My father died five years ago

 

I usually don't get too personal with my blog entries and I especially don't talk that much about my family.  Not that my family is bad or anything, it's a wee bit too personal.  Today's blog entry is different and perhaps I may write more blog entries about my family in the future.  On this day five years ago, I lost my father Carlo "Carl" Palladino.  Born on September 12, 1944, the youngest of 3 children.  My dad was a hard working man and all around good person.  He owned his own garage door business that he had since the mid-1960's.  I don't know much as else about his childhood or anything like that since he rarely talked about that.  I do know that my uncle (my dad's 2nd oldest brother) has shed some light about the Palladino family.  Unfortunately, I'm not in touch with my uncle anymore and I will not get personal details about the Palladino family.

As I said, he was a hard worker and I believe he also enjoyed installing garage doors, repairing garage doors and installing electric garage door openers.  His line of work was difficult and dangerous, so he didn't want me to get into it.  Besides work, he also enjoyed watching sports (baseball, football and tennis were his favorites if I remember correctly), spending time with his family and investing money on the stock market.  He was also a little bit of gamer too (my mother is a little bit of a gamer as well), he had an Atari in the 1980s.  I have fond memories of my dad such as playing video games with him, learning how to drive with his car and even working for his garage door company during the last years of his life.

I also have memories of him and I attending sports games at arenas and stadiums.  We attended games that had New York and New Jersey sports teams playing such as the New York Yankees and the New Jersey Nets (now the Brooklyn Nets).  He was a big fan of the New York Yankees.  I believe we also went to a New York Mets game.  Thanks to him I got to see one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century, Wayne Gretzky.  That was during Gretzky's last years in the NHL, he played for the New York Rangers.  We attended two New York Rangers games at Madison Square Garden.  Interestingly, the first time was the New York Rangers vs. Edmonton Oilers and the second and final time we attended a game together was the New York Rangers vs. Edmonton Oilers.

We also attended music shows too.  I went to Youthfest at RCC in the late 1990's, I went to my first live music show.  I saw Civil Descent (who later became Close My Eyes) perform live and that was awesome.  In 2001, we attended the G3 concert at the Beacon Theatre.  I saw Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and John Petrucci perform live.  He was quite cool with it, but he thought it was too loud if I'm not mistaken.  My dad had somewhat of an eclectic taste in music.  He liked The Beatles, Queen, Dion, Bob Dylan, Pat Benetar, Blondie and Cyndi Lauper.  He mostly listened to oldies, his favorite radio station was WCBS-FM 101.1.  He was a bit open to other kinds of music as well.  Here's why I say he had an eclectic taste in music,  I remember I made him listen to Metallica's Master of Puppets on the beach in the 1990's or 2000's and he shockingly liked it.  He liked the first track or the title track, I don't remember.  One time Slayer was blasting at Hot Topic and he even liked that!  True story!

My dad died of prostate cancer.  He also happened to die on his birthday.  He would have been 77 years old on this day.  Since he unfortunately died of prostate cancer, take a look at the Prostate Cancer Foundation website.  Educate yourself about it and even donate to the foundation.  One day and hopefully soon, people will not have to put up with prostate cancer or cancer in general.  It's a shame that my dad had to go through that and I don't wish anyone to get it.  My dad got diagnosed with it in 2012 and then it got progressively worse in early 2016.  His brother was also diagnosed with prostate cancer as well, however they got to it in time and he's still alive.  If you suspect you might have it or know someone else that might have it, of course let your doctors know immediately and also please visit that website for more information.

I did mention about his death in an early blog entry I created in 2019.  I originally wasn't going to write a blog entry about the passing of my father, however I figured since it's the 5th anniversary... why not?  I also wrote this blog entry to spread more awareness of prostate cancer as well.  It's sad that people nowadays are against the patriarchy and fathers nowadays set a bad example for people.  My dad was a one of kind father, he did his best to provide for his family.  He wasn't a deadbeat dad, alcoholic, womanizer, etc.  He was loved by many and he was a good person.  Sure, he wasn't perfect like most people in the world.  Whenever he was present, he brought good vibes with him.  People who know him still say good things about him and they remember him well.

In case you want to read it, here is his obituary page.  The photo I used above comes from that obituary page and there's also a couple more photos of him as well.  Technically those photos originate from my personal archive of photos.  R.I.P. dad, I miss you and so does everyone else who knew and loved you miss you as well.

Oh wow a new entry

 

I've been listening to psychedelic rock bands such as Strawberry Alarm Clock, Art and even The Beatles.  I also watched the Death by Metal documentary about Death and Chuck Schuldiner last night.  I thought it was pretty cool.  I almost forgot about this blog.    I know not too many people read it.  I guess I've been having writer's block with this blog.

