February 2, 2005

• WEDNESDAY MOVIE

  Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

  So crack up and get it out of your system – I was absolutely smitten with this rockumentary. This is proof that you can be of an Other Generation and still get jiggy with it. Seriously, I’m no metalhead – my whole impression of metal bands before was that there was a lot of yelling of indecipherable words and metal-on-metal sounds really LOUD. Plus something demonic but I wasn’t sure what. Now I can’t say I really know a lot better about the music, but I do know a heck of a lot about how this one very famous band got through a crisis in their professional and personal lives, grew as men, and played on. You see, back in 2001 or so they were in deep guacamole. Three of them had been together a long time – the charismatic front man, James Hetfield; the drummer, Lars Ulrich; and lead guitarist, Kirk Hammett. But they had dumped lead guitarist, Dave Mustaine and bassist, Jason Newsted, along the way and now found themselves floundering without a bass player. In the midst of this, Lars Ulrich sued Napster and brought fan rage down upon the band, while suddenly their lead man, Hetfield checks himself into treatment for six months for alcoholism. Solution: Therapy. For $40,000 a month, they hire a guy who has worked with large corporations and other groups to help them sort out their future. It’s completely fascinating, especially when Hetfield emerges from treatment a changed man. These are not “girly-men” folks – they have muscles, tattoes, and huge bank accounts and they’ve been partying hard for years. Watch them create St. Anger, their comeback Grammy-winning album that debuted #1 in 30 countries, and head out on a sold-out tour with a brand-new bassist (Robert Trujillo) and a team spirit. From “St. Anger”:
  I want my anger to be healthy
  I want my anger just for me
  I need my anger not to control
  I want my anger to be me

  I need to set my anger free
  I need to set my anger free
  Set it free!
  

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  Deep Thought: “Whenever you read a good book, it’s like the author is right there, in the room, talking to you, which is why I don’t like to read good books.”
  Today I am grateful for: Understanding just how lethal anger can be
  Guess the Movie: “You know, we are sitting here, you and I, like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do. And now that we’ve been face to face, if I’m there and I gotta put you away, I won’t like it. But I tell you, if it’s between you and some poor bastard whose wife you’re gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down.” Answer: Heat, 1995. Winner: merrow_mistral.
  Dean Wins the DNC Primary
  State Party Officials Vote to Endorse the Former Presidential Candidate to Lead Democrats
  by Ronald Brownstein
  WASHINGTON — The leading group of state Democratic Party officials on Monday backed Howard Dean’s bid for the party’s national chairmanship, establishing the former presidential candidate as the contest’s prohibitive favorite.
  “I think the race is over,” Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party, said after the decision.
  In a nationwide conference call, the Assn. of State Democratic Chairs voted to endorse Dean. The decision by the group’s full membership reversed a recommendation from its executive committee Sunday to endorse Donnie Fowler, a young party strategist.
  Fowler finished a distant second to Dean in the membership vote, according to sources familiar with the call. (Rest of article here.)
  End of Day: 8:50 pm
  + = Didn’t watch any of the State of the Union OR the Democratic response speech.
  - = Feeling very bruised again today.

  • 8:45 am
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