Static Live Magazine December 2020
STATIC LIVE Magazine is Central Florida’s premier publication dedicated to celebrating music and culture. STATIC LIVE provides extensive, detailed community information from fashion to art, entertainment to events through noteworthy interviews, sensational photography and in-depth editorial coverage. STATIC LIVE is the only publication of its kind in Central Florida and reaches all target markets through wide distribution channels. Our staff includes highly accomplished contributors with award-winning backgrounds in music and entertainment; we know how much business is captured from the entertainment market. Our free full color publication can be found throughout Central Florida at key retailers, hotels and restaurants in high traffic areas. Our mission is to highlight the incredible talent, culture and lifestyle in Central Florida. With eye-opening profiles and coverage of the music and art community, STATIC LIVE readers will be positively influenced by our topical content and trending advertisers. STATIC LIVE Magazine is the most effective tool for branding connectivity with consumers in our area.
STATIC LIVE Magazine is Central Florida’s premier publication dedicated to celebrating music and culture. STATIC LIVE provides extensive, detailed community information from fashion to art, entertainment to events through noteworthy interviews, sensational photography and in-depth editorial coverage. STATIC LIVE is the only publication of its kind in Central Florida and reaches all target markets through wide distribution channels. Our staff includes highly accomplished contributors with award-winning backgrounds in music and entertainment; we know how much business is captured from the entertainment market. Our free full color publication can be found throughout Central Florida at key retailers, hotels and restaurants in high traffic areas. Our mission is to highlight the incredible talent, culture and lifestyle in Central Florida. With eye-opening profiles and coverage of the music and art community, STATIC LIVE readers will be positively influenced by our topical content and trending advertisers. STATIC LIVE Magazine is the most effective tool for branding connectivity with consumers in our area.
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The Joshua<br />
Light Show<br />
Cannabis<br />
Chronicles<br />
Happy<br />
Holidays<br />
Traditions<br />
Unappreciated<br />
The Loss of a Legend
ART Feature<br />
The Joshua<br />
Light Show<br />
18<br />
10 <strong>2020</strong> as Rock History, Rock<br />
History as <strong>2020</strong><br />
14 Cannabis Chronicles<br />
15 Musician’s Cookbook<br />
16 A Day in the Life of a<br />
Gigging Musician<br />
23 A Word From the Throne<br />
28 Mud Rooster’s Blues<br />
30 Metal Compost<br />
32 Events Calendar<br />
34 Happy Holiday Traditions<br />
44 Join the Disney Revolution<br />
48 Dishonor to us All...<br />
51 February, 1978<br />
52 Music + Fashion =<br />
The Decades<br />
12<br />
The Loss of a Legend<br />
Eddie Van Halen<br />
38<br />
Fearing<br />
Technology<br />
in a Time<br />
of Plague<br />
24<br />
EVH<br />
was the<br />
GOAT
54 What’s in<br />
Your Phone<br />
58 Unappreciated<br />
61 Moments<br />
Missed on a<br />
Holiday Stage<br />
STUDIOS<br />
DREAM. CREATE.<br />
6<br />
Izabela<br />
42<br />
Rocktails<br />
Sean Impara, Publisher<br />
Billy Chapin, Co-Publisher<br />
Jenny McLain, Editor<br />
Jamie Lee, Managing Director<br />
Bekka A. James, Graphic Artist<br />
COVER ART BY<br />
GARY KROMAN<br />
<strong>2020</strong>, <strong>Static</strong> <strong>Live</strong> Media Group, LLC. All<br />
rightsreserved. No part of this publication may<br />
be reproduced or transmitted in any form by<br />
any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying,<br />
recording or otherwise without the prior<br />
written permission of the authors.<br />
Making great music since 1999<br />
For scheduling, Contact Sean at (386) 847-2716
Oh My Goddess...<br />
My name is Izabela Olejnik and I’m Polish/American. I’ve lived in<br />
Florida basically my whole life and I love being on the beach. I’m a senior at UCF<br />
and I’m completing my degree in Computer Science to pursue a career in Software<br />
Engineering! My hobbies include modeling,<br />
photography, coding, and reading. So happy to be a Premiere Model and featured<br />
in <strong>Static</strong> <strong>Live</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong>!
3401 S. Atlantic Avenue, New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169 386-423-8787<br />
<strong>December</strong> LIVE MUSIC Schedule<br />
Dec 5 th - Eric Von 2 pm<br />
Dec 12 th - Jay Paski 2pm<br />
Dec 19 th - Savi Fernandez<br />
Dec 26 th - Smyrna Erb
<strong>2020</strong> as Rock History,<br />
In the 1960s, legend says Jim Morrison, the<br />
shamanic singer of the Doors, liked to scurry<br />
to the rooftops of buildings to walk along the<br />
ledges. Myth says the Lizard King was seeking<br />
yet another thrilling, Dionysian adrenaline fix,<br />
although the brutal, deflating truth is that he likely<br />
was just a drunk dumb-ass who didn’t realize he<br />
might kill himself.<br />
An even more brutal truth is that <strong>2020</strong> has made<br />
all of us Morrison-like ledge-walkers – reluctant<br />
ones, to be sure – in our daily lives. Going to<br />
the grocery store can get you killed in these<br />
pandemic times. Politically propelled paranoiacs<br />
may go uzi on you if you note that Black lives<br />
matter or, contrary to President Nero, you say<br />
there are no “fine people” among today’s white<br />
power gestapo.<br />
When future historians look back and try to make<br />
sense of the fucked-up-ness of <strong>2020</strong>, they will be<br />
more discombobulated and gobsmacked than if<br />
Marilyn Manson had stuffed his soiled jockstrap<br />
down their throats. So, as a public service, I offer<br />
future historians this music-aided guide to <strong>2020</strong>.<br />
Like Jimbo’s ledge walking, the history and music<br />
of rock, rap and pop can offer metaphors and<br />
insights about what the hell is going on.<br />
* If <strong>2020</strong> were a song – A lot of old songs are<br />
vying to be the theme song of <strong>2020</strong>, and yes they<br />
are worthy contenders: “Don’t Stand So Close to<br />
Me” by the Police, “It’s the End of the World As<br />
We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M.,<br />
10<br />
“Epidemic” by Slayer, “Paranoia” by Black<br />
Sabbath, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana<br />
(key lyric – “I feel stupid and contagious, here<br />
we are now, entertain us!”), and “Baby Let’s<br />
Play House” by Elvis Presley (this won the subcategory<br />
for Best Lock-down Song).<br />
But the hands-down winner is “I Put a Spell on<br />
You,” that 1955 Screamin’ Jay Hawkins ditty as<br />
covered by Diamanda Galas. Google your way to<br />
her live version on YouTube – if you dare. “I don’t<br />
care if you don’t want me, I’m yours right now, I<br />
put a spell on you,” Galas growls, sounding like<br />
the year <strong>2020</strong> itself singing with garlicky breath<br />
right in your face – and without a mask at that.<br />
Then Galas drives over the cliff and plunges<br />
into screams and demonic ululations that sound<br />
like Godzilla is farting on her face and Satan is<br />
snacking on her balls –and Galas doesn’t even<br />
have testicles (I think).<br />
* What America was like before the plague – “The<br />
Box” by Roddy Ricch. This will be the answer to<br />
the future trivia question: “What was the last No.<br />
1 song before lockdowns began in the U.S.?”<br />
Yes, kids, be careful what you listen to, because<br />
you never know how history is going to mark you<br />
and your music.<br />
* If <strong>2020</strong> were a rock ’n’ roll hairstyle – Ozzy<br />
Osbourne during the 1980s. For some reason<br />
the Oz, or his handlers, thought it would be<br />
gold for the Black Sabbath frontman to sport a<br />
high-haired, overly manicured bouffant hairstyle<br />
that made him look like the tarty wife of some<br />
televangelist -- minus the hooker red lipstick
Rock History as <strong>2020</strong><br />
By Rick De Yampert<br />
This paragon of devil rock had that whole<br />
“the higher the hair, the closer to God” thing<br />
happening. Ozzy has done a lot of weird shit<br />
during his career, but sporting that hairstyle was<br />
just damn disturbing – like <strong>2020</strong>.<br />
* If <strong>2020</strong> were a rock ’n’ roll fashion statement –<br />
That swan dress that Bjork wore to the Academy<br />
Awards in 2001 certainly wasn’t sinister, and it<br />
was polarizing only in a playful love-it-or-hate-it<br />
way. But that swan dress was fucked up in an<br />
absurd, I’ve-never-seen-that-before manner –<br />
exactly like <strong>2020</strong>. Second place in this category<br />
goes to Elton John when he wore a Donald Duck<br />
costume on stage.<br />
* If <strong>2020</strong> were a weird rock ’n’ roll moment –<br />
Nothing in the history of rock can be as weird,<br />
mind-blowing, depressing and distressing as<br />
<strong>2020</strong>, you say. And you mostly would be right.<br />
Pat Boone’s big-band crooner cover of Metallica’s<br />
“Enter Sandman,” Milli Vanilli, Ol’ Dirty Bastard<br />
just being his doomed, Grammy-interrupting self<br />
– none of those are as twisted as <strong>2020</strong>.<br />
But there’s this: that day in 1970 when Elvis<br />
showed up at the White House requesting a<br />
meeting with President Nixon. In a letter to Tricky<br />
Dick that Elvis hand-delivered to a security guard,<br />
the King of Rock ’n’ Roll stated that “the drug<br />
culture, the hippie elements, the SDS, Black<br />
Panthers, etc. do not consider me as their enemy<br />
or as they call it the establishment. I call it<br />
America and I love it. Sir, I can and will be of any<br />
service that I can to help the country out.”<br />
Elvis added he had “done an in-depth study of<br />
drug abuse and Communist<br />
brainwashing techniques and I am right in the<br />
middle of the whole thing where I can and will do<br />
the most good.” The King wanted to be baptized<br />
as a “Federal Agent at Large” in what was then<br />
called the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous<br />
Drugs (now the DEA).<br />
White House officials quickly arranged a meeting<br />
between Elvis and Nixon a few hours later, and<br />
the King showed up looking like a Victorian pimp<br />
version of Count Dracula, wearing a purple velvet<br />
suit replete with cape, and a pro wrestler-style<br />
belt with a Hulk-sized gold buckle. He also had<br />
a present for the president: an encased Colt<br />
.45 pistol that nervous Secret Service agents<br />
examined then approved for Elvis to give to the<br />
Commander in Chief.<br />
While Tricky Dick loved to secretly tape meetings,<br />
he evidently didn’t press the “record” button for<br />
his meeting with Elvis, and so we have to rely on<br />
notes taken by a White House aide for a sketchy<br />
account of what the Prez and the King talked<br />
about. We do know that Elvis walked away with a<br />
narc badge, although he was clueless that it was<br />
merely an honorary one.<br />
The whole absurd incident is documented in<br />
the National Archives online at archives.gov<br />
– including that famous photo of Tricky Dick<br />
shaking hands with the King.<br />
The year <strong>2020</strong> may have been weird – but it’s<br />
not purply velvet Elvis showing up at the White<br />
House to bribe Tricky Dick with a Colt .45 to grant<br />
him narc-hood weird. Or is it? Future historians<br />
will decide.
