Eddie Van Halen RIP

[twonabomber]

[twonabomber]

[Seshmeister]

Flawed tribute from Stern but...

[Rikk]

This site basically predates modern 'social media' which brings some issues. Firstly people get angry when we don't censor enough and also get angry if we censor anything. They find the donations thing weird because nowadays when you post on the internet it's funded by advertising and selling your information. You can be anonymous and there aren't algorithms making sure you don't read something you don't initially disagree with.

It's not impossible these old fashioned forums may be like vinyl and end up having a resurgence among people looking for something less sanitized...

I fucking love that when I post something here, I don't have some bot suggesting to me that I may enjoy Joe Blow's thread about similar amps. It feels...clean. It isn't a technological step towards NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (I mean Orwell's dystopian 1949 tome, NOT one of my favorite albums).

I'm very comfortable financially and enjoy donating to anything that contributes to my life or my family's happiness. We give a nice amount of money to our favorite museum, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago (I used to live in Toronto, but Chicago is my home and my favorite city in the world). We also donate to the Shedd Aquarium, the Museum of Science & Industry & the Adler Planetarium (all in Chicago). We also (though I don't teach in the actual city of Chicago now) have given money to my old school I taught at in Chicago and other organizations related to teaching and kids. We've been regular donors to the ASPCA, PAWS in Chicago and other organizations that save animals and keep them alive.

I've spent countless hours talking music, life & the pros/cons of this country at this incredible site. I've met some friends I consider very close at this site. One of them is now gone from this world, but I continue to speak to/see many of these friends here and also on Facebook (which is a place I appreciate for keeping connections close...but they've also robbed from me with their privacy hacks and algorithms and I wouldn't give Zuckerberg a dime...son of a bitch).

People complain about donating sometimes...and I know that not everybody has disposable income for sites at which they post and I appreciate that. I've never felt that everyone is nagging me or begging for even a second.

But I also know that that the people who put in a lot of their own money & time to run this place do so only for the simple reward of being happy that it's still here.

No one's asked me to...but I will donate again now and any time I think the place could use it. And you know why (outside of keeping this avenue to friends I've made open)?

Last week, an awful event occurred that hit me even harder than I thought it would. And for the first day or two, I could talk to my brother, bandmates, friends and family about it because they all came of age in the 1980s or 1990s (except for my 6-year-old daughter, who's been watching YouTube videos and live clips of Eddie with me for the last week and told me yesterday, "Baba, I really like the songs with the handsome singer better than the songs with that chubby guy"). But after the two days' post-death were over, everyone else had moved on, were happy to talk about anything else and would sound annoyed if I was still talking about Eddie Van Halen. So where have I gone to keep talking about this incredibly-significant event? Where could I go to keep talking about a musician who changed my life? Where could I go to speculate on what archive material we'll hopefully all be listening-to/watching in the next few years? Where else could I go to discuss the ups and downs of this incredible musical legacy (with people who REALLY know all about it and want to talk about it in-depth)?

THIS place. I was gone for all the drama that went down some years ago (though I will note, as an aside, that I actually always despised the poster, ELVIS...that son of a bitch and I locked horns a few times and he always struck me as a complete fucking idiot with few smart opinions and was completely self-involved). I don't give a shit about any of that drama. I wish I still saw more of my old friends around here. But this place is still here.

Thank the fucking guitar gods.

P.S. I used to make fun of my ol' buddy MAX for posting recipes in Non, but I've been meaning on heading down there in the next few days to snag a recipe or two. I've come to enjoy cooking...though I'm no fuckin' chef, by any means.

[Hardrock69]

That is one thing that is refreshing.

At Facebook, you get banned for posting naked pix of hot wimmins in anonymous, closed, secret, private groups that cannot be seen by the public.

They are fine with letting you post all sorts of violence and stuff, but naked people? Oh god....

And all too often people on FB get butt-hurt when I tell them how stupid they fucking are. With the shit-eaters at FB, that includes the management, and that fucking thief Zuckershit. Fuck that worthless fucker.


The current generation are a bunch of limp-wristed pussies who get all sobby when all you do is look at them funny.

I can see being offended when there is a serious reason for it, but too many people these days go all boo-hoo over the dumbest fucking shit.

