Heya, Cats! Eh, works for Sporky, but I guess I'm just not cool enough to pull it off. Oh well. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and aren't having too tough a time recouperating. The 'Bear thought he was going to be spending the better part of Turkey Day in the hospital. I've been fighting headaches since last Friday. Not sure if they're sinus related or what, but the one that hit me Wednesday night about 9:00 really kicked my ass. After standing in the shower for about 20 minutes running really hot water over my head, it dulled down enough that I could sit up and eat supper. By the time we went to bed at 11:00 it was back and it had friends. Nothing I took seemed to even make a dent. Around 3:30, I decided I couldn't take it anymore and went and did the shower thing again. By 4:00, my hot water had run out as had my patience. I was on the verge of having the wife call her mother to come stay with the kids and then take me to the emergency room, but decided on one other course of action. I remembered reading/hearing that there is a pressure point on your feet for every part of your body and I begged the wife to rub my feet. I didn't really need to beg, she's so great to me. Anyway, this actually was a tremendous help and dulled the pain down enough that my exhaustion could take over and I passed out. I spent most of yesterday walking on egg shells, not wanting to do something to cause it to come back and carrying around a bottle of aspirin, but luckily I was headache free most of the day. Now, if I could have just been free of some of the relatives that were there yesterday, it would have been a good day. Oh well, we can't get everything.

Ok, now on to the rant about music. I'll warn you guys, especially Scud, and maybe Elf and Sporky that I might say a few things to piss you off. Just remember, fellers, this is just Da 'Bear's Opinion on things. It's nothing personal. 'Kay? Kay. Good.

Last weekend, VH1 had a special that started at like 3:00 and went until around 8:00 or so called "The 100 Best Artists: Hard Rock" or something like that. It was basically a countdown of the top 100 "metal and hard rock" bands. Now, I agree that most, if not all, of the bands they picked deserved to be on the list, I just have a problem with where some were listed. They had a panel of people, among whom were none other than Scott Ian from Anthrax and Tony Iommi, the guitar playing god, from Black Sabbath. They would each vote for their top 100 and I guess these votes were averaged and the lists were made. My first and largest gripe is that Iron Maiden were listed #24.

#24?! Where the hell did that come from? While bands like Nirvana, Metallica, and Pearl Jam are listed in the top ten?? No fuckin' way. To top it off, Metallica sites Iron Maiden as one of their influences! In my opinion, the Irons should be listed in the top five, if not #1.

My next gripe is, why is Pearl Jam even listed? I do not consider them to fit into the category of Hard Rock. Oh,you may say "They're grunge, it's the same thing." No, not to me. I don't believe in grunge. I think Alice In Chains are Hard Rock or Seattle Metal, not Grunge. PJ's first album might have been fairly close to Hard Rock, but I don't think they've done anything since that's very "Hard".

Complaint #3. Led Zepplin was #1, Sabbath #2. Wrongo!!! How about reversing them, there. Or even moving Zepplin down a few rungs. I dig Black Sabbath, I really do. I can't stand Led Zepplin. I don't know what it is, I just can't stand them. Every time I'm driving in the car and "Cashmere" or "Immigrant Song" or whatever comes on the radio, I change the station. The ONLY, Zepplin song I can stand to listen to and actually enjoy is "Gallows Pole", but that's it! I feel that Black Sabbath has been more of an influence on the Hard Rock/Metal world than Zepplin has, and since that seems to be why some bands were listed where they were, then I feel that Sabbath should be #1. That is also why I feel that Iron Maiden should have been listed much higher.

A few small complaints. Anthrax was listed in like the 60's or 70's. Should have been much higher. Slayer was #50, they also should have been in the top 20. Danzig was like, #91. What? #91? Come on. Another for at least the top 25. One group that wasn't listed that I think should have been listed was Type O Negative.

Even though I bitch quite a bit about it and it still leaves a sour taste in my mouth, there were some bands listed that I agree with (but I can't remember their numbers). Lynard Skynard, The Ramones, Green Day, Henry Rollins and Soundgarden. I just feel that the voting was a bit skewed. I'm not a big Hendrix fan and I didn't like the idea that he was in the top 10 and there were some others who were not. But like I said this was all my opinion. I'm into the more heavier music anyway. I hate the term Hard Rock because it's too general. They should call it Metal, then about 45% of the bands they listed would have been out of the running. Oh well, I can't run the world though.

It was cool to sit and listen to all these different stars that I like, however, sit and talk about bands that they liked. Seeing, Henry Rollins, Bruce Dickinson (GOD!), James Hetfield (GOD!), Sebastian Bach, Tony Iommi, Ozzy and others talk about each band was cool. All in all, I enjoyed the show, I just think it was a little bit wrong in it's listing. But, like I said, it's only my opinion and I'm not going to change the world anyway so fuck it. Just my two cents.

I'd best get to work and get something done today. I came to work today, on a day that most people use our "floater" vacation day on, hoping that most everyone would be gone and we'd get to leave early. If that happens, I need to have all my stuff done before I leave. Catch you next entry and I hope some day soon to have my new layout up and running. Have a great weekend and remember, Da 'Bear loves you.

Icebear

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