The PA Happy Birthday Thread

There is, of course, this version of the Three Little Pigs, which features, if not Rocky, then Rambo, to almost neatly link everything together. 😜

Thanks man!

Here is my favourite Pentagram song, for those that are interested:




Edited by Shadowyzard - March 24 2021 at 06:41

^ Steve (Laz), loved this one too, as always. And I'll try to be accurate and honest here; your OBVIOUS sarcasm aside (about our dear Mehmet), I hope I'm that knowledgeable and a good person, in your eye. However, even though I'm likened to a walking library sometimes, I lack lots of data that most people possess. For instance, I have watched Groundhog Day (1993) for the first time, only a couple of hours ago. See? But I also watched lots of movies that are rated by puny numbers of people on IMDB. I learnt to accept that I'm a deviant long ago. Happy with that, I guess. Good person? In D&D classification, my alignment has gotta be "true neutral". 

Our Demir Demirkan and Pentagram (Mezarkabul)... Pentagram's Anatolia album sold about 100.000 copies in Turkey, which is a humungous and unprecedented number for a metal album. Demir Demirkan is/was more popular for his radio friendly songs, a little tinged by chromatic metal and taut rock elements. I don't know him personally, but he seems like a nice guy. Not super talented, but he is a good musician anyway, methinks.

Edited by Shadowyzard - March 23 2021 at 16:07

Easy Money wrote: ^ A little extra trivia for you'll. The sarcastic troll in the opening of this opus later changed his site name and his personality and eventually climbed the PA corporate ladder to became a ban hammer wielding admin known as harmonium.ro ... now you know the rest of the story.

Today, we visit the wonderful country known as Turkeyland, or as some Orthodox personages no doubt still refer to it as Byzantine. 

In November 2006, our very good friend MakPRO joined us for all of one minute, posted the once, and disappeared with a flea in his ear never to be heard of again. Mehmet, for it is he, celebrates his 48th birthday in the shadow of Attaturk. 

And why did he leave with a wee bit of a shadow? What can we learn today from our one-hit wonder? Stay with me, my friends, and all shall become abundantly clear.

Firstly, take a look at his one and only post here in the bosom of prog love. http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=30917 Mehmet, extremely kindly in my opinion, entered the den to urge us all to take a listen to the wonderful grooves of Demir Demirkan, and the response from another dearly departed brother, Andu, was none too complimentary, comparing said Demir to the sound of guano apes. Now, I was under the impression that these simian creatures were indigenous to the wonderful wilds of Turkey, but no. Guano Apes are, in fact, a real band, an alt-rock band, which is wonderfully exciting. Have a listen to Like Somebody where our friends invite us to their jungle https://youtu.be/uosWBvTmCEs Here is their website GUANO APES So far, so German.

So. Did Mehmet enter progland to sell us a pup or a bird for some local alt-rock here, or is there a trace of prog in the collected works of Demir Demirkan? Thankfully, you do not need to contact our extremely good, and knowledgeable, friend Shadowyzard to find out as a local who might have heard of our Demir, because the PABT can do it for you!

I was fascinated by the career contrasts apparent on his Wikiweepee page Demir Demirkan - Wikipedia Not only a former thrash metal guitarist, but also a Eurovision Song Contest winning composer. Let us examine both.

Demir played guitar with Mezarkabul. They are also known as Pentagram in their homeland, and fuse Anatolian elements into their music, as you do. And, by a matter of sheer coincidence, here is a track called Anatolia https://youtu.be/BQHf0wJmWLY What a mean looking hairy lot and racket! By the end all of them join the chap bleeding with the excitement of it all. I have absolutely no idea what it is all about, but it certainly looks rather serious.

Here is our Demir, freshly shaven and altogether more handsome, doing his solo bit with Belkir https://youtu.be/3sF4Aqbi0Lw Quite how either of these could possibly be compared to German alt-rock is a wee bit beyond me, but it takes all ears, I suppose.

