Ironhold

The thing is? *It's not just music where this happened.* Look at many other forms of entertainment during the period from about 1987 to 1992 and you'll see similar seismic upheavals. Comic books? That's when a lot of prominent indie houses like Blackthorne and Comico ran into problems and wound up going bust, clearing a path for Image to come and dictate the terms of the early 1990s. Animation? A great many studios and foreign content importers, like Hanna-Barbera, Rankin-Bass, Ruby - Spears, Streamline, and Sunbow were either dead or terminally ill, this in spite of their various successes. This was on top of a great many other setbacks in the industry. Kids' properties? Many prominent toy lines like Go-Bots, Transformers, M.A.S.K., and so forth all collapsed, while a great many new lines were functionally dead on arrival. Many of these properties, old and new, went down as if they'd hit a brick wall. Et cetra. It's weird.

For Hanoi Rocks, that should have been "drummer", not "driver". He had been killed in a drunk-driving accident.

Nirvana released their "Nevermind" album in September 1991. By this point: *Hanoi Rocks broke up in the wake of a car crash that killed their driver (June 1985) *Members of Motley Crue had been in and out of rehabilitation, had gone through several rounds of lawsuits with various individuals, and had fired their manager (1987 - 1991) *Twisted Sister had officially broken up (January 1988) *Dokken broke up (March 1989) *Quiet Riot had broken up for a second time (April 1989) *Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith left the band over creative differences during "No Prayer For The Dying", which would spawn a UK #1 hit that also managed to win a Golden Raspberry (throughout 1990) *Van Halen was rifting again, with the commercial success of "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" hiding the fact that Eddie Van Halen was turning on Sammy Hagar (1990 through 1991) *Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark succumbed to his substance abuse issues (January 1991), forcing the band to hastily finish "Adrenalize" and then take two years getting a replacement up to speed *Bon Jovi was on hiatus, with Jon Bon Jovi firing the band's management, advisers, and agents (throughout 1991) *Ratt's "Detonator" album received mixed critical reaction, guitarist Robbin Crosby would be forced to enter rehab for his substance abuse issues, and the group was a year away from disbanding (1991) *Rob Halford was on his way out of Judas Priest (September 1991) *The members of Poison had just spent the last few years in and out of legal trouble due to their "party hard" lifestyle, and two years' constant touring for 1990's "Flesh and Blood" would have the band members at each others' throats (1991) *KISS, who had spent the 1980s struggling with relevance due to line-up changes and a controversial decision to take the make-up off, was dealt a critical blow with the revelation that then-drummer Eric Carr had terminal cancer; he would pass away before the end of the year (1991) Et cetra. Most of the big glam and hair bands from the 1970s and 1980s were either coming apart at the seams by 1992, had undergone significant line-up changes, or had outright broken up.

You could tell that by the time they were in the studio for this the band was pretty much in the process of collapsing. It's common for people to blame the rise of grunge for the collapse of "hair" metal and glam metal in the early 1990s, but the truth of the matter is that most of the bands who made the two genres big in the 1970s and 1980s had either collapsed under the weight of their own egos or were facing situations where they had to reinvent themselves. Grunge simply finished the job by pushing most of these groups off of the album and singles charts. Mr. Big and Nelson were the last two hair acts to go #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The fact that Axl covers *Charles Manson* doesn't help matters any. (For those who don't know, Charles Manson was a failed songwriter; this is part of what drove him over the edge. Axl Rose insisted on covering one of his songs for the album, but the remaining band members balked. So Axl went into the studio by himself, covered the song, and put it on the album as a hidden track. The audio quality is terrible, as if Axl was also trying to run the equipment at the same time he was singing and playing.)

