
My evening walk.
Returning home,
The dog and I,
Conservatives both,
Are radically beating the dusk:
No deepening shade around.
Still lighted canopy above.
Annoyed, I shoot an upward glance
In vain spite, to hasten the darkening.
Into my well-lit view,
Assuaging,
Hoves a captured starling horde.
Trawled squadrons,
Pulled by a vessel unseen,
Unruffled,
Are testing the limits of the net.
Yet, all the while,
They're dragged to another fly-past
Their nightly roost,
Behind the ivy screen,
Fronting our street's big house.
Each pass allows a few more birds through
The net's neck-end to take their rest,
Before the wheel away
To sail the dusk-dark clouds again,and back.
The vessel has a benign intent,
Its twilight voyage serves to prevent,
The riot ensuing from a mass descent
Of the starling mob.
That quarrelsome, bolshie rabble,
Would, in an undignified, fruitless, scrabble,
Fail to roost,
Though the moon were a lamp in the sky.
And I chuckle to myself as I watch
The captive remainder fly,
Now exasperated,
But soon to take their ease,
And, once roosted,
Free to squabble as they please.

Edward Hughes

Aspergerspective

The world,
When I look at it,
The world I live in,
The world;
Here.
Now.
The world,
I'm in,
And thinking about.
The world
Is amazing,
Is frightening,
Now.
And all the time:
Today,
Everyday,
Just now.
And the space.
The speed of light.
The high explosives.
The guns.
The HD TV.
Amazing.
Frightening.
Clarity now;
I can think again,
But not about next.
Yes,
I'm still amazed.
Still frightened.
And I want to damage your face.
Rub you out,
Now!
You're amazingly offensive.
Frighteningly grotesque.
I want to record my voice
Directly on to CD, now!
But my internet is not connected.
Do you want a cupcake?
My brothers know.
My Father,
He knows
I'm not boring.
I'm amazed,
Frightened,
And in a constant now.

Edward Hughes

The Heron Of Milnsbridge

No bigger picture,
As an English crane,
Decorated,
Enfolds in generous wings
All the relics
Of faded science,
And jaded industry,
In the merest detail.

No story to tell,
As the stilled sentinel,
Elegant,
Invigilates in sacred vacancy
All the rush-by
Of bland days,
And futile fevers,
In a throw away non-remark.

No meaning,
As its neck uncoils,
Swift,
Launching an unthought spear at
All the promise
Of lives unmediated,
And progress undreamt,
In a startling act.

No divinity,
As this sentry, once more at post,
Revels
In unsought sovereignty over
All the deeds
Of herrings red,
And wider squalls,
In another non-event.

No end,nor ends,
As the crane takes flight,
Driven,
In itself, and by its placing, to
All the usual situations,
Of pale theme,
And rythms familiar,
In, what is now, a little more.

Edward Hughes

Towards Latent Sufficiency

In a locked room,
We chase various tales.
None our own.

Outside,
Other species criticise
All this surfeit flesh and bone.

There are no good letters,
Not even a humble handshake.

The dinner party test
Once served,
But the rules became too cruel,
Rendering England's corpse to soap.

Posturing men,
(The usual now),
Told us what we always knew
In lies:
White gold intercedes.
Genius strokes.
Springs dry up
As oceans de-luxe recede.

Let's take up arms
Against the tyrant-truth,
For this our error world,
And all got-up to please.

Edward Hughes

KISS Ikons: More details

2008-09-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Pictured: The top image is the cover of the box and the lower image is the actual cover of the booklet.

From KISSONLNE.com

KISS: IKONS

KISS: IKONS is a 4 CD collector's package showcasing the iconic prominence each member contributed to the hottest rock 'n roll band in the world!

The Set will be released in October 21.

The packaging for KISS: IKONS is outstanding, featuring a 24 page booklet filled with classic KISS photos! The actual KISS Icons and the IKONS logo on the box cover are printed in silver foil.

Gene Simmons CD:

'God Of Thunder', 'Almost Human', 'Calling Dr. Love', 'Ladies Room', 'Christine Sixteen', 'Deuce', 'Rock And Roll All Nite', 'Cold Gin', 'Parasite', 'Larger Than Life', 'Love 'em And Leave 'Em', 'Plaster Caster', 'Radioactive', 'Charisma'.

Paul Stanley CD:

'Detroit Rock City', 'Love Gun', 'Take Me', 'Strutter', 'C'mon And Love Me', 'Hotter Than Hell', '100,000 Years', 'Rock Bottom', 'Do You Love Me?', 'All American Man', 'Mr. Speed', 'I Stole Your Love', 'Wouldn't You Like To Know Me', 'I Was Made For Lovin' You'.

Ace Frehley CD:

'New York Groove', 'Shock Me', '2,000 Man', 'Rocket Ride', 'Snow Blind', 'Speedin' Back To My Baby', 'Talk To Me', 'What's On Your Mind', 'Rip It Out', 'Save Your Love', 'Hard Times', 'Two Sides Of The Coin', 'Dark Light', 'Into The Void'.

Peter Criss CD:

'Hard Luck Woman', 'Baby Driver', 'Hooligan', 'Beth', 'I Can't Stop The Rain', 'Black Diamond', 'Mainline', 'Don't You Let Me Down'', 'Dirty Livin'', 'Getaway', 'Strange Ways', 'That's The Kind Of Sugar Papa Likes', 'Easy Thing', 'I Finally Found My Way'.

IKONS LIVE TO DREAM

2008-09-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

NEWS From KISSFAQ

KISS "Ikons" to be released by Universal on October 21... No other details currently known, but "Icons" doesn't appear to be a general UMe "Greatest Hits" package...

While it won't win any awards for naming, Paul's long-anticipated "Live To Win" tour is expected to be released on October 21 under the title, "One Live KISS". Directed by D.P. Carlson, the video package is expected to include the Louis Antonelli "Live to Dream!" documentary.

GIFT of TUNES: review of Lindsey Buckinghams latest album

2008-09-08T05:20:00.000-07:00

Following review "borrowed" from http://www.musicomh.com

Lindsey Buckingham - Gift Of Screws (Reprise)
UK release date: 15 September 2008

Lindsey Buckingham is that increasingly rare beast in the pop world; an ageing rocker who still counts. For a man who has made indescribably large amounts of money with Fleetwood Mac, and who is the author of some of the finest soft rock songs of all time, it is refreshing to find him nearing his sixties and still releasing solo albums that stand up against his late '70s peak.
The follow-up to 2006's largely acoustic Under The Skin, a fine album in its own right, Gift Of Screws takes its title (an Emily Dickinson reference) and several tracks from an abortive late '90s session. Other tracks from those sessions cropped up on the Fleetwood Mac reunion album Say You Will, a 2003 release that indicated that Buckingham had relocated the songwriting genie that went temporarily absent during the previous decade.

Gift Of Screws is a thrilling album from the very first track. Great Day positively bursts out of the speakers with its aggressive acoustic guitar and daring vocal lines. Time Precious Time is even better, with rippling guitar arpeggios and a heavy echo treatment on the vocal (a common Buckingham production trick). This is challenging, thought-provoking music that you would expect from a younger artist.

Then again, this is the reclusive studio genius that unleashed the decidedly odd Tusk on the world at the height of Fleetwood Mac's fame. Buckingham is a devil for injecting quirky elements into his glossy soft rock confections, but in such a subtle way that his efforts are routinely overlooked (he opened his previous album with the line "Reading the paper saw a review/Said I was a visionary, but nobody knew").

Buckingham's regular band serves him well throughout the album, although Fleetwood Mac bandmates Mick Fleetwood and John McVie also pop up on several tracks. The duo lends a healthy commercial swagger to Love Runs Deeper and The Right Place To Fade. The latter track is terrific, the stacked harmonies and killer riff sounding like they could have been lifted straight from a Rumours session.

The dependable rhythm section also guest on the title track, a crazed rocker that features Buckingham yelping like a man possessed. It sounds like a companion piece to some of the more outré moments from Tusk, notably Not That Funny and That's Enough For Me.

Although this album is marketed as a return to a more direct rock sound Buckingham is far too smart an operator to sacrifice substance for style. Did You Miss Me is a whip-smart pop single good enough to already have landed on the US charts, and boasts one of the album's most direct lyrical pleas for connection and understanding. The contemplative lyrics of Bel Air Rain and Treason, meanwhile, are given added weight by strong melodies and delicately layered arrangements.

Written and recorded over a lengthy period, Gift Of Screws could have been a mess. Instead, it is a glorious statement of intent from one of pop's most misunderstood characters.

- Nic Oliver

track listing
1. Great Day
2. Time Precious Time
3. Did You Miss Me
4. Wait For You
5. Love Runs Deeper
6. Bel Air Rain
7. The Right Place To Fade
8: Gift Of Screws
9. Underground
10. Treason

Paul Stanley enjoys the High Life in Las Vegas

2008-08-30T05:35:00.000-07:00

Kiss guitarist moves into penthouse and pays homage to the Beatles
By Robin Leach

PHOTO: Paul Stanley and his wife, Erin Sutton, join the LOVE crew. Photo: Ana Dobrijevic.

Paul Stanley is enjoying a honeymoon-styled Vegas vacation with his newly pregnant wife, Erin Sutton -- all built around his KISS concert tonight at the Pearl in the Palms. The happy couple checked in first to their very own penthouse condo atop George Maloof's new Palms Place tower.

It's their first weekend in the palatial pad, which has a spectacular 360-degree panorama view all the way from the Red Rock range on the West out to the mountain peaks on the eastern edge of the valley.

I toured it with George while it was in final construction and can tell you it's so amazing you'd never want to leave! Paul is a long-time friend going back 30 years now and we even share the same New York City stock broker! He won't mind me telling you that his platinum multi-million-dollar playpen comes complete with a secret outdoor oversized sunken jacuzzi for two!

PHOTO: Paul Stanley and Hassan. Photo: Ana Dobrijevic.

Then they headed off to see The Beatles LOVE show by Cirque du Soleil at the Mirage. Before the show started they swiped the credit card for a small shopping spree in the LOVE Boutique. Paul purchased a $180 Outpost brand, studded long-sleeved Beatles T-shirt for his wife but only spent $40 for a junk food-brand hunter-green Beatles logo T-shirt for himself.

After the show, Paul and Erin went backstage too meet the cast and crew of the spectacular musical journey of the Beatles' life. He signed the stars' wall of fame with a special message "All You Need is LOVE and KISS."

KISS NEWS

2008-08-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

Eric Singer is enjoying life as the drummer for Kiss

By Tim Parsons, Lake Tahoe Action

Photo provided by Chuck Garric Kiss drummer Eric Singer, left, also plays in Alice Cooper’s band with South Lake Tahoe native Chuck Garric.

Eric Singer describes Kiss as “rock meets Barnum and Bailey’s Circus,” making it his ideal band.
“I always liked the entertainer-type drummers,” said Singer, who first joined Kiss in 1991. “For me, I feel Kiss is the perfect band as a musician, a performer and an entertainer.”

Singer wears the cat-face makeup, which began with original drummer Peter Criss, who came up with idea because he said he has nine lives. The long-tongued bassist Gene Simmons is the Demon with bat wings, guitarist Paul Stanley the Starchild, and former guitarist Ace Frehley was the Spaceman.

Singer enjoys wearing the makeup: “It allows you to let loose and be whoever you want to be,” he said. “It’s almost like when Superman would put on the cape or Batman would put on the mask. In some ways, it gives you the ability to take on a character or a persona of whatever you have inside of you or how you want to perform.”

Risks from sitting on a drum riser include breathing pyrotechnic smoke and being peppered with flames when Simmons spits fire. But that’s the price you pay to be part of the biggest spectacle in the history of rock music.

Simmons explained the philosophy behind Kiss, which has marketed itself skillfully. The singular rock band featuring pop harmonies has sold 100 million albums. Kiss has probably sold more merchandise than any other band, and the Kiss Army fans are the most fanatical in rock ‘n’ roll, Singer said.

“We had our show, we had our levitating platform, we had our bombs, we had our costumes and we had our Kiss logo,” Simmons said in “Kiss, the Early Years” (Three Rivers Press). “Kiss would always perform on time, period, and would always deliver the goods.”

“Gene and Paul are not just musicians — they’re entertainers,” Singer said. “It’s always supposed to be the greatest show on earth and an over-the-top presentation. I get it because I was a fan. Once you saw them, you were hooked because they really gave you a visual presentation, not just the music.”

Singer met Stanley when Stanley was working on his first solo project in 1989. Two years later Kiss asked him to fill in for the ailing Eric Carr, who had replaced Criss. Singer, a watch collector who has marked time for Queen guitarist Brian May and Black Sabbath, first worked with Kiss on a movie soundtrack and later on the album “Revenge.” After Carr died of cancer, Singer joined Kiss full time.

