Mosher'sUnimaginativelyEntitledBlog
–**– The Blog Without A Bloody Annoying Tagline –**–
When faced with a single red chilli pepper, don’t think the best way to impress people is to chew it up and eat it at the start of your meal. This causes great pain, suffering, sicky feelings in the tummy and a very painful bottom hole when it works its way out 12 or so hour later.
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Dear Grand Wizard
For no real reason (although probably related to alcohol intake). discussion turned last night to “why do the KKK really hate Jews and coloured people?”. Seriously, I don’t get it. They claim to be Christian of some type or other and yet Jesus was Jewish. Chances are, he was also Arabic or some other “coloured” race that the KKK despise.
As for the blacks (sorry, for those who keep a list of whatever’s classed as politically correct at any moment in time – I’m going to say “black people” and don’t care if you think I’m racist because of it. I know I’m not and that’s all that counts) is it just a matter of fear or jealousy?
Look at the likes of Morgan Freeman and Samuel L Jackson. Guess their ages, then look them up online. Both guys have aged spectacularly well – and this is common in black (and indeed Asian) people compared to whites. I’m jealous of that.
Then there’s the fact that people of African descent have a great tendency towards athleticism. Look at the amazing football players and runners who are black. Hell, the guy who really embarrassed Hitler that Berlin Olympics all those years ago was black. Jesse Owens is one famous person from history I would love to meet and shake the hand of as he categorically proved that being tall, white and blonde doesn’t make you superior.
We could point towards the stereotype that black guys are somewhat better endowed in the trouser department, but I’d rather flip this around and go for the assumption that any of the bedsheet wearing freaks in Louisiana just have small penises and need something to take their futility out on. After all, black people don’t tend to marry their own sisters either.
And when was the last time a white supremacist released a classic album or was highly regarded for their musical skills? Check out the huge list of black artists from Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Michael Jackson (in the earlier days), Bob Marley…
If a coloured person or organisation want to make a point they usually do it in public, pre-arranged and without their faces hidden behind something they ejaculated on at 7am the same morning. Sure there were riots many years back, but thankfully this is (to a large extent) a thing of the past. Given the climate in which many of these rallies were held, this shows that blacks – certainly at that time – were a hell of a lot braver than the cousin-shagging hillbillies with six toes on each foot.
Seriously, I just don’t understand what the KKK (and the BNP) have against coloured people. Unless they’re jealous. Or scared. After all, these seem to be the main reasons for starting wars and targetting people or peoples: you’re frightened of them or they have something you want.
If you want to see if taking action based on these emotions is worthwhile, ask some people who’ve done it. Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, George W Bush. Hardly a historical popularity list.
Not much of a review as I’m short of time, more a listing to myself that I’ve read this. Zero is one of Lustbader‘s many Japan-centred novels although a large part is also played out in Maui. The plot follows two generations of familes – both Japanese and American – and hops back and forth along the timelines filling in gaps as it goes.
The plot’s pretty decent, but as with a lot of his books it takes some amount of time to pick up pace while the ending is frantic as every plot thread is picked up and tied up neatly.
Not bad, but heavy going language-wise. Mind, it’s as educational as it is entertaining, especially for those with an interest in Japanese culture.
I get seasick. I’m usually pretty good on transport, but anything floating on water still has a tendency to make my stomach tighten and my mouth water. It’s not guaranteed – I can be fine in the roughest storms then get weak-legged skimming across a lake.
Everyone has their methods to contend with travel sickness. Ginger is common, or fixing on a point on the horizon. I believe there are even pressure points on the thumb which apparently make a difference though not for me. I just look like a meditating green person then throw up in a paper bag.
My method is, I suppose, a version of that meditation. To drift off somewhere a little more comfortable where the bouncing isn’t an issue. Sometimes reading can do that for me, but as many people know this can also make you feel worse. The best method I’ve discovered is to pop in the earphones and listen to something you can really, really get into.
On the journey over from Gili Air back to Bali, I randomly selected Pantera‘s Vulgar Display of Power on the basis that I hadn’t listened to it in bloody ages. Good gravy. I’d forgotten how good it was. So good, in fact, that I just had to write a blog post about it.