I’m guessing that not many kids can say they<br />
went to a concert all by themselves when they<br />
were 14, much less a Van Halen concert on one<br />
of their first world tours. Well, that<br />
kid was me and you wouldn’t believe<br />
how much sweet talking and begging<br />
and pleading I had to do to my mom to<br />
get her to let me go to the show.<br />
The year was 1981 Van Halen was out on<br />
their Women and Children First album<br />
tour and I had just recently started liking a<br />
little bit of the hard rock; when I was<br />
younger I was more of a fan of the Beatles<br />
and Simon and Garfunkel and other<br />
mellow crap that my parents loved.<br />
Even though the show was quite a long<br />
time ago, there are a few things that I do<br />
remember quite distinctly. Number one,<br />
my mom preached the whole way there<br />
and looking back it kind of felt like when<br />
the mom was speaking to Cameron<br />
Crowe in the movie Almost Famous.<br />
She dropped me off at the<br />
McDonald’s across the<br />
street from the arena with<br />
the final instructions,<br />
“You’d better be here right<br />
after the concert.” Of<br />
course, back then there<br />
were no cell phones so<br />
she just had to trust that<br />
I would do as she wished.<br />
Walking into the show all<br />
by myself was such a unique<br />
experience, as I was only<br />
about 5’ 2” and probably<br />
looked like I was ten.<br />
Back then, it was<br />
basically general admission<br />
so the fans who got there first<br />
were the ones that were able to<br />
be at the front of the stage. I, of<br />
course, was late but after about 30<br />
minutes of wiggling, joking and<br />
basically shoving my way towards<br />
the stage, by the third song my chest<br />
was against the crowd barrier and<br />
I was front row. I remember raising<br />
my hands to scream and shout like<br />
everyone else and because of the<br />
pressure of the crowd I basically had<br />
to hold my hands above my head for<br />
the next ten songs.<br />
What I’m going to tell you next is a<br />
little embarrassing but it is true and<br />
it is sort of funny. During one of the<br />
songs, David Lee Roth came directly<br />
in front of me and literally 3<br />
feet away from my face. I was so<br />
excited by the thrill of the crowd,<br />
the pulsing of the music and the<br />
fact that the lead singer of one of<br />
the worlds biggest new bands was<br />
right in front of me, creating a<br />
euphoria that’ll never<br />
be forgotten.<br />
It was at that moment<br />
I couldn’t control my<br />
emotions and I reamed<br />
what must’ve been a<br />
girl-like pitch as loud as<br />
I could “ I love you<br />
Eddie”!!! It was not<br />
my proudest moment<br />
but I do swear today<br />
that David Lee
Roth heard me that night; the look on his face<br />
was utter disgust and he quickly moved down the<br />
stage to other adoring fans.<br />
The rest of the show was awesome, as I didn’t<br />
know my ultimate faux pas and - believe it or<br />
not - I made it back to the McDonald’s to a happy<br />
mother to see that her son made it back from one<br />
of the most epic concerts in Roanoke Virginia in<br />
1981. Over the next few years Van Halen went<br />
on to be one of the greatest rock ‘n roll bands of<br />
all time and it’s lead guitarist Eddie Van Halen<br />
will go down as one of the top five pioneers of<br />
the electric guitar in the history of music. Here’s<br />
a little bit more about the man in the legend and<br />
why he will always be remember forever<br />
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was born on January<br />
26, 1955, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and<br />
moved with his family to California in the early<br />
1960s. He and his brother Alex took classical<br />
piano lessons growing up; and Eddie showed<br />
talent early. As teenagers, Alex started playing<br />
drums and Eddie switched to guitar and started a<br />
rock band called Mammoth.<br />
In 1974 they were joined by David Lee Roth and<br />
bassist Michael Anthony to form Van Halen. The<br />
vocals of David Lee Roth and the guitar talent<br />
of Eddie made them very popular. They got a<br />
break in 1977 when Kiss bassist Gene Simmons<br />
heard them and financed their first recording<br />
session. They later signed with Warner Brothers<br />
and released their self titled first album in 1978.<br />
Within six months, the album achieved platinum<br />
status. They quickly became one of the hardest<br />
working bands in the industry and released<br />
albums in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982. Their<br />
popularity only grew with the addition of videos<br />
on MTV.<br />
In 1985, David Lee Roth recorded his own<br />
successful solo album and he was replaced by<br />
Sammy Hagar. Van Halen continued releasing<br />
albums, including their first double-live album in<br />
1993.<br />
Eddie Van Halen received<br />
treatment for tongue cancer<br />
in 2000, which he blamed on<br />
holding metal guitar picks in<br />
his<br />
mouth for so many years.<br />
He was hospitalized in 2019<br />
after battling throat cancer<br />
for five years and he passed<br />
away from the illness on<br />
October 6, <strong>2020</strong> at the age<br />
of 65. He was memorialized<br />
and honored by several of<br />
his fellow musicians at the<br />
<strong>2020</strong><br />
Billboard Music Awards.<br />
On November 16, <strong>2020</strong> his<br />
son, Wolfgang Van Halen,<br />
announced that Van Halen<br />
would not<br />
continue as a band<br />
without Eddie.<br />
By Reluctant Genius
Chronicals of Cannabis<br />
By John Kent<br />
Recalling - Recreational launch of<br />
July 2018 was incredible. We had<br />
lines of customers 21 and up<br />
waiting hours to come see and<br />
experience Nevada legal cannabis.<br />
Working myself sick, I had my buddy<br />
AJ filling my veins full of nutrients<br />
through an IV bag. AJ was a male<br />
nurse at that time who worked above<br />
us with Dr. Kathy - fast forward<br />
several years, a buyer and industry<br />
influencer in our small core industry.<br />
My exhaustion was naivety fueled by<br />
passion, purpose and a personal<br />
“why” which led to me worked myself<br />
till I was sick. But the market was<br />
hungry and ready! We were eager and<br />
well prepared. It was incredible to see<br />
a jump from 50 people a day to over<br />
500 instantly! The Legal cannabis<br />
industry in Nevada was born - July<br />
2018. Since then, I’ve managed<br />
a peak of 5000+ daily transactions<br />
across several Dispensaries here in<br />
the Nevada market. Talk about<br />
drinking life like through a firehose -<br />
a baptism by fire. I promise you we’re<br />
ALL still learning even now - kaizen - a continual<br />
work of improvement in progress.<br />
Through this platform, I got lucky and was<br />
featured on Viceland’s Most Expensivest for an<br />
episode hosting 2Chainz and getting him lit on the<br />
Cannagars, Hunibadger and an assortment of Vegas<br />
premium cannabis. A couple years later today, it’s<br />
garnished over 10 million views. The rawness of the<br />
industry’s birth allowed my creativity to spill over<br />
like when I launched Nevada market’s first CBD<br />
Water - Golden CBD - which evolved into one of my<br />
treasured Cannabinoid Partnerships,it’s a Himitsu. At<br />
the time, this CBD water became a top 3 SKU while<br />
CBD occupies on average only 5% of the retail sales in<br />
any given dispensary.<br />
My visiting mum & sister from Australia to a<br />
cultivation I frequently do business with. See,<br />
Cannabis suffers from cognitive dissonance - what<br />
cannabis is perceived to be versus what it actually is.<br />
Most people go wide eyed and shocked once they<br />
learn all mammals have an endocannabinoid system<br />
making it’s own THC & CBD. So for you or any<br />
mammal to consume cannabis is like hydrating your<br />
body with water. While there, mum met a lady whose<br />
son was enduring cancer. My mum witnessed pain no<br />
parent should and listened to cannabis experts discuss<br />
science and provide plausible help for an improvement<br />
in quality of life for this mother and son. That<br />
experience she remembers still today.<br />
And in an absolute paradigm shift of platform<br />
opportunity conveying this wide market, I was invited<br />
- a couple of times - to speak at the AVN’s Internext<br />
on Cannabis and the Adult Entertainment Industry<br />
- oh the stories there to come in following months.<br />
What an opportunity to reach another audience -<br />
not one CBD enterprise existed at that convention<br />
and the product empowerment towards a sector of<br />
individuals which could benefit from such operational<br />
tactics and product support. This industry is largely<br />
untapped and I am eager, excited and overjoyed to<br />
reach what Dr. John Demartini had placed in my<br />
heart and soul as my personal definition of success -<br />
where ones vocation and vacation is synonymous. I<br />
feel blessed and I’ll continue to serve my purpose in<br />
purifying products and uplifting the marketplace. -<br />
John Kent
MUSICIAN’S COOKBOOK<br />
THAI CHICKEN PIZZA<br />
Welcome to a new month…<br />
<strong>December</strong>! The time for festivity is<br />
here. Deck the halls and celebrate<br />
with some comfort food. I truly<br />
love this time of the season, but I<br />
find myself getting burnt out on<br />
traditional holiday favorites. For<br />
your holiday extravaganza, I wanted<br />
to present you with a truly unique<br />
dish. Give your tastebuds a true<br />
gift… something they’ve most likely<br />
never tasted before…Thai Chicken<br />
Pizza. The combination of the<br />
following ingredients creates a truly<br />
mouthwatering dinner option for you<br />
and your family. You will instantly<br />
want to make it the following week,<br />
and again, and again.<br />
Thai Chicken Pizza is perfect for<br />
everyone. This particular recipe<br />
is not particularly spicy, but you<br />
can dial it to zero by omitting the<br />
recommended hot pepper flakes.<br />
Everyone likes chicken, everyone<br />
likes pizza. PEANUT ALLERGY<br />
readers BEWARE as this does<br />
contain peanut butter and peanuts.<br />
From prep to serve, this meal takes<br />
about 30 minutes total. Each piece is<br />
loaded with ingredients (No skimping<br />
out here!) Usually, I encourage the use<br />
of Tupperware for leftovers but each<br />
slice stores perfectly fine in wrapped<br />
tin foil. Keep a few slices in the fridge<br />
(trust me, you’ll want them). Also,<br />
keep some in the freezer for easy<br />
reheat later.<br />
Ingredients:<br />
Fresh Pizza Dough<br />
½ Cup Duck Sauce<br />
½ Tsp Red Pepper Flakes<br />
2 Cups Shredded Monterey Jack<br />
Cheese<br />
1 Green Bell Pepper (Sliced)<br />
BY 1 Tbsp Oil<br />
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce<br />
1 Tbsp Peanut Butter<br />
2 Tsp Hot Sauce<br />
2 Tsp Steak Seasoning<br />
2 Chicken Breasts (Chopped into bitesize bits)<br />
2 Tbsp Honey<br />
2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar<br />
4 Scallions (Chopped)<br />
¼ Cup Peanuts (Chopped)<br />
Optional Cilantro<br />
Let’s cook a pizza! Preheat the oven to 425 and<br />
prepare your dough. I buy a fresh rolled dough<br />
at my local Publix for $2.99. Use a cookie sheet<br />
and line with tin foil. Place rolled dough directly<br />
in middle and spread the edges out evenly to fit<br />
the rectangular shape of the cookie sheet. The<br />
dough is easy to work with and I feel that the<br />
rectangular style is well suited for this type of<br />
pizza. Add duck sauce to the dough in place of<br />
standard pizza sauce and evenly spread it around.<br />
Sprinkle pizza with crushed red pepper flakes<br />
and cheese. Bake until golden and cheese is<br />
slightly brown for approximately fifteen minutes.<br />
Next, you will need to prepare the chicken to<br />
go on top of the pizza. Once the pizza is done<br />
cooking, you will add the chicken. You can use<br />
the pizza cooking time to prep the chicken.<br />
Preheat a skillet over medium heat. Add your<br />
oil, soy sauce, peanut butter, hot sauce, and<br />
steak seasoning to the skillet. Heat this mixture<br />
up so it’s nice and steamy. Chop your chicken<br />
before cooking it into small bite sized bits. Add<br />
the chicken to the skillet and cook for about 4<br />
minutes on each side. The chicken will cook fairly<br />
quickly since it’s in small bits. Once chicken is<br />
cooked, add honey and vinegar. Mix the chicken<br />
around and turn off the burner.<br />
Pull your pizza out of the oven and top with the<br />
chicken mixture. Do your best to spread it evenly<br />
so that all pieces have bites of chicken on them.<br />
Top pizza with scallions, cilantro, peanuts and<br />
serve. Enjoy!<br />
Watch my full cooking video for this recipe on<br />
my Facebook page<br />
“Ian Opalinski Music” or follow<br />
the link:<br />
facebook.com/ianopalinskimusic<br />
15
RING!<br />
A Day in the Life of a<br />
Gigging Musician<br />
BY ADAM FLOYD<br />
RING in the holidays and the new year for that<br />
matter. Working musicians are at our busiest<br />
this time of year. Lots of parties everywhere.<br />
Homes and offices, streets and bars are filled<br />
with revelers. With recent events it seems<br />
everyone wants to blow off some steam. We<br />
can’t disappoint the masses and I want to fill the<br />
coffers with cash so it’s time to dive in.<br />
Gig musicians need to keep our holiday season<br />
music fresh and sharp. It’s a good idea to review<br />
the tunes in the summer so they are ready when<br />
the time comes. When the holiday season is in<br />
full swing, it’s too late. Singing seven nights a<br />
week, dealing with an agent and the venues,<br />
working out schedules with other performers.<br />
Meanwhile the rigors of life don’t slow down. Stay<br />
ready, don’t get ready. Plus, I like most of the<br />
holiday songs even if I tire of them by the time<br />
New Year’s Eve rolls around.<br />
One fun way to add a little zip to tunes I have<br />
played since early childhood is to perform them<br />
on a bunch of different instruments. Try the<br />
season’s favorites on a simple fife or ukulele. Get<br />
a recorder or a harmonica. It gives me a chance<br />
to work up my musical skills while the audience<br />
really gets a thrill. Something about seeing the<br />
tunes played well, on simple folk instruments,<br />
makes for real inspiration, even if it’s easy for the<br />
musician.<br />
This is also a good time to shout out to all the<br />
special someones. If your partner is playing<br />
music all month and you don’t get much alone<br />
time - never fear! It will all be over soon and you<br />
can go back to the normal routine of only being<br />
ignored on weekends and practice nights. You<br />
can bet your sweet potato that when you do get<br />
some loving, it will be passionate and from the<br />
deep heart of an artist!<br />
When we play three gigs a day it can be a bit<br />
much. I try to eat right and avoid heavy drinking<br />
to stay fit. My party comes later when the crowds<br />
have gone home. Also, beware of traffic which<br />
can be much worse in the season’s rush. I can’t<br />
be late because all of these events depend on<br />
ME! Planning ahead, stocking the fridge and<br />
leaving most equipment in the vehicle are a few<br />
of the ways I cope with the onslaught.<br />
Keep your business card out and visible at the<br />
gigs. Make sure to mention on the mic that you<br />
are available and love doing events. Most people<br />
don’t know any professional musicians and some<br />
are looking to book last minute parties. This one<br />
tactic could add thousands to my holiday season<br />
payday. Get noticed by the movers and shakers<br />
in office buildings or hotels and the season can<br />
really make your cash register RING!
<strong>Live</strong> Music - <strong>December</strong> ‘20<br />
4th - Casey Picou 5pm<br />
5th - Ceasar Frazier 5pm<br />
11th - Hannah Wilson 5pm<br />
12th - Jimmi Soldo 5pm<br />
18th - Savi Fernandez 5pm<br />
19th - Chuck Morel 5pm<br />
26th - Jay Paski 5pm<br />
Happy Hour 5pm-8pm
The Joshua<br />
Throughout history, certain people have become<br />
true pioneers in whatever world they help create.<br />
Each has niched their place in history to be<br />
forever remembered because of what at the time<br />
seems like divine intervention. Most of these<br />
legends are long gone but there are still a limited<br />
few that live on today and are currently<br />
paying it forward and passing their knowledge<br />
to the younger generations. This month’s artist<br />
is no doubt a pioneer amongst peers in that he<br />
has carved out a life of amazing accolades and<br />
is now sharing his ideas and beliefs with others<br />
so that we all can gaze at the wonder they’ve<br />
contributed to the art world.
Light Show<br />
By Bartholomew Betelgeuse III<br />
The original members of the Joshua<br />
Light Show were resident artists at the<br />
Fillmore. From March 8, 1968, until the<br />
venue closed in on June 27,1971, the<br />
group performed multiple shows every<br />
weekend for up to a total of ten thousand<br />
people, receiving nearly equal billing to<br />
such acts as the Who, the Doors, the<br />
Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, the Jimi<br />
Hendrix Experience, Albert King, Chuck<br />
Berry, and Iron Butterfly. Joshua White,<br />
who had studied electrical engineering,<br />
theatrical lighting, and magic-lantern<br />
techniques at Carnegie Tech and<br />
filmmaking at the University of Southern<br />
California, where he made a number<br />
of stop-motion and direct animation<br />
shorts, founded the group. The JLS<br />
consisted of six to eight members during<br />
its initial run, with the most stable lineup<br />
including White, Tom Shoesmith, and<br />
Bill Schwarzbach, who met at Columbia<br />
University while studying theatrical<br />
lighting and electrical engineering; Cecily<br />
Hoyt, a photographer and painter; and<br />
Jane Ableman, an art student.<br />
1968 photo by George Cohen “of the hippie<br />
scene on St. Mark’s Place between Third and<br />
Second Avenues, looking east,” around the<br />
corner from Fillmore East. from EV Grieve.
