Author: mikeladano

Metal, hard rock, rock and roll! Record Store Tales & Reviews! Grab A Stack of Rock and more. Poking the bear since 2010.

#1207: “Sometimes You Just Gotta Laugh!” Music and Mental Health Update

Our Music and Mental Health series on YouTube seemed to do some good.  We decided to keep going with it.  Viewers told us they’d like updates on how we’re all doing, so here’s an update on:

  • Jen’s health
  • House issues
  • Writing Grandma’s funeral speech

The speech is now coming along, and I’ll be proud to post it here after the funeral.

I hope you get something from this video, because when things get hard, sometimes you just gotta laugh.

Click the pic below to get to our Music & Mental Health playlist on YouTube, and check it out.

#1206: I Can’t Help the Feeling I Could Blow Through the Ceiling…

RECORD STORE TALES #1206: I Can’t Help the Feeling I Could Blow Through the Ceiling…

 

Two steps ahead, but one step behind?  It’s still progress.  It may not feel like progress, but it is.

In 2024, we had our shelf disaster.   My priceless collection spilled forth unto the ground, knocking my spirits down with them.  But we got back up again and rebuilt.  We rebuilt despite the following furnace replacement, requiring my precious collection to be move again.

Now in 2025, we have prevented yet another shelf disaster.  I returned home from the lake to find another set of shelves slowly peeling from the walls.  I stopped it in time, removed the heaviest items, and prepared to make plans to replace the shelving.  This will be a more difficult task this time, as it will also require me to tear apart my stereo system and place it on the new shelving.  Not an easy task; there are so many cables it’s like black & blue spaghetti.

It’s hard to keep up.  We have so many projects.  We continue to pare things down and get rid of excess possessions.  We continue to clean up and organize.  We continue to replace broken household items.  It’s an uphill climb and the list keeps growing.

New TV, new cable box, new rug, new blinds, new computer, new this & that…

I can’t help the feeling I could blow through the ceiling sometimes.

 

Drone video from Saturday August 9.

#1205: Crash

RECORD STORE TALES #1205: Crash

I’ve been crashing hard on Mondays.  It’s been getting worse.

My pattern on cottage weekends goes something like this.  Wake up Sunday, clean the dishes, get rid of the garbage, and pack up my things to go home.  We usually leave the lake on Sundays around 11:00 AM, arriving home around 1:00 PM.  I start feeling pretty down around the time of departure.  It is very hard to leave that place.  It doesn’t matter what music we pick in the car on the way home.  This last trip, we went back to the late 80s with Blow Up Your Video by AC/DC and Dream Evil by Dio.  What we listen to doesn’t seem to change the mood.

When we get home, we unpack, turn on the air conditioning, and decide what to do about food.  Usually, to cheer myself up, I order something in.  Sometimes this causes frustration at home, because Jen and I can rarely agree on food.  If she’s craving it, I’m burned out on it.  If I want it, she’s allergic to it.  We usually end up with something overpriced that neither of us were happy with.

I start to feel down in the dumps by late afternoon, and really tired.  I’m almost always in bed before 7:00 PM on a Sunday night.

Through the night, I can feel anxiety gathering, in my dreams.  I will dream of jobs.  Of work.  Of things that I have to return to when I come home from the lake.  I can often stop the dream, and think about other things, but these dreams are just symptoms, not the problem.

No matter how much sleep I get that night, I just stay in bed.  My alarm goes off; I hit snooze.  Sometimes it can be 12 hours in bed and I’m still tired.

Monday is often a trainwreck.  I’m usually in a terrible mood, and usually go to bed again without eating that night.

I don’t know what to do anymore.

 

#1204: By The Light of the Silvery Moon

O, By the light of the silvery moon
I want to spoon, to my honey I’ll croon love’s tune
Honeymoon keep a-shining in June
Your silv’ry beams will bring love dreams
We’ll be cuddling soon
By the silvery moon
(Edwards/Madden 1909)

Oh, the moon! That might explain things. You see, the moon affects the brain.
(Amman – Clash of the Titans 1982)

RECORD STORE TALES #1204:  By The Light of the Silvery Moon

I’m not a nocturnal person, though I used to pull a few allnighters with Jen when we were first dating.  I do have insomnia, so I often wake in the middle of the night.  At home, this usually means checking my email and having a drink before heading back to the sheets.  At the cottage, I enjoy stepping out into the cool summer air and having a look around.