"St. Anger" was to Metallica as "Let It Be" was to the Beatles. The band was coming apart creatively and personally, only for the de facto leader of the group to effectively browbeat everyone into coming back into the studio for another album whose recording process would be the subject of a documentary. Cue the clash of egos and everything just generally flying apart, leading to someone quitting the band. The key difference is that Hetfield was forced to admit that he had a serious problem and that neither he nor the band would get better unless he dealt with it. Thus, actually completing the album and documentary became secondary to seeking a solution for his alcoholism... which included a very painful confrontation with Dave Mustaine, who called Hetfield out for engaging in the very same behaviors that the band fired Mustaine over so long ago. Given the comparisons with "Let It Be", one can imagine a universe where Hetfield's ego swallows the band whole and destroys everything.

The issue is that younger audiences (kids, teens, and early 20s) are being bombarded with messages that are the polar opposite of the messages that members of a stable society need to hear, and so these individuals are slowly losing their moorings. Some people in power even regard their positions of power as a license to preach their personal values, including these harmful messages. That's why it's so important we make it a point to try and reach the youth with positive, helpful messages to teach them how to grow and develop.

As far as Bob Seger goes, he's a staple of classic rock stations and radio shows that focus on classic rock, such as "Ultimate Classic Rock with Uncle Joe Benson" (which airs Monday - Friday 7 PM - Midnight local on Townsquare - owned radio stations). I can recommend some free and legal apps you can use to stream radio stations if you don't have a local classic rock station, although one of them is heavily ad-driven if you don't have a subscription.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garage_Inc. In 1998, Metallica decided to assemble a compilation of the various cover songs they'd recorded and released over their career. This included their infamous "$5.98 EP" that was done to help Jason Newsted grow into the band as he had been hastily recruited in the wake of Cliff Burton's death in a tragic accident while the band was touring, a cover of Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy" done for the "Rubaiyat" album celebrating Elektra Records' 40th anniversary, and a cover of Diamondhead's "Am I Evil?" that would eclipse the original on rock radio. The group figured that such a compilation would be a way for newer fans to obtain this material since virtually all of it was considered "rarities" due to limited release, but at the same time realized that there was an off-chance older fans would already have all of these songs in some fashion. As such, "Garage" was expanded into a two-disc set, with the older material on one disk and a whole new slew of cover songs on the other disk. The liner notes discussing the process of assembling the album have the band being astonished upon first hearing the song for how close "Turn The Page" was to their own personal experiences on tour and so it was chosen to be one of the new covers despite Bob Seger being far removed from the other groups they chose to cover over the years. Although Metallica's rendition of "Turn The Page" is fairly common on rock stations, it would be the band's cover of Thin Lizzy's rendition of "Whiskey In The Jar" that would steal the show, winning the band another Grammy. Tragically, this would be the band's last release for 5 years as a result of the catastrophic circumstances leading up to their dropping "St. Anger" off a skyscraper. edit - For those wondering, Cliff Burton was killed when the band's bus went off the road. Cliff had been sleeping next to an open window without any form of seatbelt or restraint when the bus rolled. Cliff was thrown out of the window when it happened and would die of his injuries. The bus driver claimed that they'd encountered a patch of black ice, but Metallica front man James Hetfield has pretty clearly stated that he never believed this as the reason why the bus rolled.

Remember that live-action "Mulan" remake from a year or so back? It was filmed in an area *where whistle-blowers had provided video of ethnic cleansing*, and the credits for the movie thanked the government organization that is believed to have orchestrated the ethnic cleansing. That finally forced even a number of pro-China apologists to wake up.

Due to a discussion a few days ago, I've been mulling over something. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superbook Not many people know this, but in the early 1980s Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network group commissioned Japanese anime studio Tatsunoko Pro to produce three cartoons that would tell Bible stories and other Christian stories in a fashion that he hoped would make them more accessible to Japanese audiences. The "Superbook" series, part of this lot, became internationally popular back in the day, and a 2011 revival series has been going ever since. Well, back in the 2000s and early 2010s there was a trend of Protestant publishers trying to produce material in a manga and anime style to reach out to kids, including "The Manga Bible" (an illustrated collection of Bible stories) and religious-themed comics from TV writer Buzz Dixon's Real Buzz studios. This has me wondering. Could Salt Lake, or another company, use anime and manga stylings, if not commissioned materials, in a similar fashion?

