Wednesday May 05, 2005:  10:43PM

Hey, guess what I'm listening to?  Why, it's the new Benjamin Bear track, "Blunts of Fame!"  It's not up on the download.com site yet, but it should be soon.  Until then, you can peep the lyrics by going to the lyrics page.  Ben has a tendency to slur his lyrics, so even when it does appear, you may need the lyrics to understand what he's saying. ^_^


Tuesday, April 26, 2005:  10:27PM

Wow, I haven't updated in a while...I must be slacking.  Well kids, Benjamin Bear is #27 this week on the Alternative Rap charts over at download.com, and has garnered an Editor's Pick...Redcat is doing slightly better, hitting the #23 spot on the Industrial-Electronic charts.  No Editor's Pick for Redcat, though.  Oh well, that's fine.

In other news, Indicashadow is readying his Non-Eventful Horizons CD, and should have some tracks from that availiable soon.  Once that is completed, he will be shopping around for a bigger label for the national release.  Don't want to drop any names yet...too soon to tell.  Be on the lookout for some preview tracks from the new album sometime in May, it's shaping up to be light years better than Naptime.

When I'm not doing musical things, I've been checking out the Game Boy Advance.  You might ask why, but there's a plethora of gadgets you can get for this little system that makes it real fun...how about playing old NES games?  A movie player?  A flash cartridge?  You can check out the darkside of the GBA by visiting the good people at the Success Company in Hong Kong.  Just click on the Game Boy link, and check out the merchandise.  They also have similar items for the PSP and DS, though both are too new to have the really cool stuff yet.  You can also check out the gba.net website for even more gadgets and periphirals for the little system that could.  Personally, I'm just glad that 2D gaming hasn't completely died out.  I was one of those pissed off gamers back when the original Playstation came out and converted gaming to 3D.  You have to admit, those early 3D games sucked...a lot.

So you still want some music suggesstions, eh?  I only have one right now, and that one is ambient/New Age artist Anugama.  Very cool stuff, check something of his out.  His best-selling CD is Shamanic Dream, but I personally prefer the Lightness of Being.  I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you bought both CDs, though....If he does, let me know, and I'll correct it.


Thursday April 7, 2005:  10:43PM

Well, I was going to feature some of the better female singers out there at the moment, but them I stumbled upon the history of Norwegian black metal band Mayhem.  No other rock band (or rap artist) could possibly outdo these guys in terms of outlandish antics:

Formed in 1983 by guitarist Euronymous, bassist Necrobutcher, and drummer Manheim, Mayhem churned out heavy, Satanic metal until the 1990s, joined by Dead and Hellhammer in 1988.  That's when things get weird.

In 1991, Dead commits suicide by slashing his wrists and blowing his head off with a shotgun, wearing an "I (heart) Transylvania" T-shirt and holding a suicide note that says "Excuse all the blood."  He is found by Euronymous, who takes his picture and pieces of his skull and brain.  Euronymous fashions his skull fragments into a necklace, and makes a stew out of his brain.

In 1993, the band is joined by bassist Count Grishnackh, who burns churches in his spare time.  Some of his handywork can be seen on the cover of Burzum's Aske EP.  The Count also takes it upon himself to stab fellow band member Euronymous to death, reportedly over a dispute over whether to pay tribute to Satan or pagan Norwegian deities.

Of course, one could argue that Emperor's drummer Faust, who stabbed a man 14 times because the man questioned his sexuality, or Dissection's singer Jon Nödveidt, who executed an Algerian man by gunshot for being gay, might hold a little more weight in the black metal scene.  But then again, new Mayhem member Blasphemer injured an audience member when the head of a sheep he was decapitating flew into the crowd and fractured the spectator's skull...

So, the girls will have to wait until the next entry.  I suppose I can bridge the two ideas by mentioning Otep.  She's a woman.  A very, very scary one, but she has all the vital parts that make up a female human.  She's kind of cute, too.  Just look at her, isn't she adorable?

Otep Shamaya certainly isn't the first female heavy metal singer...You've probably heard of Kittie, but there's also Arch Enemy, Nightwish, Cycle Sluts from Hell, Doro Pesch, Drain STH, the Missing, Fear of God,  Lacuna Coil,  Rasputina, Nuclear Death, Mahavatar, Demonic Christ, Jack Off Jill, Diamanda Galas, Genitorturers, and the Great Kat, as well as many more chicks who could probably kick your ass.  So if you don't know, now you know.  Some of those bands are no more, simply from breakups, or in the case of Fear of God, death.

At least now you can sound all cool to your friends when they talk about female faces in heavy metal.

More later....Heavy metal wasn't what I had in mind when I spawned the post.






Saturday April 2, 2005:  16:104

By now, you've probably heard that Terri Schaivo has passed.  I personally think that it shouldn't have gone on that long, and it certainly shouldn't have been on TV, but that's ok.  Now America can move on.  While you were all watching that, you might have missed the following other people who died:

Pope John Paul II, ummmm..the Pope:  April 2, 2005
Frank Perdue, chicken executioner, illness:  March 31, 2005
Mitch Hedberg, stand-up comedian, heart failure:  March 30, 2005
Johnnie Cochran, defense attorney, brain tumor:  March 30, 2005
Barney Martin, played Jerry's dad on "Seinfeld:"  March 21, 2005

"The Vatican chamberlain formally verified the death and destroyed the symbols of the pope's authority: his fisherman's ring and dies used to make lead seals for apostolic letters.

The Vatican did not say if the chamberlain followed the ancient practice of verification by calling the pope's name three times and tapping his forehead three times with a silver hammer."