Something I don’t understand

I don’t understand why some people (many, in fact!) open blogs and make
them private (= people don’t have access to it unless the owner of the
blog authorizes/invites them). Why? Isn’t the blog-form inherently
public??

Iron Maiden’s latest polemic appearance…

(taken from http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=40691)

BLABBERMOUTH.NET has received a number of e-mails regarding last night’s (August 20) Ozzfest concert in Devore (near San Bernardino), California, which reportedly included an on-stage appearance following IRON MAIDEN‘s set by Sharon Osbourne during which she called MAIDEN vocalist Bruce Dickinson a "prick." The following report was submitted by David Priest, editor-in-chief of On Track Magazine:

"Last night’s [August 20] headlining performance of IRON MAIDEN at Ozzfest in San Bernardino, CA rendered some interesting, if not disturbing, results. Although MAIDEN
played one hell of a show, they were under attack from the moment they
began their set. From the time they hit the stage, they suffered power
loss on at least three occasions and they were continuously pelted with
ice, bottle caps, and eggs, among other things. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson
was even spit on by one attendee. He seemed to believe these
occurrences were not by accident and insinuated that they had been
planned from the beginning of the night [Download MP3 files of Bruce‘s on-stage rants at last night’s Ozzfest: Bruce#1, Bruce#2].
He also encouraged the other audience members to break the arm of
anyone that they saw throwing things their way. Upon concluding their
performance, the emcee for the evening began to chant Ozzy, Ozzy while Bruce was still speaking. Bruce retaliated by chanting MAIDEN. After he left the stage, Sharon Osbourne took over the mic and informed the crowd that they absolutely loved IRON MAIDEN and their crew and stated that they were all wonderful but that their singer Bruce Dickinson was a prick and had disrespected Ozzfest since they began their stint with the touring summer festival [Download MP3 file of Sharon‘s anti-Bruce rant at this location].
This, of course, came as a shock to those of us in attendance and the
there was ample confusion and speculation from audience members there
after. As previously announced, last night’s show marked the final
performance of IRON MAIDEN on this year’s Ozzfest. VELVET REVOLVER will be taking over their slot on the last remaining dates."

Here are a few more eyewitness accounts, as submitted by BLABBERMOUTH.NET readers:

————————————————-

"Tonight was the last show of IRON MAIDEN‘s leg of the Ozzfest. Unfortunately the rest of the tour will have that spot filled by VELVET REVOLVER. There has been some sniping and such going on during this tour between Ozzy‘s camp and Bruce Dickinson, but that had been kept for the most part away from the fans it appears. So, IRON MAIDEN is playing a 55-minute set (though they’ve played full shows on the nights SABBATH cancelled on this tour because Ozzy can’t to back to back nights.)



"MAIDEN is about to come on and right before a voice on the PA starts chanting ‘Ozzy, Ozzy.’ MAIDEN comes on and starts getting pelted with eggs from one area of the pit. Some dude has three dozen eggs. Bruce calls this out quickly. Next, during ‘The Trooper’, where Bruce
waves a large British flag, some big dude painted red walks out from
backstage with an American flag and on his back painted ‘Don’t f(#$
with Ozzy).’ Tackled, he appeared off stage again. Then after Bruce declared ‘You’ll never hear MAIDEN on U.S. radio, MTV
and certainly never see them in a reality show,’ he says they will play
60 minutes, not 55. So, during two of their most popular songs (note:
they are only playing songs from the first four albums, so 40,000
metalheads and idiots are going nuts), their PA and power goes off.
Unbelievable, they handled it fine as almost if they expected it. They
then do an encore and Bruce says something about the ‘We the People’ and nobody is going to stop them, not eggs, a guy spitting on them (until Bruce had him tossed) or a PA hoax and they play two more songs. Then they finish and are bowing and saying goodnight and the Ozzy voice comes on to chant, Bruce tries to change it to MAIDEN chant and then says, ‘Are you as sick of this BS ‘cause we are.’ And they walk off.



"THEN: Sharon [Osbourne] comes on stage and asks for everyone’s attention and half ass praises and thanks IRON MAIDEN but say the singer Bruce
is a prick and has been slagging the tour. 40,000 are stunned and start
to boo and throw stuff, but most were stunned by the surreal moment. SABBATH then came out and did a good set like last year’s with a much improved, yet hoarse, Ozzy. They started doing medleys thought, not good. But the rest, eesh."