“And the rest is ‘Kisstory,’ ” Singer said. “It was a really awkward time for me. It was mixed emotions. I was really excited, but I also felt really bad.”

Singer left the band in the mid-90s, when Criss and Frehley rejoined the group. They both left again later. Tommy Thayer now plays guitar. Other guitarists have been Bruce Kulick, Vinnie Vincent and Mark St. John.

Singer also plays in Alice Cooper’s band with bassist Chuck Garric, a 1985 South Tahoe High School graduate.

“Kiss, in my opinion, took it to the next level,” Garric said. “When I was a kid, I would run home from school put on ‘Kiss Alive’ and think to myself, ‘One day, one day I’ll rock the world with one of the best drummers in rock ‘n’ roll from one on the hottest bands in the land — Kiss!”

Simmons and Stanley are the constants over band’s 35 years. Replacing either of those two, who do most of the singing and songwriting, might be impossible, Singer said.

“Like in all things in life, never say never, and anything’s possible,” he said. “But I think it would be really hard to replace Gene or Paul. Nobody can forget, nor will we forget the original four guys. It’s because of them that I am talking about Kiss to you today. But bands change and bands evolve.

“I don’t say this to kiss anyone’s ass but to me there’s only one Paul Stanley. You could never find somebody who can do what Paul does. Not only is he the voice of Kiss and as a frontman, Paul’s going to go down in history as one of the best frontmen of all time of rock. He’s one of the few guys whose done it with a guitar strapped around his neck the whole time.”

Stanley’s wife is expecting her third child, which means Kiss’ four shows this month will be the last chance to see them for a while. But don’t worry — Kiss will return.
“I’m sure there will be more Kiss touring in the future,” Singer said. “After the success we had this year, it makes perfect sense to keep going out and do this again.”
Singer also plays with Garric in ESP, an acronym for the Eric Singer Project.

“ESP just a fun side project for me,” Singer said. “It’s a chance for me to play some cool songs with my friends. I played in my father’s band, which was American songbook, like Cole Porter and Gershwin and all those standards, as well as big band and swing. I’d never played in a cover band. We play songs by Deep Purple, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Kiss and Queen. I like having Chuck, because he can sing. He likes to do the Mötorhead. And I don’t have to tell you what a great guy he is. He’s a bandmate and a real friend.”

By playing in three bands together, Singer and Garric have developed into a solid rhythm section, Garric said.

“When we play live, we listen to each other — nobody’s pushing or pulling,” Garric said. “We’ve been playing together for so long and in different bands, I know what he’s thinking. It’s a powerhouse when we get down to business.
BRAND NEW KISS RECORDING

My overview of BRAND NEW KISS recording has been posted on official KISS website KISSONLINE.COM

(See the piece below)

KISS JIGOKU-RETSUDEN

A Japanese website has posted clips of all 15 Tracks from the new KISS album - JIGOKU-RETSUDEN.

LISTEN TO NEW CLIPS

CLICK HERE to visit the site and check out the clips.

KISS JIGOKU-RETSUDEN, a new KISS Greatest Hits CD featuring all new recording of 15 KISS Classics! The tracks were recently recorded and feature Paul, Gene, Eric and Tommy. The CD is scheduled to be released in Japan on August 27. A Limited Edition version of the CD is also being released, and includes a bonus KISSOLOGY Special DVD with live footage from KISS' legendary 1977 performance at BUDOKAN.

Fan review of JIGOKU-RETSUDEN CD:

New Japanese KISS Album is a KILLER!

I've been listening to it all morning. What a relief! I was excited about this release but it could have gone sooo wrong...but...it's great!

First impressions, cool Krameresque production, great drumming, great singing, and some tracks (I Was Made For Lovin' You, Forever, Heavens On Fire, Shout It Out Loud, Do You Love Me and Hotter Than Hell) are actually a notch above the original versions! Amazing but true!!

The lead vocals on Forever are (for me) even better than the original and the new production on I Was Made For Lovin' you is crisper, and more rocked up. I wish Sure Know Something and Magic Touch could've been redone as well, but you can't have everything.

Gene's vocals are superb and Eric Singer sounds great on the backing vocals and on his lead vocals on Black Diamond.

Best of all the recordings are cohesive and have a consistent "band" personality, Tommy, Eric, Paul and Gene are so tight!

Best,

Andy

Video of Download, Donington 13th June 2008

2008-07-18T06:26:00.000-07:00

Kiss opening at Donington...18 minutes of fun. Just click on link for player page on facebook.com.
KISS June 13th 2008
Thanks to Vampyr Video for the footage.

Lindsey Buckingham Brand New Album Gift of Screws due in September

2008-07-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM — GIFT OF SCREWS — ON REPRISE RECORDS SEPTEMBER 16, 2008

Tracklist:
1. Great Day
2. Time Precious Time
3. Did You Miss Me
4. Wanna Wait For You
5. Love Runs Deeper
6. Bel Air Rain
7. The Right Place To Fade
8. Gift Of Screws
9. Underground
10. Treason

Burbank, CA- Warner Bros. Records will release the fifth solo album from singer, songwriter, and guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, entitled Gift of Screws, on Reprise Records September 16, 2008.

Gift of Screws unites the broad appeal Buckingham showed as the main musical force behind Fleetwood Mac with the restless spirit of experimentalism he’s shown on landmark Mac albums as Rumours and Tusk, and on his own visionary solo albums. It’s the sum of Buckingham’s labors of musical love and dedication, with all the joys and struggles that have come along the way.

“I’d say this album distills several periods of time,” Buckingham says. “It has false starts to make albums, songs that go back a number of years that took a while to find a home, and brand-new songs. I wanted to bring it all together in one place. As an artist I’m still, for better or worse, clinging to my idealism and to my sense that there is still much to be said. This album is a culmination of that.”

Gift of Screws is a rocking complement to Buckingham’s previous album, 2006’s acoustic guitar-driven Under the Skin, balancing such layered guitar-and-voice contemplations as “Time Precious Time” and “Bel Air Rain” with the seductive rush of the title song and the opener “Great Day.” In some ways it’s also an extension of his Fleetwood Mac legacy as Mick Fleetwood and John McVie provide the unmistakable foundation on several songs, including the embracing “Wait for You” and the gloriously mad title song. Showcased throughout are Buckingham’s noted virtuosity as a guitarist, as well as his expressiveness as both a singer and writer.

Largely written and recorded both at his home studio and in solo hotel room sessions during his Under the Skin tour (an electrifying set of concerts documented on the 2008 DVD/CD package Live at the Bass Performance Hall), Gift of Screws was produced by Buckingham, with the exception of two songs — “Wait For You” and the title track — that were co-produced by Rob Cavallo (Green Day, Jewel, Dave Matthews Band).

SINGER-SONGWRITER/GUITARIST BEGINS U.S. TOUR THIS FALL

Last fall, Buckingham embarked on his first U.S. solo tour in nearly 14 years, which continued through the summer. He will tour the U.S. in support of Gift of Screws through September and October.

September 7 - Saratoga, CA - The Mountain Winery
September 9 - Seattle, WA - Moore Theatre
September 10 - Portland, OR - Newmark Theatre
September 12 - Stateline, NV - Harrah’s Lake Tahoe
September 13 - San Francisco, CA - TBA
September 14 - Los Angeles, CA - Royce Hall Auditorium
September 16 - San Diego, CA - Humphrey’s Concerts By The Bay
September 18 - Phoenix, AZ - Orpheum Theatre
September 19 - Anaheim, CA - Grove Of Anaheim
September 20 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint
September 22 - Salt Lake City, UT - The Depot
September 24 - Denver, CO - Ellie Caulkins Opera House
September 26 - Tulsa, OK - The Brady Theater
September 28 - Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater
September 29 - Saint Louis, MO - The Pageant
October 1 - Cleveland, OH - House Of Blues
October 2 - Chicago, IL - House Of Blues
October 4 - Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theater
October 5 - Indianapolis, IN - Murat Egyptian Room
October 8 - Toronto, ONT - Music Hall Theatre
October 10 - Reading, PA - Sovereign Performing Arts Center
October 11 - Atlantic City, NJ - Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort
October 14 - Northampton, MA - Calvin Theater
October 15 - Ridgefield, CT - Ridgefield Playhouse
October 17 - Boston, MA - Berklee Performance Center
October 18 - Glenside, PA - Keswick Theatre
October 19 - New York, NY - Nokia Theatre Times Square

Please visit Buckingham’s website for details.

KISS day at Download...Classic Rock's Review.

2008-06-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

Text by: excerpted (ie: borrowed) from Classic Rock's web site.

Really blurry photos by: Me (left)
The sheer excitement got to me...sorry!.

Classic Rock has just returned from the Download Festival - and here's our quickfire reaction to Friday's proceedings:

* Black Tide - Unfortunately we missed these Miami metal upstarts due to the car park being 186 miles away from the arena. Sorry, chaps!

* Stone Gods - Strange to watch them on the Tuborg stage while standing on Tarmac (that's us, not the band). Tarmac (presumably part of the Donington race-way) is a rubbish surface for an outdoor fest. We want grass - or, at the very least, mud. Nevertheless these (mostly) ex-Darkness dudes acquitted themselves well, and overcame the absence of drummer Ed Graham with aplomb. (Graham was taken ill three days ago; his last-minute replacement was Robin Goodridge. Is this the same Goodridge who used to be the tub-thumper in Bush? Answers on a postcard, please.) Richie Edwards still has plenty to learn about being a frontman, and his voice was iffy on occasion, but we gotta admit the Gods' song Don't Drink The Water was still buzzing around our heads when we left the site in the early hours after Kiss's performance.

* Seether - A surprisingly entertaining, if somewhat dated, display of Grunge Lite. Frontman Shaun Morgan had the best voice of the day and their rendition of the ballad Broken was a real highlight, despite the absence of Evanescence's Amy Lee (who duetted with Morgan on the recorded version). Dunno why the drummer felt the need to trash his kit at the end of the show, though - it wasn't THAT exciting.

* Kid Rock - A mysterious no-show. Disturbed and Judas Priest opted to play longer sets to make up for Rock's absence. It was announced that Rock was in hospital in nearby Nottingham after suffering an unspecified accident, but we at Classic Rock heard other stories. Earlier in the week, when Rock had played in London, he was reported to have been 'bricking it' over the prospect of playing Donington in front of a possibly unsympathetic crowd. Another whisper had it that Rock had visited the scaled-down Download site and deemed it 'too small'. (It was indeed a claustrophobic, almost quarry-like, location; plenty of stones underfoot - 'scree' being the technical term - and no famous Dunlop bridge in sight.) Later in the day, Rock was rumoured to have been seen shopping for nick-nacks in Nottingham! Whatever the truth, this is good ol' scurillous stuff.

* Disturbed - We just didn't get these po-faced Chicago-ites. Admittedly the PA was surprisingly quiet for their performance and they had the worst guitar sound of all time - imagine a wasp buzzing around inside an empty lemonade bottle. But David Draiman came across as an off-puttingly arrogant, ill-tempered frontman and their best songs (Ten Thousand Fists, Down With The Sickness) got bogged down in faux bravado. Disturbed's version of Genesis's Land Of Confusion was a non-event, despite the bald-headed Draiman looking uncannily like Phil Collins on the big-screen close-ups!

* Motorhead - Excellent. Old age seems to be agreeing with bassist/vocalist Lemmy and he was delightfully incoherent on occasion - surely it wasn't entirely down to the Jack? A great moment when ex-guitarist Wurzel stepped up to guest on Ace Of Spades - cue 'manly embrace' with Mr Kilmister.

* Judas Priest - Disappointing. They didn't connect with the crowd (guitarists KK Downing and Glenn Tipton were off in their own little twin-riffin' worlds) and Rob Halford really struggled, vocally, on some of the older numbers. You can't paper over the cracks forever, boys. Rob wore some nice new overcoats, though - we were particularly taken by one that looked to have been made of armadillo hide and seaweed.

*Kiss - Magnificent in every sense, and a real nostalgia trip for longtime fans with songs such as Got To Choose, Nothin' To Lose and Parasite being resurrected for the occasion. Awesome moment when rhythm guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley soared across the crowd on a wire to sing from a platform in the middle of the arena. The non-original members - drummer Eric Singer and guitarist Tommy Thayer - were just great; you could barely see the join. (And we don't mean the wigs!) Indeed much of the crowd seemed unaware of Kiss's heritage. Punters asked Classic Rock: "Is that Paul Stanley or someone else? So that's not Peter Criss on drums, then?" We were glad to set the record straight. Complaints? Well, we could have done with a deal more conflagration on the fireworks side (we demand wanton destruction, not pretty bursts of glitter), Stanley isn't QUITE as commanding as he used to be, and the final message on the big screens - 'Kiss thanks you Donnington' - had a spelling mistake in it, Donington only having one 'n', of course. Minor quibbles, we think you'll agree!

