MEMORIES OF MONUMENT VALLEY AND MEXICAN HAT

Monument Valley in Utah has got to be one of my favourite places which i visited in the US when i holidayed there in 1999. There's something very mystique about the place, Anasazi Indians inhabited the region for centuries before white man made it to the 'wild west' and eventually drove them from their land. Of course, images of John Wayne coming face to face with Indians in Monument Valley in the classic western movie STAGECOACH probaly had a lot to do with any pre-concieved expectations of the place before i went there 13 years ago. But once i got there, the sheer rugged beauty of the spectacular rock forma-
tions which rise up from the desert landscape below them made me realise you couldn't appreciate Monument Valley fully if you never went there in person, no offence to those who think watching Stagecoach is good enough. Me and my family really were rushing on this holiday, only had 5 weeks to cross america and cross back again, not nearly enough time, so instead of staying at a motel for the night before we bolted through Monument Valley, we rather stupidly decided to only give Monument Valley a few hours of our time and not a day and stay the night at Mexican Hat, which is a deserted outpost town right
on the edge of the valley. We were mentally shagged from driving hundreds of miles on that day, we had a great night in though, drunk quite a bit of booze and it felt like we
were staying right in the heart of Monument Valley. Utah has the best scenery on earth.

ABOUT BLOODY TIME KAHLUA PRE-MIX BOTTLES MADE AN AUSTRALIAN COMEBACK TO SAVE ME DRINKIN' COWBOY

I dont drink much booze anymore, mainly because i put weight on if i drink too much and it's not much good for my acid prone gut. Up until recently, i was still drinking beer on a fairly regular basis but i decided to give it up because of the calories and carbohydrates matter, two things which you should avoid if you do not want to get a beer gut. When i drink now, i'm very fussy about choosing what goes down the hatch, i basically have de-
cided to stick only to drinking red wine, like a good Merlot, Cab Sav or Shiraz. I'm sure there'll times when a big cold beer with be there waiting for me on a hot summer's day
to tempt me, but i am really confident at the age of 37 that i have enough willpower & knowledge of how rotten hangovers are to stick with it this time. Wouldn't touch highly alchoholic spirits with a broom handle, i'm just too sensible to do that now. Plus my gut simply cannot handle that stuff anymore, you only get one of them as well as a liver too.

So what alchoholic product would tempt me to go against my own red wine only covenant?
Well, i knew what it would be before i began writing this, and it would be the KAHLUA pre-mix bottles which were taken off the shelves of australian liquor outlets many years ago, never to be seen again. There was just something so silky smooth and delirously delicious about the KAHLUA pre-mixes, i could never get KAHLUA and milk which i mixed up myself to taste as good as them - never! I would suspect that competition from cheap and nasty lookalike drinks containing vodka put the more expensive but far superior KAHLUA pre-mixes out of business. I can always remember buying 4-packs of them, it was years ago
& even then one of those cost around $12. To buy them singular it worked out they cost around $ 4 a bottle. They were a bit of a girl's drink, i got picked on a bit for drinking them actually from some of my peers, but i didn't care, they were just the best damn alchoholic pre-mix product on the market. I'll keep drinking my red wine but if Kahlua
pre-mix bottles re-appear in australian bottle shops again i am going to buy enough
of them to fill up my garden shed. I hereby ask the Kahlua company or the bottler in Australia who canned them years ago to be a sport and put 'em back on the shelf so
i'm not forced to drink some Cowboy if i ever get tempted to drink the closest thing.

ANTHONY HOPKINS REACHES 201.851 MPH ON AN INDIAN SCOUT AS A TRIBUTE TO BURT MUNRO

I just love this movie, but i have to admit, it took a lot of pestering from my brother to convince me to sit down and actually watch it. Maybe that was because i'm not into cars
or motorbikes, i'm not mechanically minded & i wasn't really thinking it would be up my alley. But THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN seduced me from the first five minutes into watching it. Anthony Hopkin's played the role of land speed record holder Burt Munro superbly, not even the slighest hint of Hannibal Lector on show in this feel good film.