And what of Eurovision? What that, I hear my North American friends cry? Well, this is the annual music festival enjoyed across Europe on television, and participants include those very well known Euro holiday destinations, erm Israel and Australia (not a joke, btw). Famous for introducing ABBA to the world with Waterloo, and back in the day included musical luminaries such as Cliff Richard and Sandie Shaw. In fact, let us have a look at; Waterloo https://youtu.be/Sj_9CiNkkn4 Ah, glam! Those boots! Agnetha! Howsabout Sandie? https://youtu.be/Vmyh9mUga-w They don’t make ‘em like that anymore! Lately, the standard, it is fair to say, has slipped somewhat, but we did have some Finnish hairy devils winning. Yep, please enjoy the utterly absurd Lordi with Hard Rock Hallelujah https://youtu.be/gAh9NRGNhUU Utterly f**king brilliant!

So! How did Demir win? Well, he wrote the 2003 winner, performing with the altogether lovely Sertab Erener with Everyway That I Can  https://youtu.be/vq9OAEBZmAg Nice dress, madam!

Fantastic stuff! Happy birthday, Mehmet! You have brought me, and I hope, many others quite a lot of completely unintentional pleasure this evening!  

Today, on the PABT, I am going to take you on a geographical learning tour, this in order to increase your knowledge and awareness of the world around you and reassure you all as to the global reach of prog and, naturally, Prog Archives.  Either that, or I couldn’t find anything else to write.

So let us send our felicitations to Ktang. K Tang, by the way, is a tangy kimchi ketchup, and it is naturally fermented in, erm, London. No, really! Have a look at their Twitsareus feeder https://twitter.com/lovektangHowever, this is not related to our friend Kyle who joined the saucy brethren in 2009 and celebrates his 31st birthday in Camarillo today. Camarillo is a lovely city in Ventura County in California, that haven for all folk woke. And here, indeed, is their “community engagement portal”, or website to those of us who still like to speak plain English Welcome to City of Camarillo, CA For those of you in the locality, you can have a community conversation, which is jolly exciting, and sure beats going down to the local saloon and actually having to meet like minded ape related fellow sapiens Engage Camarillo And, in an exercise which makes you proud to be a democrat (as opposed to a Democrat), 142 citizens of our new favourite city responded to a community survey. Given that the latest population of the city was 65,201, this equates to an absolutely massive 0.2% of the population, or to put it another way, every single local councillor! 

And, here are the priorities of the good folk of Camarillo for the forthcoming year;

1. COMMUNITY ENRICHMENT

2. LAND USE AND TRANSPORTATION

3. FISCAL MANAGEMENT

4. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

5. ENVIRONMENT/RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

6. COMMUNITY REDEVELOPMENT

7. COMMUNITY RELATIONS

8. GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS

9. EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

10. CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY CHANNEL ISLANDS

I, for one, am glad to see so many relations in the above list and feel that they might even wish to put in place some form of cross pollination. That sounds like a really fun way to spend taxpayers money, subsidised relationships. Gets my vote!

And, even more excitingly, there is a prog connection to this lovely town. Yep, howsabout the deliciously loopy Mr Frank Zappa and his Camarillo Brillo, from Over-Nite Sensation in 1973. Now an admission from your pal Mr Laz. The link I am putting here to this track is the first time I have bothered to listen to Zappa for something like 35 years. Here goes https://youtu.be/nllWDc8_9lw Utterly barking, and I must say that I am looking forward to 2056 already!

Kyle’s signature was one which has been used on many a meme, namely “Life gave me lemons and I threw them back” So, to close, I give you... https://youtu.be/elHkqLS8M0s

So! Happy birthday, Kyle. Yours is a more common name than I thought, so what precisely you are doing now is a mystery! Whatever it is, enjoy!

Elsewhere in Proggerland, the PABT would wish to shout out a plea to our wonderful Crossbow Team Collabs on behalf of our lovely Danish friend, PC-72., who celebrates his 34th birthday today and has been a member for about 10 years now. Have a look see at his application to joint the hallowed temple of PA artists http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=119773 And have a listen to Mahad.  ▶︎ Mahad | R Swan Really quite lovely stuff. Get him on! 

