#Manchester Memorial Hockey

[povlnfour]

ੈ✩‧₊˚ meet povlnfour

ੈ✩‧₊˚ BASICS

name: giselle !

what else you can call me: zellie, gigi, elle, gi

age: 24

birthday: 19th dec !

pronouns: she/they/them

sexuality: pansexual

nationality: canadian-british

where do i live?: south of france! (just outside of nice)

languages: so i speak 3 languages fluently (english, french + dutch), 2 semi fluently (japanese + korean) and i’m learning another 2 (polish + italian)!! my job further down will explain why

ੈ✩‧₊˚ F1 THINGS

favorite drivers: lando norris, oscar piastri, charles leclerc, alex albon, george russell, lewis hamilton

favorite team: mclaren

favorite f1 memories: estie bestie winning in hungary ‘21, just every time george russell breathes

favorite legend: jenson button, seb vettel + michael schumacher

favorite reserve drivers: liam lawson, mick schumacher, theo pourchaire + pato o’ward

favorites in other formula categories: bianca bustamente, marta garcia + chloe chong

ੈ✩‧₊˚ OTHER

any tattoos or piercings?: 27 tattoos + 5 piercings

pets?: two horses + a cat

job?: i’m a translator for an international company! i mainly translate between english, french, and japanese speaking clients so i spend most of my life in big fancy corporate offices with big scary businessmen

other interests: music, ice hockey, tennis, equestrian events, opera (+ much more)

sports teams?: toronto maple leafs (nhl), buffalo bills (nfl) — and very casually (because i don’t understand soccer) manchester city

dislikes: golf (sorry lando), spiders, seafood and meats, big scary businessmen (they r mean to me in my job boo)

fun fact: im actually dyslexic🫣 so the effort put into these is doubled bc i have to spend half my life breaking it down

[5sosfanfictioncatalogue]

Stoner!5SOS Masterlist

1990 (ao3) - orphan_account luke/ashton M, 13k

Summary: “I don’t like guys, Luke” Ashton whispered tentatively against the blonde’s pulsing throat. “But you like me?” the younger boy muttered back, his heart pounding in his chest and his eyes slipping closed in anticipation. “Yes, I like you a lot.”

Or the one where two working-class boys from Manchester fall in love, but will society’s perception of ‘normal’ stop them from being together?

1990 - 2.0 (ao3) - orphan_account luke/ashton M, 9k

Summary: "Let me have you" Ashton murmured as he pulled from the kiss to suck against the taut skin of Luke's neck, the other boy continuing to card his hands through Ashton's unruly curls.

"You already do"

Honey Whiskey (ao3) - SweetLunaChase calum/ashton, michael/luke M, 1k

Summary: Alternatively, Calum has played as Ashton's bitch one too many times and decided that he's gonna put his foot down. Again.

Or at least he thinks he will.

i only wanna talk to you (ao3) - calumshoods calum/ashton E, 47k

Summary: or ashton leaves to work on his documentary and leaves calum recordings of his favorite memories with him

kiss away young thrills (ao3) - orphan_account michael/calum N/R, 5k

Summary: (401): He's pretending to be my boyfriend so that my family won't bother us when we sneak off to smoke weed.

made of glass and careless (ao3) - dazedlight (opinionoutpost) luke/ashton E, 42k

Summary: Ashton is a maintenance worker at the local hockey rink. Luke plays for the local hockey team. They like each other most times.

making love to you was never second best (ao3) - horrormgc michael/calum N/R, 2k

Summary: "i feel like," michael sat on the bed, careful not to knock anything leftover from last night. "i feel like i'm in 'half baked'," "michael, we didn't get stoned and sell weed to raise bail, we got stoned and i fucked you in the ass."

or, it's the summer of 1999 and calum and michael make a mistake.

Oil and Water (ao3) - dafeedil michael/calum E, 25k

Summary: Calum spends a night with the boy that smells like smoke, and as it always is with bad addictions, he keeps getting sucked right back in.

there's a song in my heart, i feel like i belong (ao3) - orphan_account michael/calum/ashton M, 8k

Summary: the one where michael is dragged to a party by luke then ends up having sex with both of the hosts.

you got me by my neck (ao3) - orphan_account luke/calum M, 29k

Summary: Hearing the blonde say, point blank, they’re not in a relationship forces Calum to confront the emotions that he’s been wanting to hide. That he wants to be in a relationship, because Luke is the person he wants to be together forever with, because Luke is the reason he gets out of bed in the morning, because Luke is the inspiration for all of Calum’s dumbass songs that people like for some reason. It’s always been Luke, and Calum couldn’t have picked a worse time and place to realize this. 

In the middle of a random Friday afternoon at some place called Tootsie’s Burger Joint. 

Or the one where the band is back in Sydney trying to write more music for their new album, and being back home ignites feelings Calum thought never would have existed.

[coffee-at-annies]

I don't think I've asked this before but how did you get into hockey?

Haha it’s kinda a funny story. The tl;dr is that I binged all of check please (omgcp) (source of my url) in like 2.5 days during spring finals week in my sophomore year. Then I went home and I don’t remember how the conversation went but I was like “yeah just binged the entirety of this comic, don’t we like… have a hockey team?” and turned on the tv to game six or seven of the ecf cause it was 2016 and late May. I watched us eliminate the bolts and the rest is history.

Or as history as building an interest up over time can be. The rest is going under a cut cause the adhd loooooves to talk.

Anonymously or not, ask me something you’ve always wondered.

Since I was 19, didn’t have a summer job, and newly into this hockey thing that’s how I ended up at the 16’ cup parade despite discovering hockey existed like 3 weeks ago.

(Side note: I don’t remember much of the ecf and scf from that year I just remember Kuni’s double overtime winner and the sign Rust is tough on Bolts). (Great pun 10/10 I refuse to forget).

(side-side note: My sister had actually won free tickets through a work raffle at like Christmas time to a game and took my dad and cousin cause I think I was back at school. Someone, Idk who, scored a hat trick and she was like “there’s a blizzard outside, you need those” so that was technically my first* awareness that hockey existed)

From there I was super hyperfixated on check please but that didn’t have an update schedule and was going through continual hiatus followed by drops of episodes. So there was content drought and then massive content updates and so fandom both kept itself busy and then drove itself insane whenever there was an update.

In the meantime I did a couple different things:

I got super into omgcp fandom/fanfiction which lead me down a couple rabbit holes (and eventually led to the creation of this blog sometime in 2017). At some point we got junior year wherein Jack makes it to the nhl in-story so the fanfic I was reading started crossing over with rpf until I straight up started reading rpf. I wanna say the first rpf-no-omgcp fic I read (or the title that stuck in my brain) was there was an old woman who lived in a shoe. One ao3 rabbit hole spat me out into original hockey fiction (there’s a handful up for free on ao3 - supernatural hockey and the same old streets were the two I have strong memories of). This was over the course of years mind you.

It’s important to note that the venn diagram of check please bloggers and hockey bloggers is not quite a circle but was very close to one. This has always been the Sidney Crosby website and so while I may not have been paying close attention to the pens, my dash was aware of it. It was probably easier to get into because I had a go-to team and they were good. What was I gonna do, become a flyers fan cause I was in school in Philly? No thanks. Plus it felt good in a local pride “we are that bitch” kinda way.

Idk how to describe it. I just know that like once the 16-17 season started, I started watching games through pirate streams. Not very often I don’t think. I remember watching a handful of games, not religiously (and legally) like I do now. I remember staying up to watch the stadium series game in 17 cause I was in Manchester studying abroad but that’s the only game I specifically remember. I could probably name a handful of pens lb blogs from those days that are what put live blogging on my dash in the first place and are the reason I started doing it.

Also that fall a college friend invited me to watch Yuri On Ice so that was another tick in the ice sports good column. I remember a post about how are you coping with the omgcp hiatus are you getting into YOI or Hockey and I was like both :).

It’s wild to think it’s been 7 or 8 years now. Check Please ended so hockey took over full time. I’ve made a bunch of friends and also watched a bunch of bloggers I had parasocial relationships with deactivate, get busy, or move on with their lives.

(*there are other memories. Friends who were into hockey back when the end all be all of sports to me was one baseball game a summer, saying here we go Steelers in the fall, and memeing like that one IT Crowd gif. I went to the 16 cup parade with one of my high school friends, though I’ve stuck with hockey and she’s switched to soccer).

[laresearchette]

Monday, May 29, 2023 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: HOARDERS (A&E Canada) 9:00pm REALITY (HBO Canada) 10:00pm

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT?: BARONS (CW Feed) THE RISING (CW Feed) MOTEL RESCUE (Premiering on June 5 on Magnolia Canada at 9:00pm) AMERICA’S HIDDEN STORIES (TBD - Smithsonian) THE CURIOUS CASE OF NATALIA GRACE (TBD - Investigation Discovery) FDR (TBD - History Canada) THE LOVE CLUB: TARA'S TUNE (TBD)

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

CBC GEM digi-ART

CRAVE TV REALITY

MLB BASEBALL (SN Now) 1:00pm: Guardians vs. Orioles (SN1) 2:00pm: Rays vs. Cubs (TSN5) 8:00pm: Angels vs. White Sox (SN1) 9:30pm: Yankees vs. Mariners

NLL LACROSSE (TSN3) 4:00pm: Bandits vs. Mammoth - Game #2

NHL HOCKEY (CBC/SN) 8:00pm: Knights vs. Stars - Game #6

FAMILY LAW (Global) 8:00pm: Abby and Daniel represent a trans teenager whose grandfather is blocking her access to hormone replacement therapy.

BACHELOR IN PARADISE CANADA (City) 8:00pm

NBA BASKETBALL (TSN4/TSN3) 8:30pm: Heat vs. Celtics - Game #7

MEMORIAL CUP (TSN) 9:00pm: Seattle Thunderbirds vs. Quebec Remparts

EVERYONE ELSE BURNS (W Network) 9:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Following a strictly religious Manchester family who believe the world is about to end.

SPOOKED SCOTLAND (DTour) 9:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): The Isle of Arran is known to have a blood-soaked history of murder, betrayal and disease; the crew makes their way to Brodick Castle, where they are faced with the wrath of fairies.

THUNDER BAY (CTV) 10:00pm (SEASON FINALE): Ryan learns that the Thunder Bay Police Service is on the verge of collapse; Indigenous police board member Georjann Morriseau reveals that Police Chief Hauth has opened a criminal investigation into her to force her into silence.

[therealuniverse]

FIRST MAN IN SPACE Yuri (sometimes Romanized as Yury) Alekseyevich Gagarin was a Soviet Air Force colonel best known for his flight on Vostok 1, making him the first human in orbit around the Earth. Gagarin was born in Klushino, Russia in 1934. He enjoyed playing hockey and basketball, and his favorite pastimes included space, planets, and aeronautics. On March 27, 1968, Gagarin was killed when his fighter jet crashed in Novosyolovo near the town of Kirzach in the Soviet Union. He was 34 years old.

Gagarin's home town of Gzhatsk, Russia was renamed Gagarin after his death. Gagarin had three siblings and his parents were peasants on a state farm. Their family suffered from the Nazi occupation during World War II, and spent most of the occupation living outdoors when their home was converted into a German officer's quarters. The Gagarin family moved to Gzhatsk in 1946. In 1955, Gagarin entered military flight training at Orenburg, Russia, and married Valentina Goryacheva in 1957. After receiving his flight wings he was stationed near the Norwegian border. In 1959 Gagarin became a Senior Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force. Gagarin was chosen for the Soviet manned spaceflight program in 1960 along with 19 other air force pilots. From this group of nineteen the first Vostok (English: Orient) pilots were selected for a group called Sochi. This group underwent the most severe physical and psychological training. Gagarin, along with another member of Sochi named Gherman Titov, were selected as the two best candidates for the first Vostok flight. One of the deciding factors was height, because of the small space inside the Vostok capsule. At the time of his selection, Gagarin was just 1.6 meters tall. In August 1960, a Soviet Air Force doctor evaluated Gagarin's personality as modest and intelligent with an extraordinary memory. He was described as having a strong imagination and quick reactions to his surroundings. It was among these traits that led to Gagarin's selection for the Vostok 1 mission. Gagarin's mission was Vostok 1 (officially Vostok 3KA-3). Two missions prior to Vostok 1 also used the Vostok 3KA spacecraft – these were Vostok 3KA-1 and Vostok 3KA-2. Officially these were designated as Sputnik 9 and Sputnik 10 in the west, to conceal their true missions. On March 9, 1961, Vostok 3KA-1 carried the mannequin Ivan Ivanovich (the Russian equivalent of John Doe), a dog named Chernushka, some mice and a guinea pig into one orbit around the Earth. The mannequin was ejected an parachuted to the ground, and Chernushka was recovered unharmed. Two weeks later on March 25, Vostok 3KA-2 carried the Ivanovich mannequin, a dog named Zvezdochka (“Little Star” in English; the name was suggested by Gagarin), television cameras and various scientific apparatus into one orbit around the Earth. The mannequin and Zvezdochka were both recovered. On April 12, 1961, Vostok 1 was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1 in modern-day Kazakhstan (officially, launch occurred from Tyuratum – the Soviets insisted this was the launch site in order to conceal the location of the true launch center). The launch vehicle was a Vostok-K rocket, a member of the R-7 rocket family of which the modern day Proton rocket is a member. Gagarin's callsign was Lastochka (English: Sparrow). Launch occurred at 6:07 am. The entire mission was controlled from the ground. At 6:09 the booster rockets fell away from the main stage, and the shroud covering the space capsule were released at 6:10, exposing Gagarin's window, which was between his feet. Gagarin reported at 6:13, “The flight is continuing well. I can see the Earth. The visibility is good. I almost see everything. There's a certain amount of space under cumulus cloud cover. I continue the flight, everything is good.” Mission controllers were not able to verify that Vostok 1 had reached a stable orbit for 17 minutes after loss of signal. At 6:25 am, as Gagarin passed the Kamchatka Peninsula, he requested information about his flight path. Mission controllers informed him that they did not yet have his orbital parameters. At 6:49 am Gagarin reported he was on the night side of the Earth. At 7:25 am, the the onboard attitude control system oriented Vostok 1 for retrofire over Angola. Reentry occurred over Egypt. Mission controllers sent a command to Vostok 1 for the service module to separate from the spherical crew module. However, the two sections remained connected for ten minutes during reentry. This caused strong gyrations inside the spacecraft. Gagarin reported up to 10g during reentry. Seven kilometers above the ground, Gagarin ejected from his spacecraft and landed safely ten minutes later (officially, Gagarin was said to have landed inside the vehicle – the Soviets insisted this was the case to receive verification from the FAI, and it was not released that Gagarin landed separately from his spacecraft until 1971). The Vostok parachute was released at 3 kilometers altitude. Two schoolgirls described the Vostok as a huge ball that fell, bounced, then fell again. The Vostok's first impact left a giant crater. Gagarin said that when he landed, he encountered a farmer and his daughter. Gagarin was wearing a bright orange suit with a white helmet. Gagarin recalled, “When they saw me in my space suit and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, Don't be afraid, I am a Soviet citizen like you, who has descended from space and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!” Officially, the United States congratulated the Soviet Union on its accomplishment. Other world leaders had mixed reactions to the flight, many voicing their concerns over the Soviet Union's true intentions regarding their apparent rocket power. After the flight of Vostok 1, Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 1 was renamed Gagarin's Start. Gagarin became a worldwide celebrity after his flight. He was toured in Italy, Germany, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Egypt and Finland. This sudden rise to fame led to a drinking problem and substantial weight gain for Gagarin, and attention from women took a toll on his marriage. It was rumored that Gagarin once jumped out of a second-floor window in a hotel, resulting in a large cut above his left eye that remained visible for years. On March 27, 1968, Gagarin and flight instructor Vladimir Seryogin were killed when their MiG-15 fighter jet crashed near Chkalovsky Air Base. Gagarin was 34 years old. The cause of the crash is not currently known and has been subjected to many conspiracy theories. An investigation into the crash was conducted by the KGB. Air traffic controllers had provided Gagarin with a poorly written weather report and left external fuel tanks attached to the aircraft. Gagarin's aircraft may have struck a bird and entered an uncontrollable spin, leading to an impact with the ground at a speed faster than Mach-1. Another theory suggests that the crew detected an open vent which led to oxygen deprivation in the cabin. Gagarin then followed procedure by entering a steep dive to reach a lower altitude. The crew then lost consciousness and never pulled out of the dive. In 2011, the results of an investigation into the crash conducted by an official Soviet agency were released. The original conclusion was that Gagarin had maneuvered sharply to avoid a weather balloon, causing the aircraft to stall. Even in death, Gagarin retains a legacy as an extraordinary public figure. When he visited Manchester it was pouring rain, however Gagarin insisted that his parade vehicle keep its cover back so that the crowds could see him. He said, “If all these people have turned out to welcome me and can stand in the rain, so can I.” He refused an umbrella and remained standing for the entire parade. - R Atkinson Image: A 27-year-old Yuri Gagarin awaits liftoff in the cabin of his Vostok 3KA-3 spacecraft, designated Lastochka, or Sparrow. The cabin was a sphere just 2.3 meters across. (Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/16042132243/) Sources: http://www.russianarchives.com/gallery/gagarin/ https://www.scotsman.com/news/world/inquiry-promises-solve-gagarin-death-riddle-2508172

[entwinedmoon]

I was tagged by @clove-pinks to list ten books I’m planning to read in 2020. Sounds fun! So in no particular order, here we go!

1. Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones by Ngozi Ukazu – This comes out on Tuesday and I am super excited! I’ve been following the web comic for years, and this is the final part of the story. I’ve never been into hockey, but throw in a scrappy pie-baking ice-skater-turned-hockey-player and the Canadian Hockey Robot who loves him and I’m hooked!

2. The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor – This is the most recent novel that takes place in the world of Welcome to Night Vale. I’ve been following the podcast since the end of season one, I’ve gone to the last four live shows (and will go to the next one once this quarantine is over), and I have way too many Night Vale t-shirts. Like twelve. I guess I’m a fan or something. Also, I love the Faceless Old Woman character, so I’m definitely interested in learning more about her.

3. Fence (Volume 4): Rivals by C. S. Pacat – I loved Pacat’s Captive Prince trilogy, so when I found out she was writing a series of comics about a prep school fencing team—filled with rivalries and underdogs and LGBTQ romance and more—I figured I should check it out. I loved the first three volumes, and I am looking forward to seeing people makeout the characters grow. And stuff.

4. The Nobleman's Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee –This is the third (and supposedly final) book in Lee’s Montague Siblings series. This series has it all: HISTORY! DANGER! FANTASY ELEMENTS! A BYRONIC BISEXUAL DISASTER! A REALISTIC ASEXUAL! PIRATES! What’s not to love?

5. Manchester: Mapping the City – Okay, this book is part of my Torrington research. It uses historic maps and plans to show the growth of Manchester through the Victorian Era and into the 20th century. I’m hoping it will give me at least a little bit of insight into what Manchester would have looked like during Torrington’s lifetime. I know his stepmother lived off Oxford Street, so maybe I’ll get to learn more about that area, even if I can’t narrow down exactly where he and his family may have lived when he was alive.

6. Sir John Franklin's Last Arctic Expedition by Richard J. Cyriax – While this is an older book on the Franklin Expedition, it’s such an iconic one that pretty much every Franklin researcher has heard of it. It’s one of those foundational books that, while it may no longer be the most accurate, it still has a wealth of information and is still referenced by researchers today.

7. Lieut. John Irving, R.N., of H.M.S. Terror, in Sir John Franklin's Last Expedition to the Arctic Region: A Memorial Sketch With Letters by Benjamin Bell – This is the closest thing to a biography on John Irving that exists (for now), and as the name says it’s mostly just a sketch of his life based on his letters. If there’s a biography of anyone who was on the Franklin Expedition, I will read it at this point, no matter how big or small. Speaking of which…

8. Franklin by Andrew Lambert – How exactly I have gone this long without reading a biography about Sir John Franklin himself—the man, the myth, the boot-eater—I don’t know. A lot of books on the expedition give brief bios on him for background, but I’d like to know more, and I’m hoping this book will shed some light on the man who led 129 men to their frozen doom.

9. You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe – I am not much of a presidential history buff. I live in Virginia, which has produced eight whole presidents from what I’ve heard, and I even live near Ferry Farm, the place where George Washington grew up (and everything in Fredericksburg is named after his mother Mary, who lived in town), but I’ve never cared that much about it. However, I cataloged this book at the library a few weeks back and couldn’t help flipping through it. And laughing, Like, a lot. Any history book that starts off by quoting Brad Neely’s George Washington YouTube video is something I have to read.

10. Encounters on the Passage: Inuit Meet the Explorers by Dorothy Harley Eber – More Franklin Expedition reading! This book is filled with stories passed down by the Inuit about the various explorers—including Franklin—who attempted to find the Northwest Passage, going back as far as Frobisher in the 1500s. While I’m mostly in it for the Franklin stuff, I’m also fascinated by the Inuit oral tradition, and I think it’s important to preserve their stories, whether it’s about Franklin or not.

And that’s all folks! I’ve got plenty more books waiting for me on my shelves—and I’m in the middle of reading Barrow’s Boys right now—but these are my top ten I’m looking forward to. If anyone else wants to join in and list their top ten, consider yourself tagged!

[bucket-of-rice]

'The Chosen One': In the midst of a career year, Morgan Rielly has become the Leafs reluctant star.

Scott Wheeler. 5th April 2019

His nickname in junior hockey was “The Chosen One” because everyone knew just how good Morgan Rielly was — and they wanted him to know it, too.

He doesn’t like to talk about it though. He didn’t then and he doesn’t now.

“It rings a bell,” he said of the moniker.

“You get to your junior team and you make nicknames for each other and that’s just your first experience of junior hockey. And really riding the bus with older guys and experiencing what it’s like to be a young rookie with older, 20-year-old men on the team when you’re 16.”

Nine years after his Moose Jaw Warriors teammates coined the nickname, Rielly is in the midst of a career year that will conclude with a debate over his merits as a Norris Trophy candidate and the season’s best defenceman.

“Whenever I see him, I still call him ‘Chose,'” said Joel Edmundson, now a Blues defenceman. “When I’m talking to my other former teammates, we still talk about him as being ‘The Chosen One.’ It’s weird how nicknames like that stick with you forever.”

Last month, Rielly became the third Leafs defenceman to ever register 70 points in a season, joining Borje Salming and Ian Turnbull. He’s the first 20-goal-scoring Leafs defenceman since Al Iafrate in the late 1980s.

But Rielly’s success didn’t come overnight. This is his sixth season with the Leafs, and even though he’s a star now, he has never thought of himself as one.

Those who know Rielly chalk it up to his modesty.

That was true when he was with the Notre Dame Hounds, a team he captained to a national championship. After his time with the Hounds, he was selected second overall by the Moose Jaw Warriors in the 2009 WHL Draft.

“The most important thing about him is he’s just a good person and a good friend,” said James Melindy, Rielly’s defence partner at Notre Dame. “His hockey obviously speaks for itself, but he’s a leader and he was a leader at a young age on our team and it’s so good to see a friend like him do well.

“It was nice to be able to give him the puck and let him do the rest.”

Steve Watterson, a billet with the Warriors, could see it in Rielly when he refereed the Hounds’ Triple-A games. That season, when the Warriors recalled Rielly for a few days around Christmas, teammate Travis Hamonic invited him to stay at the Wattersons during his visit. By the time Hamonic — a second-round pick of the Islanders — was traded to the Brandon Wheat Kings, the Wattersons knew they wanted Rielly as their next billet the following season.

Early in Rielly’s rookie season, he had already endeared himself to the Wattersons’ children, 10-year-old Alexa, 7-year-old Brennan and 4-year-old Brooklyn. No matter what was happening, he always made time for them whether it was playing cards, mini sticks or ping pong. For that, Watterson, a lifelong Canadiens fan, was swayed into becoming a Leafs fan.

“It was a lot of fun. Morgan was full of energy,” Watterson said.

“Nothing but good memories. You can’t help but want to see the Leafs do well and exciting things for Morgan.”

Despite the fact Rielly was the youngest player on the Warriors, his teammates never thought of him as a rookie. As players graduated and moved on, that stuck with them.

“He was just one of those guys that you wanted to play with, you wanted to be around off the ice. As soon as he came in, you could tell that the guy just had a characteristic that made people gravitate towards him,” said defenceman Dallas Ehrhardt, who now plays for the Manchester Storm.

“On the ice he was such a dynamic skater and player and off the ice he was such a good teammate.”

On a team where the blueline was built around big defencemen like Edmundson, Dylan McIlrath and Kendall McFaull, Rielly played differently.

“He’s a guy that really wanted to win,” Edmundson said. “He was just naturally so talented. You could see it. When he stepped on the ice, he just took over games. You knew he was going to be an NHL player just the way he could skate and rush the puck. He could go end-to-end like nothing.”

Despite standing out on the ice, Rielly made a point to fit in with his teammate off it.

“He was just one of the guys,” Edmundson said. “Whenever I see Chose, we definitely share some laughs.”

“Whenever I think of him in junior, it’s just him picking the puck up behind the net and just going through the whole team. In the D zone, he battled hard, too. When guys went to the net, it wasn’t easy against him. Even when he was 16, he was built like a man.”

Rielly left his mark on the Warriors’ staff too.

Dave Hunchak, Moose Jaw’s head coach during Rielly’s rookie season, remembers the moment he realized there was no holding the defenceman back. It was late in a game against Prince Albert when Hunchak, who’d relied on his veterans all season, turned to the rookie for the final shift of regulation. Rielly leaped over the boards, straddled the blueline and placed a shot top corner to tie the game.

Hunchak had always known Rielly was gifted. However, the Warriors were a veteran team and Rielly had only been getting regular minutes. That moment changed everything.

“He made a move that just dropped everyone’s jaw,” Hunchak said. “He was very quiet, very unassuming, very shy person. But he had a tremendous work ethic, he knew what he wanted to do and he was consistent in his work ethic every day.”

From then on, Rielly never let up.

“His skating ability was second-to-none at that point and it was a treat to watch. He would make plays that would make you shake your head at times, but they would work out for whatever reason for him. And if he made a mistake he wasn’t shy to go and get the puck back,” Hunchak said.

“He realized that he was a bit of a risk-reward guy at that time and we had to work real hard at 16 to convince him to play in his own end first and it took him time but then he just figured it out.”

It wasn’t always a straight path.

In his NHL draft year, Rielly blew out his knee. The Wattersons saw him go through those ups and downs firsthand. They saw the tears and heard the heartbreak in his voice. They sat in on conversations with his parents as they debated the risks of rushing back.

After seeking opinions from multiple doctors, Rielly was reading off a list of pro athletes who had come back from the same injury in six months and promising Watterson that he’d best it.

“He just kept saying, ‘That’s going to be me, I’m going to find a way to be faster than those dudes and sure enough he made it back for playoffs and he had the emotion and the heartbreak but it was short-lived with Morgan and it switched right to ‘What do I have to do to get back there?’” Watterson said.

“I couldn’t believe how it played out. You just can’t write that stuff. It’s just sheer determination and he outplayed all the odds in that situation.”

When the draft came around and the Leafs picked him fifth overall, the Wattersons were there to see his hard work come to fruition.

Longtime Warriors general manager Alan Millar will never forget Game 4 of the second round of the playoffs when Rielly, who was still doing strength and conditioning and hadn’t travelled with the team, was at their Medicine Hat hotel when they arrived back at 3 a.m.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. No down time, no pouting. After he got the surgery done, I don’t know, you’re talking days not weeks and he was back in the gym,” Millar said.

“I’ve never seen a young man work that hard on rehab. He wanted back in the lineup. He wanted to win a championship. That’s a credit to him and his character and leadership. It didn’t take me very long to realize that he was pretty special, both on and off the ice.”

Assistant coach Mark O’Leary remembers two things about Rielly. One was the regular phone calls he’d get on off-days when Rielly wanted to come in to skate or work out. When the team did skate, Rielly was always the first player at the rink and the last to leave.

Two was how popular he was with his teammates and members of the community. People at the high school, O’Leary said, still talk about Rielly and the way he would help kids he didn’t know. O’Leary said he still hears people talking about the defenceman at the local Tim Hortons.

“There was no doubt inside the walls of our rink in terms of what kind of player he was going to be,” said O’Leary. “Not just the skill that he had, but probably what doesn’t get talked about enough, which is his work ethic. There was nobody in better shape. He did things outside of what normal people would do in terms of getting better.”

When he was replaced as the star rookie on the team by Brayden Point, Rielly grew into a leadership role naturally.

“He was a big part of our team, a high profile guy who I looked up to a lot,” Point said.

“He would dominate games in our league and he was fun to play with. You could see back then that he was going to be the player he is today. He was always so good. We’ve both come a long way since then. He was a great guy and still a friend today.”

Ehrhardt has paid particular attention to Rielly’s career. Part of it, he said, was a matter of the small-town nature of Moose Jaw (they all went to the same high school, Vanier Collegiate) and the way it forced them together. But there was something else about Rielly, too.

On a recent trip to Texas, Ehrhardt caught one of the Leafs’ games against the Stars and noticed Rielly was doing all of the same things he did in Moose Jaw.

“I think everybody who played with him at that time kind of knew. The way he was able to move the puck out there, at 16, he was already miles ahead of everyone around him,” Ehrhardt said.

“And it wasn’t just his skills, it was the way he was thinking through the game. He was already two steps ahead of everyone. It was one of those things where it was fun to watch. And nowadays he has just really taken off with it.”

There’s also a maturity about Rielly that was evident even when he was in high school but has since turned into a leadership role as the top defenceman with the Leafs.

In hindsight, Edmundson said he knew, too.

“Thinking back on it now, it does not surprise me one bit. Especially compared to any other D-men in our league at that time, he stood out. He’s always been that talented. He’s always been that guy that’s had high expectations and he’s meeting them right now,” Edmundson said.

After more than a half a decade in Toronto, Rielly is back to being the star he was in junior.

For that, his modesty ought to turn into pride.

“I never imagined this,” Rielly said. “I think I have been able to reflect on it now, but when you’re a young guy, you’re a prospect who is supposed to be good, and the older guys used to make jokes about me playing in the NHL one day and I kind of dismissed them because at the time you’re not there yet, you don’t think it’s realistic.

“The injury made it tough to think about where we’re at now, but man, those were fun times.”

He thinks about his time in Moose Jaw and credits his teammates for turning him into the player and person he has become.

He remembers that first Christmas break visit with Hamonic and the Wattersons. He still keeps in touch with Millar, O’Leary and all of the “really good friends” he made along the way.

“Just the relationships that we were able to build, a lot of characters,” he said, with a laugh. “We all had a lot in common. It’s strange. It really was a unique group. We all got along. We spent a lot of time with one another.”

There are a lot of Leafs games on TV in the Watterson home these days. At the end of February, Rielly welcomed the Wattersons to Toronto for a pair of games against the Canadiens and the Capitals and took them out to dinner.

“Everyone else sees a star player, but I have to admit I still just see Morgan,” Watterson said. “Even though I’m well aware of what he has accomplished on the ice, it’s a far second to just missing him as a person.”

In that moment, his journey came full circle. It was special. But he’s still not quite ready to fully give himself full credit.

“I was lucky enough to have one of the best billet families in junior hockey. They really had an impact on me, so I feel very lucky to have had that,” Rielly said. “That’s what makes the experience that much better.”

But as another season wraps up, Rielly has a coach who is happy to give him the credit. Mike Babcock, like everyone before him, says you must understand where Rielly started — and who Rielly is — to understand the season he has had.

“You’ve got to go back a number of years. He was a real high-end player drafted, you come to the National Hockey League, everyone expects you to be good right away. As a defenceman in the National Hockey League, to be good defensively right away, you don’t see it very often,” Babcock said.

“And so it has taken him some time. He’s had a great year for us. He’s a big part of our team with his energy, his preparation, his professionalism, but obviously with his play.”

Soon, that play might result in a Norris Trophy nomination.

Just don’t expect Rielly to brag about it.

