My blog on HubPages.com - Reviews of Music, Movies, etc.

Think of all the money you've saved too.  I'm always stunned at how much tobacco products cost.  My ever so brief foray into smokeless tobacco came when Skoal Bandits came out when I was 12.  For some reason painters hats emblazoned with Skoal, Copenhagen and the like were real popular with us kids in Indiana.  Figured may as well see what this stuff was really about.  Left a bad after taste I couldn't get rid of and it made me dizzy.  Of course stuffing like three of those things in my mouth was probably the wrong way to go about it.  I "quit" just about the time I started.  Never got into smoking either but more because the OCD in me found ash trays and cigarette butts to be the grossest puke inducing thing ever.  Wet butts were a whole other level. Good luck on staying tobacco free.  And find something fun to do with the extra coin.  You earned it the hard way, I'm sure.

I have always wished they treated Blaze's Maiden involvement as more of a side project and named it something else.  I thought X Factor had it's moments and was fine for what it was.  I was a big Wolfsbane fan so bringing in Blaze seemed like an awesome idea on paper.  They just didn't bring out the best in each other IMO.  The funny thing is I think Blaze's solo albums are pretty damn great.  If he would've or could've brought more of that to the table then his stint seems like it would have been much more.  But under a different name than Maiden.  I have a hang-up about such things.

Thanx for the kind words, jstate. You would think that giving up tobacco would've left me flush with extra cash to piss away on fun stuff, but strangely it never works out that way. Damn kids always needing unnecessary frills like food, clothing, and shelter...haha

I hear ya. But at least it's for the kids.

That said, I *did* celebrate my one year of tobaccoless living by ordering a heap of cheap stuff from GoHastings.

Cool. I've been trying to kick that gohastings addiction myself.

jstate wrote:

Cool.  I've been trying to kick that gohastings addiction myself.

I only hit them up two or three times a year at most. If I "indulge" any more often than that my wife would staple-gun my nuts to my forehead.

New One... WARNING TO PARENTS!!! Avoid this no-budget kids' movie at all costs.

It's only February and it's already my front runner for "Worst Movie I've Seen All Year"....



http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/Crappy-Kid-Movie-Alert-Beware-of-A-Talking-Cat

My kids found this craptacular kids' movie on Netflix last weekend and of course wanted to watch it since we're "cat people." Total mistake! By the halfway point even they were laughing at the horrible acting, continuity errors, and other misfires. Turns out this flick was made by a guy who usually does softcore dude porn, but he makes these quickie talking-animal "family comedies" on the side. That explains a skin crawlingly awkward scene with two teenage boys who seemed like they were in an awful hurry to get shirtless and jump into the pool together.

New one. I watched "Death Wish V: The Face of Death" the other night, which was the only "Death Wish" film I had never seen. It inspired me to do a rundown of the entire series:



http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/The-Death-Wish-Series-Bronson-at-His-Best

I can't be the only one who's addicted to those cheap-ass "Extended Versions" budget live CDs, can I?


http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/A-Guide-to-Collecting-SonyBMGs-Extended-Versions-CDs

Updated my old HubPage about Overkill now that a new album is in the pipeline:

http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/OVERKILL-East-Coast-Thrash-Metal-Masters

I started posting nonsense about heavy metal and bad movies at HubPages three years ago today, starting with this review of Stryper's then-current THE COVERING CD:

http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/Stryper-THE-COVERING-Big3-Records-2011

More than 100 posts later I'm still at it. I've come a long way baby!!

Thanks to everyone who's continued to read my ramblings. Y'all rock.

"Verily, preparest thou for a most righteous kicking of ass, varlet!"



I recently picked up Dirty, But Well Dressed, the only CD by the one-and-done hair metal band Beau Nasty... inspiring my latest "Forgotten Hard Rock Albums" entry.

http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/Forgotten-Hard-Rock-Albums-Beau-Nasty-DIRTY-BUT-WELL-DRESSED-1989

Here's my newest HubPage action... I picked up a CD copy of KISS' long forgotten KILLERS comp last week, so I wrote a review of it. Cuz that's what KISS nerds do.



http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/KISS-Killers-1982-Compilation-Album-Review

Good old KISS Killers ! I remember seeing that advertised in one of those import album company ads that used to be in Hit Parader, etc. and blowing my mind. I had to have it. I mailed in my order and waited impatiently for it. I was stoked when it arrived. I still have the vinyl (like you,with no turntable). A few years ago, I found a cd copy in K Mart of all places. I almost fell over. That thing went home with me that night. And like you stated in your review (good one,by the way) the only real reason to own it is the 4 new tracks.

