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Entry date: 10-7-2024 – First Monday of Fall Break – Letters to My Friends

phnart

Dear Friends,

 

It’s a guilt free Monday. My students are home or at daycare or nana’s today because there is no school. I can avoid worrying about how they are doing or what the sub is fucking up.

 

It feels good.

 

Yesterday was cold in Rangeley. From what I’ve heard it was about 50 degrees colder here than in Phoenix. I don’t feel guilty about  that either. I do feel a little like I’ve been taken out and beaten up. The cold got into my bones and took root yesterday.

 

Rhondi gave me my first haircut since 2022. I’ve got the Dale Crover haircut going right now, or something like it. I am very glad to get rid of a lot of the mess that was on my head lately. It was getting to be a bit much and at the last Hillbilly shows and our practice, my hair was getting in my mouth as I sang.

 

The main thing was that I was not really recognizing myself. Right now, I’m not sure who I am, if that makes sense. This is a new world with a ton of responsibility and each day up here in Maine reminds me of that. I think it will be even harder when I go home without Rhondi at the end of the week.

 

***** 

 

Uggh. The cold really did take it out of me yesterday. I was so exhausted by the end of the day. We had to stay up kind of late to meet with a kid from Dev’s work who is going to help cater the reception after the funeral. I was more than ready for bed.

 

***** 

 

On a good note, we did get to hang with Erik and Jamie yesterday and that was really good for our souls. They are excellent people and it feels good to be around excellent people. I am very thankful for the people in my life who I consider my extended family. Lucky, too.

 

Couldn’t do all this without you all and that’s the truth.

 

***** 

 

Some records can have the same function of a bullet proof vest if you let them. In October of 1987, I was in Columbus, Georgia on the US Army base, Fort Benning. I was stuck there because of a bad decision I had made trying to either please my grandfather or throw a curveball at my own life to see if I could hit it.

 

I couldn’t.

 

I bailed on the Army as quickly as I could because I had a medical out and I took it. While I was there, though, I got to go to the PX and spend some of the money I was earning doing jobs on base. They made me work because my medical condition was not going to stop me from being productive.

 

One Saturday I was at the PX and bought myself a Walkman. I needed some cassettes to put in, so I looked at what they had. One of the things I bought was the latest Metallica and the first thing with local Phoenix guy, Jason Newsted, on bass. It was called The $5.98 EP – Garage Days Re-Revisited and I listened to it multiple times a night for the next month (and beyond).

 

I bought a few other cassettes, too, but this one was my favorite while I was in uniform. It was about the closest thing to punk rock I could find on the base, for one thing, and I was already a Metallica fan. The EP also features some really cool covers of songs that I had never heard up to that point.

 

There are only five songs on The $5.98 EP – Garage Days Re-Revisited. The first is a song called “Helpless” which was originally by Diamond Head. I have never knowingly listened to Diamond Head, so I can’t claim to know anything about that band. I know that “Helpless,” as done by Metallica, is a song that I really like, though. I have listened to it a ton over the years.

 

I have to point out, though, that after the Newsted/Metallica relationship ended, I did kind of ignore The $5.98 EP – Garage Days Re-Revisited for a long time. I also avoided the remastered version, and such, because I wasn’t going to contribute to that gravy train. I may still break down and buy this on vinyl at some point.

 

I digress.

 

“The Small Hours” is track two and it fucking rules. This is song by another band I don’t know at all, Holocaust. Judging by the name, I’m guessing they were another metal band that Metallica loved. It’s a great song, though, and the lyrics are cool. “And I try to get through to you in my own special way/and the mirrors crumble at the end of the day” or something close to that, has always stuck with me.

 

I was familiar with Killing Joke already, so when “The Wait” came out of my Walkman headphones, I was stoked. Ben’s Uncle Paul sent him a really cool compilation in the early 80s that had a couple Killing Joke songs on it and we played the hell out of them. This is a choice cover, too. I have to hand it to Lars Ulrich here. The drums are pretty fucking spectacular.

 

Over the years, I have become something of a Budgie fan. I had not heard of them when I first bought The $5.98 EP – Garage Days Re-Revisited in 1987, but their song, “Crash Course in Brain Surgery” led me to a great appreciation for their unique metal sounds. It’s so good.

 

Newsted really kicks the bass line on “Crash Course…” in a direction that was awesome, too. The Budgie bass lines are often the best parts of the song, so it was cool that Newsted was able to show off a bit on his first recording with the band. Good stuff, Jason.

 

I have never cared for the Misfits music very much, so this version kind of opened my eyes a bit to what their songs could be. I still don’t like or listen to Misfits on purpose, but this version of two of their songs, “Last Caress/Green Hell” smushed together is definitely listenable and makes me feel like I’ve had too much coffee.

 

The little Iron Maiden outro is still pretty cool, too.

 

***** 

 

See you tomorrow.



AI meet Sam. Sam, meet AI. Green Eggs and Hash.

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