#trick is for me to post a random oldie then he posts a story

[newagesispage]

                                                                        MAY                 2021

The Rib Page

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George Takei is sweatin’ with the oldies. He stars in a fitness app for gay seniors, Bar Belles. It was his April Fool’s day joke.

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Fox will bring us Crime Scene Kitchen on May 26 with host Joel McHale.

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Joel Hodgson has launched a new kick starter to create a new independent season of MTS3K, The goal is $2mil.

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Bob Odenkirk will release: Comedy, comedy, comedy, drama: A Memoir on Jan. 18 2022

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Leslie Jones will host the 2021 MTV Awards.

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$3 mil was raised for Next for Autism with help from Conan, Kimmel, Charlize, Chris Rock, Jack Black and Sarah Silverman.

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Have ya noticed that Gayle King looks great in yellow.

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Some people are not too happy that Elon Musk will host SNL on May 8. Miley Cyrus is the musical guest.** Musk tweeted: Let’s find out just how live SNL really is. Cast member Bowen Yang tweeted back, : What the Fuck does this even mean?

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Oh Seth Meyers: Every time I see the sea captain on your show, I miss him so much!!

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There is a spotlight on Foxconn which made a big splash for Trump at the start of his presidency. The company has done a lot of nothing but still gets tax cuts. Homes were demolished, roads were widened to nowhere and money was spent. Wisconsinites are upset that this big business is just folly and a big glass orb.

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Mike Lindell is a kook but he did try to appear to be a good sport on Kimmel.

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When will weed be legal on a federal level? When will drug testing for employment be illegal? We hear so much about personal rights with the gun laws and vaccines and masks. What about the right to do what we want with our bodies when we are not at work. Think of the administrative costs that could be saved if we just removed drug testing. Our experience and work ethic should mean more that what we do with our free time. This is not a problem at all companies. There are places in this country where it is near impossible anywhere in your area to get hired without a drug screening. One joint on a random Saturday night could keep someone from a great opportunity. A person in pain who reaches for an edible might miss out on the job that saves their lives.

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NASA sent the first flight to another planet. The Mars flight made history with the 30 sec feat.

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What? The Menendez brothers are popular again? From the Ramsey case to the Manson murders or Bundy, it all comes back around again.

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The Lizzie Borden house just sold for $2mil to Lance Zaal of U. S. Ghost Adventures.

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Quarantine and so much television et al proves one thing, the pharmaceutical and insurance companies have way too much $.

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Trump told everyone to boycott Coke and is later seen drinking diet Coke.** Trump sent out a statement about how bad the Oscars are. They threw it right back in his face. ** Federal agents have searched Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment. It stems from the 2 year investigation into activities in Ukraine.

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X-VP Pence is said to have pressured the Navy to reinstate former Mo. Gov. Eric Greitens. Greitens was accused of tying up, blindfolding, taking explicit photos of and blackmailing a woman.

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There is a crisis in schools with the lack of civics and history being taught.

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Hulk Hogan was hit with a chorus of Boo’s at his latest event.

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The latest sexual harassment news: Matt Gaetz  is being looked into for sex with a minor and sex trafficking.  Bill Barr opened the investigation.** Tom Reed has been accused of sexual misconduct by former lobbyist, Nicolette Davis.** Marilyn Manson has been sued by Game of Thrones, Esme Bianco for sexual abuse.

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What is going on with Bank of America? I am hearing from multiple people that often they do not get their statement in the mail. Is this a bad Postal service? Is this bad business practice? How many late fees had to be paid because of this? Not everybody wants to pay their bills online.

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Jack Hanna has revealed that he has dementia.

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Tiny Tim : King for a day is a new doc I must see. The film contains footage shot from Warhol’s Factory. There are excerpts from Tim’s diary read by Weird Al Yankovic and the story of how Tiny’s friend, Bob Dylan wanted to make a film with him.

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Lindsay Lohan’s Father, Michael has been charged with 5 counts patient brokering and 1 count of attempted patient brokering. This is an apparent scam of steering addicts into rehab for cash.

