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placesthatchangedpeople · 4 months

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Some parents send their children to self-help groups in order to get them back from possible alcohol or drug abuse. Instead they lose their children to the self-help group because while the group market itself as treatment, it is a disguise for a cult.

Can you research if this is the case? Sadly not. Some cults are simply too clever and it takes years for members and relatives to figure out what the true purpose of the self-help group is.

This is a video about one self-help group which turned out to be more like a cult.

#Bob Meehan #troubled teens #self-help group #cult #Youtube

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lyselkatzfandomluvs · 2 years

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Band of Brothers screencaps/edits (491/?)

Thomas Meehan

July 8: Happy birthday

#band of brothers #thomas meehan #48 hour pass!#jason o'mara #my edits #my gifs #my bob edits #I cried a little seeing his ring in the DDay experience museum 😢

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bob-the-movie-man-film-reviews · 10 months

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Asteroid City (12): Explain all of this to me. I dare you.

#onemannsmovies review of "Asteroid City" (2023). #AsteroidCity. The most Andersonny film imaginable. Gorgeous but disjointed and barmy. 3/5.

A One Mann’s Movies review of “Asteroid City” (2023). There seems to be a bit of a trait on social Al media at the moment of people posting (often very funny) videos of famous film franchises “in the style of” famous directors. Some of the best of these have been “in the style of Wes Anderson” (e.g. see for example “Lord of the Rings” here… friggin’ hilarious!). For there is no doubting that…

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jmunneytumbler · 10 months

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Wes Anderson Invites Us to Look to the Skies in 'Asteroid City'

3 Men, 1 Asteroid (CREDIT: Courtesy of Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features) Starring: Jason Schwartzman, Jake Ryan, Scarlett Johansson, Grace Edwards, Tom Hanks, Ella Faris, Gracie Faris, Willan Faris, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe,…

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alyygx · 2 months

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Band of Brothers Easy Company Sorted Between Surviving and Not Surviving WWII: Part 1 of 2

Hey all! Here is part 1 of my big BoB post!!! I still have some work to do on part 2 but I will try to have it up as soon as I can. I hope you all find this useful and also a little bit interesting. I had so much fun doing the research for it. 🙂❤️

Enjoy!!! xoxo

Died During the War:

Company Commanders:

First Lieutenant Thomas Meehan III

Born: July 8th, 1921 (Philadelphia, PA)

Enlisted: March 16th, 1941 (Philadelphia, PA)

Died: June 6th, 1944/ D-Day (Normandy, France)

Age at Death: 22 years old

Cause of Death: Plane shot down and crashed after being hit by German anti-aircraft fire.

• His remains were finally returned to the U.S. in 1952 and he is currently buried at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery just south of St. Louis, Missouri

Awards/Medals:

• Parachutists Badge (aka Jump Wings)

• Combat Infantry Badge

• American Campaign Medal

• Purple Heart

• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (with 2 service stars)

• World War II Victory Medal

• French Liberation Medal

• Croix de guerre with palm

Wounded?: No (died before seeing any combat)

Family:

• Thomas Meehan II (Father)

• Marion Opp Meehan (Mother)

• Anne Shore (Wife)

• Barrie Meehan Meller (Daughter)

Non-commissioned Officers:

Sergeant Warren Harold "Skip" Muck

Born: January 31st, 1922 (Tonawanda, NY)

Enlisted: August 17th, 1942 (Buffalo, NY)

Died: January 10th, 1945 (Foy, Bastogne, Belgium)

Age at Death: 22 years old

Cause of Death: Killed when an artillery round hit his foxhole, shared with Alex Penkala, and exploded.

• Skip Muck is buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.

Awards/Medals:

• Parachutists Badge (aka Jump Wings) with 2 combat stars

• Combat Infantryman Badge

• Bronze Star

• Purple Heart

• Presidential Unit Citation (with one Oak Leaf Cluster)

• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (with 3 service stars and arrow device)

• World War II Victory Medal

• Army of Occupation Medal

• Croix de guerre with palm

• French Liberation Medal

• Belgian World War II Service Medal

Fought:

• D-Day/Battle of Normandy (Normandy, France)

• Operation Market Garden (Einhoven, Holland)

• Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes Forrest, Bastogne, Belgium)

Wounded?: Never wounded until KIA in Bastogne

Family:

• Elmer Julius Muck Sr. (Father)

• Loretta M. Muck (Mother)

• Elmer J. Muck Jr. (Older Brother)

• Ruth Muck (Younger Sister)

• Faye Tanner (Fiancée)

Enlisted Men:

Corporal Donald B. "Hoob" Hoobler

Born: June 28th, 1922 (Manchester, OH)

Enlisted: July 22nd, 1942 (Fort Thomas, KY)

• Joined the Ohio National Guard on October 15th, 1940 and served until October 1941.

Died: January 3rd, 1945 (Bastogne, Belgium)

• Don Hoobler is buried at Manchester IOOF Cemetery with his father (d. 1941), mother (d. 1976), and brother George (d. 1932).

Age at Death: 22 years old

Cause of Death: After acquiring a German Luger and placing the gun in his pocket the gun discharged due to the pressure of the multiple layers of clothing he was wearing and severed the femoral artery in his right leg. He bled out and died before he was able to be transported to an aid station.

Awards/Medals:

• Parachutists Badge (aka Jump Wings)

• Combat Infantryman Badge

• Purple Heart

• American Defense Medal

• European Theater of Operations Ribbon

Fought:

• Battle of Normandy/D-Day (Normandy, France)

• Operation Market Garden (Einhoven, Holland)

• Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes Forrest, Bastogne, Belgium)

Wounded?: No. Not until his fatal non-combat related gunshot wound to his leg in Bastogne.

Family:

• Sergeant Ralph Brenton Hoobler (Father)

• Kathryn Phyllis [Carrigan] Hoobler (Mother)

• John R. Hoobler (Brother)

• George B. Hoobler (Brother)

• Mary Kathryn [Hoobler] Lane (Sister)

Private First Class Alex Mike Penkala Jr.

Born: August 30th, 1924 (Niles, Michigan)

Drafted: February 27th, 1942 (Toledo, OH)

Died: January 10th, 1945 (Foy, Bastogne, Belgium)

Age at Death: 20 years old

Cause of Death: Killed when an artillery round hit his foxhole, shared with Skip Muck, and exploded.

• Alex Penkala is buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery in Hamm, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.

Awards/Medals:

• Parachutists Badge (aka Jump Wings)

• Combat Infantryman Badge

• Purple Heart

• Bronze Star

• American Campaign Medal

• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal (with 3 service stars and arrowhead)

• World War Two Victory Medal

• Reconnaissance de la France Libérée

• Croix de guerre with palm

• Médaille commémorative de la Guerre

• Good Conduct Medal

Fought:

• Battle of Normandy/D-Day (Normandy, France)

• Operation Market Garden (Einhoven, Holland)

• Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes Forrest, Bastogne, Belgium)

Wounded?: Wounded by a mortar explosion in the arm in Bastogne.

Family: Alex Penkala's parents emigrated from Poland in 1906 and his father barely spoke English. All the Penkala children (including Alex) were fluent in Polish.

• Alexander Penkala Sr. (Father)

• Mary [Kinski] Penkala (Mother) *died in childbirth in 1927 delivering her 13th child

• Angela M. [Penkala] Sobczyk (Oldest Sister)

• Mary [Penkala] Setlak (2nd Oldest Sister)

• Helen E. [Penkala] Hawblitzel (3rd Oldest Sister)

• Matilda V. [Penkala] Budney (4th Oldest Sister)

• Genevieve A. [Penkala] Glujas (5th Oldest Sister)

• Edward F. Penkala (Oldest Brother)

• Clem J. Penkala (2nd Oldest Brother)

• Evelyn A. [Penkala] Tatay (6th Oldest Sister)

• Irene [Penkala] Lichatowich (7th Oldest Sister)

• Rose L. [Penkala] Kaczmarczyk (2nd Youngest Sister)

• Gertrude E. [Penkala] Picking (Youngest Sister)

• Sylvia (Girlfriend)

Survived the War:

Company Commanders:

Captain Herbert Maxwell Sobel

Born: January 26th, 1912 (Chicago, IL)

Enlisted: March, 7th 1941

Died: September 30th, 1987 (Waukegan, IL)

Age at Death: 75 years old

Cause of Death: Malnutrition

• In 1970 Sobal shot himself in the head in an attempted suicide. The bullet entered his temple and severed his optic nerve rendering him blind for the rest of his life.

