Musical Highlights Of 2022

From Troy Tennard ‘s “Shades of Noir” comes Queen, Metallica, and a number of excellent musicians I’ve not heard of before. Give Troy a read and give a listen to the musicians. Peace.

Shades Of Noir

Flood – Polarized

2022 started off with a bang with the release of Polarized.  Flood is a brand new metal band. The lineup features members from two of my favorite metal bands, Tourniquet and Extol. Flood brings together Tourniquet co-founders Gary Lenaire and Gary Ritter, ex Tourniquet guitarist Erik Mendez, Extol co-founder David Husvik and highly talented bassist Anna Sentina.  Overall Polarized sounds akin to a modern update of the early thrash metal sound of Tourniquet.  Technical riffs, thought provoking lyrics, exceptional musicianship and melodic songcraft form the basis of the band’s metal output.   Polarized is an absolute must for fans of the early Tourniquet albums and for fans of melodic thrash metal.  Flood is already working on a follow-up album. Perhaps we will hear more incredible thrash metal from Flood as soon as 2023 

Big Big Train – Welcome To The Planet

Welcome To The Planet is one of…

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Blogger Recognition Award

I’m so happy to announce that Invincible Woman on Wheels won another award for her amazing work, and she nominated me for an award as well! Thank you, Invincible Woman, for the nod! Please visit Invincible Woman’s blog and dive into the world of an amazing human being. As for my nomination, I posted my acceptance here: Blogger Recognition Award Acceptance.

Invincible Woman on Wheels

I’ve been nominated for another blogger award! This time, Sara from Vivid n Stylish has nominated me for the Blogger Recognition Award. Thankyou Sara for this nomination.

For those who don’t know, the Blogger Recognition Award is a way of recognising all the hard work and effort that goes into blogging and celebrating those who put in the hard work. It isn’t as easy as everyone thinks!

Firstly, I’ll outline the rules of the tag. Then I’ll explain two reasons why I start blogging and two pieces of advice I have for other bloggers. Then I’ll answer the questions Sara has asked me, before asking my own questions and nominating some more bloggers to answer them.

Rules

• Display the logo of the blogger recognition award.
• Thank the blogger nominator.
• Write something about bloggers’ recognition award.
• Write two reasons why you started blogging.
• Give two pieces of advice to your fellow…

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The Golden Bloggerz Award

I recently saw a Tweet from Ricatography 101, and you could’ve knocked me over with a feather when I read it. Okay, that’s an old-timey idiom, one right up there with “Well, I’ll be jiggered!” and “Stone the crows!” but it perfectly sums up how I felt when I read the news: Ricatography 101 nominated me for the Golden Bloggerz Award! To say that I am extraordinarily grateful for the distinction would be a massive understatement. Thank you, Ricatography 101, for your kind words and for bestowing this unexpected honor upon me.

The Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award

The following is a very delayed response to my nomination for the Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award.

I must note that I am way behind in my blogging efforts as I again fell ill and required care in an Emergency Room. Thanks to being in considerably poor health for many days, I was previously unable to give my response to the nomination the kind of thoughtful attention it deserved. Fortunately, my situation is now considerably improved.

Here are the rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.
2. Answer your nominator’s questions.
3. Nominate up to 9 other bloggers.
4. Notify your nominees.
5. Ask 5 questions.
6. List the rules and display the “Ideal Inspiration Blogger Award” logo.

Open Minds Needed

 

Slave with whipping scars. 1863. Photo by Matthew Brady.

Some people will look at the above, make assumptions, and fail to understand the per-party history of racism in the US. As a captive in the Confederacy, the above slave named Gordon was the wholly-owned property of people who saw blacks as sub-human and inferior, and those people went to war against their own nation in an attempt to perpetuate a race-based culture that denied millions of the most basic of human rights. Slaves, especially those in the South, were largely owned by such people, most of whom were of one political affiliation: They were Democrats.

The Police and Yours Truly

Photo by Nur Andi Ravsanjani Gusma on Pexels.com

I am a black American man, and I support the police. That may be a strange thing to read in this age of unprecedented rage against police over the shooting of black people, but I believe that failing to support good, decent police officers is a vote of support for criminals and anarchy. However, although I root for the men and women in blue, I also know there are a few police officers who don’t deserve to wear the badge. Accordingly, this is an article about such police officers and how their misconduct impacted me. This is not about the legions of police officers who perform their tasks without bias. This is not about those officers who diligently keep us safe and who deserve our utmost respect. This is not about Black Lives Matter or any other modern-day police accountability movement. No, this is about a few bad cops whose misdeeds tarnished the badge and shook me to my core.