[1inawesomewonder]

Grizzles earn a 7-4 pre-season victory over Manchester Memorial Goffstown scored 3 goals in the first period and added 4 more in the final period to come from behind and win their pre-season scrimmage game against Manchester Memorial at Sullivan Arena on Sunday evening.

[kyliexc]

hey everyone ! i’m mini and i’ve had my eye on this rp for awhile, so im v happy to be here. let me introduce to you my bb kylie ! this is a big long so i sectioned off the parts explaining what’s what. you don’t have to read it all ! <3

❛ chicago’s very own kylie castillo has been spotted in new york city in a bentley continental gt, welcome ! your resemblance to becky g is unreal. according to tmz, you just had your twenty first birthday bash. your chance of surviving new york is uncertain because you’re hot-tempered, but being brave might help you. i guess being an aries explains that. three things that would paint a better picture of you would be hot cheetos with lime, clean makeup brushes, and soccer on the street. & ( cisfemale & she/her ) + ( mini, 22, she/her, est. )

*also, bc i always have to say this when playing becky g. im latina. :)

also pls like this and i will come to you for plotting bc i know ppl can be shy. (like me)

Basic Information

Full Name: kylie valentina castillo

Nickname(s): bean, ky, kyky, kc, k.

Age: 21

Date of Birth: April 15th 1998

Zodiac sign: aries

Hogwarts house: slythindor (slytherin + gryffindor)

Ethnicity: mexican

Nationality: american

Gender: cis female

Pronouns: she/her

Orientation: bisexual

Religion: agnostic-catholic

Language(s) Spoken: english + spanish

Accent: american with a hint of spanish

Favourites

Weather: fall

Colour: yellow or pink

Music: sebastian yatra, reik, travis scott, 

Movies: halloween or selena

Sport: soccer, basketball, hockey, volleyball

Beverage: tequila

Food: chicken or carne asada tacos

Animal: lions + dogs

Family

Father: alejandro castillo, soccer player (jersey #7)

Mother: lupe castillo (molina), seamstress

Sibling(s): jaime castillo + luna castillo

Pet(s): sushi and lola (dogs)

BIOGRAPHY

parents history

kylie’s dad is a notable soccer player in latin america, he has played throughout a couple world cups and has been on notable teams, even in europe (Manchester United? Barcelona FC? get back to me on this ahahah) He wore the number 7, believing it always brought luck to him and his family. kylie’s mom was just a normal girl who worked in a dress shop, sewing together sweet 15/16 dresses, which she really enjoyed and was good at. her mom’s family had a business and all the women in the family ran that little shop bc they made sure things ran smoothly. kylie’s parents met unexpectedly in a bar when her dad didn’t want to be noticed and her mom was out on the town with her friends. this turned into a fan marrying her idol sort of thing. it was super cute. 

kylie’s dad got chosen to be a part of the US soccer team, this was after he was dating her mom for about a year. before he could leave he didn’t even realize that lupe (ky’s mom) was pregnant with her older sibling jaime. that led to a quick marriage BUT lupe didn’t want to leave mexico just yet SOOO while her dad went off to the states, her mom stayed in mexico working on her business and it worked out really well for the two. 

two years later, after 2 years of a long distant relationship and the family dress business blowing up in Mexico, turning into a whole fashion empire, lupe finally decided to pack up and go to the U.S.A

along came kylie

kylie was the first born in the U.S.A, so she is american but she frequently travelled to Mexico during her childhood, therefore she understands both english and spanish. she is 100% proud of her ethnicity no matter how much hate she got for it growing up. 

kylie was always closest to her dad, he taught her how to have thick skin and go for your dreams. every night they would play soccer on the streets and he pushed her to be better. Kylie was on several soccer teams growing up, and has a lot of photos, awards, and memories to prove it. all her siblings were in some kind of sport. kylie’s was soccer while her siblings would be volleyball or basketball. they were known on the block as the golden 3 for being involved in sports. 

it didn’t mean she was a tomboy, oh no. while her dad taught her sports, her mom taught her how to be presentable. she would always say ‘let them judge you by what you wear so you can prove them wrong with who you are.’ those are words she lives by everyday when it comes to her appearance. 

her parents really taught her the value of working for what you want, even when kylie did grow up comfortable. her mom’s business was growing so much it was known in chicago and some other parts in the U.S. her dad was known for being one of the best soccer players coming out of latin america (up there with ronaldinho), but they both got to where they were through blood sweat and tears.

on her down time she got really into makeup and fashion, she did it a lot for prom season, posting it up on insta that some celebs hit her up to do their makeup and of course she couldn’t say no to that. kylie makes her own makeup out of natural ingredients that she uses with her clients, it’s something she doesn’t sell exclusively, it’s her best kept secret. 

she’s really popular within the latin american music scene and has done some collabs with english speaking people. those are just passion projects for her. it’s like, she’s known for different things, so she does them, but she’s not sure what she wants specifically.

since she’s tiny, people tend to make fun of her height A LOT, which she doesn’t mind, it pretty funny to her. it’s just something that’s been with her foreverrrrrr.

kylie still plays soccer in a league on her free time. it’s something that keeps her mentally grounded.

life isn’t so perfect * TRIGGER WARNINGS: anxiety, depression *

so being mexican in the U.S.A is never easy, and it definitely wasn’t for kylie that didn’t speak english until she entered school. she was constantly bullied and pushed around because of her ethnicity, because she was tan, unlike the other girls. 

of course she made other friends of color and non-color that accepted her but when you grow up seeing that there are people that hate you for what you’re born into, it damages a person.

for a long time she didn’t accept her body image, trying to lighten her skin or make herself look more accepting, it caused her to spiral into depression, she had a lot of fights with her family about this.

kylie developed anxiety where she overthinks and gets panic attacks, but thats why she still plays soccer competitively. 

kylie’s personality

kylie is literally F I E R C E. she’s got two types of personalities, one where she’s a home body and loves her family, will beat you in a quick game of soccer. she’s that bubbly girl with the laughter, sarcastic remarks followed by a smirk at the end of it

BUT

she is also that girl that when it’s time to work, she is scary. she knows what she wants, she know how she wants it and she will get flustered when it’s not like that. she’s got a whole ‘that BIIITCH’ personality, like when she’s on the red carpet, she just has it going for her kind of thing. 

but she’s a goof, and that’s something everyone will notice. she loves to make people laugh and smile. if you’re an asshole, those are her favorite types where she’s just drawn to those people. 

connections?

old school friends

old school enemies

makeup clientele 

squad?

ride or die

drunk friends

sibling like friends

exes ( good + bad + messy + angsty )

crushes ? 

former lovers to friends

um, anything? let’s brainstorm ! :)

[justforbooks]

"Led Zeppelin The Forum June 3, 1973

This is based on the fantastic AUD recording, expertly transferred from the JEMS Master - DAT (16/32) source. This is a wonderful audience source, documenting an incredible show.

Some feel this is Led Zeppelin's best performance of the 1973 North American tour.

Hey guys, if you're interested in imagining what it was like to be at this show, I highly encourage you to check out this post by Strider on the Led Zeppelin forum. It is easily the best account of a Zeppelin show I have ever read.

Let's get on the time machine...

Sunday June 3, 1973

I'm flying home from San Francisco to Orange County...a little wobbly after my Kezar Stadium trip, but feeling better the more fluids I drink and the closer I realize I am getting to the appointed hour of my third Led Zeppelin concert in four days.

This Led Zeppelin concert is a little different, however. Not only is this the last show of the first leg of the 1973 US tour, but the last LA show...and who knew when the next tour would be, so this would have to get me through whatever dry spell awaited. Most important of all...I was taking my girlfriend to the show; not only her first Led Zeppelin concert, but her first concert period. That I wanted her to enjoy it was an understatement.

My girlfriend's name was Trudy. She was slightly older than me...11 going on 12...while I wouldn't turn 11 until the next month in July. We met when we were on the same community rec swim team the summer of 72. She also liked baseball and played on the girl's softball team until it became too painful for her(this was before the days of high-tech sports bras). A tomboy, she was like Tatum O'Neal with boobs. Our first date was to an Angel game to see Nolan Ryan pitch.

*Quick digression: baseball games make wonderful first dates. It's not as crowded or noisy as football, basketball, hockey or auto races. And the leisurely pace allows for plenty of conversation time to get to know each other. And if you're lucky to get picked for the "Kiss-Cam", that gives you an excuse for a quick kiss.

Back to Trudy...she was great, except when I met her, her musical tastes ran to America, Bread and Seals & Crofts...the hardest band she liked was Three Dog Night. So it was a long process to get her to like Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, the Stones, Alice Cooper and my other faves. Some she never took to(Frank Zappa, Velvet Underground), but after a few months she finally got hooked into Zeppelin. Of course, it was mainly the softer stuff she liked...Stairway to Heaven, What Is and What Could Never Be, That's the Way. Thank You was her favourite LZ song. And when Houses of the Holy came out, she immediately fell in love with Rain Song. But little by little she came to appreciate the hard rocking songs as well.

All this was on my mind as I rested on the plane-ride home. You see, before I saw Led Zeppelin for the first time in 1972, I had NO IDEA what to expect from a Led Zeppelin concert. I had all four studio albums released at that time, but had yet to acquire any bootlegs. So yes, the effect was fairly shattering when finally seeing my first Zeppelin concert, June 25, 1972. By the time of the 1973 shows though, I had bought two Led Zeppelin bootleg double-albums: Live on Blueberry Hill, the September 4, 1970 Forum show; and Going to California, the Sept. 14 1971 Berkeley show, mislabeled as being at the Forum.

Those two boots, plus the memories of the 1972 shows, instilled in me the idea that the acoustic set was a regular part of a Led Zeppelin concert, and I raved to Trudy about the acoustic set...how they did Going to California and That's the Way, two of her faves. But now I had seen 2 of the 73 concerts, and neither one featured an acoustic set, not even one acoustic song...there didn't appear to be an acoustic guitar in the building. They had played Rain Song, so I knew Trudy would love that, but after building it up in her head, I was worried she would be disappointed if she didn't get an acoustic set. Perhaps, they were saving it for this last concert of the first leg...a special treat for LA. That was one fortunate outcome of Jimmy Page's finger injury: not only was Trudy now able to see the concert, but by moving the concert to June 3, my last Zeppelin memory of 1973 would be crystal clear, unlike the hazy one I had of the Kezar Stadium debauchery.

Shortly after 5pm, the plane descended into Orange County airspace, glistening swimming pools dotting the landscape, the brown smog bank of the Inland Empire off in the distance. There they were, my BB and Trudy, my sun-dappled girl, waiting for me as arranged. To save time, I gave him Trudy's address so he could pick her up before meeting me at the airport. Then we could just drive straight up the 405 to the LA Forum. So, after a brief wait for my luggage, there the three of us were in my BB's blue 1969 Chevy Malibu, him driving, and Trudy and I in the backseat. Making the long slog north on the 405, joining thousands of others making the drive from San Diego back to Los Angeles, I filled Trudy and the BB in on my San Francisco trip, not exactly revealing EVERYTHING. Trudy wasn't a party-stoner girl, and I didn't want her to get the wrong idea about me. The BB and I answered questions she had about the concert; she was excited when I told her that it was pretty certain that they would play Rain Song. But I also said that they hadn't played Thank You, and she looked bummed about that...but hey, I said, you never know what they'll play for sure. Maybe tonight they'll play it.

A quick pit stop for gas and a bite to eat at Tijuana Taco(don't ask...just slightly better than Taco Bell...they shut down later in the 70's when employees were caught selling drugs thru the drive-thru window), and we were back on the 405, past the Westminster Mall, past Seal Beach then Long Beach, until nearing LAX airport, and the giant Randy's Donut Donut marking the Manchester Blvd. exit. It must have been around 7pm, as we drove east on Manchester, past La Brea and Market, past the A-Frame International House of Pancakes on the left at Hillcrest, past the usual shady characters holding up "Need tickets" signs. This time we turned right on Prairie, then left into the Forum parking lot, the Forum Club awning up ahead. It was still plenty light outside, a pleasant June evening, and as usual for a rock concert, the parking lot was a bazaar of the bizarre. A panoply of colourful types everywhere you looked.

Thanks to my uncle's wife washing my clothes while sleeping off my trip in San Francisco, I was wearing my burgundy velvet hip-hugger bell-bottoms and yellow 1973 Zeppelin tour shirt. But I saw a bootleg parking lot shirt I liked and bought one for me and Trudy...total cost $4.

There was a long line to get in the Forum, so we headed to one of the special entrances for people with floor seats. Yeah, I had almost forgotten...after 4 previous Led Zeppelin concerts spent in loge or bleacher seating, I was finally going to be near the stage, 13 rows from the front, on the floor, looking at the stage head on. No side or obstructed views this time. I was already stoked...this sudden realization of where we would be sitting further stoked my fire. So eager with anticipation we fairly glided through the narrow tunnel into the Forum floor, past the massive soundboard/mixing desk towards the rear and past the rear sections of the floor, approaching the stage closer and closer until we came to our destination: Section B, Row 13. It did feel weird looking at our tickets and seeing the date May 30. The time once again said 8:00 pm...but we told Trudy that was more a "suggested" time than a firm commitment.

That allowed for plenty of time for concert prep...last-minute bathroom visits, stock up on snacks and coke and back to our seats with plenty of time to watch the roadies fine-tune the stage as the Doobie Brothers and Yes played over the sound system. Although the music wasn't nearly as loud as the concert would be, I gave Trudy the earplugs the BB had brought for her, as we didn't want her first concert to be too painful...I mean, Led Zeppelin were LOUD...VERY LOUD!

Being so close to the stage, you notice details you can't see from far away...the details of the amp setups...Jimmy's simple effects setup...Jones' keyboards and the white mellotron...Bonzo's orange Ludwig vistalites. In fact, I noticed that if you took away the gong and tympani, his drum kit was actually quite small compared to the gargantuan kits of Carl Palmer, Keith Moon and Ginger Baker. Just a bass drum, snare, one rack tom and two floor toms, that's it. Yet, in Bonham's talented hands, that kit sounded more MASSIVE than Carl, Keith and Ginger's kits combined.

Ooooh, there was the big mirror ball high above Bonzo's kit...I pointed it out to Trudy. She also noticed with some trepidation and awe the huge PA speaker stacks...courtesy of Showco. As roadies climbed roped rigging ladders to fix the various spotlights and whatnot, I sensed a different vibe in the Forum tonight from the Bonzo Birthday Party show. Yes, the audience for that show was excited...it was the first night and it was Bonzo's birthday, so we were hyped. But as shouts of "Led Zeppelin!" and "Rock and Roll!" and "Whole Lotta Love!" echoed around the arena, as frisbees and beach balls whizzed and bounced around, the anticipation and buzz of the audience seemed torqued to a higher degree. With the benefit of hindsight, I think I know why. First, the June 3 show was originally supposed to be the first show...and anyone who has been to multinight stands knows that the first night crowd often has the hard core fans. We were the "real" first night crowd, not the May 31 crowd. Second, that May 31 show was so amazing that obviously word-of-mouth spread. Folks heard how awesome the May 31 concert was, so everyone was at fever pitch for tonight's gig...both the people who were there May 31 and were expecting more of the same, and those who just heard about it and couldn't wait to experience it themselves. If you've ever been to a concert by your favourite band, you know the feelings you go through right before the band comes on: the butterflies in your stomach, the calculations in your mind at what the first song will be and what the setlist will entail. How you literally cannot breathe from excitement.

Well, take all that and multiply by 10 and you'll get an idea how feverish the crowd was for this Led

Zeppelin concert was...if someone had thrown raw meat into the crowd, it would have been devoured. Hell, I feared if one of the roadies had fallen into the crowd, he'd be torn limb from limb. The beast was getting hungry...we wanted Zeppelin. At any bit of lull from the sound system, any break from the music, a great hue and cry went up from the throng in anticipation of the band coming on stage. At long last however, after several false moments, sometime around 9ish, the Forum went dark as the house lights went down.

CUE PANDEMONIUM!!! I am serious. Sure, every Zeppelin concert I attended the crowd would greet the band loudly, as loud as any concerts I have seen. But the concert of June 3, 1973 was something else entirely...it was like RAPTURE! People stomping their feet, ecstatically screaming, firecrackers exploding...the only other time I experienced this frenzied a response was the June 21, 1977 show.