I don’t bring a flashlight.  I let my eyes adjust to the darkness and wander.

You see things at night.  When visible, the moon lends a silvery sheen over the entire landscape.  Not quite enough to read by, but certainly enough to see the ripples of waves on the water.  Under the cover of trees, silver slits of light pierce the darkness, creating spotlights on the earth.  If there is a breeze, the movement of the trees can really make you feel as if you’re not alone.

You hear things at night.  Once or twice I heard a coyote, crying like a human child and echoing through the valley.  Another deep dark night, I heard a growling that I could not see.  We do get bears here.  Sometimes the swaying trees can create a growling sound as they move in the night, but this growl scared me and I made a quick retreat back to the house.

I enjoy the total solitude at 3 AM.  I feel more connected to nature by the silence (other than wind, waves and nocturnal beasts).  I don’t wear shoes on these walks.  I can feel the grass or cool sand beneath my feet.  Sometimes I stub my toe on a tree root, but that’s a small annoyance in the grand calculus of the pitch black night.

I try not to make a sound.  Just observe with my senses. Feel the cool air on my back.  It’s mental health maintenance.  While I love living in Kitchener (for many great reasons), I feel truly free and alive in the wilderness.

A special moonlight treat is when the silvery satellite turns blood orange.  A moonset is a very special sight that not many get to know, or even know about.  I’ve seen a few of them.  When a crescent moon hits the horizon, people describe as the image of a blazing sailing ship on the edge of the lake.  This year, wildfire smoke has prevented us from seeing the moon kiss the horizon, but its orange glory remains as a fiery ember in the sky.  When the moon is full, you can imagine it is a burning Balrog, climbing out of a gaping maw in the dark mines of Moria.

Truly the world looks alien at night in the light of the moon.  Perhaps that is why I love it so much.  I have always yearned to see other worlds, but the beauty of the Earth is enough to last many lifetimes, if you go out at night under the light of the silvery moon.

 


Of all the versions of “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”, Little Richard’s is one of the highest charting, going to #17 in the UK, 50 years after the song was written. Other renditions were performed by Gene Vincent, Doris Day, Fats Waller, Etta Jams, Burl Ives, Ray Charles, Julie Andrews, and even Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc) among countless versions.

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 20: Virtual XI with Jake (Not From State Farm)

50 Years of IRON MAIDEN episode 20:  Virtual XI

With special guest Jake (Not From State Farm)

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK #113

2nd show of Friday August 7!  For Music & Mental Health II, click here.

 

The Blaze Bayley era ended as swiftly as it began.  Two studio albums and a handful of singles were all this lineup produced.  Here we appraise the final Iron Maiden album with Blaze at the microphone, the oft-misunderstood Virtual XI.

This episode will prove to be our most controversial to date.  Special guest Jake (Not From State Farm) does not hold back on certain topics, especially when it comes to fandom unwilling to accept the new lead singer.  As fans of this dark era of Iron Maiden, we will tell you what was great about this album, while hopefully taking a balanced approach.  Even so, some will not be happy with what we have to say.

Personal memories of Virtual XI are coupled with the facts and figures.  Unlike the X Factor, we do not have 14 original studio tracks to break down this time.  Iron Maiden took a leaner approach to songwriting and recording this time, but the two singles (“Angel and the Gambler”, and “Futureal”) did yield a small treasure trove of live versions, something that the previous singles did not.  As usual we will look at every single B-side, including the edit version of “Angel and the Gambler”.  We will also take a look at the limited edition lenticular cover art, while Harrison will go into detail on the accompanying tour.

Buckle up, metal heads.  Tonight we take no prisoners on 50 Years of Iron Maiden.

Friday August 8 at 7:00 P.M. E.S.T.  Enjoy on YouTube.