Set in both New Zealand and the US, the movie details the life of real life Munro perfectly, right down to having Hopkins weeing on the neighbours lemon tree and causing so many neighbourhood disputes one after the other as a result of his late night & early morning attempts to wake up the neighbours by revving his prototype Indian Scout motorcycle off the clock. By the end of the movie, Burt Munro (played by Hopkins) has won over all the neighbours who in the beginning of the movie cant stand the sight of him. Metre high grass around his house isn't exactly helping out strained neighbourly relations either.

He establishes an offbeat but emotionally enriching friendship with one of the neighbour's sons, which gradually helps to break the antartic ice between him and them. Between all the actual action sequences where Munro is testing out his Indian Scout for an eventual attempt at breaking the land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, so many characterisations flourish which gives the film an emotiveness which did surprise me. I guess when i first was watching it i was expecting a bit of a half arsed autobiographical documentary movie. After tuning his bike to perfection in New Zealand, Munro takes off for america trying to make his dream become a reality, which of course it does, and did
in real life. What Munro was not expecting was to be met with a trail of bureacracy and nitpicking upon his arrival in Angeles from naysayers who didn't think in a million years that his eccentric contraption would be capable of coming anywhere near a land speed record. He eventually convinces the officials who are organising the meet at Bonneville Flats to let him into the competition despite being too late in registering for the event. His fellow competitors are the ones who save the day for him by appealing for leniency
so he takes part. He ends up reaching a speed of 201.851 miles an hour riding his jerry built motorbike, Hopkins done the real life achievement of Burt Munro proud, even if he didn't fully master the New Zealand accent of the man himself. Dont try it at home okay.

GO AND VISIT EPCOT IN FLORIDA FORSURE IF YOU'RE CRAZY ENOUGH TO BE SEEN DEAD IN AMERICA

Theme parks, sometimes referred to as fun parks, have lost a bit of their appeal over the years in the same period of time when the internet and social media has become the new excitement in the lives of the younger generation. The cost of gaining entry to them i am sure is increasingly putting many people off visiting them. Just down the road from me on the Gold Coast, you have Dreamworld, Sea World and Warner Brothers Movie World, in the current harsh economic times we are living through here in Queensland i am quite sure the only thing keeping these three fun parks alive is the stoic japanese tourism market, which is propping up the crowd numbers while many australians (mainly locals), continue to try & find that magical spare $300 needed to get them and their family into one of the parks for the day, including food and drinks. I am sure all these fun parks are safe from being shut down and the land their situated on to be re-developed for commercial development, but nothing is totally impossible in this world. Take MAGIC MOUNTAIN at Nobby Beach on the Gold Coast, the fun park was closed down to make way for a resort which bears the name of Magic Mountain Resort. The fun park closed in 1991 after 29 years of operation, it was a bit crappy to be honest, a bit nondescript, the most exciting ride i will always remember was the chairlifts. Chairlifts! Am i joking? Yeah, it deserved to be demolished and turned into a state of the art restaurant and residential precinct. On the other side of the Pacific, i have been to Disneyland in LA and a theme park which has kind of become somewhat of an entrepreneurial achronism of the mid 80`s dream, Florida's EPCOT CENTRE. It really is like the World Expo which never ended, situated around a man made lake, it showcases a variety of pavilions on a country by country basis in a village atmosphere. One of the most interesting ones i found when i visited EPCOT was the Morocco village. But they're all very interesting, and of course if you like beer, dont miss the German one. There are so many beer fests going down there all the time. EPCOT is (or was) renowned back in 1987 when i was there as being the forerunner in interactive, reality based rides, i realise after a few times they may become a bit tiresome & boring but for a first time visitor EPCOT should still be able to captivate you 25 years after they done the same for me with a number of rides forming part of the FUTURE WORLD. Slightly outdated by now maybe, but visiting EPCOT is still a lot more rewarding experience than not having a holiday in Florida and sitting at home on a computer wasting your life away on social media. Visiting EPCOT
all these years later would probaly convince me just how far humans haven't come with technology, just ask most of the 500 million facebook and Twitter users in the world. If you are planning a trip to the US, and you are in the vicinity of Florida, definitely go to EPCOT, which by the way is part of the Disney theme park chain. That's if you want to
be seen dead in Barack Obama's america many years after the mid 80`s dream ended.