Dear Millennials…

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Dear Millennials,

Hi, Boomer here. ⇒Wait! Don’t click away!⇐ I have an important personal opinion to relay! First off, I understand many of your concerns relating to the state of the world as passed on by my generation. In particular, you are in a world that is seemingly unbalanced by the devastating effects of climate change, and I understand your anger at the apparent inaction of my fellow Boomers in that regard. People, I get it.

Mass Retreat

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Hello, everyone. My last article, Transit Trouble, featured the story of a young woman on a subway train whose attempt to remove herself from personal contact with others went wrong in the worst possible way. Upon further reflection, I now realize that her behavior is not a deviation from today’s norm, but an embodiment of it. Our society is now one where all others are shunned, and that sad fact is blatantly obvious on New York City’s mass transit systems.

Transit Trouble

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Notice:
This article has descriptions some may find upsetting.
Reader discretion is advised.

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Like many New York City residents who ride the city’s subway, I brave the filth, rats, noise, bed bugs, and numerous leaks of questionable origin within the system. If you live here, then there is no escaping the vast network of underground trains and the often disgusting elements within it. However, despite my long-time experience and relative comfort with the many deficiencies of the subway, one strange trip made me fear for my life.

When Life Becomes an Illusion

The Brooklyn Bridge
(Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com)

The enduring nature of our creations is on my mind today. Here in New York City, there are innumerable monuments that silently testify to humanity’s ability to build things that last. There is the unyielding copper sculpture that is the Statue of Liberty. There are the city’s old, iconic, steel and stone bridges that carry millions daily without sway. There is the crown jewel of Manhattan, the majestic Empire State Building, standing tall despite suffering a direct hit from a B25 bomber in 1945. All are of such permanence and wondrous majesty, and all reflect the creativeness and indomitable nature of the human spirit. Inspired, I considered both my mortality and the list of my lasting contributions only to feel the ephemeral nature of my profession hit me like a runaway truck.

Hate. Again.

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Hate. That horrible word and all it entails are on my mind today. We hear about hate every damn day, and I’m sick of it. The ugly thing is everywhere and it’s seemingly inescapable! Hate has found an incubator like no other on the internet, and that’s in addition to the homes it maintains in print, on television and radio, and through direct communications ranging from public speeches to water cooler conversations.

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Hate is jealousy, fear, bias, distrust, and much, much more. Hate is the need to diminish or destroy entire groups as a means of expressing dominance or elevating one’s own. It divides humanity into pockets of normality and abnormality, of “us” against “them” where “they” are always wrong and abnormal while “we” exemplify absolute correctness and undeniable normalcy. Accordingly, we live in a fractured world where boundaries are erected due to hate and we are willingly kept apart in what could only be described as mass expressions of sheer idiocy.

The Heart of Christmas

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The year was 2013. I thought I was going to die. A lump the size of a golf ball appeared in my throat and worry immediately began to set in. Unfortunately, my doctors didn’t say anything to turn my concern into confidence. Instead, a biopsy revealed three nodules of mysterious origins on my thyroid gland, and all three were filled with blood. There was no recent injury to my neck, no infection, no overt stress or strain placed on it, yet three clear signs that something was very, very wrong appeared on every scan my doctors ordered.

Sinbad Kitty

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Sinbad, my cat from long ago, is on my mind today. He was a big, heavy, jet-back Maine coon cat mix, lacking the ear tufts of a full coon cat but sporting a heavy coat all year long. The giant puffball was the most un-catlike feline of all time! He would practically humiliate himself by begging to be held every waking moment. “Sinbad Kitty,” as we often called the massive furball, was addicted to cuddling!

Remembering My Other Mom

The world is a colder, meaner place now, for a brilliant light is gone forever. That light, Mrs. Ester Cousins, came to an end at the end of February, and the extended family has reeled ever since. Mrs. Cousins, or “Ma” as I came to call her, was a rail-thin woman who faced and overcame horrific tragedies that struck her immediate family, and in doing so her displays of inner strength utterly contradicted any image of weakness her wispy frame would otherwise imply.

Dark Intelligence

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There are certain names that are inseparable from America’s history of ingenuity. Names such as Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, Samuel B. Morse, Jonas Salk, and Thomas A. Edison are commonly known as belonging to several of America’s brightest lights. However, there are many others—comparatively unknown others—who also catalyzed America’s march toward greatness, and I fault America’s primary, middle, and high schools for not exposing the contributions of those undeservedly obscure creative geniuses. Accordingly, on my today is the education of our youth to combat racism.