Roots

I was born in 1974 in a small town in mid Michigan. This town was split in half by a set of train tracks. On one side of the tracks was the nicer side of town. Well kept old Victorian houses, the library, and clean streets were common place. The other side of the tracks had a more worn, weathered, and tired look to it. I spent the first 3 years of my life living with my mom and my Aunt Joyce. My mom worked a third shift job at a factory that made wiring harness for General Motors products and my Aunt Joyce babysat me. We lived in a house on a broken brick road next to a factory that had been divided into apartments. We were in the lower right hand furnished apartment (if you were facing the house) that cost $25 a month. My Aunt Joyce received a weekly $20 check from social services for babysitting me, and my mom brought home her paycheck which, after bills, left $75 everything else.

I have included a picture of that house that was taken a couple of years ago. It has been remodeled recently but I remember how it used to look. It was covered with gray asphalt shingles which made it look dirty even on the freshest spring day and it had a front porch on it that sagged like any of the hundreds of tired hobo’s that used to pass through the town riding the rails. Inside the furnace had a crack in the side wide enough to stick your thumb into and when it rained water would run down the light cord and drip of the light bulb in the main room. The house was a couple of hundred feet away from a set of train tracks and when there weren’t trains there were trucks going to the factory to load or unload in addition to the employees changing shifts.

But for all the previous description, I visualize this time with some fondness because I’ve been told stories of good times in that house. It sounded as though everyone living there was interested in each others well being. Plus it was home to the first images I have of the man who married my Mom and adopted me as his son when I was three. I have always referred to this place as “The Broken House” because that was what I called it when I was young. However, I am proud, grateful and lucky to be able to say that, though I started life in a broken house, I never lived in a broken home.

Ten Great Heavy Metal Songs

I love music of all kinds but I have a soft spot for Heavy Metal. In this post I thought I would share some of my favorite songs. This is not a top Ten and I do not have a Favorite song. I dig music based on the mood I’m in. The following songs are songs that are great and I have never gotten sick of them. I would recommend anyone not versed in Metal check out the studio versions of these songs to get the original feel, and if you are a Head Banger, I hope this brings a smile to your face and a crick to your neck.

• Anthrax – “Indians” – This song has one of the greatest “Mosh Buildups” written into a song. There is held metal vocal note, a unison of rhythm guitar and bass chugging and a build on the drums and the band hollers “War Dance” and no matter where I am I bang into that beat.
• Megadeth – “Holy Wars…The Punishment Due” – The first taste people get of what is considered the pinnacle of Megadeth’s recording career is this cold, crisp, and complex example of what can be done within the realm of speed metal. The bands founder, lead singer and Commander in Chief, Dave Mustaine, creates a massive epic that spans past five minutes but feels like just a moment. This song has sent many young guitar player back to their basements dragging their guitars behind them in frustrations and embarrassment.
• Metallica – “Damage Inc” – I look back to a time before short hair, lawsuits, and documentaries about therapy to a time when the slogan was “Fuck it all with Fucking no regrets” and smile. Any Metallica fan prior to 1991 will tell you that you must own all four of the bands major albums, listen to them and love them to understand the backlash that they have endured since the release of The Black Album titles Metallica. I am one of those fans, and this song is one of the many reasons why.
• Trivium – “Pull harder on the strings of your Martyr” – This is an example of what new metal should be; Fast and angry.
• Rammstein – “Feuer Frei” – I knew I would have a Rammstein song on this list, but coming up with just one was a real dilemma. Rammstein is in my top 10 favorite metal bands list and jockeys for position but will never leave that list. This song appeared in the first “Triple X” movie and people thought all the fire was for the movies sake. Wrong! That’s their gig! As far as I’m concerned the movie could have been written around their set.
• Slayer – “Dead Skin Mask” – Written for Wisconsin’s own Ed Gein, Slayer mixes vivid imagery with grinding music to take you out to Plainfield, Wisconsin where the back story to movies like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho were born.
• Static X – “Start a War” – Wayne Static’s choppy, rhythmic delivery of the lyrics mixed with the dependable Static X aggression allows for a song destined to stand up for metal heads generations from now.
• Ozzy Osbourne – “Perry Mason” – It’s easy to over look the odd lyrical content of this song when the uncharacteristic weight of the music lands on you like a Buick full of mid-westerners. The guitar tone and brutality of this song more that makes up for eyebrow raising words.
• Iron Maiden – “The Trooper” – A textbook example of British Heavy Metal from the galloping bass lines to the twin lead guitar lines, overshot with the operatic metal voice of their signature vocalist Bruce Dickinson, this song is a metal anthem!
• Motorhead – “March or Die” – This song is my favorite Motorhead tune. To me, it musically captures World War II. It is a rolling juggernaut of music with Lemmy’s growl and the ever present but well used synth sound and the musical peak at the end under the chant Die,Die,Die…Whew, what up mood generator.

