Coronavirus

Required Fields wrote:

the sentinel wrote:

Required Fields wrote:

James Murphy (formerly of Death, Testament, Obituary, and others), Karl Willetts (formerly of Bolt Thrower), and Jeff Beccera (Possessed) are joining forces in a "Metal Against Coronavirus" project.

Good on them! I wish the heavy hitters of the Metal genre would do something big to raise some dough for the less fortunate a la "Hear N Aid" or something like it.

NGL, the dude in the middle of the photo looks like RF at age 50 or so.

Well, I don't have long hair, and never have. But I love James Murphy's guitar playing, so I'll take that as a compliment.

Well, take that as a sign. Now you need to let it grow.

"Well, take that as a sign. Now you need to let it grow.

I wish I could. I have been shaving my head bald since I was about 22/23 years old. I had long hair in junior high, but went to a private high school where there was a dress code, so, no long hair or facial hair. When I graduated in 1992 and went off to college I grew it shoulder length again, but when I got to about 1195 or so I got the "Stone Cold/ Goldberg look of shaved head with a goatee. I jokingly say that I have saved about $7,000 - 8,000 in the last 2 plus decades by shaving my own head. That's more money for pizza, beer, and...Metal!!!!

There are protests going on in Pittsburgh today over the shut down of businesses. I can see their complaints but I don't know if mass reopening of all the businesses is a smart move. My company is opening next week, so I'll see how it goes. One thing I am bummed about is we now have to wear masks when we're out and about. I hate wearing stuff like that.

007 wrote:

There are protests going on in Pittsburgh today over the shut down of businesses. I can see their complaints but I don't know if mass reopening of all the businesses is a smart move. My company is opening next week, so I'll see how it goes. One thing I am bummed about is we now have to wear masks when we're out and about. I hate wearing stuff like that.

That is ridiculous. I'm not sure those cotton scarfs do anything anyway because airborne viruses just go right through them as you inhale.

And I'm afraid if I ever had to wear one of those, people wouldn't be able to see my pretty mouth.

007 wrote:

There are protests going on in Pittsburgh today over the shut down of businesses. I can see their complaints but I don't know if mass reopening of all the businesses is a smart move. My company is opening next week, so I'll see how it goes. One thing I am bummed about is we now have to wear masks when we're out and about. I hate wearing stuff like that.

Yeah, there is talk of a partial re opening here in RI starting on May 8th. I feel like that is just way too early. Every week someone tells me this is the "peak week" and then it passes and I hear the same ting from someone else the next week. I am all for getting back to normal (same as you guys I think) but not at the risk of a major relapse and having to go through this all again.

Gov. Wolf announced a May 8th starting point for reopening here as well. I guess we've hit a plateau in new cases here (only 7 new announced for Allegheny county, the lowest in a month) so maybe we are peaking, but still, this may be a bit risky. I guess only time will tell. I know I would love to have everything back to normal (who wouldn't?).

007 wrote:

Gov. Wolf announced a May 8th starting point for reopening here as well. I guess we've hit a plateau in new cases here (only 7 new announced for Allegheny county, the lowest in a month) so maybe we are peaking, but still, this may be a bit risky. I guess only time will tell. I know I would love to have everything back to normal (who wouldn't?).

Did that change? I haven’t watched the news in awhile but last I heard PA was shut down till May 15th.

He announced it today. I probably worded it wrong but here's the link :

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/04/20/gov-tom-wolf-reopens-pennsylvania-may-8/

My company released about 99% of the people they furloughed on April 1 including a couple friends of mine and my manager.  A sad day that really came out of the blue.  I mean once the furloughs happened everyone knew this was a possibility but so soon?  The furloughs hadn't even ended yet.  It sort of feels like people have died.

tohostudios wrote:

I realized I was running out of some stuff I should have gotten on my last foray into "grocery shopping hell" on Friday so I decided to give one of the delivery services one of the local chains uses a shot.  I placed an order for about $50 worth of stuff (including paper towels).  It's scheduled to be delivered to my front door tomorrow and because I ordered more than $35 worth of stuff delivery is free.  And the prices looked to be the same as the in-store prices. 

We'll see how this first order goes.  Membership with the shipping service is free for two weeks.  After that it's like $14 per month.  If this coronavirus/social distancing crap drags on I might start doing this more often.