The group employed a panoply of imagemaking<br />
apparatus to achieve diverse visual<br />
effects: three film projectors, two banks of<br />
four-carousel slide projectors, three overhead<br />
projectors, hundreds of color wheels,<br />
motorized reflectors made of such materials<br />
as aluminum foil, Mylar,<br />
and broken mirrors, two hair dryers, watercolors,<br />
oil colors, alcohol and glycerin, two<br />
crystal ashtrays, and dozens of clear glass<br />
clock crystals. White and his
cohort designed a rear-projection<br />
system, situated roughly twenty feet behind<br />
the Fillmore stage, where several tons of<br />
equipment was arrayed on two elevated<br />
platforms. The conventional seated theater<br />
setup of the Fillmore meant they had to focus<br />
on a single screen versus an overall<br />
environment.<br />
The Joshua Light Show’s craft-based<br />
ephemeral cinema results in a staging<br />
that details and commingles nearly the<br />
entire history of the projected image.<br />
Its use of projected and reflected light<br />
is a practice that dates to religious<br />
ritual in ancient Egypt and Greece.<br />
The group’s magic-lantern techniques<br />
date back to the mid-seventeenth<br />
century. The display of artisanal film<br />
loops alongside examples culled from<br />
the entire history of industrial cinema<br />
illustrates the heterogeneity of<br />
moving-image conventions.
New computer-based effects and<br />
digital projection systems demonstrate the<br />
continuous mutability of shaping light in time.<br />
Combined together, the Joshua Light Show<br />
epitomizes what Kerry Brougher has cited as the<br />
maximalist trajectory in sixties<br />
filmmaking, wherein artists saturated “the<br />
information in the frame, pushing the image to<br />
such a complex and multi-level state that film<br />
was shoved up against its boundary lines of<br />
possibility.”<br />
And that is what the Joshua Light Show was<br />
and continues to be—a reservoir of the moving<br />
image’s memory, unmoored in an ephemeral<br />
celebration of its<br />
possibilities.<br />
Next month, we’ll bring you<br />
more of the Joshua Light Show,<br />
including their current members<br />
and projects.<br />
All images and information was given with written consent by The Joshua Light Show
Onward, Always!<br />
By Billy Dean<br />
As a toddler, my parents traded my<br />
baby crib to a family friend for a drum<br />
set. At five years old I could name<br />
all of the members of Poison, Motley<br />
Crue, and Guns n Roses. By seven I<br />
had an opinion about who was a better<br />
frontman—David Lee Roth or Sammy<br />
Hagar? By eight, I knew the reason<br />
why Led Zeppelin and Rush kicked so<br />
much ass (Saints Bonham and Peart ).<br />
By age 10 I was aiming for the speed<br />
of Basket Case. By 12 I was faking<br />
double bass drum like Niko McBain.<br />
By 13 I joined my first punk band and<br />
played a handful of shows. At 14<br />
I came in touch with Wynona’s Big<br />
Brown Beaver, The Descendents, and<br />
Suicide Machines. Age 15 brought another<br />
hardcore band. 16 was my first<br />
drum and bugle corps tour—3 months<br />
on gym floors.<br />
17 brought Carter Beaufort<br />
and another drum and<br />
bugle corps tour. With 18 came<br />
Tool and Music School. 19 years<br />
old playing across Central Florida<br />
with fledgling bands. 20 brought Billy<br />
Cobham, Mahavishnu Orchestra,<br />
and a disastrous cover band gig that<br />
almost derailed me. 21, dropout of<br />
music school to focus on making a<br />
living playing music. 25 I completed<br />
my first regional tour with an indie<br />
rock trio across the southeast. At 26<br />
I toured east of the Mississippi River<br />
with two different rock bands. 27–<br />
my first international gig. 28-I join a<br />
promising blues band, record several<br />
independent albums, tour domestically<br />
and abroad. At 34 we rebrand band,<br />
sign with reputable label, record first<br />
our self-produced record. 35 first<br />
Grammy nomination. 36 travel and<br />
record THE RECORD.<br />
37 COVID-19, session work, zoom<br />
lessons, home studio, and family time.<br />
Onward, always!
Edward Van Halen was the G.O.A.T.<br />
Hello, friends!<br />
Edward Van Halen was the G.O.A.T.<br />
He literally recalibrated and reimagined the way<br />
a human being attacks the guitar. The roaring<br />
sounds and effects he was able to produce<br />
pioneered a genre and redefined a niche of<br />
rock music. I remember being late to the Van<br />
Halen party but once on board, I was forever<br />
changed by his tone and creativity. I started<br />
working at a record store in 1983 and remember<br />
selling Van Halen albums like they were bread<br />
and milk. And Van Halen was truly an ALBUM<br />
band. You could break off a single and label<br />
them by that particular sound, but in at least<br />
the David Lee Roth era, the band was truly a<br />
spectrum of musical influences and vibes. Their<br />
albums needed to be heard in full and I happily<br />
obliged. The retail music job allowed me my first<br />
opportunity to meet this icon of the electric guitar.<br />
It was October of 1988. I had made friends with<br />
the Warner Brothers record rep that worked our<br />
store and passive-aggressively begged for an<br />
opportunity to get backstage. In my estimation,<br />
there was NOTHING cooler than meeting your<br />
heroes. I had not heard the adage about NOT<br />
meeting them because they may let you down or<br />
not be all that you had conjured in your head. So<br />
there I was, a pre-show Meet and Greet on the<br />
OU812 tour in Atlanta. The album cover poster<br />
and flats covered the walls of the dressing room<br />
that me, my roommate, and 6 other people were<br />
herded into. Alex entered first and waved as he<br />
passed by me and my roommate. We posted<br />
up closest to the door so that we could get the<br />
first shot at Eddie. Then came the super affable<br />
Micheal Anthony. We said hi and passed him<br />
on to the rest of the people in the room. Sammy<br />
Hagar was next as while I’m a Dave purest, it<br />
was cool to see the red rocker roll into our room.<br />
I could see Ed just outside the room speaking to<br />
his guitar tech, an animated discussion that went<br />
on for a few minutes.<br />
I was hyped with nervous excitement as I realized<br />
it was about to go down. He entered the room<br />
with a cig in hand and upon making eye contact<br />
with me & my friend Greg, he said “Alright, I got<br />
some rock and roll brothers here!”.<br />
We were the only long-haired dudes there and I<br />
guess that bought us some credibility. He walked<br />
between us and threw an arm around each of us<br />
and asked what’s up. We mumbled something<br />
but before a full response, he said “what do we<br />
have happening in here tonight?”. I assumed he<br />
meant the girls in the room, so I gestured toward<br />
one of the ladies and said “well, I know she has<br />
been waiting for you”. He then says “Nah, I’m<br />
hanging with you guys... So, you in a band?”. I<br />
told him I wasn’t but needed some guitar tips<br />
so that I could get one together. I realized after<br />
those first few seconds that he was hammered<br />
and the wafting aroma of his smoldering cigarette<br />
and the many he had clearly recently had was<br />
overwhelming. And then all I could think about<br />
was how this guy, who is clearly drunk from some<br />
pre-show fiesta, has to go out there and rock the<br />
stage in like an hour. We continued to talk about<br />
guitar players and songs we love and time sorta<br />
faded into the fold. I mean, Eddie Van Fucking<br />
Halen was supporting his body weight on MY<br />
shoulder and telling me stories and I should be<br />
recording every second of it. But it was ‘88 and<br />
that wasn’t an available tech like it is now.<br />
It may have been all of 5-10 minutes in that<br />
backstage room but I eventually realized that<br />
they were wrapping up and NO ONE else had the<br />
chance to get autographs and speak to him. A<br />
few of those acquaintances and strangers were<br />
annoyed at us for dominating the Eddie time.
Catch RIGGS, GUY, & INTERN STEVE<br />
The Morning HOG / 95-7 The HOG Weekday 5-10am<br />
& SATURDAY NIGHT LOUD 9-midnight<br />
@saturdayloud on Twitter The Morning Hog on fb<br />
riggs@957thehog.com<br />
I didn’t feel bad for a second. We posed for the<br />
group photo and he quickly met the others, but<br />
made it a point to come back before leaving the<br />
room and hug and thank me. I’ll never forget the<br />
shit-eating grin he left me with. And despite the<br />
pre-show drinks he had, his playing during the<br />
show was perfection. That was the quintessential<br />
“Rock Star” experience.<br />
I was in Los Angeles in 1992 for the Billboard<br />
Video Music Awards. I had dinner with a Warner<br />
Brothers Records rep and we began talking about<br />
Van Halen. She was working closely with the<br />
band and told me that Ed had suffered dexterity<br />
issues associated with drinking. Frank Zappa’s<br />
son Dweezil was a friend of the Van Halen family<br />
and had learned all of Eddie’s riffs on a guitar he<br />
gave to him. She said that Ed had been working<br />
with Dweezil on some of the classic solos and<br />
songs that he now had trouble with. I couldn’t<br />
imagine the idea that Dweezil was teaching Eddie<br />
the solos he created. I interviewed Dweezil<br />
later and he modestly claimed that they just got<br />
together to jam, but given what we later learned<br />
of Eddie’s ongoing health issues, the puzzle<br />
pieces fit. And certainly those Van Hagar-era<br />
records don’t have the guitar dynamics of the first<br />
6. And if tasked with assembling a Van Halen<br />
Ultimate Playlist, I’d probably go 98% Roth tunes.<br />
But the body of work from Eddie throughout the<br />
singer changes still stands alone as rock & roll<br />
greatness.<br />
I had another opportunity to meet Eddie in July of<br />
1998.<br />
I accompanied some radio grand prize winners<br />
backstage on the VHIII tour, aka the “Gary<br />
Cherone Experience”.<br />
It was another great 5 minutes of rock bliss as a<br />
small group of us got to chat and get photos with<br />
the ultimate American rock band.<br />
Eddie was overwhelmingly kind and selfdeprecating<br />
as I told him how psyched I was to<br />
see him shred later that evening. I gave him<br />
one of our radio station t-shirts and he humbly<br />
thanked me, then asked if he could cut the<br />
sleeves off. I gave him my blessing. This was<br />
at one of the lower points in the band’s career.<br />
Record sales were down. Some fans didn’t know<br />
what to do with Gary Cherone as the lead singer.<br />
I loved his work with EXTREME and he was a<br />
very humble and kind guy with a great, unique<br />
voice. Ed and the band certainly could have “big<br />
timed” us and who would blame them. They had<br />
met thousands of people like us, played much<br />
bigger venues and didn’t have to seem happy<br />
about these obligatory moments. (Alex, in full<br />
disclosure, seemed the least enthused about it<br />
all.) But Eddie made me feel welcome, without a<br />
hint of a rock star attitude of being over all of it.<br />
It was another dizzying encounter that I’ll always<br />
remember.<br />
Hearing all of the stories after his passing of what<br />
a normal, kind and funny guy he was fits every<br />
bit of my experience. His guitar work excites me<br />
and inspires me.<br />
And I’ll keep trying to learn some of his simplest<br />
guitar parts. And fail. But the Eddie Van Halen<br />
legacy of music will always be at the forefront<br />
of my speakers. I’m forever grateful for the few<br />
chances to meet and speak with him. R.I.P.<br />
brother.<br />
Cheers!<br />
RIGGS
DAVID VS SAMMY<br />
1. Just a Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody<br />
2. Mas Tequila<br />
3. Yankee Rose<br />
4. Heavy Metal<br />
5. Eagles Fly<br />
6. There’s Only One Way to Rock<br />
7. Goin’ Crazy<br />
8. California Girls<br />
9. Right Now<br />
10. When it’s Love<br />
11. Cabo Wabo<br />
12. Right Now<br />
13. Jamie’s Cryin’<br />
14. Black and Blue<br />
15. Pretty Woman<br />
16. Panama<br />
17. You Really Got me<br />
18. Runnin’ with the Devil<br />
19. Why Can’t This be Love<br />
20. Love Walks In<br />
21. Jump<br />
22. Best of Both Worlds<br />
23. Dreams<br />
24. Ain’t Talking ‘Bout Love<br />
25. Dance the Night Away<br />
26. Hot for Teacher<br />
27. Runaround<br />
28. Can’t Stop Lovin’ You<br />
29. Runnin’ With the Devil<br />
30. Everybody Wants Some<br />
26<br />
BONUS! What year did David Lee Roth leave Van Halen and was replaced with Sammy<br />
Hagar?
