Music? Books? TV? Movies?

 I am gradually moving on from the book phase of my life. I've been solidly in the music phase lately, as I had finally put vocals to the music I had written years ago. I have 120 songs now posted on SoundCloud, and I am finally working on my "long awaited" Volume 1 - Rockin' the First Steps album. (Long awaited by me, that is.) I have the songs rewritten now, or rearranged, as they say, and once I have rewritten the lyrics, I will begin the singing process again. And I have no shame in saying that it is the singing process that is the most difficult for me. And there's a good reason for that. I'm not a singer. So there you go.

But I refused to let that stop me. Since I don't know any singers, and my attempt to find a singer through Craig's List was unsuccessful, I sang all the songs myself. With some success I might add. That's not to say I became a singer. I'm not a singer, I say again. But at least I do hit the right notes, and I do stay in key. It's just that my voice is far from a nice pleasant singer's voice.

Singers are not always good singers. People said Bob Dylan couldn't sing well. But that didn't stop him. Neil Young resorted to an unpleasant falsetto voice, but it worked for him and his music. There are probably other examples, but usually singers do have nice voices, which is why they are singers.

As for me? I will only say that my voice, like Neil Young's and Bob Dylan's, works for me and my music. That doesn't mean it would work for Simon Cowell, or any of them. They would probably kick me off their shows during auditions. Whatever. I'm not trying to impress them or anyone else. It's as simple as this: I composed songs and I sang them. That's all there is to it.

Sure there are haters out there. I am bracing myself for the inevitable hater to comment or post a review with a serious trashing of me, my voice, or even my music. Hasn't happened yet, but it will. It happens to the best of people. Whatever the art. Books, Movies, Shows, and music. I remember years ago, when I first became a Black Sabbath fan, I read a review of their latest album. The reviewer was a hater, and trashed their latest album which at the time was Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

This hater criticized the music, of course, but what I remember specifically was that he was calling Ozzy a horrible singer, and to this day I can remember he used the words, "paper-thin voice" in describing Ozzy's singing. I thought to myself even then that this guy was just another hater. I had been hearing haters all around me complaining that they hated Black Sabbath and their music.

It's funny because, to me, Black Sabbath's music was the very best of all music. That doesn't mean that every song they made was a great song. There are some Black Sabbath (and Ozzy) songs that I don't like. One day I will post an honest and sincere review of every single Black Sabbath song. (In the Ozzy era, I mean.) I think I have the right to do that, because no one knows their music better than I do. One day. Maybe soon.

John Brown - A Real and True Hero

 I first heard of John Brown when I was a little boy collecting action cards from the nickel machine in front of the 7-11 store within walking distance from my house.

Actually, these days, I would not call it walking distance for my two sons if they were the same age. (I think I was between the ages of six and ten. It was a long walk, maybe four miles one way, which covered a distance up the street, cut across some railroad tracks and through an orchard.

But back in those days, it was not an issue, and we made the walk, or sometimes a bike ride regularly. I discovered some cool collector's cards in this machine. You put in a nickel through one of those slide in things and out came five random cards.

The first ones I tried to collect were the Mars Attacks cards. For an eight year old, they were so cool. Martians invading earth, and destroying everything in their path. The artwork on the cards was very graphic and bloody. Sheesh, these days the establishment would be censoring the hell out of those cards. But not back then.

Sadly, I discovered them on the last run of the series, and one day I put my nickel in and something else came out. It was a random five card selection of the next collector cards series. Civil War cards.

But these cards were not fiction. They were historically accurate. Even so, the artwork was just as graphic and just as violent as anything fiction could dream up. So for an eight year old, they were cool enough, and I went ahead and collected them and eventually managed to get the entire set.

Civil War Card no. 1

And since the cards depicted historically accurate events, the card that was number ONE was a card that featured JOHN BROWN and his raid on Harper's Ferry to end slavery. On the back of the card, a newspaper article from the time described the event. 

I heard some old movies featured John Brown. I never saw them, but I'm glad to see there has been a recent TV movie and miniseries that included John Brown. Neither one was about him. The Good Lord Bird was more about a boy in a dress pretending to be a woman. 

Last night I saw Emperor and it was about a former slave named Shields Green. He had fought alongside Brown at Harpers Ferry, but escaped and avoided being captured. Or that's what the movie would have you believe. A quick Google search revealed he did not escape capture. But the retelling of true stories allow for "poetic license" which is fine. After all, it's something I did with my own historical novel John Dunn. It adds some flair. In Emperor, it made for a happy ending.

One day, I would like to see a fuller portrayal of this man, John Brown, and his real life and real heroic cause to end slavery. He gave his life for black people. I would think he would be more famous for that. Maybe even have a holiday named after him. Maybe one day there will be.  

Blacklist - Worst Show on TV

So yeah. After this last episode, it is confirmed. The Blacklist has become the worst show on TV. That is, the worst show of the shows I watch. I wouldn't doubt if there's a worse show, but I wouldn't know, since I don't watch all shows on TV. But of those I do watch, Blacklist has become the worst. 

What that means is I will no longer be watching it. I have better things to do than watch a show where the writers, producers, and even the creators of the show are trying to come up with storylines for a show they had no idea would still be on the air for its eighth season. (And it's been renewed again.)

But whatever, I'm off this ride now. As early as its fourth season, it started flopping. And each successive season after that it only got worse. I thought at one point it had bottomed out. But no. It would be now it has bottomed out, if that means I'm done with it.

You see, once a character is no longer true to his/her true character as had been established, that means the writers are grasping at straws and hoping to put something together to keep their ride going. But Red Reddington believing Lizzy's comment that his loyal lawyer has turned against him to join Lizzy, and then trusting some dude who had only just made his first appearance, was just too much for me.

That was so NOT like Red Reddington to trust some guy he never met before over someone who had already proven his loyalty. In short, it was bullshit. And so we have a bullshit show now, whereas once we had a show that I had called my favorite TV show. Now it's just a joke.

Such is life. So many things have happened that are bullshit lately, it's just another one on the "black" list. Excuse the pun. But I thought it was a good one. Or, it could be said the Blacklist is now on my RED list. (That is, if Red lists are the shows I DON'T watch.)

Bye Bye Blacklist. You lost yet another viewer.