• He died a Lieutenant Colonel; serving in both WWII & Korea

• Sobel was cremated after his death

• Sobel is buried at Montrose Cemetery-Crematorium in Chicago, IL

• No one attended his funeral

Awards/Medals:

• Parachutists Badge (aka Jump Wings)

• Combat Infantryman Badge

• Bronze Star Medal

• American Campaign Medal

• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal

• World War II Victory Medal

• Croix de guerre (France)

Fought:

• Battle of Normandy/D-Day (Normandy, France)

• Operation Market Garden (Einhoven, Holland)

• Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes Forrest, Bastogne, Belgium)

Wounded?: No

After the War: Worked as a credit manager for a telephone equipment company in Chicago.

• Sobel was born into a Jewish family, his wife was devoutly Catholic. This was a major problem for his family.

• Sobel and his wife divorced sometime in the late 1960s and he became estranged from his family shortly after.

Family:

• Max H. Sobel (Father)

• Dora Friedman (Mother)

• Julian Sobel (Brother)

• Maxine Sobel (Brother)

• Ruth Sobel (Sister)

• Rose Sobel (Wife)

• Michael Sobel (Son)

• Herbert Sobel Jr. (Son)

• Rick Sobel (Son)

• 1 daughter (died a few days after birth)

Major Richard Davis "Dick" Winters

Born: January 21st, 1918 (New Holland, PA)

Enlisted: August 25th, 1941 (place unknown)

Died: January 2nd, 2011 (Campbelltown, PA)

Age at Death: 92 years old

Cause of Death: Parkinson's disease

• Dick is buried at Bergstrasse Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ephrata Township, PA and was laid to rest on January 8th, 2011.

Awards/Medals:

• Parachutists Badge (with 2 Combat Stars)

• Combat Infantryman Badge

• Medal of the City of Einhoven

• Distinguish Service Cross [The second highest medal awarded by the US Military]

• Bronze Star with one Oak Leaf Cluster

• Purple Heart

• Presidential Unit Citation with one Oak Leaf Cluster

• American Defense Medal

• National Defense Medal

• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal

• World War II Victory Medal

• Army of Occupation Medal

• Croix de guerre with palm

• French Liberation Medal

• War Cross (Belgium) with palm

• Belgian World War II Medal

Fought:

• Battle of Normandy/D-Day (Normandy, France)

• Operation Market Garden (Einhoven, Holland)

• Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes Forrest, Bastogne, Belgium)

• Western Allied invasion of Germany

Wounded?: Took a ricochet sniper bullet to the leg in Carentan.

After the War: Became a production assistant at Nixon Nitration Works, a plastics adhesive factory, in Raritan, NJ

Family:

• Richard Winters (Father)

• Edith Winters (Mother)

• Beatrice Winters (Sister)

• Ann Sheehan (Younger Sister)

• Ethel Estoppey Winters (Wife)

• Richard T. Winters (Son)

• Jill Peckelun (Daughter)

First Lieutenant Frederick Theodore "Moose" Heyliger

Born: June 23rd, 1916 (Acton, MA)

Enlisted: November 25th, 1940

Died: November 3rd, 2001 (Concord, MA)

• Moose is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

Age at Death: 85 years old

Cause of Death: Stroke

Awards/Medals:

• Parachutists Badge (aka Jump Wings)

• Bronze Star

• Purple Heart

• American Campaign Medal

• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal

• Military Cross

Fought:

• Battle of Normandy/D-Day (Normandy, France)

• Operation Market Garden (Einhoven, Holland)

Wounded?: Was accidentally shot by one of his own men (a replacement) on October 31st, 1944. His wounds caused him to need to undergo skin and nerve grafts. He was discharged from the army in February 1947 after being in military hospitals for nearly 3 years.

After the War: Worked as a salesman for landscape and agriculture chemical companies.

Family:

• Theodore Godet Heyliger (Father)

• Bertha Louise Heyliger (Mother)

• Johannes Almon Heyliger (Older Brother)

• Pauline Louise Heyliger (Older Sister)

• Howard Francis Heyliger (2nd Oldest Brother)

• Vic Heyliger (Younger Brother)

• Evelyn Davis (First Wife) [divorced early 1960s]

• Frederick Heyliger Jr. (Son)

• Diane Heyliger (Daughter)

• Mary Heyliger (Second Wife)

• Jon Heyliger (Son)

First Lieutenant Norman Staunton "Foxhole Norman" Dike Jr.

Born: May 19th, 1918 (Brooklyn, NY)

Enlisted: January 22nd, 1942

Died: June 23rd, 1989 (Rolle, Switzerland)

• Dike is buried at West Thompson Cemetery, Thompson Windham County, North Grosvenor Dale, Connecticut.

Age at Death: 71 years old

Cause of Death: "A long illness" is all the info I could find

Awards/Medals:

• Silver Star

• Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster

• Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster

• Order of Orange-Nassau Netherlands 2nd class

Fought:

• Operation Market Garden

• Battle of the Bulge

Wounded?: Shot in the right shoulder in Foy

After the War: Dike opened his own law practice in Switzerland

Family:

• Norman S. Dike Sr. (Father)

• Evelyn M. Biddle (Mother)

• Barbra Tredick Dimmick McIntire (Wife) (m. June 20th 1942 - divorced June 1946)

• Catherine Pochon (2nd Wife) (m. March 12th, 1957)

• Anthony Randolph Dike (Son)

• Robin Dike Auchincloss (Daughter)

• Barbra Matilda Dike (Daughter)

• Deborah Ann Dike (Daughter)

Captain Ronald Charles Speirs

Born: April 20th, 1920 (Edinburgh, United Kingdom)

Enlisted: April 11th 1942

Died: April 11th, 2007 (Saint Marie, Montana)

Age at Death: 86 years old

Cause of Death: Died suddenly; cause unknown

• Burial details unknown

Awards/Medals:

• Master Parachutist Badge with 4 combat jump devices (stars)

• Combat Infantry Badge 2nd Award

• Silver star

• Legion of Merit

• Bronze Star with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters

• Purple Heart with ne Oak Leaf Clusters

• Army Commendation Medal

• Presidential Unit Citation with one Oak Leaf Cluster

• American Campaign Medal

• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with four Service Stars and Arrowhead Device

• World War II Victory Medal

• Army of Occupation Medal

• National Defense Service Medal with Service Star

• Korean Service Medal with four Service Stars and Arrowhead Device

• Croix de Guerre with palm

• French Liberation Medal

• Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation

• United Nations Korea Medal

• Korean War Service Medal

Fought:

• Battle of Normandy/DDay

• Operation Market Garden

• Battle of the Bulge

Wounded?: Wounded by fire from an enemy machine gun in Rendijk, Holland

After the War: After WWII Spiers stayed in the army for 22 years and served in both the Korean and Cold Wars. Once out of the army Speirs served as the Governor of Spandau Prison (where Nazi war criminals were held).

Family:

• Robert Spiers (Father)

• Martha McNeil (Mother)

• Margaret Griffiths (Wife) (m. May 20th, 1944 - 1946) * Divorced bc she was British and didnt't want to move to America with him.

• Leonie Gertrude Hume Fritz (2nd Wife) (m. 1958)

• Ramona Dolores Pujol Strumph (3rd Wife) (m. 1987)

• Robert (Son from 1st wife)

Junior Officers:

Captain Lewis Nixon

Born: September 30th, 1918 (New York, NY)

Enlisted: January 14th, 1941 (Trenton, NJ)

Died: January 11th, 1995 (Los Angeles, CA)

Age at Death: 76 years old

Cause of Death: Complications from diabetes

• Lew is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Hollywood Hills

Awards/Medals:

• Parachutist Badge (Jump Wings) with 3 combat stars

• Combat Infantyman Badge

• Purple Heart

• American Defense Medal

• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Ribbion with 3 Battle Stars and a Bronze Arrowhead

• World War Two Victory Medal

• World Was Two Army of Occupation Award with Germany Clasp

• French Criox de Guerre (Cross of Valor)

• Presidential Unit Citation with Bronze Oak Leaf

• 5 Overseas Service Stripes

• Ruptured Duck Patch (WWII Discharge Patch)

Fought:

• Battle of Normandy/DDay

• Operation Market Garden

• Battle of the Bulge

• Operation Varsity

Wounded?: In the Netherlands he was hit by a bullet from a German MG 42 machine gun. The bullet went through his helmet, grazed his forehead, and left a burn mark.