R.I.P. Lars Göran Petrov

Unfortunately, we lost another figure in the world of music.  I know I'm a bit late, but yeah I had to report this unfortunate death since he's a fellow death metal musician.  Lars Göran Petrov was a death metal musician who was in bands such as Morbid, Nihilist, Entombed, Entombed A.D. and Firespawn.  He drummed for Morbid, which I did not know.  He went by the stage name Drutten when he was in Morbid.  Petrov died of a rare form cancer, duct bile cancer.  He was diagnosed a year ago.  My condolences go out to his family and bands he was involved in.  R.I.P. L-G Petrov.

A year ago since Kobe Bryand Gigi Bryant passed away

 

Unfortunately, it has been a year since Kobe Bryant & GiGi Bryant passed away.  The toughest deaths of 2020 and it hit me quite hard.  Yes, the deaths Sean Reinert, Neil Peart, MF Doom, Frankie Banali and Eddie Van Halen in 2020 were hard to digest.  However, to me the deaths of Kobe & GiGi are by far the worst of 2020.  I totally miss Kobe.  Despite the fact that I didn't know his daughter GiGi that well, I miss her too and of course it's incredibly sad that she died at such a young age.  Plus it's also incredibly sad that she died along with her father.  I was at my computer a year ago, I noticed that TMZ had an article about Kobe dead.  At first, I was hoping it was a hoax.  I scoured the net for other sources, nobody else was reporting it.  I was truly hoping it was a hoax.  Other sources were not reporting it, so it had to be hoax.

As time went by, I unfortunately found other sources were reporting it.  To make matters, sources were later reporting his daughter also died.  A horrible day.  Well their memories will live on.  I'll always remember Kobe's amazing contribution to the world of basketball and sports.  I didn't know his daughter was a basketball player.  She had a ton of potential and I'm sure she would have been in the WNBA if she lived.

Well I'm not gonna write any more of these death anniversaries.  However, a big personal one for me is coming up and I already got it all written up.  You'll have to follow this blog to find out which death anniversary hits me the most.

A year ago since Neil Peart died

 

Well it has been a year since Neil Peart passed away.  Tbh, I never got heavily into Rush and didn't check  out more of their music after they retired from music.  However, it's still a shame that Peart died.  I don't have much to say on this, unfortunately.  He shared a birthday with my father, so automatically Peart was an awesome guy and I would have gotten along with him if I ever met him.  I did post about Peart's unfortunate death a year ago.  Here it is, if you wanna read it: R.I.P. Neil Peart.   Of course, expect a one year anniversary post on Kobe Bryant and his daughter GiGi Bryant.

R.I.P. MF DOOM

 

Rapper MF Doom unfortunately died on October 31, 2020 and his death wasn't announced until a couple of months later.  This was an absolute shock to me.  I was going to originally post this blog entry on December 31, but didn't get around to it.  What a sad way to end off 2020... announcing the death of someone who actually died a couple months ago.  It also happened on Halloween.  I have no idea why we didn't get to know this on October 31 or November 1.

I knew of MF Doom for years, but didn't start listening to his music until around 2016.  This was one of the most shocking deaths of 2020, due to the fact that he was quite young.  I honestly forgot about him until his death was announced.  I feel really bad that I didn't listen to that much and according to my stats on Last.fm... I had no scrobbles for him at all in 2019.  Then I find out he dies... well of course, I listened to him on December 31.  For more info, go to the Complex article about it.  I only listen to hip-hop/rap occasionally, but I'm thinking about listening to more hip-hop/rap artists in 2021.  We'll see, I'm guessing I'll still listen to my usual rock and metal.

Five years since Lemmy died

 

Well it has been five years since Lemmy Kilmister died and you might have expected me to write some depressing stuff.  No!  You're wrong!  Since it has been five years since he passed away, I will post my top five favorite songs with Lemmy.

5. The Rockin' Vickers - Dandy

 

Here's a song from Lemmy's early days as a musician.  He played guitar for The Rockin' Vickers.  He was a damn good guitarist.  I consider this song to be a gem of the 1960's.  He rocks on this song.  Check it out!  EDIT: I originally had I Go Ape and then found out Lemmy is not on that song.  I Go Ape is awesome, but he wasn't in The Rockin' Vickers at the time that song was recorded & released.

