music

Happy birthday to Lou Reed, today would have been his 78th bithday…

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Lou Reed definitely was one of the most misunderstood and controversial musicians of all time and that’s one of the reasons why I loved him as a musician and songwriter. Whether you loved him or hate him, you’ll have to admit that he definitely was one of the most prolific musicians ever. As long as he was alive back in the day,  he kept himself busy with music until he died.

His final musical project was that album he did Metallica, the double album “Lulu”. Obviously, that album sparked a lot of controversy and outrage in the music industry. It also had mixed criticism… some loved it and many hated it. If you think “Lulu” pissed a lot of people off, Lou is no stranger in pissing people off with his music ’cause he already did piss a lot of people off years ago when he released “Metal Machine Music” (released in 1975). That album sparked a lot of controversy ’cause it had no songs on it… the album had nothing but noise from Lou’s guitar and amp.

People thought Lou wasn’t the greatest singer in the world but I thought he was. I thought he had a great voice. He wasn’t perfect but you don’t have to have the greatest singing voice in the world if you want to play music and Lou proved that.

People thought he was a jerk over the years ’cause of his interviews but I never thought he was. He was just an honest man and he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind in interviews, it didn’t matter if it offended people. He just liked to speak his mind just like he does in his songs.

As a music artist, one thing I respected the hell out of him for was that Lou never played his songs the same way twice at his live performances. Listen to his live albums for proof of that and watch his live performances on youtube. He was never one to play songs the same way that was recorded on the studio album. There were too many versions of “Sweet Jane”, too many versions of “I’ll Be Your Mirror” and he played “A Perfect Day” differently every time as well.

Lou was never afraid to take big risks in his music and that’s another reason I respected him so much for. He just did what he wanted to do and didn’t care whether people liked it or not.

Most everyone hated that “Lulu” record he did with Metallica but I thought it was a beautiful album, I really did. It was different and totally original. I think years from now, everyone will come around and give that album more respect  like it deserves.

Lou was a genius and I’m a huge fan. Happy birthday Lou and RIP.

Kev

AEW wrestling

Watched AEW “Revolution” ppv last night, it was really good… enjoyed every match…

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Ya know, I’ve been watching AEW wrestling ever since they started… their very first show was “Double or Nothing” which took place inn May of 2019. I’ve watched every AEW ppv ever since and since AEW been doing their Wednesday night TV shows “Dynamite”, I haven’t missed a single episode of that either. AEW is good stuff, I really respect and admire what they’re doing. When it comes to wrestling wars between two companies: AEW and WWE, I’m not on one side to tell you the truth. I love both companies and will continue to support both simply because I love professional wrestling. Just love watching it.

I’m not gonna lie, though, that AEW is definitely way better than WWE. AEW gives us things that WWE don’t do anymore  and AEW gives us good wrestling which is what WWE has been missing for many years. That’s why fans watch these shows ’cause they want to see good wrestling.

AEW “Revolution” had a good card, great booking but I would say the best matches of that night were Kenny Omega/Adam Page vs. The Young Bucks- AEW Tag Team Championship match, Cody Rhodes vs. MJF and of course, Jericho vs. Moxley for the AEW Championship.

I’m usually never surprised at championship matches when it comes to wrestling ’cause they’re usually pretty predictable. I kept predicting that Jericho was gonna win and retain the AEW championship but when Jericho lost the title to Moxley, that one actually shocked the hell out of me. Jericho had the title for a long while now and I didn’t think he would drop it this early.

The Cody vs. MJF feud is getting interesting. I never liked Cody Rhodes (who is the real life son of wrestling legend Dustry Rhodes) at first but I think I’m a huge fan of Cody now. I’m realizing now that Cody is one talented guy.

Even though Nyla Rose is the first transgender woman in wrestling, I thought she had a great wrestling match against Kris Statlander. That was some great wrestling. There are a lot of complaints of Nyla being the champ since she’s transgender but ya know, you can’t help but think that she’s a great wrestler and a great talent. I’m not gonna lie that I don’t like the transgender lifestyle but Nyla Rose is an interesting talent, anyway.

AEW getting better and better with their live shows. They had a lot of problems in the beginning but as time goes along, they keep improving and improving. I thought “Revolution” was one of their best shows and entertaining as hell. Definitely different than what WWE is doing . AEW is a great company and I hope they stick around for years and years. Hopefully they don’t ever go defunct like WCW and TNA-Impact did. It’s pretty likely that AEW will be around for a long long time ’cause they’re doing well and getting success quickly. They are beating WWE in the ratings right now and they continue to do so.

