Ipswich It Up

The fourth selection from my August beer o' the month drop was an American microbrew called Ipswich Original Ale. From the Mercury Brewing Company in, you guessed it, Ipswich, MA, this is a good hearty microbrew which pleased the BillyBlog palette. I'll spare you the jargonny review. I liked it.

See what other, more serious beer enthusiasts, opined here.

Misread Headline of the Day

Van With Explosives Found in Turkey

by SEBNEM ARSU

Published: September 12, 2007

ISTANBUL, Sept. 11 — The Turkish police found a van packed with an explosive chemical in a multistory parking lot in central Ankara today, according to the city’s top official.

**

Either it was a very small van

or a very large turkey.

(Sigh)

The Last Tattoosday Post......Sort Of

I have decided to end the official Tattoosday tradition here at BillyBlog.

I know, what a wild seven weeks it has been.

But fear not, ye admirers of the tattoo....I have decided to spin off the feature into its own blog, Tattoosday.

There's more of an explanation somewhere over there. Stop by and visit and I may plug a particularly good post, when they come around. Currently up are some shots from the concert on Saturday, including a literary tat. Imagine that!

30,000th Hit

At 7:45 PM, EST, after 2 years and 2 days, BillyBlog registered its 30,000th hit. Someone, presumably in the New York area, googled "heaven and hell jones beach review" and came upon BillyBlog. Alas, I was still working on my review (which has since been posted).

Thanks to everyone who has come and gone, and to all my returning visitors, and to everyone who will visit in the future!

Concert Recap: Queensryche, Alice Cooper, and Heaven and Hell (aka Black Sabbath, the Ronnie James Dio years)

Saturday evening I attended my first concert at Jones Beach. The triple bill consisted of Queensrÿche, Alice Cooper, and Heaven and Hell. Heaven and Hell may be an unfamiliar band name, but it is in fact, Black Sabbath, version 3 I believe, with original members Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, Vinny Appice, and Ronnie James Dio.

Initially, I was under the impression that Alice was the first act, followed by Queensrÿche, but we were running late and we could hear Queensrÿche in the parking lot. Initially I was bummed that I had missed the opening, but soon realized it was a blessing. They performed maybe five songs and despite lead singer Geoff Tate's impressive pipes, the fact that they played nothing off of their groundbreaking 1983 EP Queensrÿche or other "big" songs off of their triple-platinum album Empire like "Silent Lucidity" or "Jet City Woman," was incredibly disappointing. Their rendering of "Take Hold of the Flame," was the only recognizable song to the non-diehard fan. Their set seemed to last maybe 30 or 40 minutes, tops. I'd give a setlist, but I can't access the band's forum page without joining their fan club, to the tune of $30. I hope you'll forgive me.

A Queensrÿche slide show from the show over on Flickr here.

I attended the show with pals Jonathan, Sephora (my Ozzfest companion) and Tom. We were all sitting in the VIP area drinking some beer between sets, and we headed for the seats as Alice Cooper's set started. I must be a spoiled Pearl Jam fan, as I am used to readily accessible post-show set lists. Not able to locate one for Alice, but I'll do my best.

Mr. Cooper did not disappoint and produced a raucous hit-laced set, complete with a campy disturbing act (misogyny, straitjackets, baby-killing and hanging from a rolling gallows - hey it was all in good fun!) and a sick drum solo by Eric Singer.

Here's my footage of "Under My Wheels":



Mr. Cooper holding up a bloody doll that he mock-murdered on stage:



For his crime against the baby, he was theatrically executed:



After resurrecting, I snagged one of my better shots of Alice in top hat and tails:



Another attendee's Alice Cooper Flickr slideshow here.

A big Alice Cooper fan:

For the record, Alice Cooper's set list seems to be MIA, but he also performed "Welcome to My Nightmare," "I'm Eighteen," "School's Out," "Billion Dollar Babies," "Halo of Flies," "No More Mr. Nice Guy," and ended with "Poison".

This is the best I can do of the Heaven and Hell stage:



However, I snagged this shot, not necessarily from the Jones Beach show, from the Black Sabbath site:



Two young metalheads in front of us, sporting Sabbath/Heaven and Hell garb, utilizing the latest technology to capture their childhood memories.