After the War: Nix worked at his family's Nixon Nitration Works in Edison, New Jersey alongside his father and friend Dick Winters.

Family:

• Stanhope Wood Nixon (father)

• Doris Ryer Nixon (mother)

• Fletcher Ryer Nixon (brother)

• Blanche Nixon (sister)

• Katharine Page (1st Wife) (m. December 20th, 1941 - 1944)

• Irene Miller (2nd Wife) (m. June 1946 - 1962)

• Grace Umezawa (3rd Wife) (m. 1962)

• Michael Nixon (Son with 1st Wife)

First Lieutenant Lynn Davis "Buck" Compton

Born: December 31st, 1921 (Los Angeles, CA)

Enlisted: Was already ROTC (started 1940) when the war broke out (graduated in 1943 and assigned to the 176th Infantry Regiment)

Died: February 25th, 2012 (Burlington, WA)

Age at Death: 90 years old

Cause of Death: Complications from a heart attack he had in January 2012

• Buck was cremated after his death and his ashes were given to his family

Awards/Medals:

• Parachutist Badge (Jump Wings) with 2 jump stars

• Combat Infantryman Badge

• Silver Star

• Bronze Star

• Purple Heart

• Presidential Unit Citation with one Oak Leaf Cluster

• American Defense Service Medal

• American Campaign Medal

• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with arrow device (airborne assult) and 3 campaign stars

• World War II Victory Medal

• Army of Occupation Medal

• French Croix de guere with palm

• French Liberation Medal

Fought:

• Battle of Normandy/DDay

• Operation Market Garden

• Battle of the Bulge

Wounded?: In 1944, during Operation Market Garden, Buck was shot in the backside. Then, in January 1945, Buck suffered severe battle fatigue after witnessing two close friends (Joe Toye and Bill Guarnere) badly wounded by artillery fire.

After the War: He attended Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and joined the LA Police Department in 1946 becoming a detective in the Central Burglary Division. He left the LAPD for the District Attorney's office in 1951 as a deputy district attorney. He was promoted in 1964 to chief deputy district attorney. In 1970, Governor Ronald Reagan appointed him an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal. He retired in 1990.

• (Fun Fact/Before the War) Buck played as the catcher on his college baseball team his junior year. One of his teammates was Jackie Robinson. Also, Bucks mother worked on movies and Buck was present on set with his mother and met actor Charlie Chaplin. Buck, being a child at the time, was so rowdy and disruptive that Charlie Chaplin kicked him off set.

Family:

• Roby Franks Compton (Father)

• Ethel Camille Compton (Mother)

• Geraldine Compton (1st Wife)

• Donna Faye Newman Compton (2nd Wife)

• Tracy Compton (adopted daughter w/ 2nd wife)

• Syndee Compton (adopted daughter w/ 2nd wife)

#band of brothers #thomas meehan #skip muck #donald hoobler #alex penkala #herbert sobel #dick winters #moose heyliger #norman dike #ronald speirs #lewis nixon #buck compton #part 1 #alyygx

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diceriadelluntore · 30 days

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Storia Di Musica #318 - Black Widow, Sacrifice, 1970

Nella scelta di raccontare gruppi che hanno black nel nome, non si poteva non toccare il lato esoterico della musica: c'è tutto un filone metal, detto black metal, che porterà all'estremo queste tematiche, con un gusto quasi parossistico dell'orrido diventeranno una sorta di clichè. Il gruppo capostipite furono i leggendari Black Sabbath, ma qualche mese prima un altro gruppo che aveva black nel nome partorì un disco che se musicalmente si allacciava alle nascenti sonorità folk-prog nelle tematiche iniziava, in maniera tanto elegante quanto esplicita, l'anima nera della musica rock.

Il gruppo in questione si chiama Black Widow. All'inizio erano un sestetto, che si chiamava, nel 1966, Pesky Gee. Ne facevano parte: Kay Garret (voce), Kip Trevor (voce, chitarra e armonica), Jess "Zoot" Taylor (pianoforte e organo), Jim Gannon (chitarra e voce), Clive Jones (sassofono e flauto), Bob Bond (basso) e Clive Box (batteria), e con questa formazione pubblicano un album, fino a pochi giorni introvabile (ci sarà una ristampa ad aprile 2024), dal titolo Exclamation Mark nel 1969, che è un tentativo di farsi strada nell'affollatissimo panorama inglese di blues rock: il disco passò inosservato. In quell'anno Kay Garret lasciò il gruppo, che si riformò con il nome di Black Widow a partire dal 1970. E il batterista Cox ha un'idea. Affascinato dal mondo dell'occultismo, convince la band a recuperare materiale: leggono per settimane qualsiasi cosa riguardi l'argomento nella Biblioteca della città di Leicester e arruolano un maestro Wicca per raccogliere informazioni. Ne viene fuori così un disco sicuramente affascinante, dove alla musica sofisticata e dalle soluzioni particolari si canta in maniera spesso senza filtri di un rito ancestrale per richiamare entità misteriose. Sacrifice esce nel 1970, stesso anno del primo disco dei Black Sabbath, ma fu registrato nel 1969 e prodotto da quel Patrick Anthony Meehan che sarà produttore degli stessi Black Sabbath fino al 1976 (il loro periodo d'oro) per la CBS.

In Ancient Days parte con un sinistro organo hammond a cui in serie si aggiungono gli altri strumenti ed è "una chiamata del male" che subito muta in Way To Power: c'è l'introduzione di una sezione fiati (che sarà uno dei pilastri di tutto il disco con il rullare tribale della batteria). Il brano ricco di cambi di tempo e dai cori fa da apripista al loro brano più famoso. È sempre il flauto di Clive Jones il protagonista di Come To The Sabbath, che simboleggia con maestria l'abilità del gruppo di rifarsi a canti mistici tribali. Qui è l'andamento a crescere della velocità e dell'ossessivo ritmico ripetere del ritornello evocativo (Come, Come To Sabbath, Satan's There) a rendere la canzone ansiogena ed affascinante allo stesso tempo. Diventerà poi uno della cover preferite dai gruppi heavy metal, e persino i Black Sabbah e i sanguinosi Death SS ne faranno una riproposizione. Ma il disco è un susseguirsi di sorprese: Conjuration è il brano più dark, dalla ritmica marziale e sofisticata dove è facile sottolineare la bella voce di Kip Trevor. A questo punto c'è una sorta di parentesi gioiosa: Seduction e' una ballata meravigliosa che combina momenti jazz rock ed echi di bossa nova che stridono con il testo, vibrante e sensuale: Would you have me stay with you?\Squeeze and hold you tight?\Soothe you with my tongue and touch\Share your bed at night. Il disco si conclude con due brani: Attack Of The Demon con l'armonizzazione affidata all'organo (non c'e' praticamente chitarra ritmica) e la lunga e magnetica Sacrifice, che nei suoi 11 minuti si sviluppa in una lunga improvvisazione strumentale. Tutti i brani hanno apporti davvero minimi di chitarra elettrica, caratteristica che già ne fa un unicum. Il disco ebbe successo anche perchè la band organizzò uno spettacolo dal vivo dove oltre che cantare si esibiva in una sorta di vero rituale: ad un certo punto dello show, sbucando da parti diverse a seconda del luogo del concerto, si presentava in scena la moglie di Clive Box, che attraverso l'uso di fumogeni e carrucole sembrava volasse tra il pubblico, finchè, sul palco mentre suonavano, veniva distesa e "sacrificata". Il caso volle che una sera, presenti dei fotografi del News Of The World, il famoso tabloid scandalistico, la spada del sacrificio lacerasse il vestito della donna, che alla fine rimase nuda. Per alcuni show successivi, la trovata fu organizzata apposta, ma la foto sul giornale fece il giro di mezzo mondo, attirando le feroci critiche sulla band, alimentando lo scandalo sulle pratiche occulte seguite dai componenti del gruppo.

Inspiegabilmente, il gruppo abbandonerà le tematiche gotiche e mistiche, per riproporsi in veste folk prog nel secondo lavoro, Black Widow (1971): il segnale fu l'abbandono del batterista Box per Romeo Challenger. Rimangono un ascolto particolare e storico, sebbene in molti articoli vengono considerati fondatori del doom: possono esserlo per le tematiche, anche se il loro approccio fu quasi sistematico e pieno di fonti e non estemporaneo e spettacolare come altri, ma non lo furono certo per lo stile musicale, che rappresenta davvero un evento nel binomio rock ed occultismo.