PHANTOM ROCK AND SLICK MADE SO MANY BLOKES IN THE 80`S LOSE ALL SHAME ABOUT BEING A BAD BOY

Sooner or later i had to be tempted to stick this tune on my very own music blog. I have previously made mention of the song on one of the Six Pack of Rockers blogs that i have written, i wrote six of them prior to to even starting Lost Treasures Review, a review of six rock or pop songs for each volume. Judging by Google links in past times, i think they were more popular than Lost Treasures Review itself (laugh), there are probaly still folks out there who are waiting for Tim to write Six pack of Rockers You Never Hear On The Radio Volume 7, you would think a stand alone music blog would have sufficed wouldn't you? People are strange, human beings are strange most of the time, who really cares anymore is my attitude. This song anyway is a cranker, a total corker from the 80`s.

My reluctance to put it on my blog is only because it is pretty damn sexist and politically incorrect, not that i am one to be a goodey two shoes who has any respect for Germaine Greer and her men hater bandwagon. MEN WITHOUT SHAME by american glam rock band PHANTOM ROCK and SLICK was a one hit wonder if ever there was one. A cross between Duran Duran & Motley Crue is where i would place the song, it was released in 1985 at the height of the hair band revolution. The band was comprised of guitarist Earl Slick, double bass player Lee Rocker and drummer Jim Phantom. I have a sneaking suspicion that wasn't their real names. All three were previous members of the more well known outfit The Stray Cats. The dense rhythm section of the band can be totally attributed to the quirky addition of double bass into a soft metal sound in place of the standard bass guitar. The band only released two albums, a self titled one which scored the big hit with MEN WITHOUT SHAME and two other minor hits, but their second and final record COVER GIRL the year after in 1986 sank without a trace having only just made the Billboard Top 200. I've never heard COVER GIRL but i have listened to their debut effort, and as far as i am concerned MEN WITHOUT SHAME is the only song of their's to sing about. Actually, the song pumps that much hair band iron that it's enough to make a bloke rip his singlet off and get stuck into some classic air guitar. Dont play the clip if you're a girl who is easily offended by macho men or if you're a bloke who's scared to take a walk on the wild side and break the rules.