The setlist:

1. "E5150"
2. "The Mob Rules"

At this point, I was very proud of myself, as I had predicted this to be the opener. Without having done research. This is a perfect one-two combo as a show open.) Both songs are from Mob Rules, the album on which the Heaven and Hell line-up all worked together for the first time.

3. "Children of the Sea"

From the album Heaven and Hell. It was at this point that I realized I was in adolescent metal heaven. I had seen Ozzy in concert before, but not Black Sabbath. The Heaven and Hell album, I had nearly forgotten, is a great disc, and the band just destroyed with this song. Dio's vocals were crisp and clear, Iommi's guitar was brutally heavy, and Geezer Butler gained a new fan.

A while back, there was discussion somewhere around here about great bass players. Butler was incredible. Check out another fan's video of the song performed earlier this year:



It was during this song that I realized how much I was enjoying the show, and how much I appreciated getting to see this line-up perform these tunes. The sentiment revisited me repeatedly throughout the show.

4. "I" from 1992's Dehumanizer. I was not familiar with this song but dug it. Dio reunited with the band on this album.

5. "The Sign of the Southern Cross". Also from Mob Rules. This is vintage Dio-era Sabbath, with some of the heaviest riffs around. Iommi just calmly torched the stage with his guitar work. Another highlight of the show for me.

6. "Voodoo". More Mob Rules music. In conjunction with a stellar, although not really necessary Vinny Appice drum solo.

7. "Computer God". Another Dehumanizer track. I was not familiar with this one.

8. "Falling off the Edge of the World". Back to Mob Rules. Video below.



9. "Die Young". Ah Heaven and Hell again. And irony, considering these guys are rocking way into their '60s. A great performance!

10. "Heaven and Hell". Well, this just brought down the house and closed the set. My battery was running low so I only managed two minutes of footage:




11. Encore: "Neon Knights."



They play a one-song encore, cutting off at 10:45 PM. It's a great ending, once I came to terms that Heaven and Hell would be doing only Dio-era Sabbath, and none of Dio's solo work, or his early Rainbow songs.

Nonetheless, the whole show was a treat. Message boards have indicated that they played longer sets in the Spring, but the 10-11 song set has been typical of their Summer/Fall tour.

See my side project Tattoosday for pictures of tattoos I saw at the show.

Heaven and Hell Tonight at Jones Beach!

Tonight at Jones Beach! Stay tuned for Live Blogging!!

BillyBlogiversary!

Well, ladies and gents, I didn't think when I launched BillyBlog two years ago today, that I would be able to stick with it. I had fizzled out on several prior blogging attempts.

But on September 8, 2005, BillyBlog was officially launched with a photo of my two children on their first day of school. That first post is linked here. Compare the photo with the kids' picture from this past Tuesday, when Shayna entered third grade and Jolee started middle school in the sixth grade:


So Happy Birthday to Me!

Poetry Wednesday: 210 to the 5 & Back Again

I've dusted off the mothball sweat for this one:

210 TO THE 5 & BACK AGAIN

In Los Angeles,

at 2 a.m.,

the freeways,

usually crowded

capillaries

of human

interaction,

are dry

with only

spots

of headlights.

I am frozen

with

exhaustion,

and the

vacant

five-lane

strips

remind me,

along with

only

a smat-

tering of

residential

light:

I should be

home

asleep &

dreaming,

the delicate swish

of freeway

soothing my mind

like oceanic

whispers-

delicate

delicate

there:

that's

won-

der-

fu-

l

.

Do I Like French Beer? Maybe Yes, Maybe No.

Slowly, slowly progressing through my beers o' the month. My second taste came from here:


There's a "sophisticated" description here. Personally, I didn't like it too much, and Melanie liked it less. It had a bitter aftertaste that just didn't sit right with me. I'll still drink it, but only when all others have gone the way of the gullet.

Next I sampled another French beer, a self-described "Abbey Ale" from St. Druon.
The bottle pictured is slightly different than the one I drank. This was significantly better than the Jenlain, although they came from the same brewer. More info here. This brew had less of a bitter taste and was generally more pleasing to the palette. Again, you won't get an analytical thesis from me on the difference between the two brews. I just liked the St. Druon more.

Tattoosday #6: Going Mobile

Sorry for the delay in posting, I was worried I would have to improvise, but found two participants today. Last Friday I had my first rejection: a guy at 53rd and 6th Avenue sitting on a bench was the first person to decline. He had many colorful tats on both arms and seemed open at first, but was adverse to my taking any photographs.