Congrats to Tony Khan on a job well done. That man definitely knows what he’s doing running a wrestling business and hope he keeps up the great work.

Kev

 

Health and Fitness

Example of people benching with their butt coming off the bench during their training sessions…

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Seriously, why has the “butt coming off the bench” during bench training been accepted by the public? It’s pissing me off really. This is an example of what I’m talking about. People who bench try to go for a pr and then they call it a “pr” when the butt comes off the bench. I’m still standing by my opinion that when you bench for a “pr” and your butt comes off, no lift. Period. End of story. It’s not a “personal record” ’cause the butt coming off the bench is clearly cheating. Plus to me, it looks dangerous and you’re asking for a bad bench press accident sooner or later.

Not only has this been accepted by the public now, it has also been accepted by the powerlifting industry and it’s a shame that “usapowerlifting” re-sharing it on their instagram accounts. Are they encouraging it now? The butt coming off bench maybe illegal during competition but I wouldn’t be surprised they’ll make it legal someday in the future in the usapl.

How much do you want to bet that this lady in this video won’t be able bench 275 if her butt hadn’t came off the bench?

This is becoming more and more common and becoming more accepted. Once in a while, someone calls them out for lifting the butt off but other people wouldn’t care or would help try and defend the lifter for doing it. Other people become defensive when called out for it.

Powerlifting may seem fun and addictive yes but one thing to keep in mind, you’re going to be surrounded by a bunch of huge egos. It is said that powerlifters are humble and down to earth but not from what I’m seeing. You’ll see so many powerlifters who are full of themselves who are too desperate to lift more weight and they’ll do anything it takes that it didn’t matter if it kills themselves doing it. They lift the butt off ’cause it helps them lift more weight.

There is nothing wrong with lifting weights you can handle and makes you comfortable. You don’t have to shoot for 1 rep maxes all the freakin’ time.

Kev

Health and Fitness

Still got that left leg injury but going to physical therapy for it next week…

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For the past two weeks, I’ve been trying to get back to doing lower body work but I’ve been trying to get back into it lightly and carefully since I still got that left leg injury. I went to the doctor last Thursday afternoon and the left leg injury is not that serious thankfully. The doctor said the injury would be healed in two to four weeks easily. So thankfully I won’t be needing surgery on this left leg… that’s definitely a big sigh of relief for sure.

The doctor recommended that I go to Physical Therapy and I will do that next week. So back to no lower body lifting at all. I want the injury gone completely and gone forever so I can go back to my powerlifting training for the lower body. It’s holding back my powerlifting training and it’s not good.

I also want the left leg injury gone so I can feel good walking and standing for a long time ’cause I shouldn’t be feeling that.

I took a couple of months off of no longer body lifting hoping it will heal on its own but since it didn’t, I could no longer ignore it and finally decided to see a doctor about it. Glad he recommended Physical Therapy. Physical Therapists are smart and they know their stuff. They can probably fix me up real fast and the injury will be gone quick before you know it hopefully.

I want to get back to big deadlifting ’cause I love deadlifting. Doing deadlifts is my favorite lift and workout of them all. This injury is holding back my deadlift numbers but thankfully, I haven’t lost any deadlift strength. Just last week, I smashed an easy 280 lb. single so I believe I still have the 300 lb. deadlift pr. Haven’t lost it at all and still got it. If you take time off due to an injury you won’t lose strength right away so nothing to worry about.

I’ll get back to big deadlifting very soon, hopefully in March. I need to get back to serious squatting so I can improve my numbers on that too. I want to get back to strength training for powerlifting but gotta get rid of this leg injury.

I’ve gotten back into heavy bench pressing again ’cause my upper body is all good. I’m pretty clear of injuries on the upper body so for now I’ll just do upper body work in the gym only for the time being. I haven’t lost bench strength either as I still got that too.

Soon I’ll get back into deadlifting and squatting again, very soon.

Kev

TV

Gonna sign up for more streaming services for my smart TV real soon…

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I’m keeping Netflix and WWE Network but I’m gonna sign up for more streaming services for my Smart TV. I’m probably gonna end up going for that Three bundle deal… the Hulu, Disney+ and Espn+ bundle for $12.99. And I’m also thinking about signing up for CBS All Access which will be $5.99 which isn’t bad. If I’m going to go for these, I’m going to downgrade a Netflix plan so all of this would be more affordable, I think.

The reason I’m signing up for more streaming services is ’cause I might get rid of my cable box and plus, Smart TV is a TV for streaming so might as well have fun and use it, right?