* Strangest moments of the festival? One: The surprising number of Kiss fans in the audience sporting Kitty Kat make-up. Was this as a tribute to ex-Kiss drummer Peter Criss, or were they keen followers of the new guy Eric Singer? We may never know. (BTW: Classic Rock went as Ace Frehley, natch.) Two: When a member of the crowd standing behind Classic Rock tried to summon up the spirit of ex-Whitesnake guitarists Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden during Kiss's set. Like... HUH?!

Small press: Comic-Books

2008-06-12T09:06:00.001-07:00

Its a small world.

View my page on Smallzone

Mick Fleetwood forms new Blues band

2008-06-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Euro Blues Fest Scores Mick Fleetwood's New Band

Rock legend and Fleetwood Mac co-founder Mick Fleetwood's new group, The Mick Fleetwood Blues Band, will make its international debut this summer, headlining one of the largest blues festivals in Europe.

The International Notodden Blues Festival, which organizers expect 40,000 fans to attend, will take place July 31 to August 2 in Norway.

The lineup for the 21st outing of the fest also includes Ray Davies, Koko Taylor, John Hiatt, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Little Feat, James Cotton, Charlie Musselwhite & Kim Wilson with The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Bobby Rush, Pinetop Perkins & the Legends of Chicago Blues Music Club NotoddenJaniva Magness, Bob Margolin & Jerry Portnoy, Omar Kent Dykes, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, Louisiana Red Blues Band, Henry Butler and many, many other artists.

Fleetwood's new band, which features Rick Vito, Lenny Castellanos and Mark Johnstone, celebrates his blues heritage, as well as the original lineup of Fleetwood Mac.

The group, which also has a handful of U.S. dates on the books for this month, is expected to play pre-Buckingham/Nicks Mac hits like "Black Magic Woman," "Oh Well," "Rattlesnake Shake" and "Albatross."

KISS Flo and Eddie Elder interview pt 2

2008-06-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh9CDE0IFhY

Like I said...part 2!

KISS Flo and Eddie Elder interview pt 1

2008-06-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJFak9Mf6Yo

You lucky people, by scouring youtube I've saved you the hassle and come up with this rare vintage clip of KISS (part 2 up next).

KISS' LEAD GUITARIST TOMMY THAYER INTERVIEWED

2008-05-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

Taken from: GUITAR MAGAZINE GERMANY

Annihilator's Jeff Waters interviews KISS' Tommy Thayer

Jeff:
First off, for those who may not be familiar with the history of Tommy Thayer, or think that you are just a relatively new replacement or fill-in for Ace Frehley, please tell us about your extensive resume; not just your accomplishments in Black and Blue, but also with your being an integral part of the KISS family for an amazing 14 years.

Tommy:
Going back to Black and Blue in the 80's, for people that don't know, we moved to Los Angeles in early 1983 from Portland, where we started out. Quiet Riot and Motley Crue were starting to do well and we just knew that, since we were writing our own stuff, that LA would be the best place for us to be. Within 6 months, we had a record deal; John Kalodner signed us at Geffen Records and envisioned us as being the American Def Leppard. We put out 4 records for Geffen through the 80's up to 1990 and did moderately well but we never really broke, for whatever reason.

Jeff:
And somewhere along the line, you crossed paths with Gene.

Tommy:
Exactly. In 1985 we did part of the Asylum tour with KISS, a dream come true at that point as we were always huge KISS fans when we were kids.

Jeff:
Who wasn't, back then, right?

Tommy:
Ya. I became more associated with Gene to begin with because, after that tour, we asked him to produce our third album “Nasty, Nasty”, which he agreed to do. We kind of developed a relationship and I just got to know him more and more through that and then he did our fourth album, called ”In Heat”. By that time he was asking me if I wanted to write some songs with him for KISS and we wrote a couple of songs that ended up on “Hot in the Shade”.

Jeff:
So the writing relationship came before you were asked to be involved in the business end of KISS?

Tommy:
Absolutely. First, it was Gene working with Black and Blue and then it was writing with Gene for what ended up being KISS songs. At the same time, they were working on, developing songs for their next album and Gene would have me come in to help out. Then I was playing guitar in the studio with him on all of his demos; he liked the way I played guitar. It just kind of evolved from there and pretty soon, by the early 90's, when Black and Blue ran its course, Paul and Gene asked me to come and work for them part-time. I needed a job and thought “Wow, working for the band KISS?! That's not even a job!!”

Jeff:
It is pretty amazing for me to talk to someone who was in the rare group of 80's “metal” musicians who made it out alive, stayed in the music business and was able to transition from the demise of Black and Blue, to being a Kiss co-writer, then to becoming an important part of KISS' business operations for so long and then to, incredibly, being the lead guitarist in KISS.

Tommy:
On the one hand I was just in the right place at the right time, but on the other hand, just to give myself a little bit of credit, I'm a very hard-working guy and have a good concept of what people want when they hire someone. I think in anything that you do, and in me getting involved with the guys in Kiss, if people know you will always be on time, be reliable and work hard, then they will give you the respect back. Then they will respect your opinion, and in my case, Paul and Gene both knew that I was knowledgeable about the rock and roll world and had those qualities. But at the same time you're humble and you're not getting too cocky about things. I'm a pretty low-key guy so I usually say less than more in certain situations. They just kind of started to like my vibe and what I did for them and how I did it. So, anyway, Paul (Stanley) called and said they were going to be doing this book called “KISStory”, a coffee-table book and that they were going to put it together and publish it themselves. They had these archives of tons of old photos from the beginning of their career and Paul wanted me to go through them and pick out the best photos to use for the book. From there, it just evolved from part-time work, doing this and that, then evolved to doing whatever needed to be done. By 1995, the KISS Convention idea was new and they hired me to be the key guy, spearheading and literally running the organization; putting together the KISS Museum and even booking hotels. Almost like a tour/road manager. I do have a good business background and my Dad has been a very successful business man for a long time so I am kind of from that environment. This was actually where I was headed in the early to mid 90's; getting involved mostly in the business side of music, producing and management. That's where I was going. I'd even cut my hair short.

Jeff:
1996

Tommy:
Ace and Peter, the make-up and the reunion tour comes together. I helped put the reunion tour together and made sure that Ace and Peter were ready to go, musically. I'm sure you've heard the stories that I was asked to come in and work with those guys to make sure they got the original parts down.

Jeff:
That, in itself is pretty amazing “job”! So when Ace left, for whatever reason, you were the natural selection to take step in and take over…

Tommy:
Yes, but way back in the late 90's, I was doing video editing, putting together and producing and directing KISS DVD's. I did a lot of “ghost” guitar playing on the Psycho Circus album; I did some rehearsing with the band and even sound checking sometimes when Ace wouldn't show up. I was definitely the natural replacement.

Jeff:
Did you have to give up a lot of your former KISS-business duties when you became the lead guitarist in 2003 or did you just add that to your extensive list of daily jobs!?

Tommy:
I do very little business-related things or KISS now. It is a lot of work and a change of pace but I was busy then and busy now. A different schedule and also a different list of things to do; and some of them you don't want your guitar player doing anyway.

Jeff:
Then at this point of the interview, I gather that your advice to serious guitar players who have good songs and are serious about being in a professional band, might be on the business side, rather than the playing side?

Tommy:
For sure. Pay attention to the business side. Always work hard. Don't wait around for things to come to you. You need to go out and grasp them yourself and be pro-active. My Dad always said “Just make sure people like you”.

Jeff:
Guitar practicing. How often do you pick up a guitar and when you are not on KISS time?

Tommy:
To be honest with you, I don't sit around and play as much as I used to in the old days. That said, I feel like I play guitar better now than I ever have, I really believe that. I think it just comes from years of experience and confidence.

Jeff:
So you mainly start playing or practicing to get ready for rehearsals, before a tour, in order to get your finger, hand and arm muscle strength back in action?

Tommy:
Yes. When we tour, we rehearse for a week or two as a band but I start a week or so before that I like to listen to and play the songs we will do in the set, just to get into the groove a bit. To get loose and also to build the calluses back up so that you don't get out on tour and have painful blisters on your fingers! It's all prep (preparation to get ready). I'll literally put on the KISS live albums and play along.

Jeff:
I find that most touring guitarists will tell you that they like to practice guitar standing up. I know that I can play guitar much better when sitting.

Tommy:
You know that it's a little more challenging if you've got your guitar slung down below your belt, a la Jimmy Page, than sitting down or with the guitar up around your chest. It's just different and, either way, you've got to get used to it again.

Jeff:
On a typical show day, do you play guitar in the daytime? Any jams with any of the band members? Practicing before the show?

Tommy:
I like to warm up a little bit backstage before the show, just to get loose. I don't believe in playing 3 hours the day of the show. I think the band actually plays better if you have a day in between shows. If you cram too much rehearsal, too close to shows, I don't think that's as effective either.

Jeff:
Time to recharge and refresh.

Tommy:
Exactly.

Jeff:
What about your nerves before the show.

Tommy:
I think that being confident prevents you from being nervous. Anticipation and excitement are how I feel but not nervous as in any worrying. Confidence is important in whatever you do and that comes from years of practicing, knowing that you are good at what you do and working hard; that is what gives you confidence.

Jeff:
And having the best crew and gear behind you every night…

Tommy:
Yes, also knowing that the whole support thing is happening. Having a great guitar tech means your guitar and sound are going to be sweet, as soon as you play it.

Jeff:
Your touring role in KISS obviously demands that you play and be the Ace character, as best you can. In your mind, what aspects of your playing, performance or sound does Tommy Thayer bring to the KISS show? Or are you only striving to be the Ace character as perfectly as you can and that is your only goal? You obviously nail (play perfectly) Ace's solos and do them very consistently each night.

Tommy:
We (KISS) talked about this too, that the whole idea for me isn't to just go up and try to mimic Ace completely; that would come across as being real tribute looking. It's a fine line between being faithful to what Ace has done with is playing and looks, and then injecting some Tommy Thayer into it. I don't go out trying to play and sound like Ace. The reason I sound like Ace is because I grew up learning how to play like one of my favorite guitar players since I was 14 years old. So when I play a KISS song, with my style, the way I play, it really sounds a lot like KISS! It just comes out that way because of the influence he and KISS had on my playing. I think that what I bring to the table in the KISS show is a more consistent and solid style of guitar playing. I am not trying to take anything at all away from Ace; Ace is the reason that I am in this band and here at all. To me, Ace was really in his prime back in the 70's and I think that I bring a new version of what he was doing back then, but in a more solid way. Consistent, ballsy and tight is the best way to describe my contribution to the music and show; night after night.

Jeff:
You jammed a lot with Ace back in the mid-90's. Did you notice any similarities in your picking style or how you held a pick compared to how Ace?

Tommy:
I didn't copy his. In fact, my style of picking is nothing at all like Ace's. My right hand style is holding the pick with my thumb and my middle finger. Way back, I noticed that Eddie Van Halen held his pick the same way but that's not why. I hold a pencil the same way; it is just a natural thing for me.

Jeff:
What song contains your favorite KISS guitar solo?

Tommy:
100,000 Years.

Jeff:
Why?

Tommy:
Classic Ace Frehley licks. I was really more a fan, particularly of the first 3 albums because I think that that was when Ace really shined. People think I'm crazy for saying this but my favorite KISS recordings were all the records up until “Rock N Roll Over” but I think it is just because I am biased. I grew up, I was a teenager in that magical era so that is why it is my favorite Kiss. I'm sure that, if I was born a bit later, I would have been more into the later KISS records; you know what I mean?

Jeff:
Same here. Love Gun, Hotter than Hell and Kiss Alive 2 were my favorites however I really did like pieces of all KISS records. So how many guitars do you take on tour with you?

Tommy:
Usually about 4 Les Paul's but I have 5 now because I am going to be doing some cool effects for the Europe tour; I can't tell you specifically what effects but it will be great! The shows we did in Australia and New Zealand, I played one guitar for almost the entire set. It was setup so well that it does not even budge out of tune; it is just perfect. It's one of my Sunburst's, #2, I think. Your readers can visit my site (tommythayer.com) to check out my guitars.

Jeff:
Do you have any special guitars at home that you will not take on the road?
Tommy:
Yes. I have a couple of Les Paul's at home. One has a wine-red finish and it's an old Les Paul Deluxe from 73 or 74 but it was routed out to a Standard. I bought it in the height of the Gibson/Charvel craze around 1987. I bought it at a used guitar shop in Hollywood for $325.00 !!! It's been broken but it has a great neck. I use it for rehearsals and recording; not the prettiest guitar but I love it.

Jeff:
Did you fall in love with the Les Paul when the KISS connection happened or?

Tommy:
Always Les Paul's for me, ever since I started playing guitar!

Jeff:
Strings?

Tommy:
Ernie Ball only.

Jeff:
Picks?