#black widow #sacrifice #1970 #recensione

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mogwai-movie-house · 10 months

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Asteroid City (2023)

Visually, compositionally, Wes Anderson is without peer, and any individual shot out of his latest film will make practically every other movie released this year look like a provincial teenager's first TikTok video. Everywhere you look the details are never-endingly exquisite and hilarious, and my eyes haven't experienced so much pleasure since the last Wes Anderson flick. He's the only director left standing that I will still pay to go to a cinema to see.

The downside is that the story itself is awkward, convoluted, flimsy and whimsical - flimsical, if you will - and it's often hard to follow or care about what is going on, especially in the larger story arc, which flits between a black & white 1950s TV production and the glorious technicolor of the main story. I would have been perfectly happy to have lost the needlessly distracting B&W sections, as they add very little in the long run, and sap the energy and pace of the rest. The clever story Anderson is trying to tell here could work, but he doesn't have a strong enough grip on all the narrative and character elements to convey it in a clear and emotionally engaging way, so there are parts that feel more of a private joke or a personal fancy than a work made for the wider world. It could be I'll think differently about that on further viewings, but I would still expect to find this is what weakens the film the most.

The ridiculously stellar cast is dazzling, but there's just too many famous faces here for one film to do them justice: newcomer Tom Hanks is a great fit but woefully underused, and something similar could be said for Steve Carell, Tilda Swinton, Matt Dillon, Jeff Goldblum, Margot Robbie, Hope Davis, Bob Balaban and Willem Dafoe, all of whom are most welcome sights, but simply aren't onscreen long enough to convey anything of real substance, and they all deserved more fleshed-out roles they could get their teeth into.

For the first time in a Wes Anderson movie there is some rather obvious diversity hiring in the casting department (presumably in order to meet the new qualifications for an Oscar), some of whom work better than others, but the returning Jeffrey Wright and Tony Revolori are both excellent, and Ethan Josh Lee is a good new addition to the family.

Bryan Cranston and Edward Norton get more screen-time than most, but the first feels like a walk-on guest spot in a TV sketch show and the other looks somewhat lost in the confusing shuffle. Jason Schwartzman is, of course, the perfect Anderson avatar, and Scarlet Johansson is, for the most part, very dependable too. Liev Schreiber fits in surprisingly well, and the running gags with his son Aristou Meehan are perhaps the funniest high points of the film.

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All in all, it's hard to know how to rate this: it's definitely one of the weakest Wes Anderson movies, but for all the undeniable flaws in narrative it still gives me more joy to watch than just about anything else modern cinema has to offer, and I think by December I might still regard it the best thing I've seen all year. So that's odd.

★★★★★★½✰✰✰

#film reviews #asteroid city #wes anderson

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markwatkinsconsumerguide · 5 months

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Consumer Guide / No.125 / singer/songwriter John Howard with Mark Watkins.

MW: Past, Present, Future. In respect of your music career, pick one time that was memorable, currently memorable and what you'd like to see happening just around the corner...

JH: I guess my ‘Past’ memorable one time has to be the day I walked into Abbey Road Studios in April 1974 to begin recording my debut LP, Kid In A Big World. It had been my dream to become a recording artist since my teens (I was twenty-one in April ’74) and I’d spent many hours since the age of fourteen recording my songs on a multi-tracking tape recorder my parents had bought me for my birthday. So, by the time that day arrived when I began my recording career, I was ready. Standing in the enormous Studio 2 where The Beatles had recorded most of their tracks, and which I’d seen photos of in my Beatles Monthly magazines, was literally a dream-come-true one time moment. Sitting at the grand piano which Paul McCartney and John Lennon had played as I recorded the first track for my album, ‘Goodbye Suzie’, and playing the same mellotron which The Beatles had used on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ was something I’ll never forget.

My ‘Present’ memorable one time would be when my first novel, 'Across My Dreams With Nets Of Wonder', was published in September this year. I’d enjoyed seeing the three volumes of my memoir published across 2018 – 2022, but writing my first novel and seeing it there in my hands, a real book, was a great thing for me. Writing memoirs is all there in your head from the outset, whereas a novel is a collection of stories, scenarios, interwoven as you go and develop the narrative, all created in what was for me over twelve months, just starting with an idea and seeing it grow as I wrote, that was terrific, and to then have it published. A true Wow moment.

My ‘Future’ moment will only come out of what I create for myself. I’m a very self-motivated person, everything I do, whether it be recording, writing, painting, is because I want to do it. No-one’s pushing me for "another album" or "another book", I just do what feels the right time to do something, and everything I do is a challenge, it has to be a challenge to want to continue to do it. It’s a great position to be in, just starting on something which comes into my head and off I go. I’ve just begun writing and recording my next album, which will be a long-delayed follow-up to my 2005 album, The Dangerous Hours, which was a collaborative project with the poet Robert Cochrane. It turned out to be my first album of new material for thirty years (since Kid In A Big World had been released in February 1975). This new album, collaborating again with Robert, is already becoming a joy to do. I usually write all my own lyrics but taking Rob’s poems as the base for a set of new songs is a completely different process and pushes my music in an entirely different direction to one where I’ve written everything. It’ll be out in 2025, marking twenty years since we did The Dangerous Hours together.

MW: Tell me about the album, Kid In A Big World, when it was made, and how it was received, including the singles released from the LP…

JH: Kid In A Big World was the result of writing and performing my songs from the age of seventeen in 1970, up to moving to London in 1973, being "discovered" (gigging at The Troubadour in London) by a manager and publisher and being signed to CBS in January 1974. All those songs I’d written and performed in folk clubs, theatres and Universities for three years provided the groundwork and the well from which we selected ten songs for my first LP. The album’s main producer, Tony Meehan (formerly with The Shadows and the duo Jet Harris & Tony Meehan), booked me into Abbey Road, hired a great combo of top musicians to back me, including Bob Henrit (The Roulettes, Argent), bassist Dave Wintour (Rick Wakeman, Eric Carmen, Roger Daltrey), and Rod Argent (The Zombies, Argent), and over the next four months we had a ball recording the songs. In September, I moved to Apple Studios with my A & R Manager Paul Phillips to do new versions of a couple of the tracks ('Family Man' and 'Kid In A Big World'), which again for a Beatles fan was dream-come-true time.

The first single taken from the sessions was ‘Goodbye Suzie’, which CBS had great hopes for. It was released in October 1974. It received a lot of airplay on Radio Luxembourg charting on their Power Play Top 30. However, BBC Radio One, which was very important at the time for breaking records by new artists, refused to play it due to its storyline of teenage suicide. The second single, ‘Family Man’, released in February 1975, also got rejected by Radio One, who disliked what they referred to as its "anti-female" lyric (entirely missing the irony of the lyric where it’s the guy, the ‘Family Man’, who’s in trouble, life in a mess and trying to cope).

By the time the Kid In A Big World LP came out at the end of February, the road for CBS to break the album had been made much harder to negotiate following two flop singles. But they launched it with a concert I gave at London’s Purcell Room with an invited audience of media and music people, followed by a lunch where guests included Colin Blunstone. Within six weeks, it was as though the album had never been released. Only one pretty poor review in a music mag, no more singles, and already discussions on what I’d do as the follow-up sealed the album’s fate. The planned follow-up, Technicolour Biography, was shelved before completion, the label having a kind of panic attack after assuming Kid In A Big World would be a smash. They decided to put me in the studios with Disco producer Biddu, (Tina Charles, Carl Douglas, Jimmy James), telling us to "record an album full of hits!". When we delivered the tapes of Can You Hear Me OK? in the Summer of 1975 it had, as CBS saw it, "no hits", so, apart from releasing one single from the Biddu sessions, ‘I Got My Lady’, which received a lot of Capital Radio play but which failed to sell, that album was also shelved. The dream was, apparently, over.

youtube

I went on to record a few singles with Trevor Horn and Culture Club producer Steve Levine, but by the mid ‘80s I’d had enough. By a lucky happenstance, I was hired to do a great job in licensing and marketing at a label EMI owned, which began twenty years working in the music industry in Special Markets and A & R. It saved my sanity and probably my life.

MW: Tell me how you nearly joined Iron Maiden!

