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THE OBSERVATORY - ENTRY # 0059: CURTAIN CALL

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by MRAM
August 29, 2010

44 years ago tonight on a Summer night inside a baseball stadium in San Francisco, four legends decided that enough was enough.

From the time they burst onto the worldwide scene in February 1964, this group of youths from Liverpool, England had been working day in and out, creating new material, participating in the obligatory mindless interviews and inane photo shoots and more importantly...touring.

Not that this 'Fab Four' didn't have fun in those early times. Who wouldn't, with the fame, money and fan adulation?

But, as with all bad relationships, the bad times started outweighing the good.

Recognize that there were no "Roadies" back then. The group had to pretty much lug their own equipment around from venue to venue. Of course they had one or two friends help them. That's 1 & 2 as opposed to a at least 50 which are used by bands today.

That would be fine if this 'little band' was touring small clubs in a few nearby cities and such. But no, they were doing stadiums and arenas WORLDWIDE.

Man, I get tired just lugging my suitcase to Las Vegas!

Now just imagine dragging multiple guitars, drums and amplifiers to Australia by way of Germany!

Performing a quick 10 song, 20-minute set to a crowd that could not even hear them perform over the roar of 45, 000 plus at times finally took its toll.

It's like working in a bell factory. After a while, you just don't hear the bells anymore.

They were tired and the fun most likely died a long time ago during a gig in some country on one of their world tours, which by the way they did 2 a year for 4 years. Bands today go on a world tour once every other year to put things in perspective.

Factor in that they could not leave their hotel rooms due to lack of security and absence of personal bodyguards during that particular time. Imagine going from city to city, country to country and just performing to screaming fanatics that can't tell that you've forgotten the lyrics to your own songs or that you had missed numerous chord changes. Then picture going back to your hotel room and doing it all over again for the next few weeks or months?

All that glitters isn't gold, People.

They were stuck in the proverbial rut and there was only one thing to do. The only thing they could do.
Stop.

One of the few positives that came from being trapped in their existence during this time was that their new material was being fine tuned and curious experimentation both professionally, musically and socially (ahem) paved the way to what may have been their finest work.

They had now moved on from the arenas to the studios full time and never looked back.

44 years ago tonight on a Summer night inside a baseball stadium in San Francisco, four legends decided that enough was indeed...

enough.

THE OBSERVATORY - ENTRY # 0058: MINDLESS BUYERS

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by duvalia
August 22, 2010


Companies know how to sell their products. And we know they know how and yet we still buy their products.

For instance, the original Star Wars trilogy has been released and re-released countless number of times. Oh, it’s on DVD now? Must buy! It’s been digitially remastered? Must buy! It’s has changed scenes and added commentary? Must buy!

The introduction of Blu Ray has already started a mass rebuying of things.

Introducing Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete. The exact same movie as FFVII:AC but on Blu-Ray and thirty minutes of extra footage. And I bought it anyway.

Street Fighter IV… one of the biggest games when it came out. Amazingly improved graphics with 23 characters at your disposal, Cammy, Chun-Li, Vega, M.Bison… just to name a few. Then less than a year later Super Street Fighter IV comes out. With 10 new characters and new modes to play. And we buy it anyway!

I’m not saying we’re stupid for buying the new product with additional content. Just that these companies and advertisers really know how to do their job.

THE OBSERVATORY - ENTRY # 0057: DEAD...AND ALIVE.

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by duvalia
August 8, 2010


Screw the sensuality of a beautiful woman having her blood drained by her mysterious unknown visitor and those two measly little marks left on her neck after he‘s finished with his meal. It’s all about the blood spattering aftermath of a zombie sinking its teeth into your flesh and tearing out your innards!

Okay, so maybe zombies are just as old a subject as vampires, but blasting your way through hordes of vampires doesn’t sound as fun (though I’m sure some of you may disagree if you have something against those sparkly ones that seem to be so popular nowadays).

While there are some variations in the way people portray the blood sucking undead, those changes never really stray away from what’s been done before. The slight differences range from how sunlight/water/garlic/etc affects vampires to some ‘power’ they might possess.

However, the brain eating undead may have an unfair advantage as ‘the infected’ seems to have become synonymous with ‘zombies’ thus creating a broader range of possibilities. You can have the T-Virus infected from the Resident Evil series, the exceptionally infected beings from the Left 4 Dead series or the simple pole vaulting zombies of Plants versus Zombies.

And then you have zombie movie quotes like “Are you a fighter, Fish Queen, or zombie food?"

Hmm... Maybe vampires do win this round.