————————————————-

"ROB ZOMBIE was cool, SHADOWS FALL and MUDVAYNE are better live than on CD, SLIPKNOT aren’t really my kind of band but they put on an entertaining stage show…lots of strange shit going on.



"MAIDEN
hit the stage to thundering applause, despite the fact that they are
the ONLY mainstage band NOT to be introduced by some guy that comes on
stage…and despite the fact that the idiot is screaming ‘Ozzy… Ozzy… Ozzy‘ as MAIDEN‘s intro tape (‘Doctor Doctor’) is playing.



"Some
prick is throwing eggs up on the stage. It doesn’t occur to me till
later, but this person HAD to be planted in the audience, because there
is NO WAY any fan could have snuck in 36 fucking eggs. They patted us
down so good, I felt like asking for a cigarette afterwards.



"Bruce is in fine rant form (got 5 or so tonight…LOL), and mentions how MAIDEN will never be on the radio, or MTV…or
reality TV shows. He also mentions that they’re supposed to do a
shortened 55-minute set tonight, but just like someone sang that they
can’t drive 55, they can’t PLAY 55….they’re going to play their full
show.



"Maybe 30 seconds or so before ‘Phantom of the Opera’ is to end, the PA cuts out. A minute or two later, it’s back on an they go into ‘Run to the Hills’. This happens again 2-3 times the rest of the night. Once near the end of ‘Hallowed be thy Name’, and the crowd is so into it, we all decide to help MAIDEN finish the song anyway. We sang the rest of it for them, as we could just barely hear their stage monitors going.



"In spite of all the problems with the planted egg thrower, the ‘Ozzy… Ozzy…’
asshole, and someone pulling the fucking PA plug, the band are on FIRE,
and are determined to give us the best show possible. There was no big Eddie during the song IRON MAIDEN, just the walk-on Eddie. Is this how it was at the other Ozzfest shows?



"MAIDEN come back out for their encore, and Bruce
says that the band is back out there for one reason, and one reason
only…after all the bullshit…it for us…the fans. They put on a
fucking killer encore, and the crowd was fucking totally into it.



"MAIDEN are on stage still, and taking their bows…and this cocksucker starts the ‘Ozzy… Ozzy… Ozzy…’ shit through the PA system again. Well, almost IMMEDIATELY, seemingly the entire crowd starts chanting ‘MAIDEN… MAIDEN… MAIDEN…’ over the guy… over and over… and we drowned that motherfucker out! Bruce was up there like an orchestra conductor, waving his arms as we chanted ‘MAIDEN… MAIDEN!’



"The band aren’t off the stage 10 seconds, when that cunt Sharon Osbourne comes out and tells us she needs us quiet just for a moment. She proceeds to tell us how they love IRON MAIDEN and think they’re cool…but then says that Bruce Dickinson is a real prick, and has been disrespecting Ozzfest from day one. That’s all I heard out of the bitch, ‘cause we all immediately went back into ‘MAIDEN… MAIDEN… MAIDEN!" and she was completely drowned out after that.



"I looked at my brother and said ‘Let’s get the fuck outta here,’ and he nodded too. All the way out, we chanted ‘MAIDEN… MAIDEN‘ …and ‘Bruce… Bruce…’ …and the crowd all along, chanted right with us.



"Walking
out the gates, we quickly noticed that we were FAR from alone…as a
large mass of people were leaving right with us. Common statements made
by others were, ‘Fucking bitch, Sharon…fuck her.’ I think she
overestimated her popularity…LOL. All she ended up doing was thinning
out the crowd of a large LARGE number of MAIDEN fans. Good fucking riddance, too!



"It was best that we left anyway….since no band should ever go on after MAIDEN. I will never….NEVER spend another fucking cent on ANYTHING Ozzy does, unless he ever decides to stop being led around by the nose, by that fucking bitch, Sharon.



"All that being said….I’ll repeat that in SPITE of all that went on, MAIDEN put on a great fucking show, with what they had to deal with…and the crowd returned the love…and then some."


————————————————-

"* IRON MAIDEN got pummeled with eggs on the opening of ‘Murders In The Rue Morgue’



* Second song ‘The Trooper’, someone (looked like that douche ‘Big Dave’) on stage and mocked Bruce with an American flag…..



* MAIDEN‘s PA and amps were shut off four or five times during songs……



* Ozzfest apparently tried to cut MAIDEN‘s set length…..