Past episodes:

Handy YouTube Playlist:

🅻🅸🆅🅴 Music & Mental Health II with Johnny Metal and Mike

SPECIAL TIME!  2 episodes coming today!

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and the Mad Metal Man

Episode 112: Music & Mental Health II with Johnny Metal and Mike

This special live episode is a sequel to last month’s mental health episode called Ask Jex Anything.  In this installment, Mike and Johnny Metal return to the cottage, live, to discuss new developments and updates.  Returning to work after a mental health leave can be daunting, but we’re going to go there.  Mike is also dealing with the death of his beloved grandmother, and all the complex feelings that arise from that.

Music will always remain important when we talk about mental health.  When Mike first started experiencing his own issues, there was a new single out by Motley Crue called “Primal Scream” that seemed to express his feelings after a lifetime of bullying:

When I was just a young boy,
Had to take a little grief,
Now that I’m much older,
Don’t put your shit on me!

What a release music can be!  We will also discuss physical activity such as yoga, and other healthy ways to help purge those negative thoughts and feelings.  We’ll also share an incredibly thoughtful email from Broadway Blotto, from (of course!) the band Blotto.

This is the first of two episodes today.  50 Years of Iron Maiden will continue in the evening.  Look for this in a separate post.  We hope you can join us live this afternoon for this very important episode of Grab A Stack of Rock.

 

Friday August 8 at 3:30 PM EST, 4:30 PM Atlantic.  Enjoy on YouTube or Facebook.

#1203: Wildfire Haze (with drone videos)

RECORD STORE TALES #1203: Wildfire Haze

 

Wildfires are more and more common as the world warms, but this year has been something else.

The sunsets have been alien and unimpressive.  The sun appears as a red dot, but disappears before reaching the horizon.  You can’t smell or taste the smoke, like you could in 2023, but the visuals are more obvious in 2025.  The windmills that dot Bruce County disappear into the distance.  The horizon isn’t a clear line, but a blur.  The sky is a hazy blue-grey.  The water is a shimmery silver.  It is like we live on an alien world, or a place from a science fiction dystopian novel.

This is the first chapter I have written since we lost Grandma on July 30, 2025. If she were here, I would show her the photos and videos and ask if she had ever seen the lake like this, in her 60 or so years at Lorne Beach. While I can never ask her now, I feel like the answer would be no. I don’t think she’d ever seen a sky like this on Lake Huron.

Grandma’s funeral will be August 22.  I have been asked to speak.  I would have wanted to speak even if I was not asked, but now that the task is ahead of me, I am strangely without words.  I have things I want to say, but these thoughts are disorganized and jumbled.  When I speak at her funeral, I want it to be the best speech I’ve ever given.  I have spoken at weddings, funerals, and my Grade 2 English project, but this feels like the most important speech I have had to do yet.  What to say?

I wish I could show you the wildfire haze, Grandma.  Actually I wish you were there on the weekends like you used to be.  I used to drive her to the lake.  I would pick the music.  She liked my picks.  She didn’t even mind Sloan’s 4 Nights at the Palais Royale, which was the exact length that it took to go from her driveway in Waterloo to her cottage.  A few weeks ago, we decided to drive to the cottage listening to music she’d like, so we picked the Swingers soundtrack.  She loved Dean Martin.  She loved Tony Bennett.  A lot of our family’s musical inclination came from her side of the family.  Though my dad played saxophone, Grandma’s family were the musicians.

I miss talking to her.  I used to say she was the only one in my family who understood me when I spoke.

I’m going to have to come up with a heck of a speech for her.

 

 

VIDEO: Grab A Stack of Rock – Emergency Preparedness Kit – Just in case the nuclear reactor melts down!

Things you didn’t know about Grab A Stack of Rock summer HQ!

It’s not just about the music and showing off our collections in paradise.  It’s also about emergency preparedness!  Check out this helpful video in the event you’re ever up in cottage country during a nuclear meltdown.

These kits are distributed to residents within 10 km of the Bruce Nuclear power plant.  I thought it would be at least interesting to have a good look inside one!