MUD ROOSTER’S BLUES<br />
By David Dequasie<br />
In this month’s installment, I’d like to dive right<br />
into some great renditions of blues tunes as done<br />
by legendary bands that are better known for<br />
their work in the hard rock realm. As a record<br />
buying teen in the 1970’s, little did I know that<br />
many of my favorite<br />
album cuts that the bands were<br />
rocking out on, were<br />
actually old blues<br />
standards.<br />
Foghat comes<br />
to mind. Willie<br />
Dixon’s ‘I Just<br />
Wanna<br />
make Love<br />
to You’,<br />
Chuck<br />
Willis’ ‘<br />
Feel so<br />
Bad’ and<br />
Robert<br />
Johnson’s<br />
Terraplane<br />
Blues’ are<br />
just a few<br />
tracks that<br />
are absolutely<br />
cranking.<br />
No horns or<br />
other acoustic<br />
instruments here, just<br />
blasting electric guitars<br />
and drums, and what a clever band name. Alter<br />
the letters in ‘Hogfat’ and you’ve got an amusing<br />
take on blues and barbecue.<br />
Steppenwolf was originally a modernized blues<br />
band. Everyone has heard their version of<br />
‘The Pusher’ but ‘Forty days and Forty Nights’<br />
and ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ are much heavier<br />
remakes.<br />
The first time that I heard the Aerosmith song<br />
‘Walking the Dog’, I just assumed that it was<br />
one of their own compositions. Not many groups<br />
would think to turn a blues tune into a hard rock<br />
jam and then add a wood flute section in the<br />
middle.<br />
Probably my favorite take on Howlin’<br />
Wolf’s ‘Evil’ is the downright nasty<br />
version that Cactus played. It’s<br />
interesting to note that they<br />
pumped up the second<br />
(psychedelic) version that the<br />
Wolf recorded. This being the<br />
version that he hated. It’s so<br />
fired up and loud that it<br />
reminds me of Black Sabbath’s<br />
remake of ‘Warning’ or Led<br />
Zeppelin’s version of ‘How<br />
Many more Times’.<br />
The Rolling Stones have an<br />
impressive catalog of blues<br />
standards such as ‘Stop Breaking<br />
Down’ but give a listen to what<br />
The White Stripes did with that<br />
one. It’s totally frantic.<br />
When it comes to great guitar riffs that<br />
are used to support blues classics, check<br />
out Damon Fowler’s take on Johnny Winter’s<br />
‘TV Mama’, Albert King’s ‘The Hunter’ as played<br />
by Free, ‘Crossroads’ by Cream, ‘Wang Dang<br />
Doodle’ by Savoy Brown, or ‘Sugar Mama’ by<br />
Taste to name a few.<br />
In closing, with one of today’s greatest tools<br />
being the internet, it’s never been easier to<br />
discover obscure artists from years past. Why<br />
have I never been turned on to Chicken Shack?<br />
What a great blues band disguised as a hard rock<br />
band.
30
HOLIDAY<br />
CROSSWORD<br />
1<br />
1<br />
2<br />
2<br />
3<br />
4 3 5<br />
6<br />
7<br />
8<br />
9 10<br />
4<br />
5<br />
11<br />
6<br />
12<br />
13<br />
7<br />
14<br />
8<br />
15<br />
9<br />
18 19<br />
16<br />
17<br />
10<br />
ACROSS<br />
DOWN<br />
4. This Christmas decoration was once made from 1. The color of The Grinch<br />
strands of silver. 2. The skin that hangs from a turkey's neck<br />
10. Name the spirit that is often added to butter and 3. Stollen is the traditional fruitcake in which country?<br />
served with Christmas pudding. 5. On the Big Bang Theory, Sheldon tells Penny he and<br />
11. This iconic Christmas decoration is actually a Leonard aren't putting up a tree because they do not<br />
parasitic plant.<br />
celebrate this ancient pagan festival.<br />
12. This state set the Guinness World Record in 1988 for 6. Scrooge’s first name.<br />
the world's largest snowman. 7. The name of The Grinch's dog.<br />
13. What is the Latin meaning of the word “Noel”? 8. What gift did Caspar bring?<br />
14. Christmas beverage known as “milk punch”. 9. What is the name of the little girl in most versions of<br />
16. Which reindeer is not mentioned in "The Nutcracker"?<br />
"The Night Before Christmas"? 12. The poinsettia is native to this country.<br />
18. How many ghosts were there in “A Christmas Carol”? 15. Snack that is often left for Santa.<br />
19. This chipmunk wants a hula hoop for Christmas. 17. The name of Rudolph’s elf friend in the 1964 classic<br />
"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".
DECEMBER <strong>2020</strong><br />
Tuesday, <strong>December</strong> 1, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Jessie Abbey, 7pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Jarrard George, 6pm<br />
Wednesday, <strong>December</strong> 2, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Chcuk Morel, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Randy Williams, 9pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Jonny Odis, 6pm<br />
Ormond Garage - Robert Keele, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Laree App, 5pm<br />
Thursday, <strong>December</strong> 3, <strong>2020</strong><br />
31 Supper Club - The Transfers, 8pm<br />
Bounty Bar - Hannah Wilson, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Griffin Sinclaire, 5pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Reed Foley, 9pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Chuck Morel, 7pm<br />
Outriggers - Allan Wood, 5pm<br />
Friday, <strong>December</strong> 4, <strong>2020</strong><br />
31 Supper Club - Beartoe, 8pm<br />
Bounty Bar - Jay Paski, 7pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Jonny Odis, 4pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Reed Foley, 7pm<br />
Ormond Garage - Cory Worsley Duo, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Griffin Sinclaire, 6pm<br />
Yellow Dog Eats - Casey Picou, 5pm<br />
Saturday, <strong>December</strong> 5, <strong>2020</strong><br />
31 Supper Club - Mud Rooster, 8pm<br />
Bounty Bar - Claire Vandiver, 7pm<br />
Chase’s - Eric Von<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Jessie Abbey, 12pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Nate Utley, 5pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Reed Foley, 5pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Brent Clowers, 7pm<br />
Ormond Garage - Bradford Bukley, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Sugar Fly, 6pm<br />
Tayton O’Brians - Jay Paski, 9pm<br />
Tortugas - The Cyclones, 6pm<br />
Yellow Dog Eats - Cesar Frazier, 5pm<br />
Sunday, <strong>December</strong> 6, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Bradford Buckley, 7pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Smyrna Erb, 12pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - The Transfers, 5pm<br />
Outriggers - The Cyclones, 2pm<br />
Tayton O’Brians - Casey Picou, 8pm<br />
Monday, <strong>December</strong> 7, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Jonny Odis, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Chuck Morel, 5pm<br />
Tuesday, <strong>December</strong> 8, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Linda Long, 7pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Griffin Sinclaire, 6pm<br />
Wednesday, <strong>December</strong> 9, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Brent Clowers, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Jay Paski, 9pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Walter Lee, 5pm<br />
Grind/Kona - The Transfers, 6pm<br />
Ormond Garage - Are Friends Electric, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Laree App, 5pm<br />
Thursday, <strong>December</strong> 10, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Griffin Sinclaire, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Reed Foley, 9pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - The Cyclones, 5pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Ian Opalinski, 7pm<br />
Outriggers - Corey Shenk , 5pm<br />
Friday, <strong>December</strong> 11, <strong>2020</strong><br />
31 Supper Club - Dana Kamide Band, 8pm<br />
Bounty Bar - Savi Fernandez, 7pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Bradford Buckley, 4pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Cory Worsley Duo, 7pm<br />
Ormond Garage - Psycoustic, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Off the Road, 6pm<br />
Yellow Dog Eats - Hannah Craig, 5pm<br />
Saturday, <strong>December</strong> 12, <strong>2020</strong><br />
31 Supper Club - Big Beat Band, 8pm<br />
Bounty Bar - Casey Picou, 7pm<br />
Chase’s - Jay Paski<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Brent Clowers, 12pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Griffin Sinclaire, 5pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Reed Foley, 5pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Heather Craig, 7pm<br />
Ormond Garage - Nate Utley, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - The Waverlys, 6pm<br />
Tayton O’Brians - Dustin Seymour, 9pm<br />
Tortugas - Smyrna Erb, 6pm<br />
Yellow Dog Eats - Sugar Fly, 5pm<br />
Sunday, <strong>December</strong> 13, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - The Evening Muze, 7pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Heather Wilson, 12pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Brent Clowers, 5pm<br />
Outriggers - Are Friends Electric, 2pm<br />
Tayton O’Brians - Casey Picou, 8pm<br />
Monday, <strong>December</strong> 14, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Hannah Wilson, 7pm Tuesday, <strong>December</strong> 15,<br />
<strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Jessie Abbey, 7pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Casey Picou, 6pm<br />
Wednesday, <strong>December</strong> 16, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Jay Paski, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Randy Williams, 9pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Are Friends Electric, 6pm<br />
Ormond Garage - The Cyclones, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Laree App, 5pm<br />
Thursday, <strong>December</strong> 17, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - The Transfers, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Reed Foley, 9pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Robert Keele, 5pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Jessie Abbey Duo, 7pm<br />
Outriggers - Stereo FM, 5pm<br />
Friday, <strong>December</strong> 18, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Friday, <strong>December</strong> 18, <strong>2020</strong><br />
31 Supper Club - Velvet 45, 8pm<br />
Bounty Bar - Griffin Sinclaire, 7pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Jay Paski, 4pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Bradford Buckley, 7pm<br />
Ormond Garage - The Evening Muze, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Reed Foley, 6pm<br />
Yellow Dog Eats - Savi Fernandez, 5pm
Saturday, <strong>December</strong> 19, <strong>2020</strong><br />
31 Supper Club - Joe Young Trio, 8pm<br />
Bounty Bar - Jonny Odis, 7pm<br />
Chase’s - Savi Fernandez<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Casey Picou, 5pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - The Cyclones, 12pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Reed Foley, 5pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Jay Paski, 7pm<br />
Ormond Garage - Smyrna Erb, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Billy Dean, 6pm<br />
Tayton O’Brians - L&G, 9pm<br />
Tortugas - Bradford Buckley Trio, 6pm<br />
Yellow Dog Eats - Chuck Morel, 5pm<br />
Sunday, <strong>December</strong> 20, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Bradford Buckley, 7pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Heather Wilson, 12pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - The Transfers, 5pm<br />
Outriggers - The Evening Muze, 2pm<br />
Tayton O’Brians - Michelle Marie, 8pm<br />
Monday, <strong>December</strong> 21, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Ian Opalinski, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Jay Paski, 9pm<br />
Bounty Bar - Jason Lee, 7pm<br />
Tuesday, <strong>December</strong> 22, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Grind/Kona - The Evening Muze, 6pm<br />
Wednesday, <strong>December</strong> 23, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Brent Clowers, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Griffin Sinclaire, 9pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Walter Lee, 5pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Hannah Wilson, 6pm<br />
Ormond Garage - Are Friends Electric, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Laree App, 5pm<br />
Thursday, <strong>December</strong> 24, <strong>2020</strong><br />
31 Supper Club - Andre Martins, 8pm<br />
Bounty Bar - TBD. 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Reed Foley, 9pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - The Evening Muze, 5pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Jeff Accorneo, 7pm<br />
Outriggers - Corey Shenk, 5pm<br />
Friday, <strong>December</strong> 25, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - David Dequasne, 7pm<br />
Saturday, <strong>December</strong> 26, <strong>2020</strong><br />
31 Supper Club - Dana Kamide Band, 8pm<br />
Bounty Bar - Hannah Wilson, 7pm<br />
Chase’s - Smyrna Erb<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Savi Fernandez, 5pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Shaker Jones, 12pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Reed Foley, 5pm<br />
Grind/Kona - The Cyclones, 7pm<br />
Ormond Garage - Heather Craig, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Jay Paski, 6pm<br />
Tayton O’Brians - Bradford Buckley, 9-pm<br />
Tortugas - Big Beat, 6pm<br />
Yellow Dog Eats - Jay Paski, 5pm<br />
Sunday, <strong>December</strong> 27, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Chcuk Morel, 7pm<br />
Crabby’s Oceanside - Claire Vandiver, 12pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Hannah Wilson, 5pm<br />
Outriggers - Bradford Buckley, 2pm<br />
Tayton O’Brians - Casey Picou, 8pm<br />
Monday, <strong>December</strong> 28, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - The Transfers, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Bradford Buckley, 9pm<br />
Tuesday, <strong>December</strong> 29, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - The Evening Muze, 7pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Heather Craig, 6pm<br />
Wednesday, <strong>December</strong> 30, <strong>2020</strong><br />
Bounty Bar - Hannah Wilson, 7pm<br />
Flagler Tavern - Casey Picou, 9pm<br />
Grind/Kona - Are Friends Electric, 6pm<br />
Ormond Garage - The Cyclones, 8pm<br />
Outriggers - Laree App, 5pm<br />
20NYE<br />
NYE20<br />
Thursday, <strong>December</strong> 31, <strong>2020</strong><br />
31 Supper Club -<br />
Dana Kamide Band, 8pm<br />
Bounty Bar -<br />
Griffin Sinclaire, 7pm<br />
Grind/Kona -<br />
Bradford Buckley Band, 8pm<br />
Ormond Garage -<br />
Jay Paski, 8pm<br />
Outriggers -<br />
The Evening Muze<br />
Tayton O’Brians -<br />
Cody & Kyle, 9pm<br />
Community Events
Happy Holiday Traditions<br />
“The Nutcracker” has become an annual holiday<br />
tradition around the world since its debut more<br />
than a century ago. Most likely it was a big part<br />
of your childhood holiday routine as it was mine.<br />
For many, its magical score sets the tone for<br />
the season. For me, Tchaikovsky’s immortal<br />
melodies are indelibly ingrained. Within the first<br />
few notes of the overture I can almost smell the<br />
cold and snow of upstate NY where I grew up.<br />
The symphonic interplay of every instrument,<br />
the dreamy swell of each crescendo, the<br />
percussive perfection of it all pirouettes through<br />
my mind, clear as the celesta bells in the Dance<br />
of the Sugarplum Fairies. As a child I longed<br />
to be Clara, lithe and coquettish, dancing with<br />
her life sized dolls, dreaming of a winters love<br />
story, traveling to The Land of the Sweets in<br />
my pretend pointe shoes. This was a yearning<br />
shared with my little sister Christie from the<br />
first time we watched Mikhail Baryshnikov’s<br />
Nutcracker on PBS as a family. In our flowy<br />
nightgowns and long johns, slippers slipping<br />
across the floor, we dance-fought all winter break<br />
over that Nutcracker doll til its head popped<br />
off. Our Mom might have jokingly called us little<br />
nut crackers (ball busters) but we were prima<br />
ballerinas in our minds.<br />
For thousands and<br />
thousands of children<br />
worldwide,<br />
“The Nutcracker” is their very first exposure<br />
to ballet and classical music. Perhaps one of<br />
the most iconic of its kind, the sheer number<br />
of interpretations (in family living rooms), on<br />
the stage, the big screen and by symphony<br />
orchestras globally are staggering in number.<br />
By Candice Beu<br />
For ballet companies it is often a major source of<br />
yearly revenue but for the dancers, performing in<br />
“The Nutcracker” is an ongoing rite of passage.<br />
Little known fact, ballet dancers often work their<br />
way up from “angels” in the chorus to starring<br />
roles in the cast during their many years of<br />
training. It’s an enormously lengthy, intricate<br />
endeavor, with choreographers,<br />
costumers, crew and talent<br />
all working annually<br />
towards the Winter<br />
Season. Most dancers<br />
will know how to<br />
dance every part by<br />
the time they leave<br />
a company.<br />
It’s no surprise that<br />
the cancellation of<br />
live theater in <strong>2020</strong><br />
has eliminated much<br />
of the usual funding,<br />
impacting the income<br />
of so many creatives<br />
worldwide who make<br />
their living in the arts.<br />
However, there are<br />
countless ways to help.<br />
Become a patron of<br />
the arts, seek out<br />
entertainers you<br />
know to personally<br />
give to (Disney has<br />
laid off many as well)<br />
or donate to theaters<br />
that have gone dark<br />
and struggling ballet<br />
companies offering<br />
online holiday events.