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Aaron Sorkin and Paulina Porizkova are dating. Pete Davidson and Phoebe Dynevor are dating.

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JB Smoove has a new podcast brought to you by TeamCoco.

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Hey.. People working on the new Law and Order: Organized Crime….. TOO MUCH MELONI!!

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Zach Avery, actor, was arrested for his participation in a $690 mil Ponzi scheme.

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President Biden has restored aid to the Palestinians.

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MLB put up a wall in Georgia but the Masters stayed.

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Hank Azaria has brought Brockmire to a new podcast.

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Tommy Chong isn’t allowed on FB because of his weed posts but they allow an imposter to use his name to sell weed.

Pennsylvania is trying to push thru 14 voter suppression bills.

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Joe Manchin. Ugh!!** Marjorie Taylor- Greene has let go of her America First caucus.** Ted Cruz has allegedly used $154, 000 of his campaign funds to buy up copies of his book to boost sales. This is an old trick but still illegal.

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For the first time, The Carter Center became involved in a U.S. election. They published videos and live webcasts as well as deploying observers across Georgia.

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Most health programs in Uganda, Nigeria and Ethiopia have resumed after Covid.** Tom Vilsack from the Dept. of Agriculture has announced the USDA will provide assistance to 30 million kids.** It is sad to me that we have to entice people to vaccinate. Football games, Church’s and shot for shot in bars?? Really? Saving the lives of others should be enough. WTF?

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Alec Baldwin, Alec Mapa and Kelsey Grammer are shopping around a new comedy that ABC decided to pass on.

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Chauvin was found guilty.

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Days alert: C’mon Ben, calm the fuck down! Don’t prove how out of control you are like everybody thinks. ** Xander is so funny right now.** How many people will Kristen be and how many times can one person melt down?? **Bring Carrie back!! **Jackee’ seemed a bit nervous in the beginning but she is fitting right in. More!

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The SAG awards came and went. With the Trial of the Chicago 7 winning best ensemble, Michael Keaton is the first person to be in 3 best casts for SAG’s.** Other winners include Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Daniel Kaluuta, Youn Yuh-Jung, Mark Ruffalo, Anya Taylor- Joy, Jason Bateman, Catherine O’Hara, Schitt’s Creek and The Crown.

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The Oscars were held on April 25. It was a bit of a yawner and why would a show set themselves up for an awkward end?? There was a commercial from P&G right before the broadcast that stated, “ Widen the screen so we can widen our view.” Nice sentiment.  Mank had so many noms and only 2 wins. People looking their best to me were Leslie Odom Jr., Glenn Close, Riz Ahmed, LaKeith Stanfield, Colman Domingo, John Batiste, Mia Neal, Questlove (gold crocs and a mask!), Desmond Roe, Travon Free, Trish Summerville, Marlee Matlin, The Lucas Brothers, Andra Day, Carey Mulligan, Amanda Seyfried, Nicolette Robinson, Regina King and Margot Robbie. Laura Dern looked like Big Bird, there were just too many feathers. Tiara Thomas had feathers but they looked great.  Angela Bassett had some power sleeves and Tyer Perry looked like a little boy.  Hooray for Emerald Fennell for her win for original screenplay but not sure about the dress. And Viola Davis?? Dana Murray?? Ashley Fox?? Hmm?? Winners seemed to have trouble getting to the stage. They often refused the steps or the walkway and sort of climbed up the side. I did love the intimate setting and it did remind me of the old clips of years before. Sound of metal and Ma Rainey both won. Tyler Perry and for the first time, an organization, the motion picture and television fund, took home the humanitarian award. I was thrilled to see My Octopus Teacher win for Doc. I loved Crip Camp too, that was a hard category.  The acting winners went in all directions.  Many critics complained that the films were real downers . Nomadland won best picture. Michael Moore put it best I think. Of the films this year, he said, “They force you to look backward with 2021 eyes.”

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Why the Fuck do we need a militarized police force?