I thought about getting HBO NOW streaming service but the only reason I would want that service for is for the Sopranos only ’cause I love that show. I don’t really need HBO NOW anymore ’cause I can watch the Sopranos by buying the series for Google Play which I will start doing soon. So I don’t need HBO NOW, fuck it.

So I’ve decided I’m gonna go for Hulu instead. Just something different…

As for Disney+, I want to get it so I can finally start watching “The Mandolorian” like everyone else ’cause I’m dying to see that show myself with me being a huge Star Wars nerd. Plus I want to get Disney+ to see all the Marvel films I haven’t seen before and to watch all the Disney classic animated films which I’m sure are all on there. I’ll be able to watch all the Toy Story movies too.

As for why I would like to get ESPN+ plus, well to get back into watching UFC ppvs on there. I love UFC but I stopped watching UFC ppvs ’cause they’re so expensive. I’d like to get back into UFC ’cause I’m a huge MMA fan myself. Love that sport. I only want ESPN for UFC and that’s it.

As for CBS All Access, I’m only getting that for the new Star Trek: Discovery show and for Star Trek: Picard since I’m a Star Trek nerd as well. Not sure if I’ll get CBS All Access, just thinking about it.

Now, I’m not much of a TV junkie like some would think. I don’t watch TV during the day. All my TV watching is mostly in the evenings and nights. I would rather spend most of my day playing my guitar and working out in the gym, that’s what I mostly spend my time doing. I watch TV at night as a way to relax from the day and nothing more.

I don’t watch much regular TV anyway ’cause I think cable TV is garbage… streaming services is the way to go, in my opinion.

Kev

 

Health and Fitness

Tnation article: 6 Gym villains you love to hate…

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Earlier today, I just read this entertaining T-nation article and it’s a good read. I agree with it all and have seen it all at public gyms over the years. Yeah, going to a public gym maybe a lot of fun and you go there to have fun and get a good workout in but sometimes the gym makes you want to hate people… seriously.

For those who are too lazy to read articles but read titles only… here are the 6 Gym Villains this article wrote about…:

  1. Fake MMA Guy
  2. Locker Room Selfie Guy
  3. Weight-belt fashion statement guy
  4. Half Repping Noisy Guy
  5. The Talker
  6. Girl Who Doesn’t Want Attention But Really Does

https://www.t-nation.com/opinion/6-gym-villains-you-love-to-hate?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article8746&fbclid=IwAR3oiaDmMya9hB_uyiiu-cR32QgZk496Pyb5W4W3JB4c58pfwj-ImzqvYYY

Yup, I have seen it all except… I am guilty at taking locker room selfies of myself before but I try not to do it too much. I don’t think I’ll do it anymore.

As for the fake MMA guy goes, you see it all the time… this guy who uses a commercial gym instead of a more appropriate MMA styled gym which are all over America. The same goes for boxers too, they don’t need to be using a public gym to go all over the place. I’ve seen fake MMA fighters/boxers shadowboxing with dumbbells before and it’s funny. I’ve also seen fake fighters fighting by himself in front of a mirror a lot. It’s funny to see really. They also do all these weird workouts like bench steppers, arm band stuff, box jumping and all that crap. Really? Go find a boxing gym to do all that stuff with ’cause they are all over the place. Now that MMA is legal in NY State, I’m sure there are MMA schools all over.

As for the weightbelt wearing guy, I’ve seen other guys wear that for every workout. It’s okay to wear a weightbelt for deadlifting and squatting, yes but wearing a belt throughout the day? Lmao!!!!

As for the Half-Repping Noisy Guy, I’ve seen that all the time as well. I’ve seen meatheads trying to lift heavy weights with half-assed range of motion and they’re grunting and sometimes screaming. It’s a big problem at the gym I go to, I see it all the time, it’s laughable.

The Talker pisses me off too… at every gym you go to there will always be this chatty person who talks to everybody and they will talk to each other for hours and hours between their sets. Not good for the body and muscles. When I go to the gym, I’m always listening to music with earphones on so I can give people a hint to leave me alone but of course, someone always tries to chat me up. It’s freakin’ annoying.

Now the girl who doesn’t want attention but really does, yes, that is a problem with women absolutely. Women pretend to not want attention at gyms by wearing a ballcap pull down to cover their face, listening to music to give men a hint to leave them alone but their gym attire sometimes, though… they wear things that show too much skin and even cleavage… when in-shape women look like this you can’t help but check her out and I’m guilty of this sometimes… checking out the good looking women with toned bodies…. how can you not want to look away? Of course they want attention with the guys, don’t let ’em fool ya’.

I thought this was a great article and thought I would share.