 

Tim’s Vinyl Confessions: Ep. 689: Top UK Albums August 2, 1970 (including Black Sabbath)

Join Tim Durling for another one of his channel’s fun features: Music charts from this time in history! This week, Tim goes back 50 years to August 2, 1970. Some interesting charting albums here from the 2001 soundtrack to Black Sabbath’s debut LP. Tim asked me to say a few words about Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath for this episode, so check it out!

#1202: Jock Jams

RECORD STORE TALES #1202 Jock Jams

At the Beat Goes On, we had a lot of teachers as customers.  Teachers were interesting customers.  They were like sheep, all looking for the same thing.  It was so bizarre the first time I was swamped by teachers all coming in looking for the same CD.  A CD that was out of print, incidentally.  That CD was TSN’s Jock Jams disc.

In the late 90s, teachers were told at a teaching convention that kids learn better to certain kinds of upbeat music.  1995’s Jock Jams was given as an example of the kind of music to play in class.  Teachers were told to get a copy, play it in class while kids worked, and note the improvement in their performance.  Jock Jams!  That is what they were told to buy.  They couldn’t get it at the mall, since it was out of print.  So, they came to us, a used CD outlet.  We were swamped, at every location, by teachers.

“Do you have Jock Jams?” asked the first one.  I didn’t have one in stock, but I called one of our other stores who did have it.

“Can you get them to hold it for me?  I’ll be right there,” said the teacher.  That teacher would be the only one to score Jock Jams on that day.  Shortly thereafter, a second customer came in asked for the exact same CD.  That always raised my eyebrows when it happened.  When multiple people came in asking for the same album on the same day, over and over again, it meant something had happened.  Sometimes it meant an artist won an award.  Other times it meant the artist had died.  This time, much to my surprise, it because of a teacher’s convention, where they were told to buy an out-of-print and out of date CD.

“Do you have Jock Jams?” asked a second customer.

“No,” I answered in surprise. “We just sold our only copy.  Literally just now, a guy came in and got our only copy.”

“When can you get another? I need it for my class. I’m a teacher.”

“Well, we are a used CD store, so we’ll get another copy when it is traded in. I can put you on a wait list,” I answered.

“How long will that take? I need it for September.”

“Impossible to guess,” I replied. “The CD is out of print.  Someone has to have a copy, and trade it in first. I can put you on a waiting list.  Or I could get you Jock Jams 2?” I offered.

“No no,” answered the teacher.  “We were told to get Jock Jams 1.”

“Jock Jams 2 will have similar music, just newer songs that your students will know better than Jock Jams 1,” I mentioned.

“They said to get Jock Jams 1,” replied the teacher with zero initiative.  And so, the customer left their name and number and I put them on a wait list.

Then the next customer came in.

“Do you have Jock Jams?” they asked.

“No, we sold our only copy this morning. Are you a teacher?” I asked.

“Yes, how did you know?”

Because of that teacher convention, we had 20 customers come in that day for Jock Jams, and added seven names to the waiting list. It took years to clear that waiting list.  Notably, a few went for the more recent Jock Jams 2, but most were steadfast.  “We were told to use Jock Jams 1,” they would answer.

“Well I can tell you that you’re not going to get Jock Jams 1 in this town, this semester,” I regrettably informed them.  “Your students won’t even know the songs on Jock Jams 1.”

“We’re supposed to use Jock Jams 1,” they would reply.  OK…lots of luck!

We ended up cranking our prices up on Jock Jams 1 any time they came in stock.  They used to be $8.99.  Now we would ask $19.99.  Supply and demand, and there was very little supply and much demand.  Teachers didn’t want alternatives to Jock Jams. “We were told to get Jock Jams,” they would bleat like sheep.  This went on a couple years, every August.

Every time I see a Jock Jams CD, I think of that damn teacher convention that brainwashed these people into thinking that Jock Jams, and only Jock Jams, would improve their students’ learning.  Only towards the end of the rush would teachers finally break down and buy something else that was similar in style, like a MuchDance album.

I lost a lot of faith in the teachers of the late 1990s during the week of that convention, and the rush on Jock Jams.  No imagination, no flexibility, no originality.  What was the world coming to?