Tommy:
D'Addario picks. Mediums. Custom logos and things on the picks but standard picks.

Jeff:
Pickups?

Tommy:
Gibson pickups. 498 bridge and forgot the neck one. I think it is listed on my web site.

Jeff:
Cables?

Tommy:
Technology-wise, I am more of a low-tech guy. I have a great tech that worries about cable-types and things like that; In fact, I don't even know what cables or even wireless unit I use, although I should!

Jeff:
So you are more of a plug-into-the-amp-and-just-play type of player?

Tommy:
That's it. “Keep it simple, stupid” is my thing. What KISS stands for!

Jeff:
I call that the “Angus Young” philosophy! Do you have channel switching on your amps? A clean and dirty setting?

Tommy:
A good analogy! I go to a clean setting on one song and there is a little picking arpeggio part in the middle of “God Gave Rock N Roll To You” but for the most part, I just use the one channel.

Jeff:
Is there any compression or gating on the dirty channel?

Tommy:
No. Nothing at all. No effects either. Gates will mess with your sound when you turn your guitar down and it starts messing with your natural, low-level picking sustain. Again, simplicity is my rule. Most of the rigs I've heard ending up sounding processed and phony. There are a few exceptions but generally they sound like bad Rockman's. I was watching a band a few years ago and the guitarist, who is a well-known and good player, had the full-on Bradshaw, mega-processed rig with all the stuff but it didn't sound big and ballsy. Then they announced a guest was coming onstage for the encore. It was Slash. He's got his Les Paul on and the roadie rolls out this a 100 watt Marshall half-stack rental and Slash plugs in and KILLED the other guitar player's sound! And the other guitar player had this $50,000 rig! It was not just because it was Slash; obviously it is in the fingers, too… but it was the simplicity of it all: A half-stack with a Les Paul and a great player. Nothing beats that.

Jeff:
A lot of guitar players have signature series amplifiers. You have a “Tommy Thayer Signature Series” amplifier coming out now; however one of the things that really impressed me about it had nothing to do with the amp itself. You are donating 100% of the royalties from the amp to the Children's Hospital Of Los Angeles.

Tommy:
Thanks. It's a charity that I have been involved with for some time, here in town. Helping children and especially sick children is a huge and important thing to me and I just wanted to make these donations to them. It's really important to me in life to be successful but that is also measured by helping other people that need help and I am into that in many different levels.

Jeff:
That is unique and commendable. Tell us how the amp deal came about.

Tommy:
A friend of mine turned me on to the Hughes and Kettner stuff about a year ago. I saw that Alex Lifeson (Rush) and Davey Johnstone (Elton John) used them; a couple of my favorite all-time guitar players. I figured something was going on here if these guys were using them so I tried a few of the amps. They sounded like a really good Marshall that was modded a bit; not like overdriven but more of a warmer- overall tone. H and K then sent me some amps to use with KISS, I loved them and pretty soon they asked me about doing a signature amp. Hughes and Kettner usually have 3 or channels in their amps but a Duotone for me was just fine. It sounds great. Looks cool and it's great to have my own amp.

Jeff:
And even better is what you are doing with the money from them. So this will be the first European tour for Kiss since 1999, Psycho Circus? It looks like you are doing 8 shows, so far, for the great German rock n' roll fans; they will surely appreciate that!

Tommy:
Looking forward to it definitely; it's been a long time!

Jeff:
I will be at one of the German shows wearing my Love Gun shirt with pride! Tommy, on behalf of the readers, myself and all at Guitar magazine, thanks very much for your time and a very interesting interview! Have a great European Tour!

Tommy:
Thanks, Jeff! See you soon!
-------
For up-to-date tour dates and all about Kiss, visit the only official Kiss site: www.kissonline.com
Find out more about Tommy Thayer at: www.tommythayer.com
Visit www.hughes-and-kettner.com to see Tommy's new Signature amplifier.

KISS and Ace Frehley cuttings

2008-05-01T11:21:00.000-07:00

Music Preview: Ace Frehley kisses his old band goodbye with no regrets
Thursday, May 01, 2008
By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ace Frehley: "I wake up every morning and thank God I'm alive, 'cause there were a lot of times where I almost didn't make it."Let's just cut to the juicy part and then work backward.

How does Ace Frehley feel about seeing someone, namely Tommy Thayer, strutting around the stage with Kiss wearing the Space Ace get-up with the silver stars on the eyes?

"It is what it is," he says on the phone, sounding like one of Tony's boys on "The Sopranos." "From what I read on the Internet, the fans aren't too happy about it. I don't want to go there ..." he pauses, then adds, "Am I crazy about it? Nah, not really. It is what it is."

Rather than donning his patented Kiss outfit and playing to thousands of screaming fans with explosions going off behind him, the 57-year-old Frehley will play to several hundred at Mr. Small's Sunday with his four-piece band.

According to Frehley, it's his choice.

The guitarist from the Bronx was an original member of Kiss, the last one to join in 1973. He was the band's guitar wizard and best musician throughout its heyday, up until 1982 when he left due to a combination of musical differences and substance abuse.

Frehley then rejoined Kiss for a reunion tour in 1996 and stayed with the band through its badly named Farewell Tour in 2002, all the while still struggling with alcoholism.

Why did he leave that time?

"I just got tired of the nonsense," he says. "I got into rock 'n' roll because it was fun. In the early days we had a lot of fun with Kiss. We were all out there to just do it. When it became this big business machine, it kinda took away the spontaneity of the whole thing. Then, I did the reunion tour in '96 and it started out great. It was almost like old times. By 2001, I basically had enough and wanted to go back to my own stuff."

His own stuff is a solo career that is arguably the most successful among the fab four. When Frehley, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Peter Criss released simultaneous solo albums in 1978, Frehley's sold the best and was the only one to score a hit (No. 13 for the Russ Ballard-composed "New York Groove").

After leaving Kiss, Frehley released three more solo records and toured as Frehley's Comet, but it now has been 19 years since his last album, "Trouble Walkin'."

The good news for Frehley fans is that the long-awaited follow-up is just about ready. It was supposed to drop this month, but has been pushed it back till summer.

"The stuff sounds real good," he says, "but everyone's been waiting for this record and I'm just trying to make it better. There are like two more tracks I want to cut, just to round things off."

His biggest inspiration and his template for the new record, Frehley says, is that 1978 debut.

"It's probably more like the first record than anything else. Most people cite that as the best Ace Frehley record and I've been listening to it and trying to figure out why. I'm trying to recapture some of that. I want this record to be extra special."

In advance of the release, Frehley is on the road fronting a band that features second guitarist Derek Hawkins, drummer Scott Coogan (ex-Brides of Destruction) and bassist Anthony Esposito (ex-Lynch Mob).

While they all contribute with vocals, most of the burden is on Frehley, who historically has been shy at the mike.

"To me, singing is a necessary evil," he says. "I consider myself a guitar player and a songwriter, and because I write these songs I gotta sing them. I remember last year when I was thinking about putting the band together, some people were saying, 'Ace, you should get a powerhouse frontman.' But a lot of these songs I've been singing for years, either solo or with Kiss. What's this front guy going to do when I'm singing lead? Play a tambourine," he says, cracking up.

The set list consists of songs from the old solo albums, as well as Kiss classics like "Cold Gin," "Deuce" and "Love Gun," but he's holding back on the new material because he doesn't want it to turn up on YouTube and kill the surprise before it's released.

As for Frehley's signature flashy guitar work, we've seen him doing much of it with Kiss under the influence. He has been sober since leaving the band in 2002, and he says it shows in his playing.

"I think I'm a little more accurate and more focused. When I drink and perform, I was maybe a little more animated, but there were more clinkers and I played sloppier and stuff. I'm just more focused now and more in charge."

Like most metal stars from his generation, including Ozzy himself, Frehley isn't too big a fan of the modern, heavier bands.

"There are some good bands out there," he says, "but some of the screaming stuff lacks melody. I mean, if I have to choose between the two, I'll take something where I can pick out the melody -- something where when you walk away from it, you can hum, something that will recirculate in your brain. Some of the best guitar solos are the slower ones. You can't really hum something when you're playing 3 million notes per second."

For inspiration, he reaches for the classics.

"I listen to a lot of the old stuff I used to listen to -- Hendrix, Zeppelin, The Who, Cream, Jeff Beck -- the stuff I grew up on. It still works today, whereas a lot of music when you play it today it really sounds really dated. A lot of the groups that influenced me, they still sound good."

Does he put Kiss in that category?

"I guess some people might," he says. "I don't like critiquing my own work. Let other people do it."

Scott Mervis can be reached at smervis@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2576.
First published on May 1, 2008 at 12:00 am

The KISS comic-book storyline now continues as a web only version and can be found by clicking the banner below:

Will Ace Frehley make a guest appearance with Kiss at Download?
The prospect of both Kiss and Ace Frehley playing the Download festival on the same day – June 13 – has raised a tantalising question among the Kiss community.

To wit:

Could Kiss mainmen Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley be persuaded to allow their former guitarist to guest with them on stage at the festival? Like, during an encore on something?

Classic Rock's Geoff Barton recently quizzed Simmons and Stanley about this very subject.

Read on…

Paul Stanley: Would I ask Ace get get up on stage with us? No. I’d certainly invite him to watch the show, but appear on stage? No way. There are four members of Kiss. Always have been. Tommy Thayer is our guitarist now. That’s the way it is. So there’s no room for a fifth guy on stage, not even Ace.

Gene Simmons: I actually called around and asked the promoters if Ace’d like to play on the bill. I love Ace dearly, he’s just a pure character, a true rock’n’roll rebel spirit. Unfortunately his worst enemy has always been Ace.

Ace should have tens of millions of dollars. And of course I can hear you saying in the background: "Is that all that’s important?" Well, it would be nice, wouldn’t it? It would be nice to be filthy rich after putting in 35 years of playing your axe, instead of going around playing in clubs and trying to make ends meet. It’s a sort of rock’n’roll tragedy, if you will. But everybody wishes Ace the best. I certainly do.

But to quote Ace, the reason he quit the band and left touring was that he was ready to commit suicide. Not once, not twice. Often. Not everybody is designed to be on the road. Hopefully Ace has surrounded himself with people who won’t let him get away with any shit. "I’m just going to the bathroom to comb my hair." "No, no, no, you’re not going by yourself." Once an alcoholic, you’re an alcoholic for life. The same goes for drug addiction. Ace is going to be a drug addict and an alcoholic for the rest of his life, and every day I hope he fights the fight and wins, because he deserves a better life.

To answer your question about inviting Ace on stage at Download… probably not. It would raise the wrong sorts of messages. But he certainly deserves credit, every bit as much as I do or anybody else does, for starting the band. No one would ever take that away from him.

But this is the Olympics, baby. When the fans pay their hard-earned money they’re not interested in excuses. "I clipped my toenails, I’m sorry, I forgot to tie my shoelaces…" nobody gives a shit. They want you to get out there on stage and kick it out. If you can’t cut it, get off the team.

As far as Gene Simmons is concerned, I certainly belong there. "Based on what?" you ask. Based on history.

Better Late Than Never (U.K. The Guardian-Steve Gerber-Obit)

2008-04-24T07:12:00.000-07:00

Click image once to access and once again to read/view full size

Ace Frehley - Astoria London 2008 New York Groove

2008-04-18T02:44:00.001-07:00

I WAS THERE!

Far left of the stage just behind the barrier! What a straight ahead down to earth ballsy rock n roll party we had! The videos don't really do it justice, the place was drenched in sweat and the audience was wild, singing along (listen to us, we rocked), punching the air and chanting for Ace...even before he came on stage. Nights like these are rare and this one was the best I've had in years!

The set list:

Rip It Out/Hard Times/Parasite/Snowblind segue into I Want You/Rock Soldiers/Breakout/Into The Void/Strangeways/Medley inc: Torpedo Girl, Speedin' Back To My Baby, Five Card Stud, Trouble Walkin' End of Medley/Stranger in a Strange Land/New York Groove/2,000 Man/Shock Me/Rocket Ride/Deuce/Lover Her All I Can/Love Gun/Cold Gin (with outro to Black Diamond tacked on at the end)

KISS Play Melbourne Grand Prix (Review from KISSONLINE)

2008-03-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

AND IT WAS GOOD!

By elmokeep (Photo by KISSUNMASKED II from the KISSFAQ here )

It had topped nearly 40 degrees in Melbourne this Grand Prix Sunday. And the rev-heads who’d been standing in the pelting sun and drinking beer all day were surprisingly sedate as they waited, chatting amiably, for KISS as little kids in Starchild make up ran in between their parent’s legs.

The speaker stacks jumped suddenly in volume, as the Who’s ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ blared over the crowd. You could feel it thumping through the ground, it’s a throwdown if ever there was one. The giant black, KISS emblazoned flag dropped to hide the stage, and you knew they were behind there, the hottest band in the world! KIIIIIIIIIIIISS!!

