Superman Lives was the most bizarro, watercooler talk on the high school basketball court of my high school experience.

I was SO PUMPED to see it. I thought you had a bonafide nerd in Kevin Smith writing it, Burton was gonna return and do it his way, Cage fit right in with Burton's world, and it was so unclassifiable that I thought it would turn into the "Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf" of superhero movies. I couldn't wait to see that trainwreck.

Plus I thought it'd set up a Superman vs. Batman film with both Burton worlds, and thought that was just awesome. Damn thing never happened tho...

Anybody ever hear of that Frank Miller/Darren Aaronofsky (name?) version of Batman: Year One they wanted to do with Bruce Wayne as a poor Travis Bickle mechanic, Catwoman as a black prostitute, and Clint Eastwood hell bent on revenge as James Gordon? That one was equally crazy.

^^^

What an interesting artist. She almost sounds a bit like some of the stuff Cher was doing in the 80's with more Japanese Pop thrown in. Bizarre, yet refreshing. Some Bonnie Tyler in there too. Nice find.

Agreed. I made the mistake of saying Axl should've collaborated with Desmond Child to help him wrap up CD, and there actually was a rumor about that back in the mid-2000's, although nobody (including me) could find the article, so I looked like an ass. But Child is a hitmaker (usually), and because of CD's obvious lack of hits, they were indeed worried that it needed someone who knew how to spit-shine it and get a catchy radio single out of Axl, specifically a ballad akin to Sweet Child.

Something tells me HAD they were together, Axl would've simply released some sort of Daughtry "It's Not Over"-type of track with his vocals on it had it been left in Child's hands with maybe alot of UYI sound thrown into it.

Either way, Detonator is my 2nd-favorite Ratt album, because of Child's touch. It's sorely underrated, and the ballad "Giving Yourself Away" might be one of their best tunes ever. Everything on that album is hook, hook, hook, catchy, catchy stuff. Only a couple songs I didn't like and I can easily listen to it from start to finish without tiring, even today.

I can only speak from my personal experience.

Last year, and the year before, pretty much in the summer, I tried to post topics that stimulated discussions in various places to keep the board going. One of the biggest irritants was when I was posting setlists, and then A) Bono was going hogwild to shit on the thread, and/or B) spammers. I couldn't do anything about it without mod status. It was kinda self-defeatist. Got tired of it, because when you're being "positive" towards the band, that can only go so far.

"Hey look, they added Shackler's Revenge!"

Why the fuck does some joker in Holland give a fuck about that in like Orlando? I don't really get that either. Bono seemed well-positioned to shit on anything remotely positive. Now that was BONO's perspective. I'm not slagging him for that. Me and him had many of discussions in PM over the shittastic state of Guns and agreed on many fronts. But at the same time, I do truely believe that there was an element of positive nutswingers that got scared off in that period. I would've been just as guilty, because I have bad days like anyone, and I still don't quite understand someone holding a fucking DJ sign at a GN'R concert. Just sayin'.

I also agree that the old-timers who have did this song and dance with GN'R since 2001, and not even counting 1993 are fucking tired of the bullshit with this band. I love Axl. I will always love the guy. He plays by his own set of rules, me and him agree on alot of stuff politically, spiritually, emotionally about alot of stuff, so much to the point that in 2013, I probably feel I have more in common with alot of shit he talked about the industry for like 20+ years, when I was running him down for it. So there's that.

Next, I am an emotional writer. I have to feel PASSION for what I write. Alot of people make fucking hate it, some people may not give a shit, and yet i've had a line of people beg me to start a blog they like it so much. Much love for that, it means alot, but the point remains.

Look at my Alice In Chains "The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here" review, as compared to ANYTHING I wrote since Soundgarden's "King Animal" review. Both elicited a passionate response, and thus you got what you got. I think I made a pretty big post on the state of "Dallas" and it's pros and cons as well. But other than that, since I was taking setlist texts from Russ and reporting on concerts, which I thought was a great idea, until I found out most of our members were getting up half-way across the world to read basically the same fucking setlist. At that point, it's like not taking off.

Another issue... our members have a little thing I like to call -- LIVES. We don't wake up and live, eat, breathe, shit, and cum Guns N' Fuckin' Roses. Maybe 5-10 years ago, maybe, for some 20+ years ago. Now? What's the point? We have people on here with wives, kids, jobs, responsibilities. Short of James Lofton or polluxum's posts about the universe, I was rarely entertained outside of music-related stuff.

Also... people move on. Especially the older you get. Other things become more important, and this isn't exactly a board (unlike some) that's gonna have a 3-page thread talking about Fergie naming her baby after Axl.

How many posts of YouTube videos of Axl performances can you have saying "God his voice is shot". It gets old.

Then you have those that drag into petty arguments about stuff, that we've ALL been guilty of at one time or another, and those arguments become less and less of an issue as time goes on. Another problem is the longer your members stay here the more of a say they want to have in the board, which isn't necessarily the board's view. That contributes to decline.

So on and so forth.

Me, myself. I disconnected for the last few months. From everything. Not going into detail, but let's call it a spiritual retreat. It changes your view of stuff, how you see the world, how you see life, what you find important, and suddenly the little details aren't so important anymore.

Look how much  the board lit up, when leaks happened. It might've taken some of us a week or two to come around, but we did.

Concerning GN'R, i've really said all I can say. I've had every argument, every disagreement, every agreement, every "fuck yeah" moment other than maybe a reunion, and other than new music or a reunion (which i've said for near 2 years), there's nothing Guns has to say that interests me. Some people will pay to see Axl a billion times over wheeze his way through a setlist to spend a night with Axl. Others prefer memories and moments and snapshots. We have several of those people on here.

I would be on here more, if there was more to be on here for. That's not the board's fault. I guess I could be critical and say that the board should've expanded here, there, changed this up, changed that up, and it might've changed. Then again, who knows?

This board is full of intelligent people, and because of that we are the fault of our own demise. We burn out before fading away. I think alot of our hearts are broken, and glasses full of disillusions. Axl, the label, the business, Jesus, The Devil, Iovine (same thing right?), fucked this all up from the get. It was never meant to be I suppose.

I will say this, I don't know what amends have been made, but I will say this... with Russ seemingly perminately gone, there's utterly no reason for Bono not to be here. Don't know if he cares anymore, but just throwing that out there.

This isn't a train wreck, this is a standing, dirty, mildewy, dusty monument of "what used to be". Something old timers gather 'round and tell wise tales about that are more of a tale than wise.

In the end it all comes back to the same thing...

Blame Canada

Ax