* Someone sounding alot like that Dave person who introduced BLACK LABEL SOCIETY was chanting ‘Ozzy, Ozzy…’ ( a pre-recorded loop, maybe?) while MAIDEN were still on stage… Needless to say, the crowd is getting pissed by now…..



"Bruce was a total hero — a pro, said what he needed to say and MAIDEN still did their set and encore… Sharon then came out for what appeared to be damage control, thanking MAIDEN and the crew — and then said, ‘but their singer Bruce Dickinson is a prick, he has insulted Ozzfest since he got here…’ or something to that affect. The statement she made seemed to be condoning the poor treatment of MAIDEN…..



"I as a fan have gained MUCHO respect for Bruce Dickinson and lost respect for the Ozz Inc. camp."


————————————————-

"At the final night of their Ozzfest stint at Hyundai Pavillion in Devore, California, IRON MAIDEN were the victim of Sharon Osbourne‘s megalomania. Firstly, before they went on, Big Dave (or whatever they call the retarded streak of piss hanger-on who introduces Ozzy and BLACK LABEL SOCIETY for a living) tried to get an ‘Ozzy‘ chant just before MAIDEN
walked onstage. Then they had 35 eggs and bottles, which were ‘planted’
in the mosh pit just before showtime, which were then thrown at Bruce and the boys. Then when playing ‘The Trooper’ at the part when Bruce runs onstage dressed in military attire waving the British flag, ‘Big Dave’
ran on in a civil war outfit (kinda) and waving a huge U.S. flag. He
had to be removed from the stage and then ran around the venue like a
five-year-old schoolgirl. Next up was the fact that MAIDEN‘s
sound was cut totally about five times mid-song and at crucial moments,
complete power failure forcing them to abandon the songs.



"Bruce
was noticeably pissed about this and made a comment about being a true
rock band and not a reality show band. Then he let it be known that the
power cuts were deliberate sabotage as were the eggs. As MAIDEN finished the set and were taking bows, ‘Big Wad Dave’ once again starts the ‘Ozzy‘ chants, which the crowd drowned out with MAIDEN chants. Then to top it off, Sharon walks onstage and says, and I quote, ‘Look, I really love IRON MAIDEN but I have to tell you their lead singer Bruce Dickinson is a prick.’ The crowd went wild with booing and chants and Sharon continued, ‘We have done so much for them, let me explain myself.’ She was drowned out in a sea of boo’s and left the stage.



"It
was a debacle and embarrassing and the most unprofessional thing I have
ever seen in my 20 years of going to rock shows. To actually of cut the
power to the band and throw projectiles at the band in order to ruin
their set was truly evil and dangerous and disrespectful to the
thousands of fans who were there purely to MAIDEN. Sharon Osbourne is and evil cunt, I only hope she gets another batch of cancer after what she did tonight."


————————————————-

From IRON MAIDEN‘s official message board:



"About 10 minutes before MAIDEN
came on, I was in the center of the pit a few feet from the front
railing when a guy comes barging in from the right escorting 4 or 5
people. At first, I tell him to F-off because I thought he was trying
to take my spot, but he said he worked for Ozzfest and showed me his passes. He also told me that Ozzy‘s daughter was with the entourage he brought with him. There were a few girls with him and one of them looked a little like Kelly Osbourne,
but I couldn’t tell for sure because all of them were wearing bandanas
over their noses and mouths. After I heard her speak, I was pretty
sure. At that point, I tapped her on her arm and said, ‘I really liked
you on the show. You were great,’ to which she responded, ‘Thank you.’
There was no doubt at that point. The bodyguard who came with them
starting getting chumy with us because he needed a few of us to help
him protect the girls from the moshing that would start when MAIDEN
came on. I saw the girls passing eggs, and I said, ‘What’s that for?’
The bodyguard said something to the effect, ‘You’ll see. Something big
is going down. You’ll hear about it everywhere after tonight. It’s all
because Bruce Dickinson made some comments in Detroit dissing the ‘Osbournes’
reality TV show.’ He also said that there were about 60 people in the
pit who were going to participate in the mayhem. Most of them were
wearing the same Ozzfest shirts. Before MAIDEN came on, they all started chanting, ‘Ozzy, Ozzy…’ I actually saw Bruce
off to the left of the stage before they came on. His mike was on and
he said something like, ‘What the fuck?’ — probably in response to the ‘Ozzy‘ chanting.



