franKENstein Creations upscaled the video and cut the whole special to just the KISS parts. He also remixed the songs by taking the music from the original version of Destroyer and then adding live vocals synced to what they were actually performing.

The vocals for “Detroit Rock City” and “King of the Night Time World” were edited to match the show using the Jersey City ‘76 show mostly with a sprinkling of Alive II for a word here or there due to how Paul sang it at that show. The vocals for “Beth” come mostly from Alive II with a few bits of the studio version to match the performance.

I don’t think I saw the original in 1976. At least, I don’t remember seeing it.

On the National Mall in Washington DC last night, a crowd of at least seventy-five thousand supporters gathered to listen to Kamala Harris make her closing argument to the American people.

The night was crisp. The visuals were stunning. She looked presidential.

She said a lot of things last night. Good things. Important things.

But she didn’t say a lot of things.

Jeff Tiedrich, at his Substack, laid them all out.

she didn’t call America a “garbage can.”

she didn’t say that Hitler did some good things, nor did she wish that “her” generals could be more like his.

she didn’t rhapsodize about the enormity of a dead golfer’s dick.

she didn’t misunderstand how tariffs work.

she didn’t tell auto workers that a child could do their jobs.

she didn’t promise to put Bobby McBrainworms in charge of “going wild” on healthcare policy.

she didn’t vow to build massive concentration camps to house the millions of legal immigrants she’s promising to deport.

she didn’t promise to strip naturalized Americans of their citizenship and “remigrate” them back to whatever shithole country they came from.

she didn’t inexplicably decide that she was too tired to finish her speech, and then force her supporters to spend 40 minutes watching her sway like a dipshit to weird-ass music.

she didn’t promise to be a dictator, day one or otherwise.

she didn’t brag about being able to identify a drawing of a camel.

she didn’t threaten to prosecute Google for showing “bad stories” about her.

she didn’t weigh in on whether she’d rather be electrocuted by a boat battery, or eaten by a shark. what are you hiding, Kamala?

she didn’t call January 6th “a beautiful day,” nor did she promise to pardon the insurrectionists who bludgeoned cops with flagpoles and fire extinguishers.

she didn’t fantasize about decapitating a reporter.

she didn’t blither incoherently, and then praise herself for being able to “weave.”

she didn’t brag about ending Roe, nor did she bizarrely claim that “everybody wanted it to happen.”

she didn’t claim that Haitian immigrants are eating dogs and cats.

she didn’t tell any “sir” stories, in which big, strong men break down and blubber like babies over how amazing she is.

she didn’t promise to give the obscenely wealthy another tax cut.

she didn’t vow to imprison reporters, nor did she call for unfriendly media to lose their broadcast licenses.

she didn’t claim that people who don’t support her are “the enemy within.”

she didn’t promise to put the Space Nazi in charge of hollowing out our government.

she didn’t claim that schools are forcing gender-reassignment surgeries upon their students, nor did she insist that immigrants are getting such surgeries for free while in prison.

she didn’t promise to send the US military into American cities and towns, in order to enforce her fascist policies.

she didn’t call for a national day of violence against migrants.

she didn’t claim that her Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden was a “love fest.”

she didn’t tell the survivors of a school shooting to just “get over it.”

she didn’t vow to imprison her political opponents.

she didn’t claim that migrants are “poisoning the blood” of America, nor did she state that “bad genes” are the reason they’re all criminals.

she didn’t tell lies about the fever-swamp fantasy of post-birth abortion.

she didn’t threaten to leave NATO if its member nations fail to cough up the protection money she imagines they owe her.

she didn’t confuse seeking political asylum with an insane asylum — and she failed to mention Hannibal Lecter. not even once.

she didn’t encourage her supporters to beat the shit out of hecklers, nor did she promise to pay the legal bills of anyone who did.

she didn’t promise to shitcan the Department of Education.

she didn’t praise Vlad Putin, nor did she talk about how jealous she is that Kim Jong-un gets to be dictator of his very own country.

she didn’t brag about having “a beautiful body”.

she didn’t compare herself to Elvis.

Randy Rainbow has done it again. This time with a parody of “Xanadu."

Perfect. No notes.

Will Leitch, writing on Medium, has endorsed Kamala Harris for President. He lays out his entire reasoning and then ends with this:

I think this is a good country. I think it can be better. But I do not think it needs to be blown up. I want someone who believes in it, who is dedicated to it, who will do everything in her power to evoke positive change in ways that are rational, sensible and sane. I know that isn’t the most stirring oratory that I could give you. Others can surely do that. I can only come from where I am coming from. If you are a normal person who sincerely believes in this country and wants it to be a place that’s stable, to be place that messes up a lot but does ultimately bend toward justice, to be a place where children can be proud of and someday raise families of their own, you absolutely must vote for Kamala Harris. This is her moment. She has met it. The notion of seeing her in the Oval Office is a deeply inspiring one to imagine. I pray we get to see it.

I might actually pray, too. I already voted, but if praying helps I’ll do it.