You can find some very<br />
talented out of work<br />
dancers, singers,<br />
comedians and artists of all<br />
kinds<br />
displaying their work on<br />
TikTok who have linked<br />
patreon<br />
accounts for tips and<br />
donations. There are so<br />
many ways to get your<br />
holiday fix while also<br />
giving back. A quick<br />
google search will get you<br />
started. The Joffrey Ballet<br />
for instance has many<br />
interactive virtual festivities<br />
throughout this holiday<br />
season,<br />
as do lesser known companies who could<br />
use the support. The UBC, Universal Ballet<br />
Competition, will keep the Nutcracker tradition<br />
alive with an international competition held<br />
online. The contest live streams on Dec 12th<br />
featuring all submissions that make up Act 1 and<br />
Act 2 submissions air on Dec. 13th. The event<br />
culminates with The Virtual Nutcracker, a full<br />
length video (you can view on their website)<br />
consisting of the winning<br />
entries, on Dec 19th.<br />
Some local Florida<br />
venues also have<br />
theirdoors open again and<br />
will be performing live!<br />
I highly<br />
recommend<br />
the<br />
Orlando<br />
Ballet’s<br />
annual<br />
Nutcracker<br />
at Dr. Phillips<br />
Center<br />
from Dec.4-20th<br />
and the Volusia Civic<br />
Ballet performance on<br />
Dec 5-6 at The Daytona Ocean Center.<br />
Visit responsibly.<br />
35
If you vote to stay inside this season, or you don’t<br />
have extra funds to go to live events or donate,<br />
no worries! Charity starts at home anyway. You<br />
can still expose your stay at home family to a little<br />
holiday culture. Ovation channel hosts an annual<br />
Battle of the Nutcrackers in late <strong>December</strong>.<br />
Check listings. If you don’t have cable but you<br />
have Youtube, you’re in luck. Get interactive with<br />
your family and create your own battle of the<br />
Nutcrackers. Even just listening to the classical<br />
score by Christmas light without the visuals,<br />
while dancing wildly<br />
in the living room<br />
can be exciting for<br />
young children.<br />
Dress up andmake<br />
them use their<br />
imagination. Teach<br />
music appreciation<br />
by pointing out the<br />
different instruments<br />
they hear. Have<br />
them Google<br />
Tchaikovsky<br />
and learn the<br />
history of<br />
The<br />
Nutcracker.<br />
Did You Know<br />
that Tchaikovsky wrote part of his most famous<br />
work as a dare by a friend who said “I bet<br />
you can’t write a melody based on an octave<br />
in sequence” or that Clara was originally<br />
named Maria? Finding cool facts and musical<br />
interpretations based on the traditional can<br />
be enriching and a lot of fun for the fam. My<br />
daughter’s favorite Nutcracker Suite is the jazzy<br />
Brian Setzer Orchestra version from the “Elf”<br />
movie soundtrack. Mine is an impressive lyrical<br />
Nutcracker done in the 1940’s vocal stylings of<br />
Fred Waring and The Pennsylvanians. What’s<br />
yours?<br />
As we wrap up this bizarre <strong>2020</strong> year, I urge us<br />
all to use any holiday magic we can muster to<br />
propel us into 2021. In the face of the unknown,<br />
get creative, go easy and don’t be afraid to inject<br />
new life into old traditions. Breaking from the<br />
traditional isn’t necessarily a bad thing either,<br />
just different. It’s ok to evolve and change. One<br />
last note, if a stranger wishes you a “Happy<br />
Holidays”, just say “Thank You”. There is no<br />
war on Christmas guys. Different people just<br />
use different syntax. Don’t let it ruin your day.<br />
If someone who doesn’t know how I celebrate<br />
takes time out of their holiday season to wish<br />
me tidings of goodwill, then cheers to that.<br />
How very kind. For those who balk at and insist<br />
on correcting others with a staunch “Merry<br />
Christmas!” perhaps it’s time to revisit another<br />
holiday tradition, Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas<br />
Carol”. Don’t be a Scrooge out there and let’s<br />
instead appreciate the fact that as a society<br />
we have decided to dedicate an entire season<br />
to the celebration of multiple, diverse holidays<br />
with personalized traditions recreated yearly by<br />
people from all walks of life. Isn’t that something?<br />
If we’ve learned nothing else this year, it’s that<br />
Life is fragile’...(“it must be Italian”)...so handle it<br />
with care.<br />
36<br />
Stay healthy, everyone.
Fearing Technology in a Time of Plague<br />
By Hank Harrison<br />
Living through the worst pandemic in history<br />
and technically the most wide sweeping plague<br />
in World history can’t be easy, many people<br />
can’t cope… but it gets worse if you are afraid<br />
of computers and technology; if you are angry<br />
because too much money is spent on space<br />
exploration and advanced engines of war and<br />
destruction; if you are upset because your bank<br />
computer spit out the wrong balance; if the app<br />
on your phone locks you out; if you are harboring<br />
thoughts of computer sabotage or hacking, you<br />
are undoubtedly a normal human being suffering<br />
all the symptoms of alienation in a screwed up<br />
world.<br />
In spite of all of this crisis one should not be<br />
afraid of the technology itself. There is nothing to<br />
be afraid of because electricity has been with us<br />
for many centuries. The virus will be gone soon, if<br />
you define ‘one more year’ as soon… and when<br />
the Pandemic I over all of the devices, machines,<br />
bulbs, glowing wires, automatic, autonomic and<br />
atomic reactions will still be here.<br />
Let us not fool ourselves. Electricity is more<br />
important than all of the computers and handheld<br />
gadgets on Earth and infinitely more<br />
dangerous than any virus. In fact electricity, when<br />
out of control, is dangerous in both a political<br />
and a bio-physical sense. Recently several<br />
massive forest fires in California were started<br />
by mismanaged electricity, and people are<br />
subconsciously afraid of it. We plug up household<br />
outlet sockets so that crawling and curious infants<br />
can’t insert metal objects into the plug slots. We<br />
panic in a rolling blackout because the company<br />
who brings the vital power to our homes might<br />
be screwed up. Recent research has shown that<br />
Sudden Crib Death is traceable, in part, to static<br />
electrocution. Electroshock therapy is used as<br />
punishment in some mental<br />
hospitals and has been employed successfully in<br />
brainwashing and, lastly, electricity is the focus of<br />
the energy crisis... because natural gas and fossil<br />
fuels are obviously nasty, awkward, imprecise<br />
and scarce.<br />
But why are we afraid of computers? Sometimes<br />
they make us seem ignorant, but actually,<br />
computers are nothing more than elaborate light<br />
bulbs run by electricity and light bulbs are nothing<br />
more than a thin wire glowing in a vacuum. In<br />
a general sense, light bulbs are electronic. The<br />
study of “Electronics” is the study of discovering<br />
ways to put electricity to work.<br />
It was discovered long ago that raw electricity<br />
could be manipulated in many ways. It can be<br />
sliced into sections, made to shoot out in bursts,<br />
made hotter, made cooler, faster, slower and it<br />
can be made fatter or skinnier depending on the<br />
final result one wishes to attain—but at all times,<br />
mankind is ostensibly the master of the electronic<br />
device and its power source. At no time can the<br />
light bulb do anything on its own, it can only go<br />
on and off then eventually burn out. Even artificial<br />
intelligence relies on the information supplied by<br />
humans.<br />
People who believe that computers are<br />
living human beings are neurotic, confused,<br />
dispossessed souls with a bleak outlook at best.<br />
They are cinderheads who have been tricked into<br />
signing over their human rights. To fight against<br />
any monstrous contraption is probably futile but<br />
to sit and wait for it to eat you is boring. Many<br />
people die of ennui each year. Millions of people<br />
feel depressed, cheated, defeated and helpless<br />
because computers have sorted them out and<br />
rejected them. They don’t see themselves as<br />
part of the big program. Welfare recipients get<br />
a payment each month from a computer, not a<br />
human
eing. Funds for education are given on the<br />
basis of average daily attendance counted by<br />
a computer. It seems like there isn’t anybody<br />
home any more. And lately we seem ruled by the<br />
portable communication Dick Tracy and<br />
Star Wars pocket computer<br />
device known as our cell<br />
phone, especially since<br />
during the pandemic we<br />
rely on computers to<br />
deliver our<br />
meals,<br />
groceries<br />
and toys to keep<br />
us busy during<br />
lockdown. Will working and<br />
learning from home become<br />
the norm?<br />
Some people<br />
thrive under<br />
these<br />
restrictions<br />
but for<br />
millions, life<br />
is emptiness!<br />
The stainless steel computer, on the<br />
other hand, is dust free. It is alone and<br />
never gets lonely. It never rusts and men<br />
and women seem irrelevant by comparison. This<br />
feeling of irrelevance cannot, however, be a valid<br />
emotion. But, actually computers<br />
are very passive and very dumb.<br />
In a technological society every advance, indeed<br />
every failure, is a reflection of every man and<br />
woman in that society. Every human being is,<br />
then, a reflection of his Weltanshung (world<br />
view) and every system is the reflection of an<br />
ultimate system, which may take many forms. In<br />
a purely technological society there are only three<br />
theoretical sizes:<br />
Things infinitely larger than our imaginations,<br />
Things infinitely smaller than our imaginations<br />
and<br />
Things roughly our size.<br />
One of the drawbacks to technology and science<br />
is that they keep our imagination tied down to<br />
certain tried methods which psychologists call<br />
reality, but when reality changes it gets scary for<br />
some folks and those who roll with the punches<br />
thrive and grow, it’s the way evolution works<br />
and this pandemic is a mutating factor, a lot like<br />
electricity or the lack of it.<br />
Because knowledge is power, the technological<br />
elite get lots of money. After<br />
World War II they were called the<br />
Nouveau Riche.<br />
But even the Nouveau Riche are<br />
riddled with anxiety because the<br />
technology is always lagging<br />
behind their needs. Techno<br />
logical greed in its many<br />
forms spurs the rich man<br />
onto newer and greater<br />
gluttony, and<br />
computers can be<br />
programmed<br />
to aid him in his<br />
quest. It is nice,<br />
however, to know<br />
that anxiety breaks<br />
everybody down before we glote too much, some<br />
people grow obese, some turn to alcohol or some<br />
other drug. In a technological society the wise<br />
soul realizes that there are more events than<br />
there are systems to explain those events and<br />
realizes further that the ultimate
way to view the world is to see all events as<br />
systems within themselves without interpretation<br />
from a computer or a guru.<br />
So we see that a computerized society can<br />
improve or uplift or alienate even those who<br />
make it run. Yet, when people finally understand<br />
the source of their alienation they tend to go back<br />
to respecting one another being compassionate<br />
and acting like the natural animals we really are.<br />
The alienated man or woman, the solemn<br />
unloving human being can be likened to an old<br />
digital computer. This kind of computer does<br />
nothing but move data, swiftly and coldly from<br />
one pile to another.<br />
The objective human being who appears to be<br />
cold but who is capable of loving and giving<br />
can be likened to an analog computer. This<br />
kind of computer is able to sense things, smell<br />
and touch things and then if programmed in an<br />
enlightened way make basic decisions. Callous<br />
hostility, glibness, and pathological behavior<br />
betray alienation as an internalized process. This<br />
mass rejection of electronic reality is misplaced<br />
aggression because the real source cannot be<br />
found. The people who have made a marginal<br />
adjustment to technology keep a good machine<br />
distance away from those unable to accept or<br />
understand the “tricks of the electronic trade”.<br />
This is clearly demonstrated. Many of the<br />
“computer haves” view the “computer have nots”<br />
as a food source just as a lion eyes a herd of<br />
gazelle. There is, however, a small and emerging<br />
daze of humans who deal with computers and<br />
technology on an everyday basis and have<br />
managed to make a lucky leap. They are neither<br />
poor nor hostile nor glued to their radar ranges<br />
and OLED television. This is the New-Bohemian<br />
Technology, hip ‘snowflakes’ making their way by<br />
feeling the vibes, while not fearing electricity.<br />
crisis has forced us to grow up, evolve, be kinder<br />
to one another. Because of the Pandemic,<br />
misplaced hostility towards computers can be<br />
seen quite clearly in two rather striking examples<br />
of computer sabotage which were manifestations<br />
of the general reign of anti-tech sabotage that<br />
started in the mid-sixties.<br />
In 1970, someone blew away a computer center<br />
in Madison Wisconsin, located on the University<br />
of Wisconsin campus. Not only was the computer<br />
destroyed but the entire building was virtually<br />
destroyed — whoever planted the charge was an<br />
expert. One graduate student who happened to<br />
be in the center was killed, but no one else was<br />
injured and no other buildings were eliminated.<br />
The computer and peripherals were fried to a<br />
crisp—this was an estimated eight billion dollar<br />
installation.<br />
Though the federal investigators finally made<br />
one arrest, the American press hushed up the<br />
incident: Why? The answer is quite simple.<br />
The building was the ARMY MATHEMATICS<br />
BUILDING, which loosely translated means<br />
MILITARY LOGISTICS COMPUTER. This<br />
building housed a think-tank for military<br />
operations. Yet, still, the computer itself is not<br />
culpable for its existence, and blowing up the<br />
computer center was merely an indirect variation<br />
on the sugar-in-the-gas tank trick.<br />
Whoever dosed us with the Virus, needs to be<br />
thanked… sure it seems like Germ Warfare, and<br />
part of an asymmetrical version of World War<br />
III but maybe they are doing us a solid favor.<br />
Whomever it was, the Virus
Also in 1970, in New York City, a similar computer<br />
was blown away. This computer center was,<br />
however, on the 20th floor of a modern building<br />
overlooking Manhattan. No one knows what that<br />
computer did for a living. Perhaps the Madison<br />
caper stimulated the Manhattan explosion.<br />
Perhaps one was planned by an intellectual with<br />
some computer background and the other was an<br />
an irrational, almost random, ELECTR0-<br />
ASSASINATION. Still the computer is not the<br />
wizard behind the computer, the computer does<br />
not mythologize itself, only humans can think in<br />
mythological terms.<br />
Lenny Bruce once said: “Don’t demonstrate<br />
against the Policeman. No matter how ferocious<br />
he looks he’s only the Mailman, he’s still taking<br />
orders from somebody!”