In the dark, periodically illuminated by flashes and lit lighters, we could make out the shapes of the band members making their way on stage. As the stomping and hollering from the crowd continued, Bonham gave a quick test of the drums and soon after, the Little Richard-tribute drum intro to Rock and Roll commenced the beginning of the show as the stage exploded to brightness as the stage lights came on the same time as the band kicked into the main riff of Rock and Roll.

Oh shit Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore. Being on the floor is a completely different deal. The loudness is even more LOUD...IN YOUR FACE...AND IN YOUR GUT!!! Especially Bonzo's kick drum and Jonesey's bass. I looked over at Trudy and thanked my lucky stars we had thought of bringing earplugs for Trudy...she had been gripping my hand since the Forum lights went down, but as I looked at her she smiled and signaled she was okay. Her eyes widened as she took in the scene in front of us, and I returned my gaze to the stage. From behind the kit, Bonzo looked like he was wearing the same pastel tanktop, or wifebeater, as before. John Paul Jones was wearing some multicoloured button-down shiny shirt with these fantastic flash silver bell bottoms. Simply extraordinary...he should've worn them for the MSG shows! Unfortunately, being close to the stage allowed me to see Jones' mustache more clearly...he just didn't look right with that mustache. Jimmy Page was wearing the same natty white double-breasted suit as he did at Kezar. With the black and white shoes. His hair looked healthy and fluffy, the coloured lights giving it different hued highlights throughout the night.

Then, there was Robert Plant. Golden God. Golden, flaxen hair flowing down past his shoulders, the lights amplifying the golden hue of his curly locks. Long, lean and tanned body encased in skintight flared blue jeans and a pinkish-red shirt, more masculine than his usual 1973 blousey-type tops, but with just enough femininity to give Plant that otherworldly, ethereal sexual charisma he, and only he among the 70's frontmen, had. No, not even David Bowie or Freddie Mercury had it...David was too drugged out and sickly thin and Freddie too campy with his "Al Pacino in Cruising" look. To top it off, Robert had a red flower(a rose?) stuffed down his pants, so that the flower was just over his belt buckle.

And because we were now looking straight ahead and up at the stage, and not down from afar as before at other shows, the band, particularly Jimmy and Robert since they were closest to the front, appeared 10 feet tall. Like they truly were gods descended from Mount Olympus to bestow upon us mere mortals their immortal musical alchemy. As Rock and Roll progressed, with Jimmy doing his signature Rock and Roll stagger step, Trudy and I were hopping up and down on our seats, standing on our seats the only way we could see over the grownups in front of us. After the guitar solo, when Jimmy did his little leap, Trudy and I jumped as well, as various girls around us squealed. That's another thing I noticed being down front...lots of teenage flesh in hotpants and platforms. But let's get back to the music...

Rock and Roll was at it's end, Bonham flailing away like Animal of the Muppets during the final drum flurry, which leads to the rousing fanfare into Jimmy's solo intro to Celebration Day, notes flashing fast and furious from his vintage Les Paul. THIS was one of the moments I was already anticipating, for the previous 2 Zeppelin concerts had proven how great, and underrated, a song Celebration Day was in concert.

Tonight was no different...as Jimmy's opening guitar shot rapid fire notes, and Robert intones the opening lines, the song builds to that slight hesitation as Robert sings "and she wonders pretty soon everybody's gonna KNOWWWW" and then Bonzo, Jones and Jimmy SLAM into the song in total force, and the impact is UN-FUCKING-REAL!!!

Try to picture this in your mind...Bonzo and Jones are laying down this MASSIVE volcanically-erupting groove, Jonesy's bass inhabiting your bones, while Bonzo's drums wallop your guts, all the while he's staring intently at Jimmy, his mouth popping open from time to time like he's chewing gum and his head jerking with each accent of the beat. Meanwhile, Jimmy is slinking around the stage, guitar slung low, while carving out that ridiculously sexy funky Celebration Day riff. It's not that there's anything wrong with Rock and Roll, although even then it sounded slower in concert than on record, with Robert's vocals not as manic as the studio version, but Celebration Day, for me, is when the enormity of the concert hit me. The song seemed faster and more high energy than Rock and Roll.

And it was somewhere during Celebration Day that I lost it. How can I explain it to you? There isn't a bootleg in the world that can replicate the sound, the experience. Jimmy's guitar is sounding like 100 chainsaws carving that riff into your head...the bass and drums are exploding into your spine causing you to spontaneously jerk and dance about. The overwhelming loudness of the sound envelops you, harmonic overtones, that no bootleg can pick up, merging to create new tones and notes, raising the hair on your arms and sending tingles up and down your spine. On top of the the force of the groove and the sound, is the visual impact of Robert and Jimmy swaggering, thrusting, dancing across the stage...their movements somtimes in tandem, sometimes on their own, yet still strangely in sympatico with each other; the yin and yang. As Robert's voice, by now warmed up from the rough Rock and Roll opening, wails over the musical onslaught, and Jimmy's guitar cuts like a knife sharper than Bryan Adams will ever know, Jimmy struts to the front of the stage and I half expect him to just keep walking off the stage into the air above us. That is when I just erupt in tears of joy. I couldn't help it...I'm with my girlfriend and the band is sounding so good and they are fucking rocking the stage like they OWN IT! None of this tentative squirreling about like some bands. And Celebration Day is KICKING SO MUCH ASS! I tell you, I was in a state of happiness, of TOTAL BLISS, that the waterworks just flowed and flowed. I hugged Trudy and gave my BB a high-five as CD came to an end much too soon...they could have kept that groove going for another 10 minutes as far as I was concerned. And they should have made Celebration Day a permanent part of the setlist from 1971 on, I'm my opinion.

No time for dillydallying, Jimmy immediately slides into the Bring It On Home riff after CD...and Robert promises all the ladies in the house he's going to make them sweat and groove, as the band lurches into the serpentine riff of Black Dog, the third all-out hard rocker in a row to open the show. I always preferred the Bring It On Home riff as an opener to Black Dog to the Out on the Tiles riff, and here's why. With the Bring it riff, the segue to Black Dog seemed smoother. Also, I didn't particularly want to hear the actual song Bring It On Home, by then having grown bored with the early blues covers like Bring It and You Shook Me, so I liked when they shifted into Black Dog. But Out on the Tiles is one of my favourite songs, especially after hearing it on the Live on Blueberry Hill bootleg. So everytime they would play that opening riff to Out on the Tiles, I would get excited they were going to play the whole song. So I actually would feel a twinge of disappointment when they would go into Black Dog instead. C'mon guys, just ONCE gimme Out on the Tiles!

Black Dog swaggers to a close, Jimmy bringing the song to an end with a blazing run, and just like that, the opening three song assault is over, and us fans have a chance to cheer and welcome the band back to LA, as Robert says good evening and goes into one of his plantations, none of which I recall. It's funny, but even more so than in the stands, people down front yell all sorts of stuff at the band, thinking they're so close the band will hear them and respond. Greetings, requests...some musical, some sexual...non sequiters, all manner of nonsense is shouted at the band as a whole and at individual members; Jimmy and Robert topping the list, natch.

Another thing you notice up front is all the stuff that gets thrown on stage that the roadies periodically have to clear off. Joints, wadded balls of paper(notes, I presume), cards, flowers, candy, popcorn, items of clothing(some intimate)...it's quite a sight and probably quite a haul by the end of the night. Fortunately, Trudy refrained from throwing any clothing.

Jimmy took this time to remove his jacket, revealing an orange-red striped button-down shirt with black cuffs that I don't think I've seen him wear before...or since. In fact, both Jimmy and Robert are wearing shirts that I've hardly seen pop up in photographs other than in photos of tonight's gig.

With jacket removed, and Robert's introduction over, the folky beginning of Over the Hills and Far Away begins, as Jimmy's sweet cherry red Les Paul tone lulls you into a state of mellowness, as Robert sings to his lady...then WHAM! The volume increases ten-fold, and again, one of those ingenious simple-sounding yet complex riffs grabs hold of you, while Bonzo lays down a beat that at first seems at odds with the riff, but gradually reveals itself to be a marvel of deep-in-the-pocket groove. In fact, OTHAFA is one of those songs that was fun to watch the band play in concert. Jimmy hunched over, jerking his body to the riff, while Bonzo and Jones watched each other, working over the changes as Jimmy solo'd stratospherically over the top. Robert by now would throw in his Acapulco Gold aside to knowing looks and laughs among the stoners in the audience.

After the song drew to its languorous close, Jimmy bathed in deep blue light, I checked with Trudy to make sure she was okay...that it wasn't too loud or if she needed to rest. Before the concert, we said that we would stay to the end, but if she needed to go to the rest room, I would escort her, and if she got tired, she could sit and if possible, nap in her seat. So far, she was A-OK, thumbs-up, all systems go! Which was fine by me, as we were coming to another highlight of the show for me: the Misty Mountain Hop/Since I've Been Loving You tandem, signaled by Jones removing his bass and walking over to our left and sitting down at his keyboards, face-forward to the crowd, while Jimmy switched from the red Les Paul w/ black pickups to his customary Les Paul Sunburst.

Hippie funk-groove, followed by the sweeping, cinematic English blues drama of SIBLY. As the band charged into Misty Mountain Hop, the vibe of the show kept elevating...so many people dancing and smiling and having a goodtime. Apparently enpugh people in the crowd had experienced getting hassled by the cops over rolling papers to the point that the entire Forum wanted to escape to the Misty Mountains. Once again, the sound is massive, as Jimmy Page's guitar is in your face. Robert is doing all his hippie dances and wiggles across the stage while Jones' funky Fender Rhodes gives the song its colour. But it is Bonham who really drives the song, his every beat of the drum a mighty wallop, with the most awesome snare sound I've yet to hear...crisp, deep and resonant. Fill after fill with perfect timing electrifies the song until the final riff explodes, as Jimmy hits a switch and the guitar increases 10-fold in intensity and Bonzo does what seems like one continuous, roiling fill until the band reaches the point where it suddenly STOPS!

Leaving Jimmy to bend and sway as his fingers traverse the neck of his guitar, notes flying left and right until he slows into those familar notes that shift the band into Since I've Been Loving You. As the crowd howls in delight, especially the blues fans and guitar players amongst us, many of the crowd also begins to sit down, and Trudy is one of them, so I sit down with her. We still have some of our coke left and as we quench our thirst, I ask how she is liking the show so far. "Too much...it's far out", she replies. I put my arm around her as we settle in our chairs and watch the drama unfolding on stage. SIBLY is one of those moments where Jimmy trancends mere musicianship. He's not merely playing guitar, but making the guitar speak, as if the guitar itself had a soul. Or put another way, it's as if Jimmy and his Les Paul were fused into one, as if the guitar was just another extension of his body.

One thing I noticed with Jimmy Page, especially during SIBLY, is that he adjusted his tone and volume knobs on his guitar more than anybody I'd ever seen. Some guitarists I saw wouldn't touch their knobs once during an entire concert. Whereas Jimmy was constantly fiddling with the knobs, fipping the toggle switch...anything to create the variety of tones and sounds that emanated from his guitar. Considering the simplicity of his effects(compare his stage setup in 1973 to today's array of stompboxes taped down in front of every guitarists stage monitor), it's amazing the wide variety of sounds he got out of his guitar.

Again, just to listen is not enough, nor are pictures sufficient to suggest the total charasmatic effect that Jimmy playing the guitar on stage renders on you. And I fear my words fail to accurately portray the devastating impact of Pagey with a guitar. It goes beyond the way Jimmy moves and dances on stage, which is already beyond compare. Not Keith Richards, not Chuck Berry, not Richie Blackmore, not Mick Ralphs. Certainly not Clapton or Iommi, both of whom stand still as statues, making a guitar grimace once in a while. Pete Townshend is the only contemporary who comes close, and his vibe is more "athletic" with his jumps and windmills. Jimmy's vibe is more sinuous and sexy. His ability to dance and swagger and weave across the stage, while his slender frame is weighed down by some of the heaviest guitars in the business, the solid-body Les Paul and the Gibson doubleneck, is incredible enough. The fact that he often skitters across on one foot is miraculous and warrants comparison to James Brown. You think I'm kidding? Well, I'm not...if only someone would have filmed Jimmy at a 1973 concert, just focusing on his feet, you would be talking about his footwork with awe. To see it up close was breathtaking. But what truly made Jimmy a guitar god and sexually charasmatic to everyone in the arena no matter their sex or sexual orientation was the way he danced with his guitar while his feet were dancing upon the stage. Start with the fact that nobody wore his guitar slung as low as Jimmy. NOBODY. Most guitarists had their guitars strapped pretty high, which is the best position for clean, fast playing: Steve Howe, Richie Blackmore, Frank Zappa, the Grateful Dead guys...all guys who strapped it high. Keith Richards and Pete Townshend had theirs a little lower than that, but still nowhere near as low as Jimmy. And I'm sure Jimmy sacrificed some speed and accuracy having his guitar so low...that can't have been good for his wrist and shoulder. But I'll be damned if in 1973 I could tell for he sure sounded fast and accurate enough to me. And that was while he was doing electric gyrations across the stage. When he deigned to stand still like during Rain Song, he sounded as clean as his studio performances. But Jimmy wasn't built to stand still...he used his body to transmit to the audience every electric charge he was feeling through the music. Every whiplash chord, every sinewy solo, transmuted his body. At any given moment, he would swing his guitar away from his body, or hold it aloft with his right arm extended upwards to form a "V". He would be hunched over dramatically studiously focused on the fretboard, or gracefully arched back, back nearly parallel to the ground, while pulling of a solo. Or there were those tender moments, often during SIBLY, when he would pull the guitar up gently in a nearly vertical position, as if he were cradling a baby or a woman, and coax the most beautiful tones out of his instrument. It was a pas de deux between man and guitar and it was mesmerizing, both aurally and visually, beyond compare.

It was Godhead...sheer and utter GODHEAD! But while I was transfixed by the moans and groans emitting from Jimmy's guitar, my girlfriend Trudy was enraptured by something equally as powerful and potent: Robert Plant. Six feet of tanned, blond, British sex-on-two-legs. For while Page's guitar was emoting its way through SIBLY, so was Plant doing his moaning and groaning, while doing his mic stand parry-and-thrusting...sometimes hanging on and gripping the mic so tightly, you thought he would crush it. As Plant and Page engaged in their signature banter, with each seeking to echo and underscore what the other was doing, until both vocal and guitar lines were intertwined, the slow-burn drama of the song began to build towards that crucial hypnotic part right after the guitar solo. When I turned to look at Trudy, she had a look on her face that suggested she was transfixed. Not exactly a 1000 yard stare, she was keenly focused on Mr. Plant, a broad smile creasing her face until later in the song, she was just frozen in open-mouth wonderment. You know that scene in The Song Remains the Same movie, where that beautiful hooded girl breaks into a smile during SIBLY, overcome by the power of the song? That's what it was like watching Trudy during SIBLY. I can't say if it was the best SIBLY I ever saw...I tend to be partial to the SIBLY's where JPJ uses the Hammond B3 organ. But it was plenty emotional and definitely up there with the best.

Now came the Houses of the Holy trilogy of mood: the gloomy winter of No Quarter; summery surge of The Song Remains the Same; and pastoral spring of the Rain Song.

As Jones remained at the keyboards, the fog rolled in off the stage as Jones sounded the opening notes. It was incredible from this vantage point. It seemed at times as if the whole band would be swallowed up by the bank of fog, the stage lights giving it a haunting glow. I don't see how Jimmy could find his wahwah pedal in all that smoke. Speaking of Jimmy, this is one of those songs from Houses of the Holy that, while sounding perfectly okay on record, took on an extra depth, energy and power in concert. Jimmy's riff especially gained depth in concert. On the record, it's suitably fuzzy and kind of jazzy...but it lacks heft. The riff sounds thi and barely there. But not in concert. Once Jimmy stomps on his Crybaby, the riff CRUSHES your skull and you find yourself alone in the snowy, wintery night, chased by the dogs of doom. The sound of the song is MASSIVE...yet you look on stage, and there's ONLY THREE GUYS making this simultaneously huge, yet subtle and colourfully varied sound. No backing tapes or backup musicians a la the Who or Queen. No other 4-piece (which basically was a trio instrumentally, with a vocalist), could equal Zeppelin's sound in 1973. Black Sabbath? HA! Nice try, but ultimately a one-trick pony, and not helped at all by a shoddy muddy sound system.