JH: Oh yes, that was one of those stories which grew over time following the reissue of Kid In A Big World. In 1972, I was asked to join a band called Iron Maiden after appearing on the same bill as them at a concert at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton, Lancashire. THAT Iron Maiden, however, was not the Heavy Metal outfit which began in 1976 and became a global phenomenon. MY Iron Maiden was a group of guys playing folk/medieval stuff, a bit like Marillion years later, market squares, knights in armour rescuing fair damsels and all that. I turned them down as I was focused on making it as a solo artist.

MW: …and why write/record a song about April Ashley?

JH: April was a longtime friend of mine. She used to run a fashionable London eatery/music venue in Knightsbridge called AD8, and I performed there several times a week around ‘76/’77. We lost touch for a few years but after I’d written and recorded ‘Magdalena Merrywidow’, dedicated to April (not about her), for my 2008 album Barefoot With Angels, and a friend sent the song to her, she contacted me to say how much she loved the song. We stayed in touch until her death in 2022. I actually recorded an album inspired by April, LOOK – The Unknown Story Of Danielle Du Bois, released in March 2022. I’d planned to send her a copy but she died just before the album came out. April was an amazing lady, a true force of nature, and I miss our chats and emails.

MW: Have you met (Sir) Tim Rice?

JH: Yes, I went to Tim’s house in Barnes in 1994 to present him with a gold disc for 100,000 sales of an album of his songs which I and a couple of other people put together for MCA Records/Polygram TV. He was extremely charming, very funny with lots of, as you can imagine, great stories about his career. Also there that day was David Essex, who was featured on the album, and we presented him with a gold disc as well. It was great to see David again. I used to bump into him a lot during my days signed to CBS in the mid ‘70s. He was a hugely successful teenage idol back then, CBS’s biggest recording artist in the UK at the time, and I was considered by the label to be the "Next Big Thing"! He was always lovely, a real gent and we’d natter away at various music biz functions.

MW: With regards Christmas, do you (still) feel like a Kid In A Big World? How do you usually celebrate and any plans for this one....

JH: Last year, I released a single called ‘Christmas Was Made For The Children’, and that’s kind of my view of the festive season really. I loved Christmas as a child, but now it’s extremely commercialised and is geared, as it should be, to kids. As there’s only me and my husband living here in Spain and we don’t have any family here to share it with, our Christmas Days are very quiet, spent with our three rescued dogs. I think big families with lots of kids running around still enjoy Christmas, but we just tend to give our presents to each other on Christmas morning, play our favourite Christmas music and have a couple of glasses of Bucks Fizz, and that’s it. I’m not anti-Christmas at all, but "celebrating" the season is something other people do.

MW: Have you ever experienced a White Christmas?

JH: Well, living as I did up to the age of twenty in the North West of England, we experienced lots of White Christmases. Some years the reservoir near our house was completely frozen over. I have a Christmas morning memory, from when I was twelve, 1965, of my father walking across the frozen reservoir and writing a Ban The Bomb sign in the snow, with our dog Sandy watching him fascinated. That was probably my best memory of a White Christmas. But they happened a lot back then. Once I moved to London they were less frequent.

MW: What did you learn from school that proved to be useful in adulthood?

JH: Something my art teacher, Miss Shaw, once said to me: “Never be afraid to be different.” That stuck with me forever. She was rather beautiful, think of the woman who’s sitting with Bob Dylan on the sleeve of Bringing It All Back Home, she looked very much like her. All the boys in my year fancied her rotten. So imagine their faces when she offered to drive me, the school’s resident "Nancy boy", home in her open-topped green MG sports car after school. As we roared through the gates, they would all stand staring longingly, clearly wishing it had been one of them sitting next to the exotic Miss Shaw. It was when she dropped me off near my house one evening that she said, “Remember, son, never be afraid to be different.”

School was not a pleasant time for me, I was bullied a lot, but the older I got, by the time I’d reached fifth form, I’d discovered I loved performing on the piano for my school friends, something I did one Christmas and enjoyed it immensely. Around that time, 1967/1968, I began writing songs in my lunch breaks on the Assembly Room upright piano. My future career was kind of set from the age of fourteen/fifteen, and my talent for writing songs and performing them for the school finally made me different without having to put up with the bullying anymore.

MW: What books have you recommended to friend/s to read?

JH: Hmmn, that’s a difficult one as I don’t think I have ever recommended any books to anyone. I read all sorts of books, biographies, autobiographies, murder mysteries, crime thrillers, anything about The Beatles or Bob Dylan I usually buy and pore over as well. Dylan’s Chronicles was amazing, I wish he’d write another one. I have a friend, Caroline, someone I used to work with in the music business years ago, who occasionally sends me books she’s enjoyed reading. Rupert Everett’s autobiographies are books she sent me which I particularly loved. He’s an excellent writer. Caroline also turned me onto Tales of The City by Armistead Maupin. A brilliant series, books I can read several times and enjoy them just as much second, third time around. But books are my kind of private pleasure, filling the silence beautifully, and I never feel the need to share that with anyone else.

MW: What are your Top 10 favourite albums of all-time…

JH: It’s always hard to pick just ten, but here are the ones which still stick out for me as fantastic, those which in some ways changed my life, and which I listen to still (to get more of my faves in, I’ve cheated and given joint positions to some LPs here and there):

10. What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye: the first Marvin Gaye album I heard. A flatmate in 1975 had it and played it to me and I instantly fell in love with Marvin. I’d known his solo hits like 'Heard It Through The Grapevine' and 'Abraham, Martin & John', and loved his wondrous duets with Tammi Terrelle, mini pop symphonies all, but I’d missed out on What’s Going On when it came out in 1971 as I was so into T.Rex at that point. The brilliant way Marvin stitched the tracks together and the power of his lyrics and singing was something I’d not heard before. A truly great piece of musical art at its best, and an album which changed the direction of Motown; after What’s Going On, the label began releasing a lot more singles and albums with a social message.

9. Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan: the last Dylan album I loved. I’d kind of fallen out of love with Bob from Nashville Skyline onwards, from ’69 to ’73, his voice began to sound strained, with unsure pitching and oddly nasal, and it just wasn’t the Bob I’d adored through the ‘60s. But then this album came out in 1974 and someone at CBS gave me a copy and I was hooked. He was once again writing great songs with surreal and brilliantly woven stories, and his singing had found the perfect mix of ’66 Dylan along with his new throatier vocal, creating a spellbinding collection of astonishing tracks. Nothing he’s done since has gripped me in the same way. For me Blood On The Tracks was the perfect follow-up to Blonde On Blonde.

8. Hejira by Joni Mitchell: her voice had become huskier, deeper, and I loved it. The cigarettes were doing their worst regarding her health but giving her an incredible new voice in the process. ‘Amelia’ has to be one of the most beautiful songs she ever wrote, and one of the most beautiful songs anyone ever wrote. "The hexagram of the heavens"creating an intoxicating image. Her guitar playing on this album is also at times mind-boggling. Watch Dylan’s face during the film of his ’76 tour as he witnesses Joni outplaying every man in the room. He’s fascinated and loving every moment.

7. Court & Spark by Joni Mitchell: the album (pre-Hejira) where her voice dropped by an octave and became a thing of true beauty. I’d loved some of her earlier albums but that youthful soaring head voice which arrives out of nowhere, distorting the melody in the process, began to grate a little. This is the one where she concentrated on simply singing the songs straight rather than doing that unsettling falsetto thing, and moved her style into a more jazzy arena, great arrangements and stunning musicianship from all concerned. ‘Free Man In Paris’ and ‘Raised On Robbery’ were masterclasses in how to create the perfect double-tracked harmonies.

6. Let’s Get It On by Marvin Gaye/Joint 6th with Low by David Bowie: I went to see Marvin Gaye at The Royal Albert Hall in 1976 and he was fabulous. I’d already fallen in love with Let’s Get It On and What’s Going On by then, and had bought I Want You, his true stoner collection, but seeing him perform these fantastic songs live on stage makes this album even more special for me. ‘Distant Lover’ still gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. A voice gifted from heaven; I’d loved Bowie since Hunky Dory and bought all his albums up to Lodger in 1979, when I kind of fell out of love with him and thereafter. His music lost its beauty for me. It became very jagged and lost its innate pop brilliance and melodic flair. But Low in 1977 was something else.

Side One, a masterclass in how to write short, sharp, stunning pop songs. Who can resist singing along with Mary Hopkin’s crystal clear "doo-doo-doos" on ‘Sound & Vision’ and then delve deeper into "Don’t you wonder sometimes, ‘bout Sound & Vision" with those Bowie-esque harmonies? And bopping around the room to the stop-start friction of ‘Breaking Glass’. Fantastic.

