Observations of a Dead World: Burlesque Silliness with a Heartbreaking Ending

Hipster music journalists love to decry this band as a one-trick pony, but they were actually full of surprises. Sure, the same five songs get played over and over and over on commercial radio stations. Even though I was an early fan of AC/DC, I started changing the station whenever "For Those About To Rock" would come on so I wouldn't start hating it. That's how badly that particular song was overplayed.

Musical chops aside (and the musical choppage is strong in this lot) these guys were obviously not professional models. Bon seemed fairly well at ease with striking poses, and Angus is a ham. The others never seem to know quite what to do with themselves.

Mark Evans and Cliff Williams both tended to have neutral facial expressions in photos. Maybe it's a bass player thing. In this particular photo, I'm not sure there was much else that Phil Rudd could have done. After all, Angus was stepping on his head.

I really do wonder what Malcolm was doing, though. Did the photographer tell him to do that? Was there someone up above pouring some sort of beverage down on him and he was hoping to drink it rather than getting soaked by it? Is he performing a Stupid Big Brother Trick and pretending he's going to bite Angus' leg? Did he feel stupid when he saw this picture after the fact?

Although Angus was the one who became (in)famous for stripping off, Bon was the band member who had a tendency to dress like a member of Chippendale's. There are many photos of him wearing pants which looked like they'd been painted on, and he often struck poses indicating that said pants were about to come off.

This incarnation of AC/DC really wasn't around that long in the scheme of things. 

I've likened the way I feel looking at photos of AC/DC to the emotions expressed by the priest in Arthur C. Clarke's powerful story, The Star. The priest experienced a crisis of faith after discovering that the Star of Bethlehem shone as brightly as it did because it had gone supernova, destroying a peaceful civilization.

In some ways, AC/DC had a (crossed) binary star system. There was the band in its incarnation with Bon. This was the beta star in the system. It shone brightly but was short-lived. 

The alpha star continued on for 37 more years after Bon's passing. It started going into its death throes when Malcolm became too ill to perform anymore and collapsed on itself when Brian Johnson was no longer able to continue performing due to hearing problems and Cliff Williams retired because things had become too fucking depressing.

I'm in the camp that thinks that AC/DC needs to rock in peace, to remain a nebula rather than trying to cobble together some sort of zombie version of itself. To be clear, I am not one of those ageist assholes who thinks that only the young and the hawt should play music. I subscribe to the belief that as long as you can and want to play, you should, and most of the truly talented musicians I can think of are not "Hawt." 

Angus and Stevie Young should work on other projects. Whatever they create together ought to be good, because they're both talented musicians. Certainly, there's no problem with them playing AC/DC's material. AC/DC was, after all, half Angus' creation. He was the face of the band while Malcolm was the brains.

Without its brain, AC/DC was a different band. It was still a good band, but the material on Rock or Bust shows the marked change in a band that had lost its leader and one of its key components. Still, the band could arguably continue working under the AC/DC name at that point. Malcolm's replacement, his nephew, had learned much of his technique from the original and had been given the green light by Malcolm himself to take up the reins.

With the loss of Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams, AC/DC was done although Angus Young was still there.

I feel very sad for Angus. Not only did he lose his best friend of a lifetime, but he also lost the project which had been his reason for living for some 44 years. I hope that if continuing to play can bring him some semblance of peace, he will do so. Despite being a broke fuck, I would find a way to support his work by buying his albums. However, I hope he lays AC/DC to rest. Whatever lineup was created at this point would be a hollow echo of the band's past glory.

AC/DC needs to be allowed to fade to black.

~Cie~

AC/DC, doing stuff that got them on the Satanic Panic Shit List.

The Cheese Grates It: A Brother's Worst Nightmare

I didn’t want to hijack anyone’s post, but when I saw this picture and this quote

He’s already begun to forget himself, everyone he’s ever known, ever loved. Even you. 

Soon, he’ll forget how to speak, how to swallow. Then he’ll die.

I couldn’t help thinking of a real life sibling relationship where that is the reality, because that is what Alzheimer’s does to those whose lives it devastates.

These brothers are two years apart in age, but the elder of the pair looks like he’s much older because of the disease process that had started destroying his mind. He was still able to recognize his younger brother at this point. He doesn’t any more.

I’ve always found a parallel between Sam and Dean’s devotion to each other and the devotion in this real life soul mate relationship, although I need to insert the caveat that while I eventually started shipping Sam and Dean as an OTP,  I sure as fuck have never seen anything but a very strong platonic bond between these guys. Fuck’s sake, I could slap the living crap out of the idiots who do the whole “oh you ship Wincest so you must see all siblings as sexually involved, including you and any siblings you may have.” Fuck’s sake no, you moron. Anyone who thinks this way (and I use the term “think” loosely) is welcome to either tie raw steaks to themselves and jump into shark infested waters or jump aboard a rocket ship bound for the sun. I have no patience for your stupidity.