To watch Led Zeppelin in concert was to be reminded once again of the mathematical trueism: the sum is greater than the parts. While each member of Led Zeppelin was spectacularly proficient on his individual instrument, it was the spontaneous combustion when they got together, the sum total of their talents, the off-the-charts group chemistry they had that made Led Zeppelin special.

Let's face it...Led Zeppelin was playing the same notes, the same blues scales as many other bands. But their talent and sheer force of personality made it appear to the audience that we were hearing these sounds for the first time. They sounded fresh and new the way Zeppelin played them, while Grand Funk, Deep Purple, Uriah Heap, and Sabbath sounded old and stodgy after awhile.

It was during No Quarter, as the lights turned blue and the band worked into the jam groove, that you noticed another singular element about Led Zeppelin...it wasn't so much notes they played, but colours and emotion. Bands like Emerson Lake and Palmer and Deep Purple would show off their instrumental chops and I wouldn't feel anything other than an overwhelming urge to chop off Keith Emerson's hands or knock Richie Blackmore's scowl off his face. With Zeppelin, their jams created a mood, an emotion tied to the song and to some distant yearning in the listener. Time stopped and you felt transported.

Jimmy remembered the second part of the solo, unlike San Francisco, and it was during the latter part of the song that we got the first taste of Jimmy's Theremin, accenting the howls of the dogs of doom. Followed by Jimmy going crazy on the wahwah. As was usual by now on the 73 tour, the song engendered a standing ovation. Trudy and I, along with most of the crowd, had spent SIBLY and No Quarter sitting down, but now were on our feet roaring. And as Jonesy took his bows, and moved to put his Fender bass back on, and Jimmy strapped on his iconic Gibson EDS-1275 12- and 6-string double-neck guitar...red body with black pickguard, thank you very much...I knew we wouldn't be sitting down soon. For by now I knew it was too early for Stairway to Heaven. Besides, with Jones on bass, that meant it was time for the rush of sound that was The Song Remains the Same.

Robert was doing an introduction to the song, and I believe he mentioned Rolling Stone magazine sarcastically...which I think he also did at Kezar. It seems Rolling Stone compared Led Zeppelin unfavourably to Slade, which when you think about it sounds ludicrous. But then, that's where Rolling Stone's head was at at the time. I mean, Slade had some moments but to put them in the same league as Zeppelin was laughable.

So, 1-2-3-4-GO! And The Song Remains the Same blasts us in the face, Bonzo's galloping beats and JPJ's rubberband-man bouncing bass lines underpinning the chiming bells of Jimmy's 12-string guitar. It's such a warm, beautiful sound...those ringing, chiming bells; what a TONE!

Then again, there's the magical, indescribable sight of skinny Jimmy, huge doubleneck strapped to his thin frame, weaving and bobbing around the stage, somehow managing to avoid crashing into the drums or decapitating Plant with his guitar. The song is so joyous to hear and see performed, that I'm almost moved to tears of joy again. Trudy and I are boogieing on our seats, as is my BB. The smells of cannabis and hash are in the air, but whether it's because I've built up a resistance or what, I don't really feel affected by it. The groove of the song is IMMENSE and INFECTIOUS! And the camaraderie among the band is evident, with Robert, Jimmy, John and Bonzo exchanging winks and smiles like they were the coolest boy's club in the world. Watching them, I want in...I want to play guitar like Jimmy Page and start a band. That becomes fixed in my brain as the state of supreme happiness.

When Robert sings "California sunlight", I cannot help but beam with state pride...California's mentioned in a Led Zeppelin song! I also notice something else...I prefer Robert's vocals on this song in concert than the helium vocals on the record. The Song Remains the Same is hurtling along, pell-mell, taking the crowd along in its frenzy. Shit is flying through the air and we're all just along for the ride. The song at once sounds tight and together and about to come apart at the seams. It's like Bonzo said "alright, everybody go on the count of 3, and meet you at the finish!"

The song comes to its end so quickly that you barely get your breath back before the sweet, lilting sound of Jimmy on the 6-string rings in the opening of Rain Song, as the bright lights dim to blue. FYI, Jimmy looks gorgeously spectral in this light. Now, I knew Rain Song followed TSRTS, but Trudy didn't, so as I knew she liked the song, I couldn't wait to see her reaction when the song began. She gave my hand an extra tight squeeze, and as everybody was sitting down again, as I sat down she sat on my lap and gave me a hug and whispered "thank you" in my ear. Again, Robert's vocals were perfect...so tender and filled with sincere emotion. I know some people think he lost it after 1972, but on some songs he sang better than ever. Immigrant Song might have been beyond his reach at this point, but he nailed all the Houses of the Holy songs.

As Jimmy and Jones, who now was seated at his white Mellotron facing right towards Jimmy and Bonzo, began the langorous instrumental interlude after Robert's opening verses, Trudy turned to me and kissed me deeply...and we kept kissing...and kissing all the way through til when the song gets to the rocking middle part. Everybody who has been to a concert with their significant other has had a moment like that. It's a memory emblazoned on my brain and one I will never forget. Whenever I hear Rain Song, I think back to that kiss.

As Jimmy delicately finger picks the closing arpeggios, and Plant brings the song to a rousing finish with a final wail, we are on our feet again giving the band another well-deserved standing ovation. People, mostly the girls, are shouting endearments to the band, as piercing whistles echo through the arena and bics flicker and glow in the darkness. Jimmy takes a bow and nods to the audience before handing his doubleneck to Raymond, his Scottish guitar roadie. As Robert also acknowledges the crowd, and the multifaceted Jones once again switches instruments, Jimmy rolls up his right sleeve. For now it's time to really get to work.

As Jimmy straps on his trusty Les Paul, Robert gives an introduction about an oldie...then only a single spotlight on Jones as the doomladened notes of his bass sound the beginning of "Dazed and Confused", in 1973 still one of the most anticipated songs of the night. A whoosh of expectation rushes through the crowd, as Jimmy sounds the first opening squeal of his guitar, heralded by a flash of smoke and fire and deep dark red lights. As Jimmy manipulates the sound of his guitar via his wahwah and and bending the strings behind the tuning peg, the mood turns positively evil. Is this the SAME BAND that just moments ago had transported us to a serene English meadow?

Okay, I have to confess I didn't like the way Robert sang Dazed and Confused in 1973...and 75 as well. Too much unnecessary squealing and changing the lyrics. Saying "I wanna make love to you little girl 25...25...25" over and over was annoying. It's a hoary blues cliche. Wished he would've stayed with the original "will your tongue wag so much when I send you the bill".

But the opening verses pass quickly enough, and 1973 is the last year where Jimmy really hits the vibrato during the chorus riff. Now it's on through the new segment developed for 1973, the fast solo and riffing bit leading into the "San Francisco" segment. I looked over at Trudy and she was still hanging in there. The band was cooking until suddenly it stopped and Jimmy shifted gears and began picking out the most beautifully melancholy melody I've ever heard. The genius of this band to just nonchalantly spring into a riff that other bands would kill for. As we all know by now, that riff was later used as part of "Achilles Last Stand", which I suppose is one reason why Dazed was dropped after 1975...although the band could've just dropped the "San Francisco/Woodstock" segment.

But as much as I love "Achilles", I feel that riff was most effective in the live Dazed and Confused's. It

felt more naked and vulnerable...more haunting. As Jimmy played the riff, and Jones and Bonzo figured out when to come in with the beat, Robert sang the lyrics to "San Francisco", the Scott McKenzie song I barely remembered from Monterey Pop. Then as Jimmy leaned on his wahwah and played that phasing sawing riff, Robert added his spectral moans courtesy of his echoplex.

Before you knew it, Jimmy was headed towards his wall of amps, and the moment everybody was looking forward to was at hand...Jimmy had the cello bow in his hand.

At first, as Jimmy applied the heavily rosined bow strings to his guitar, Jones and Bonzo gave light accompaniment, but soon they stopped as the stage darkened with the lights only on Jimmy. Now the bow segment began in earnest, as the most unearthly, loud, resonating howl emerged from the depths of hell. Then, as he began the part where he slaps, or whips the bow against the pickups, and pointing the bow in the direction the sound was reflecting, people began to lose their minds. The lights flashed and changed colour with every slap of the bow...blue, red, yellow, green, orange...as Jimmy pointed left, right, front, back with his bow, bow strings shredding, directing the sound around the arena. Then, the coup des grâce..the lights begin flashing rapidfire as shapes flicker in the background as Jimmy whips his guitar mercilessly, bow strings breaking and flailing everywhere, people in the front row trying to grasp the falling strands. It is one of the most indelible concert moments I've ever seen and heard. By this time Jimmy seemed 10-feet tall, and held complete command of all of us. But he was just beginning.

As he began bowing a spooky, scary-movie motif, I looked at Trudy and saw that she was sitting down, holding her hands over her ears, even with her earplugs already in...this was too much for her to take at her first concert. But like a trouper, she endured it with no complaint, unlike some other girls I took to concerts. One thing people often forget about the bow segment, is that it wasn't just about Jimmy. Depending on how inspired he felt, Robert would also contribute to the sound-orgy by adding his echoplexed melismic moans and howls to Jimmy's bow screeches. With the lightshow getting weirder and weirder, with trippy shapes and shadows projected onto Jimmy Page, the mood of the whole piece attained a level of evil dread that Black Sabbath could only dream of reaching. Every time I saw Black Sabbath, I could never take their attempts to be dark and evil seriously...mainly because Ozzy was such a ridiculous frontman. He was like a hyperactive frog.

As the bow segment reached it's climax, and Jimmy unleashed the hounds of hell, the sound began to drive you mad...you can't imagine how loud and shrill it was. Nor the white noise harmonic overtones that added to the texture of the sound. By now, Jimmy was frantically rubbing his fingers up and down the strings from the neck of his guitar to the pickups, while sawing his bow, with barely any strings left. With his hand rubbing more violently, I feared he was going to slice his hand on the strings. Bonzo joined in the final unholy climax of noise, and as Jimmy threw the bow away, the band got ready to gallop into the marathon jam, with Bonzo, Jones, and Jimmy hitting a few preparatory power chords before launching into the first fast guitar solo section familiar from the album version. From here the song becomes KINETIC personified. Behind the drums, Bonzo is hammering away at a racehorse pace, head snapping at the beat, each strike of the kick drum knocking you for a loop. Meanwhile, Jones is rolling through that endlessly looping bassline at inhuman speed, using just his fingers...NO PICK! Then there's Jimmy, strafing the audience with blitzkrieg runs up and down the neck of his guitar...how his guitar is still in tune after the violent lovemaking he gave it during the bow segment is beyond me. And don't forget Robert...he's not taking a break during this jam, either. Whether engaging in call-and-responses with Jimmy, or boogieing along to the music, Robert was a lion on the prowl.

As the band worked through the different changes, Jimmy, Bonham and Jones watching and listening to each other for the various cues, the incredible stamina of the band hit me with the force of a Bonham beat. Here we were, nearing the 90 minute mark, and while most bands would just be wrapping up their shows by now, Led Zeppelin were just getting started, savagely attacking their instruments with godlike intensity. The Rolling Stones would already be in their limos heading out of the Forum parking lot.

But Led Zeppelin asked no quarter...and they gave no quarter. When you entered a Led Zeppelin concert, you were entering a test of extreme stamina and emotions. Led Zeppelin was body music to the extreme, but it was also music for the head and psyche. After a Zeppelin concert, not only would your body feel pummeled, but your psyche, emotions and senses felt like they'd been put through the wringer. It was total immersion.

The boys were winging their way through the various twists and turns of the Dazed and Confused jam, Jimmy and Bonzo taking delight in prodding each other. My girlfriend had decided to take it all in sitting down...the storm of sound that is Dazed and Confused was a bit much for her. Baby steps I thought to myself...everything in good time. By now, sweat was flying off Jimmy's hair everytime he whipped around. I wouldn't be surprised if the people in the front row got sprinkled with a bit of holy sweat. As Jimmy navigated the twists and turns and dips and dives of the jam, he pulled out all the stops. Electro-stagger steps...laybacks...whirls and twirls...chicken dances. He was everything you want a guitar-hero to be...and his boundless energy was stunning to behold.

1973 was the last year I truly enjoyed Dazed and Confused from start to finish. In 1975, while I liked parts of Dazed, I found the energy of the piece as a whole, flagged at times...sometimes even coming to a complete halt. In 1973, the energy was NON-STOP! Like I said, it was a ocean of sound, a storm of sensory overload battering the senses. A complete contrast, say, to the jam in No Quarter. No Quarter was more a study in the use of space in a jam, Jonesey's piano, Jimmy's guitar, and Bonham's drums working off each other's tangents. Dazed and Confused was more about exploring every riff's possibility for themes and variations. That's why there's enough good riffs in Dazed and Confused to create 6 or 7 new songs.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, as the band comes to the end of the song, where any normal band would hurry to the finish, Led Zeppelin find one last spark of inspiration and take the audience on one last stratospheric jam...Bonzo and Jones engaging in a funky, bouncy round-and-round groove, while Jimmy goes in wahwah hyperspace. Just when you think the song couldn't last any longer, you're engrossed and groovin' to this spacey jam and you think to yourself that you wouldn't mind the jam going on for a while. Several minutes later, Bonzo's flying fists of fury are flailing around his kit at supersonic speed, and 30-some-odd minutes later, Dazed and Confused comes to an end. The band and audience both seem half- euphoric and half-exhausted. Jimmy smilingly accepts the hosannas of the rabid crowd. Again, the intensity and vibe of the crowd tonight seems 10 times the previous shows, which in turn seems to be inspiring the band to greater heights.

More Plantations follow, as Jimmy once again straps on the Gibson doubleneck, and Jones sits again at the Mellotron. I can't remember exactly when during the concert Plant made these remarks, but I know he mentioned Jimmy's hand injury and how he had been soaking it in a bucket of ice-cold water ever since the injury. He also said something to the effect of "you shouldn't be here tonight and we should be in England", in reference to the May 30 show being rescheduled for June 3.

Robert Plant's relaxed remarks and calm control of the stage revealed another reason why Plant was such a singular presence in the 70's. Apart from his sexual charisma and primal rock voice, it was refreshing to have a frontman from England that you could understand when he talked between songs. I couldn't understand half of what Mick Jagger or Ozzy Osbourne were talking about when they bantered between songs. Of course, it didn't help that they were yelling half the time. Which brings me to another plus about Plant...he wasn't a hype-meister who condescended to the crowd. Robert could talk and joke with the crowd with a quiet confidence, a relaxed nature that made a show feel intimate even though there were 18,000 other people in the room. And if he wanted quiet, he wasn't afraid to issue a curt "shut up a tic" to the crowd. Most frontmen so want to be liked that they're afraid of saying anything that would piss off the audience. But the quality I most admired in Robert was his refusal to be a hype-meister and phony. Mick Jagger and Ozzy Osbourne being two examples of the above. Mick and Ozzy found it necessary to constantly harangue the audience to make some noise and go crazy, always yelling, Yelling, YELLING at the audience. It's like they didn't trust the music to excite us, they had to whip us up in a frenzy like they were working a circus sideshow. It became annoying after a while. Sorry Mick and Ozzy, I don't always have to be jumping up and down and waving my hands in the air to have a good time. Sometimes I just want to be still and concentrate on the music. They are like the precursors to today's rap hype-men. Robert trusted Led Zeppelin's music to do the talking. He didn't need to scream the cliché "Are you ready to rock, Cleveland?" or the equally hoary "make some noise!"

Plus, the guy was gorgeous with the most amazing head of hair in rock history. I put it to you that no other rock frontman could have worn those flowery, feminine blouses that Plant wore, and still retain the masculine sexuality that Plant did. And Plant was sly enough, and confident enough in his masculinity, to allow the feminine, androgynous side to shine through, too. He was a sexual beacon for all.

But he wasn't the only one...and that is yet another reason Led Zeppelin had such a devastating impact on people, not just musically but sexually as well. For in addition to the blond Viking god, Robert, you had the yin to his yang, the dark, mysterious, ethereal Jimmy Page.