Rocktails<br />
Van Halen fans can often be divided into groups - Before<br />
Sammy Hagar and After Sammy Hagar. There’s no doubt<br />
that Sammy Hagar is a brilliant businessman, as outlined<br />
below; however, in my opinion the only Van Halen is with<br />
David Lee Roth.<br />
Sammy Hagar, born Samuel Roy Hagar on October<br />
13, 1947 is also known as The Red Rocker. He is an<br />
American singer-songwriter, guitarist and entrepreneur.<br />
After gaining prominence in the 1970s with the hard rock<br />
band Montrose, he launched a solo career and had the hit<br />
“I Can’t Drive 55” in 1984. He replaced David Lee Roth as<br />
the lead singer of Van Halen in 1985 and left in 1996 but<br />
returned to the band for a two year reunion from 2003-<br />
2005. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of<br />
Fame as a member of Van Halen in 2007.<br />
Sammy Hagar’s business ventures have probably made<br />
him as much or more money than his music career.. Hagar<br />
founded Cabo Wabo Tequila in 1996 because he was<br />
looking for a house spirit for his bar in Cabo San Lucas,<br />
Mexico. It was one of<br />
the first 100% blue agave tequilas available in the United<br />
States. Grupo Campari, which also owns<br />
such brands as Skyy Vodka, acquired 80% ownership<br />
of the tequila in 2008, and subsequently bought the<br />
remaining 20% in 2010.<br />
Cabo Wabo Cocktail<br />
(yields 2 drinks)<br />
~ mango, peeled, pit removed, cut into 2 pieces<br />
~4 fresh pineapple rings, core removed<br />
~ice<br />
~3/4 cup simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water<br />
heated until the sugar dissolves)<br />
~1/3 cup freshly squezzed lime juice, about 3<br />
~4 ounces Cabo Wabo tequila<br />
~1 tablespoon chili powder<br />
~1 tablespoon kosher salt<br />
~pineapple for garnish<br />
1. Preheat grill to high. Place mango and pineapple<br />
on grill, cook for 2 minutes, turn over and cook for 1<br />
minute more. Remove from grill to a cutting board and<br />
let cool. Roughly chop the fruit and put in large glass<br />
or cocktail shaker with 1/2 cup of ice, muddle, and<br />
add simple syrup, lime juice and tequila. Shake or stir<br />
to combine.<br />
2. Combine chili powder and kosher salt on a<br />
small plate. Rub the rims of 2 serving glasses with<br />
pineapple wedge, and coat the rims with the chili<br />
powder/salt. Fill each glass 3/4 full with ice and pour<br />
in cocktail mixture. (<br />
Enjoy!
The Disney Revolution is a movement that a<br />
bunch of true Disney fans decided to start shortly<br />
after the company’s threat to replace the Song<br />
of the South characters in Splash Mountain<br />
with ones from The Princess and the Frog.<br />
When the company made the announcement<br />
on June 25th, <strong>2020</strong>, that was the last straw for<br />
most true Disney fans. This was the one that<br />
not only broke the camel’s back but shattered<br />
it, making it impossible to deny any longer that<br />
The Walt Disney Company has had its magic<br />
systematically taken away from it piece by piece<br />
over the last 3 decades.<br />
The company has largely stopped caring about<br />
its true fans and what they want and decided to<br />
ignore concerns and feedback from their guests.<br />
To make matters worse, they have given in to<br />
political correctness and woke society-destroying<br />
agendas such as #MeToo and #Black<strong>Live</strong>sMatter<br />
every single time. And they’re not even good at<br />
it! Disney’s attempts at virtue-signaling just come<br />
off as hollow and insincere, not actually giving<br />
people what they want and doing nothing to solve<br />
real-world problems. These uninformed decisions<br />
have not only caused the company to become a<br />
mockery and result in fans abandoning them, but<br />
they have helped put the company in a financially<br />
vulnerable position at a time when it can ill afford<br />
it.<br />
The company has clearly forgotten that it was<br />
true fans like us, flocking to Disney parks from<br />
every corner of the globe, who made The Walt<br />
Disney Company successful. Had they actually<br />
listened to them and had given them what they<br />
actually asked for, they would realize that’s what<br />
helped the company become one of the largest<br />
in the world. But that success has come at a<br />
cost. Not only have far too many executives and<br />
managers whom The Walt Disney Company<br />
has put in such positions since at<br />
least the early 1990s abandoned<br />
all of us—they have actively turned their backs<br />
on the company’s roots, history and the golden<br />
standards that Walt Disney himself created and<br />
that the company strove to uphold for a while<br />
after his death.<br />
One of the most important things is their<br />
standards of maintenance, something that should<br />
never be ignored if for no other reason than<br />
consideration of the safety of guests. But even<br />
that has been in decline lately. Among the many<br />
missteps that Disney has made over the past 3<br />
decades include:<br />
—Cutting corners wherever possible on<br />
maintenance, upkeep, repairs and cleanliness<br />
throughout the Disney parks and resorts,<br />
resulting in things from a sinking boat on Jungle<br />
Cruise to a sinking log on Splash Mountain!<br />
—New and promising projects getting<br />
compromised or cut altogether.<br />
—Eliminating <strong>Live</strong> Entertainment in the parks,<br />
even though Social Distancing is NOT involved in<br />
most of those cuts!<br />
—The variety of meet-and-greet characters<br />
throughout the parks has been all-too-greatly<br />
reduced.<br />
—Cast members being very poorly trained,<br />
including in terms of learning how to handle and<br />
recognize people with neurological disorders<br />
such as Autism! (How to handle a meltdown!)<br />
—The Parks and their offerings appear to have<br />
become way too focused on children, giving<br />
adults the shaft, even though the parks are<br />
supposed to be “family-friendly”.<br />
—Cast members’ and characters’ interactions<br />
have become too rigid and discriminatory with<br />
too many policies put in place, and they have<br />
become less outgoing and less willing to be<br />
affectionate and interactive (giving kisses on the<br />
cheek, partner dancing, etc., without question<br />
and without saying out-of-character things like<br />
“my significant other will get jealous”) with adults<br />
and not just the kids,
By Phillip Kippel/ Photo Credit Phillip Kippel and Fair Use<br />
like they used to be.<br />
—The quality of the parades and live shows<br />
has seemingly gone down. A lot of the newer<br />
shows and parades are not as lively, lavish,<br />
exciting, high-energy or use as many variety of<br />
characters as the older ones, lack actual dancing/<br />
choreography, costumes worn by the dancers<br />
have become way too modest and less sexy (for<br />
lack of a better term), etc.<br />
—Everything has become way too sanitized,<br />
watered-down and made politically correct.<br />
This manifests itself in the neutering of classic<br />
attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean, such as<br />
changing the auction scene.<br />
—Removing popular, highly beloved attractions<br />
that never should’ve been removed such as<br />
The Great Movie Ride, the original Journey<br />
Into Imagination (which even Michael Eisner<br />
called a ‘disaster of a change’), World of Motion,<br />
Horizons, Kitchen Kabaret, Universe of Energy,<br />
the Walt Disney World version of Mr. Toad’s Wild<br />
Ride, the Disneyland versions of Country Bear<br />
Jamboree and the Peoplemover and the Disney<br />
California Adventure version of The Twilight Zone<br />
Tower of Terror, to name a few examples.<br />
—Replacing attractions instead of ADDING!<br />
—Announcing a re-theme of the highly popular<br />
Splash Mountain, as covered in my previous<br />
article.<br />
—Disney seemingly refusing to stand up to<br />
the outrage industry and becoming spineless<br />
and cowardly by giving in to groups of constant<br />
complainers, moral guardians, social justice<br />
warriors, etc., who will NEVER EVER be happy<br />
no matter what the company does!<br />
—Taking away popular seasonal and holiday<br />
offerings in the parks, such as Walt Disney World<br />
getting rid of the Country Bear<br />
45
Vacation Hoedown, Country Bear Christmas<br />
Special, the Lights Of Winter arches, The<br />
Osborne Family Spectacle Of Dancing Lights,<br />
etc., and refusing to add more seasonal offerings<br />
such as bringing Haunted Mansion Holiday<br />
and It’s a Small World Holiday to Walt Disney<br />
World, eliminating the full version of the Magic<br />
Kingdom’s Easter Parade, etc.<br />
—Discontinuing the celebration of other ethnic<br />
events, such as Chanukah and Kwanza, which<br />
were celebrated during Michael Eisner’s tenure!<br />
—The quality of certain seasonal events like<br />
Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and<br />
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party has greatly<br />
diminished.<br />
—Keeping Song of the South, a fantastic classic<br />
movie that is not racist in any way, locked away<br />
in the studio vault, while offering only a bare<br />
minimum of Walt-era and pre-1990s classic<br />
catalog titles on Disney+ or on DVD and Bluray<br />
when some of the few titles they do offer<br />
are edited despite the majority of audiences<br />
preferring to see them all uncut and uncensored.<br />
—Allowing the parks and resorts to get way too<br />
overcrowded, making for much less magical and<br />
enjoyable experiences at them.<br />
—Constantly raising prices and taking away free<br />
perks.<br />
—Being too focused on their “popular” franchises<br />
such as the Disney Princesses and Star Wars<br />
and not doing more with equally-beloved<br />
franchises that have TONS of untapped potential<br />
such as the Muppets and Roger Rabbit.<br />
—Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy not following<br />
George Lucas’s original plans for the Star Wars<br />
sequel trilogy and ruining the character of Luke<br />
Skywalker and the Star Wars franchise as a<br />
whole.<br />
—Disney appears to be attempting to inject<br />
politics and political agendas into the Disney<br />
parks and other Disney media, even though such<br />
entertainment is supposed to be a
source of escapism and a way for people to get<br />
away from all that nonsense for a while, not have<br />
even more of it forced down their throats! Politics<br />
are not allowed in entertainment!<br />
—Not accepting ideas or suggestions from fans<br />
and other people outside the company, especially<br />
if they are ideas that could help make things even<br />
better.<br />
—Killing traditional hand-drawn animated<br />
features, making Walt Disney Animation<br />
Studios and Pixar Animation Studios almost<br />
indistinguishable from each other and taking<br />
away what made each of them special.<br />
—Not doing a good enough job of reaffirming<br />
what is or isn’t canon (such as reaffirming that<br />
the direct-to-video sequels and TV shows based<br />
on Disney animated canon features are noncanonical),<br />
causing lots of confusion.<br />
—Repeatedly ignoring the concerns of<br />
stockholders by refusing to answer questions<br />
from anyone other than large brokers.<br />
—Laying off tens of thousands of employees/cast<br />
members while restoring executive pay levels to<br />
pre-COVID-19 status.<br />
And that is only the beginning.<br />
Among the many goals we are looking to<br />
achieve as part of The Disney Revolution is<br />
reversing all these mistakes and more and<br />
bringing the company back to its former glory and<br />
bringing back things they never should’ve taken<br />
away!Here is the link to The Disney Revolution<br />
Facebook page:<br />
https://www.facebook.com/TheDisneyRevolution<br />
A full website for The Disney Revolution is in the<br />
works and will be unveiled in early 2021.<br />
And please join my Help Save Splash Mountain<br />
Facebook page as well—help it reach<br />
1,000 members by <strong>December</strong> 31st:<br />
https://www.facebook.com/<br />
groups/751080852358711<br />
47
Dishonor to Us All: Is Disney Really Guilty<br />
of Enabling Human Rights Abuses with the<br />
<strong>Live</strong>-Action Mulan Remake?<br />
In 1998, the year Disney released its 36th animated<br />
feature, Mulan, my father and I went to Washington,<br />
DC One of the things we visited was the Holocaust<br />
Memorial; it was one of the most chilling experiences<br />
of my life. As a Jewish person, seeing my people<br />
being targeted for genocide made me sick and angry.<br />
Recently having come out as gay doubled the anger<br />
because gays were also among the many groups<br />
Nazis targeted for extermination. When we Jews say<br />
the phrase “never again,” we mean it.<br />
Fast forward to the year <strong>2020</strong>. Michael Eisner is no<br />
longer the head of The Walt Disney Company, and<br />
even his replacement, Bob Iger, has stepped down<br />
from the CEO position. Sanctimony has replaced<br />
imagination, and politics has replaced storytelling<br />
while remakes have overshadowed new ideas.<br />
And what’s the remake du jour? Mulan. No songs,<br />
no dragon, no drag queens, no love story, no<br />
gay- or bisexual-coded characters, no comedy. All<br />
seriousness this time because that’s what supposedly<br />
makes a film “adult.” But even before its release, the<br />
studio’s new take on the old Chinese legend became<br />
a lightning magnet for controversy.<br />
First, when pro-freedom protesters demonstrated in<br />
Hong Kong and faced police attacks, Liu Yifei, the<br />
film’s star, sided with the police. Specifically, she said<br />
on Weibo:<br />
“I support the Hong Kong police. You can all attack<br />
me now. What a shame for Hong Kong.”<br />
Such a statement sounds especially tone deaf in light<br />
of recent American protests against police violence.<br />
But Disney shrugged it off. After all, they have parks in<br />
both Shanghai and Hong Kong so they can ill afford to<br />
take sides.<br />
There is no position they could take that would not<br />
hurt someone’s feelings, but one takes such risks all<br />
the time simply by existing. However, the other risks<br />
they took have proven not to be worth taking.<br />
Even before its intended release, there was already a<br />
backlash brewing. #BoycottMulan started trending on<br />
Twitter after Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong called<br />
for one. The film might have financially weathered<br />
such attacks had the COVID-19 pandemic not closed<br />
most of the world’s movie theaters. Between this and<br />
the parks closing for the same reason, Disney lost two<br />
of its major sources of cash flow. With the 116-minute<br />
film costing $200 million, there was more riding on it<br />
than the 1998 original, which runs a taut 88 minutes<br />
and was made for only $90 million. They had to do<br />
something with it, so they put it on Disney+, where the<br />
disastrously received film Artemis Fowl landed with a<br />
thud, as an exclusive and charged a premium of $30<br />
for access to it … even for subscribers who already<br />
paid the monthly fee! Subscribers who canceled their<br />
subscriptions would not even keep access to it. Did<br />
The Disney Channel make you pay extra for original<br />
movies when they were a pay-cable channel? Equal<br />
parts desperation and greed, the strategy didn’t<br />
seem to work, and the movie quickly moved to other<br />
platforms for purchase. Meanwhile, Trolls 2 cost only<br />
$20 on digital and has apparently sold more copies.<br />
While the 1998 version was a box office hit that has<br />
aged beautifully, it was not exceptionally well-received<br />
in Mainland China, where its release was conditional<br />
at best and still fraught with controversy despite their<br />
best attempts to side-step it. The Chinese government<br />
took issue with Martin Scorsese’s Kundun, a<br />
Hollywood Pictures release about the Dalai Lama, for<br />
being too sympathetic to him at the expense of China.<br />
They threatened to ban all Disney films from the<br />
country. Though the film got good reviews in the US,<br />
Disney capitulated; Michael Eisner denounced the<br />
film, while Bob Iger called it a “mistake.” Nevertheless,<br />
Kino Lorber saw fit to release it on Blu-ray recently.<br />
The new version of Mulan has been carefully crafted<br />
so as not to offend any Chinese people. Anything<br />
perceived as being inauthentic to the culture has been<br />
scrubbed away. Or so they say.
