A Japanese-Jazz-Fusion Throwback Gift!

The other day I was talking to a co-worker about some of the lite-jazz music I liked and mentioned liking Hiroshima's "East" album back in the day. He said, 'You Like Hiroshima? I got something for you!" The next morning I come to work and he presents me with this stunning gift: A copy of Hiroshima's first album signed by all the members of the band!! WHOAAA!

Seems his Mother was friends with one of the women in the band (he has long since forgotten who) and she'd gotten the copy of the signed album then! It had since then been passed on to him, but as he didn't know Hiroshima much, it mostly sat in a box along with all of his other old LPS.

I, of course, begged off accepting such a grand gesture, only telling him i wanted to take pics of it, but he insisted, knowing it would be in possession of someone who really cherished it!

Ahhh, time to break out that album and give it a spin!!!

PS: I was so excited when he gave me the LP and showed it proudly to everyone, but all my other co-workers had no IDEA who Hiroshima was until I said, "They're the ones who did the "Hawaiian Electric" song, and then they all went "OH YEAHHHH!!!!"   So funny to think that  an innovative Jazz band with such a long career and catalog is only known by most people for that one song!

The Beatles "Get Back"

 

Just wrapped up the Peter Jackson Docuseries "Get Back" and though I liked Jackson's take on the original Michael Lindsay-Hogg Let It Be Footage a lot, I cannot conceive of a casual Beatles fan getting into this show!

I would say that you had to at LEAST know most of the songs and lore of the Beatles for most of this stuff to have any real meaning or interest... I mean, "I've Got A Feeling" and "Don't Let Me Down" are some of my favorite songs from the Beatles but even I was  getting tired of hearing it rehearsed for the umpteenth time over 8 hrs, LOL!

Still, LOTS of treasure in here, LOTS of insight into the inner workings of the band and a great many revelations about some of the songs, especially ones that became tracks on their subsequent solo releases after the band broke up that I had No IDEA started off as Beatles songs!

As someone who always had a bad feeling after watching Let It Be, it was nice to see a bigger picture that showed that there was more than the dark parts of this moment in their lives, and wrapped up on a positively POSITIVE note to boot!!!

And just think, even at this seemingly "low" point in their careers, "Abbey Road" was still to come !!!

A Ghostly Halloween Coincidence

As some of you may know, I've been a huge, huge fan of October Project since first hearing their debut album back in 1993. I had strolled into Tower Records one night and perused the Listening station to check out some new music. As a big enthusiast of Halloween and all its spooky fun, the cover of October Project's debut album instantly caught my eye with its almost archaic looking photo of a little jack-o-lantern faced ghost on the side of a road, Trick Or Treating at dusk...

That piqued my interest enough to give the album a listen, and it just took one minute of lead singer mary's Fahl's haunting vocals and I snatched that album up and they'd go on to be one of my most enduring favorites.In fact, Mary Fah STILL retains a high place as one of my favorite artists even now!

The cover of that October Project album always looked like one of the shady tree-lined back roads of Manoa to me, especially this one stretch of road which I always thought of when listening to them: I tried to make it easier for you to see what I mean by changing the color to the image to sepia and croppin it a bit...can you see the vibe I mean?

In any case, I ALWAYS got an October Project vibe driving through the groves of that street.

So a few nights ago, I'm driving down that long stretch of road, and looking up the road, I see this little blob glowing in the dark...

What WAS that? Getting closer to the yard,  I have to laugh out loud because it was a little GHOST, and right near the place where I'd always imagined that jack o lanterned trick or treater to be!

This had to be the most WONDERFUL coincidence ever! I tell you, it tickled me Halloween heart! And now, every evening I go home, I try to drive by that yard, just to see the ghost while it's still up!! Happy Halloween, everybody!

More Misheard Lyrics: " I Got A Dollar Bill"

 
BACK in around 1993 or so, a friend made a mix tape of some punk/alternative bands with some really cool music on there! The only problem was he had not bothered to list the artists or titles of the songs on the cassette card, and the only way I could refer to the songs was by the chorus refrains, etc.

There was a particularly catchy song which I really liked about a guy I presumed (through my mishearing ears) was low on cash as he sang about only having a buck to his name. The next time I saw my friend a few weeks later I said, "Who sings that song I Got A Dollar Bill?". To which he gave me an odd look and said "I Got a Dollar Bill?" I don't know any song like that.

I said, "Sure you do!", and then sang it to him. He shook his head in disbelief and said, "What? He's not saying I Got a Dollar Bill!"

The band in question was the groovy group the Hoodoo Gurus (whom I'd already loved for their awesome song "Like Wow~ Wipeout!"), the song was called "My Girl"...and the line that I THOUGHT was singing "I Got a Dollar Bill" was actually "My Girl Don't Love Me at All"!

WHHAAAAT! I was flabbergasted to find that I'd gotten the lyrics so wrong! So...this song ain't about a broke guy- Just a broken-hearted one! Nonetheless, a very catchy song and one which I still love to this day...though I can't get those original lyrics out of my head!

Outcast, Vol.8: The Merged

 
Though I was worried that OUTCAST was going to turn into another Walking Dead Rick Grimes "troubled anti-leader forced to lead ragtag team in the face of the apocalypse"  type, it  stayed grounded enough and brought the series in for a satisfying landing.

Knew they wouldn't let Kyle off with a happy ending without some kind of buzzkill, and yep, they HAD to mar it somehow, but still, a great series.

Scarlet Witch Service for the Comic Fans

 Though it's played for laughs,ya gotta admit that Elizabeth Olsen looked simply SENSATIONAL dressed in the comicbook version of her Scarlet Witch costume in this past week's episode of "WandaVision"!