The next song showed this duality off to terrific effect. As Jimmy played one of the most instantly recognizable song intros ever, his guitar was momentarily drowned out by the huge roar of the crowd. Almost a year and a half since LZ IV's release and Stairway to Heaven had assumed anthem status. The blue lights sparkled off Jimmy's doubleneck, and reflected off the sweat on his face and in his hair. As Robert sang the opening lines, another roar erupted from the crowd, before everyone sat down to take in the song. This is where the band showed their understanding of pacing, as they knew after the half-hour of Dazed and Confused, the crowd would need a respite to regroup before building the audience's excitement back up again to carry over into Moby Dick. Stairway to Heaven was the perfect song choice.

Meanwhile Trudy had recovered from the Dazed and Confused onslaught, and liking Stairway to Heaven, her attention perked up...especially the way Robert Plant was glowing before her. Let me explain. While the majority of the stage was bathed in a cool blue light, golden spotlights shone on Robert from behind. So while his chest glistened with sweat in the mystic blue light, the spotlight behind him gave his hair a giant golden halo effect. I looked over at Trudy and once again, she had THAT LOOK. She had been zapped by the Golden God. And the effect was heightened by the fact that Robert stood mostly still while singing the first few verses of Stairway, so that when Robert looked our way, Trudy could imagine he was singing straight to her. Coupled with Jimmy standing to the side, blue light casting an ethereal shimmer on him, both Robert and Jimmy appeared to be a couple of Sylvan Sylphs, visiting our world to spread a little musical majick.

Bonzo soon added a little earthy reality as he came in with the beat, his snare sounding resoundingly through the Forum. Then, as the stage lights brightened to a white heat, it was time for Jimmy's fanfare, his doubleneck held aloft, vertically upright, fretboards parallel to his body. Then, THE SOLO! By now, it was de rigueur that every Stairway solo was different, which in my opinion, was a lot of pressure for Jimmy to put on himself. I mean, think of the strain and stress of having to come up with a different solo every night. But as I mentioned before, they asked no quarter, they gave no quarter. By the solo, most of us had risen to our feet again, and watched with elation as Jimmy tangoed with his doubleneck one last time for the night, wringing every last bit of emotion from the neck of his guitar. Come the final hard rocking part, and I think Plant stunned a few of us with the intensity of his attack on the final lyrics...he was holding nothing back. This was a band that still played Stairway to Heaven like they MEANT it. Needless to say, Plant's gentle reading of the final line triggered a massive wave of love as lighters were lit and more flowers thrown on stage and waves and waves of cheers descended upon the band as the lights hitting the mirror ball high above the arena threw 1000's of fractured shards of light spinning around the darkened Forum. Another memorable moment.

Now it was time for Bonham's showcase, Moby Dick, and it is a sign of the times that people still cheered a drum solo back then. But Trudy needed a pit stop, and as I had already seen 2 Moby Dick's this tour already(although I only remembered the Forum one), I didn't mind escorting her to the women's restroom and getting her a coke. Apparently we weren't the only ones making a pit stop at that time...as the line for the restrooms and snacks were huge. Judging by the length of the women's line, women have less of a tolerance for drum solos than men. The BB joined us, and while

waiting for Trudy to emerge from the bathroom,

we compared tonight's show so far with Bonzo's

Birthday show the previous Thursday while we hit

the men's room. I thought it was going even better

than Thursday's concert. He wasn't sure. We both

agreed the crowd seemed even more geeked up

than Thursday...more geeked up than any concert

crowd we had seen. FINALLY Trudy emerged from her restroom hell, and we headed to the snack bar line, where BB was already waiting for us, having gone ahead while I waited for Trudy. After nearly 20 minutes or so, we had drained our bladders and gotten some more coke to fill them up again. We were ready for the final stretch of the show..

As we made our way back to our seats, we saw the last bit of Moby Dick, as Robert shouted "John Bonham! John Henry Bonham! 25 years old" while Bonham stood up and tipped his hand to the crowd. Of course, Bonham's drum solo was so loud, that even though we were in line outside, we could still HEAR Bonzo even if we couldn't SEE him.

Meanwhile, there had been a few sartorial changes while Bonzo was making like Animal from the Muppets. Somehow, the red flowers in Plant's pants now were attached to Bonham's drumkit, and Plant had planted new flowers in his crotch. And Jimmy had ditched his sweaty orange-red shirt in exchange for a black zippered windbreaker jacket, with the zipper undone nearly all the way.

Bonham went into the 1973-style intro for Heartbreaker, and as Jimmy's wondrous 1973 tone carved its way like a scythe across the Forum as those buzz-saw riffs strutted like a tiger in heat, the band's intent became clear. It now became clear why the band dumped the acoustic set for the 1973 US tour.

As the 1973 US tour would be their longest and largest yet...more cities, more dates, larger venues...the band probably realized that they would attract a lot of casual and first-time fans on this tour. With the increased focus on Public Relations, there would also be increased media scrutiny. It seems, if you look at the setlist, and the way certain songs were linked together, that the band wanted to streamline their set for maximum impact. No more long gaps tuning up, or setting up acoustic guitars and stools. They kept the marathons the hard core fans loved (Dazed and Confused and Moby Dick), while adding enough of the eclectic and soft material to make up for the loss of the acoustic set(Rain Song, No Quarter, OTHAFA). And look at all the linkages, which cut way down on song intro time, not to mention equipment changes:

1. Rock and Roll>Celebration Day>Black Dog

2. Misty Mountain Hop>Since I've Been Loving You

3. The Song Remains the Same>Rain Song

4. Heartbreaker>Whole Lotta Love

Another consideration that may have led to the dropping of the acoustic set, is the reality that the ability of mics to pick up acoustic guitars in an arena setting with high quality was hit-and-miss in the early 70's. The band might have said let's wait until microphone technology improves before dealing with the hassles of miking acoustic guitars in a humid basketball arena. Just a hunch.

Whatever the reason, the 1973 setlist was a model of pacing and variety delivered for maximum impact.

Right off the bat, three quick all-out hard rockers: R & R, Celebration Day, and Black Dog.

Then, two more rockers that are slightly more eclectic: OTHAFA and Misty Mtn Hop.

Then a long stretch of new songs and old showcasing a variety of moods and tempos and solo showcases: SIBLY, No Quarter, TSRTS, Rain Song, D & C, Stairway, and Moby Dick.

Finally, the ramp back up to high energy rockers to send the crowd out on a high: Heartbreaker, WLL, The Ocean, Communication Breakdown.

Back to Heartbreaker...Bonzo is a friggen' marvel in this song; more than 2 hours of playing and right after completing a huge drum solo that would have exhausted most men, and John Henry is STILL delivering crisp fill after fill and hitting the beat hard. Jimmy is moving and grooving as only he can, and as he tempts and teases us during the wicked guitar solo, leaning out over the lip of the stage as he bends the strings behind the nut, it's hard to believe that he just recently injured his hand. You'd never know it the way Jimmy is blazing on guitar tonight. After I saw the Bonzo Birthday Party concert, I made a mental comparison between that show and the 1972 shows, and for the most part I felt the songs played in 73 were just as good, if not better than the same songs played in 72. The two major exceptions were Heartbreaker and Whole Lotta Love. I thought both those songs were played better in 72 than 73. And while tonight's Heartbreaker was better than May 31, I still didn't like the way it cut off the end to go into Whole

Lotta Love.

Whole Lotta Love started more smoothly than on May 31, more crisp and immediately in the groove. Watching Jimmy take a turn at the backing vocals was always a treat. But the real treat lay ahead during the Theremin segment. 1973 is when the

Theremin segment came into its own. They ditched

the bongo and organ underpinnings from the

past, and finally got down and funky, with Bonham and Jones laying down a mean groove, while Page and Plant did battle with each other. Most of the time they would lead into the Theremin segment with a bit of The Crunge or some James Brown groove. But tonight they dove right into the Theremin segment, with Jones and Bonzo establishing the beat, as Plant asked where that confounding bridge was..."Has anybody seen the bridge?" But the main event occured when Jimmy cranked up his Theremin and Gizmotron, which I think were run through his Orange Amps. In one corner you had Plant at the left, his echoplexed orgasmic moans and cries of love whirling around the Forum as he pirouetted around the mic stand. Then in the right corner stood Jimmy, the Grand Wizard of Sound, directing with his elaborate hand movements bolts of whooshing and whirring sound to do battle with Plants orgiastic wails. It was like a Battle Royale...and once again, another indelible concert memory was imprinted on my psyche. There Jimmy was, hands arcing this way and that as he slid and stalked across the stage, his arms and hands directing the eerie electronic sounds this way and that. Truly remarkable...what a showman Jimmy is.

This theremin duel seemed to last a little longer than most...as if they were having one last bit of fun before the tour break. The crazy sounds were whirling around your head, buzzing your brain while Bonzo and Jones were making everybody get their groove on. After about 5 minutes of delirium, Jimmy cranked his guitar up again and launched into the famous WLL solo. One more verse and chorus and Plant unleashed one of his epic "Wanna whole lotta LOOOOOOOOOVE!"

Now the other night, they only did Boogie Mama, which kind of disappointed me, being used to the 25-minute Whole Lotta Loves with the wacky medleys. So right away I was stoked, as when Plant would normally begin his "Last night" spiel, he instead said "I'm going down", and the band followed suit, Jimmy nailing that staccato riff. YES! This what I wanted...something different and spontaneous. I was holding Trudy's hand and we were swinging our arms back and forth. A couple more verses and a guitar solo, then the band is crunching out the I'm A Man riff, then it's The Hunter...awesome, as this is one of my favourite parts of How Many More Times! Finally the band lets Robert tell us about his mama and his papa, too. This boy's reached the age of 24 and he wants to BOO-BOO-BOO-BOO-BOO-BOO-BOOGIE! When Jimmy starts that Boogie Mama riff, the anticipation and excitement builds until the whole band joins in and the Forum explodes with joy, as the infectious tune has the crowd happy and boogieing. Robert is shaking it one time for Elvis...well, actually he's shaking it a helluva lot more times than once. While Robert is shaking his bum, Jimmy is reeling off solo after solo, as once again the band's energy and stamina is a marvel. Just like that Robert intones "Woman...woman...woman", and we're back to finish Whole Lotta Love. "Waaaaayyyy down insiiiiide..." As Robert heads to the finale, I make sure Trudy can see as I don't want her to miss this...we have our arms around each other. The band hits those two power chords as Plant gathers himself for that epic "LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!"

Bonham starts his rat-a-tat fill as the lights briefly flash and dim until right at the moment Jimmy comes in with the WLL riff and BLAM BLAM BLAM! Three fireballs explode behind the stage, the heat of the fire warming our faces! Trudy freaks out at the explosions...she wasn't expecting THAT, hahaha. Oh, but there's more pyro to come...as Jimmy plays the wahwah variation of the riff, Bonzo's gong is prepared with the lighter fluid soaked wraps. All hell breaks loose then as Jones and Jimmy are slashing away at their instruments, Plant is howling above the din, and Bonzo bashes away at his Gong of Fire, flames surrounding Bonham as the whole thing becomes a sight-and-sound bonanza, crescendoing deliriously to the finish. The crowd is a sea of madness...we've been whipped into a frenzy and the band hasn't even left the stage before cries of "MORE!" ring out. Now some bands will only wait 30 seconds to a minute before coming back out for the encore. Led Zeppelin is different, natch. They make sure the audience is serious about wanting an encore, making us clap and scream and stomp deliriously for almost 5 minutes before the band makes it's way on stage. There's been more stuff thrown on stage in the interim.

Now, one way the 1973 Oceans were better than the 1972s, was that in 73 you got the Bonham spoken-word intro, which was always a treat. Bonham also sang harmony with Plant on the la la la part. The Ocean is a song for the fans, and the fans eat it up. It's snappy riff and monster beat lends itself to a happy vibe. It's a giant party in the Forum as people are clapping and dancing up a storm! Trudy and I have got our second wind and are dancing as energetically as we were earlier in the night, 2 and a half hours ago. Now, having had the Houses of the Holy album for 2 months, I had already memorized most of the lyrics, so I knew The Ocean by heart. On the May 31 show, I thought perhaps Plant switched lyrics during The Ocean, but I wasn't sure. So tonight as the band played The Ocean, I silently sang along and sure enough, Robert switched the 2nd and 3rd verses! Of course, I was later to discover he had a habit of transposing lyrics to other songs: Kashmir, TSRTS, No Quarter, Sick Again, Trampled Underfoot. The Ocean is such a killer song, though, I didn't really care about Robert's lyrical switch. Once again, as I watched Jimmy uncork another one of his rubberband-leg dances and the obvious relish with which the band was playing the tune, I think this is such a perfect encore song...one for the fans. In hindsight, I wish they hadn't dropped it from the set so quick...it would have made a better encore song in 1975 than Black Dog. Same in 77.

The Ocean is so infectious and sweeps you up into

its party wake so easily that it's over much too

quickly. And just like that the band is off again,

while this crowd is not going to settle for one

encore. I'm still kind of hoping, since this is the last night of the leg, that we'll get a blow-out of the likes of the June 25, 1972 show, with multiple

encores. But as the setlist was exactly the same on

May 31 and June 2, and so far tonight as well, I

wasn't getting my hopes up.

A few more minutes of hooting and hollering and back come the guys for a second encore. I listened to my "Three Days After" bootleg so many times in the 70's and 80's, that I can still recall exactly what Robert said before the starting the song: "This is something we don't seem to have trouble with...". And Jimmy warms up the Les Paul, then rockets into Communication Breakdown, an early precursor to speed metal, and already faster and heavier than Black Sabbath's Paranoid. The song unleashes a flurry of headbanging in the Forum, your humble narrator included. Until after the solo, when the band switches gears effortlessly from metal to funk, as the band extrapolates on the O'Jays "It's Your Thing" groove, with Jimmy weaving an incredible snake-like riff in and around the beat. What a conjurer of riffs...what a snakecharmer Jimmy is!

The band quickly ramps back to finish Communication Breakdown after the funky interlude. And afterwards, I'm expecting the band to take their bows again and say their goodbyes and disappear off stage. But WAIT! They're making no move to leave the stage...are we, the final night's audience, who have already proven to be one of the loudest and intense, going to get a special treat? YOU BETCHA! I have to bite my lip to contain my excitement as Jonesy sits behind his Hammond B3 organ. Robert then says, "We'd like to say something else." Jones then starts playing his organ solo,  and I am so beside myself, I'm practically levitating. For while she knew Rain Song would be played, as I told her, I also said they had not played Thank You. But knowing that Jones organ solo lead into Thank You, I began to get goose bumps from excitement. Since Trudy didn't know this, I decided not to tell her so it would be a surprise. As Jones executed a sweet gospel-inflected solo, leading to the final fade into silence, as Jimmy prepared to enter, I was literally bursting. Then came those delicate opening chords to Thank You, before Jones and Bonzo entered and Jimmy cranked the volume on his guitar and the riff exploded as a cheer went up. I looked at Trudy and she looked so happy and so awestruck at the same time...we immediately began to kiss, standing on our seats in the middle of the crowd with the song enveloping us. Now, if you've heard the Three Days After boot, you know that after the initial cheer when Thank You begins, 30 seconds later an even larger cheer occurs. Something obviously happened. But what? That is what people have been asking me for years...and I tell 'em, I don't have a clue. For while that was going on, Trudy and I had locked lips and were holding our bodies tight against each other as we let the warm sound of the song cocoon us. So I don't know what caused that sudden crowd eruption...maybe a stage diver? Someone threw a giant joint on stage? A streaker? Maybe Silver Rider climbed up on stage and gave Jimmy a kiss?

All I know is that once again, I was in a state of absolute bliss, such extreme happiness, that I thoought I was having an out of body experience. Here I was, 11 years old, with a sweet girlfriend, whose tongue was doing loop-de-loos in my mouth...AND I already had 5 LED ZEPPELIN concerts under my belt. I knew that no matter what darkness the future held for me, the memory of this night would sustain me through any tough times.

And it did...and still does to this day.