Hey! Fireworks! The flag drops and the band have hit the stage with ‘Deuce’, and close-ups on Gene Simmons face show that he is already blinking sweat and greasepaint out of his eyes. It’s hot in the crowd; onstage under lights, surrounded by flames, wearing several extra kilos of spike laden costume and facepaint has got to be like having jalepeno peppers in your pants. You know your man is workin’ hard/ He’s worth a deuce. He is. Whatever a deuce is.

Paul Stanley gets off easier wearing only a unitard up to his waist. As ridiculous as this looks at first, if you’re a dude pushing sixty and looking like that, you’ll be happy. Or you’ll be Iggy Pop. If you’re still letting rip, screaming for high notes and just about getting them all, you’ll be happy about that, too.

Did I mention it was loud? This is about the loudest show I have ever heard in my life, apart from perhaps the Sex Pistols show in the late nineties at the Hordern Pavilion after which it sounded like everyone I spoke to had swallowed helium – for about a week. Yes, this is KISS at ear splitting volume and it is glorious.

OK, so KISS are like the McDonalds of rock: a globally recognised brand with a thousand product tie-ins and a giant carbon footprint. They both have clown mascots. Both are a guilty pleasure that you know isn’t good for you, but nuts if that cheeseburger isn’t the best tasting thing in the world when you’ve got a hangover. You’ll be damned to let anyone catch you enjoying it though, but you do – sweet lord, does it taste good.

KISS even went through a “we’re health conscious and are introducing a salads menu” phase when they tried to get serious and take off their make up and put out some darker records when it was clear that grunge was not a passing phase. Grunge was trying to destroy the metal! But noone wanted to eat from that salad menu! I want the Big Mac. Give me the goddamn Big Mac and fries. So KISS got back in the greasepaint, never played those songs again, and headed out on the kinds of never ending, greatest hits, wham bam, tours like we saw at the Grand Prix.

Gene Simmons spits blood during his bass ‘solo’ (come on, showman yes. Great musician? No) (Editorial note: Simmons is a proficient musician, but chooses to go for loud crunching bombast rather than boring the crowd with technical noodling.) and the effect is still awesome, even after the countless thousandth time – awesome because you can see that he is loving it. It seems with so much of KISS’ enterprise, that the music, the show, is the last thing that ever happens with the giant branding industry which swirls around it and its 100 extra-curricular activities. But when the Demon is winched straight up in the air on a wire and planted in his 8 inch heels on a lighting rig 10 feet above the stage, legs wide and roaring out ‘God of Thunder’ like his life depended on it, you can be reminded that this, is rock and roll.

“If you wanna be lectured to by someone at a rock and roll show, you’re in the wrong fucking place tonight!” Paul Stanley shrieks to the crowd, chewing out some equally well know and equally huge rock bands who use the stage as a political vantage point. “If you wanna hear bad news, turn on the TV. THIS IS A KISS SHOW!” And what is that? Pure, unadulterated escapism for 2 hours. It’s like being in a circus. Not to be outdone, Paul Stanley flies on a wire over the crowd and lands on a small stage in the middle of the field and tears into ‘Love Gun’. I decide right there that this could possibly be the best thing I’ve ever seen. I’m stuck in a moment, here, with KISS. And I can’t get out of it. I don’t want to, either.

The encore takes us through ‘I Was Made For Loving You’, a disco riff so ferocious not even Blondie came up with it. Gene Simmons spits fire. By this point, pretty much everything on the stage is on fire. ‘I Wanna Rock and Roll All Nite’ is capping off the show, and there are confetti canons showering the crowd in silver shards. There’s flames shooting up from the stage. There’s those pinwheel fireworks covering the backdrop, there’s actual fireworks in the sky. There’s fit-inducing strobes going off, there’s a showering curtain of golden sparks falling to the stage. Somehow KISS avoid spontaneous combustion and scream out “We’ll never forget you!”

I doubt that. I’m not moved by KISS’ music (amped by, yes, and admittedly a little drunk) but I am moved by what it does to people. The whole night I stand behind a KISS family, mum and dad and three kids under 10 all wearing their favourite make-up, the Cat, the Demon, the Starchild. And they spend the whole show yelling along and dancing like white people do and laughing and getting up on their parent’s shoulders. And this is probably their first ever gig. They’re the one’s who’ll never forget it.

So, if you eat nothing but McDonald’s, you’re Morgan Spurlock. If you listen to nothing but KISS, you’re the Darkness – and noone wants that. But everyone’s diet of rock has room for junk occasionally and KISS tonight, was junk of the highest order. I have been saved. God Gave Rock and Roll to me. Infact, He put it in the soul of everyone.

And it was good.

Interview with Anthony Esposito (Ace Frehley Band)

2008-03-08T08:33:00.000-08:00

Go to GlamMetal.com for more great features!

We here at GlamMetal had the privilege to sit down with one of the nicest guys in the music business, Anthony Esposito. The interview took place in his hotel room before the second night of back to back shows for the Ace Frehley band at the Bears Den inside the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls New York. Even with all the commotion going on in his room, Anthony took the time to tell us everything from what the plans for the Ace Frehley band are to what he thinks of Ace’s guitar playing. Let’s hop onto this Rocket Ride and see where this takes us shall we??

Gus: How did you get involved with Ace? Anthony: It was a buddy of mine Frankie Gibson, who happened to pass away about a year ago. He was a killer jewelry designer. He designed all of Ace's jewelry. He was the one who introduced me to Ace. We went up to his house and played and that was it. We jammed and one of Ace's friends Jeff (who was a truck driver) played drums. So it was me, Ace, and the truck driver. I was really nervous that I didn't play well because the drummer wasn't a pro guy. But it was great! Everything was great!

Gus: How long ago was that? Anthony: About 2 to 2 and a half years ago...Frankie was still alive then.

Gus: Was there any idea at that time about starting a band? Anthony: He had all of these songs that were already written. Then he wanted to record and then it was possible down the road for a tour. He just really wanted to play. It was more like a jam.

Gus: What are your contributions to the upcoming solo release by Ace? Rumor has it the title for the new CD is called "Pain in the Neck," do you know when it will be released? Anthony: It's not called "Pain in the Neck" that's just a name of a song title (wouldn't reveal what it was called though). It's about 85% done. I play bass on the record, and Ace wrote all the songs. It was all his deal. Just trying to be there for him and do whatever he wants and let him be him.

Gus: Who else contributed to the new CD? Anthony: Scott Coogan and Anton Fig on drums, Ace on guitars, and me on bass.

Gus: How was it working in the studio with the guitarist who is revered by millions of people?

Anthony: He is the most amazing player I have ever played with! He is a naturally great lead gifted musician! He is really open to everybody's ideas. Then he thinks and chooses. He is really wise and his decisions are always on. He has great instincts and he's a great songwriter!

Gus: How do you think the songs will be received by the public? Anthony: I think the fans will love it but that's not what Ace is doing it for. He is doing it for (Gus interjects: Him.) Exactly! He is very conscious that this is the best work that he can do right now. You know what I mean?

Gus: Growing up in Coney Island just outside NYC, who were you listening to? Anthony: I actually grew up in Staten Island but close. I was born in Brooklyn, but moved to Staten Island when I was very young. Well, Kiss was my first show at the Gardens in '78 I think?? (Anthony then turns to guitarist Derrick Hawkins who was also in the room and asked what year was it?) Derrick says, "1979 on the Dynasty tour." It was at the Garden and I was in the last row. I still have the slides on my fucking laptop. My Dad passed away last year, and I took all the slides that my Dad had and I scanned them in so my Mom can look at them on the computer. I came across the slides that I took from being in the last row at the Garden. Ace is like an inch and a half big from where I was sitting and now we're going up to his house to practice. It's the biggest trip! I listened to Kiss a lot but I also listened to the Ramones, The Sex Pistols, and The Clash. I was like a punk rocker dude. I like Ozzy. I listened to rock. There was Iron Maiden. Steve Harris was great! I think with bass playing I've always been a simple guy. I like Cliff Williams a lot. I like Ian Hill from Judas Priest, who is a simple guy. They let the guitar players do what they gotta do on top.

Gus: Can you tell us about your studio? Is it still in operation? Anthony: It's gone (laughs)! It was open but they wanted to triple my rent so I closed it. So now all my gear is up at Ace's house.

Gus: Will you open up another one? Anthony: I don't know. I don't think so. The studio business is done. People record in their living rooms on their Macs now! Nobody goes to spend money anymore. There are no more budgets, no more record labels. So there are no more studio budgets.

Gus: What was your proudest accomplishment working in the studio? Anthony: I had Iggy Pop and Dee Dee Ramone writing songs in my studio.

Gus: That's cool! Anthony: Yeah, that's pretty much it right there! We also had the NY Dolls, Green Day, The Ramones, we just had so many great bands. We did the last Misfits record there. That record was Dez (Cadena) from Black Flag, Marky Ramone on drums, and Jerry (Only) from the Misfits. And we would never charge. We would be the cheapest thing in town.

Gus: That's why you are out of business.. Anthony: (laughs) No, No. The landlord wanted to triple my rent because I had a 15-year lease.

Gus: What other projects are you currently involved in? Anthony: I play in a band called "Pisser." It's kinda like a fun thing on the side. It's with Frank Ferrer, who plays with Axl (Guns and Roses.) I don't do too much stuff. My other job (art and stage designing) takes up a lot of my time.

Gus: Playing with Lynch Mob was a big part of your past. Do you stay in contact with any of your former band mates or do you ever see a reunion with the former members? Anthony: I was asked to do a reunion tour this year, and I said no.

Gus: You have the Ace thing going. Anthony: Exactly! I would love to play with Oni (Logan)! I love Oni! I love Robert! (Mason) Robert is a great guy! I talk to him to once a month. Mick (Brown) I don't talk to as much as I would like to. He tours and I tour and it’s hard. He's out with Nugent right now. I spoke to George once in the last six years, and that was to say no to the reunion tour.

Gus: After this initial leg of the Ace Frehley tour, do you see the tour being extended? Anthony: I hope we tour for two years!

Gus: That long? Anthony: I'm sure those two guys will give you the same answer. Editors note: He was referring to both Scot Coogan and Derrick Hawkins who were both in the room as well.

Gus: So there will be a European tour too? Anthony: Without a doubt! We are already slated to do the Download Festival and the Swedish Rock Festival. We are doing London on April 11 and Sheffield on April 12. I think May dates are coming out for the Southeast. Once the record comes out, Ace wants to go everywhere! He wants to go to Japan, and we're there! We want to work and this band gets along so great. It's like; we don't ever want to stop!

Gus: I saw the show last night and you guys were really tight! I also saw the show on Halloween night in New York City last year and you can see how you guys evolved as a band. Anthony: We got all our little things that we do and we're growing together as a unit.

Gus: What are your experiences with Kiss fans? As you know they are the most dedicated, crazy, and loyal fans out there so how have your experiences translated so far? Anthony: 99% positive so far (laughs.) A lot of fans give us some credit for getting Ace back out. So they are kind of happy that he is playing again. I think when they see us they see us as a part of themselves like Kiss fans who are now on stage playing those songs. We value playing "Cold Gin." We grew up listening to "Deuce" and "Cold Gin." For us, it is the biggest thrill in the world! Like Derrick walked over to me when we are on stage and said, "Dude, we are playing back in the New York Groove with Ace Frehley!" You know it really means a lot! Generally, the fans know that and feel that. We don't come off that we're not on the same level as Ace. We're backing Ace, which we honor! We take pride in ourselves in that we are doing good for him, because we want him to shine. We're there and we got his back, and that's the deal!

Gus: So you're saying 99% positive, what about the other 1%? Anthony: One guy yelled out to Coogan the other night when he was signing autographs "Don't ever sing 'Love Gun' again!" (Everyone in the room laughs) I think generally they know that we're honestly enthused about playing these songs. Were not in it because we think it's going to further our careers.

Gus: Any closing thoughts to our GlamMetal readers? Anthony: Definitely come out and see him play! It is a show that is definitely worth coming to see. He is one of the greatest guitar players ever to play guitar. He doesn't get 1/10 of the credit that he deserves as a guitar player. His solos are fucking amazing! It's definitely worth coming out to see! He smokes live.. literally (laughs!)

KISS' Most Successful Tour EVER !

2008-02-27T05:21:00.000-08:00

EUROPEAN LEG OF KISS' ALIVE 35 WORLD TOUR IS A HUGE SUCCESS!

With immediate sellouts, second shows being added and talk of extending the tour, the European leg of the KISS Alive 35 World Tour is on it's way to being the most successful KISS tour of Europe EVER including The Reunion Tour!

Pictured is the just approved KISS ALIVE 35 World Tour Logo.