On Tattoosday Eve, Labor Day, I still had nothing for the post. I stopped someone in front of my building yesterday with a really cool Hellboy tattoo. He seemed receptive but wanted to check out the blog first.

I found myself with many opportunities but passed, not necessarily out of lack of nerve, but because the tattoos were not so nice, old, faded, or blurred by too much sun. I
have seen a handful of dolphin tattoos like the one the Ancient One sent me.

Today was the kids' first day of school, so I took off from work. Around 11 AM, I decided to ride my bike, eventually making it to Coney Island, where I guessed I could find some good ink. Yet it was still sparse, I had ridden down the Boardwalk and had circled back when I found my first subject.

I approached two young ladies who were taking pictures. One of them had a tattoo on the back of her neck:


The Japanese characters spell out the woman's name, Fernanda. Unlike on the recently-aired episode of VH1's "Rock of Love," in which one of the contestant's gets Bret Michaels' name tattooed on the back of her neck, as a show of devotion, Fernanda has inked her own name. I see a lot of people that do their own names on their arms or legs (I work with many who have done so), and have never really understood the phenomenon.

But in Fernanda's case, I get the artistic expression a little more. These are Japanese letters that have a greater aesthetic impact than Roman letters. When I asked Fernanda why she tattooed her name, she merely expressed that she loved Japanese letters and Japanese culture. She was born and raised in Brazil and has only been living in New York for a year. She did not remember the name of the shop where she had the tattoo done, but narrowed it down to the Astoria section of Queens for me.

I have to agree, it's a pretty cool tattoo.

I made another pass and headed back home. Once I made my way to the Shore Road promenade, where I do the majority of my cycling. I have several spots along the several-mile route from which I can head home. I decided to go down to the 92nd Street footbridge. Standing on the bridge was a gentleman who seemed to be cooling off from running. He had earbuds in and a large biceps piece. He also had an ankle piece and another tattoo on his triceps.

I passed him while walking my bike and then headed back and said loudly, "Excuse me!" He removed his earbuds and I explained my mission. He was game. His name was Mike and he had 6 tattoos in all and didn't mind which one I photographed. I asked him which one was the most special and he held up his arm and pointed to the piece on his triceps. This one:


He explained it a tribal Native American designed mixed with the American flag which he got as a tribute after 9/11. The piece was done by Craig Cooley at Abstract Tribal Tattooing in Brooklyn. I asked him if he was a fireman, and he said, "No, a police officer." I thought, with the 6th anniversary of September 11 just a week away, it was a perfect punctuation mark to end a week of tattoo-spotting, and begin a week of reflection on this somber anniversary.

Thanks to Fernanda and Mike for their participation in this edition of Tattoosday!

Not Necessarily the Best Name in the Dental Profession

In fact, I'd say, this is a most unfortunate name for someone in the health care industry. At least he (or she) is not a heart surgeon or an anesthesiologist.

The Loneliest Lamp Post in Bay Ridge, Part V

September 1, 2007, 11:15 pm

Previous entries in the Lamp Post Saga:

The Loneliest Lamp Post in Bay Ridge, Part IV
The Loneliest Lamp Post in Bay Ridge, Part III
The Loneliest Lamp Post in Bay Ridge, Continued
The Loneliest Lamp Post in Bay Ridge

Latest Sign O' the Apocalypse

The new Oreo Dessert Pizza at Domino's Pizza.

Poetry Wednesday Thursday

Sorry, didn't post anything poetic yesterday. Actually, I did, briefly, post a poem I had written in June called "Sipping Red Bull through a Straw," a voyeuristic subway piece, but I had second thoughts, both due to subject matter and ultimately (and more importantly), due to my happiness with the poem. I think it's too good to throw up before it has faced more revision.

That said, here's a consolation prize from my archives, a not very good poem, but one that may amuse:

BOVINE OVATION

I walked up the hill,

right up to them,

sitting, standing, looking away, eating.

"Okay," I began excitedly, "I bet

you guys haven't heard poetry before."

I extracted a battered notebook from my backpack

and skimmed through,

trying to find a sonnet or an ode, haiku

or something that cattle would enjoy.

I finally found something half-decent

and announced in a serious voice,

"This is the first time I've read

this particular piece before an audience,

so please, be gentle." Two dozen pairs

of somber eyes focused on me as I began.

