#Mostly because their deaths were ruled out as accidental or misadventure

[cxpperhead]

Copperhead had brought his fair share of trouble to Gotham but tonight people could rest a little easier knowing that winter was the season where he was least active. Currently the metahuman was curled up beneath an electric blanket, watching online documentaries about unsolved crimes while enjoying a tray of sushi delivered right to his doorstep.

[artistjojo1228]

Rock and Roll Storytime #8: Motherf***ing Altamont (Otherwise Known as the Worst Mistake the Rolling Stones Ever Made)

Let’s face it, 1969 was a pretty crazy year no matter where you stand. On one hand, there were the moon landings, Woodstock, and general protesting against the Vietnam War (much to the chagrin of the Establishment), but on the other hand, there was the Chappaquiddick incident, the death of Brian Jones, and the Beatles starting to head full-steam down the path that led to their breakup in April 1970. 

And then, there was Altamont, what has otherwise been labeled as the darkest day in Rock and Roll History. 

This one’s going to be frustrating (and as an aside, I’m actually quite glad that Brian Jones missed out on this one, and likely would have even if he hadn’t drowned, by virtue of getting fired from the Rolling Stones in June 1969).

Let me start off by positing one simple question: WHICH DUMBASS CAME UP WITH THE BRIGHT IDEA OF HIRING THE HELL’S ANGELS AS SECURITY?!

Okay, I guess I’d better start earlier than that, even, with some of the lead-in. The Rolling Stones had last performed in the concert circuit in 1967, and by June 1969, they wanted to get back on the road. One problem: their guitarist, Brian Jones, was unable to get a work visa due to having racked up two drug convictions in the meantime (at least one of which was definitely based on planted evidence). Even then, Brian, for reasons known mostly to him and only speculated upon by me, had stopped contributing to the Stones’ music, if he even showed up to recording sessions at all. Mick Jagger, himself, said that Brian’s last major contribution to a Rolling Stones song was the hauntingly beautiful slide guitar on the melancholic “No Expectations”. 

It was apparently their road manager, Ian Stewart, who brought up the idea of letting Brain go from the band. Bill and Charlie had absolutely no say in the decision, but ultimately, on June 8, 1969, Mick and Keith went to Brian’s residence, Cotchford Farm, to tell him he was being fired, with Charlie tagging along to make sure a fight didn’t break out. However, by most accounts, Brian had been expecting this would happen, and agreed to leave the band. Mick and Keith left the press statement up to Brian, and possibly to save face, he decided to make it look like he’d left the band on his own accord. 

The statement read: “I no longer see eye to eye with the others over the discs we are cutting. We no longer communicate musically. The Stones’ music is not to my taste any more. The work of Mick and Keith has progressed at a tangent, at least to my way of thinking. I have a desire to play my own brand of music rather than that of others, no matter how much I appreciate their musical concepts. We had a friendly meeting and agreed that an amicable termination, temporary or permanent, was the only answer. The only solution was to go our separate ways, but we shall still remain friends. I love those fellows.”

How much of this statement was true is up to personal conjecture. In either case, Brian was replaced by 20-year-old Mick Taylor, who’d previously played with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. In a press conference on June 13, the band announced Taylor’s arrival (having two Micks in the band gets so confusing), as well a free concert in Hyde Park on July 5 to introduce the youngest member of the band. 

Then, just two days before the concert, Brian drowned in his backyard swimming pool at the age of twenty-seven. His death was ruled as misadventure (which personal research seems to back up), but theories persist to this day that he was, instead, murdered. 

In the blink of an eye, the Hyde Park gig went from being an introduction to Mick Taylor to being a tribute to Brian Jones. In honor of Brian, the concert began with Mick reading two verses from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Adonais,” and as the band began playing “I’m Yours and I’m Hers” (one of Brian’s favorite songs), 2,500 cabbage white butterflies were released (against stipulation), though, by this point, many had died in the July heat, due to the boxes not being properly ventilated. Even if, on a technical level, it wasn’t one of the Stones’ best shows, it still showed the world at large that the Stones were back (baby). 