FINLAND AND NORWAY SHOWS SOLD OUT!
KISS' Helsinki, Finland and Oslo, Norway Shows are SOLD OUT! All 13,000 tickets for the Helsinki Show sold out in only 7 minutes!

Managing Depression

2008-02-24T19:49:00.000-08:00

I lived with my depression for as long as I could remember although I didn't know the cause of my distress or that it had a name. In my late 30's I was no longer able to hide the symptoms or their effects and I ended up in Hospital after a second suicide attempt.

Thankfully, I was eventually referred to an excellent and forward thinking clinic where a number of treatments were available. Over many years I became well enough to be discharged, which I feel is mainly due to Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (D.B.T.) because this allowed me to respond effectively to further treatments offered. I'd recommend others who have similar difficulties to seek the same therapy, it isn't a cure but it makes coping possible and easier. There follows an informative and concise article I found online which explains better than I can the basic principles. There is hope.

Innovations in Mental Illness Recovery
February 3, 2008 By Robert Yourell, MA
The mental health field is like conjoined twins. Of course one is the evil twin, and the other is nice. But since they’re joined at the hip, life is a struggle. The mental health field has been painfully extracting its humane mission from old school authoritarian and medical thinking, along with a big dose of cruel moralism since ancient history.
Please allow me to offer some encouraging news; constructive innovations in the mental health field.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Consider the work of Marsha M. Linehan and her approach called Dialectical Behavior Therapy. This work, which has shown favorable outcomes in research, is best known for treating people with borderline personality disorder (BPD). She developed it initially for treating suicidal people. Research began in 1989.
BPD is confusing as a diagnostic term because, as with many diagnoses, it is based on early observations and theories. People with BPD have a difficult time “self soothing,” that is, staying objective and feeling okay with the world. They are easily upset by any kind of rejection, and may go out of their way to put you in a position in which you are really compelled to pay attention to them. One way is called “splitting” which Eric Berne referred to as a game of “Let’s You and Him Fight.” Splitting unifies you and them against someone else. It isn’t exactly intimacy, but it’s an approximation, at least. People with BPD can become very wrapped up in resentments, and may feel very justified in getting revenge in some way, perhaps in an emotional way, or worse.
People in the mental health field can be quite wary of people with BPD, unless they are well-trained with this challenge. Even then, people with BPD can be very difficult to work with. I suppose it is fear, and the tendency of some in the mental health field to victimize, demonize, or ignore people it does not understand, that has led to BPD being one of the last diagnoses to get much good clinical attention.
This makes dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) a really exciting breakthrough. It relies on “psychosocial education” using workbooks and classroom style instruction. This is a breakthrough, because a normal group treatment would involve a therapist doing group therapy and getting people to develop healthy relationships within the group. That would be expecting too much of people early in their treatment for BPD, though.
Now that DBT has more acceptance, the approach is being used with additional challenges.
Serious Mental Illness
This innovative mindset is also influencing services for people with chronic mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A very exciting, innovative organization called Recovery Innovations has been quite prolific in developing its own workbooks and slide presentations for people with serious mental illnesses. Their WRAP manual for training people with mental illnesses is adapted from Mary Ellen Copeland’s Wellness Recovery Action Plan workbook. I have spoken with a few of their clients and a couple trainers and there is a positive feeling that is nothing like I’m used to sensing from people about other treatment venues, such as county mental health agencies. Fortunately, mental health systems are increasingly using this company’s services or otherwise being influenced by a recovery approach.
One of their concepts is to hire clients of the treatment agencies to provide training and other services as “peer support specialists.” Of course, the clients must be able to fulfill the role. These peer support specialists refer to the agencies’ clients as people (or some other phrase that does not create a professional/non-professional differentiation, since they are peers). Their “key pathways,” or core values, are hope, choice, empowerment, recovery environment, and meaning & purpose. Rather than being in babysitter or counselor roles, they roll up their sleeves and focus on key areas that are most likely to make a difference. The discussions they have with their people are very solution-focused and empowering. The training provides very concrete and systematic ways to help the specialists have this kind of discussion.
Motivational Interviewing
In order to avoid creating unnecessary resistance, and in order to help build empowerment, the program is influenced by motivational interviewing, which was originally developed for substance abuse treatment. Every counselor should incorporate this approach.
Cognitive Impairment and Skill Loss
They deal with what I consider to be the current biggest secret in mental health–cognitive impairments and related skill loss. They will take clients through activities that build their independence by gaining or reclaiming the skills they need, such as banking or social interaction, to be independent. Their positive approach has, according to their statistics, reduced violence dramatically in their facilities. The founder, Eugene Johnson, says that the issue of violence was one of the things that got him thinking more deeply about his work in mental health. He felt that much of the “acting out” and violence was a reaction to the clinical environment and approach, rather than something inside the client that needed to be controlled.
But perhaps the greatest breakthrough of all is their first “pathway” or core value of “hope.” The solution-focused approach is based on the belief that their clients can be included in and contribute to society, and that the goal is to reach their potential for this. Their mental illness is not their identity. Aiding their people in developing self advocacy skills and overcoming stigma are critical here. Research has shown a serious risk of depression in people who become honest with themselves about having a mental illness. But with an approach like this, would that hold true?
Innovation
One of my first blogs deplored how little the word “innovation” was used with psychotherapy compared to engineering as shown by Google searches. It was hardly scientific, but the point was to call for people in the mental health field (who aren’t already doing it) to transcend their preconceptions and traditional ways of doing things. I was tickled to come across this company with the word “innovation” in its name.
Reading and Resources
Rehabilitation
What is psychiatric rehabilitation? by Tom Craig
Prof. Til Wykes, Royal College of Psychiatrists. This podcast focuses on “Cognitive remediation therapy in schizophrenia. Randomised controlled trial” from the May 2007 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Til Wykes, Clare Reeder, Sabine Landau, Brian Everitt, Martin Knapp, Anita Patel, Renee Romeo. Cognitive remediation therapy in schizophrenia. Randomised controlled trial. The British Journal of Psychiatry. 2007(190):421-427.
Glenn Roberts, Sarah Davenport, Frank Holloway, Theresa Tattan. Enabling Recovery: The Principles and Practice of Rehabilitation Psychiatry. The Gaskell Press. 2006.
Frank Holloway. The Forgotten Need for Rehabilitation in Contemporary Mental Health Services. A position statement from the Executive Committee of the Faculty of Rehabilitation and Social Psychiatry, Royal College of Psychiatrists. October 2005.
Implementing evidence-based supported employment, Dr Miles Rinaldi. This podcast focuses on ‘Implementing evidence-based supported employment’ from the July 2007 issue of the Psychiatric Bulletin.
Marsha M. Linehan. Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Clinical Practice: Applications across Disorders and Settings. The Guilford Press. 2007.
Skills-Based Intervention Resources
Marsha M. Linehan. Skills Training Manual for Treating Borderline Personality Disorder. The Guilford Press. 1993.
Marsha M. Linehan. Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. The Guilford Press. 1993.
William R. Miller, Stephen Rollnick. Motivational Interviewing, Second Edition: Preparing People for Change. The Guilford Press. 2002.
Recovery Innovations (includes a video of President and founder explaining their approach).
Service Components (flash graphic showing their system).
Coaching Overview (PDF document with development history and principles of the coaching approach).
L Ashcraft, WA Anthony. Factoring in Structure. Behavioral Healthcare. 2006.
L Ashcraft, WA Anthony, M Zeeb. Transformation Can Happen Anywhere. Behavioral Healthcare. 2006.

Alan Moore's Essay: Sexism in Comics

2008-02-23T11:22:00.000-08:00

I "borrowed" the following scans and text from mechanicaljewel at Live Journal.com. I fondly recall the comic, "The Daredevils" from which they are lifted, it featured reprint comics and new editorial and comic-strip material, notably "Captain Britain". I thought it deserved to go 'viral'. To read the text click on each scan for the larger version.

Invisible Girls and Phantom Ladies: How far have we come?

Back in 1983, Alan Moore wrote a 10-page article on the portrayal of women in comics and the presence/lack thereof of female creators. It was serialized in Marvel UK's The Daredevils #4-6.

It's really interesting to see things like this, written 25 years ago, and to address the question 'how far have we really come?'

fictions: Alan Moore interview in Word magazine

2008-02-23T11:21:00.000-08:00

fictions: Alan Moore interview in Word magazine

KISS World Tour Update

2008-02-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

KISS SELL OUT STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN STADIUM!

Looks like Stockholm is ready to rock! Fans snapped up all 32,500 tickets for KISS' Stockholm Olympic Stadium show in under 20 minutes!

New Children's Comic Strip Weekly

2008-02-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

(Left) Phillip Pullman

The May 2008 launch of an entirely new weekly comic for boys and girls is announced today by David Fickling, publisher of the eponymous and highly successful imprint at Random House.
Entitled the 'DFC', its content will be created by world-class contributors, including Philip Pullman. He is currently working on a weekly strip entitled The Adventures of John Blake (illustrated by John Aggs). The details of Philip's work are a closely guarded secret - only to be revealed when the first comic is delivered into homes by the Royal Mail on Friday 30th May.
"I still remember the heart pounding excitement of receiving my very own comic on the doormat every week and now the DFC can bring that to every child in the land. But this isn't a revival. For today's children it is almost a brand new form of entertainment. Only completely original material will be published in the DFC. No advertising, just 100% storytelling delight. Joy in an envelope," David Fickling comments.
"I have always loved comics, and when I first heard about the DFC, I leapt at the chance of being involved," said Philip Pullman. "The chance to work in this wonderfully fluid and exciting form was too good to miss. I have had a lot of fun with the story of John Blake, and I hope readers will enjoy it as well as all the other great things in the DFC."
The full colour DFC will be supported by the innovative DFC website http://www.thedfc.co.uk./ Currently a holding page, the website will open to reveal an exciting world of interactivity (including a creative comic maker), fascinating background material and new editorial content.
David Fickling goes on to say, "I'm a book editor but I reckon a lot of my story sensibility came from reading comics. They are great story carriers. And you want to read, you don't even think of it as reading, it's far too much fun. I have always wanted to publish comics, or at least books like Tintin or Asterix. This is a truly international product, anyone wherever they are in the world can receive the DFC, with just a simple click on the website."

- David Fickling Books is an imprint of The Random House Group Ltd and Random House Inc. Together with DFB, the DFC will be managed by David Fickling as a story imprint. The Random House Group Ltd. and Random House Inc. are subsidiaries of the Bertelsmann Group.
- David Fickling is a children's book editor and publisher. David formed his own imprint in Oxford, David Fickling Books, in 1999. The imprint is now based with Random House and publishes about a dozen titles per year in the US, Australia and New Zealand as well as the UK. Recent titles include Philip Pullman's Lyra's Oxford, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Linda Newbery's 2007 Costa Award-winning Set in Stone. In 2004, David received the British Book Award for Editor of the Year. He lives with his wife and three older children in Oxford.
- Philip Pullman is best known for the trilogy His Dark Materials: Northern Lights (The Golden Compass in the U.S.)1995; The Subtle Knife, 1997, and The Amber Spyglass, 2000. These books have been honoured by the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Book Award, and (for The Amber Spyglass) the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. Philip was also the first English writer to receive the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2005). The Golden Compass was released as a movie in December 2007.
- Launch season strips in the DFC include:
The Adventures of John Blake by Philip Pullman & John Aggs (award winning Manga Artist)
Charlie Jefferson and the Tomb of Nazaleod by Garen Ewing
Mobot High by Neill Cameron
The Boss by Patrice Aggs
Good Dog, Bad Dog and Monkey Nuts by The Etherington Brothers - both featured in the Saturday Guardian
- The DFC is available to buy on subscription from http://www.thedfc.co.uk./

(feature from PRnewswire)

Steve Gerber 1947-2008

2008-02-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

I learnt today that Steve Gerber, respected writer for comic-books and animation has sadly passed away. A fitting tribute can be found here:
http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2008/02/steve-gerber-1947-2008.html