Frankly, Thank You was a blur that night...was it as good as 72 or earlier versions? I don't know. It sounded pretty good to Trudy and me that night! All I know is that we got to hear one of the last Thank Yous ever...definitely the LAST THANK YOU IN L.A.!

Again, Thank You seemed such a perfect encore song, you wonder why it wasn't played as an encore all the time. Thank You over, we held out hope for another encore, so after the band bowed and said good night and goodbye, we stuck around just in case. But really, how could the band top that...Thank You was the perfect song to go out on.

We waited for the house lights to come up, so we weren't stumbling in the dark. Now it's one thing to leave the Forum from the stands, whereby you exit through the concourse and soon you're outside in the fresh air. But on the floor, once the lights come up, you're hit in the face with the craziness...all around you on the floor are hats, glasses, various shoes, ticket stubs, t-shirts left behind, a tambourine, trash of all shapes and sizes, spilled coke and beer. The detritus left behind at a concert is truly staggering. As we left our seats and headed for the tunnel that led out to the parking lot, I noticed a group of fans lingering at the front of the stage talking to the security guys...perhaps trying to talk their way backstage. Today, people try to get the roadies to hand them a setlist or a stray drumstick, but Zeppelin never used printed setlists.

Walking through the spilled drinks on the floor was one thing, but when we hit the tunnel...PEEUW! As loud shouts of "ZEPPELIN!" and "Fuck Yeah!" and "ROCK AND ROLL!" and "WOO HOO!" sounded through the corridor,  the overwhelming stench of stale beer and sweat hit us in the narrow tunnel. What a blessed relief to finally make it outside in the crisp June night air.

After orienting ourselves, we found BB's Chevy Malibu, and joined the line of cars exiting the parking lot. Sure, it's a bit of a wait...but totally worth it. I feel sorry for those that left early to beat the traffic and missed Thank You.

Trudy and I are still in a state of bliss...we fairly floated out of the Forum. In my excited state and the glow of L-O-V-E suffusing me, I declare that that was the best concert I've ever seen. Trudy is too overwhelmed by it all to say much. The BB decides to treat us to a post-show nosh, and we hit the classic A-Frame IHOP down the street from the Forum on Manchester. While Trudy and I peruse the menu, BB makes a call to Trudy's mom to let her know the situation...we're having a post-show meal and then we'll head home. Trudy and I decide to share an order of strawberry pancakes with whip cream. And hot chocolate. They taste pretty good...but then, pretty much all food tastes good after midnight when you've been at a concert all night. Trudy can't wait to tell her friends and sister about the concert...she's finally in a state where she can talk about the show. She thought it was wild and made me promise to take her to see Zeppelin again the next time they played LA. She didn't care for Dazed and Confused though...that was too much for her. She said she literally got scared during the bow segment...it was hurting her ears and freaked her out. The BB said he thought the show was better than May 31, but that the 72 Forum was best overall...he missed the acoustic set.

Our hunger sated, we headed home, south on the 405, Trudy asleep with her head on my lap, as BB drove. I ruminated over all my favourite bands and concerts I had seen...the Stones, Dylan, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Marvin Gaye, David Bowie, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Yes, ELP, Elvis Presley, Roberta Flack, Joni Mitchell. It was now 1973...ten years from when the Beatles burst on the scene. A full decade. And in 1973, Led Zeppelin seemed to be the supreme summation of all the influences that came before that led to the developing of hard rock and also represent the possibilities for hard rock to transcend its influences and barriers. No other band did what they did...with the variety and power that they did it with. Not that other bands weren't good...the Stones, Floyd, Yes, Jethro Tull...all had something to recommend them. But when I measured them against Led Zeppelin, they all came up short...and I'm not just referring to the length of their concerts.

Seeing Led Zeppelin confirmed to me that while my eclectic taste would allow me to listen to and love a wide range of bands...even bands with no guitars and drum machines...it would always be hard rock, or at least Zeppelin-style hard rock that would be my primary taste. And it would be the electric guitar that represented the sound of rock and roll. And Jimmy Page was THE MAN in 1973, when it came to the electric guitar.

1973 was the year Led Zeppelin ascended Mount Olympus. Houses of the Holy returned them to #1 on the Billboard chart. Their 1973 European and US tours were mega-successful. They broke the Beatles long-standing attendance record and caused hysteria with nearly every concert. Word-of-mouth spread like wildfire. They could even afford to hire their own plane...the Starship. If in 1971, Stairway to Heaven made them superstars, by the end of the 73 tour Led Zeppelin had gone from superstars to rock gods.

In a rare case of the reality not only matching, but exceeding the marketing hype, Led Zeppelin in concert delivered the goods, and then some.

Led Zeppelin: The effect truly was SHATTERING.

Postscript...one of the after-effects of the concert was that Trudy became obsessed with Robert Plant...and with long, blond hair. I didn't have blond hair. Shortly after my birthday, she left me for some surfer with blond locks.

She came back to me two weeks later because he was a lousy kisser.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[jebediah19950814-blog]

0 on the season as they beat Manchester 11

0 on the season as they beat manchester 11 "They gave a good account of themselves and I don't think previously they would have made the quarter finals because the other teams were that strong." "We were dwarfed by what we could select in terms of players," van Gamert said. Denmark often kept the ball for longer spells in the opposition half and they looked calm, but their game could have used more incisive passes as the lack of Eriksen as their most creative player stuck out sometimes painfully. Defensive tackle Montravius Adams, linebacker Oren Burks and safety Darnell Savage Jr. Women Handbags of the 1900 to 1910Design innovations of carrying bags started at this time with the term "carrying bags" used extensively to describe what we now call handbags today. "The team is capable of great things like tonight. 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Because the Marlins are a dumpster fire.If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters.SHOW ME HOW2. "If he saw something we needed to work on during a game, he made sure we worked on that during practice. Led by two sets of siblings the Bekele brothers and the Dibaba sisters Bekoji's runners are poised to rack up medals at this summer's Beijing Olympics. "Tonight was a game in which points were available for us. I want to simply tell Ailish's family, thank you. The full Hungary Women's National Team will be competing in the Cyprus Cup during that time. SOUTH LAUNCESTON and George Town have the week off due to this weekend's fixture being played as a stand alone match in March. Robert Eggers The Witch (2015) has a simple plot: a family expelled from a small New England town in the 1630s gets terrorized by a woman living in a forest nearby. 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The pressure on Nathan should Ivan join Penrith would be enormous. "No way are we going into this game thinking this is the game we can get our confidence back. I just focus up and when my name gets called I give my best.". Off the miss hulser with the strong board. Anyway, that is good news for us fashionistas!. Green lost for the seventh time in eight games and head into another offseason unsure about new jordan shoes the future of longtime head coach Marvin Lewis.. Enrollment at the school has tripled over the past 15 years, and many of the runners are too exhausted to concentrate. "Colby is a smooth, smart right handed defenseman. The additions on the defensive front are probably the most significant. On the pitch, France failed to advance to the knockout stage at the 2002 World Cup; four years later, Les Blues reached the final against Italy, but Zinedine Zidane headbutt of Italy Marco Materazzi in that game overshadowed the accomplishment. Chances are some coach somewhere is going to get fired before the season ends and one of those schools is going to want to talk to Joe Moorhead. He believed the competition would be very tight. Even after they scored the goal, [Michael] Boxall has a free header from eight yards out, nine yards out and Mason [Toye] had a couple. But it is still baseball season of course. (By the way, thanks for reading this far into this column. Everything you focus on always improves. After grabbing a loose ball, Reyer went coast to coast for a layup that cut the Viking lead to 62 60. The tournament, which held its 26th edition last Friday to Sunday, is named in memory of longtime BMHA treasurer and coach Roger Ladouceur who dedicated more than 20 years of his time to minor hockey. When we come back. "What really stands out for me are the defensive linemen we signed from high schools," he said.

[fromthe-point]

OTTAWA - The Ottawa Senators announced today that the club has signed defenceman Nick Ebert to a one-year, two-way contract. The contract will carry an annual value of $700,000 in the National Hockey League and $300,000 in the American Hockey League, with a $350,000 guarantee.

Ebert, aged 25, spent last season with Örbero of the Swedish Hockey League where he led all Örbero skaters in with 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists). His 11 goals were third, and 33 points ranked fourth among all SHL defencemen. In his first full SHL season, he led Örbero in average time-on-ice (21:23) and shots (144) and tied for the team lead in game-winning goals (three).

The 6-0, 203 lb., native of Livingston, N.J. has also spent time in the KHL with Bratislava Slovan and has skated with the Manchester Monarchs, Ontario Reign and Texas Stars of the AHL totalling 19 goals, 32 assists and 86 penalty minutes in 157 career AHL games.

Initially drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the seventh round (211th overall) in the 2012 NHL Draft, Ebert was a teammate of current Senators defenceman Ben Harpur on the 2014 Memorial Cup finalist Guelph Storm (OHL) and was coached by D.J. Smith during his first season in the OHL, as a 16-year-old with the Windsor Spitfires.

[learn-from-the-pain]

2017 best picture nominee aesthetics ; repost, don’t reblog. Bold whatever applies to your muse. Tag someone , feel free to add to the categories if you wish .

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Arrival  

blurry memories. helicopters flying overhead. fog pouring over mountains. ominous feelings. stuttering voices. dark, cavernous chambers. protective suits. hazy skies. smooth and mysterious rock. in a relationship with death. defied gravity. a chirping bird in a cage. white, bleak emptiness. the soft hands of a child. a barrier between them and you. moaning voices of unknown creatures. odd languages. tentacles. flat landscapes. ink. the circle of time. silhouettes. a window overlooking a body of water. strange perceptions of time. moving from shadows to light. possible threats. the laugh of a child. déjà vu. government secrets. conversations without speaking. military uniforms. sickness. confessions. a lover friend once there and now gone. strange dreams. paranoia. disturbing the peace.

Fences

strained relations. exercising power. laundry hanging on the line. providing. tears streaming down hurt cheeks. masculinity. family. claustrophobic houses. youth and inexperience. the hollow sound when a baseball hits a bat. football jerseys. framed photos of relatives. throwing punches. second chances. muted colors. prison. unacknowledged sacrifices. post-war. streets framed by rusted metal. sitting on steps. sticking your fingers through the holes of a fence. cross necklaces. unflinchingly hard circumstances. railroad tracks. pride being suffocated by self-pity. being rooted in the same place for years. building a dream. maternal abandonment. pecking someone goodbye. bad timing. losing a dream. long-standing marriage. knitting. covering your ears with a pillow. infidelity. brick walls.

Hacksaw Ridge

bullets whizzing past your ears. dust. bodies littering the dirt. helmets. scraped up faces. hospitals. obligations. pacifism. taking someone in your arms. a photo tucked away in a bible. warfare. a cemetery full of plain white tombstones. smoke. saving lives. rough terrain. a rifle set aside. enemies. allies. underground tunnels. perseverance. water and blood streaming down one’s face. being the odd one out. staying true to what you believe. the smell of gunpowder. people crying out for mercy. spiritual transcendence. someone waiting. a cliff leading to nowhere. fire and brimstone. no man’s land. barbed wire. trust. white rock. faceless danger. carrying somebody on your back. heroes.

Hell or High Water

sleepy towns. a windmill turning.  pickup trucks. the cocking of a gun. cowboy hats. summer heat. doing things for family. robberies. stand-offs. locking eyes with somebody in a bar. dirt roads leading to nothingness. masked faces. badlands. justice. crosses painted on the sides of buildings. the west. dust bowls. the badge pinned to a cop’s shirt. hot tempers. burying past mistakes. guns on belts. slow drawls. shattered glass. piles of money. browns and beiges. gambling. hot and sprawling landscapes. a lack of moral salvation. tattoos hidden by sleeves. blinding sun. getting away. getting caught. generations of poverty. thunderstorms on the horizon. loose-fitting shirts. farms. not knowing if you’re going to heaven or hell or somewhere else.

Hidden Figures

junky cars. close friendships. vintage lamps. pursuing the impossible. rocket ships. satellites. running in heels. computers. chalk drawn on a whiteboard. mathematics. pulling up after being pushed down. kodachrome. files being slammed on desks. standing out among the rest. dark computing rooms. pencils moving on paper at high speeds. warm homes. being depended on. getting ahead and having the finish line moved. space age. meetings full of suits and ties. crowbars. grainy footage. crowds of women. black and white televisions. counting numbers. no windows. astronauts. a little girl walking through the trees. sepia. breaking boundaries. long hallways. watching through glass. making history.

La La Land

auditions gone wrong. neon streets. highways jammed with cars. vivid colors. piano keys. spotlights. dreaming of goals. christmas jingles. romances that sweep you off your feet. dancing. telescopes. old hollywood movies. lighthouses. parties. movie sets. jazz music. galaxies upon galaxies. fights over dinner. purple skies. blue skies. car radios blaring from vehicles. murals on the walls. arms spread wide. candy-colored fantasies. nostalgia. standing on a stage all alone. brightly colored clothes. lingering eye contact. theater seats. the seasons flying by. singing your heart out. elegance. losing love. jumping into a swimming pool. lamps lighting up dark streets. film burning out on the screen. coffee shops. kisses where the world ends. fireworks.

Lion

gut feelings you can’t shake. yellow butterflies. walking alongside the tracks of a train. a child running around freely. dangerous alleyways. elegant pinks. a family who you haven’t seen in a long time. falling apart. being lost. bright green grass by an ocean. foreign landscapes. looking for answers. being locked in a room. searching the internet. maps. crowds of unrecognizable people. noisy traffic. holding hands. catching a stray leaf floating in the wind. being chased down dark streets. no one understanding. rainbows appearing in the rain. dust-colored browns. trash dumps. florescent figures in a home. letting go. banks of a river. thumbtacks. home. rare but bright colors. standing in water. the train departing. the roughness of eroding brick. fruits. finding a way back.

Manchester by the Sea

boats on clear water. regret. shoveling snow. driving without a clear destination. florescent lights in a hospital. orphans. tears clinging to your eyelashes but never falling. aimlessness. hockey. small towns. running into someone from long ago. sidewalks. a house burning to the ground. funerals. dressing for the cold. jarring human memories. pointless conversations with some meaning. teenagers. empty pizza boxes. life going on. having people over. haunting beauty. bands playing bad music. trauma. bar fights. fishing nets. seagulls. depression. dreams you don’t know aren’t real. confronting the past. grief. tough love. unopened boxes. annoying relatives. depending on someone else to get by. punching glass and shattering it.

Moonlight.

violins. dusk. visiting an old friend. repressed emotions. searching for an identity. bullying. well-lit diners. running away. rich skin tones. alienation. the moon over glistening seas. burgeoning sexuality. darkness making your skin look blue. keeping your head above water. glints of light. dream-like senses of reality. flashy cars. pink hallways. screaming but there’s only silence. crystalline blues. avoiding home. bath tubs. palm trees. being scolded. dreams. moist skin. hotboxing. sun-drenched neighborhoods. struggling with addiction. first kisses. songs coming on the jukebox. reflections in the mirror. high contrast. hands digging in the sand. forgiveness. bright mid-daylight. blowing smoke. true love.

[gaymusicchart]

GAY MUSIC CHART - 2018 week 19

 Welcome to the Gay Music Chart, the LGBTQA related music videos TOP 50 actuality and most request.

