NAMM 2012

This week in Anaheim California we have seen one of the most exciting rock events of the year.


The National Association Of Music Merchants.


So why do I get excited about a merch show?


I'm always interested as to who shows up to try out and endorse the new products.... who looks awful on it, and who looks pretty good, who plays, who sounds great who doesnt etc...


It's not brain surgery.

This show is simply a rock star spot fest! from all genres and generations, you get a few surprises, you get the regulars and you get strange worlds colliding.




This is my annual equivalent of those women's magazines which you see on the stands with headlines likes ''Who's Jlo dating'' ''The Pippa diet'' and of course the endless gossip on Lyndsay Lohan.


So I get to see ''Whos Tommy fucking'' ''The David Crosby diet'' and of course the bitching between Lita Ford and Joan Jett...


I wanna know who acts like a wanker, and who's cool.  Seems to have been a quieter year than last year, but things I've learnt: There is no way I would have recognised 2nd rater LA Guns members, Kerri Kelli appears to have aged by 20 years in the last 6 and Poisons CC Deville has the whitest teeth I have ever seen,


Big thanks to message board Metal Sludge and their coverage of the show as that is where I'm linking the pix from!





This guy should need NO introduction...

 


Zakk Wilde!  poss Sharon Osbourne at the front???





Tommy Lee

Alice

 



Bobby Weir

 


DJ Ashba! now he's a rock star!!

Chris Holmes and Lita Ford the reunion... hmmm does anyone care?

A little dissapointing this year!! last year rocked!!

WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE... pref ALIVE!!

This is Kitty Spirit, he's been missing since New Years Day, but he does have another house he visits; an older lady who spoils him rotten, so he is a little chunkier now than on these pix. This is where he has been staying until 2 weeks ago, the 10th January.

The lady who's house he stays over at has been told of a road traffic accident involving a black kitty at the bottom of her road which makes us all very concerned.

Now... knowing Spirit very well makes me question this, as he is far from stupid, this cat is a real cat... he wanders, he stays out all night, he brings me severed rats heads to my bed, and normally he stays right away from cars but he always checks in with either one of his houses.

But he hasn't done...

Spirit is micro-chipped, he wears a silver reflective collar with tag  with veterinary surgery information and my own engraved onto it as well as THREE bells... he's sod for the birds...

SO HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CAT!!?

Once he gains your trust he is extremely affectionate, and dribbles immensely while he purrs, he will happily sit and stalk birds come rain or shine. He's not a fussy eater but loves eggs, boiled, scrambled, poached, you name it, he'll have it! He is used to other animals and children so doesn't scare easily.

He may be seen by bird feeders, with squirrels in his mouth, eating mice and bringing in rats... he growls like a dog if you try to take any of his catch away from him but on the whole he does tend to kill it rather than play with it.

The accident happened on Stanway Road by the junction to Hazel Road in Whitefield if you know any further info on this please contact me via the blog email.

We just want to know either way... as at the moment we're calling him everyday, he has a brother Shadow who is looking for him and a 5yo boy who is missing him very much.


We do think it is possible he has wandered, got into a delivery truck, trapped in a shed/garage somewhere as he is adventurous.

We have contacted the local vets and sanctuaries but nothing has been reported.

The Spirit Of The Cat -

At the end of the garden,  JD got a surprise,

when through the hedge he saw two bright yellow eyes.

As he walked slowly closer, he crouched down to see

a small fluffy cat, as black as could be.

He held out his hand, and said "hello,"

but the cat just hissed and crouched down low.

JD thought, "What a silly cat,

Grandma's Tabs doesn't behave like that."

JD was lost for words as the cat ate the bread put out for the birds!

Underneath the fluffy fur, he saw he was thin

and watched him searching through the grey bin.

We called him Spirit and he soon understood,

that his life in our house could be good.

Plenty of food and a warm place at night,

and if he didn't want to be stroked, then that was alright.

He soon settled down, and his coat glistened

and when JD spoke, he sat there and listened.

He knew he was thankful for all he had done,

a special new friendship had now just begun.

Lady Sang The Blues... (and jazz, and soul...)

Today we have seen the death of one of the legendary leading ladies of R&B; the world has lost Etta James.


LA born Jamesette Hawkins had a troubled life from the start, stating in her biography that her mother was a substance abuser and scam artist and she often found herself left alone.


She was raised by Lula and Jesse Rogers, who owned the house her mother once lived. The pair brought up Etta in the Christian faith, but rhythm and blues lured her away from the church, and she found herself drawn to the grittiness of the jazz music.


She recalled in her book: "My mother always wanted me to be a jazz singer, but I always wanted to be raunchy,"


Johnny Otis, who also died this week, found her singing on San Francisco street corners with a couple of girl friends in the early 1950s.


When Johnny Otis heard her rendition of "Roll With Me, Henry,"  He asked if Etta could join him in LA but she would need her mothers permission as she was fifteen years of age.


She headed straight back home to forge her mothers signature of consent to say she could go and was also eighteen.


The year 1955 saw her tour with Johnny Otis and in 1959 she was signed to Chess Records and we saw her working alongside acts such as Bobby Vinton, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Everly Brothers.


One of coolest chicas ever on the jazz/blues scene, taking stage with her peroxide hair and feline eyes, to be hit by her deep and gritty voice made an impact on many and will continue to do so for many, many  years to come.


Here's hoping she finds inner peace and blasts that eternal realm with her talents and passion!!


R.I.P Etta.

Mrs Peel, We're Needed!