Today, we are going to discuss the matter of contrasts. Our first birthday legend merely came on here, said absolutely nothing, whilst our second candidate plonked his website on as his signature, and also made, as we will see, numerous attempts to ingratiate himself with the prog brethren.

So, let us first go to that proud ancient land, also now an absolute hotbed of progdom, namely Poland to say cześć to Pmrudz. Our friend, whose gloriously detailed real name is Przemyslaw Rudz, joined us in April 2011, and stayed a whole two years without even attempting to upset Ivan once, or anyone else for that matter. Mr Rudz celebrates his 45th birthday today. The homepage link when he registered is no longer active, but he listed his occupation as a musician and book writer, which, as it turns out, is absolutely spot on. In fact, rather more interesting than that. 

So, let is examine his Brandtent page. Music | Przemysław Rudź  I am listening to Power of the Mind from Cerulean Legacy as I write this post, and damned good stuff it is, too. Any of you lot out there who appreciate the electronic and ambient side of prog will find much to enjoy, and I think this is another birthday legend we have found who should be on the site as an artist. For those of you conversant in Polish, here is his Sadtogetherbook site https://www.facebook.com/przemyslaw.rudz/ and his website Przemysław Rudź – Strona Oficjalna And here is an English translation of his Wikiweewee page, which sets out the fact that not only is he a composer, but an author of astronomical texts, which also informs his musical journey. In other words, he is clearly an insufferably clever bugger. Don’t worry, I’m only jealous Google Translate

So! We say Sto Lat to our very good friend! 

By way of contrast, let me present to you our next Sunday Superstar, this time hailing from The Home of the Brave. Yes, please say hello to SongJohn. Also, songwriting. You might also wish to doff your cap to 2008rulez whilst you are at it. And, lest we forget, we can also say happy 35th birthday to Solo.

As you might have guessed by now, our friend John, who hails from that favourite state of mine, Connecticut, forgot his password on more than one occasion. 

He first registered as Solo in October 2006, and from this thread, struck one as an extremely nice young man http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=32130

Next up came 2008rulez, when he registered in, erm, 2008, and actually stayed a whole 10 years. He initially looked for a fellow psych musician http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=49690 but things turned a bit darker by 2018, when he was the victim of PA Crashdom, which, to be fair, was happening to every single one of us at the time. Of course, we all had the staying power to overcome it, unlike some slackers we could mention http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=114196 Regrettably, the no doubt wondrous music link of his compositions posted is no longer extant.

In 2009, our friend registered as songwriting, and engaged in shameless self-promotion of his songs http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=57269 Regrettably, said toons are lost to the intertit community for all time, but as John self-identified as a loser in his occupation, howsabout we make up for the disappointment of the lost music by reminding ourselves of a truly classic “loser” song. Any old excuse for a bit of Townsend https://youtu.be/dssTMapz9UM Absolute genius!

At the same time he was registered as the above, he also joined in December 2010 as SongJohn. This time, he provided us with a bit more of a clue as to his identity, by naming himself as John Valencia. Whilst the homepage link is disabled, the website link on his signature is very much live, and, of course, our friend John’s real multi-registering activities become clearer. He was trying to tempt the brethren into buying things, in this case used instruments, in between discussing the benefits of psychedelic drugs. Here is the website for all of you desperate to buy some gear, er the legal type of course Andy & John's Vintage Instrument Rodeo Happy birthday, sir! Try and write the bloody password down next time!

Elsewhere in proggerland, we wish an extremely Penblwydd Hapus to our old friend, Snow Dog, or Iain Cowie as his parents named him 61 years ago. Iain was a right old character on the site, and many of us miss his acerbic wit. 

Thanks, Laz! Very instructive indeed. Now, I wonder if the high tension on my eye balls is caused by listening to too much prog too (I especially suspect King Crimson...), or by a lack of nathing (do cats count?)? Unfortunately, since you Brits left us (us, uns, nous, ons, nosaltres...) continentals, will Dr. Matt Loadofoldetc.  still help those from the other side of the channel, with all of his wisdom? Is there still a cross-channel-solidarity left or do we really have to swim?

