I went to see Kiss last night. I've been a Kiss fan since 1979 but I think that was mostly because things used to take a long time to filter down the line back then - I could have jumped on slightly earlier with better media at my disposal and maybe a bit of extra cash. Still, it's a fair old whack of time and I have never once regretted my allegiance and still don't. It was good to see them again. Most telling however: I took Rhiannon with me to see what she would make of it and if I say she used up all her phone storage before she killed her battery by taking photos and videos, that's probably a good indication of how that side of it went.
There's a lot of detractors around - as there always has been - to which I say: what will you be doing when you're looking down the barrel of 70?
I also got mistaken for Robert Plant. Twice. I'm sure Mr Plant spends a lot of time hanging out by the doors of large indoor venues. Go figure. Then again, there are very few other people I would like to be mistaken for.
Meantime, this morning I was looking at doing some reviews for a couple of sites I like and saw a request for a review of a movie called A Ghost Story (when it's finally released which I believe is sometime in August) and having watched the trailer (which you can find here) I like the look of this in a big way.
It looks super-smart, elegant, classy and so far up my street, it's in my house.
Yeah... it better be as good as it looks.
My beloved Big Bear Rescue project is slowly grinding to a halt and I don't know how to deal with it. I guess there a million good causes out there and bears don't feature very highly on the list of people who live where there are no bears. When you have a social media campaign that has a reasonable support behind it but it fails to translate into sales of the shirts - which are fantastic no matter how successful the campaign is - well... I'm struggling to see a way to make it work in both the long term and the short.
As I was thinking about pulling the plug after the current run, this landed in my inbox:
Chowti is completely blind. But that didn’t stop her owner forcing her to fight for money. Time and again this small black bear was tied to a stake, and mauled by trained attack dogs. People paid to make bets on whether Chowti, already blinded by abuse and neglect, could be dragged to the ground.
Like most baited bears, Chowti’s teeth were pulled out without anaesthetic. She had little defence against the snapping jaws trained to tear into her sensitive muzzle, causing agonising injuries. But the fight was always stopped before the wounds became fatal – a dead bear doesn’t make much profit, and Chowti would be needed to fight again.
In fact, she was forced to endure this torture almost every week – not even long enough for her wounds to heal properly before she was thrown into the baiting ring to fight for her life once again.
Sadly, the many injuries and sheer trauma of their repeated ordeals mean that baited bears often die tragically young...
Which leaves me somewhere between a rock and hard place. I don't want to walk away from something I started with the good - even great - intentions but I don't mind announcing right here that working this is fucking frustrating in the extreme.
Time to rethink the rethink. I dare say I need a profile of Gaiman-like proportions to catch the attention of the public and make it work. I just never wanted to be one of those people pointing at the fire watching shit burn to the ground while I was quite capable of carrying a bucket of water. Perhaps mothballs are called for.
World Animal Protection has a page here where you can donate some cash to the root of this story if you feel so inclined.
Now... back to work.