By Matthew Anscher<br />
But even under those circumstances, they still got a<br />
lot of things wrong in ways the 1998 film did not. And<br />
in deference to #MeToo, any hint of romance between<br />
Shang and Mulan is gone, along with Shang himself!<br />
Even with the more government-friendly changes to<br />
the story, Chinese audiences still didn’t take kindly to<br />
a second Disney version of their homegrown female<br />
warrior, especially when they had their own locally<br />
produced movie versions to choose from, most<br />
notably a 2009 film called Mulan: Rise of a Warrior.<br />
There’s even a Chinese animated version, Kung Fu<br />
Mulan, making this new Disney version even more<br />
superfluous.<br />
But the worst was yet to come…<br />
Those who sat through the whole film to the end of<br />
the closing credits saw a “special thanks” credit for<br />
the Turpan Public Security Bureau, an organization in<br />
southern<br />
Xinjiang that manages concentration camps designed<br />
to hold over a million Uighur Muslims. Seriously, in<br />
<strong>2020</strong>! A major American movie studio, one that made<br />
pro-Allied propaganda films such as Der Fuehrer’s<br />
Face and Victory Thru Air Power during World War<br />
II, and one that won an Oscar for Bedknobs and<br />
Broomsticks in 1971 and two Oscars for Aladdin in<br />
1992, were now collaborating with mass murderers<br />
in a Communist country! They actually gave special<br />
thanks to multiple bureaus responsible for such<br />
horrific atrocities as forced sterilization, forced labor,<br />
and re-education, while many prisoners have even<br />
died because of the conditions of the camps. This is<br />
the same studio known for opening every movie with<br />
“When you wish upon a star, makes no difference<br />
who you are”? They proved once and for all they don’t<br />
really mean that. Even their excuses don’t wash. A<br />
company representative told Vanity Fair that this was<br />
necessary for “authenticity” and to get permission to<br />
even shoot in China at all even though most of the<br />
movie was shot elsewhere, particularly New Zealand.<br />
If so little of the Turpan footage made it into the film,<br />
and there’s nothing there they couldn’t get<br />
elsewhere, then why bother shooting there at all?<br />
Much criticism of Walt Disney revolves around<br />
the fact that he was a “friendly witness” for the<br />
House Unamerican Activities Committee regarding<br />
Communism in the 1940s when there was still a<br />
USSR and when Mao Tse Tung took over China.<br />
But in light of what the studio that bears his name<br />
has done, can you still actually read his remarks and<br />
come to the conclusion that he was wrong?<br />
“I believe [Communism] is an un-American thing.<br />
The thing that I resent the most is that they are<br />
able to get into these unions, take them over, and<br />
represent to the world that a group of people that<br />
are in my plant, that I know are good, one-hundredpercent<br />
Americans, are trapped by this group, and<br />
they are represented to the world as supporting<br />
all of those ideologies, and it is not so, and I feel<br />
that they really ought to be smoked out and shown<br />
up for what they are, so that all of the good, free<br />
causes in this country, all the liberalisms that<br />
really are American, can go out without the taint of<br />
communism. That is my sincere feeling on it.”<br />
The idea that Walt was a vicious anti-semite<br />
was, and still is, a hoax that many former Disney<br />
employees have refuted. His anti-Communism was<br />
used as evidence of that, but Jewish studio head<br />
Louis B. Mayer, co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-<br />
Mayer, was just as fervently opposed to it. It’s not<br />
very hard to see why. To see Walt’s Magic Kingdom<br />
actively collaborate with a country that relocated<br />
an entire group of people to concentration camps<br />
is beyond horrific. It is a major betrayal of trust, not<br />
to mention a publicity embarrassment the studio<br />
was sheepishly forced to acknowledge while, as<br />
usual, trying to play the Glad Game in doing so.<br />
Much like the issue of John Boyega’s differing<br />
level of prominence on the Chinese and American<br />
Star Wars posters, it is only more proof of Disney’s<br />
hypocrisy on human rights issues. Things like this<br />
show how insincere
the Disney company is when they talk of racial and<br />
cultural sensitivity. It’s also why their reasons for<br />
not letting Song of the South out of the vault, not to<br />
mention their reasons for wanting the characters out<br />
of Splash Mountain, ring hollow. Not only has Disney<br />
collaborated with Communists, it is complicit in their<br />
violations of human rights. If China is punished for<br />
this, then Disney should be, too.<br />
Compare and contrast this with how the company<br />
behaves in the United States. Despite a burgeoning<br />
film and television production industry in Atlanta,<br />
Georgia, which has been home to such acclaimed<br />
and popular movies as Game Night, Love Simon,<br />
and I Tonya, as well as being the home of Tyler<br />
Perry Studios, and despite the fact that Marvel had<br />
already shot Black Panther and Avengers: Endgame<br />
there, Disney announced that they would no longer<br />
film there if the governor signed a controversial<br />
anti-abortion bill into law. The law would have made<br />
abortion illegal at the point where one could hear the<br />
beating heart of an unborn baby, which is usually<br />
six weeks in most cases. Disney opposed the law<br />
because they believed its female employees would<br />
not want to work under these conditions. They claim<br />
to care about reproductive rights here, but those<br />
claims don’t hold up to scrutiny when one considers<br />
the fact that among the atrocities at the Xinjiang<br />
camps is forced sterilization!<br />
Mulan pays lip service to the concept of honor,<br />
but in reality, the current Disney management has<br />
brought dishonor to the company in ways no previous<br />
administration had. The star of the new film has not<br />
helped matters. Imagine if a white American actress<br />
openly supported police brutality against anti-racism<br />
protesters in the US. She probably wouldn’t have<br />
a career for very long. And imagine if Walt Disney<br />
Productions during WWII had shot the live-action<br />
portions of The<br />
Reluctant Dragon in or around Japanese-American<br />
internment camps, a shameful practice the US later<br />
apologized for. We would never hear the<br />
end of it even if the movie went down the same<br />
memory hole in which they’re trying to bury Br’er<br />
Rabbit. In reality, that movie grew out of the strike<br />
of 1940 that changed Walt Disney, his studio, and<br />
the animation industry as a whole. His upbringing<br />
was actually quite left-wing; his father Elias was a<br />
Christian Socialist who wrote a leftist newsletter.<br />
The company changed before, they can change<br />
again. Now, they have no choice but to make some<br />
adjustments. But they have to be good ones. Change<br />
for change’s sake is a waste of time and money, and<br />
in the end it makes no one happy.<br />
This is one of many reasons why it has been a critical<br />
mistake for Disney to rely so heavily on attempts to<br />
literally recreate their past glory days. Even when<br />
Ron Miller was running things, they could still make<br />
films that were at least nominally different from their<br />
Walt-era predecessors. If a lack of imagination was<br />
the biggest crime they had committed here, that<br />
would be one thing. But this is a much greater crime<br />
than systemically throwing out new ideas for endless<br />
retreads of the tried-and-true. This is literal crime we<br />
are talking about. The International Criminal Court<br />
in The Hague, Netherlands is specifically devoted to<br />
prosecuting crimes of this magnitude. It has never<br />
prosecuted a major corporation before, but that<br />
doesn’t mean that individual people who made the call<br />
to collaborate with the camps on the making of the<br />
film can’t be held liable for their actions. That would<br />
require them to prosecute the Chinese government<br />
first. Even in the absence of prosecution, there’s<br />
no way Disney can spin this public relations<br />
nightmare to their advantage, try as they might.<br />
When will their reflection show who they are<br />
inside?
February, 1978<br />
My friends were talking about this new band<br />
that had just put out their first album.<br />
Van Halen. Granted, it took me a while to<br />
finally listen, and the first cut,<br />
“Runnin’ With The Devil” kinda left me<br />
a little flat. Then, it happened.<br />
The next 1:43 changed<br />
everything I thought about<br />
how a guitar was played.<br />
I had been listening<br />
to the guitar<br />
By Jeff Shaw<br />
greats of the day: Ted Nugent, Ace Frehley, Tony<br />
Iommi, Jimmy Page. But nothing, and I mean<br />
NOTHING could compare with what I had just<br />
heard. How was that even possible (it took me several<br />
years to actually SEE how it was done)?<br />
There’s not a lot I can say about Edward Van Halen that<br />
hasn’t already been said: innovator, inventor, musician,<br />
composer, guitar wizard. The King.<br />
I had the opportunity to see Van Halen in Chicago in the<br />
summer of 1981 (I was supposed to see them in Jacksonville<br />
in August of 1980, but the show had to be postponed due to<br />
an injury to David Lee Roth, and when it was rescheduled,<br />
I was in boot camp). I paid $20 per ticket, which I thought<br />
was steep at the time, but when I got to my seat, I would<br />
have paid as much as is charged now. 3rd row, stage right,<br />
at the old Chicago Amphitheater. We missed the<br />
opening band, but got there just in time for Van Ha<br />
len’s set. I couldn’t tell you much about the set list,<br />
but I can tell you that during Eddie’s solo, when<br />
he came to that side of the stage, I stood there<br />
mesmerized. Transfixed. In the presence of a<br />
rock & roll deity.<br />
Eddie went on to provide many more licks and techn<br />
iques that left guitar players in awe. Spanish Fly, Cathedral.<br />
One thing that makes me laugh, in a CNN interview, he<br />
was talking about his work on Michael Jackson’s song “Beat<br />
It”. He said “Who’s gonna know I played on some black kid’s<br />
record” Uhhh, anybody and everybody that’s ever listened to<br />
you, Ed. He had a very distinctive style and tone that within<br />
about two or three seconds of hearing it, you know it’s him.<br />
He also did a couple of movie soundtracks, or<br />
contributed songs to them. Twister, being<br />
one of them, and a forgettable<br />
movie called The Wild Life.<br />
An old saying goes<br />
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because<br />
it happened”. Thank you for happening in my lifetime,<br />
Eddie. Thank you for all the music. Thank you for inspiring<br />
me to play guitar better.<br />
The king is dead: long live the king.