I suppose it’s a good time to go on about Pantera, a band that’s no longer in existence and simply will not reform for various reasons. Metal is about as popular as its ever been and so many of the classic names are making comebacks. In amongst all this, new fans could be missing out on an awesome back catalogue of other acts and Pantera is most definitely one that your musical memory banks could do with having access to.
Originally releasing a couple of, let’s face it, crap glam albums that to this day will earn you a kick in the balls if you ask for them to be autographed, Pantera graduated suddenly into some hard-edged, grinding, thumping sub-thrash with a hint of hardcore. This came about with the release of the (in my opinion) slightly hit-and-miss Cowboys From Hell album. Undoubtedly the title track is an anthem and hearing the opening riff live, even by a covers band, sends the hairs up on the back of my neck.
However, the rest of the album is a mix of other really good heavy numbers and some wankery that harks back to the old days.
The follow up, 1992’s Vulgar Display Of Power, though… 53 minutes or so of sublime metal music. I remember this being one of those annoying albums back in the day as it wouldn’t fit on one side of a C90 cassette tape so I doubt I ever really listened to the last couple of tracks. In this day and age, though, it’s great value for money. not many bands give you nigh on an hour on a CD.
I can barely remember a club night back in the day which didn’t feature the superb “Walk” and “This Love”, probably the two “lightest” tracks on the album. A good night would also include “Mouth For War” and “******* Hostile” which still rates as one of the best thrash tracks of all time.
Fronted by scary boxing dude Phil Anselmo (now lead singer for Down), bass by Rex Brown, drums by Vinnie Paul and guitars by his brother “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott. It’s the latter who really made the band and who was taken from the music world far too early – shot dead in front of his family and fans while playing live in the US a few years ago.
The band had already split by then – general “blame” seems to have fallen at a rift between Anselmo and the rest of the band – and he was playing alongside Vinnie in their new project, Damage Plan. An awful incident which sent huge waves through the metal community (and ended up in the penning of at least one song – Machine Head’s “Aesthetics of Hate“, aimed at a journalist who for some reason chose Dime’s murder as an excuse to slag him off in the press).
Dimebag was a one-in-a-generation talent. An outstanding naturally gifted musician who was banned from local competitions as a child as he kept winning them all. Vulgar Display… showcases this talent perfectly with a huge variety in musical styles.
Blues is very much present, perhaps most notably at the start of “No Good”. “Regular People” is slow-paced and as heavy as anything Black Sabbath ever released. “******* Hostile” is unrelentingly-paced and in your face. “This Love” mixes slow balladic guitar and lyrics with a pounding chorus that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hatebreed track. “By Demons Be Driven” is very arrhythmic and I’ve even heard riffs from it being “appropriated” by Dream Theatre in their live set.
Each track stands alone, and the album as a whole is undoubtedly Pantera’s best.
As I said, this band won’t get back together. I would reckon the chance of the three surviving members doing anything together being something around zero although the air does seem clearer between them than it has been.
So for this reason, especially if you’re fairly new to the metal scene (say less than 10 years), then this is one band from the past you really should check out. And Vulgar Display… is a prime place to start.
Never met him, wish I had, never will.
I just returned from a week on the Gili Islands with next to no interet access. I fired up NUFC.com as I do when I check the web for the first time each day and the sad headline faced me – Sir Bobby Robson R.I.P.
At 76 there’s no denying he had a good innings, especially given the numerous fights he had against cancer. I still think the way he was offloaded by Newcastle United was horrendous, yet I don’t recall him making any bitter comments in the press. He did as well for us as anyone could have hoped at the time, and he got England as far as anyone has since the 1966 World Cup.
I’d honestly be amazed if anyone had a bad thing to say about the man.
As I said, I didn’t know him. But I’m still going to miss him. The world needs more nice people and it’s lost an amazingly nice one with this sad passing.
[His legacy lives on, however. Please consider a donation to the incredibly worthwhile Sir Bobby Robson Foundation]