Actress Teri Garr, best known for her comedic roles_,_has died at age 79. She worked with several high profile directors including Mel Brooks in Young Frankenstein, Steven Spielberg in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Sydney Pollack in Tootsie.

She had suffered for years with Multiple Sclerosis after being diagnosed with the degenerative disease in 1999. Garr was “surrounded by family and friends” at the time of her death, publicist Heidi Schaeffer told The Hollywood Reporter.

Watchman author, Alan Moore, has a few words about fandom. In the past he’s taken on comic book companies and how they’ve bleed dry every scrap of an idea he’s ever put down in a comic. However, this editorial is a bit different.

Moore paints a portrait of the kind of fan who actually bothers him. He does not pull punches.

An older animal for one thing, with a median age in its late 40s, fed, presumably, by a nostalgia that its energetic predecessor was too young to suffer from. And while the vulgar comic story was originally proffered solely to the working classes, soaring retail prices had precluded any audience save the more affluent; had gentrified a previously bustling and lively cultural slum neighbourhood. This boost in fandom’s age and status possibly explains its current sense of privilege, its tendency to carp and cavil rather than contribute or create. I speak only of comics fandom here, but have gained the impression that this reflexive belligerence – most usually from middle-aged white male conservatives – is now a part of many fan communities. My 14-year-old grandson tells me older Pokémon aficionados can display the same febrile disgruntlement. Is this a case of those unwilling to outgrow childhood enthusiasms, possibly because these anchor them to happier and less complex times, who now feel they should be sole arbiters of their pursuit?

“Reflexive belligerence” is the name of my metal band.

Moore is describing the old gatekeeper’s mentality—the kind of person who sees a hot girl with a Metallica shirt on and who accosts her to name five Metallica songs. These people want their secret society to be secret and only for them. I

I"m not always with Alan on things, but I do agree with him here.

Claudia Dawson, writing in Recommendo, featured an interesting free service.

Messages for Life are short, inspirational emails that have been brightening my days. They arrive only on weekday mornings and always contain a positive message, like reminders to slow down, relax, celebrate yourself, and play. These messages convey a lot of wisdom in a very natural and relatable way. They feel like love letters from the Universe.

I signed up and have been getting these emails. So far, nothing amazing, but they are simple and I have high hopes I’ll get something that really helps.

Heather Cox Richardson, writing on her Substack about the MAGA rally cosplaying as the 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden, had one particularly notable aside from its headlines:

But Trump perhaps gave away the game with his inflammatory language and with an aside, seemingly aimed at House speaker Johnson. ‘I think with our little secret we are gonna do really well with the House, right? Our little secret is having a big impact, he and I have a secret, we will tell you what it is when the race is over,’ Trump said. It seems possible—probable, even—that Trump was alluding to putting in play the plan his people tried in 2020. That plan was to create enough chaos over the certification of electoral votes in the states to throw the election into the House of Representatives. There, each state delegation gets a single vote, so if the Republicans have control of more states than the Democrats, Trump could pull out a victory even if he had dramatically lost the popular vote. Since he has made virtually no effort to win votes in 2024, this seems his likely plan. But to do that, he needs at least a plausibly close election, or at least to convince his supporters that the election has been stolen from him. Tonight’s rally badly hurt that plan.

I hate making predictions. I hope Pennsylvania is called early for Harris and the rest of the night goes smooth.

The baseball was fun.

So, the LA Times announced it would not make an endorsement for President because the billionaire owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong refused to allow it, leading the editor to resign.

Now, the Washington Post announced it will not endorse a candiate either, reportedly because the billionaire owner Jeff Bezos refused to allow it.

Newspapers making an endorsement are meaningless. Soon-Shiong and Bezos have never heard of the Streisand Effect.

Meanwhile, the Onion’s new owners just made a timely endorsement of Joe Biden.

Will Leitch, writing for New York Magazine, has an interesting take on this year’s World Series matchup.

For all the story lines surrounding the Yankees-Dodgers World Series that begins on Friday night — the fact that the former NYC rivals are playing in their 11th World Series against each other, more than any other pairing; the fact that they have two of the largest payrolls in baseball and are home to the largest media markets; the fact that fans across America love to hate both teams — I wonder if the most important one for baseball is the concentration of boldface superstars the series contains. Chances are that if you asked someone who doesn’t pay close attention to baseball to name all the active players they know, every name they’d list is playing in this series. You want charismatic breakout stars? The World Series has just about all of them.

It starts, of course, with the two men who are going to win the MVP in their respective leagues this year. Ohtani signed his massive — and still, I’d argue, kinda risky? — $700 million contract with the Dodgers in the offseason despite being unable to pitch this year, and he responded with the best offensive season of his career, becoming the first person to put together a 50-50 season with 54 home runs and 59 stolen bases. He is by far the most popular athlete in baseball and, increasingly, one of the most popular in the world: He’s the 13th-highest-paid athlete on the planet, one of only two baseball players in the top 50, with the vast majority of that income coming from global endorsements. (There are estimates that the Dodgers could end up earning $1 billion from Ohtani’s presence.)