So, what does all this have to do with Altamont? Well, providing security that day was the London chapter of the Hell’s Angels. Apparently, it was Rock Scully’s idea, after he’d hired the Angels as security on multiple occasions while managing the Grateful Dead. 

Thing is, the London chapter was a lot calmer when compared with the infamous Californian branch of the Hell’s Angels. 

So yeah, there’s problem #2...

That summer, a little concert called Woodstock took place, which ended up epitomizing the peace and love movement. But if that was the high, then Altamont was what brought that idealism to a screeching halt. 

Problem #3: the concert was based entirely on the notion that the Stones could hold a free concert as a sort of West Coast Woodstock. 

After all, even journalists throughout that tour had been complaining about high ticket prices (even though $3-$8 seems to me a steal considering they’re going in the triple digits nowadays...). What could go wrong?

Those of you familiar with Murphy’s Law may be able to see where I’m going with all this. 

Problem #4: their tour manager, Sam Cutler, just couldn’t get a venue. 

He tried to score them a gig in San Fransisco, but there was a football game taking place, San Jose wouldn’t have another concert so soon after the last one, and Sears Point Raceway asked for a $100,000 fee as well as distribution rights to the concert footage (the entire tour had been filmed by a crew including the Maysles brothers and future Star Wars director George Lucas). So, a mere forty-eight hours before the concert began, the Stones finally settled on Altamont Speedway. 

Needless to say, anyone who’s ever been to a concert or organized any large scale events would be able to tell you that choosing the venue at the last minute is NEVER a good idea. This is also evidenced by the fact that the venue was covered in trash and lacked basic amenities such as water and toilets, but hey, the owner offered it for free, so why not?

I swear, the level of incompetence shown by multiple parties throughout these proceedings is on another level (and I read the Darwin Awards...)

Also, as a result of the ASTRONOMICALLY poor planning, the stage was only an inch off the ground, and since there were only two days before the concert, there was no time to make the stage safe, so already, anyone playing at Altamont the day of December 6 were putting themselves at risk (I don’t know if waivers were signed either). Not to mention the fact that there would be absolutely no barriers between the performers and the reported 300,000 attendees. 

So, that should cover problems #6 and #7, but in my personal opinion, the coup de grace of all these fuck-ups was the decision to hire the Californian Hell’s Angels as security. 

Again, as I said, the Stones did have the London branch of the Hell’s Angels at the Stones in the Park concert, but anyone who knows anything worth a damn about the Californian Hell’s Angels would know that it’s a whole different ballpark dealing with them. From what I’ve heard, the hippies had an unrealistically idealized version of them in their heads, and Cutler apparently even tried warning the Stones about the “real” Hell’s Angels. Even then, the Hell’s Angels were offered $500 worth of beer to basically just sit on the side of the stage and make sure no one got too close. 

If you’ll excuse me, I need to go call the organizers fucking idiots in a minimum of seven languages. ... Okay, I’m good. Still pissed, but I’m fine. 

In either case, also not helping matters was that at least 95% of the audience were high on one substance or another, because, let’s face it, this was the hippie movement. And according to Rolling Stone magazine, the organizers also didn’t warn neighboring landowners of the hippies descending on the scene, set the whole thing in a desolate, treeless, wasteland (and still there was no clear barrier between the performers and the audience), the sound system was shit, and in general, the stage was completely surrounded by people and their cars. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m already smelling a disaster waiting to happen. 

The concert was to feature Santana, Jefferson Airplane, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, The Grateful Dead, and of course, the Rolling Stones. 