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R.I.P. victims of the multiple mass shootings, victims of police shootings, the crush in Israel, Cosette Brown, Midwin Charles, DMX, Paul Ritter, Ethel Gabriel, G. Gordon Liddy, Buddy Peppenschmidt,  Prince Philip, Anne Beatts, Diane Adler, Vartan Gregorian, Monte Hellman, Jim Steinman, Michael Collins, Michael wolf Snyder, Johnny Crawford, Eli Broad and Walter Mondale.

[fleurdelissaswords-blog]

Appetite for Deception, The Best Guns N’ Roses Tribute Band: Concert Review and More…

Ok, truth be told, I had not planned on making it to this show. My parents suggested it but we’re going to be gone that weekend, but somehow, quite by chance, I ended up there anyway. And WOW, WHAT A SHOW!!!

Some of you have heard my story of seeing the real GNR back in 1992, and how it has always remained one of my favorite shows to this day… right up there with Nine Inch Nails on my list. I grew up in a musical family. One parent was an ex-rockstar. Now before you start thinking this made for a killer childhood of popularity and invites to every party, it wasn’t like that! They were strict, and we weren’t really allowed to tell peers about this… their rockstar days were over, settled into a quiet life and new careers.

Probably owing to their experience in the Rock N Roll world, they were strict in their parenting style. They were protective of me, naturally. Of course I grew up hearing stories of backstage parties with the members of Heart, private dinner parties with Stevie Nicks, etc. But for a musical family, MTV was woefully under perpetual parental control! “The state of music these days is awful anyway” I’d hear when there was a live concert airing on MTV, us kids wanted to see. And I was a young naive teenage girl learning to play guitar and with stars in my eyes. And my biggest starry eyes were for Axl Rose! My parents were appalled. “Oh God, she’s gonna go into the rock scene!” Lol.

But because my folks were protective, I had to beg for months to be allowed to see GNR live back then. I had to get good grades for 2 months. I had to all my chores. I even did some extra chores just to be safe. And finally they relented with some strict curfew rules. My entire high school class was basically going. I would be no exception.

But when we got tons of prank calls with some school mate blaring my parent’s song that was AGAIN on the stupid oldies rock station for “has beens,” and laughing then hanging up, only to repeat it again the next day, it did not make for a glorious childhood. My folks would get pissed. I was embarrassed that classmates did this whenever they heard the song. But when my folks played it at home for us kids at campfires, it was like our own private show! Beat that jerk bullies!

Looking back I realized my peers were jealous. But back then it felt like I was the biggest geek for having a “has been” for parents. But I loved them and admired their musical abilities until all of us kids were learning different instruments, and singing renditions of Puff the Magic Dragon around the bonfire on family camping trips.

I was never the stellar musician like my folks were. My skills were in singing, but I hadn’t discovered that at the time. I wanted to learn drums but my parents, fearing a LOT of endless loud banging noise, told my band teacher no, when he approached them at a school talent show asking if they would enroll a promising student in the music program. They needed a drummer and I wanted to learn. So I ended up on guitar and keyboard. But I had the best teacher at home! I just wasn’t disciplined enough, because I wanted to learn drums. Years later, I am now learning the drums finally. So the love of music, especially rock, was instilled in me.

I also grew up hearing lots of amazing stories of my parents opening for bands like Heart, dating members of The Turtles, and a lot of crazy rock n'roll stories. Let’s just say, my folks were the most popular on my school’s Career Day when parents came to discuss their professions. Lol. But after that I got bullied relentlessly for having the parents I had.

My siblings were too young to go to that awesome show back in 1992, just after the GNR riots had been all over the media. My folks feared the crowd would get violent… it was a possibility! I had 6th row seats and couldn’t have been more excited for one of my first concerts when sophomore year came around. But my siblings finally got to see them live just this past year on their reunion tour, which I missed. So this Tribute band show made up for that in a big way. Oh now my folks will inform me about good shows to see… I think they’ve given up on trying to keep me away from the music scene, and we’re all older now. My folks are honestly much cooler and fun to go to live shows with. In fact it was my parents who told me about this GNR Tribute show, and said I should go and they would too except they had prior obligations, but that the band was a notable good one they liked. So with their vote of confidence, I entered.