More KISS Eurotour News

2008-02-12T17:59:00.000-08:00

KISS ALIVE/35 - EUROPEAN TOUR ANNOUNCED
KISS ARMY PRESALES AND VIP PACKAGES FOR EUROPEAN SHOWS BEGIN WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 13 @ 10AM LOCAL VENUE TIME.
VISIT KISSONTOUR.COM TO JOIN THE KISS ARMY AND PURCHASE KISS VIP PACKAGES.
Celebrating thirty-five years of worldwide rock 'n roll domination!
“YOU WANTED THE BEST. YOU GOT THE BEST. THE HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD.” For nearly a decade rock fans across Europe have impatiently waited to hear these famous words that open every concert of legendary rock band KISS.
The wait is finally over!
Today KISS announces their 2008 European KISS Alive/35 Tour set to span seventeen countries, including stops at some of the biggest summer music festivals and first ever KISS concerts in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Verona. This tour marks the first time the band will appear in Europe since their sold-out Psycho Circus Tour in 1999.
KISS invented stadium rock in the 70's with their sci-fi Kabuki costumes and make-up, explosive theatrics and, of course, their trademark platform boots.. In their extensive world tours, they've attracted the most rabid fans: The KISS Army. Now celebrating thirty-five years of rockin' the globe, KISS founders GENE SIMMONS and PAUL STANLEY along with longtime band members guitarist TOMMY THAYER and drummer ERIC SINGER vow to bring to the European KISS Army the time honored KISS spectacular that has made their performances legendary.
"I've always prided myself in living up to and beyond the legend. I can tell you we are ready to seize the moment and add to that legend. We remain KISS to our souls, and that truth will be deafeningly clear this summer." – Paul Stanley, KISS
Along with the screaming guitars, lights and pyrotechnics that have made KISS “The Greatest Rock n Roll Show On Earth”, the band brings their vast repertoire of classic music. Having sold 85 million records worldwide, KISS has become the soundtrack for a generation. Not only will the KISS faithful hear anthems like “Rock n' Roll All Nite”, “Shout It Out Loud” and “Detroit Rock City”, they can expect a few surprises and rarely played live KISS classics gems as well.
“For 35 Years, we have prided ourselves in our opening: YOU WANTED THE BEST, YOU GOT THE BEST, THE HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD. We are throwing down the gauntlet. Let those who are faint of heart, take heed. We will take no prisoners” – Gene Simmons, KISS
For more information about the KISS 2008 European Tour, to join the KISS Army and to purchase Kiss VIP Packages go to KISSonTour.com.
KISS Tour Dates Announced February 12, 2008
May
11 Munich Olympiahalle GERMANY
13 Verona Arena ITALY
15 Belgrade USCE Stadium SERBIA
24 Moscow Olympissky RUSSIA
26 St Petersburg Newarena RUSSIA
June
4 Hamburg Color Line Arena GERMANY
6 Prague Saska Arena CZECH REPUBLIC
9 Berlin Velodrom GERMANY
10 Mannheim SAP Arena GERMANY
11 Oberhausen Arena GERMANY
Download Festival UK
15 Arrow Festival HOLLAND
17 Paris Bercy FRANCE
18 Stuttgart Schleyerhalle GERMANY
21 Bilbao Kobetamendi SPAIN
Check out KISSontour.com for announcement of additional European tour dates!
KISS Meet & Greet and KISS Pre-Show Soundcheck Packages
In addition to KISS Army member only presales, KISSontour.com will be exclusively offering KISS Meet & Greet and KISS Pre-Show Soundcheck packages. Below are package details.
KISS Meet and Greet Package *- Exclusive Meet and Greet with KISS - Personal photograph with the band - 8X10 photo - KISS Tour Program - KISS Europe '08 Shirt - Official KISS Meet & Greet Laminate - $50 coupon good for the official KISS on-line store
KISS Pre-show Soundcheck *- Exclusive Pre-show Soundcheck - KISS Tour Program - KISS Europe '08 Shirt - Official KISS Pre-show Laminate - $25 coupon good for the official KISS on-line store
KISS Meet and Greet and Pre-show Soundcheck Package *- Exclusive Meet and Greet with KISS - Exclusive Pre-show Soundcheck - Personal photograph with the band - 8X10 photo - KISS Tour Program - KISS Europe '08 Shirt - Official KISS VIP Laminate - $50 coupon good for the official KISS on-line store
*All M&G package elements (shirt, laminate, 8X10, tour book) will be distributed by our road coordinator at the meet and greet session. Store vouchers will be emailed to each guest prior to show date. Packages do not include tickets to the event.
Visit KISSontour.com for on sale dates and more tour information.
If you are not a premium member of the KISS Army and would like to participate in the 2008 Euro Tour presales, JOIN NOW! >>
Join the KISS ARMY Fan Club for exclusive access to the greatest band in the world! When you join the KISS ARMY you'll receive the coveted new KISS ARMY membership kit, a $10 coupon to the KISS Online Shop, 10% discount to the KISS Online Shop, member's only section of KISS Online and access to amazing seats with our exclusive Fan Club Pre-Sales. Join the ranks of the KISS ARMY today to share your love for the greatest band as part of this exclusive community.
If you are a Premium KISS Army Member, LOGIN >>

MORE KISS EUROPEAN CONCERTS

2008-02-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

KISS TO HEADLINE ARRROW ROCK FESTIVAL IN HOLLAND
KISS is scheduled as the main act on Sunday June 15, at the Arrow Rock Festival 2008.
Tickets are available now at

http://www.arrowrockfestival.nl/

KISS TO PLAY BELGRADE STADIUM!!!
ALL RIGHT BELGRADE, YOU WANTED THE BEST AND YOU GOT THE BEST!!!
KISS will rock Belgrade, Serbia on May 15 at Belgrade's USCE Stadium.

SLAGINC 3

2008-01-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

SLAGINC III : WILLOW WEEPS WARSAW FRIDAY 25TH JANUARY 7 PM TIL 10PM

Featuring : Ernesto Muniz (Mexico DF) Panko Rzadka (Odessa)

25/01/08 - 02/03/08 Fri - Sun 12 - 6pm

Slaginc: 30 Maude House Horatio St London E2 7RY

http://www.mxski.com/

So, Slaginc muses

We are the gloomy children of the night.
Curses they call us in our homes beneath the ground.
We drive from home those who have shed the blood of men.

Where is the place, then, where the killer's flight shall end?

A place where happiness is nevermore allowed.

Now
the House of Justice has collapsed.

There are times when fear is good.
It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls. There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain.

I, disinherited, suffering, heavy with anger
shall let loose on the land
the vindictive poison
dripping deadly out of my heart upon the ground;
this from itself shall breed cancer,
the leafless, the barren to strike,
for the right, their low lands
and drag its smear of mortal infection on the ground.

In complete honesty I promise you a place of your own,
deep hidden under ground that is yours by right
where you shall sit on shining chairs beside the hearth
to accept devotions offered by your citizens.

Aeschylus "Oresteia"

20th Century Danny Boy: Looking Back With Frank Springer#links

2008-01-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

20th Century Danny Boy: Looking Back With Frank Springer#links

KISS to Play Download Festival 2008

2008-01-12T09:08:00.000-08:00

According to the Last FM website KISS will play at Donington for the Download Festival Friday 13th June! (hope the date of gig isn't a bad omen)
See link:
KISS Live in U.K.

Christmas Nightmare

2007-12-20T16:31:00.001-08:00

Christmas is a time of maximum stress on relationships so try to remember, its supposed to be fun! Don't take things too seriously and if the turkey gets ruined just order a take away instead.
Whatever happens don't let it end in a divorce court or you could end up with your most expensive Christmas ever. Here are some cautionary tales:

The Most Outrageous Divorce Clauses Ever Written
Author: Monica Sanders

There are all kinds of divorce clauses: clauses to keep quiet, clauses to pay an escalating portion of one's future earnings, and even clauses that some might consider the most extreme – those that mandate therapy. Hollywood seems to be the source of endless fodder. In fact, it's not unusual to find all sorts of written clauses so that an ex will keep quiet about the nasty details of the marriage until the day they die…or perhaps get a more lucrative book deal. Britney as well as former Beatle Paul McCartney have both opted for gag clauses in the hopes of muzzling their former spouses.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg when money and fame are involved. Whether you're a Puerto Rican pop princess or a Russian mogul, its always better when its in writing.

Here's a look at the most outrageous divorce settlement clauses ever written:

Musical Extremes

Jennifer Lopez has been accused of all kinds of diva-like behavior over the years, all white décor from the flowers to the couches to the candy. Before she married singer Marc Anthony, you can bet she had a hand in the terms of his divorce from former wife Dayonara Torres. Beyond merely deciding on custody of their three children and on who would get the house, Ms. Torres had to sign an agreement that forbade her from speaking ill of J-Lo. Essentially, the former Mrs. Anthony could be sued for saying bad things about the current Mrs. Anthony.

Although Ms. Torres seemingly ended up on the wrong side of the fence, ex-wives can and do end up on top. Before the legendary Marvin Gaye could end his marriage to Anna Gordy, he had to sign a clause agreeing to turn over the profits from two albums. Unfortunately, one of those albums went on to become a collector's item known as "Here, My dear."

No matter which portion of the music industry you occupy, divorces can be a messy business. Violinist Lucy Lin divorced well-know Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart after she discovered he was straying. Her payback? Their professional pairing would come to an end as well. Lockhart even had to sign a settlement agreement that would keep him from conducting any performance in which she was playing – ever.

Clauses that Hit Home

Although these clauses may seem extreme, unusual separation clauses have been around for centuries. Before King Louis XII could be granted an annulment from his wife, she had to agree to spend the rest of her days in a convent. Talk about bad end of the deal.

Civilian Divorce can get ugly too

Of course, these extreme measures still happen amongst civilians too. One New York woman would not agree to end her marriage until her husband agreed to a special clause about their home. He had to agree that she would inherit half the house when he died, even if he re-married or if she re-married.

Even more costly clauses

One of the costliest clauses in history comes from someone who you think would have known better, William O. Douglas. In 1954, he divorced his first wife. Her lawyer inserted in the divorce settlement an escalator clause whereby the more money Douglas made from his books and lectures, the more he had to give her in alimony…essentially putting him on a financial treadmill. She never remarried. He eventually found a way around part of his problem by employing a ghostwriter.

As much as the Douglas divorce cost, two upcoming ones could cost even more. British millionaire John Charmon settled his divorce for 48-million pounds, the largest in UK history. He is appealing the court's decision, and more negotiations could be in the future. Russian mogul Roman Abramovich's divorce from his flight attendant wife could run into the billions of dollars.

The Therapy Clause

A more recent development in divorce clause may sound out-of-the-ordinary, but is becoming an increasingly popular final stipulation to any messy divorce. An increasing number of couples are inserting therapy clauses. Many of these clauses call for family therapy and sessions for any children involved in the divorce. Others require the husband and wife to see a professional during and after the divorce to ensure it ends as amicably as possible. A little unusual, but considering how nasty some of history's divorces have ended, not without merit.

Advertising & Design

2007-11-25T09:46:00.000-08:00

In my late teenage years and early twenties I was involved in commercial design. I still have friends who work within the industry, Rob Chappell is one of them. I'm very proud of him so I present a selection of recent work. This is all commercial work, he's too modest to allow his private/fine art work to be shown. Maybe one day...

Conceptual Design, Storyboards (Television etc), Architectural Visualisation, Interior Design, Exhibition Design, Corporate Presentations, Educational Aids/Presentations, Print Design & Artwork.

To discuss your requirements e-mail:
chappell.rob@googlemail.com

Please type "design details query/Blogger" in e-mail subject header.
Location: U.K. (Yorkshire)

NEW KATE BUSH MUSIC

2007-11-21T19:58:00.000-08:00

Kate Bush records original song 'Lyra' for the New Line Cinema fantasy epic The Golden Compass.

Acclaimed British singer/songwriter Kate Bush will contribute an original song titled "Lyra" to the end title credits of New Line Cinema's upcoming epic fantasy adventure The Golden Compass, which is scheduled for a Dec. 7 worldwide release.

It will also be available for download as part of New Line Records' The Golden Compass soundtrack, which will be released Dec. 11. The song, named for Lyra Belacqua, the lead character in The Golden Compass, is written and produced by Kate in her own studio, and features the Magdalen College Choir, Oxford. It will be heard over the closing credits of the film. In the most recent issue of HomeGround magazine Del Palmer revealed that Philip Pullman (author of the books on which the film is based) had visited Kate at her home earlier this year, and it's known that she is a fan of his work.

News of Kate's new song for The Golden Compass movie has rapidly filtered out across the media.Perhaps the most revealing article comes from the Oxford Mail. It confirms that Kate recorded her vocals for the track in her home studio, but used the Abbey Road mobile unit to record the boys choir at their school in Oxford. Entertainment Weekly in the US has even ran an article proposing Kate as a possible Oscar contender: "New Line wants to be part of the Academy Awards one way or another, and their best bet may be their just-announced news that British singer/songwriter Kate Bush will have her original song titled "Lyra" tacked onto the end credits of The Golden Compass...who knows, now we may get to see her perform at the Oscars." (Oscar nominations are announced January 22nd).

The Golden Compass tells the first story in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. An exciting fantasy adventure, the film is set in an alternative world populated by talking bears who fight wars, witches, Gyptians, and daemons. In the world of The Golden Compass, a person's soul lives on the outside of their body in the form of a daemon, an animal spirit that accompanies them through life. At the center of the story is Lyra (played by newcomer Dakota Blue Richards), a 12-year-old girl who starts out trying to rescue a friend -- and winds up on an epic quest to save not only her world, but ours as well. The Golden Compass stars an ensemble cast that includes Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott (Ghost Rider), Eva Green (Casino Royale) and the voices of Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings), Ian McShane ("Deadwood"), Freddie Highmore (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Kathy Bates (Charlotte's Web), and Kristin Scott Thomas (Gosford Park). The film is written and directed by Chris Weitz (About A Boy, Antz) and produced by Deborah Forte and Bill Carraro.