4. Motörhead - Ace of Spades

I know, I know, you must be thinking why would I have this at number 4?  Well it is one of his most famous songs, yet I feel it deserves to be in my top 5.  It's got fantastic bass work and Lemmy sounds absolutely awesome on vocals.  It's a great song period.  Don't know this one?  You must have been living under a rock for years or you simply have bad taste in music.  Or you most likely suck!  And ya probably do!  Whatever!  Listen to it now if you haven't and I won't think you suck.  :)

3. Motörhead - R.A.M.O.N.E.S.

Fast, wild and fun!  It's about the legendary band the Ramones.  Ramones even covered this one.  Excellent stuff!  Listen to this if you haven't!  This song almost didn't make it to my top 5 Lemmy songs.   I almost went with Jack the Ripper or Going to Brazil!

2.  Hawkwind - Motorhead

I'll be honest here, this is 10 times better than the one by Motörhead.  Oh I like the one by Motörhead, it doesn't suck by any means.  This one has better vocals and bass by Lemmy.  It's a wee bit underrated nowadays.  I'm sure people still listen to this version.

1. Motörhead - Built for Speed

It was a bit difficult for me to choose number one.  Other candidates were Motörhead - Jack the Ripper, Motörhead - Stone Dead Forever, Motörhead - Too Late Too Late, Motörhead - Victory and surprisingly Hawkwind - Silver Machine!  Well this is it, Motörhead - Built for Speed.  A bit of a deep track by Motörhead.  This is one amazing heavy metal song!  I'm sure you'll enjoy it if you never listened to this one.  I'll cut ya some slack with this one!  However, no excuse for you not knowing Motörhead - Ace of Spades!  I mean, c'mon!

There you have it!  My top 5 songs by Lemmy!  What an awesome dude and his music will live on forever!   Rock on, Lemmy!

R.I.P. Tommy "Tiny" Lister

 

Tommy "Tiny" Lister (aka Deebo) has died at the age of 62.  I'm devastated by this one.  He was an awesome actor.  He was also a wrestler in the WWE over 30 years ago.  I will miss him.  My condolences to his family, friends and everyone else affected.  For more info, click here.

R.I.P. Sean Malone

 

I am sad to report that Sean Malone has died.  For those who don't know, he was the bassist in the progressive rock/metal band Cynic.  He primarily played fretless bass guitar and Chapman stick.  Additionally, he also played piano, keyboards and guitar.  He was a talented multi-instrumentalist and he will be missed.  Earlier this year, Sean Reinert died.  I can't believe both of these progressive rock/metal musicians died in the same year. My condolences to Sean Malone's family, friends and everyone else affected by his death.  For more on his death, click here.

Happy Halloween and R.I.P. Sean Connery

 

Happy Halloween!  It may come as a surprise to many of you, but Halloween is not one of my favorite holidays.  That's strange, right?  I like death metal and stuff like that, but Halloween isn't one of my favorite holidays.  I know a few of my friends absolutely love this holiday.  To me, it's a cool holiday and nothing more.  That's pretty much it.  I have nothing against it at all.   It wasn't even my favorite holiday growing up!  So I don't have any Halloween stories or anything for you.  I remember trick or treating growing up, but nothing really special or memorable comes to mind.  I sadly don't remember any stories from back then.  In case if I do remember stories, I'll edit this and include them or I'll tell them next year.

 

Unfortunately, a death occurred today.  Sean Connery died, he was 90 years old.  Well at least he lived a full life.  You can read about it here for more on his death.

Not sure what else to write here.  That's it for this blog entry.  Happy Halloween!  Stay safe out there and have an excellent day/night!

R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen

 

Rest in peace, Edward Lodewijk Van Halen.  I cannot believe he died today.  As a guitarist myself, he was a bit of an influence.  He got me more into tapping (a guitar technique he was famous for and you can see him doing it in the picture I provide).  I remember I learned how to play a couple of Van Halen songs during my first years of playing guitar.

I was around 5 or 6 years old when I first heard Eddie Van Halen, he did a guitar solo on "Beat It" and it totally blew me away the first time I gave it a good listen.  I was in my room back in Pomona, NY.  From that point on, I wanted to know what that was.  I was a very young child at the time and I couldn't really comprehend it that well.  Click here for an article on EVH's guitar solo on that song.  It was one of the most amazing things I ever listened to in my life at that point in time.  I believe it got me hard rock and heavy metal.  I am sure that was the song that was responsible for me loving heavy music.

2020 has been a rough & tough year.  This 2020 death has affected me, just like Kobe Bryant's earlier this year.  I hope the 2020's get better... this year has been a total dumpster fire.  I can't believe this year has been so horrible.  We're not even done with the year yet and EVH dies today.  :(  My condolences to the Van Halen family, friends, fans and anybody else.