At the show, the venue was packed! It was like 1992 all over again! The fans looked like the same fans aged 20 years still in their GNR t-shirts and sexy black dresses.

The venue was packed! And I mean packed. Nursing a leg injury, I needed a spot to sit… so, having been to over 200 live shows during my lifetime, a few tricks came in handy. “Weave and duck, weave and duck, find a nook on the side of the stage and park it there! Find a sitty-spot! THEN, GET ALL THE FOOTAGE!!!” The roady saw me struggling at my first live show in a while, and allowed me to sit on the side of the stage for the show due to my injury. They actually gave up tbeir seat ON the stage where they were watching the show, which was truly kind, as I was in pain, and I ended up getting what is probably this band’s best footage ever! You’re welcome you awesome guys. And I remember it feeling so much like the real band, not nearly as cheesy and cliche as I thought, more people should know about this awesome band. So I decided to turn what would have just been some random live footage posted, into an entire review article and interview with the band, which they were gracious enough to (I’ve only ever seen 2 tribute band shows… both disappointing, so didn’t pursue it.)

During the show, Axl Rose, played meticulously by the handsome Mark Thomas, made a comment about looking for more live footage from fans from previous shows. Welp… I had TWO devices on me, DONE! He showed off the same impressive vocal range that Axl himself has, which isn’t easy to pull off. What women know as a beautiful haunting combination of loud screaming and low register soulful notes, Mark knocked it out of the ballpark. He even INSISTED on paying for his post-show drink, even when it was offered on the house. Now, that I had never seen in all my years of attending shows, and probably impressed me just as much as his singing and swaying… yes he does the whole Axl sway and leg kicks, and yes it’s HOT!

I was a bit late to the show, but arrived just in time to hear literally all of my favorite GNR songs. Btw, since coming from a grocery store, I had to bring a bag of food in with me, and have the guys behind the bar keep an eye on it for me… I hope whoev at the venue who stole my Halloween cookies, enjoyed them!!! 😡 I will now call you the Bob Guccione of the night bruh! Bad form dude. But now the world knows. I love your venue, your pool tables need some work, your drinks are great, your food is bomb, so eat yer own food, not mine! I lost My cookies at this show, and not for the typical reason a concert-goer does. I WANT MY COOKIES BACK!!! Thank God my other snacks made it home.

This was definitely a Use Your Illusion Era show set, which Mark later told me they don’t always play so much material from these albums, but are admittedly his favorites… the audience agreed. He wasn’t out to just play every notable number one single from GNR, they played songs you could tell, they loved themselves and sounded good together on. And Mark, as Axl, told the story of each song in between. I haven’t seen that done since seeing Stevie Nicks (another Bucket List band I waited my whole life to see, after hearing stories of her in the music scene growing up). Mr. Thomas even made the classic “Rocket Queen” joke about how he “effed another band member’s girlfriend” for the song tracks. This was one song I was excited to hear, as the original GNR never played it back in 1992 that night.

But my favorite GNR era has got to be the Use Your Illusion era. The musical composition was at its very best, mixing classical piano into rock ballads that went for almost ten minutes and left you scratching your head as to its meaning. I mean why did GNR need dolphins (which were actually porpoises) for their Estranged video? Dolphins don’t swim around downtown LA… unless someone knows something I don’t about the area? 🤔

Their rendition of Estranged had me transfixed and I really believed I was back in ‘92 watching GNR play on that stage again. Mark did the classic side-to-side jaunt Axl is known for. He wore the headband. He reluctantly gave “Slash” all of his due solos. Slash, played by Brandon Cook, has a music degree, and agreed to talk to me after the show for this article, and pose for some killer still shots. He also can play bass, I learned later. He had the same guitar Slash uses, that beautiful Les Paul I’ve been wanting my whole life, so much ogling of instruments did occur. Lol. And the top hat must get hot during shows.