I don't know if it was the poem,

or the sound of my voice, or simply,

the fact that they were just cows,

but halfway through I glanced up

and only three or four were still

paying attention. Everyone else had

gone back to grazing, cud-chewing,

and flicking tails at bothersome flies.

Disappointed, I half-heartedly

finished the recital and closed

my book. The sole remaining captive

listener shook her head, a red ear-tag

flapping vigorously,

like exuberant applause.

Then she turned away

and let it fly. A beautiful cowshit

by bovine standards, I guess.

Turd after turd popped into view

and landed with a significant splat!

in the lush emerald grass. It was

humiliating, yet somewhat appropriate.

I turned and lumbered down the pasture.

A light rain began to fall

just as I reached the house

and I wandered inside to work

on some desperately-needed revisions.

Pihanakalani Ranch, Pa'auilo, Hawaii, November 1993

©1993, William Dickenson Cohen

Seemed an appropriate choice and yes, it's based on a true story.

Lucky Squirrel!

Behold: it's Lucky the Squirrel, who watched last night's Yankees-Red Sox game in its entirety from atop the right field foul pole. Fans are already crediting Lucky with helping Johnny Damon's game-winning home run stay just fair. The question remains: how did Lucky get past Security?

Poetry Wednesday: "Sipping Red Bull Through a Straw"

SIPPING RED BULL THROUGH A STRAW

The woman

on the N train

standing next to me

on the morning commute –

she is fondling her iPod, her finger

circles the click wheel

with an intimacy

I can feel on

the back of

my neck.

She’s

fashionably

sporting a black & white

striped hoodie, and Dolce & Gabbana

shades, perched on her head

like a tiara.

She takes a sip

from the drink in her right hand

while her left grips

the subway’s steel pole.

We emerge from the tunnel

onto the Manhattan Bridge

and her lashes flutter

in the sunlight. She continues

to grip the can and the pole,

her thumb fidgeting

with her fingers

as she listens to music

expressionlessly,

taking an occasional sip,

her index finger

steadying the straw

that juts out of the Red Bull.

Her lips suck the liquid up

through the clear tube.

I imagine that fluid

filling the back of her throat

and splashing down into her,

the caffeine straining

against its molecules,

dying to enter the bloodstream

like a thousand angry pit bulls

growling at the ends of their chains.

©2007 William Dickenson Cohen

Random Tuesday Junk

Go here and have fun pretending to be Jackson Pollock.

Here is an eBay auction run by a talented woman who wrote a hilarious product description for a box of Pokemon cards and has ridden her blog to waves of fame and envy-inducing traffic that leaves the rest of us in the blogosphere in awe.

Speaking of eBay, I'm selling some signed books here, trying to get rid of some yummy items to raise money for the Weird Al Yankovic Hollywood Star fund. Signed books from Charles Simic, Kurt Vonnegut, Jimmy Carter, Orrin Hatch, John Irving, and Charles Bukowski. Actually, just using BillyBlog to possibly promote more notice for the books.

Oh, and my sister sent me these:





with the following explanation:

I've been meaning to get this for you sooner, but, well, I'm lazy. This sign is tacked to a tree on my block where leftovers are often found at the base of the tree. There is also a chicken that lives on the opposite corner - perhaps the food is left for it, but its hard to tell. If you look closely, there is rice at the base of the tree today - evidently (I didn't see, but have it on good authority) the first day the sign was there a pot was sitting next to it, the following day, a second, and the next day, a third. I wish I had gotten to see that ;)

Thanks BillyBlogSister!

The Loneliest Lamp Post in Bay Ridge, Part IV

Taken Tuesday afternoon, August 28, 2007:


Prior posts here.

Tattoosday #5: Dolphins, Shackles and Skulls, oh My!

So last week, BillyBlog received its first unsolicited tattoo submission. I had no specific policy on this, but decided that, due to a gloomy week in NYC, I could use all the help I could get. Tat number one is blogged by proxy, courtesy of The Ancient One, Blessed Be He. He is, after all, Dear Old Dad, so I couldn't possibly refuse. Well, I could, but that would just be silly.