Music +
Fashion = Decades<br />
By Jamie Lee<br />
Music plus fashion equals pure entertainment<br />
for the masses. Music was “invented” over<br />
55,000 years ago, probably starting with naturally<br />
occurring sounds and rhythms from which even<br />
the most isolated tribes of the world created<br />
their own version of music. According to music<br />
archeology, the ceremonious garb we know as<br />
fashion came along with the creation of beats and<br />
rhythmic incantations and was worn with pride at<br />
all formal meetings of each cultural manifestation.<br />
Fast forward to a more modern age; the music<br />
and fashion scene exploded into a phenomenon.<br />
During the early ‘50s, Elvis Presley used sexy<br />
smiles, gyrating hips and the buttoned-up<br />
classic looks of the post-war era to develop his<br />
eroticized image by adding some flash and flare.<br />
He became a cultural revolutionary by bringing<br />
rockabilly to a more diverse audience, which<br />
made him a 20th-century icon.<br />
The Beatles invaded America, pioneering as the<br />
“Greasers of England”. The Fab Five donned<br />
many different looks ranging from fierce to leather<br />
jackets; from cowboy boots to pompadours.<br />
The ’60s brought an upheaval of music, fashion<br />
and attitudes. The arrival of Motown and R&B,<br />
originating in Detroit, marked a significant<br />
progression in the Civil Rights movement; but<br />
Motown also taught the world how to dress.<br />
Groups like Smokey Robinson and the Miracles<br />
and Diana Ross and the Supremes brought forth<br />
pop-soul classic lines and the two or three-piece<br />
suit was a favorite.<br />
The ‘70s sparked David Bowie’s alter ego, “Ziggy<br />
Stardust”, oozing with extraterrestrial tendencies,<br />
boosting, “We Come in Style.” Bowie said, “I think<br />
if you’re really going to entertain an audience<br />
then you have to look the part, too.” By 1976<br />
he had trailed from his ‘Ziggy Stardust’<br />
ego and cleansed his palate of crazy (for now),<br />
emerging classic and clean as “The Thin White<br />
Duke.”<br />
The ‘80s saw Madonna and her cones, Devo and<br />
the hats, and the lace - so much lace, along with<br />
multi-colored hair as high as the hairspray would<br />
hold it, necklaces dangling with the latest emblem<br />
- as many as your neck could hold. These were<br />
not to overshadow your shoulder pads or hide<br />
the fact you were wearing a fanny pack complete<br />
with an extra pair of leg-warmers inside in case of<br />
emergency.<br />
Enter the ‘90s, dubbed the anti-style era with MC<br />
Hammer pants, mini skirts, high waisted denim,<br />
and ridiculous animal print (gag)! Grunge was<br />
popularized as an anti-fashion in answer to all the<br />
colorful ‘80s fashion and made up of mostly thrift<br />
store clothing and anti-flash. This style genre<br />
was made famous by grunge music and worn by<br />
artists who were influenced by the Seattle music<br />
scene, including County Love, Cranberries,<br />
Nirvana, and Mudhoney.<br />
The millennium (we made it) shock is in all<br />
the cards leading to Stefani Joanne Angelina<br />
Germanotta. What? No guesses? (Hint: meat<br />
dress). Lady Gaga’s meat dress on the red carpet<br />
shocked America and made a new statement for<br />
the fashion culture that has taken over … well,<br />
everyone! How could you not listen to her? She<br />
is a classically trained pianist turned superstar. I<br />
listen to her with gusto pleasure!<br />
Whatever you pull over your body in the mornings<br />
most likely came from a genre originating with<br />
a musician who wanted to make a statement.<br />
History repeats itself, as do music and fashion,<br />
always doing so in exquisite harmony by adding<br />
a unique twist for the time.
FRI 4-8 PM<br />
LIVE MUSIC<br />
SAT 12-4 &<br />
5-8PM<br />
SUN 12-4 PM<br />
<strong>December</strong> ‘20<br />
4th – Jonny Odis - 4pm<br />
5th – Jessie Abbey - 12pm &<br />
Nate Utley - 5pm<br />
6th – Smyrna Erb – 12pm<br />
11th – Bradford Buckley - 4pm<br />
12th – Brent Clowers – 12pm &<br />
Griffin Sinclaire - 5pm<br />
13th – Heather Wilson – 12pm<br />
18th – Jay Paski – 4pm<br />
19th – The Cyclones - 12pm &<br />
Casy Picou - 5pm<br />
20th – Heather Wilson – 12pm<br />
26th – Shaker Jones - 12pm &<br />
Savi Fernandez - 5pm<br />
27th – Claire Vandiver – 12pm
What’s IN Your Phone?<br />
Most Used App:<br />
ESPN +<br />
iPhone 10<br />
Number of<br />
Contacts:<br />
500<br />
Sean Impara<br />
Number of unread emails<br />
I have two accounts one there’s just too many to mention<br />
in fact it was a reason I switched to my second account<br />
and I would say on my second account there’s probably<br />
only about 13 or 14.<br />
Most-listened-to Artist<br />
That’s a really tough one but I guess if you held a gun to<br />
my head it would be the band Group Love I’m addicted to<br />
that station on Pandora.<br />
Most-recent car-service ride<br />
Never. I live on an island and can ride my bike or walk<br />
anywhere. If I had to answer the question truthfully the<br />
last time would be a taxi service in New York City.<br />
Battery % at which you feel compelled to<br />
charge your phone<br />
I have a newer iPhone so the battery lasts almost the<br />
whole day. I have a habit of plugging in either when I’m<br />
sleeping or in the car so I don’t really look at it that much.<br />
Our own Co-Owner/Publisher, 53, writer<br />
and entrepreneur sharing his phone.<br />
Outgoing voice Message<br />
It’s very basic and boring. I probably need to change<br />
it soon, as people have told me so many times.<br />
Essential travel app<br />
I don’t travel like I used to so I don’t even have a<br />
travel app. I traveled for a living at various times so<br />
I’ve been to most places many times and I have a<br />
really good memory. If I really needed one, Google<br />
Maps would ultimately be my last resort if I really<br />
needed one.<br />
Does Your screensaver have a meaning<br />
Right now, no. I’ve been really lazy and I’ve never<br />
even changed it. In the past, I had pictures of my kid<br />
but he drives me crazy now so I don’t dare put him<br />
on there.<br />
Can you live without your phone<br />
That’s A great question. I used to work in a business<br />
where having a cell phone would’ve been extremely<br />
important and essential but I never had one and I<br />
managed. Now I work in another business where<br />
it’s extremely important and essential and there’s no<br />
way I could go without it.
56
UNAPPRECIATED<br />
BY RANDY PEPPER<br />
Since the 1960s musicians have never had a pay<br />
increase; in some places, rates have actually gone<br />
down. Now we found out that minimum wage will<br />
go up to $15 an hour in six years. In a band, most<br />
musicians make $62.50 a night. So, let’s look at what<br />
it takes to be a musician:<br />
Most musicians spend all week practicing for your<br />
upcoming gig, practicing hours and hours without<br />
pay. Now, let’s look at the equipment; most musicians<br />
have around $5,000 to $10,000 worth of equipment<br />
just to do their job plus they’re always updating their<br />
gear to make the show better. When was the last<br />
time you saw an employee of a fast food restaurant<br />
spend that kind of money to do their job. You haven’t!<br />
Yes, I know they probably don’t need to spend that<br />
kind of money to do the job; they are just given a<br />
uniform shirt just and they go to work. But even in an<br />
office environment, when was the last time you saw<br />
someone working spend that kind of money to do their<br />
job. You haven’t!<br />
We’ve always heard the saying that a musician is<br />
a guy that drives a $500 car with $10,000 worth of<br />
equipment to drive to a $100 gig two hours away. Yes<br />
a lot of this is brought on by musicians who are just<br />
looking to play somewhere and will do it at any cost.<br />
But for the musician who is trying to make a living and<br />
pay their bills, this isn’t helpful. Not all musicians are<br />
weekend millionaires; some of them are working two<br />
jobs just to make ends meet then others are playing<br />
seven nights a week just to pay their bills. There are<br />
some who play in bars and restaurants just to eat<br />
or to drink; at the end of the night, some of these<br />
musicians drank more than got paid.<br />
Unfortunately being a musician often comes with<br />
other costs. Many musicians become alcoholics<br />
because they work in bars all the time and just can’t<br />
say no to the next free drink. I’m not saying it’s a bad<br />
thing to buy the band drinks, but sometimes it’s better<br />
just to put money in the tip bucket because not all<br />
musicians drink. That way, the musicians can use the<br />
money for whatever they want. And for the people that<br />
drink all of their paycheck, that tip money may be the<br />
only money they make.<br />
Let’s look at why musicians have never gotten a pay<br />
raise in over 40 years. Is it that perhaps the people<br />
running the bars and restaurants feel they are doing<br />
it for the love of music? In some cases that’s true.<br />
Maybe one of the answers to the question of why<br />
musicians are often underpaid for their services is<br />
that musicians in general are not the kind of people<br />
who will stand up to the bar or restaurant owner and<br />
say, “Listen I know you used to pay us $400 a night<br />
but now we want $1,000 because that’s what we are<br />
worth. Most musicians just think, “Oh well, at least I<br />
got paid, and I can help out with some of the bills or<br />
buy that new pedal to nail that tone of that new song<br />
we learned.” It’s crazy to think that in six years if you<br />
count in all the work that a musician does he will be<br />
the lowest paid person in the bar.<br />
Now, there’s an exception to most anything and,<br />
sure, if Blake Shelton shows up he’s going to get paid<br />
$60,000 for the night or bands like Modern English<br />
(who had one hit) will be paid $10,000 for the night.<br />
While there are some bands that are paid decently<br />
for the night, most are still only going to make $400-<br />
$500 a night. And these are the bands that show up<br />
really early to the venue to set up and they are also<br />
the last ones in the bar after closing because they<br />
have to tear down their whole stage show. They show<br />
up at 1 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon and set up all<br />
their equipment and by the time they have finished<br />
tearing down their show and loading out at 4o’clock in<br />
the morning, they’ve done 14 hours of work. Is there<br />
anyone else in the bar working 14 hours? Why do<br />
you think there are so many singles and duo’s? It’s<br />
because they have figured out how to make a living<br />
at working normal hours. But when the $15 an hour<br />
minimum wage kicks in, that might not be the case.<br />
It’s going to be interesting in the next six years for<br />
sure.<br />
Randy Pepper is the owner of the Guitar Attic in<br />
Holly Hill and a freelance guitar player for hire.
Trivia & Crossword<br />
1. David Lee Roth<br />
2. Sammy Hagar<br />
3. David Lee Roth<br />
4. Sammy Hagar<br />
5. Sammy Hagar<br />
6. Sammy Hagar<br />
7. David Lee Roth<br />
8. David Lee Roth<br />
9. Sammy Hagar<br />
10. Sammy Hagar<br />
11. Sammy Hagar<br />
12. Sammy Hagar<br />
13. David Lee Roth<br />
14. Sammy Hagar<br />
15. David Lee Roth<br />
Solutions<br />
16. David Lee Roth<br />
17. David Lee Roth<br />
18. David Lee Roth<br />
19. Sammy Roth<br />
20. David Lee Roth<br />
21. David Lee Roth<br />
22. Sammy Hagar<br />
23. Sammy Hagar<br />
24. David Lee Roth<br />
25. David Lee Roth<br />
26. David Lee Roth<br />
27. Sammy Hagar<br />
28. Sammy Hagar<br />
29. David Lee Roth<br />
30.David Lee Roth<br />
Bonus: 1985<br />
12<br />
2<br />
W<br />
G<br />
R<br />
E<br />
A E G<br />
3<br />
4 5<br />
T I N S E L S E M M<br />
T R C A B R A N D Y<br />
L M I S T L E T O E X R<br />
M A I N E A A U N B I R T H<br />
14<br />
E E G G N O G R R E H<br />
X Y A N Z C<br />
I A E O<br />
C L R U D O L P H<br />
18 19<br />
1<br />
11<br />
9 10<br />
F O U R A L V I N K E<br />
6<br />
16<br />
7<br />
13<br />
A I R<br />
E M<br />
S E<br />
Y<br />
15<br />
8<br />
17
Moments Missed on a Holiday Stage-<br />
BY JOE YOUNG IV<br />
The holiday season to most people’s imagination<br />
is one of decorations, of family, of gifts and of<br />
merriment. And while my vision of the Christmas<br />
holiday season includes many of the same nostalgic<br />
images as the next American, what I will be missing<br />
most is my musical family. My vision of the holidays<br />
has never been much of a Rockwell painting, more of<br />
a mix of Dalí and Warhol, set to a soundtrack by Jaco<br />
Pastorius. Since 2007 I have considered Orlando<br />
my base of operations, moving there initially to go to<br />
the University of Central Florida. Between working<br />
at Walt Disney World and SeaWorld during the<br />
Christmas season I have been fortunate to perform at<br />
theme parks for the last nine out of twelve Christmas<br />
seasons. When you mix in holiday parties, the many<br />
snow bird shows that happen throughout Central<br />
Florida and The Villages, as well as the normal ebb<br />
and flow of freelance work, I would easily put 6,000<br />
miles on my car between Thanksgiving and the<br />
end of the year. The sense of purpose derived from<br />
performing during the holidays easily outweighs all of<br />
the late nights, long drives, hours upon hours spent<br />
waiting in a theme park break room and missed time<br />
at home with my family.<br />
While it is a drag to have to work on a holiday,<br />
especially Thanksgiving and Christmas, the<br />
comradery with musicians is what I will miss most<br />
from the <strong>2020</strong> holiday season.<br />
he down time between shows in the breakroom (often<br />
in an odd store room, tucked back by the dumpsters)<br />
would lend itself to spirited hangs, everything from<br />
friendly poker games to how to work on improving<br />
your music composition skills to the latest jazz<br />
albums. The moment right after you get backstage<br />
and are able to break character to laugh at the park<br />
guest that just made a fool of themselves during<br />
the last set. Even wearing the costumes, which are<br />
almost exclusively made of the heaviest and hottest<br />
materials known to man. After work there were always<br />
opportunities to take a late-night gig, or to sit in with<br />
one of the bands performing at the downtown bars.<br />
Going on the road with The Glenn Miller<br />
Orchestra I would miss a portion of the holiday<br />
season here in Central Florida. However, the<br />
tradeoff was pretty fair – the band’s Japan tour<br />
was often during the month of November into the<br />
beginning of <strong>December</strong>.<br />
There is truly nothing like Japanese Christmas.<br />
The Christmas season is celebrated as<br />
a lovers’ holiday in Japan, more akin<br />
to Valentine’s Day than American<br />
Christmas. The level of deco<br />
rating is like no other, from<br />
giant Christmas trees to<br />
shop window displays,<br />
to some of the<br />
most<br />
egregious<br />
representations<br />
of Santa Claus<br />
EVER (my favorite<br />
being a Gremlin like,<br />
puke green variety that<br />
was very popular one year).<br />
I have so much to be<br />
thankful for this holiday<br />
season, and so many<br />
reasons to look forward<br />
to celebrating Christmas<br />
with my family,<br />
uninterrupted by work.<br />
But even in the midst<br />
of Christmas I know I<br />
will be deeply yearning<br />
for my musical family<br />
and the time that we<br />
can go back to<br />
performing. And I<br />
know that if<br />
Christmas 2022<br />
finds me back<br />
on a stage I<br />
will never<br />
complain<br />
about<br />
playing<br />
Rudolph<br />
The Red<br />
Nosed<br />
Reindeer<br />
ever again.
From <strong>Static</strong> Liv
Happy<br />
Holidays<br />
e Media, LLC
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