In the aftermath of Covid, various online sleuths estimated that China's *actual* death toll was well into the millions; I want to say 7 - 14 million is the range most of the estimates were in. Even a country like China can't take that massive a hit to its population without some form of significant social disruption. People are also waking up to the routine and often massive human rights violations going on in China and so are trying to reduce the quantity of Chinese-made products they're purchasing to pressure companies into ceasing operations there. Hollywood has also found itself under pressure to cease pre-emptively censoring movies for Chinese audiences. Hong Kong is only "secure" because of marked police brutality, and the larger world knows this. North Korea is now a hot potato. The nation serves as a physical buffer between the West and China's borders, but the Kim regime is now so unstable that war is a constant danger. The events of the last few years are believed to be slowly rattling the foundations of the Chinese communist system, and the politicians & government-sponsored media are desperately trying to keep the word from getting out.

As of last weekend, we have street preachers here in town. They come from a local church that has a history of being a nuisance, and in fact they actually caused a small Covid scare a few years ago because they brought in a guest lecturer from two states over despite most government authorities warning people not to travel unnecessarily. For the past two Sundays they've set up at the intersection of the main highway through town and a main road, both of which are surface streets. Last weekend they were handing out Chick Tracts, which is something the church has done before. I'll occasionally find these materials on random shelves at various local stores, and warn the workers there when I do come upon any. (I just don't have it in me mentally or time-wise to catalog and debunk them like I used to.) This past weekend they had professionally-printed signs of the kind you normally see in Salt Lake City or Mesa. There were also double the number of individuals, and instead of just lingering at that one intersection they were also at a nearby intersection, a service road that supports some nearby businesses. On both occasions, they've proven brazen enough to just walk right up to anyone whose car window was rolled down and try to engage them. While the two I dealt with were professional, I'm concerned that it's only a matter of time before someone gets too bold or picks the wrong vehicle to go up to. As it is, homeless individuals frequently occupy those two intersections Monday - Saturday, and at least one local homeless individual is reportedly mentally unstable. I'm just worried these folks are taking chances they don't understand they're taking.

We went over Jeremiah chapter 1 in Sunday school yesterday. I pointed out that sometimes a person is given a calling because of what they're supposed to learn from the calling rather than what they can bring to it. Cue a bit of a panic because I was in the YSA branch and none of the younger members had considered this prospect.

https://www.ksl.com/article/50494845/a-cyber-attack-breached-some-latter-day-saint-member-data-heres-what-we-know Back in March an unknown entity - likely a state - sponsored or state - sanctioned organization - breached some of the church's systems. Law enforcement asked the church to remain silent about the matter while the investigation was ongoing, but the church has now released a statement and has begun contacting affected individuals by e-mail. Hate to say it, but Russia came to mind given the hyper-nationalistic effort to force non-"Russian" religious groups out of the country.

Best-case scenario is that they *were* considering it at one point, just like AOC was considering such a super-strict reduction in cattle-based methane as to essentially mandate a cow genocide, and someone put it on the website without actually being told to do so.

Basically, those bridges exist to help Russia exert its authority over the Crimea. That even one of the bridges has been taken down makes it harder for Russia to physically insert officials to control the region. And repairing the other would require them to maintain control of Crimea, as it would take a number of vessels and likely engineers working from both sides. Word I'm hearing is that Russian warships are wary of getting too close to shore because Ukraine has been supplied with enough anti-shipping missiles as to make any excursions a risky proposition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Yankee I know it's likely going to be hard to find a copy, but I very much recommend that people pick up and read "Team Yankee". Author Harold Coyle was a major in the United States Army at the time he wrote it, and he wrote it following a hypothetical outline of WWIII as published by General Sir John Hackett of the British Army. A *lot* of what we've been seeing happen is reflected in this book (and by extension, General Sir Hackett's outline), such as the infamously terrible Soviet supply lines being so bad that units have to rotate to the rear to resupply and the critical importance of bridges in the Soviets maintaining control over regions.