R.I.P. Ali Zabirov

Yes, another death to report and this one hurts.  It hurts since I'm gay and this could have been myself.  An openly gay TikTok user named Ali Zabirov was murdered.  This homophobia needs to stop.  I absolutely hate homophobia.  This is appalling.  He was probably also killed for the fact that he was a TikTok star.  There's a lot of hatred towards that platform and fascist Donald Trump is looking to ban it in the U.S.  I would also imagine he was killed by people who were jealous of him too.  I read that this guy is from Russia and Russia is ultra homophobic.  My best bet is that Zabirov was killed for being a gay person.

R.I.P. Ali Zabirov.  I didn't know you, but rest in power.  I am done with people in this world.  When will this shit stop?  For more on this, click here.

Breaking News: R.I.P. Kirk Douglas

Today Kirk Douglas has died at the age of 103.  R.I.P.  My condolences to the Douglas family, friends and anyone else affected by his loss.

Source: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kirk-douglas-dies-spartacus-670526

R.I.P. Reed Mullin

Reed Mullin, drummer of Corrosion of Conformity (aka C.O.C.) has died at the age of 53.  The third drummer to die in January 2020.  Geez, January in 2020 has not been great to drummers.  It seems like my blog has turned into an obituary blog.  It's not an obituary blog.  I don't intend it to be, I'm pointing these deaths out since they are noteworthy and/or these deaths have affected me.  I'm sure others might like to read how I feel about these peoples' deaths.  For three consecutive days, I have reported deaths.  For more on his death, click here.

R.I.P. Kobe Bryant and Gianna Bryant

I am sad to report not one death, but two deaths.  I am absolutely saddened by their deaths.  They were involved in a helicopter crash with other people.  We have lost incredible people this month.  I am mostly devastated by this one the most.  Kobe Bryant is one of my favorite athletes of all-time.  Him and Shaq were the reason why I became a fan of the LA Lakers.  This makes no sense to me.  I'm with Lebron James on this one, it doesn't make sense whatsoever.   Gianna Bryant died with her father Kobe.

When I first came across an article about his passing.  I was hoping it was not true.  I was hoping it was a major hoax.  Unfortunately, that was not the case.  My condolences goes out to the Bryant family and to all affected by this.  For a better source, click here.

R.I.P. Sean Reinert

Sean Reinert has died at the age of 48.  You may read it more here if you want.  I am shocked and saddened by this.  It's a highly unexpected death.  Interestingly, I share a birthday with him.  We have lost two prog rock/metal drummers this month.  For those who don't know, he was the drummer of progressive death metal/rock band Cynic and he was on Death's Human album.

You will be missed by many.  My condolences to family, friends, fans and anyone else affected by this.

R.I.P. Neil Peart

Neil Peart died on January 7, but his death was reported today.  He died of brain cancer at the age of 67.  He is a highly influential drummer in the world of rock and metal.  Interestingly, he shared a birthday with my dad (September 12).  Peart was 8 years younger than my dad.  For a better news story on this, click here.

The 2010's

I must say that the 2010's was an interesting decade and it was also a somewhat tumultuous decade.  Originally I was going to get heavily into the negative and pessimistic aspects.  You know what?  I will not.  You read enough doom and gloom on Blogspots everywhere.  I am an optimistic and positive person.  I'll go into some bad stuff, because the 2010's was full of that.  However, I'm not gonna to make you sad when you read this.  I will not get into that stuff for this blog entry.

The beginning of the 2010's was not that bad.  The early 2010's for me personally were a bit rough.  I will say that I did have my first full band.  The band was called Abysshorde.  We only lasted for 6 months in 2011.  That was a cool thing, unfortunately we only got to make one recording.  I have it too and I think that it won't ever see the light of day.  Then I had the band Sonic Derp.  It lasted for 6 months in 2012.  Honestly, I thought Sonic Derp sucked a lot and I don't want to get into why.  One or two good songs were recorded, that's it.  In 2013, I had Pizza Corpse and Pizza Corpse lasted for less than 6 months if I'm not mistaken.  Pizza Corpse was a step up from Sonic Derp, somewhat better.  Only one demo was released and there's a bunch of unreleased songs that won't see the light of day.  Pizza Corpse did reunite in 2019 and we renamed ourselves Satanic Lust.

Unfortunately this decade had many deaths.  I called 2016 "The Year of Death."  We lost David Bowie, Muhammad Ali, Gene Wilder, etc.  I also had a few friends that died in the 2010's.   Even my dad died in 2016.  For notable deaths in 2016, click here.  I was not too crazy about 2012 and 2016 at all.  I will not get into those years.  Perhaps I will cover those years another time.

What a decade it has been!  For a better retrospective of 2019 and the 2010s, click here.  Happy New Year's Eve everyone!  I hope 2020 to be awesome!  Hindsight is 2020!  I will be posting a New Year's Day entry for 2020!