Merry Christmas!

 

Haha, the look of absolute dread on his face in the panel where Lucy is threatening Linus!

Gecko Books Closes Its Doors

 The end of an era, Gecko Books in Kaimuki shuttered its doors this past month.

Gecko's was a mainstay throughout the whole comic-book boom in the 80's and 90's and we spent so much time there!

Really won't be another place like it!

The Who at Woodstock: The Killing Of A Sacred Guitar

 Never has another guitar been given such a poignant death! The gripping show closer for The Who's explosive set at the infamous Woodstock Festival...

 PS: LEgend has it that some poor roadie had to go down into the audience and RETRIEVE the guitar afterwards! Not a job I would hae envied!

My Saiorse Ronan Checklist Updated

I think it's funny how much I love, love, LOVE Irish American Actress Saiorse Ronan and all her works- the first time I saw her in ATONEMENT, I HATED her character SO MUCH that I never wanted to see her face again!!!

But then, years later when re-introduced to her through the Peter Jackson movie THE LOVELY BONES, I found myself quite captivated by her and after that, with each new movie release from her, I've only loved her more and MORE!

More Misheard Lyrics: “Green Air, Now”

 In the era of environmentally conscious efforts all over the world to make the world’s ecosystem clean and nature-friendly, there must be a ton of compaines and agencies calling themselves “Green Air” but when I was a kid, the term Green Air only meant one thing: The refrain to the latest Fleetwood Mac stop 40 single!

The song in question was the Stevie Nicks penned (strange how so many of her songs are featured in my Misheard Lyrics posts) tune “Rhiannon”, which, for SOME reason, instead of the title refrain, my ears heard them drawling ‘Green Aiiiiiiiiir- NOW!”

Later when I learned they were saying Rhiannon, I tried to justify my confusion by saying, “But listen, it really sounds liek they’re saying Green Air!” to which my friend Larry listened for a second and exclaimed, “Oh YEAH!” then, “no.” D’OH

Snotgirl, Vol.3: Is This Real Life?

 Gave up picking up regular floppies of Snotgirl some time ago and switched to waiting for trades. But after this Vol. 3 came out, the series itself seemed to fade off into oblivion.

Not that it matters much, but is this still ongoing?

Peanuts Puzzles!

Back in the day used to go to Walrich and use my allowance to buy these Peanuts Puzzles, this one was my favorite!

Just Star Wars Stuff...

All my original Star Wars action figures are put away in a container in my bedroom closet. All the 'later" movie figures I just stood on the top of a bookshelf... one night, looking at it lit by lamp, they looked kinda cool so I took this pic....

East of West: Complete Run

Back in July of 2016 I had made a trip down to my local used bookstore, and there on the shelves were copies of East Of West trades 1 and 4. I had been lookin for something new to read and so, taking a chance, I grabbed Vol.1 with a plan to purchase the rest of them if the first book grabbed me.

Well to say it grabbed me was an understatement- besides the beautiful art was an intriguing storyline and compelling characters involving an alternate world where the United States was broken up into different factions about to go to war even as the Apocalypse looms. Throw in the rebirth of the Four Horsemen: Death, War Conquest and Famine once again walking the earth, and you had the makings of a MAJOR modern Sci-Fi/fantasy EPIC!

Reading that first book, it was time to get all the rest of the volumes! At the time, East Of West was at Vol.5 of the series , so after running back to the bookstore to grab Vol.4, I went to Amazon and put in an order for Volumes 2, 3 and 5!!

Reading the series from Book One to Book Five, I was completely floored at how good this series was. The promise made at the beginning of the series was fully met, with the story getting more and more intricate even as we got to know the characters better and better!

Image Comics has a history of uneven and even delayed releases and I was often disappointed to learn that a book I was expecting to get would be delayed for weeks and even months at a time! I was not a buyer of the individual ,single issues, preferring to wait for collections, so these stretches of waiting was agony, and you can see by my posts how erratic the releases were:

Vol. 6 October 2016

Vol. 7 September 2017 (almost a whole YEAR waiting!)

Vol. 8  August 2018

Vol. 9 May 2019

But I couldn’t complain because very time I got my hands on the next book, I was in seventh heaven! It seemed like it was just going to get better and better!

Finally in July of last year it was announced that East of West was going to be wrapping things up and the next three issues would be its last! The series concluded in December of last year, but the final trade paperback of Vol.10 would not be released until May of 2020.

Oh MAN, that was almost another whole YEAR of waiting, but I told myself to be patient.

Then Coronavirus hit and suddenly things were up in the air. Diamond Distributors was putting all its deliveries on hold and closing shop. And with that, most COMIC STORES began shuttering as well! We were assuaged that this would be a temporary step and once the pandemic died down, things would be up and running.

Well, I could only hope that that was true, in the meantime, however, my main thought was “WHAT ABOUT THAT LAST VOLUME!!!” And so, in the end, i just went on to ebay and, for a very reasonable price, BOUGHT the last three issues!

Well. those babies came in just a few days ago and, with them in hand, I went back and, starting from Volume One, read ALL the way through to East of West’s final, magnificent, climactic issue!!

HOLY HELL, this series is one of the most AWESOME series I’ve READ!!!! By the time I was getting down to the last chapter, i was reading each page as slowly as I could to prolong the excitement in my heart, and as the characters went through the confrontation, the final wars and the sombre conclusion I was exhausted!

‘This was a freakin’ MASTERPIECE!!!

PS: East of West’s collected volumes don’t have anything in the way of bonus material like most other series do, still, when that last volume DOES come out, I’m STILL going to have to get it, if only to complete my set!!!

It has been one HELL of a ride!!!