Friday night, most of the family & I attended this year’s Ohio State Fair - which never mind the rides and fair food, I’m happy to say it also had a full blown sideshow attraction (World of Wonders) prominently placed and in full regalia.  W00H00! 

The talented, sword-swallowing lass on the right (who’s name I never did catch) is joined by reputedly one of the few remaining original Oompa-Loompa’s from “Willy Wonka”.  His stage name is Poohbah but in reality I believe he goes by Tim Turhune.

Inside the tent, for a mere 3 dollars, I was treated to sword walking midgets, 100 lb. pythons, women being electrocuted, two headed mummies, women being sliced/diced on stage, and the mysterious antics of one Dr. Frankenstein - among MANY other acts.  NOW THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT, MY FRIENDS!!

Seriously, it was amazing to see the old sideshow traditions being humbly kept alive and to me, at an incredibly reasonable price.  I watched the entire 30 min. loop, plus paid to see the “Spider Woman”, the “Snake Woman” and the “World’s Smallest Woman” (notice a theme here?) - all at just an additional dollar each. 

So yeah, my kids abandoned me about 10 minutes into the show to go ride some rides - that generation doesn’t necessarily appreciate this level of lowbrow fun.  But to me, I hope this troupe keeps touring for years to come, with increasingly disturbing illusions & tricks to display.

After all, that’s what fair’s are all about, aren’t they?

Had yet another crazy weekend - went to the Columbus Jazz & Rib Festival, had a birthday & moved my oldest daughter back into the house.  So a short post tonight just to let everyone know I’m still alive, and to show off this funny photo I made on the ZonePerfect site. Actually, they took my picture at their booth during the Jazz & Rib Festival, uploaded it to the site and I was able to manipulate it from there. Kinda clever.

The past week was a blur of drunken craziness involving my wife, her sister and I traveling up to the lake for about 2 days of mayhem and feasting. Ate my weight in lobster bisque & crab legs, drank twice my weight in beer (SHOCK!), revisited some favorite bars like the Beer Barrel Saloon & The Flaming Skull Pirate Bar [Pictured] and met some cool folks along the way.

Of all the bands I saw at the Bay, only one is worth mentioning here. Candlelight Red played one of my other favorite bars, Mr. Ed’s and we ended up catching them both nights we were in town. They played 99.9% covers but with an eclectic mix of genres - all nicely metallized. I’ve never heard anyone attempt heavy versions of Carrie Underwood “Before He Cheats” or The Police “Everything She Does is Magic” but this quartet out of Williamsport, PA did just that, and they did it well. Not to mention KILLER renditions of Coheed & Cambria’s ‘Welcome Home’ and Avenged Sevenfold’s ‘Almost Easy’.

The only downside is they are sponsored by Jagermeister. . . oh my, oh my. Did I EVER curse their names on Friday morning after two consecutive late nights of Jager bombs & shots. It all seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now I’m back home and spending the afternoon doing household repairs while the wife check’s out Poison tonight at the Schott.

Might need a liver transplant by next Monday.

Seeing Type O Negative/Hatebreed/3 Inches of Blood tomorrow night.  OH YEAH!  Review will follow (eventually).

On Sat & Sunday I will be attending the Columbus Community Festival (Comfest), the largest unsponsored, totally independent festival of it’s type in the known universe.  Ok, well - it’s big.  Lots of bands (4 or 5 stages I think) including Teeth of the Hydra & Deadsea who are actually metal acts, unlike the folksy, Jazzy, bluegrassy, armpit farting ensembles that surround them.   Wolves amongst the sheep, I say.

I’ll be serving beer from 4-8pm on Sat. (yes, SERVING not drinking) so if you can figure out what I look like, stop by and say howdy.  That may involve buying beer from EVERY server at every beer tent until you find me, so good luck!  Here’s a hint - I won’t be in a dress or spaghetti straps.

Well, not this time.

Jump forward to today, when Judas Priests’ latest new release ‘Nostradamus’ hit the stores. Like a good husband, I went out to get my wife a copy at lunch as this is her all-time favorite band in the world. Researching the release on Amazon.com, I soon found there would be two versions available; a standard 2 disc set and a deluxe set that also included a 40 page hardbound book. That’s according to Amazon.com - only the largest retail outlet in the world.

At Best Buy, I find that both versions are available and even on sale (how thoughtful!). The ‘deluxe’ edition was marked down to $24.99, which seemed to me to be a do-able amount for the book et al. so I went with that. Nothing’s too good for me lady. But while in line, I noticed the guy in front of me with a HUGE box, with the very same Nostradamus artwork that I was holding in my grubby paw. So I enquired what he had there, and was dismayed to hear he had the last copy of a SUPER deluxe edition, available only at Best Buy.

Yep, same book and discs as I was getting plus 3 vinyl records (of the same songs on the CD’s) and a limited edition poster. Ok, so nothing I couldn’t live without (especially at $70) and obviously I hadn’t been to the OFFICIAL Judas Priest page or I’d have known about option 3. Shame on me.

However, in these days of dwindling record company profits does it make any sense to only advertise a product on a band’s website, and only make it available at one retailer? I mean, I listen to literally hundreds of groups across many different genres - am I supposed to make ALL of them my friend on Myspace in order to know what new products they have available?