"When MAIDEN came on, eggs started flying and all these guys were flipping off the band. Nicko had to stop after one song to clean his set. Bruce
was obviously very pissed. Thank God they continued their set. At one
point, someone through a cup of corn with milk or something. It got all
over Bruce, me, and about a dozen other people. Then the technical problems started. The sound went out on about three songs — ‘Phantom of the Opera’, ‘Hallowed be thy Name’, and one other one I can’t remember. I could not believe what was going on. I was furious because I didn’t want the guys in MAIDEN to think badly of the fans who love them. I do think that Bruce understood because the band continued to play the full set, and Bruce made comments to distinguish the fans there from the guys throwing stuff. Towards the end of the set, Bruce started yelling at a guy in the pit to my left about 10 feet. Bruce
said he saw him throwing stuff and wanted the fucker out. It took a
long time for security to get him out. The reason why is that one guy
from Kelly Osbourne‘s entourage was holding down the guy security was trying to take out. Eventually security pulled both of them out. After MAIDEN‘s set, it was obvious that Sharon Osbourne was in on it, because she came out to say that ‘Bruce Dickinson is a prick.’



"Needless to say, it was insane. I was really pissed that MAIDEN
got treated this way. I wanted to enjoy their set and instead got drama
from egg throwing and songs cut short by someone pulling the power. Bruce
was obviously pissed and the rest of the band seemed a little
irritated. It showed in their playing too because some of the songs
were sloppy, but of course you couldn’t blame them given the situation."


Image taken from http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v626/ironeddie/sharon.jpg

Talking about movies…

Next ones I want to see are CS Lewis’s "Narnia Chronicles" adaptation,
Tim Burton’s "Chocolate Factory" and "Sin City". There’s also a
brazilian movie that I’d like to see, it’s called "Quanto vale ou é por
quilo". I know, I know, those movies are all probably so old by now
that they’ll probably be released soon on DVD…they’ve been releasing
DVDs so fast nowadays that very soon we’ll have the DVD release
simultaneous to its cinema release…

Now, one that I DON’T want to see is "War of the Worlds" – I prefer
listening to Orson Welles’s dramatic reading of the martian invasion,
heheheh!

As for movies that are about to be released…well, I can’t believe they’ll release The DaVinci Code,
but I’m certainly looking forward to seeing Harry Potter in November.
By the way…most people have been crying at the end of this last HP
book (HP and the half-blood Prince), except me!!! Am I too
cold-hearted?…or are they over-sensitive?

http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/gobletoffire/index.html

Oops I did it again!

Yes, I abandoned my blog for a while, but that was for a good cause: me

Oh and talking about "Oops I did it again", did you know that before that abominable version by a certain Britney Spears,
the song was recorded by nobody less than Louis Armstrong??? I was
truly shocked to know that, and downloaded the original version – need
I say it’s much better than this "modern" crap? So, if you want to, you can try to listen to it, it’s very good-humored!

Ok now…what to say? I’ve been reading a lot (I’m reading 4 books at
the same time), seeing a lot of movies (for uni, not just for the sake
of it! Last ones were: "The Truman Show", "Blade Runner", "Nashville"
and "Countdown"), talking to Syl, not replying to emails as always,
studying the things for the french course (the oral tests will happen
in October, which is very soon considering I wasn’t taking the course
seriously until now – so I’m having to really catch up!!), going to
gym…. and that’s pretty much it.

News? Hmmmm…gym’s changing schedules, but we weren’t warned
beforehand, so we’re very pissed off and writing letters of complaint
to the directors to see if they change things back as they were.

Also, I’m applying to a scholarship at uni, let’s see if that
works…What else? Oh yeah, now I’ve seen the following movies by
Altman:

1. Countdown (1968)
2. MASH (1970)
3. Images (1972)
4. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
5. Nashville (1975)
6. Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976)
7. 3 Women (1977)
   … aka Robert Altman’s 3 Women (USA: complete title)
   … aka Three Women (USA)
8. A Wedding (1978)
9. The Player (1992)
10. Short Cuts (1993)
11. Prêt-à-Porter (1994)
    … aka Prêt-à-Porter: Ready to Wear (Canada: English title)
    … aka Ready to Wear
12. Kansas City (1996)
13. The Company (2003)
    … aka The Company – Das Ensemble (Germany)

I’m also about to see "That cold day in the park"…which means I
*ONLY* have 22 other movies to see to know his whole filmography…LOL
Next ones I intend to see are" Popeye", "Gosford Park", "Dr T and the
women", "Cookie’s Fortune" and "Vincent and Theo".