Vote for your favourite LGBTQA related music videos by leaving a comment for this post on :

YOUTUBE (in the comment section of the video of the week) : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz7yfp-xq-b08tD6mAWwclA

BLOGGER : http://gaymusicchart.blogspot.fr

FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/GayMusicChart/

TWITTER : https://twitter.com/GayMusicChart with #GayMusicChart  

TUMBLR : http://gaymusicchart.tumblr.com  

 Here is the recap for this week :

 OUT : MADOX - QRVA (LW: 17 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 17)

OUT : Matilda - Naked (LW: 19 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 19)

OUT : J. Balvin - Ambiente (LW: 25 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 25)

OUT : Danielle Alexa  - Spin In Circles (LW: 27 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 27)

OUT : Allie X feat. VÉRITÉ - Casanova (LW: 28 / WO: 18 / PEAK: 03)

OUT : Charlie Puth feat. Kehlani - Done For Me (LW: 29 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 29)

OUT : Missy Higgins - Cemetery (LW: 33 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 33)

OUT : Hayley Kiyoko - Curious (LW: 34 / WO: 16 / PEAK: 08)

OUT : Scott Matthew - End of Days (LW: 35 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 35)

OUT : Yaysh - Light Up This Room (LW: 37 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 37)

OUT : Baby Yors - Bad Influence (LW: 38 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 12)

OUT : Matt Palmer - Inevitably (LW: 41 / WO: 12 / PEAK: 03)

OUT : Jussie Smollett - Hurt People (LW: 43 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 25)

OUT : MARUV & BOOSIN - Drunk Groove (LW: 44 / WO: 3 / PEAK: 37)

OUT : Todrick Hall feat. Shangela - Doll Hairs (LW: 47 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 47)

OUT : Bender & Schillinger - Lovelesson (LW: 48 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 15)

OUT : Sem&Stènn feat. Manuel Agnelli - Baby Run (LW: 49 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 49)

OUT : Bebe Huxley - Elaine (LW: 50 / WO: 1 / PEAK: 50)

  01 (+ 3) : Calum Scott - What I Miss Most (1 Mic 1 Take/Live From Abbey Road Studios) (LW: 04 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 01 (x1))

UK - 2018 / from the album "Only Human"

 02 (+ 7) : Kodaline - Follow Your Fire (LW: 09 / WO: 4 / PEAK: 02)

Ireland - 2018

There is a gay couple in this music video.

 03 (+ 5) : Namuel - Poder (LW: 08 / WO: 11 / PEAK: 03)

Chile - 2018

 04 (- 3) : Years & Years - Sanctify (LW: 01 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 01 (x3))

UK - 2018

Years & Years singer Olly Alexander says the band’s new single Sanctify is about straight men who experiment with gay sex.

 05 (- 3) : Saara Aalto - Monsters (LW: 02 / WO: 13 / PEAK: 02)

Finland - 2018

YES ! Saara Alto has passed the semi-final 1 and is qualified to the final : don’t forget to vote for her next Saturday at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 !

 06 (- 1) : Jackson Krecioch - Little Things (LW: 05 / WO: 3 / PEAK: 05)

USA - 2018

Jackson Krecioch is a 19 years old Musical.ly star and YouTuber. He came out publicly in 2016.

 07 (- 4) : Ryan O'Shaughnessy - Together (LW: 03 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 01 (x4))

Ireland - 2018

YES ! Ryan has passed the semi-final 1 and is qualified to the final : don’t forget to vote for him next Saturday at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 !

 08 (- 2) : Openside - I Feel Nothing (LW: 06 / WO: 13 / PEAK: 06)

New Zealand - 2017

Lead singer Possum Plows, who is gender non-binary, raises the transgender flag in this music video.

 09 (+ 4) : Francisco Victoria - Todo lo que tengo (LW: 13 / WO: 4 / PEAK: 09)

Chile - 2018

 10 (- 3) : Netta - Toy (LW: 07 / WO: 7 / PEAK: 04)

Israel - 2018

YES ! Netta has passed the semi-final 1 and is qualified to the final : don’t forget to vote for her next Saturday at the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 !

 11 (- 1) : Michael Blume - Blunder (LW: 10 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 02)

USA - 2018

 12 (+ 18) : Lostchild - Blacklist (LW: 30 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 12)

UK - 2018

The official music video is now released, and will replace the acoustic cover in the chart.

 13 (- 2) : Trevor Moran - Sinner (LW: 11 / WO: 22 / PEAK: 01 (x2))

USA - 2017

 14 (+ 2) : Todrick Hall - Type (LW: 16 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 14)

USA - 2018 /  from the album "Forbidden"

 15 (+ 6) : Keiynan Lonsdale - Kiss The Boy (Official Lyric Video) (LW: 21 / WO: 6 / PEAK: 15)

Australia - 2018

 16 (- 4) : SAKIMA - Daddy (LW: 12 / WO: 21 / PEAK: 05)

UK - 2017

 17 (+ 15) : Troye Sivan - Strawberries & Cigarettes ("Love, Simon" OST) (LW: 32 / WO: 8 / PEAK: 12)

Australia - 2018 / from the album "Love, Simon" OST

 18 (NEW) : Troye Sivan - Bloom (Lyric Video) (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 18)

Australia - 2018

The Australian singer deleted a tweet where he said that the song was talking about bottoming. Now, he answer that it only talks about flowers. If the first explanation is real, the brilliant metaphore makes this song an enjoyable gay sex anthem.

 19 (NEW) : AURORA - Queendom (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 19)

Norway - 2018

 20 (- 5) : Garek - Silhouettes & Ghosts (LW: 15 / WO: 4 / PEAK: 15)

USA - 2018  

Champion in 2017 of the Gay Music Chart with his song "Stray", the singer is back with a new original track.

 21 (RE-ENTRY) : Janelle Monáe - Pynk (LW: - / WO: 2 / PEAK: 21)

USA - 2018 / from the album "Dirty Computer"

 22 (NEW) : Domo Wilson - I Wanna Be Me (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 22)

USA - 2018 / from the album "Hear Me Now"

An inspired LGBT anthem.

 23 (NEW) : Tuure Boelius - Lätkäjätkä-Ville (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 23)

Finland - 2018

The 17 years old Finnish YouTuber decided to release this music video just before the debut of the Ice Hockey World Championship 2018, hoping changing mentalities for more acceptance and diversity in this sport. It caused a mediatic storm in Finland.

 24 (- 10) : Openside - No Going Back (LW: 14 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 14)

New Zealand - 2018

 25 (+ 15) : Francisco Victoria - Marinos (LW: 40 / WO: 19 / PEAK: 03)

Chile - 2017                            

This is the first single of the Chilean singer, produced by Alex Anwandter. A revelation.

 26 (+ 10) : Todrick Hall feat. RuPaul - Dem Beats (LW: 36 / WO: 7 / PEAK: 26)

USA - 2018 / from the album "Forbidden"

 27 (NEW) : Rainbow Riots feat. Brayo Music - We Need Love (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 27)

Sweden / Uganda - 2018 / from the album "Rainbow Riots"

It's the final single from the album Rainbow Riots featuring queer voices from some of the world’s most dangerous countries for LGBTQ people. All proceeds go towards fighting inequalities towards LGBTQ people in Uganda.

 28 (NEW) : Don Diablo feat. Calum Scott - Give Me Love (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 28)

The Netherlands / UK - 2018 / from the album "FUTURE"

 29 (NEW) : Lexy & K-Paul feat. Enda Gallery - peilSCHNARTE (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 29)

Germany - 2018 / from the album "Peilschnarten"

The music video follows a young man who struggles with his sexual orientation.

 30 (+ 15) : Ariana Grande - No Tears Left To Cry (LW: 45 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 30)

USA - 2018

This is a tribute to the victims of her concert last year in Manchester. It conviced Kevin McHale (from TV show "Glee"), to came out.

 31 (NEW) : Reigen - Smoke Drink Party (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 31)

USA - 2018

 32 (+ 14) : Conchita Wurst - Rock Me Amadeus (Falco Cover) (LW: 46 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 32)

Austria - 2018

The famous drag queen came out as HIV-positive to destroy an attempted blackmail.

 33 (NEW) : serpentwithfeet - cherubim (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 33)

USA - 2018 / from the album "Soil"

 34 (NEW) : Todrick Hall - Wanted (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 34)

USA  - 2018 / from the album "Forbidden"

 35 (- 11) : Kevin Chomat - Petite Fée (LW: 24 / WO: 9 / PEAK: 08)

France - 2018

The French singer has made a song to support Lana, a young girl who has a rare genetic disease called neurofibromatosis.

 36 (NEW) : Ben Davidson - Fallin In (Official Lyric Video) (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 36)

UK - 2018

 37 (NEW) : Blair St. Clair - Now or Never (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 37)

USA - 2018

This is the first music video of the drag queen who was a contestant on the tenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race.

 38 (NEW) : Thunderpussy - Badlands (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 38)

USA - 2018 / from the album "Thunderpussy"

 39 (NEW) : Samuel Hope - Lead Me On (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 39)

USA / Germany - 2018

 40 (- 9) : Not.Your.Regular.Boy. - Crazyland (LW: 31 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 31)

The Netherlands - 2018

Revealed on X-Factor and the Voice, this is his debut single.

 41 (- 21) : Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers (Old Love) (LW: 20 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 20)

USA - 2017 / from the album "Pluto"

This fantastic animated music video tells the story of two samurais of opposite clans who fall in love.

 42 (NEW) : Zolita - New You (LW: - / WO: 1 / PEAK: 42)

USA - 2018

 43 (- 4) : Kim Petras - Heart to Break (LW: 39 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 15)

Germany - 2018

This is the new music video of the transgender teen.

 44 (- 21) : MACO -「Sweet Memory」(LW: 23 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 23)

Japan - 2017 / from the album「メトロノーム」/ "metronome"

The music video tells the story of a sad love triangle which breaks a friendship.

 45 (- 27) : MNEK - Tongue (LW: 18 / WO: 10 / PEAK: 13)

UK - 2018

 46 (- 20) : DJ Aron & Beth Anne Sacks - Imagine (LW: 26 / WO: 5 / PEAK: 16)

USA - 2018

 47 (- 5) : Sean Lionadh - Time For Love (Homophobia In 2018) (LW: 42 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 42)

UK - 2018

Two men hold hands in a public place, but even in 2018, something’s not quite right. "Time For Love" is a poem that explores homophobia in modern society, and also the concept of normality.

 48 (- 26) : U2 - Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way (LW: 22 / WO: 2 / PEAK: 22)

Ireland - 2018 / from the album "Sound of Experience"

The music video celebrates Dublin’s youth and LGBTQ community.

 49 (RE-ENTRY) : Les Funambules feat. Maximilien Philippe - Pardon (LW: - / WO: 6 / PEAK: 15)

This song is the confession of a man who's quitting his wife because he realised he was gay.

 50 (RE-ENTRY) : Amber Liu - Lifeline (LW: - / WO: 2 / PEAK: 31)

South Korea - 2018 / from the EP "Rogue Rouge"

It's the first time there is a same-sex couple of dancers in a South Korean music video. Amber is a member of the famous kpop band f(x).

  ALSO NEW THIS WEEK

 Céline Dion - Ashes

Canada - 2018 / from the album "Deadpool 2 OST"

This is Yanis Marshall (and not Ryan Reynolds) who plays Deadpool dancing in high heels in this music video.

 Jessie Standafer feat. Alsace Carcione - High

USA - 2018

 Ängie - Here For My Habits / Venus in Furs

Sweden - 2018 / from the album "Suicidal Since 1995"

 Anne-Marie - 2002

UK - 2018 / from the album "Speak Your Mind"

 DJ Inox feat. Adam Joseph - Size Queen

Poland / USA - 2018

 LSD - Genius ft. Sia, Diplo, Labrinth

UK / Australia - 2018

 Violet Chachki - A Lot More Me

USA - 2018

 Sasha Velour - Pirate Jenny

USA - 2018

This is the first installment of One Dollar Drags, a six-part anthology of short films that celebrates drag in its many forms, with each standalone short filmed in a different genre.

 Aja feat. DJ Mitch Ferrino - Brujería

USA - 2018

 Kacey Musgraves - Butterflies

USA - 2018

 Katsbarnea - O Mundo Agora é Gay (MAG)

Brazil - 2018

 Sailorfag - Inventadas y Modernas

Mexico - 2018

 Virginia Ernst - Lay Down

Austria - 2018

 Ivri Lider עברי לידר - My Princess נסיכה שלי

Israel - 2018

 CoCo Giselle - Queen

USA - 2018 / from the album "C.H.A.M.P"

 Todrick Hall - Changed My Mind

USA - 2018 / from the album "Forbidden"

 Todrick Hall - Ka-Ching

USA  - 2018 / from the album "Forbidden"

 Todrick Hall - Silver Spoon

USA  - 2018 / from the album "Forbidden"

 Madblush - Cheguei ( Cover Ludmilla )

Brazil - 2018

 Nathan Brake - Jealous (Live @ The Voice Australia 2018)

Australia - 2018

The contestant made his proposal to his boyfriend on stage.

 Ada Vox - Circle of Life (live @ American Idol 2018)

USA - 2018

 Paula Abdul - Cold Hearted - Choreography by Blake McGrath - #TMillyTV

USA - 2018

  See you next week and don’t forget to vote for your best LGBTQA music videos ! Here are the rules :

1 ) You can vote for many videos as you want under the videos on YouTube in the comment section. It could be recent or past music videos, which must provide at least one among the following conditions:

- the music video has LGBTQA related content, in the lyrics or the music video

- the artist is LGBTQA, an LGBTQA icon or eventually ally

- LGBTQA medias talked about it.

2 ) You can’t vote more than 3 songs of a same artist per week.

3 ) In case of an artist who receive votes mostly by a fan base, we will count only one song, in a limited time of 10 weeks of presence in the top.

4 ) You can vote with only one account.

5 ) If you make 5 votes or less, your first vote will represent 5 points, your second vote 4 points, etc… until your last vote and following 1 point. If you make 6 to 10 votes, your first vote will represent 10 points, your second vote 9 points, etc… If you make more than 10 votes, your first vote will represent 20 points, your second vote 19 points, etc…

6 ) People who make 1 to 5 votes form the amateur ranking, those who make 6 to 10 votes form the fan ranking, those who make more than 10 votes form the expert ranking. We form the jury ranking. And we count now the ranking of minutes of views of our weekly playlist of the previous week. The Gay Music Chart is the addition of the five charts. In case of equality, the number of votes and the dates of votes will count.

7 ) The votes will close on Thursday, 8 PM, European time.

[ahzassociatesin]

The Five Best Cities to Study in the UK

With a rich heritage of education from pioneering universities to modern colleges, it comes as no surprise that the UK stands atop as the top study abroad destination for international students. Not only the high global rankings of UK universities but also their outstanding graduate employment rate lure students from all parts of the world into the country.

From the canals of Birmingham to the metropolitan towers of London, the UK offers a unique student life experience for which you can hardly find any match elsewhere. For those who want to pursue education in the UK, finding the right city presents itself as an arduous task. This discussion details the five best locations in the United Kingdom for international students.

London

With an ineffable lifestyle and diverse culture, London stands as a coveted location for higher education aspirants. Equipped with some of the best universities in the world, the city can exceed your educational expectations. With unique opportunities to expand your network and access to job openings at Fortune 500 companies, you could not find a better place to finish your higher education and kick start your career.

Manchester

With its quirky and historic culture, Manchester goes head-to-head with London if you prefer to study in large cities. From Benedict Cumberbatch and Professor Brian Cox, Manchester universities mould the best minds in their respective fields. Similar to London, the city offers a warm and welcoming culture whilst being slightly more affordable than the capital city when it comes to living expenses.

Edinburgh

A city that’s classical and contemporary at the same time - a fair definition for Edinburgh. Built on seven hills with distinctive architecture, much of the city compares unbelievably similar to the picturesque landscapes of Germany and Holland. For adventurous minds, rock-climbing presents as an exhilarating outdoor activity and so does shopping in the Princes or George Street. An exuberant and affordable nightlife awaits you from the oldest pubs like the Sheep Heid Inn to the eateries of Hendersons.

Glasgow

From kilts to bagpipes, the Scottish culture stands out amongst the various amalgamations in the UK. From the great museums and galleries to one of the largest libraries in the country - the Mitchell Library, Glasgow presents as a conducive option for your academic pursuits in the UK. Furthermore, the Rough Guide readers rank the city as “world’s friendliest.” The society promotes sports championships in football, rugby, ice hockey, basketball, swimming and more. As diverse as it comes, shopaholics will feel right at home with the city’s premier retail hub, from “Style Mile” to the vintage shops in the West End.

Birmingham

Situated in the centre of the UK, Birmingham is the second-largest city in the country. The metropolis hosts some of the thriving professional communities of the world, with its arts and film festivals. Home to a diverse student community of more than 65,000, Birmingham offers access to numerous societies and sports clubs. Delicacy-wise, you would be surprised to know that Cadbury World is headquartered here. With 35 miles of canals, the exquisite landscape invokes memories of Venice - just an indication of how electrifying the student life here is.