Day 110

This didn't hurt Ozzy so much as it interrupted his biting spree.

I need to stop staying up so late.

Right now my dog is roughing up the towel in his kennel. It's his ritual when he gets a new towel to get it all balled up. For some reason he likes to sleep on top of the big lump that is created. For most people that kind of arrangement would cause a serious back problem, but he seems to love it.

Ok, let me introduce you to my dog. His name is Ozzy and according to his papers he is almost 3 months old. Ozzy is a Beagle complete with gumdrop nose and big soft ears. What sets him apart from most is that he is predominantly black. Most of the Beagles I come across are predominantly tan (or red as some seem to prefer). Oh yeah, the markings on his muzzle are assymetrical, which I honestly find really cool.

We've had him for a little over 3 weeks now. He seems to be getting bigger by the day. I didn't get to see the parents so I don't know if he will be a 13-inch or 15-inch Beagle, but I really don't care. When we picked him up his name was originally going to be Charlie, but I decided it was too close to Marley and I didn't want my dog to be associated with that movie in any way. For some reason the song "Crazy Train" popped in my head and our new puppy was dubbed Ozzy.

On Sunday we took him to the Millie Bush Bark Park in the west Houston area. He had a blast with the large area to run around, all the new dogs to meet, and all the people who lavished their attention on his cuteness. We had him in the small breed area as he was getting a little frightened of the large dogs in the general area. I plan on taking him again tomorrow as I plan on taking the day off.

Hopefully I'll have the pictures from the Amon Amarth concert up soon. I haven't really had a chance to process those as of yet. I went to the Commemorative Air Force air show on Sunday and was a little disappointed. It's not that it wasn't cool, I just expected a larger show. I didn't bother taking any pictures.

Well, at this point I'm almost 2 hours into day 111. I need to get some sleep. I bid all of you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers a good night.

Here is a second photo to try to make up for my slacking.

Day 108

I promised an entry last night. I got home from seeing Fast and Furious last night and turned my laptop on. I sat on my sofa while it booted up. Next thing I remember I'm waking up to take Ozzy out for his morning bathroom rush.

The weather was pretty lousy waking up this morning. Thanks to my puppy I was up early so he could go pee. I suppose it's better than having urine stains on my carpet, but I just wish he would let me sleep in one of these mornings.

I was pretty lazy today up until about 3 pm when I had to put together an interview. Like I said, the weather was pretty lousy. It was pretty dark outside and we had to have the lights on most of the day. My poor dog couldn't play outside today so we had to bear the brunt of his puppy energy. My right arm is receiving new scratch and bite marks each day, although he is slowly learning not to bite daddy.

This evening, however, was far more exciting. I got to see Skeletonwitch, Goatwhore, and Amon Amarth live. I'm a big fan of Skeletonwitch so to see them would be worth the price of admission to me. I'm not so much a fan of Goatwhore as they venture a little too far into whole Satan-schtick for my taste, but they delivered the goods tonight. I was very impressed. But Amon Amarth was the draw. I was wondering how their brand of mid-tempo Swedish death metal would translate into a live set. Let's just say it translated very well. I interviewed the guitar player for Amon Amarth and will work over the next day or 2 to get it transcribed and posted.

It was definitely a long night and I need to get up early. West Houston Airport is hosting an airshow featuring combat aircraft from World War II. I'm looking forward to going and taking lots of photos. So, to all my faithful and not-so-faithful readers I bid you goodnight.

PS - I'm sorry to do this on a third entry in a row, but it's late and I'm kinda tired. I promise to have a picture for the next entry.

Day 94

Metallica has made it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I must say that it has been a long time coming for metal in the Hall of Fame, but after Black Sabbath and now Metallica it seems as if metal's mark on the music world is finally being acknowledged.

I still remember the first Metallica album I ever owned. It was Master of Puppets. I first heard it it at a friend's house back in Cincinnatus, NY. The opening song, "Battery", literally blew me away. I had never heard anything played that heavy or that fast in my young life (I was 14 at the time). I remember not being able to understand a single word being screamed and not able to discern drumbeats. I was dumbfounded. My friend then played "Damage, Inc." and again I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It was then decided that I really didn't like it.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and the cassette is sitting in my mailbox from the BMG Music Club (how many of you metalheads weren't a member of either BMG or Columbia House?). The reason I ordered it? I have no clue. When the time came for me to order something, that was the album I chose. This time I was not constrained to listening to only 2 songs and I had access to the lyrics as well.

The album was pure crap. I didn't like it at all. The singer only screamed and the band members played their instruments too fast to be any sort of cohesive unit. Now bands like AC/DC, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Motley Crue - now they knew what they were doing. But the one thing I could not do when it came to Master of Puppets was to stop listening to it. At a time when AC/DC saw the heaviest rotation in my stereo, Metallica started to take over and Master of Puppets was the jumping off point. Needless to say, I was hooked into this heavier metal. Metallica was heavier than Priest or Maiden, which up until that point were the heaviest bands in my rotation. I was still mainly into the more commercially viable metal (in Cincinnatus we took what we could get), but this allowed me to seek out and appreciate more of the "not so ready for prime time" non-label-friendly stuff that polluted our ears (and record stores). Master of Puppets had become at that point the greatest album ever.

For my art class in my freshman year I did the Master of Puppets album cover in watercolor. It turned out pretty good for a first time watercolor painting (except for the strings; I tried to mask them out but they ended up looking like white thorn bushes). In my sophomore year art class we did a unit on calligraphy. The project for the unit consisted of doing a phrase in calligraphy. I decided I couldn't do a 3- or 4-line phrase and went all out with the lyrics to "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)". While people may not have liked the lyrics all that much, they were definitely impressed with the scale of the project.

But enough of the trip down memory lane. I watched part of the acceptance speech. I saw Jason Newsted standing up there with James, Lars, Kirk, and Robert. I don't know if Jason is in the Hall of Fame along with the current members. If that's not the case, he should be because he was a member of Metallica through their biggest period. I also hope that Cliff Burton is given the posthumous honor of induction. It leaves me to wonder about Dave Mustaine. Although he didn't even play on Kill 'em All, he did help write most of their debut album and a couple of songs on Ride the Lighting. I would hope that he at least gets some acknowledgement for his contributions to early Metallica. Trust me, they needed him. If you don't believe me, head over to Amazon and order the Metal Massacre anthology, which contains the earliest recorded Metallica. The orginal version of "Hit the Lights" was pre-Mustaine Metallica and based on that song alone I'm sure many wrote off any future for Metallica.

At any rate, I'll raise my water glass and say "Congratulations" to Metallica. They were key in creating the metal scene in the United States, not to mention their influence on the rest of the metal world. As part of the big-four of American metal (the other 3 being Slayer, Anthrax, and Dave Mustaine-led band Megadeth) they helped set the stage for explosion that was yet to come. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will never be the same.

Well, to all you, my faithful and not-so-faithful readers, I must bid you goodnight.

PS - There's no picture again tonight as with my new puppy I haven't had a chance to take any in a few days. Not to worry, though, they will soon be once again forthcoming.