On a positive note, I couldn't have been more impressed with this delivery service.  I ended up padding my order out to about $80 this morning and around 1 PM the guy doing my shopping called me to OK a few minor substitutions.  One of them was my paper towels.  I had selected 6 individually wrapped paper towels but the store had a limit of two paper towel items so he wanted to know if I was OK with a wrapped 6 pack.  Now that's using your head.  Then about 15 minutes later he called to tell me that as he was going to checkout with my order he went down the cleaning supply aisle and happened to notice that they had Clorox wipes for the first time in weeks.  He wanted to know if I could use a couple cans of those.  I still have some wipes on hand but I was starting to conserve them so I said sure.  Talk about customer service!

10 minutes later he phoned again to tell me the stuff was on my front porch.  Then I got an email from the company asking me to rate the service and I gave him great marks.  It also said I could add a tip which would go directly to my shopper so I threw in another 20%.  I will definitely keep doing this until grocery shopping gets back to normal - or at least more normal.  The service was just outstanding!

Good on you for tipping, Toho.

I'm normally a decent tipper anyway in the few times I'm in a "tipping situation".  I grew up with a dad who was completely loathe to leave a tip at all ("Why leave a tip?  They're just doing their job.")  I'm sure everyone has run into that old school mentality.

So I normally tip "tipable" people - even the stylists who cut my hair even though for them it's like shearing a sheep and takes less than 10 minutes and I pay the same price as someone who sits in that same chair getting a "feather cut on the front with layers on the side" or whatever.  I've worked in retail (not a business where tipping was involved but just waiting on the general public) and while 3/4 of the customers are decent the other 1/4 are spoiled brats, drunks, morons or worse yet some combination of the three. 

So yeah, always tip someone who give you decent service and especially if you receive better than average service.

We have a stay at home order but no one is obeying it and cops are not stopping anyone. I still work so I am out daily. My wife and kids left for the first time yesterday in over a month and that was to go to the schools and clean out lockers. My oldest daughter had to get her cap and gown for a graduation that probably will not happen. Walmart counts people when they go in and they are still selling everything non-essential. About half of the customers are wearing masks.

Beaches opened back up yesterday but only open from 6AM-9AM and 5PM to 8PM and no more than 10 people together (which didn't work last time and the reason they closed it).

Someone pointed out that Florida said WWE was essential but other sports are not? How can WWE be essential when they have CLOSED sets with no audience? How is this good for the state economy? It isn't. The article stated if WWE is essential then so is baseball and that baseball games should be played with no fans. And since WWE is entertainment that movies should be allowed to film on closed sets. It makes sense I guess but it ALL boils down to the McMahon's deep pockets of 18.5 million dollars given to Florida. There are reports of wrestlers being unhappy with the situation where they are being forced to fly to Florida every week from their homes to do shows and feel they should just show previously recorded content.

mikeinfla wrote:

Someone pointed out that Florida said WWE was essential but other sports are not? How can WWE be essential when they have CLOSED sets with no audience? How is this good for the state economy? It isn't. The article stated if WWE is essential then so is baseball and that baseball games should be played with no fans. And since WWE is entertainment that movies should be allowed to film on closed sets. It makes sense I guess but it ALL boils down to the McMahon's deep pockets of 18.5 million dollars given to Florida. There are reports of wrestlers being unhappy with the situation where they are being forced to fly to Florida every week from their homes to do shows and feel they should just show previously recorded content.  

Vince has taken a 2nd(!) beating on the XFL, so he's gotta recoup that cash whenever and wherever he can.

You know I haven't thought about this until now (as I quit watching or paying attention to sports about a decade ago) but what are they replacing sports programming with? Is it pre recorded content and old documentaries?

I don't know about other channels but MLB Network has been replaying "classic" baseball games.  I watch a bit of a few but that got old fast.

I typically watch ESPN on Saturdays for their various seasonal sports pre-game shows and then stay there if there's a game on I'm interested in.  Now ESPN has been showing "classic" boxing and UFC matches most Saturdays.  One week it was the Best Fights of Muhammad Ali, one week it was the Best UFC Knockouts of all-time, one week it was Best Fights of all-time.  That works for "background viewing" but I sure don't sit down and watch the whole thing.

I imagine other sports channels are doing pretty much the same thing.

ESPN has also gotten desperate enough to broadcast stuff like "virtual NBA" and "virtual auto racing" neither of which of course holds any interest for me.

But as this drags on I have no idea what the sports channels are going to do.  ESPN seems to have some kind of working relationship with WWE (they even showed WrestleMania 35 in its entirety a few weeks ago); you'd think maybe they'd buy some of the massive WWE Network back catalog of matches just to fill in programming space.

tohostudios wrote:

I don't know about other channels but MLB Network has been replaying "classic" baseball games.  I watch a bit of a few but that got old fast.