And Ohtani didn’t even have the best season among players in this series. You can make a very strong argument that the Yankees’ Aaron Judge just had the best one for a right-handed hitter in MLB history, smashing 58 homers and driving in a career-high 144 RBIs despite the dearth of other good sluggers in the Yankees’ lineup beyond Juan Soto. Both Ohtani and Judge are titans of the sport, the sort of larger-than-life characters baseball hasn’t had since, really, Griffey. Ohtani is so skilled he almost seems supernatural, and Judge, at six-foot-seven, is one of the tallest players in MLB history and certainly the best tall player. They both tower over every other player in the sport, literally and figuratively, and they are both going for their first-ever World Series title. That they are doing so for the two most well-known franchises only further expands their reach. They’d be famous anywhere. But in New York and Los Angeles, they span to the infinite.

And they’re hardly the only stars in this series. In fact, of the players with the sport’s top-selling jerseys this season, four of the top seven are in this World Series: Ohtani (No. 1), Judge (No. 3), Mookie Betts (No. 4), and Soto (No. 7). (Two other Dodgers, Freddie Freeman at No. 18 and Clayton Kershaw at No. 19, made the top 20.) That is unprecedented and a stark contrast with recent history: Last year’s buzzkill of a Fall Classic featured zero players among the top-ten jersey sellers; there was just one in 2022 and one in 2021. You couldn’t get more stars here if you tried.

I kinda hate that he’s right.

Laura Helmuth, writing for Scientific American, explains that Apple experts divide time into “before Honeycrisp” and “after Honeycrisp.”

Honeycrisp inspired consumer demand for excellent tasting apples, and that changed the apple market. “It wasn’t that consumers wanted Red Delicious” back in the day, Bedford says. “They just didn’t have any choice.”

I have not had a Red Delicious in years. I pretty much only eat Honeycrisp now.

This is the full six-minute version of "Unfinished,” the final song that Edward and Alex wrote together. It is featured in the audiobook version of Alex’s new memoir, _Brothers_.

He didn't release it through any music distributors. It’s not on Spotify or Apple Music. He didn’t save it for some future release. Alex made it free for everyone.

I really never thought I’d hear new Van Halen music. I know there’s so much more. I hope we get to hear it.

These videos so far are really well done. I can't wait to see each new one.

Nicholas Bate –

(1) Life is messy. (2) Life is unpredictable. (3) Life can make you cry, (4) pull your hair out, (5) throw your hat in the air and even (6) sit down and weep. (7) Life is exciting, (8) scary and at times (9) daunting. (10) Life is funny and often makes you (11) giggle. At other times it is so (12) awe-inspiring, even (13) electrifying it makes you want to (14) hug somebody. Nobody said (15) Life is nor should be easy. Certainly not a (16) bowl of cherries. Life can (17) can pass you by unless you (18) wake up, (19) switch on and (20) fully engage. Life (21) isn’t DNA: that’s a stack of bonded atoms. No, Life (22) is what you make of it. (23) Examine it fully to notice all the (24) moving parts, its (25) potential smooth running and ability to (26) accelerate into action, given (27) regular maintenance, of course. Life (28) meanders on a fine summers day, (29) shivers in NYC snow and (30) loves hot chocolate by outside braziers in Stockholm. (31) Life knows few boundaries, is (32) ever curious and sometimes (33) day-dreams and an (34) amazing imagination conjures up lyrics to pop songs or new improved digital cameras or cool recipes. (35) Life is great long, even better (36) wide and kinda gorgeous (37) deep. (38) Life needs regular massage, (39) good books, quality (40) sleep and regular glimpses of the sea, mountains, the desert and needs also to hear the CRACK of a good (41) thunderstorm. (42) Life loves drama because (43) Life is drama. Life is (44) Planet Earth’s greatest story in which for once we get the major role. (45) Every day an audience turns up and notices our performance. (46) In Life we may or may not connect with that audience; (47) we may or may not have an impact. But whatever, Life is (48) cool, (49) Life is staggeringly rich; Life is (50) pretty damn Good.

In a world where far too many shows face an early cancellation or never see the light of day, Cobra Kai is in the middle of its sixth and final season. Part 1 came out back in July, and now, in anticipation of the show’s final episodes, we are getting a Cobra Kai Part 2 trailer.

The Sekai Taikai looks intense. It looks like someone might get killed or hurt real bad…

“Things look a little different around Lumon.”

The official teaser trailer for season two of Severance reveals a bit more about the upcoming season, but not much.

January 17, 2025, can’t come soon enough!

Barack Obama raps the first verse of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem while campaigning for Kamala Harris in Detroit. pic.twitter.com/flWfopIvLT

— The Recount (@therecount) October 23, 2024

Barack Obama only got one shot to follow up Eminem — and he didn’t blow that opportunity.

Patrick Rhone –

I know we keep saying this is the most important election of our lifetime. I know it gets old. I long for going the other way. To make each less important than the last.

But the stakes keep getting raised. So it keeps being that way and therefore keeps being true.