Kill 'Em All

I've decided to see if I can write about each of Metallica's albums that I own over the next couple of weeks. I'll go in chronological order. Kill 'Em All was probably the third album from metallica that I heard. I was introduced to it by Out of Control Saturday night on WKLQ in Grand Rapids. I heard Seek and Destroy on the radion and asked my friend and the resident Metallica guru of our workplace if it was new. This would have been in the mid-90's and the only Metallica I had heard was "The Black Album/Metallica". While he did his best to stiffle his laughter he explained that the CD had been out for about 10 years. He then put his copy into the CD player while we cleaned.

I fell in love with it instantly and quickly went out and bought it. It is both a seminal thrash record and a fantastic introduction to Metallica. The lyrics are not overly deep and you can definately hear Dave Mustaine's influence on the group (he was kicked out of the band and replaced by Kirk Hammett right before the recording begain, but much of the music is his). The music on this cd still stands up 25 years later. Songs like MotorBreath, Jump in the Fire, Hit the Lights, Seek and Destroy, and Cliff Burton's masterful Bass solo Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth) are classics.

I hadn't listened to this CD in quite awhile and I recently put it back into rotation. It has a unique quality of capturing the band with their youthful bravado, naivety, and skill wile giving glimpses of the greatness to come.

Batman is Back

I love comics. One of my early faves was Batman. I'm glad to say that the quality of the batman comics has gone way up lately. The comics are currently in a story arc involving the apparent death of Bruce Wayne and the aftermath it left. It was quickly decided that the world needed Batman but the big question was who would do the job. Candidates included Jean-Paul Valley who had previously stepped into the role, Dick Grayson (the first Robin), Jason Todd (the second robin), Tim Drake (the 3rd Robin), Damian Wayne (Bruce Wayne's son with his wife Talia Al-Ghul who is Ras Al-Ghul's daughter) and others. To catch up on what has been happening check out any of the Batman Reborn titles in the the Batman, Batman & Robin, Red Robin, or Streets of Gotham books.

The End of the Road.

Today was the last day of school. It could not have come at a better time. I'm fighting with a wicked cold. I'm glad to be done with this year. It was by far the toughest one I've had. We fought to get the kids to follow our directions from the first day of school to the last. Even today, the last day of school I was sending kids to the DMC. We also had a number of students decided to try and start a food fight. On the up side I had a 170 kids chanting for me to dance today. I danced for them during an assembly last week and they thought it was hilarious. Apparently if you take equal parts "Carlton" and "Elaine" 5th graders think it is pretty funny.