I typically watch ESPN on Saturdays for their various seasonal sports pre-game shows and then stay there if there's a game on I'm interested in.  Now ESPN has been showing "classic" boxing and UFC matches most Saturdays.  One week it was the Best Fights of Muhammad Ali, one week it was the Best UFC Knockouts of all-time, one week it was Best Fights of all-time.  That works for "background viewing" but I sure don't sit down and watch the whole thing.

I imagine other sports channels are doing pretty much the same thing.

ESPN has also gotten desperate enough to broadcast stuff like "virtual NBA" and "virtual auto racing" neither of which of course holds any interest for me.

But as this drags on I have no idea what the sports channels are going to do.  ESPN seems to have some kind of working relationship with WWE (they even showed WrestleMania 35 in its entirety a few weeks ago); you'd think maybe they'd buy some of the massive WWE Network back catalog of matches just to fill in programming space.

Thanks for the info, brother Toho. We no longer have "regular" tv channels like Fox or AMC, nor do we have any sports channels like RSPN or FS1; we have Netflix, Disney+ and the Amazon Fire stick. Even if I were still a rabid fan the way I was a decade ago (and had the time I had when I was single and childless), I can't see myself sitting down to watch re runs of the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup finals. Especially if its something I remember and know the outcome, then it just seems pointless as anything but, as you wisely said, background viewing. I could watch a Saxon concert, listen to a Priest bootleg, or view Tremors for the umpteenth time; but the nature of sports as a contest with a winner/ loser seems to lend itself to a one off view.

I promise you, if ESPN were to buy the rights to show something like classic ECW broadcasts from WWE I'd watch that constantly. 

Unlike "real" sports, most of the time you know how pro wrestling matches are going to turn out before they even start.  So there's usually little suspense even watching pro wrestling live.  But ECW was just so damn entertaining that even squash matches were entertaining.

I’ll say this ....
I’ve seen a lot of fine women business lady joggers -
Working at home lol
You know those yoga pants - and spandex black tight deals.
As I drive by playing metal !
“ White Wedding “ is fun to blast during this - temp just right !

I got a call yesterday, to pick up a couple of cds which have just arrived in the mail. Don't know which yet.

I am so happy. Haven't received any new material in a while.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

mikeinfla wrote:

Someone pointed out that Florida said WWE was essential but other sports are not? How can WWE be essential when they have CLOSED sets with no audience? How is this good for the state economy? It isn't. The article stated if WWE is essential then so is baseball and that baseball games should be played with no fans. And since WWE is entertainment that movies should be allowed to film on closed sets. It makes sense I guess but it ALL boils down to the McMahon's deep pockets of 18.5 million dollars given to Florida. There are reports of wrestlers being unhappy with the situation where they are being forced to fly to Florida every week from their homes to do shows and feel they should just show previously recorded content.  

Vince has taken a 2nd(!) beating on the XFL, so he's gotta recoup that cash whenever and wherever he can.

I think the latest XFL fiasco was totally out of Vince's control.  Around here the STL Battlehawks were drawing between 20,000 and 30,000 fans for the two home games we had.  Attendance was so strong that they had planned to open up the upper tiers of the dome for game 3 which unfortunately never happened.  My friend at work had tickets to that game.  The game never happened and now my friend has been "permanently laid off" from his job.

So MUCH has changed in just a few months and ALL of it is totally out of anyone's control.

Gilbert wrote:

I got a call yesterday, to pick up a couple of cds which have just arrived in the mail. Don't know which yet.

I am so happy. Haven't received any new material in a while.

Nice!

I used some stimulus money yesterday to buy the 4 Tora Tora discs I didn't have from F'N'A records. Online buying has been pretty good lately, but I really miss going to a store and just rummaging around.

I miss the "rummaging around in a store" days too but holy crap, I haven't been able to do that around here in about 10 years.

I sure miss the days when I lived in TN.  I used to live about 25 miles from downtown Nashville and would go to a GREAT used CD store there called "The Great Escape" every weekend.  They had literally THOUSANDS of used CDs you could sample on several dozen listening posts.  Even when I moved to Jackson, TN about 2 1/2 hours away from Nashville I'd still make the drive to Great Escape at least once a month to stock up on CDs.

Man, I haven't had a similar experience in years and I miss it.

I too miss cd shops. There's only one left here and it mainly carries classic rock and hard rock. So i wait until i am in Europe on business trips, to spend some time visiting record shops. Hope we will be able to travel again soon.

By the way, i received the new Ozzy and Demons & Wizzards on cd. Loving both!