Looking back on PABT posts since we commenced this utter madness, I became acutely aware of a serious gender imbalance in our celebrations. For we have only had two days exclusively dedicated to personages who self identify as members of the female sorority, namely the 16 and 17 of February. Given that Prog Archives is very rightly committed in its mission statement to promoting gender equality in all of its corporate activities, I present to you, once again, Wimmin’s Hour.

So, let us first say hello to our very good friend PiscesLady, whose forum name strongly suggested that she was born in that lovely fishy constellation’s period, and she was of the female variety of souped-up ape species. Pisces, by the way, indicates to us that Sandra Jean Foley, as Mum and Dad very precisely named her 68 years ago, has water as her element and is ruled by that cold and foreboding planet, Neptune. Sandra joined our happy throng in December 2012, and, having examined the receding hairlines and pot bellies of the throng, ascertained in all of 13 minutes that we were not for her. She listed her occupation as singer/songwriter/artist, and her interests as singing, dancing, acting, and fantasy art.

Fantasy art......Now before the aforementioned pot-bellied male members amongst you get too overly excited, it really is not what you think, as her bloggy spotty site thingy makes clear. Some clever stuff here Sandra's Visual Art And Sandra, as can be seen from her TweetyPie BirdTable Feed site, is heavily involved in a great cause, namely trying to halt the imbecilic closure of her local A&E https://twitter.com/sandrajfoley 

So, happy birthday to a lady I am sure would have been a terrific asset to the site!

And then, we move on to the wonderful world of asullivan82, or Aubrey Sullivan as she was named 39 years ago in the altogether lovely state of Michigan. Aubrey listed herself as a music teacher and interested in photography when she joined us for a stunningly brief period in May 2014. But she cannot hide from the PABT, oh no. For she is the International Logistics at Neogen. Aubrey Sullivan - International Logistics - Neogen | ZoomInfo.comFurther research informs us that the lovely people at Neogen are engaged in “dairy genomic profiling solutions”, which just goes to prove that even herds of moo cows aren’t exempt from the distasteful modern profligacy of corporate bollock speak Solutions for Food and Animal Safety | NEOGEN Happy birthday, Aubrey! Stay clear of them vegans!

And what, then, of Dashiel, or Daphne as she was allegedly named 26 years ago in The Big Apple? An examination of Words of Da Yoof dot com informs us that a Dashiel is a guy with the personality of a girl, usually ugly and having no banter. We are, I am sure, all agreed that this cannot possibly be true of our dearly departed sister. 

And last, but by no means least, we pay homage to our lovely friend Diadara. Jana is 47 today, and hails from SwedenVikingLand. When she joined the glorious sorority in May 2005, she stayed for almost four years, but only bothered the masses with her opinion once to rightly inform us that Sweden Rocks, as anyone who has headbanged to ABBA will no doubt attest. Here is the post, but the website link is, I am afraid, no longer extant http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6225&PN=2 This thread was, BTW, started by another departed friend of ours, one MorpethSunshine, who, in a display of quite affecting male loneliness, asked the throng why it was so difficult to find a nice girl that listens to prog music, and whether there were any said nice girls who wished to “know him”. That smell, my dear friends, is that of unadulterated blokey hormones wafting across the ether.

Anyhoo, here is Jana’s headintheclouds site, in which you can listen to the dulcet tones of one Raign, a female singer-songwriter who has performed in front of the Devil Incarnate himself on the X-Factor. Actually, Raise The Dead is nowhere near as ghastly as you might think https://soundcloud.com/diadara 

Elsewhere, we bid a very happy birthday to lostrom, or Lars-Olaf Strom, who is a senior member hereabouts, and celebrates his 58th birthday in Sweden by absolutely not banging his head to Agnetha and co. Happy birthday, sir!

That’s all folks!