Side Two, futuristic synthesised experimentation which actually works, a thing of beauty. It could have sounded self-indulgent, but manages to beguile instead. A landscape of sonic textures. It was the album where Bowie went from British pop star to mysterious cult figure on a new journey of learning, with Eno showing the way.

5. Christmas & The Beads of Sweat by Laura Nyro/Joint 5th with The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds: I bought the Laura Nyro album after seeing the sleeve in my local record shop, and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a marvel, her voice, the arrangements, the songs, one minute breathy and quiet, the next singing at the top of her voice, yelling at whoever she’d fallen out with, or joyful at finding peace with a special person, it’s not what you’d call comfortable listening, but I loved it all the more because of that; and of course, Pet Sounds is here in my list, the album where Brian Wilson found the genius button, in spite of his father, his record company and his fellow Beach Boy Mike Love demanding he go back to writing about girls, cars and surfing. Then he broke into pieces, bless him, and never completed what could have been an even more incredible follow-up, Smile, although he did go onto give us the masterpieces 'Good Vibrations', 'Cabinessence', 'Heroes & Villains' and 'Wonderful' and what has to be one of the most amazing pop songs ever, Surf’s Up. Still blows me away. ‘God Only Knows’ from Pet Sounds is the perfect pop song with the perfect production, ‘Caroline No’ should have been a chart-topping single. Pet Sounds should have blown the world away and been Number One for months, but it, at the time, didn’t create the impression it should have. I think The Beach Boys’ clean-cut, striped shirts and surfer boy smiles image didn’t fit with what was happening in pop in 1966. They simply weren’t groovy, man (and their awful promo videos at the time didn’t help to rid them of their gooky gawky image). Over time though, Pet Sounds has become to be regarded as a work of utter genius. Quite rightly.

4. Blonde On Blonde by Bob Dylan/ Joint 4th with k.d lang’s Ingenue: Dylan’s beautiful wash of drugged out mysticism set to his spaced-out vocal and inspired intoxicating backing, it will always be my favourite Dylan album, and that whole-side stunner, ‘Sad Eyed Lady of The Lowlands’, a song and a recording packed full of so much surreal imagery it fair blows the mind; Ingenue was the first k.d. lang album I bought after going to see her in concert at The Royal Albert Hall in 1992. She was incredible that night, and I bought Ingenue the following day, and then collected the rest of her back catalogue. Ingenue is a truly beautiful album by one of the best pop vocalists ever.

3. With The Beatles by The Beatles/Joint 3rd with David Bowie’s The Rise & Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars: 14 tracks of unadulterated joy, With The Beatles was the album which marked the point when they went from British idols to global superstars. On just their second LP, within a few months of their debut, they were already experimenting with better production techniques, stronger vocals, more assured musicianship, the "‘let’s get it done in a day" of 'Please Please Me' long gone, double-tracking, gorgeous backing and harmonies, with a new confidence in songwriting, they created the first great pop album rather than redoing a live set. From the opening track, ‘It Won’t Be Long’ John, Paul, George and Ringo were telling us that they meant business. My sister bought it but I played it endlessly; Ziggy Stardust arrived on our TV screens when Bowie performed ‘Starman’ on Top of The Pops in the Summer of ’72 and I was hooked. He looked like nothing I’d ever seen before, and that song and that voice and that star charisma, and then the LP when I bought it, not a duff track anywhere (even the older recording 'It Ain’t Easy' manages to fit in perfectly). It’s pure pop, pure pop heaven, the album which signaled that a new star was born. ‘Moonage Daydream’ can still make me cry. It's so beautiful.

2. Roy Harper’s Stormcock: a piece of musical and lyrical genius by an artist who inspired me so much. I went to see Roy play in Manchester in 1970, loved him, bought Flat, Baroque & Berserk, which I adored, but when Stormcock came out a year later I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, sonic genius from start to finish. Four tracks only but oh my, what four tracks they were! I also bought my first pair of headphones at the same time, and listening to Stormcock with my headphones on sent me spiraling into a musical ecstasy. It’s Robert Plant’s favourite album of all time. ‘nuff said.

1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: Many people choose Revolver as their favourite Beatles album, but it will always be Sgt. Pepper ...for me. It was the album which turned me onto the group in a big way – I’d always admired them, loved many of their singles, even bought a couple ('I Feel Fine' and 'We Can Work It Out', both sublime pieces of genius), but in 1967 when 'Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane' came out that February, I was forever smitten, and to be gifted just three months later with Sgt. Pepper..., my world turned upside down, round and round, sideways, forwards and back again, and created a world for me where pop music suddenly became extremely fascinating and beguiling and part of my future.

1967 was a great year for pop brilliance to shine, Pink Floyd’s ‘See Emily Play’, Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Purple Haze’, The Beach Boys’ ‘Heroes & Villains’, Procol Harum’s ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, The Small Faces’ ‘Itchycoo Park’, Scott Mackenzie’s ‘San Francisco’, The Kinks’ ‘Autumn Almanac’, Traffic’s ‘Hole In My Shoe’, The Move’s ‘Flowers In The Rain’, The Beatles’ ‘Hello Goodbye/I Am The Walrus’, it seemed every week another amazing single was released and immediately in the Top Ten. What a year to be fourteen! I was ready for something incredible to happen, and Sgt.Pepper... gave it to me in spadefuls. That was the one which convinced me that I wanted to make records too.

With a limited four-track desk, repeat four-track desk, the fact that John, Paul, George and Ringo could create such a wealth of different sounds, styles, effects, and breathtaking tracks like 'A Day In The Life', 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', 'She’s Leaving Home', 'Within You, Without You', 'Getting Better', I was gobsmacked when I first played it on my parents’ radiogram.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Revolver, but for me, it didn’t have the impact that Sgt. Pepper... had. When my history teacher told the class, before playing Sgt. Pepper... to us, ‘this lesson is about history, and this album will make history’…well, I don’t recall anyone ever saying that about Revolver. I think because Revolver is such a guitar-drenched album, reaching almost rock levels at times, it appeals to guitarists and guitar fans. Being a pianist myself steeped in jazz (my father was a jazz pianist), musicals (my parents regularly bought musical soundtrack albums and took me to see the movies), classical music (which I was tutored in from the age of seven) and psychedelia, which was everywhere that year, Sgt. Pepper... meant so much to me, it still does. I will never tire of listening to it – but always play the mono album, it’s miles better than the stereo version.

MW: Gold TV. What would be your ideal evening’s entertainment if you could schedule your favourite programmes from TV's past, starting at 7pm and going just past midnight?

JH: My favourite period for TV was the mid ‘90s when on a Friday evening on Channel Four there was Friends, followed by Ellen followed by Frasier, and a little earlier through the mid ‘80s into the early ‘90s there was The Golden Girls. I don’t think I ever spent an entire evening laughing so much, the comedy was always top notch, and as I was working quite a pressurised job in A & R and Marketing during that period, it was great stress-relieving TV to come home to. If I could watch all those five series again back to back, that would be my perfect evening of television.

MW: What do you watch on TV nowadays?

JH: My husband and I still watch mostly American TV series, NCIS, CSI, Bosch, Lessons In Chemistry, The Morning Show, The White Lotus, Severance, The Lincoln Lawyer, all great scripts, superb acting, and an ability to make you feel these guys are your family.

MW: As both bands are back on the charts, Beatles or Stones?

JH: Well, I’ve been a Beatles fan since the ‘60s, as I said earlier, but I can also admire a lot of what The Stones have done. The difference between the two bands, of course, is that The Beatles split in 1970 while The Stones have carried on recording and touring right to the present day, recently hitting No.1 with their new album Hackney Diamonds. My love of what The Stones’ brought out ended around the mid’ 70s, my last favourite by them being ‘Tumbling Dice’, the ramshackle vibe going on really appeals to me.

The so-called rivalry between The Beatles and The Stones in the ‘60s was manufactured by the media, as they did in the ‘90s creating the so-called war between Oasis and Blur. If The Beatles had felt the rivalry as deeply as we were told they did back in the ‘60s, then why would Mick Jagger and Keith Richard have been invited to attend the recording of ‘All You Need Is Love’, why would John and Paul have provided backing vocals for ‘We Love You’, why would John and Paul have written ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’ for The Stones, why would John have appeared and performed in The Rolling Stones’ Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus? It was true that The Beatles would hold back releasing their latest record until the new one by The Stones had had its three or four weeks in the sun, but that was purely commercial nous.