This place may be one of the sanest places on the internet.

[Seshmeister]

Bringing together the last two posts a few years ago I found myself having to censor holocaust denial posts here by ELVIS which were being allowed by Facebook, a situation which was super fucked up for about 10 different reasons.

Things are much calmer these days and Kristy is pretty much the last of the trolls.

[Rikk]

Bringing together the last two posts a few years ago I found myself having to censor holocaust denial posts here by ELVIS which were being allowed by Facebook, a situation which was super fucked up for about 10 different reasons.

Things are much calmer these days and Kristy is pretty much the last of the trolls.

The thing I appreciate about Kristy is the ol' Rotharmy joy of yelling at people. If the Pen were really still running with the same crew and everything, I'm afraid she'd have to be SHEEP OF THE WEEK.

One thing a lot of people don't remember is why the Pen had to start in the first place. In the summer of 2004, the Army was inundated with all these fucking loser sheep, showing up here and trying to rub our faces in it, listing false statistics but basically trying to destroy the site's morale by rubbing our face in the fact that the band was touring with cheeseface. We all know how successful that tour went, don't we?

I've actually never seen a show from that tour...I've only read about it and see the odd clip. I've been meaning to torture myself and check out a show from that tour one of these days...at least part of one...so I can compare that period to the truly excellent shows (I saw, I think, three shows in person with Dave...maybe I enjoyed the ADKOT show the most because they played a healthy amount of material from that album, and I loved that album...though they didn't necessarily play the best songs from that album...I wanted to hear OUTTA SPACE, BEATS WORKIN', STAY FROSTY, BULLETHEAD, BLOOD & FIRE...and I'm almost sure they didn't play any of that material). I wonder if that legendary last show from the tour of '04 (the one in which Eddie throws his equipment AT Sammy) is on YouTube or a torrent or something. I'd like to see that.

I didn't get as mad at some, at first, that Sam had to go to the media to let everyone know that he'd mended fences with Ed...until I saw Dave basically being the class act again. I actually wasn't too happy with Dave for saying in an interview that the band will never tour again...or something like that. I understood that the band will never tour again was probably a reality. I just thought that would give a dying man a lot of trouble...get the death-watchers out while Eddie was trying to peacefully live out the last part of his life. I didn't notice until a few days ago (when I saw an old post) that Wolfgang also wasn't happy that Dave said that...he basically said something like: "It is not up to David Lee Roth if Eddie Van Halen ever goes on tour again." But, thinking about it now, it wasn't a big deal. The rumor is out there (though I first saw it from Kristy, so I'll have to remember its shriveled-up source) that Dave & Ed had a last phone call in the last week of Ed's life. I guess we don't know for sure if that's true because I've never found a confirmed source...but if it's true, then Dave's been a class-act (again). He hasn't jumped out there to steal media time to talk about Eddie and Eddie's death in order to get his own face on TMZ or wherever. He's made sure the family has more privacy. Sam waited, what, one day to make sure his name gets in the media again?

[BruinJer]

Even I was compelled to return (here)! I'm surprised my account still works! There have been some awesome tributes and stories all over the San Gabriel Valley (where I live, and where Ed grew up)... what a loss.

[FORD]

The best moments of the 2004 tour were the soundchecks when Hagar wasn't around. The band (with Sobolewski singing) almost sounds like their old selves here. And this is from Tucson, where the trainwreck happened at the actual show that night.....

[twonabomber]

[Rikk]

The best moments of the 2004 tour were the soundchecks when Hagar wasn't around. The band (with Sobolewski singing) almost sounds like their old selves here. And this is from Tucson, where the trainwreck happened at the actual show that night.....

Listening to this, they could have made a fair power trio if they indeed weren't going to bring Dave back. This sure sounds better than when cheesehead desecrated this classic material. (They still get the middle a capella part wrong without Dave's baritone.)

[Von Halen]

Isn't the second one "In A Simple Rhyme"?

[Fairwrning]

Isn't the second one "In A Simple Rhyme"?

Is that a question? Turn in your buggie man

[Von Halen]

Is that a question? Turn in your buggie man

Ha! I'm pointing out they are calling it "Little Dreamer"!

[jdrag]

Hard to believe