Dad wrote:

If you are willing to accept photos from others, I have attached a tattoo photo taken ... of the lower leg ...[of] one Suze Campagna, an extraordinary stage manager whom I featured on the blog a month or so ago. I have seen this tattoo often but yesterday I asked to take a picture of it and have her permission to send it to you. I can't offer too much back story. Suze turned 40 recently (like you) and when I asked about the little dolphin, she said it was her first tattoo and that she got it in celebration of her 30th birthday.

Thanks, Ancient One!

So, as mentioned, it was a cool, rainy week and the preponderance of flesh, let alone inked flesh, was atypical of August in the Big Apple. However....

The sun came out late Thursday, followed Friday by a slew of tattoos.

I discovered early on that my old reluctance had returned. I saw some nice ink, but everyone seemed to be heading somewhere in a hurry. Imagine that, in New York City!

But late Friday I was headed to a Cyclones game (thanks, Atlantis Health Plan, for the free tickets!) and the prospect of heading to Coney Island excited the tattoo aficionado in me.

But on my way to the ATM before hitting the subway, I saw a guy standing in front of The Garden, smoking a cigarette. He appeared to be covered with tattoos. Without hesitation, I ambled up and introduced myself and he obliged to be the first participant in Tattoosday, part V.

The guy I met was in his 20's, maybe early 30's and said his name was John Adams. He has an even dozen tattoos. He offered me up two tattoos, with the following tales...

He said he was most proud of this one, around his left ankle. It is a shackle with a broken chain.

He elaborated on this piece's history (forgive me, I am paraphrasing):

I got married in Vegas and it was the worst mistake of my life....the marriage lasted about 2 weeks...the divorce is still going on....after the marriage ended, one of my friends suggested I get this, showing that I had been chained down by a bad mistake, but I had managed to break free....the more I thought about it, the better the idea seemed, and it's one of my favorite tattoos because it reminds me how I escaped from a bad situation.

Again, I paraphrased there. John, if you're reading this, feel free to correct any details.

John's shackles were inked at Chris P. Tooles Tattoo Incorporated in Vacaville, California. He is originally from Vacaville and he seemed delighted not only to learn I knew where Vacaville was, but also that I had stayed there on numerous occasions with old college friends.

John also offered up a second piece, on his right elbow.

Through a seres of events, John here had been living in Slidell, Louisiana two years ago, right before the birth of BillyBlog. A weather disturbance known as Hurricane Katrina rolled through town and like so many Louisiana denizens, John found himself relocated elsewhere.

He found himself in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and ran into a tattoo artist at a shop called Tattoo Zoo. According to John, the tattooer had designed the skull, but no one wanted it. It was an orphan design, looking for a host. The artist felt bad for John after Katrina, and offered to ink him for free using his extensive tattoo ink sets back at the shop. John requested he add a jester hat to the design, and the rest was history.


John noted that the piece was particularly sentimental because it had come on the heels of Katrina and it had been a generous gift from a sympathetic artist.

John was in New York just visiting. He was very cool.

Thanks John for your tattoos and accompanying stories!

Finally, as I headed home on the R train on Monday, I spotted a young lady with a nice koi tattoo on her left biceps. This was the first person I ever asked on the train to participate, and my luck has continued. No one has declined my invitation yet to be on BillyBlog, and this individual, although tentative at first, agreed once the train stopped at 95th Street, to let me take a picture of her arm above ground.

This piece, which is a part of a theme for her, is a carp, or koi, representing the element water. Her right biceps has a dragon on it, representing wind, and her back boasts a phoenix tattoo representing fire. She understandably told me that it would not be appropriate to show me the back tattoo, not that I was forward enough to ask, I figured as much.

Her carp, if not all of her art, was inked at Rising Dragon Tattoos, a shop only 7 blocks from my office, situated just downstairs from the Chelsea Hotel on 23rd Street. I imagine that this will not be the first tattoo I find from this famous shop.

We talked briefly about how I was lucky I caught her on a good day (I did, after all, interrupt her while she was reading). She acknowledged that she is occasionally annoyed by people asking her about her tattoos. I was surprised, as I have not seen a lot of people going out of their way to ask about tattoos. She thinks that women get asked about their tattoos more because it is more accepted for men to have tattoos, and because hers are so large on her arms, people tend to ask about them more than one would think.

I gave this nameless, yet friendly, subject a printout of a prior Tattoosday post and invited her to e-mail me when she had some color added, as she is thinking of doing.

That wraps it up for this week's Tattoosday. Have a great Labor Day weekend!