WORLD'S GREATEST BASS GUITARIST HAD HIS LIFE CUT SHORT BY LUC HAVEN AT THE MILTON BOTTLE CLUB

Got something to review tonight which is a real musicians musician's delight. Especially if you are a bass player who likes a bit of fusion jazz. Personally i think it sounds terrible, i dont often put stuff on here that is as unlistenable as this, but nonetheless i respect the recording for its technical musical genius. I'm talking about the debut solo album of Jaco Pastorius, an american pioneer of fusion jazz who was born in Pennsylvania, who was of Finnish, German, Irish and Swedish heritage and died at the untimely age of 35 after he was involved in a violent altercation at a Fort Lauderdale hotel. I bought the album in the early 2000's when i was still going through the progressive rock / jazz rock stage which i started out on in full swing during the mid 90`s. To be honest, since around 1999 i have much preferred blues and good ol rock'n'roll. JACO PASTORIUS, self titled, was released
in 1976, around a decade before his death. It is mostly all instrumental and it is almost entirely an attempt at making a bass guitar virtuoso album. Seems like a lead guitar of any sort and somebody like John Bonham bashing some drums from behind would have come in handy, as much as it is aggravating for the casual listener to listen to i reckon Pastorius was still a legend for having the guts to record such an elementally original al-
bum, and i am sure from a technical point of view, the album would have to be a major influence on bass guitarists to this very day. Many music critics rate it as the best bass guitar album ever recorded. Legendary 60`s soul duo SAM AND DAVE re-united to make
a guest appearance on the album providing singing for COME ON, COME OVER, as well renowned jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock & jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter were in
the studio band backing Pastorius. Apart from this standout debut, his best and most creative work is considered to be what he played while a member of jazz fusion band WEATHER REPORT as well as what he contributed to the original crossover queen Joni Mitchell on her three late 1970`s albums, HERIJA, DON JUAN'S RECKLESS DAUGHTER, MINGUS and the live SHADOWS AND LIGHT. Diagnosed with bi-polar disorder in 1982
after alchohol and substance abuse got out of control while in Weather Report, his ca-
reer was never the same, despite being treated with the drug Lithium which normally
has a postive effect on treating people who suffer from bi-polar disorder and severe hypomania. That didn't work, so he was prescribed TEGRETOL, but it wasn't long un-
til he was on the streets of Fort Lauderdale in Florida after a stint in New York caus-
ing havoc as a result of his mental illness. His death at Milton Bottle Club in Wilton Manors, Florida after a alcohol fueled altercation with club bouncer Luc Haven, who
was convicted of manslaughter as a result, put Pastorius out of his bi-polar misery
and it also robbed the bass guitar playing world of a brilliant and innovative genius.

NICKELBACK DEBUT A WELCOME RELIEF FOR METAL FANS WHO COULDN'T HANDLE ANOTHER LOAD FROM METALLICA

Hope i know what i am getting myself into here, love the song and the album it comes off but i have just taken notice of the lyrics of the number one Nickelback song off their very first album, as seen on You Tube above. Back in 1996 when the album CURB was recorded, the members of Nickelback were just adolescent heavy metal hotheads just trying to cut a record that sold 10000 copies, not 10 million. The song LITTLE FRIEND may be interpreted many ways, the lyrics are quite abstract and ambiguous but a few references in this song could be intepreted as having a somewhat sinister overtone. I better not try and be your interpreter there, have a look yourself and decide. But hey, Nickelback are (or arguably were) a band which cut the BS and gave some very dehydrated fans of heavy rock guitar something to cheer about when Metallica started going soft with LOAD and RELOAD and when only the likes of Pantera were wanting to shred like old times and be a fair dinkum heavy metal band. Nickelback were always a bit in the wannabe category, not so much by design but co-incidence. Lead guitarist/vocalist and chief songwriter Chad Kroger was a massive fan of Pantera and Dimebag Darrell, who was that band's vocalist and guitarist,
as well as the new wave back then of american post grunge alternative metal groups like
3 Doors Down and Creed. That mixed bag of influences had a massive impact on the style which Nickelback had and still have today, even if the heavy metal edge is gradually being watered down as each new album arrives. Nickelback were also inspired greatly by country rock, their latest offering WE MUST STAND TOGETHER, off their new album, has a quite country-ish melody channeling through the verses, its only when Kroger sings the chorus that you are reminded that this band was once primarily into recording thunderous heavy rock guitar that bears the grunt of Creed and the shredding of Pantera. The debut album CURB was independently released in 1996, it was only picked up by Roadrunner Records in 2002 and re-released with a modified cover, to me it is Nickelback sounding like the band was supposed to, like a no nonsense heavy rock guitar band which cranked out what heavy metal fans wanted - something which back then didn't sound like Nirvana or Soundgarden or any half baked alternative rock band. The best songs on the album are LITTLE FRIEND, LEFT, I DONT HAVE and the title track. Amateurish, juvenile and very naive, but in many places blisteringly heavy and brutal. That sums up Nickelback's debut. Being the number 1 track, you could look at LITTLE FRIEND as being one of the best openers in heavy metal since Van Halen arrived in 1978 with RUNNING WITH THE DEVIL as that debut's opener.