Kev

music

Dee Snider hints that new Ac/Dc album will feature some “jaw-dropping” surprises… but refuses to say what…

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While campaigning heavily to get Ac/Dc to perform the Superbowl Halftime show for next year’s Superbowl game, Dee Snider reveals some more stuff about Ac/Dc being in the studio for a new album. There has been a huge debate on whether or not Ac/Dc are in the studio recording a new album but there has been pics leaked to the internet of the band at the studio and that’s when it sparked speculation that the band is recording a new album… Dee Snider finally confirms the news that the band is working on their new album. Their next album will be considered their 18th album in their career.

Dee hints that the band will feature the original lineup… we all know that Brian Johnson and Angus Young are still in, of course but what about the other members? Malcolm’s nephew Stevie Young will probably handle rhythm guitar on the new album, but what about bass and drums? Cliff Williams announced retirement from the band not too long ago but does that mean Cliff is back? Phil Rudd the drummer had some legal problems in his life and it looks like he’s back in the band too.

Dee says there will be some more “jaw dropping” surprises but who knows what. I’m predicting Axl Rose will be involved in the new album in some way. Axl took over Brian Johnson on the tour for a long while in Ac/dc but maybe Axl will sing lead vocals for a song or two on the new Ac/Dc album, that could be a huge possibility and I can see it happening for sure. The other guys in Ac/Dc enjoyed Axl’s work on the tour that they believe he should be involved in the new record.

Maybe some past members that are still alive will be back as well like Mark Evans and Tony Currenti.

https://www.loudersound.com/news/dee-snider-new-acdc-album-will-feature-jaw-dropping-surprises

Some may ask what will the new album sound like? It’ll sound like the same old Ac/Dc. I know there are a lot of legendary bands out there who will sound different every album but Ac/Dc never did that. They never changed their sound and style for every album. They’ll probably sound the same for this album too. Ya know, the same old rock n’ roll sound you’re used to hearing by them… the same old up beat rock n’ roll that you can dance to, bang your head to and sing along to. The same old simplistic rhythm playing and Brian’s screaming vocals like usual. No different but looking forward to the new record and hope we see a new Ac/Dc album this year.

I love the band so much. They’re one of my favorites. I’m trying to collect their entire album discography too, btw.

Kev

movies

Spielberg no longer directing Indy 5 but what’s the real reason???

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In my opinion, this is bad and I think Steve is making a huge mistake. I remember that Spielberg, Lucas and Ford has been talking about doing Indy 5 ever since the 4th one, “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”… but since Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney this means Disney owns Lucasfilm now. Therefor, it also means that Disney owns the Indy franchise.

There could be many reasons why Spielberg is no longer interested… maybe the script having problems still and he isn’t 100% with it yet… either that or he doesn’t feel comfortable without George being around ’cause George was in charge of the story for the first 4 films. It could be any reason. Maybe he feels he doesn’t have what it takes to direct an Indy film anymore.

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/steven-spielberg-indiana-jones-5-james-mangold-harrison-ford-1203515698/?fbclid=IwAR3N35UfyQBjY1IrcndOfDxZ7ZLOaVeoDjxpRjjjisVgHJoumocoAAHTXno

Anyhow, I think Indy 5 is gonna flop in the box office pretty badly now that Spielberg is out. In my opinion, no other director but Spielberg directs the Indy movies. Replacing a director for the Indy films is a joke really. Indy is Spielberg’s baby.

A different director takes over, there’s gonna be a different style and no other director will be able to match Spielberg’s style of directing ’cause every director is different.

And also, they better make this movie soon ’cause the longer they wait, the older Harrison gets ’cause that man is getting older. I know these guys want to take their time with the script but Harrison’s age… he’s 77 now.

I’m a huge Indiana Jones fan… love them all even the 4th one “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” but “Raiders of the Lost Ark” will always be the best one of the series. “Raiders” is a classic and an essential.

I hope Indy 5 will be good and it’ll probably end up being a passing of the torch kind of story. I hope they don’t do the “sci-fi” thing next time, though.

Kev

WWE

Ric Flair celebrates his 71st birthday today… WOOOOooooo!!!

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RicFlair.jpg

Ric Flair, legendary wrestler celebrates his 71st birthday today. Yeah, the man definitely had a lot of problems over the years like his struggle with alcoholism, relationships with women, dealt with the death of his son Reid Flair and all kinds of things as he has confessed in his book that he wrote with Charlotte, “Second Nature”… which is his only tell-all book pretty much. Anyway, no matter what you think of Ric love him or hate him, he is a wrestling legend.