Details pinched from KATE BUSH NEWS.COM The best place to get the latest on Kate and her work.

Comic-Book Blogs I Read

2007-11-19T09:32:00.000-08:00

20th Century Danny Boy: The Mighty World Of Marvel Part I

Monster Blog: Never Reprinted Jack Kirby Monsters

Ace of Spades Comments: [Comics] Retro-Reviews, 11/9/07

SLAGINC 2

2007-11-12T07:02:00.000-08:00

If you're in London visit the second coming of SLAGINC!

New exhibition starts soon:

DAGMAR SCHURRER
RICHARD PARRY (thenewdome.com)
feminism, fascism and fisting

16.11.2007 - 22.12.2007
OPENING 16.11.2007, 19.00 TIL LATE
on the night a performance by Miss Bijou Noir
Opening times Fri - Sun, 12-6pm and by appointment

Frank Hampson, Marvel Comics and the Landscape Format 1976

2007-10-21T11:22:00.000-07:00

In March of 1976 a unique and never to be repeated partnering of the talent of Frank Hampson and the creations of Stan Lee was unleashed. Frank produced a one off pin-up for the popular Marvel weekly 'Super Spider-Man with the Super-Heroes'.

In issue 162 of the title (cover dated March 20th 1976) a one page feature on the legendary Dan Dare artist was published

(click here for legible version)

and in the next issue (163 cover dated March 27th 1976) the two page work was printed as a centre spread special.

(click here for full size image)

In case you were wondering, the odd size is because the comic was one of Marvel U.K.'s reformatting experiments in which two U.S.A. comic pages were printed smaller and side by side on one U.K. page, essentially providing twice as much material as usual. To make it easier to read this way the comic was folded and stapled on what would have been the top of a normal U.K. book, essentially turning the comic on its side (see example below)

Although fairly popular, (it had been proven a sales success by the previous launch 'The Titans' in October 1975)

though controversial due to the shrinking of the artwork the format was retired in issue 231 (cover dated July 13 1977) probably because it ate up material too quickly and was rapidly catching up with U.S. monthly titles from which material was sourced. The title merged at this point with the failing Captain Britain weekly.

Marvel U.K. would not produce its own original output until the arrival of 'Hulk Comic' in March 1979.

Latest PR News

2007-10-07T05:32:00.001-07:00

What's Happening Now

Spider-Man Sings Again

2007-09-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

After his previous off Broadway production and a flirtation with rock on his 'Rock Reflections of a Superhero' album, Spidey is heading for the boards again!

SPIDER-MAN MUSICAL SEEKS BROADWAY STAGE

2007-09-27 13:38:33

Broadway director JULIE TAYMOR is hunting for a New York theatre big enough to house the SPIDER-MAN musical she is creating with U2 rockers BONO and THE EDGE.
Lion King creator Taymor has written a book and is due to direct the spectacular stage show, with the music provided by the rock superduo.
The project is now moving so quickly, the trio are already looking for the right space to house the musical version of the comic creation. Taymore tells the New York Daily News.

Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)

Potentially Dodgy Comic-Book Films

2007-09-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

Oh dear...these sound dodgy to say the least!

Maybe the best comic-book fans can wish for is that 'Justice League' at least won't be a total embarrassment?

Comic book casting : Shazam and Wonder Woman

The web is buzzing with rumours that Jessica Biel will be playing Wonder Woman in the Justice League of America movie. Sites are all discussing whether or not Ms. Biel will be flying the invisible plane in the live action JLA movie that will be directed by George Miller.

In related comic-book movie news, The Rock is likely going to be starring in Shazam. But, will he be playing Shazam or Black Adam? Evidently, Mr. Johnson has been debating about this for some time now, and is asking his fans to help him decide. He is soliciting votes on the MTV Movies Blog, so have at it.

Shazam! to be broad-based, "inherently funny" superhero flick Hard at work on his draft of Shazam!, screenwriter John August provided a glimpse of what we can expect to see in the upcoming live-action Captain Marvel flick:

"The underlying premise is funny, so it's not just Spider-Man plus jokes," August revealed at last week's press day for his directorial debut The Nines. "There's something inherently funny about a 13-year-old boy who gets to become a big, sturdy superhero, and sort of what's a priority to him wouldn't be a priority to a normal person who gets those powers."

August promises that Shazam! will appeal to more than just adolescent boys and other people who like movies about adolescent boys. "The thirteen-year-olds who who are reflected in the movie will really love the movie, and I think other people will too. At this budget, it's gotta be one of those classic 'four quadrants,' where everybody and their brother goes to see it."

Shazam! is set for a release sometime next year.

Phil Spector Case Mistrial

2007-09-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

JUDGE RULES SPECTOR CASE A MISTRIAL

2007-09-26 23:56:25

The judge overseeing the PHIL SPECTOR murder case has declared a mistrial.
Judge Larry Paul Fidler sent the members of the jury home on Wednesday (26Sep07) after hearing they were split ten to two after 12 days of deliberation and six ballots - and unable to break their deadlock.
Spector was accused of murdering actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra, California mansion in 2003. The trial began in April (07) and featured 77 witnesses.
Officials at the Los Angeles District Attorney's office state they will retry the record producer. (KL/WN/GES) WENN - BREAKING NEWS - 26 SEPTEMBER 2007

NEW IRON MAN TRAILER

2007-09-11T01:45:00.000-07:00

Psychodialetical Recent Updates

2007-09-03T06:34:00.000-07:00

Psychodialetical Recent Updates

This is the comic book I am publishing/creating at drunk duck web comics site.

Have a look and let me know what you think.

Go on, I can take it...honest!

ANNIE LENNOX SONGS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

2007-08-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

New album by Annie Lennox will be released in the U.K. on on 1st October, 07! New video and single DARK ROAD can be viewed below:

and the album web site can be accessed by clicking below:
http://www.songs-of-mass-destruction.com/main.html

UP LATE

2007-08-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

THE PUMPKIN EATER

The story of a marriage of two sensitive, articulate people, bound together by the strongest physical and emotional ties yet helpless in their inability to communicate.

Just watched this film, now I can't sleep because it's haunting me. I recommend it, just make sure you have plenty of chill out time before you need to sleep because it makes you think.

The Pumpkin Eater takes its title from the nursery rhyme: "Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater / Had a wife and couldn't keep her. / He put her in a pumpkin shell / And there he kept her very well." As this allusion suggests, one of the central concerns of the film is female entrapment - the experience of being kept 'in a shell'. The heroine, Jo, has all the ostensible trappings of a happy life: a handsome, successful husband, a beautiful house, an enviably affluent lifestyle, and battalions of healthy children. Yet she still comes to the conclusion that her life is "an empty place". She even suffers an emotional breakdown in the most unlikely of places - the luxurious Kensington department store, Harrods.

One could read the film as a proto-feminist protest against women's second-class status and limited opportunities, no matter which class they belong to. Certainly, Penelope Mortimer's original novel is animated by a sense of frustration and anger at patriarchal values: "A womb isn't all that important. It's only the seat of life... At school the word 'womb' used to make them snigger. Women aren't important." However, Harold Pinter's adaptation has the effect of making the film less about Jo (the novel had been written in the first person from her point of view) and more about the relationship between Jo and her husband Jake: it offers a complete portrait of a marriage from first meeting and initial romantic idyll through betrayals and bitter disputes to a tentative reconciliation between the estranged couple. As the director Jack Clayton put it, the film investigates "the infinitely simple idea of the difficulties in any married relationship while at the same time showing the tremendously strong relationship that grows almost inevitably."

The film's treatment of angst among the sophisticated metropolitan bourgeoisie lead to a comparison with the work of the director Michelangelo Antonioni, chronicler of Italy's idle (and anxious) rich. Indeed, one review of The Pumpkin Eater was entitled (sarcastically) 'Keeping Up with the Antonionis', unfairly implying that the British film was nothing but a superficial copy of the European art film, lacking its profundity. Looked at today, The Pumpkin Eater's achievement can be seen more clearly: a remarkably honest film about love, sex, marriage, infidelity, reproduction and parenthood made by a director, writer and group of actors all at the height of their powers.

Synopsis and review found online, if anyone knows writer/source please let me know because I've lost them! Apologies to all who deserve an apology.

Now...I'll attempt to sleep!

Technorati Profile

Revisit the KISS Expo 2007

2007-08-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

Fifty-nine minutes at the New York KISS Expo 2007

KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSS! 2

2007-08-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the next selection of underrated/seldom (if ever) played tunes. This period of the band is especially dear to me as I was a young adult at the time of the release of these albums.

My favourite tunes are here, even though it took time to appreciate some of them back then, especially Ace Frehley's solo stuff Wiped Out, What's On Your Mind and Fractured Mirror. The latter soon became my all time second favourite instumental, the first being Albatross by Fleetwood Mac.

'Fraid I didn't manage to get past Peter Criss' tenure in KISS so there will be a further selection covering the 1980's and later in a future post.

Drop me a line to let me know what you think about these tracks, you can use the comment on this blog button if you wish.

See ya,

Andy.

Picture Below: KISS circa 1980...coming soon.

IS IT A BIRD...IS IT A PLANE!?

The British Marvel Annuals 75 ~ 78 A Pictorial Flashback.

KISS SHOWS BREAK ATTENDANCE and MERCHANDISE RECORDS

downthetubes.net news blog: Comic fans rally to help Leeds-based OK Comics store from closure

To My Friend Russell

Thor Movie Interview and Footage

D.B.T.= Real Hope for the Anxious, Depressive and Self Harming Individual

Contents

The four modules

Mindfulness

Interpersonal effectiveness

Emotion regulation

Distress tolerance

Jeffrey Catherine Jones: The Movie

IT'S OVER WHEN IT'S OVER

A Long Time Ago...

Marvel UK in the early Nineties

An Alternative Viewpoint

Gareth Thomas' (soon to be) Ex Wife Speaks

Stevie Nicks Leather and Lace

The Country Roads of Chris (Dog Oil) Raddings

Threads

Playwrite Aleksei/Aleksej Arbuzov (1908-1986)

KISSONLINE.com > News > KISS - MODERN DAY DELILAH

SONIC BOOM Cover Insight Deluxe!

UN stalls on Myanmar statement

Plug...Plug...Plug

Adam Black's LOCUS

Down the Tubes

NASA Calling...

Blimey! It's another blog about comics!: Malcolm Douglas (J.T. Dogg)

Fleetwood Mac UK Tour 2009

Psychodialetical Available Now From Amazon.co.uk

Free Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Suu Kyi

POWERADE RUGBY'S INNERGEAR Campaign

EXTRAS:

ARCHIVE

VIDEO LINK:

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Bristol Cartoon Illustrator Showcases Work

Major KISS Announcement

KISS invade Mall Cop

A Chronicle of the Psychodialetical Universe...New Retro Comic-Book

Psychodialetical to appear in print!

Most IMPORTANT KISS news of the new Millenium

Edward Hughes: poetry...truth & lies

KISS Ikons: More details

IKONS LIVE TO DREAM

GIFT of TUNES: review of Lindsey Buckinghams latest album

Paul Stanley enjoys the High Life in Las Vegas

KISS NEWS

Eric Singer is enjoying life as the drummer for Kiss

My overview of BRAND NEW KISS recording has been posted on official KISS website KISSONLINE.COM

KISS JIGOKU-RETSUDEN

Video of Download, Donington 13th June 2008

Lindsey Buckingham Brand New Album Gift of Screws due in September

KISS day at Download...Classic Rock's Review.

Small press: Comic-Books

Mick Fleetwood forms new Blues band

KISS Flo and Eddie Elder interview pt 2

KISS Flo and Eddie Elder interview pt 1

KISS' LEAD GUITARIST TOMMY THAYER INTERVIEWED

KISS and Ace Frehley cuttings

Better Late Than Never (U.K. The Guardian-Steve Gerber-Obit)

Ace Frehley - Astoria London 2008 New York Groove

KISS Play Melbourne Grand Prix (Review from KISSONLINE)

Interview with Anthony Esposito (Ace Frehley Band)

KISS' Most Successful Tour EVER !

Managing Depression

Alan Moore's Essay: Sexism in Comics

fictions: Alan Moore interview in Word magazine

KISS World Tour Update

New Children's Comic Strip Weekly

Steve Gerber 1947-2008

More KISS Eurotour News

MORE KISS EUROPEAN CONCERTS

SLAGINC 3

20th Century Danny Boy: Looking Back With Frank Springer#links

KISS to Play Download Festival 2008

Christmas Nightmare

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