If I was asked which band do you prefer, it would be The Beatles, but that doesn’t mean I disliked The Stones, how could anyone not love 'Get Off My Cloud', 'Have You Seen Your Mother Baby', 'The Last Time', 'Jumping Jack Flash' and 'You Can’t Always Get What You Want'. Jagger was always fun to watch, he was the frontman, whereas The Beatles were always four equal guys in the band, although of course John and Paul got most of the spotlight and kudos simply because they wrote such amazing songs.

MW: In what circumstances do you think someone would want to shoot the pianist?!

JH: Ha! Good question! I can only comment on that by recalling my days in the early 2000s performing on the boats (before my comeback to recording when Kid In A Big World was reissued in 2003) there would be days when I’m sure some of the passengers would have felt like they wanted to shoot the pianist.

As they say, you can’t please all the people all the time.

Kid In A Big World | Official Website of John Howard

#Youtube

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goalhofer · 2 months

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Top 10 NHL PIM leaders by draft: 1967

10: Larry Mick; 13th overall, Minnesota (0) 9: Elgin McCann; 8th overall, Montreal (0) 8: Ken Hicks; 3rd overall, California (0) 7: Bob Dickson; 6th overall, New York Rangers (0) 6: Wayne Cheesman; 4th overall, Minnesota (0) 5: Meehan Bonnar; 10th overall, Boston (0) 4: Ron Barkwell; 9th overall, Detroit (0) 3: Al Karlander; 17th overall, Detroit (70) 2: Serge Bernier; 5th overall, Philadelphia (234) 1: J. Bob Kelly; 16th overall, Toronto (727)

#Top 10 #Sports #Hockey #Hockey Hits #Fights #NHL #Philadelphia Flyers #Detroit Red Wings #Boston Bruins #Minnesota North Stars #Montreal Canadiens #1960s #Awesome

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singingfruits · 10 months

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youtube

Roots Massive pt.8 (70s & early 80s Roots Reggae Selection)

00:00:01 1. Jah Warriors - Can't Take No More

00:05:55 2. Jah Mikes - Down In The Bottom Of The Well / Version

00:12:34 3. Roots Rebels - Rock Down The Blues / Well Hot / Version

00:21:38 4. The Up-Lifters - We Need Some Loving

00:27:34 5. Calman Scott - Hard Times / Version

00:30:53 6. Johnny Osbourne - Purify Your Heart / Version 00:34:15 another version.. 00:37:28 another version..

00:40:23 7. Peace Love & Unity - Good Old Days / Version 00:43:52 another version..

00:47:07 8. Cecil Brown - Conference Table / Version 00:50:31 another version..

00:54:02 9. Bob Meehan - Inner Mind / Version 00:57:23 another version..

01:00:56 10. Prophets - Give Thanks And Praise

01:06:33 11. The Rolets - Top Ranking Girls

01:09:37 12. Truths & Rights - Live Up

01:14:21 13. Sheena Spirit - Gates Of Zion / Version 01:17:54 another version..

01:21:40 14. The Burning Spear - Free Black People / Free 01:24:22 another version..

01:27:10 15. Pluggy Satchmo & Super 8 Corporation - What Rasta Say / Rasta Version 01:30:15 another version..

01:33:40 16. The Jay Tees - Forward To Jah / Version 01:36:42 another version..

01:39:42 17. Young Disciples - Covenant Love

01:42:57 18. Vivian Jones & Pieces - One Of These Days 01:48:10 another version..

01:51:59 19. Termination - I'm Not Proposing

01:58:26 20. The Deplomats - Jam Dong Girl / Version 02:01:43 another version..

02:05:05 21. The Revealers - Jail House

02:11:14 22. Claudius Linton & Marvin - 20th Century / C & M. Mountain Music 02:14:34 another version..

02:18:04 23. Basil Thompson - One Destiny / Version 02:20:37 another version..

02:23:20 24. Negus Dawtas - I Speak The Truth

02:26:09 25. The Survivors - Wake Up Ethiopians / Dub Ethiopians 02:29:45 another version..

02:33:30 26. Carol Cole - Ethiopia / Black Man Culture 02:36:38 another version..

02:39:49 27. Georgous Johnson - Me Brok Me Na Work / Still I'am Henging On 02:43:27 another version..

02:46:42 28. Wynn Stone - Love Attack

02:53:23 29. Ebony Rockers - Steppin' Out

03:00:43 30. Jimmy Dean - Black Man Time / Black Man Dub 03:04:03 another version..

03:07:27 31. The Duncans - Blackbird (Part 1) / Blackbird (Part 2)

03:15:15 32. Roots - Evil That You Do / Version 03:18:22 another version..

03:21:30 33. Sonia - Smiling Faces / Version 03:24:32 another version..

03:27:27 34. Innervision - Free Black People / Version 03:30:29 another version..

03:33:42 35. Wendy Alleyne - Don't Give Up

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enthusiasticsobrietyabuse · 2 years

Photo

Dear current staff member,

I wanted to reach out to let you know that you can walk away from the program today.

I assure you nothing I write here is meant to harm or cast judgement on you as an individual; I’ve been in your shoes.

You are not “fucked up” for exploring this message, you have every right to hear this, to ask questions, to challenge your own thinking. I know you don’t think you’re in a cult, I certainly did not when I was there.

This message is for anyone who may be on the fence, who may be having thoughts about getting out, or simply curious about exploring a way out. When I left, I wish someone had sent this message to me. A message of support, and hope.

That you can leave and you will not die. You can leave and you will not relapse or you can leave and choose to drink alcohol. You can leave and you are not broken, you are not spiritually bankrupt, and you can have healthy, meaningful relationships where you set the boundaries of your personal life and the relationships within it, not your boss; which is super weird if you really start to drill down into that one.

You can have unwavering success away from the program, it is not some spiritually superior entity. The leadership tells you that someone like me is just an angry disgruntled former employee who can’t own their life. I’m here to tell you that aside from being a former employee, I am none of those things. I am happy, and free, and successful. I don’t hold a grudge, I don’t feel anger or resentment towards the program. I just remember what it was like for me.

Living in fear of going to purpose, having to share every “insanity” or strange thought I had to large groups of people only for leadership to weaponize that information in order to use it against me later. I made today’s equivalent of $774 per month and was told I was selfish when I asked for a raise.

When you work there, you sort of have to live two lives. There was the image we presented to the world; young, motivated, drug and alcohol counselors who overcame our demons to share this amazing concept of enthusiastic sobriety with the world.

Then there was the other life; the one where we dissected each other’s lives, often in cruel and hurtful ways, where we openly discussed how the white race was superior than other races, where homosexuality was a sickness that could be cured, where women existed to serve men, where we chose our parents at birth to work out specific issues, where being sexually assaulted was somehow our own fault, where engaging in non-spiritual activities opened us up to catastrophic events occurring in our lives, and where western medicine was mostly shunned resulting in heartbreaking outcomes for people who really needed help.

Looking back, it was exhausting. I am who I am today and I cherish not having to pretend anything. When I left, people looked at me like I was broken and I believed them. I was 20 something and had nowhere and no one to go to except for my parents who I had effectively cut out of my life for years. I had no other friends or support, it felt hopeless.

But I took a true leap of faith and landed on my feet. Today I live a life that is not dictated by groupthink, is not influenced by what someone else determines is right for me. I make those calls and I think I do a pretty decent job of it. Please reach out if you need any kind of support.

I know that this time is especially trying for you because of all the negative attention the program is receiving. I imagine leadership is trying to circle the wagons and tamp down any dissent and they’ve probably encouraged you to not read or watch anything regarding the program in the media. I’ve been there too and it’s awful. I completely understand how scary it is to even consider leaving. I was so afraid and terrified because I knew I would be shunned.

When I walked away, it felt like the hardest thing I’d ever done. Everyone on staff immediately stopped talking to me, I heard the whispers about how fucked up I was, that I was destined to be dead and on the streets, that I couldn’t take true ownership of my life, that I was playing the victim, that I was unreachable, unloveable, and spiritually sick.

I’m here to tell you it’s all bullshit. You’re not fucked up, you’re in a cult. And you can just walk away today. You can also take your time and explore this on your own; you are not wrong to refrain from discussing this with anyone there, I’m certain you already know what they’ll say.

Keeping this from them does not make you dishonest or fucked up or wrong or whatever bullshit they tell you. Believing so is what allows them to continue to hold power and exert control over others.