It had been so long since I've owned a turntable that I literally could not remember what any of the four "new" songs on Killers sounded like, haha. That's what inspired me to hunt down a CD copy. I got lucky and scored that one used from GoHastings for under ten bucks. I was very happy when it arrived in the mail and I saw it was a German copy with the "alternate" KISS logo to boot. That was an unexpected bonus.

According to our good friends at Wikipedia, the japanese version has the additional tracks Escape From The Island and Shandi and the Australian edition has Talk To Me and Shandi (I seem to remember reading somewhere that Shandi was a huge hit for KISS Down Under). That would be a cool find.

Yeah, "Shandi" was apparently a major hit Down Under. They have to put it back into the set list every time they tour Australia or the audience won't let them leave the building alive. Haha.

Picked up some sweet 70s cheez rock (and one 80s classic) at the thrift store last week.

http://fatfreddyscat.hubpages.com/hub/Scrounging-for-CDs-at-the-Thrift-Store

I'm with you on Styx-somewhat good but somewhat lame. Very schizophrenic indeed. I never thought much of REO Speedwagon. I have the Living Colour cd (and enjoy it as well). But...Rick Springfield ? I think I know maybe 2 songs of his and that's enough.   

Excellent hub as usual! I think I'll skip the early Rick Springfield stuff.... he does have a great song on the Sound City soundtrack/movie (with Mr Foo Fighter himself):

The Rick Springfield CD was simply too weird to pass up. A "Greatest Hits" which features no actual hits, plus Rick looking all Partridge Family on the cover...I couldn't leave it there!

Regarding Styx, I was a major fan back in the day and IMO there are several essential albums in their catalog.  Obviously one would be "Grand Illusion" but I prefer a lot of their earlier stuff like "Serpent Is Rising", "Crystal Ball" and (especially) "Equinox".

After the success of "Grand Illusion" the wimpy, ballad factor went on the rise.  And yes, "Babe" is among the worst songs ever written.

And your comment about "Mr. Roboto" prompted a funny memory.  I've seen Styx 3 times and the last time was the tour promoting "Kilroy Was Here", the concept album "Mr. Roboto" is on.  You know that moment when you're at a concert and the main event act has kept you waiting and finally the lights go down and everyone in the audience goes nuts?  Well, that happened when I saw Styx on that tour.  Guess what the band did.  They promptly showed a 20 minute video about the whole "Kilroy" story.  After about 5 minutes the crowd was booing like mad.  When Styx finally took the stage, the crowed booed every song from the Kilroy album and only cheered for the earlier stuff (even "Babe").  That "let's open our show with a video about our new album" concept has Dennis DeYoung written all over it.

You'd have to slog through a lot of cheesy sewage, but I bet you could make a pretty decent playlist of both Styx and REO Speedwagon if you were so inclined.

Nice articles FF. I caught up on a few of 'em this morning.

I was into Styx and REO as a kid and still have most of Styx's catalog on vinyl, but today I just can't get into them. That said, Grand Illusion seems to always be stuck in my head at the worst times of the day, and Come Sail Away is a freakishly awesome 70's power ballad that was used to perfection on Freaks & Geeks. Anyway, nice write-up FF, as usual.

Thanx fellers!

toho wrote:

And your comment about "Mr. Roboto" prompted a funny memory.  I've seen Styx 3 times and the last time was the tour promoting "Kilroy Was Here", the concept album "Mr. Roboto" is on.  You know that moment when you're at a concert and the main event act has kept you waiting and finally the lights go down and everyone in the audience goes nuts?  Well, that happened when I saw Styx on that tour.  Guess what the band did.  They promptly showed a 20 minute video about the whole "Kilroy" story.  After about 5 minutes the crowd was booing like mad.  When Styx finally took the stage, the crowed booed every song from the Kilroy album and only cheered for the earlier stuff (even "Babe").  That "let's open our show with a video about our new album" concept has Dennis DeYoung written all over it.

That's hysterical. They talk about that disastrous tour in Styx's "Behind the Music" episode. They were playing a summer outdoor festival in Texas or something, it was a thousand degrees outside, and the crowd was drunk, sunburnt and pissed off... and Tommy Shaw sez he was thinking, "...I have to go out there onstage and deliver a 20 minute monologue about robots before I even play a note? I'm gonna die." He sez the rest of the band begged Dennis DeYoung to let them drop the theatrical BS for the night and just go out there and rock, but he refused, and the resulting show turned out pretty ugly.

I have an old issue of Circus magazine with a concert review from that tour as well; the critic sez the audience was visibly disturbed by the Broadway-style sets and musical-theater style performance, till about halfway through the show somebody up in the balcony finally stood up and shouted "What the f*ck IS this?"