Top 10 Most irritating things in radio commercials.

1. I don’t need to hear the phone number 3 times. I don’t need to hear the phone number 3 times. I don’t need to hear the phone number 3 times.
2. Kids can barely talk much less sell you product and if you feel the need to have a kid as your spokes person it better be diapers or Chuck E. Cheese.
3. I don’t care if your trying to convey a non-audible sense, eating noises and talking with stuff in your mouth is disgusting. It breaks down to two age old choices; Spit or Swallow. Either way I don’t want to hear it.
4. You may think your clever by modifying the melody but We all know when you’re trying to influence us by playing background music that sound like hit songs(Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jimi Hendrix, KC and The Sunshine Band). All you’re doing is pissing off fans of that song.
5. Not every white male is a blithering idiot with tit’s and sports consuming his entire conscious. Some of us don’t give half a shit about football or Hooter’s and use books for reading and pleasure and not for leveling out the sofa.
6. You might think you’re a sassy, witty, little, sarcastic minx, but actually you just a condescending bitch who needs a lesson in perspective.
7. Stop using blues tunes in your commercial. Stop writing blues tunes for your commercial. And stop stop stop using the “I got the Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, blues”. Even John Lee Hooker is tired of that style of blues verse!
8. Why the Fuck did you name it The Hog?! Oh and by the way Milwaukee, “I’m a Hoghead=I’m a Douchebag who never ever should be allow to breed.
9. It might have been edgy for 20 seconds in the early nineties but unless Trent Reznor is personally mixing you Station tags, knock it off with the scritchity scratch B.B.B Bob, an Bob, and Bri,Br, Br, Brian..(radio static) Bob and Brian, Mornings on 102.9 (snork,snork) The Hog
10. America already has a weight problem, We don’t need a fourth meal, we Don’t need talking food, Melty is not even a word much less a taste and considering George Webb’s is primarily a Wisconsin based restaurant, they should hire a mid-western rooster for their commercial instead of paying for one who was apparently raised in the Bronx .

Tradition

In an attempt to assure you that all of my posts are not going to end up being anger saturated social commentary I would like to share with you some Abretokian Folklore. The first Christmas after I was born, a good friend of my mom gave me a Gingerbread Man Cookie. Being only a few months old, my Mom put it on the tree as an ornament, and has done so for the last 34 years. Yes...the same cookie. It's still sealed in the original shrink wrap and has had some other saran wrap added to it.



It just isn't Christmas without my cookie on the tree. This picture was taken a couple of years ago and it is resting on my baby blanket. Who says bears can't be sentimental.By the way..We have entered it in an Ugliest Cookie Contest and lost. Whoa! what must the winner have looked like.

To warn or not to warn

I have debated with myself whether to post a warning on here about the opinions and content of this blog. One could say that by posting this little blotch I am in effect warning people but I decided not to post a standard "The material on this blog...blah,blah,blah" nonsense and just simple say that if you become offended by whatever you read here, please be sure to avoid reading any future posts. I do not want to discourage the reading of my entries, however, I have no desire to deal with hate mail/responses. It is not my goal to actively seek out and offend people. I only wish to enlighten and or entertain people. I am open to, encourage, and look forward to your comments but be aware, I reserve the right to comment about your comment. If you can't take what you dish out, don't serve it. I will also delete any comments I deem inappropriate. With all that said I say welcome to Abretokia, the world through my eyes.

The First Step Into A Larger World

This is my first entry on my ever expanding quest for self importance. It is true silliness to think my opinions are something anyone else is interested in but if you need someone to mock or compare yourself to for your own gratification, you can start here.