I have thought about Malcolm Young every day several times a day ever since I found out about what is happening to him. I doubt I will ever stop thinking about what this damn disease has done to him as long as I live. I know I will always remember, because if I find out that I’ve developed a similar disease process, I’m taking myself out before it can destroy my cognition to the point where I don’t remember.

My father had vascular dementia. At the time of his passing, he still recognized members of his family, but he was extremely confused about everything else.

It is better to die some other way than by one of the processes resulting in dementia. Pretty much any other way.

One of the true horrors of a disease such as Alzheimer’s is the fact that it takes SO FUCKING LONG to kill its victims. By the time it finally does, there is pretty much literally nothing left of the victim’s brain.

This is a real photo, comparing a slice of a brain from a person without Alzheimer’s at the time of death to one from a person with Alzheimer’s at the time of death. Let that shit sink in.

My aunt, who was a very tough lady who survived many years of abuse at the hands of her first husband and retained her sense of humor and generosity in spite of the things he did to her, has this fucking disease. It is getting to the point where my uncle (her second husband--I refused to call the first my uncle) is looking at the possibility of having to put her in long term care. He can’t stay awake 24 hours, and her wandering is becoming much worse.

I hate this disease. I hate this disease so fucking hard. I want to cry but I don’t have any damn tears. My tears would be useless anyway. It’s not like they could help anybody. So I seethe and am angry and it is literally affecting my heart, but I still can’t cry because that feels weak and because I’m afraid if I started I couldn’t stop. I have to function. I have a lot of shit that needs to get done.

I see so many parallels in this episode to what real sufferers of Alzheimer’s and their families go through. There are funny moments, yeah. There are funny moments in real life situations with family members with dementia too. Angus recalled how during the band’s final tour with Malcolm he was trying to look after his brother without making it seem like he was being condescending to him. When Malcolm protested that he didn’t need Angus and Brian Johnson following him because he was just going to the bathroom, Angus said “oh, us too. And we need to go together so that Brian doesn’t get lost.”

When my son was a baby, I worked for about 6 months as a private aide to a man who had Alzheimer’s and diabetes. He liked to tip one back but with his health conditions, that wasn’t a good plan. So his wife locked the liquor cabinet. When asked why, she told him it was because I had a drinking problem.

When working as an aide in a long term care facility, I would sneak into one patient’s room while she was asleep and remove all the dirty clothes in the bottom of her closet. The reason I had to play thief in the night with the laundry is because she’d become extremely upset if she saw anyone touching the clothes.

Moments like this are humorous, but there is nothing funny whatsoever about this disease.

This intelligent, independent, creative person who wrestled and won against addiction to alcohol and fought valiantly against the Black Dog and severe social anxiety inspired me to remain in the land of the living and fight back against those who bullied me. They were legion and they nearly pushed me to killing myself. Once I knew about this fellow, though, I realized he wouldn’t want me to, and his opinion was worth far more to me than all of their bullshit combined.

At the point when this picture was taken, he still recognized the person next to him although he often didn’t know where he was. She’s his daughter. He no longer recognizes her.

There is a picture from 2015 which shows not only confusion but fear in the once very alert and determined eyes. It’s fucking horrible.

In Regarding Dean, Dean is okay at the end because Supernatural is fiction.

The reality looks like this, only it doesn’t get resolved.

The reality is the words “he’s not in there at all any more” being spoken by a devoted younger brother regarding his best friend and soul mate.

I’ve never been able to finish reading the interview where those words were spoken. I had to stop at that point. I’ve never picked the magazine back up. I put it on a shelf where it has remained since.

If this were Supernatural, this might be the end result for these fellows, although I reckon Angus would probably end up with horns and a tail.

I think it is the end result in the afterlife, but not on this plane. On this plane, there is only separation, deterioration and death. If magic or miracles exist in the material realm, they are in very short supply.

I know that nobody here gets out alive. But as Glen Campbell’s wife said when talking about Glen’s Alzheimer’s, it’s better to die some other way.

I know there are people who will think I’m an asshole for saying this, but I wish that Malcolm Young’s body had ceased to function when he had a stroke in 2012. Then at least he would have remembered the people he cared about the most up to the end.

Hell, I think it would have been better for my father if he’d died at the point when he had his stroke. He struggled for six more years after that, although he had vascular dementia as opposed to Alzheimer’s. Still wasn’t a picnic by any means.

I think about those fools who feel that people my age (I’ll be 52 on February 15) aren’t “allowed” to be fans of shows like Supernatural. To them I say, fuck you. I need a world where magic is real and the two people who love each other the most in the world save each other always.

I need that, because the reality fucking sucks.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~