So this goes back to my original concern with Reznor’s model; are we forcing bands to become too dependent on their hardcore fanbase, at the exclusion of the more casual fan? Don’t get me wrong, I have some very limited edition stuff that I cherish from some of my favorite groups - I merely question how this information gets disseminated in the first place and if potential sales aren’t being lost by keeping the releases exclusive. Does it make sense to benefit the third party resellers on Ebay over the band?

I don’t know the answer, I’m just asking the question. To me, Reznor’s model is brilliant - but it ain’t necessarily perfect. And it might not work for everyone. Time will tell us, won’t it?

Spent the weekend babysitting this little demon. Don’t be fooled by that innocent look - he has claws like mini-daggers, that are magnetically attracted to soft flesh. My crotch area seems to be especially able to summon those blades - not exactly where you want deep scratches, normally.

This is my oldest daughter’s dog Dylan, or as my wife calls him our ‘Grandpuppy’.  Yeah, and that’s the closest to grand ‘anything’ I want for a long time.  He’s a cute little runt, but MAN - so much energy in such a little package.  Especially at 3am when you’re trying to get a little shuteye.

He goes back home today as Jill is returning from a weekend trip to Cleveland with her bf Josh.  I look forward to no more pee cleanups (six just this morning and yes, I did take him out every 2 hours!) and no longer seeing strange cat-dog sex rituals staged in my kitchen.

And while this is a bit more somber subject matter than I usually cover here, I do want to devote a little space to it because I think the thoughts expressed in Ms. Asturias-Lochlaer’s article do speak for many members of my generation who feel like saying “Hey, what about US!?” when we see the news, and watch any form of advertising, where we are not represented.  Or even seemingly understood. 

Without regurgitating too much of what has already been said, Generation  X is generally considered those born between 1965 - 1976, although you can easily find disagreeing start/end years if you search the web.  I chose to go with the most common years I found.  Anyhow, this generation is not as large as the preceding Baby Boomers or even the generation that follows it, the Millenials (again, definitions vary here.  Some would call this Generation Y).  But we’ve been tasked with a lot of clean-up, a lot of worry and frankly, a lot of bleak responsibility.  We know about environmental issues, we know about the unstable political & economical environ we’ve inherited, and we know we’ll have a tougher time retiring than our parents did.  Yet from an advertising perspective, you never seem to hear about us, our generational identity as mis-quoted as the years that comprise it.

Now I’m not crying in my beer, I’m just saying I found it interesting how this generation is portrayed (or NOT portrayed) in the media, yet how profoundly instrumental we’ve already been in the shaping of our world.  We were the generation to truly accept the idea of racial equality, practice realism in our goals, seamlessly adapt to the latest technologies (cable TV, CD’s, PC’s) and to celebrate self-reliance.  We first embraced the internet, yet it has now become the breeding ground for the younger set thru Myspace and Facebook.   And while many would say we are to blame for Grunge music, I prefer to think of us as representing the most prolific era Heavy Metal has ever had.

Ok, I’ll stop now ’cause I’m starting to sound just like my Grandpa after a six-pack.  It just makes me scratch my head a little.  Is there truly so little money to be made from this ’small’ group of 51 million that we are to be effectively ignored?  Or are we too busy doing what we do to survive in our daily lives, that we don’t complain and stomp around and make demands in front of the news media so everyone remembers we’re out here.  We just get it done. 

Well, the later is my theory.  But admittedly, I’m biased.  I’m a Gen X’er.

So I found this band, Crimson Ghosts the other day. All Misfits covers, all the time. But done by an instrumental surf band. WHOA! Now, in the interest of full disclosure, the band was originally called ‘13 Ghosts’ (outta Boston) and played under that name for many years. Then, with some drama, ‘most’ of the members became ‘Crimson Ghosts’. Don’t wanna know the reasons, don’t really care.

Let’s just say I support what I hear and this is good stuff. So click the link and give’em a listen. You’ll swear many of those ole’ Danzig originals were meant to be heard this way.

I played the girls a little of ‘Green Manalishi (With the 2 Pronged Crown)’, which is one of my all-time favorites, as well as ‘The Ripper’, some of ‘Diamonds & Rust’ and then we started ‘Victim of Changes’.

At this point, Tabitha - my youngest and future riot girl, asked what the song was again.

“Victim of Changes” I said.

“Oh” she said, the wheels turning in her mind.  “I think I can DEFINITELY relate to that one”.

At that point I was kind of afraid to ask what specific changes she was being victimized by, or who’s - assuming it was a biological reference or perhaps a reminder of a recent sad break-up.  Either way, some things are better off not asked by Dad, y’know? 

Still, I couldn’t help but find it somewhat ironic of the timeless (albeit generationally unique) perspective that JP’s lyrics could instill in my young listeners.  I wonder if Rob and company have ever been confronted by their own children interpreting their songs in a different, yet very much the same, vein as they were intended?

Ok, interesting idea on paper but really, who ever heard of putting up a site to take orders without a SINGLE, DECENT PHOTO OF THE PRODUCT?? Seriously, TRY and find a picture other then in the murky, Marilyn Manson-esque Flash when the site loads. . .nuh uh, can’t be done. And I have no idea what “The Beast” is gonna cost when it ships either, but I’m thinkin’ it won’t be cheap. Gonna be a tough sell if customers can’t make out what they’re ordering.

These trivialities aside, it comes out June 1 in a very limited number. So pre-order now if you’re interested kiddies. . .and you don’t really care what it looks like. I’m sure the mallrats will still swarm all over it.

Me, I think I’ll stick with my riding boots . . .