Since I’m learning how to play drums, I payed particular attention to “Matt Sorum,” played by Andrew Greene… I am nowhere near that good yet but I can appreciate a good drum solo by a trained player! He just inspired me to practice harder… got those paradiddles down now yo! I was also envying his drum set. When Paradise City hit its chorus, he showed his skills and made the song, even though it was originally played by Steven Adler not Mat Sorum. People always say that Steven Adler was the powerhouse player and Mat Sorum more technical, so of course whoev played this set had to be both, and he was. And it was amazing to watch.

During our interview, Mark said it was their Izzy Stradlin, played by Michael Killian who was the one who posted for auditions for a GNR tribute band on Craigslist that made this band of amazing musicians a reality. He apparently had some sunset strip under his belt from the same era, which is always nice to hear in a tribute band. That they know the genre and area it comes from, and the culture of the times, to portray live on stage.

Throughout the show, I got the chance to speak with several fans in the audience. Some of them had seen this band before and said they were in rare form this night. Others traveled from other places to see the show, as seasoned fans. They sounded great! For a smaller venue, where the sound can be a bit iffy for live performers, this band, being professional, had it worked out so every note came through beautifully.

I didn’t know much about this band, except for my parents saying they were good. And I trust their judgement obviously. So at home after the show I did some digging to learn more about them for this article. They also played with Jeremy Walker as Duff. The day they all arrived at the audition for this band, Mark commented it was their preparedness of the material, and how good they all sounded together at the initial audition despite having never even met, that gave this band that extra spark of something special that translates well to fans. It’s called Chemistry, and not every band has it so naturally as these guys do! So if you ever get the chance to see Appetite for Deception, do so. You’ll love it.

When it came time for audience participation during Paradise City, the venue lit up and everyone chipped in. Mark Thoma, as Axl, held the exact same mic out over the audience, and I’m betting the voices filled the entire city block! People were clapping and singing along and cheering… a few of you especially rowdy fans managed to sneak cameos into my footage with devil horns in the air. Lol. It got wild. And we were all old school rockers now. Needless to say it was a fun night of nostalgia and I’m glad I went.. it was actually better than the real GNR show the month before sound-wise, and I did not expect to say that after comparing footage. And I still envy Slash’s guitar to this day… hey if you ever wanna sell bruh, look me up.

Songs played ran the course of GNR’s musical career, from their Appetite days, with Paradise City, to Don’t Cry, and one of my favorites Knockin on Heaven’s Door, as the audience participated in the chorus. I loved their Estranged, where yes, I did imagine porpoises swimming around downtown LA for some strange reason. And of course Rocket Queen is always a crowd favorite. I never got to hear it back in 1992 when the real band played. At the time I remember being a bit upset one of their more controversial songs hadn’t made the set list, so bucket list item: check!… I must have missed Sweet Child O Mine during this tribute show somehow, but I arrived a bit after the show started, cuz the checkout line for my cookies ran longer than expected.

And thanks Uber driver for waiting and getting me to the show, and not being a creep. That always helps!

Look for the other projects by these band members: Steelhorse – Bon Jovi Tribute, SOS – Motley Crue Tribute, Jukebox Heroes – Foreigner Tribute, Bad Ellie – Original project, The Penalty – Original project, Sovereign – Original project, BAM – Acoustic Trio.

The band would also like to thank Jason Fellman of J-Fell Productions. He has a full lineup of other good tribute acts I hear!

Mark Thomas "Axl," also has a petition you might be interested in signing, if you are an animal lover like the rest of us: https://www.change.org/p/theresa-may-mp-stop-this-evilness-and-save-the-elephant-species/fbog/810582541?recruiter=810582541&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial.combo_new_control_progress_bar&utm_term=autopublish&pt=AVBldGl0aW9uAPH8vQAAAAAAWdb7SR%2BCrnVmMWIyODI1Ng%3D%3D%3Frecruiter%3D807962854

You can find out more at http://j-fell.com/ For booking shows in other states, Mark Thomas does the bulk of communicating and planning for those gigs. They are all availble on Facebook at: https://m.facebook.com/AppetiteForDeception/ And: http://www.j-fell.com/a4d/