Things started out smoothly with Santana’s set, but only deteriorated from there, as the Hell’s Angels got increasingly drunk. Throughout the day, the Angels would attack anyone who was being problematic (sometimes with sawed-off pool cues and motorcycle chains), although their victims include a guy running around naked and another who was trying to take pictures of the stage. Things only got worse after someone (possibly accidentally) knocked over one of the Angels’ motorcycles. During Jefferson Airplane’s set, Marty Balin jumped into the crowd to stop a fight and was knocked unconscious, and when Paul Kantner sarcastically thanked the Angels, one, Bill Fritsch, took up a microphone and argued with him about it. One woman called a radio show the next day to say that she saw several fistfights break out, and every single one of them involved the Hell’s Angels. When she tried to speak up about it, other people around her told her to keep quiet out of fear of provoking them. Denise Jewkes, lead singer of Ace of Cups and who was SIX MONTHS PREGNANT, got hit in the head by a beer bottle, causing a skull fracture (the Stones later paid for her medical expenses). Stephen Stills was reportedly stabbed in the leg several times by a “stoned-out” Hell’s Angel. When the Rolling Stones flew in, Mick was punched in the face almost the second he got off the helicopter. Things got so bad, that the Grateful Dead basically just said “Fuck it” and got the hell out of dodge. 

Apparently, the only time the crowds calmed down, even a little, was when the Flying Burrito Brothers took the stage. 

It was dark when the Rolling Stones finally took the stage (partly because Bill Wyman missed the first helicopter), and by then, things were only deteriorating further (if such a thing is even possible). Fighting between audience member and Hell’s Angel alike kept breaking out, to the point where Mick stopped the show in a vain attempt to get the crowd to calm down. 

All I can say is, “Too little, too late.”

And still, as the Stones tried to keep performing, the situation only got worse. While Mick was singing “Under My Thumb”, yet another melee broke out, and in the chaos, 18-year-old Meredith Hunter, who had come with his girlfriend Patti Bredehoft and who happened to be high on meth at this very moment, was stabbed to death by 21-year-old Alan Passaro, after apparently brandishing a .22 caliber revolver in the direction of the stage. Passaro was later acquitted of all charges, which I think was a horrible mistake. It’s impossible to know for certain whether Hunter had been trying to defend himself or if he actually intended to shoot Mick Jagger, but what is known is that Hunter’s murder was captured on camera. You can watch the footage, but I must say, it makes for grisly viewing: 

People who were at the scene have since reported that Hunter was in urgent need of medical attention. However, the helicopter pilots who were there refused to take off for any one but the Rolling Stones. EVEN THOUGH THIS WAS CLEARLY A LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION. 

Excuse me, I need to take another break to scream to the heavens about why this was allowed....

Needless to say, Hunter died while waiting for an ambulance to come. In addition, two other people were killed in a hit-and-run accident, whilst another drowned under the influence of LSD. Also, four babies were born. 

The next day, the Stones were on a plane back to London. 

In the years since Hunter’s death, no one in either the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, or the Hell’s Angels have taken responsibility for what happened. The Hell’s Angels, the organizers, and the crowds blamed each other for what happened, and the Stones have never really spoken up about it. They’ve never even had the decency of apologizing to Meredith Hunter’s family. 

If you ask me though, I’d say that the fault lies entirely with everyone who organized this whole mess. Somehow, everyone involved was naive and/or stupid enough to try and organize an entire concert in just a few weeks as opposed to months, and the decision to hire the Hell’s Angels as security only exacerbated the ineptitude of everyone involved. 

Let’s face it, none of the organizers were innocent, and no one in the crowd escaped without losing their collective innocence. There’s a damn good reason that this is considered the death knell for the hippie movement, and it’s all in the footage taken that night. 

Sources/Further Reading: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/remembering-meredith-hunter-the-fan-killed-at-altamont-630260/ https://www.ranker.com/list/altamont-free-concert-facts/jen-jeffers https://allthatsinteresting.com/altamont-speedway-free-concert https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-chaos-of-altamont-and-the-murder-of-meredith-hunter Up and Down with the Rolling Stones by Tony Sanchez Life by Keith Richards Altamont by Joel Selvin https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-altamont-festival-brings-the-1960s-to-a-violent-end https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/02/01/altamont-free-concert-in-1969/ https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/08/21/altamont-festival/ https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/07/23/altamont-the-rolling-stones-and-the-death-of-the-sixties-dream/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altamont_Free_Concert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Meredith_Hunter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rolling_Stones_American_Tour_1969 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stones_in_the_Park https://web.archive.org/web/20161116164203/https://theravenreport.com/2016/10/31/rock-and-rolls-worst-day-this-1969-concert-ended-in-death/ https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-rolling-stones-disaster-at-altamont-let-it-bleed-71299/ http://timeisonourside.com/chron1969.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUlyVSfhgaM

[poppun-chan]

So since the new Tama & Friends anime is coming out, I thought I’d talk about the very first one from the 90s because, really it’s wild time.