Let's just say that my plans for the next six months are all courtesy of the letters "E", "K", and "G".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_Falls,_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawton,_Oklahoma They'll probably be shifted to Prosper if there isn't a dedicated temple serving Fort Worth.

There's also the fact that we're in a bit of a recession right now and gas prices still haven't returned to where they were. It may simply be *too expensive* for people to travel right now.

Theologically speaking, I'm the functional equivalent of a "dead hand" system. If I get off the couch, not only has something gone wrong, there's a good chance it's about to get even worse before it gets better. Those who read my previous discussions of what I did to ensure that the internet was free for religious discussion understand this point. There's a reason why the branch president just lets me sit and have an ear bud in on Sundays, and why when I do speak in church people listen.

Far too many people are unaware of what's out there already, and so they either don't prepare for what's coming or go for a few generic items that people commonly envision. For example, Gossner Farms (which is headquartered in Utah) has been making shelf-stable milk products since the 1980s, but people *still* react in shock when I tell them about it - https://www.dollartree.com/drinks/milk Yes, Dollar Tree sells Gossner Farms milk products *by the quart* as well as a number of nut-based milk alternatives. What else does Dollar Tree have? https://www.dollartree.com/post-cocoa-pebbles-cereal-3oz-packs/335912 3 - ounce bags of cereal that you can re-seal. I've actually had to take the Gossner Farms milk, pour it in one of these pouches, and eat it that way. So we've got breakfast (cereal + milk), lunch (barbecue chicken sandwich), dinner (barbecue tuna sandwich), and a vegetable blitz (the refried beans) as a possible fourth meal to keep calories going. That's on top of whatever vitamins and supplements a person could have.

Since I've had a few people ask me about meals that can be made without electricity - Check the shelf-stable meats aisle of your local grocery store. There are a number of pouched meal options available nowadays, such as seasoned tuna and seasoned chicken. You can simply pop open the pouch, spread it on a sandwich, and you have protein on the go. https://www.heb.com/product-detail/starkist-chicken-creations-classic-bbq-pouch-2-6-oz/3531028 For example, you have this name-brand product, which is chicken in barbecue sauce. https://www.heb.com/product-detail/starkist-tuna-creations-honey-bbq-tuna-pouch-2-6-oz/1964757 Or there's this name-brand tuna in barbecue sauce, which I actually had for lunch earlier in order to try it out. It's not the best thing around, but it's relatively inexpensive shelf-stable protein that actually tastes pretty decent. edit - https://www.heb.com/product-detail/isadora-original-refried-beans-15-2-oz/1533976 Pouched refried beans are also a thing, so you have a vegetarian protein source as well. Again, just pop open the pouch (you're supposed to boil-in-pouch, but it's refried beans...) and spread it on bread.

The simple, if unfortunate, truth of the matter is that many of these individuals are more concerned about being "right" than they are about being correct. For one reason or another, they have invested so much of themselves into the belief that they're right & everyone else is wrong that they literally cannot comprehend the prospect of their being incorrect. This leads to a fair bit of cognitive dissonance in which they actively refuse to believe that anything that contradicts how they see the world can actually be true, and more often than not they'll just keep nay-saying rather than step aside of themselves and investigate. In extreme instances, the strain of maintaining the cognitive dissonance can become so great as to trigger a mental breakdown, especially if they find themselves having come that completely unarmed to a battle of wits. The sad, unfortunate truth is that I've debated more than a few people into full psychotic breaks over the years, as they just couldn't handle it anymore. Thus, the best response is to simply keep it cordial. Explain what you personally believe and personally know. Do not escalate. If they seek to escalate, don't be afraid to ask a third party to intervene if you feel that the situation is getting out of hand.

Name a drug. If Hitler didn't smoke it, someone in his inner circle did. Substance abuse was *that* rampant in the German high command during WWII, and they often gave it to various soldiers, sailors, and pilots as well.