I had to blog about Steed And Mrs. Peel #1? I nearly did when I heard it was to be announced but thought I’d wait till issue 1 had been released.

Good job;  as I bounced over to Doc at :

www.flyingbatmobile.blogspot.com

 to tell him of this wonderful news that GRANT MORRISON was to write the AVENGERS in a COMIC, my dreams come true, for Doc to tell me it had been released 20 years ago… and it was,  well… erm, not all that new and he’d read it a long time ago!!

OK…

So I’m a little slow on the uptake with this, I missed it the first time around so for me this is something very cool and very new, apologies in advance if I continue to sound like a love sick puppy.

I’m a big fan of the TV show, I’ve seen every episode of The Avengers which this comic is based on, and I’m a huge Grant Morrison fan. 

Win Win!!

Though I believe if you are familiar with the TV show you’ll enjoy this comic on a whole different level as there are nods and winks to the familiar behaviours and phrases of its characters but it isn’t a necessity.

Artist Ian Gibson gives the comic a quirky vibe, from reading an interview with him he had done around the time of the original release,  I recall him saying the company didn’t have the rights to draw the actors so that’s why Mother, Mrs Peel and Tara King all look a little different.

I enjoy Gibsons comic strip style and the colouring in this book makes it swing!

Pleasing on the ole peepers!

Boom! Studios made an interesting move by deciding to reprint this series.

After reading the first issue, I’d say they made the right choice.

I have to wonder whose idea it was. Was it random? Or is there purpose?

Either way, I’m happy it has been reprinted for a lush 6 issues of a 60s spy romp!!

DC- One Bullet Too Many!

Today we have seen the launch of DC comix new logo.

Make of it as you will.

For my liking, it's far too corporate looking, yeah... I know we're talking BIG buisness and WB here, but there is nothing FUN about it.

Whatever the reason and whatever genre of comic you read, you read it for pleasure.

For me this suggests a logo which you may see on the water cooler, or on stainless steel appliances...

Maybe they were going for an IMAGE comix feel, the giant I, simplistic and memorable?.

If it didn't have the name of the company, it wouldn't suggest what it is.

Highly forgettable.

Bring back the stamp!, keep the stars! they shine!!...

Fab, Mighty, Brilliant... FORD MADOX BROWN.

Today I spent four amazing hours with a good friend looking at one of the most fabulous art exhibits I’ve ever been to too. 

FORD MADDOX BROWN at the Mosley Street Art Gallery here in Manchester.

FMB was one of the great originals of British art, best known for his pre-Raphaelite masterpieces.

Amazing as they were, it was not these that caught my attention and admiration.

For me it was his composition for these pieces which within themselves were highly advance in technique and style throwing out the ideas that surrounded the academic easy solutions of prettiness of the traditional Victorian formulae.

With FMB, you see children without sentimentality, the poor without condescension, beauty within landscapes where you wouldn’t expect to find it and you find the colours and freshness which you’d later see coming from the impressionists.

He clashes colour, has confrontational poses, agitated movements, forceful expressions, and plenty of humour which is present until the very end with his death in 1893.

For each painting he would piece together the composition with a collection of black chalk drawings, each concentraing on one point, movement, folds in clothes, expressions etc…

For myself, one of the highlights was his illustrations of Shakespeare’s King Lear, my favourite Shakespear play for its intensity of emotions and dramatic confrontations, which for FMB suit his style immensely, the shadows, generalised attitude but it verged on the grotesque.

These drawings were considered, simple and incomplete in their day but for me it was the forerunner of 20^th century illustration and can be seen in perhaps one of the most memorable and climatic parts of the play with the storm; King Lear with His Fool in the Storm.

Jumping ahead a few years into 1856 here, otherwise I may be able to talk about this guy forever…

Study of a Corpse for the Prisoner of Chillion painting.

HOLY MOLEY!!!

This was grotesque. This was not the average study for physiological research.

He asked surgeon friend John Marshall from the university college hospital of London for a corpse. This was someone well and truly gone!!!, classic horror study.

Simply amazing.

Within his diary the day after drawing this corpse it was reported that he wrote;

‘’ When I saw it first, what with the dim light, the brown and parchment like appearance of it, with the shaven head, I took it for an imulation of the thing. Often as I have seen horrors I really did not remember how hideous the shell of the poor creature may remain when the substance contained is fled.’’

Between the years of 1851-1859 we see some of his most famed landscape work.

I LOVED the title of the ‘’The Pretty Baa Lambs’’ the baby talk of the title for myself summed up a connection of parenthood.

With further reading I found the women and baby within the picture are his wife and child which at the time were looked upon as; ‘’Madonna and baby’’ something he always denied as he claimed there was no religious meaning to his work.

Sadly due to the title, this painting was described at the time as; ‘’an effort worthy of a nursery’’

His work on stained glass windows depicting the legends of King Arthur and the death of Sir Tristram were simply breath taking with colour and poignancy of these legends.

After the gallery our trip lead us to Manchesters town hall. It is here I started to feel very conscious of myself, standing in my Grateful Dead dancing bear converse and Captain America t-shirt I was surrounded by the mighty grandeur of what is known as the Great Hall…  

In the south side was a huge pipe organ overlooked by gold leaf and midnight blue solar system, shields and emblems of cities and countries, near and afar and surrounding the walls, FMB morals… mahogany panels, giant fire places made for a breath taking experience.

Something I had never realised was right on my door step.

The exhibit is on till the 24th Jan and worth every penny!