Author Archives: Karl

This is the true joy in life

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George Bernard Shaw

This is the true joy in life – that being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. That being a force of nature, instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for it’s own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch I’ve got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it to future generations.

That quote is scribbled on a piece of paper in my wallet. Been there for a long time. I havn’t found my purpose yet. But man do I feel blessed.

In that spirit I want to send some shout outs.

Please say a prayer for Garret and his family.

Send supportive e-mails to Rogi and Dave on their struggle with smokes. It’s way harder then most people realize.

Go to MP3.com and listen to a great band, a rocking song, and support one of my friends, Mark. The song is about to crack MP3.com’s top 50!

Send a supportive word to Meryl who survived Blogathon!. You can still donate to her very worthy cause.

Very importantly – The Sleeping Angels fund has placed it’s first headstone for a child who didn’t have one since February 2001! I am so proud of my brother and his family. How they are channeling their son’s passing is inspirational.

The world can be a horrible place – but this time a 7 year old inspires

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Time’s deserving person of the week is 7 year old Erica Pratt. A girl that has inspired many in the city and out here in the blogging world. Her strength will be remembered for a long time by many.

There’s much more to this story. The Inquirer reports that the Suspected kidnappers, family have web of ties.

As Acel Moore says

Unlike recent kidnapping cases in Utah and California, this crime suits its surroundings.

She had to learn at a very young age how to watch for herself when away from her grandmother, and thank God for her grandmother’s love and care.

No, this posting is not a return to my past blogging velocity. Still lots more moving to do, and I like my time away from the web, with my friends and family.

How Ozzy lost his cool

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How freakin’ stupid is this article on Ozzy in Salon? Man, what bullshit.

Let’s get a few things straight…. Ozzy hasn’t changed. The world has changed around him. He was never cool. I got beaten up for liking him in high school. I’m not kidding you. I have a crooked nose from one of those fights.

His music hasn’t changed. It’s wouldn’t be considered pop fifteen years ago. Dare ya to get recordings from 94 WYSP from back then and compare it to today’s. They would never even play Motley Crue, let alone Ozzy. Never man.

Oh, how people forget.

Anyone remember ‘You Can’t Kill Rock n’ Roll’? Ballad. ‘Killer of Giants’? Ballad. ‘Revelation Mother Earth’? Ballad. Shit… he sung ballads with Black Sabbath too. There’s nothing new to Ozzy.

What is new, and truely disconcerting, is that the world has shifted.

You now have a generation in charge that grew up on the Stones. On the Beetles. On the Who. On Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin, Kiss, and Aerosmith.

Howard Stern. Yes. Howard Stern.

That generation took charge in the nineties. Bill Clinton and now George Dubya.

His new music is actually little different from what he was playing back in the early eighties! I’d say it’e even louder. But what we consider “underground”, has changed.

The “underground” of metal must continuously get louder, faster, nastier, in somehope of being different from what has come before.

In order for Ozzy to be underground today – he’d have to be more controvercial then Marilyn Manson. And that’s hard to imagine really.

I used to get beaten up for Metallica too.

Then something funny happened.

“One” by Metallica made the mainstream setlist of radios.

The next album would popularlize them with the exact same crowd that used to put the fans of metal down. And so came the nineties.

Man it sucked. Metal became to be looked at as more and more, the defacto standard of mainstream rock. It lost what made it special. Suddenly, you could hear Ozzy on the radio! Like – ten years after the fact! I remember staring at the radio and wondering what the hell was going on when I heard a new single by Ozzy on the radio. Man that was freaky.

Metal was taken over by preppies and jocks. The whatever bands. Limp Bizkit. Crap. The climax of which was Woodstock 99.

At least the nineties had grunge. A metal offshoot that didn’t like to mention it’s heritage. Much cooler to say that Neil Young was an influence then Guns N’ Roses ya know. But grunge spoke with one, long, depressing voice. It never let it’s tounge get in it’s cheek. It never realized it was only rock n’ roll. It took itself too seriously as a genre and burnt out.

Is he cashing in? Certainly! But can you blame him? What’s occuring now is actually kind of refreshing. The grandfather of metal is getting his due. But I do want it to go away.

Makes me feel old.