The new What Made You Smile Today thread

[MikaelaMuppet]

Welcome back Alex!

 

[cjd874]

Avoid 2004, 2006, 2010, 2019, and 2020 at all costs. Terrible years.

Well now I'm at 2025. I overshot them all...here's hoping that 2025 won't be a ****** year like the ones you mentioned.

 

[Any Del]

Receiving this in the mail!

 

[LittleJerry92]

So I got to have a small little chat with the voice of Ariel AKA Jodi Benson via galaxy con, one of the most down to earth people I’ve met in my life.

 

[fuzzygobo]

@Old Thunder, you can appreciate this.
50 years of Black Sabbath.

There have been loud bands before (Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple),even American bands that could have invented heavy metal (Steppenwolf, Blue Cheer), but Ozzy and friends really brought something new.

They made it quite clear- after all the hippie-dip pie Sixties, these four poor kids from Birmingham, England, were having none or it.

It’s almost touching. Ozzy previously had jobs working in a funeral home and a slaughterhouse. Guitarist Tony Iommi worked in a machine shop, and accidentally had the tips of his fingers cut off. So he played with a detuned guitar and metal tips on his fingers.

In school, the others were older than Ozzy, and used to bully him and beat him up.
Years later, Ozzy placed an ad -Singer Looking For Band, and his three bullies turned up!

Long before it was fashionable, Ozzy had tattoos. He had OZZY in his knuckles, and smiley faces on his knees. The first of many.

For all the myths of how gloomy and evil they were, Black Sabbath was still a good band.
And even though Ozzy was drugged and boozed into submission, and biting the heads off bats, he still seemed like a guy you’d like to sit down and have a beer with.

Sharon deserves a lot of credit for keeping him together.

Critics hated them, fans loved them. That’s how it should be.

 

[fuzzygobo]

So I got to have a small little chat with the voice of Ariel AKA Jodi Benson via galaxy con, one of the most down to earth people I’ve met in my life.

For you meeting voice actors is like me meeting musicians. It is a thrill. You meet your heroes, and you hope some of their talent will rub off on you.

 

[cjd874]

For you meeting voice actors is like me meeting musicians. It is a thrill. You meet your heroes, and you hope some of their talent will rub off on you.

Brian, that reminds of something that I started doing while I was off the forum. I started taking private music lessons with a percussionist named Keita Ogawa. He plays with some popular jazz and world music acts including Charlie Hunter, Bokante, Banda Magda, and Snarky Puppy. Keita was teaching online back in April, and in September I reached out to him on Facebook to inquire about lessons. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we're meeting online via Zoom...but we still have lots of fun. And his musical talent is OFF. THE. CHARTS.

Did I ever think I'd have this opportunity? Not really. But because I decided to take a chance to contact him (and he happily took me under his wing), I'm enjoying every minute that I spend learning from him. As an Asian musician, Keita is very inspiring to me; and I hope to have more awesome lessons with him. Here are some samples of his work:

(a percussion loop solo)

(live with Snarky Puppy)

(Brazilian funk groove with Charlie Hunter)

 

[fuzzygobo]

Brian, that reminds of something that I started doing while I was off the forum. I started taking private music lessons with a percussionist named Keita Ogawa. He plays with some popular jazz and world music acts including Charlie Hunter, Bokante, Banda Magda, and Snarky Puppy. Keita was teaching online back in April, and in September I reached out to him on Facebook to inquire about lessons. Due to the ongoing pandemic, we're meeting online via Zoom...but we still have lots of fun. And his musical talent is OFF. THE. CHARTS.

Did I ever think I'd have this opportunity? Not really. But because I decided to take a chance to contact him (and he happily took me under his wing), I'm enjoying every minute that I spend learning from him. As an Asian musician, Keita is very inspiring to me; and I hope to have more awesome lessons with him. Here are some samples of his work:

(a percussion loop solo)

(live with Snarky Puppy)

(Brazilian funk groove with Charlie Hunter)

Back in the 2000s, I was in a band called The Revs. I played bass, my pastor played guitar, one of our elders played drums, and another priest played lead guitar. The priest’s church had a huge hall with a big stage. You could fit a thousand people.
we were together for three years. We got to open up for a number of names. The biggest thrill was Chris Hillman. He was in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame with the Byrds.
He was also big in country rock with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Manassass with Stephen Stills, and his own Desert Rose Band.
After we did our sets, he stayed for pictures and autographs.
I mentioned his bass playing with the Byrds is one of the reasons I picked up the instrument.
Mr. Hall of Famer/Grammy winner said,
“Oh, you’re better than me”.
It took a minute to pick my jaw off the floor.

I’ll say this. I’m blessed I’ve met so many of my musical heroes. Only one or two turned out to be jerks. The rest are nice, humble down-to-earth. Selling millions of records and packing stadiums doesn’t change decent people.

 

[D'Snowth]

Might as well jump on board with the discussion at hand, but for me as a puppeteer, it was an absolute honor and privilege to get to meet the likes of Noel MacNeal, Steve Whitmire, and especially the opportunity to meet Caroll Spinney before he departed from the mortal plane.

Although I never got to meet two of my biggest puppetry influencers and heroes Jim Henson and Shari Lewis, I do hope that perhaps, some day, I may get to meet my two other biggest puppetry influences and heroes Sid & Marty Krofft . . . I doubt that will ever happen though, not only given their ages (Sid is 91, Marty is well into his 80s as well), but their appearances and cons and such seem to be exclusive to those on the west coast like San Diego ComicCon and the like. Although, I do follow Sid on his personal Instagram, and here just a while back, I shared the satirical anti-drug PSA I did with Steve D'Monster with him, and he liked it!

 

[fuzzygobo]

Might as well jump on board with the discussion at hand, but for me as a puppeteer, it was an absolute honor and privilege to get to meet the likes of Noel MacNeal, Steve Whitmire, and especially the opportunity to meet Caroll Spinney before he departed from the mortal plane.

Although I never got to meet two of my biggest puppetry influencers and heroes Jim Henson and Shari Lewis, I do hope that perhaps, some day, I may get to meet my two other biggest puppetry influences and heroes Sid & Marty Krofft . . . I doubt that will ever happen though, not only given their ages (Sid is 91, Marty is well into his 80s as well), but their appearances and cons and such seem to be exclusive to those on the west coast like San Diego ComicCon and the like. Although, I do follow Sid on his personal Instagram, and here just a while back, I shared the satirical anti-drug PSA I did with Steve D'Monster with him, and he liked it!

I was fortunate to meet Caroll and Noel as well. The closest I ever got to Steve, Fran Brill thought I was his Evil Twin.