The series was picked up for an English release and used to air before Fox’s saturday morning line up. The show followed the misadventures of a group of cats & dogs, mostly pets with a coupke of strays mixed in, some times the stories would connect to the human companions of a few of the central characters (Namely the boy and girl that own Tama & Momo, respectively, and a bot who looks like a younger version of Brock from Pokemon, no really they even dress similarly).

Basically it was like Hamtaro if it were about cats & dogs instead of Hamsters.

However, there’s a bunch of episodes that never got released here, which is where we get the weird stuff, including: dancing vending machines, zombie dogs, and the show out right turning into Dragon Ball.

There’s also a few episodes that touch on darker subject matter than you would expect from the show; I haven’t seen every episode but at least one other episode beside the zombie dog story deals with death and emotional trauma.

There’s some more light hearted stories that fit with the other ones that got dubbed too, like a cute little story about one of the dogs becoming a local celebrity when people notice he can correctly identify the three main types of fish his owner sells (it’s not the “character becomes famous and abandons/pushes aside their friends” story American shows, he actually gets really stressed out by the attention). But a few of the episodes are really....something else.

(summaries under the break)

Weird:

Midnight Kuro: One of the dogs, Kuro, is starled by the vending machine outside his home talking (note talking vending machines are fairly common in Japan, apparently even back then, so it lighting up and talking at random could just be written off as the machine being old and Kuro accidentally tripping the sensor).

The episode could have just been the typical “animals misenterpret a human thing” story except for the end when the vending machine, now able to move after the animals unplugged her (thinking her wire was a tail stuck in the wall) and she dances with the phone booth across the street.

It actually ends on a slightly sad note as the vending machine is replaced the next day and knew it was going to happen, but is glad she got to dance with the phone booth.

We’re not angels: A little girl who’s parents are always away on business trips wishes for a pet cat to keep her company and asks an angel statue to make her dream pet real. That night the drawing she left behind turns into a real cat, or possibly the angel from the statue turns into the pink cat she drew (Named Koko)....either way she’s an angel.

A few of the animals meet Koko, while a dog angel named Poro meets some to the others and holds them hostage to try and force Koko to go back to the world of angels (yes that’s what they call it) with him because she’s apparently breaking the rules by doing this. But she’s deternimed to help the girl so she rescues the others, and fights Poro while flying around.

As I said, it looks like Dragon Ball (Tiger Ball?). She wins in the end and leaves to find the girl.

Dark:

Matsuri Bayashi: A child drops off a newborn kitten he can’t keep in hopes somebody will find it that night since it’s the festival. The pets find it and Nora (it means stray, he’s Rockney in the dub) the cat leads everyone in trying to save it while also coping with the aniversary of the death of the human woman he briefly lived with.

They fail to save the kitten, the episode’s title comes from the essmble musicians that play during festivals since the sound of the music retriggered the memories.

The wandering collar, & The legend of devil Pochi: This one is....something else: the children and a few animals have a supernatural encounter with the ghost of a girl and her dog who died during the war; the flashbacks and mention of it don’t try to hold anything back either. The girl’s ghost tries to steal Tama in the first part, in the second they try to deal with the problem by taking the collar to where the pair died.

Pochi (one of the dogs) is possessed by the ghost dog via the collar and takes Tama into his memories before attacking him, when the children break up the fight and get the collar off a graphic looking zombie dog manifests in it and attacks them.

They’re saved by the ghost girl who thanks them for trying to help and bringing her flowers, she calms the dog’s spirit and they’re finally able to move on