Maybe I’m over simplifying your situation, I get that, but I’m also here if you need anything. There’s an entire network of support you can tap into right now; you can leave today. I wish you the absolute best.

-Former staff member

#bob meehan #clint stonebraker #the insight program #the cornerstone program #the crossroads program #the pathway program #step 2 recovery #the meehan institute #cult #cult survivor #i got out #i see you survivor #breaking code silence #enthusiastic sobriety #enthusiastic sobriety abuse

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lyselkatzfandomluvs · 3 years

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Band of Brothers screencaps/edits (385/?)

Thomas Meehan

July 8: Happy birthday

#band of brothers #thomas meehan #jason o'mara #48-hour pass!#my gifs #my edits #my bob edits

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lewis-winters · 3 years

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some bob trios part 2 (ft. some fanon bob girls):

More, Grant, Alley: the Mature Squad, ya'll got nothing on them. they get together and there is 0 mischief. they do their taxes. they'll do your taxes too if you ask them nice enough. they drink beer, but like. craft beer. artsy beer with notes of mango and passion fruit, ya know?

Lip, Shifty, McClung: finally, Lip can relax

George, Nix, Malarkey: Dark Humor Club. like legit gallows humor that'll make you want to call a therapist. they think they're outrageously funny. they are not. they are concerning

Dick, Tab, Toye: just a Dad with his two favorite sons (he will never ever admit it out loud but it's true)

Buck, Bill, Babe: most of the time it's really just Bill and Babe shooting Buck some concerned and sad glances or them filling the silence that Buck's easy jokes and laughter has left behind

Julian, Babe, Ralph: #ProteccJohnJulian

Frank, Garcia, Hashey: Lil 'uns. will cause mischief, all of which will be Frank's fault bc he dragged those two into it. ya think Garcia and Hashey are capable of wrong doings? no. Frank is the bad idea bear. they just follow orders

Bull, Garcia, Hashey: Dad Help! Let Us Hide Behind You Gargantuan Frame!

Cobb, Jones, Webster: oh it's awkward. it is so awkward. the tension in the air is thick. Web doesn't wanna be there but stays out of obligation, Jones doesn't know where else to go therefore stays as well, and Cobb is a ticking time bomb

Skip, Malarkey, Faye: this is really weird bc it'll go from super light hearted to like. a group therapy session. skip, at one point, says; "Malark, look at your life. Look at your choices."

Shifty, Ralph, McClung: "Same hat!" "Same hat!" "Same hat!"

Popeye, Skinny, Shifty: Oh golly oh gosh some mighty fine angels we have here. So pure you gotta look at them from the corner of your eye bc looking at them head on might blind you

Webster, Pat, Malarkey: they would rather blow shit up than talk about their feelings so blow shit up they do

Alley, Lieb, Grant: 💫☆K A R A O K E BROS☆💫 but also like group therapy session if Lieb is drunk and sad enough

Faye, Kitty, George: BFFs. sleepovers with korean face masks. they get together and talk about stinky boys.

Dick, Nix, Kitty: it's Kitty's turn with the brain cell (Dick needs a break sometimes). "gay rights-- except for dick and nix bc they're annoying" "aw :(" "ok you may have one right. as a treat."

bonus Dick, Nix, Kitty: to further illustrate this point-- Nix will be the one who gets stuck in the revolving door, Dick will be the one who takes an embarrassingly long time to calculate how to use the revolving door, and Kitty will just use the normal door right next to the revolving door

Blanche, Anne Winters, Kitty: Knife Cat™️

Augusta, Renèe, Eugene: idk how it happens but put these three together and suddenly they're #WineMoms #LiveLaughLove #CarpeDiem except they believe in vaccines and think essential oils are a scam

Penk, Faye, George: Let's Bully Penkala

Bill, Toye, Buck: you know that weird moment when you get gruff, manly men drunk enough that they start to aggressively shout "I love you!" into each others' faces? that's them. but they do it sober

Webster, Lieb, Skinny: let's face it this is Web and Lieb's time, Skinny might as well not exist

part 1

#band of brothers #bob hcs #i swear this is the last #i just wanted to include everyone is all :((#i didnt get meehan and tipper which kinda sucks but idk they was lost too soon i cant get much of a read on them

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alyygx · 6 months

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Easy Company Members Sorted Between Surviving and Not Surviving WWII:

Died During the War:

Company Commanders:

First Lieutenant Thomas Meehan III (July 8th, 1921 - June 6th, 1944)

Non-commissioned Officers:

Sergeant Warren Harold "Skip" Muck (January 31st, 1922 - January 10th, 1945)

Enlisted Men:

Corporal Donald B. "Hoob" Hoobler (June 28th, 1922 - January 3rd, 1945)

Private First Class Alex Mike Penkala (August 30th, 1924 - January 10th, 1945)

Survived the War:

Company Commanders:

Captain Herbert Maxwell Sobel (January 26th, 1912 - September 30th, 1987)

Major Richard Davis "Dick" Winters (January 21st, 1918 - January 2nd, 2011)

First Lieutenant Frederick Theodore "Moose" Heyliger (June 23rd, 1916 - November 3rd, 2001)

First Lieutenant Norman Staunton "Foxhole Norman" Dike Jr. (May 19th, 1918 - June 23rd, 1989)

Captain Ronald Charles Speirs (April 20th, 1920 - April 11th, 2007)

Junior Officers:

Captain Lewis Nixon (September 30th, 1918 - January 11th, 1995)

First Lieutenant Lynn Davis "Buck" Compton (December 31st, 1921 - February 25th, 2012)

First Lieutenant Edward David "Ed" Shames (June 13th, 1922 - December 3rd, 2021)

Second Lieutenant Robert Burnham "Bob" Brewer (January 31st, 1924 - December 5th, 1996)

Second Lieutenant Clifford Carwood "Lip" Lipton (January 30th, 1920 - December 16th, 2001)

Non-commissioned Officers:

Technical Sergeant Donald George "Don" Malarkey (July 30th, 1920 - September 30th, 2017)

Staff Sergeant William J. "Wild Bill" Guarnere Sr. (April 28th, 1923 - March 8th, 2014)

Staff Sergeant Herman "Hank, Hack" Hanson (January 3rd, 1918 - May 15th, 1971)

Staff Sergeant Denver "Bull" Randleman (November 20th, 1920 - June 26th, 2003)

Staff Sergeant Darrell Cecil "Shifty" Powers (March 13th, 1923 - June 17th, 2009)

Staff Sergeant John W. "Johnny" Martin (December 8th, 1921 - December 31st, 2012)

Staff Sergeant Floyd "Tab" Talbert (August 26th, 1923 - October 10th, 1982)

Staff Sergeant Charles E. "Chuck" Grant (March 1922 - October 12th, 1982)

Staff Sergeant Joseph John "Joe" Toye (March 14th, 1919 - September 3rd, 1995)

Sergeant Robert Emory "Popeye" Wynn Jr. (July 10th, 1921 - March 18th, 2000)

Sergeant James H. "Moe" Alley (July 20th, 1922 - March 14th, 2008)

Sergeant Wayne "Skinny" Sisk (March 4th, 1922 - July 13th, 1999)

Corporal Walter Scott "Smokey" Gordon Jr. (April 15th, 1920 - April 19th, 1997)

Enlisted Men:

Technician Fourth Grade George Luz (June 17th, 1921 - October 15th, 1998)

Technician Fourth Grade Eugene Gilbert "Doc" Roe Sr. (October 17th, 1922 - December 30th, 1998)

Technician Fifth Grade Joseph David "Joe" Liebgott (May 17th, 1915 - June 28th, 1992)

Private First Class Edward James "Babe" Heffron (May 16th, 1923 - December 1st, 2013)

Private First Class Edward Joseph "Tip" Tipper (August 3rd, 1921 - February 1st, 2017)

Private First Class David Kenyon Webster (June 2nd, 1922 - September 9th, 1961)

*This is not all of Easy Co. just some of the more recognizable names. If I missed anyone that you would like to see listed please message me and I would be glad to add him.

**I was also thinking about adding more info to this list and/or making a separate post with additional details like awards/medals, how and where they were wounded (if at all), and maybe some personal details like where they were born/died, their family (parents, siblings, spouse, children), what they did after the war (if they survived) stuff like that (though that might be a separate list idk yet). I would love to hear your opinion and if you'd like to see something like this. Basically just one large masterpost! Message me and tell me your thoughts!!!! I'm open to ideas!

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