Other than Hulk Hogan, Macho Man and Andre The Giant being a few of the biggest names in pro wrestling history… Ric Flair is right up there with them. I mean, Ric is a guy who worked for every professional wrestling company you can think of. He worked for old school WWF, then he worked for WCW for many years, then he returned to WWE later on… he also worked for TNA Impact for a long while.

In the early days, though, Ric started out wrestling in the AWA and he wrestled in Japan for a lot of years too. He worked for Jim Crockett’s “World Championship Wrestling” before it became Ted Turner’s “WCW” later on. Ric worked for the NWA in the 80’s before making his way into the old WWF in 1991.

Ric Flair’s entire life was based on wrestling… that was all he ever did and all he ever knew. That was the only thing that he made a living on pretty much… he made his money through wrestling over the years. Ric definitely loved wrestling ’cause he kept at it until Vince forced him to retire in 2008 where he had his last wrestling match against Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 24. Ric never wrestled again after that.

Why did Ric retire from wrestling? Well his age for starters and his body probably couldn’t take it anymore, plus he had some big health scares not too long ago so he would probably never wrestle in a ring ever again. He still does make WWE appearances occasionally, though.

Ric is the one who started the Four Horsemen group which is the biggest wrestling faction of all time… the original Four Horsemen with Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and JJ Dillon. The Horsemen group started in the NWA and then went on to WCW with different members.

Ric is a legendary wrestler who is a 16 time world champion… and he had many classic matches that we’ll never forget and he had some pretty excellent feuds. He had many great matches with Ricky Steamboat.

I got to see Ric Flair wrestle live in person… it was at the Royal Rumble 1992 ppv in Albany NY when it used to be called “The Knickerbocker Arena”. Yeah, I got the opportunity to witness Ric Flair winning his first world title that night and it was an amazing night and probably the best Royal Rumble and I was glad I got to see it live. I didn’t get very good seats, though, I remember sitting at the very top of the arena but I could still see the ring pretty good. It’s definitely one of the best Rumble’s in the history of wrestling for sure.

Ric is one of my all time favorite wrestlers other than Hulk Hogan, the Warrior, Owen Hart, Sting and Randy Savage. Ric was the best.

Even though Ric is a retired wrestler now, he still finds ways to stay involved in the business like make occasional appearances in WWE, I know Ric had his own podcast show for a little while, he still does autograph signings sometimes and things like that. He still has pretty strong passion for the business even though he doesn’t wrestle anymore.

Happy birthday, Ric and I’m sure he’s enjoying it with his family and friends. Wooooo….

Kev

Random/off topic posts

Think I’m capable of writing some pretty cool hard rock and metal riffs, been messing around with that stuff…

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For the past couple of months or so, I’ve really been studying and practicing on how to become more of a hard rock and metal musician. That’s the kind of musician I’ve always been to be honest with you and it is the whole reason why I picked up the guitar to begin with ’cause I wanted to play hard rock/metal like all my favorite bands that I grew up listening to.

I’ve been playing along with a metronome a lot lately… just messing around and noodling… making my own hard rock and metal riffs and I realize I seem to be doing fine. When I make hard rock and metal riffs, I do more than just power chords… there will be lead fills and lots of intervals too… and of course, lots of full chords as well. Been practicing my rhythm chops even more and experimenting with syncopated rhythms so I can make my riffs sound even more interesting.

I’ve been trying to build up my speed with my rhythm playing ’cause if you want to play hard rock and metal gotta play fast rhythm guitar and I’m working on that. Yeah, I would like to make a hard rock/metal/prog type of album someday in the future and it’s being planned in the early stages right now.

I think this week, I’m gonna plug in the electric guitar so I can see if I can come up with riffs with a distortion or an overdrive pedal.

I’ve always wanted to make full band rock music and it’s going to happen at some point. Will I make the full band tracks MIDI? Not sure yet. I’m thinking about looking for real human musicians to collaborate with ’cause I think that will be awesome. Find out if there will be bass players and drummers willing to work with me. Just swap mp3’s through e-mail and do it that way. Do it as an online collaboration kind of thing, ya know?

I’m dying to make my first metal/prog album. I’m thinking a lot of it would be heavy rock and some of it will be pretty mellow/slow. Just think of Opeth and Dream Theater. I think I’m capable of making that kind of music… ya know, that proggy/metal kind of stuff you’re hearing a lot nowadays.

I’ve been playing a lot more guitar than ever ’cause it’s all I mostly do pretty much. Always looking to improve. Making rock and metal riffs isn’t really that hard… just gotta know your theory, your scales and have good rhythm chops then you should be all set.

Kev

The Official Music Website of Kevin Brock – Brocking N' Rolling